There's No Smoke Without Fire

"All right," she said, "but please don't be gone very long."

"I won't," Checkers assured her, and with that she started along the passage and out of Astra's sight.

Meanwhile Fred had carried out his plan of collecting some food from the stalls in the marketplace, leaving some coins as what he hoped would be appropriate payment should the stall-holders ever return. Then he limped back to where Belboz's chamber should be yet now was not. He settled himself down and had just begun to eat, when a flicker of movement caught his eye in the passage leading towards where the cavern in which he had left Checkers and Astre had formerly been, and he drew his sword.

But then he heard a familiar voice: "You can put down your sword, Fred. I'm glad that you're all right. But what's taken you so long? And what's happened to Belboz's chamber? It's totally changed."

"What's taken me so long? You obviously haven't tried retracing your steps, Checkers. All the caves and tunnels seem to have greatly changed, but the chamber where we found Astra seems to have disappeared altogether."

Checkers' "minute or two" had extended to at least half an hour, and Astra was becoming increasingly anxious. She had heard the first couple of the calls that Checkers had promised, but nothing after that. Being trapped was bad enough, but being trapped and alone was far worse. Her agitation wasn't quite making steam come out of her ears, but it was causing a wisp of smoke to curl up from her nostrils. Seeing this gave her an idea. She was still unsure of how to use many of her powers, but she instinctively knew how to breathe fire.

She exhaled a gout of flame and played it against the wall of the cave.

1. It had little effect.
2. Differential expansion within the heated area of rock caused multiple fractures. Great lumps of stone began falling to the floor of the cave.

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