In silence, the group trudged past the mine shaft and the vigorous sound of the pumps. The rocks on the floor of the tunnel grew more numerous, and larger.
“We cleared a path on the tracks,” Toldur said. “If you walk in the middle of the road, you shouldn’t have to worry.”
The air was thick with dust. Occasionally they passed a glow, its light doing little other than illuminating the thick clouds swirling around them.
The darkness grew worse. Kindan realized that he had come upon another glow only because he’d insisted on keeping his fingers touching the sides of the tunnel and had felt the frame of the glow basket.
Shortly after that he barked his shin on a huge, irregularly shaped boulder. A cry from Nuella beside him made it clear that he wasn’t the only one to suffer.
Kindan realized that he couldn’t see her.
“How can you guys see?” Zenor wondered aloud.
“If you can’t see, hold hands,” Toldur told the group.
“Grab onto Kisk,” Nuella said. “She can see in the dark.”
“Second Street,” Kindan announced. “Here we are.”
“The cave-in is about two meters inside the turn,” Toldur said.
“Figures,” Kindan muttered, remembering the bad joists he’d encountered.
“We dug out a meter before we stopped,” Toldur added.
“So the edge of the cave-in was one meter inside?” Kindan asked. “How low is the ceiling?”
“You’ll have to duck,” Toldur admitted.
Kindan crouched down and started forward slowly.
“No, you stay behind,” Nuella told him, grabbing his shoulder. “I’ll go forward.”
“Why don’t we let Kisk look first?” Kindan suggested.
“What for?” Toldur asked.
“Hot spots,” Zenor said. “If Kisk sees heat, a spark would look like a little hot spot, right?”
“Right,” Nuella and Kindan agreed in unison.
“You’re better at seeing in the dark,” Kindan told Nuella. “Why don’t you work with Kisk?”
“Thanks,” Nuella responded. “Kisk, can you see any little lights? Look for little lights, Kisk.”
Nuella concentrated on the image she was looking for. After a moment she got a feeling of comprehension from the green watch-wher and then Kisk diverted her attention to the tunnel ahead. Ewrrll, Kisk chirped.
“Stale air,” Kindan translated. “Any lights?”
“No,” Nuella said. “No lights.”
“How about big lights?” Toldur asked. “Like people?”
“No,” Nuella responded immediately, in a bleak voice. “No big lights, either.”
“You mean no one’s alive?” Renna’s voice broke the silence. “No one at all?”
“Kisk said there was stale air,” Cristov said.
“Kisk can only see heat through about two meters of coal, probably less,” Kindan said.
“How do you know?” Toldur asked.
“We tested it,” Nuella said simply. She heard Kindan moving beside her. “What are you doing?” she demanded.
“Taking off my boot,” Kindan told her.
“Why? Have you got a rock in it?”
“Don’t make a spark,” Toldur warned as Kindan began to tap the sole of his boot on the hard rails that ran along the floor and into the cave-in.
“How far will that sound travel?” Nuella asked sourly.
“Shh!” Zenor hissed. “It’ll travel the length of the rail if you put your ear to it.”
Kindan finished tapping out his question and put his ear on the rail. He waited. And waited.
And heard nothing.
“Honestly!” Nuella snarled as Kindan started to rise. “You’re making too much noise. Don’t you know that you can’t hear half as well as I can?”
“Do you hear anything?” Kindan asked hopefully.
“Just you,” she snapped. “Shhh!”
Nuella listened. They waited. And waited.
“Eight,” Nuella said finally. “I hear eight taps, a long pause, and eight more taps.”
“They’re alive!” Renna shouted.
“It could just be rocks settling,” Toldur suggested soberly.
“Hang on, let me send a different message,” Kindan said. “Nuella, lift your head or you’ll lose your hearing.”
Kindan knelt down again and tapped out a different code. F-A-R.
“Far? You’re asking how far they are?” Renna guessed. She had learned her drum codes from Kindan.
“Shh!” Nuella hissed again, her ear on the rail. She waited. And waited.
“Nothing,” she reported finally.
“Maybe they weren’t listening when you sent that message,” Cristov suggested in the dead silence that followed. “Maybe they were still sending their answer. Try again.”
Kindan dutifully rapped out the drum code again.
Nuella put her ear on the rail again and waited. After a while she plugged the other ear to shut out Renna’s fervent whisper of “please, please, please.”
“Nothing—wait! Ten!” Nuella said. “I thought I heard ten.” She listened again. “Yes, definitely ten.”
“They’re alive,” Zenor said in profound relief.
“Only eight of them, though,” Renna pointed out.
“But they’re ten meters down the tunnel,” Toldur said. “That means they’re eight meters away from us.”
“Three days,” Cristov muttered sadly. No one needed him to elaborate. It would take crews working around the clock for three days to clear eight meters of rubble, and the trapped miners had less than a day, probably less than half a day, of air left.
“Tell the MasterMiner,” Toldur said to Nuella.
“There has to be a way,” Cristov said fiercely. “There has to!”
“All that training,” Kindan said miserably. “All for nothing. We came this far and we can’t save them.” He turned to Nuella. “I’m sorry,” he said, his voice choked with tears. “Nuella, I’m so sorry.”
“I’m not giving up,” Nuella said. “And you can’t either. You trained Kisk too hard, and we’ve come too far to give up now.”
“What can we do? We can’t dig through to them in time. We’d have to go between or—”
“Could a dragon get to them?” Renna wondered.
“They’re too big,” Zenor answered.
“And they have to see where they’re going,” Nuella added.
“Kisk could do it,” Kindan pronounced.
“Watch-whers don’t go between,” Nuella declared.
“Yes, they do, I saw Dask do it,” Kindan corrected. He saw that Nuella still looked doubtful and sighed. “Look, watch-whers and dragons were both made from fire lizards, right?”
Nuella nodded dubiously.
“Okay, then,” Kindan continued quickly, aware that time was running out for the miners, “if fire lizards can go between by themselves to places they know, and dragons can’t go between to places they don’t know unless a rider can give them an image—”
“But watch-whers see heat!” Nuella objected.
“Exactly!” Kindan agreed. “That’s why you have to ride her. You can give Kisk the right heat images.”
“Ride a watch-wher?” Cristov repeated in wonder.
“Danil did it once with Dask,” Zenor told him. “I remember.”
“She’s your watch-wher, Kindan,” Nuella protested. “I can’t ride her—she’s yours.”
“I can’t ride her: I can’t give her the right visual images,” Kindan countered. “You can.”
“Can you?” Renna asked desperately. “Can you save Dalor, Nuella?”
“I’d have to get a good visual image,” Nuella complained.
“Take a breath,” Kindan said in a low voice close to her ear so that the others couldn’t hear. “You can do it, Nuella.”
“But she’s yours,” she protested again.
“I’ll loan her to you,” Kindan said lightly. “She likes you anyway. You said watch-whers can change bonds, right?”
“Right,” Nuella agreed reluctantly. “But how will I know what the image should be?”
“You know your father and how he looks and you know Dalor. Start with them and imagine their heat images in your mind—you can do that, right?”