“It’s hollow!” Rose said, a radiant smile splitting her face. “There’s something back there.”
“I doubt it’s someone’s larder,” Chisul said, drawing his short sword. “We should be prepared for anything.”
“Yes, anything. It could be a way out!” said the ever-optimistic Rose.
Bradok ignored them all and swung the hammer again and again. On the third strike, the head of the hammer disappeared into the wall and a large chunk of rock fell away into the darkness beyond.
CHAPTER 10
A blast of sweet air burst over Bradok as he wrenched the hammer free from the hole in the wall. He hadn’t realized how stale the air in the fissure had become. The air issuing from the black hole bore a vaguely spicy smell, reminding him of the spice rack Sapphire always had in the kitchen when he was growing up.
“I know that smell,” Halum Ironband said.
Halum reminded Bradok of the kind of dwarf one might find in the seediest tavern in the lowest hall in Ironroot. His clothes were all dark and well worn, and his face bore the markings of many scrapes and brawls. When he smiled, Halum showed at least three gold teeth and the stained gums of a blackroot user.
The rough dwarf leaned toward the hole and sniffed the air like a chef savoring a fine wine. “Peppertops,” he concluded after a moment.
“Is that food?” little Graylin Anvil asked his grandfather.
Marl Anvil grinned his gap-toothed smile and nodded.
Bradok hefted the hammer and struck the wall as hard as he could. That time a large slab of rock exploded inward, leaving a passage almost wide enough for him to squeeze through. Two more hard hits doubled the size of the opening.
“Bring up the lantern,” Bradok called, squinting in an attempt to make out anything in the blackness beyond the opening.
One of the blue lanterns materialized, being passed down the passage on the end of its pole. When Bradok got it, he stuck it into the hole as far as the pole would reach.
A large chamber lay beyond, full of stalactites and stalagmites and joined columns of rock. The air felt drier and fresher than the air in the long, rough passage they’d been using. All along the bases of the stalagmites and around every column, Bradok could see that mushrooms were growing. Tall, speckled peppertops rose on thick, meaty stalks, while short, broad-topped honey mushrooms clustered beneath them. Bradok had never favored mushrooms as most others of his race sometimes did, but as hungry as he was, they looked every bit as delicious as a banquet.
“Well,” someone demanded. “What do you see?”
Bradok’s face split into a wide grin, and he felt a relief he hadn’t known in almost a week. “Mushrooms,” he said. “Enough for us all and then some.”
Everyone rushed for the hole at once, as if they had all been launched from a siege engine. Bradok barely had time to throw himself through the gap before a crush of bodies clogged it.
“Easy, easy,” he shouted, pushing himself to his feet. “There’s plenty here and a few minutes’ more wait won’t kill anyone.”
Kellik and Vulnar had their heads half poked through the hole. From beyond, Bradok heard the sound of a whistle being blown and Chisul’s muffled voice giving orders. Soon the bodies blocking the hole withdrew and a more ordered stream of dwarves began to enter.
The first ones through went straight for the nearest mushrooms, eagerly tearing off their tops in chunks and stuffing them in their mouths. Little Jade Bronzecap, Lyra’s daughter stuffed a piece of peppertop in her mouth and stood, fanning her tongue after swallowing. Bradok laughed, and her mother passed her a bit of honey mushroom to blunt the spicy taste.
“Don’t eat too much or too fast,” Tal advised, stepping through the hole. “You’re too hungry. You’ll make yourselves sick.”
The part of the cave visible in the lantern light filled rapidly with eating dwarves, so Bradok held the light up and began to edge back into the cavern. The place didn’t appear too large, but he still could barely see the far side in the blue light. As Perin brought the second light through the hole, Bradok moved back, swinging his light around in an effort to better inspect the back wall. There appeared to be a recess in the back, but he couldn’t tell if it was just a side chamber or some kind of exit.
His stomach rumbled and Bradok remembered how hungry he was too. He stooped down to pick the top off a honey mushroom. As the saucer-sized top came free with a tiny snap, Bradok’s eyes focused on a strangely discolored rock behind the mushroom patch. He stared, trying to see better. A moment later his heart jumped up into his throat and he leaped backward with a strangled cry.
Sounds of confusion erupted behind him as Bradok tried to hold the lantern pole steady with one hand and jerk his sword from its scabbard with his right.
“What is it?” Halum said. The dwarf rushed out of the darkness, wielding a particularly wicked-looking curved fighting knife.
Behind Halum rushed Kellik with his warhammer, and Chisul and Vulnar, each toting a short sword.
“Over there,” Bradok said, pointing with his sword into the darkness beyond the mushroom patch. He raised the lantern pole, and the azure light washed over something straight out of dwarf nightmares.
The assembled dwarves gasped and readied their weapons. It took a long minute for them to realize they were gazing upon the echo of an ancient horror.
A skull.
It was a skull as broad across as Kellik’s burly shoulders, with empty eye sockets the size of saucers and fangs like daggers. The skull had rolled free of a crumbled spine and rib cage, the skeletal body huge-almost the size of Silas’s boat. Six skeletal legs radiated out from the ruin, ending in spearlike points with barbed, bony hooks.
“A giant cave spider,” Much gasped, coming up to stand beside the armed party. “Lucky for us it’s long dead.”
Strictly speaking, cave spiders weren’t spiders at all, but monster insects. Bradok shuddered involuntarily at the thought of what might have happened if that one hadn’t succumbed to the ravages of time. He’d always known that the dwarves weren’t the only creatures who lived far below the surface of Krynn, but the sight of the skeletal, once-deadly monster reminded him that unfamiliar caves could be very dangerous places.
“Check the roof,” Vulnar said, his voice a fatigued croak. “I heard some of the deep miners say that they lay their eggs up high, where their young can drop on unsuspecting passersby.”
Bradok held up the light, and all eyes swept the roof. A little ways to the left of the skeleton, they noticed three orbs that appeared to be attached to the roof of the cavern by some kind of paste or glue. They were all cracked and empty, but the sight gave the dwarves chills.
“Spread out,” Chisul commanded, holding his sword above his head. “Make sure there aren’t any more like that.”
Bradok and Kellik moved off toward the far end of the cave, and the others made their way back to where everyone waited. An inspection of the ceiling yielded no more eggs, empty or otherwise. When they reached the back of the cavern, Bradok’s light illuminated a dark crack in the wall. Closer scrutiny revealed a passage leading away from the chamber into darkness.
“Should we follow this way?” Kellik asked. “See where it goes?”
Bradok reckoned that it would be a tight squeeze for him to get through the crack, and that the broad Kellik might not fit at all.
“No,” he said, his stomach rumbling. “Not yet anyway. The way’s too narrow as it is, and nothing too menacing will be able to get through to bother us here.”
Kellik nodded and the pair returned to join the others. Rose and Tal met him with worried looks. They’d gathered a modest pile of mushrooms in their cloaks and bade Bradok and Kellik to sit and eat.