"Mud and rocks. What other place?"
"It will be a place like the other places where you have been before. What did you find besides mud and rocks?"
After a moment Thorinn said, "The well was broken. I went down through a cavern and into a tunnel. Show me the place where you mean to send me."
The crystal lighted again and he was looking from a little height into a wooded valley where a brook ran. There was something odd about the trees and the brook; they were not quite real. The picture vanished. Now he was looking down a tunnel lined with rings of light.
"Was it a tunnel like this?"
"No. Show me that place again—where does the stream come from?" The valley reappeared; the brook came toward him, turned; now he was drifting upstream; now he saw the gray wall of the cavern, where the brook sprang out of an opening so narrow that he knew a man could never get into it.
The valley was gone and he was looking down another tunnel, smaller than the other, dark, with strips of corroded metal hanging from above. "Was it a tunnel like this?"
"Yes. Is there any way for a man to get out of that valley?"
"No. Where did you go from the tunnel?"
"I fell through a hole into a river. Tell me, why do you want to hold me prisoner?"
"You are to be held prisoner to keep you from harming others. How did you come to fall into the river?"
"The geas made me fall in... Where is this place, where we are now? Show me what's outside." In the crystal, he was looking at a circular doorway in a wall; inside was a room lit by a diffuse yellow glow. It receded; a door slid across the opening. As it dwindled, he saw that the doorway was in a vast curved surface covered with growths like deformed water-weeds. Something with fins and a tail darted by, disappeared. "What happened after you fell into the river?" the voice asked.
"Is there water around this place?" Thorinn cried. His body was shaking, his lips cold.
"Yes. What happened after you fell into the river?"
"I was in a dark cave, with a lake. How deep is that water?"
"It is four hundred and forty thousands of ells deep." The voice went on speaking, but Thorinn, crushed by despair, could not hear the words. Four hundred thousand ells of water! Then all his toil and pain had been for nothing: he would never see the Midworld again.
"... was in the cave?" asked the voice.
"Enough," said Thorinn miserably. "Leave me alone, I have to think." The voice fell silent. After a time Thorinn kicked off from his pole, floated to the opening in the floor and looked down. The engine was against the wall with its spidery arms folded, unmoving. Because of the partitions, he could not tell for certain whether there was any opening in the floor or not. He pulled himself cautiously into the room, then by hand-holds across the ceiling, and down the wall. In the floor on the far side he found a large circular hatchway, closed by a white panel. It had no handle, and he could not move it.
He went back the way he had come. Clinging to a pole, he stared at the box in the net across the room.
"Box, when they finish asking me questions, how will they take me to the other place?"
"They will put you in a skin again and keep you until the other place is ready. Then they will put you in an engine that travels through the water. Another engine will take you from the top of the water to the other place."
"How long will it take to get the other place ready?"
"It will take fifty summers."
"... Why not kill me and be done with it?"
"An engine can't kill a man."
"So you said before. Box, have you ever lied to me?"
"No, Thorinn."
"Even when you told me the engines in that cavern wouldn't harm me?"
"They did not harm you."
"They broke the bladder, and kept me from going up the shaft!" The box said, "Thorinn, I must ask you a question. Is it harmful to you to be hindered in your coming and going?"
"Yes."
"You can come and go from one room to another in this place."
"What's the use of that?"
"In the room above this one, you can run around the wall."
This was so absurd that Thorinn did not answer; but after a moment curiosity got the better of him and he floated up through the hole to look at the empty room. He touched the wall with his hand: it was soft and yielding. Cautiously he pulled himself up, set one foot against the wall, pressed. The spongy material gave him unexpected purchase: he kicked out, soared; the curved wall came up to meet him. He was off balance, but caught himself with his hands, kicked again. In a few moments he had the feel of it, and he discovered that the faster he moved, the more weight he had and the easier it was to run. The exercise was grateful to his muscles, but he tired quickly. When the hole in the floor came by again, he caught it, pulled himself through. Sweating and hot, he went to the water tube in the wall and drank. Then he tried the food tube, but a warm, sweetish paste came into his mouth and he spat it out.
"Don't you like the food?" asked the voice from the wall abruptly.
"No, it tastes like spoiled porridge."
"You will be given other food. What is porridge?"
"It's something to eat—you boil grain until it's soft and then you eat it."
"What is grain?"
"It's food—it grows in the ground—" Exasperated, Thorinn cried, "What difference does it make, anyhow? Why are you asking these questions?"
"This engine was told by the Monitor to ask questions."
"The Monitor? Who is he?"
"The Monitor is the king of the world. When you were in the dark cave with the lake, who else was there?"
"No one. I was there by myself."
"Where did you go from that cave?"
"If I answer," Thorinn said, "what will you give me in return?"
"This engine will answer your questions."
"That's not enough. I want my freedom."
"What is your freedom?"
"... The right to go wherever I please, and do what I like."
"This engine can't give you your freedom. Where did you go from the dark cave?"
"Tell the Monitor to come here, then. If he wants to ask questions, let him ask them himself."
"The Monitor will not come. If you do not answer now, no more water or food will be given until you answer."
Thorinn kept a stubborn silence. After a moment he went to the wall and tried the drinking tube; it was dry. He did not bother to test the food tube, but opened one of his bundles and unwrapped it until he found the magic jug. The transparent stuff he had covered it with was gone, and the fabric around it was sopping wet. Peering into the jug, he saw only a few bright half-globes of water clinging to the sides. As he had half expected, the jewels were gone.
He set the jug adrift in the room and watched it awhile, then recaptured it and looked inside again. The globules of water had joined into a larger ball clinging to one side; it broke loose when he moved the jug, wavering and changing shape, then clung to the wall again. How was he to get it out?
He jerked the jug suddenly away from him; the ball of water spun out, surging into improbable shapes, and hung in midair, gradually settling into a perfect globe: but when he put his lips to it, it ran all over his face and chest.
Some smaller globules were left drifting slowly in all directions; Thorinn pursued these and succeeded in capturing some in his mouth, where they instantly became like ordinary water again and he was able to swallow them; but there must be a better way.
He tore off a piece of the fabric of one of his bundles and wadded it into the mouth of the jug, then went on another restless circuit. As an afterthought, he tried the water tubes in the other sleeping rooms, but they were dry too. When he returned to his own room, he saw by the darkness of the cloth in the jug that it was wet, and sucked a little water out of it. Later it became still wetter, and he saw that he could get all the moisture he needed in that way.