Breezeway

The tunnel that Checkers had found herself in had a rectangular cross- section. While she could not stand up in it without stooping, she could crawl on her hands and knees with room to spare, could sit quite comfortably in it. She shouted down the news that there was no place to tie the ladder down. She was thinking that maybe a heavy object could hold the ladder, but she did not have one handy, and the tunnel was clean.

She was surprised to find little evidence of rocks and pebbles from the roof that she had seen in the keystone room. She looked at her map. This section was blacked out, unfortunately, but there were little square notations with cross marks in certain rooms. Could this possibly be a notation of these tunnels that could be opened and closed?

"Fred, Belboz, Astra, do you want me to try to get to the other side? I have a little lantern, and might be able to see what the old Arsenel looks like. I could even glide down without the rope ladder if it is large enough. The problem I have with my injury involves leaving the ground and maintaining flight, but I should be able to glide down."

"That sounds like a good plan, Checkers," replied Belboz. "Take the rope ladder with you just in case there is something on the other end."

Checkers poked her head out of the tunnel, and brought out her map. "Fred, catch the map. This is a black area to me, but there are squares with crosses that may give a key to these tunnels." Fred caught the map.

"Black area?" asked Belboz.

"Yes," replied Fred. "Checkers can't see blue or violet. They appear black to her."

"Interesting. She is color-blind, then?"

"In a sense."

Belboz looked over Fred's shoulders at the map with interest. He was not going to tell the others, but this map was hundreds of years old, of the underground complex the way it was before the dragons had driven out the original inhabitents. Checkers and Fred had made insightful guesses as to what those tunnels were. They had had more than one purpose, and the complete truth would have astonished them. "I will bide my time a little longer. Let them go into there the hard way. I almost forgot about those tunnels. These two are not your run-of-the-mill dragonslayers. One of them has magic ability of some sort, but is being coy about it. I need to find out who, without him or her knowing. I have set up Fred with the little extra on the healing spell, and Astra with the mushrooms and the armour, but Checkers has avoided my grasp so far. She is proving to be harder to ensnare than I thought," thought Belboz. "I will wait until we get past the Arsenel to start really having fun, although watching Astra squirm has been worth it. I will resist the urge to do anything flashy. The simplest magic can create the funniest effects."

Checkers scampered to a place where the tunnel forked. It appeared to her the the fork to the right would put her in the arsenel, and going straight ahead would take her to places unknown. She would go right. At the end of the fork, she leaned out over the location of the old Arsenel.

1. But the feeble light of her lantern did not reveal anything.
2. The feeble light of her lantern had a strange effect on the room below.

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