An Elevated Entrance

"Your cheek is bleeding," Checkers told Fred. He put his fingers to where he had been hit by the shard of rock, and they came away bloody. Examining the wound more closely, she said: "I don't think it's anything serious."

"I'm sure it's not," Fred replied. "But see, some sort of entrance has opened high up on the wall here."

"I see it," Checkers replied. "It makes me wonder if, long ago, before the dragon, some of my people might have colonised these caves."

"What makes you say that?" Belboz asked, an expression of friendly interest on his face.

"The entrance is far too high up for an anglideri to use, yet is too small for a dragon, unless dragons are much smaller than I've been led to understand."

"Perhaps there was simply a ladder which could be drawn up inside if anyone attempted to attack?" Fred suggested. "That's something that we've sometimes done in Allaria. Checkers, is your wing healed enough that you could fly up there?"

"I'm reluctant to use it yet. I'm afraid of doing further damage."

"Checkers doesn't weigh much," Belboz said. "I think that if she was to climb up on Astra's shoulders, then she should be able to reach the entrance and pull herself up into it. Then she could let down a rope ladder for the rest of us to climb. I put one in my pack just in case it should be useful. I'd ordinarily suggest that Fred should lift her, but he oughtn't to put too much weight on his ankle just yet."

So Astra lifted up Checkers, carrying Belboz's ladder, and she was able to pull herself into the duct.

1. She secured the ladder to a convenient metal spike emerging from the rock, and then let it down, and first Fred, then Astra and finally Belboz climbed up.
2. Checkers found that there was nothing to which the ladder could be secured.

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