Conundrum

Chapter
23

In the days following Snork’s death their journey should still have been relatively easy to chart on the map. Conundrum and Snork had already traced out most of the course before they left Flotsam. However, it was difficult to reconcile the map to the murkiness they saw through the ship’s portholes. Even with the map, they often had the option of a dozen different passages without being sure which was the correct one, or was even if it a passage at all. Oftentimes, the submersible was forced to back out of dead ends and blind alleys-a feat made possible through repeated empty firings of the UAEPs. The twin jets of high-velocity water fired from the bow of the ship proved a reliable if cumbersome reverse gear, a tool without which they would have long before come to a disastrous end, since the Indestructible’s main flowpellars provided only forward thrust. The chiefs only concern was that the UAEPs were not designed to be fired so often. If they should fail catastrophically through over-use, the ship could become hopelessly stuck in some crevasse.

For this reason, they had begun to take special care in their navigating. Using the weak current as a navigation tool had proved utterly unreliable, for once in the caverns, its pull was hardly detectable at all, and the deeper they went the less they noticed its effect. Still, on more than one occasion, they had been forced to rely entirely on its influence to identify the correct way ahead, and these instances caused delays of several days as they waited for the Indestructible to float toward one passage or another.

Now, however, they had come to the one portion of the map that neither Conundrum nor Snork had been able to fit together. Conundrum suspected that there was a missing portion, something that Razmous vehemently denied, as he had copied the map himself and so knew that there couldn’t have been any mistakes. Though dubious of the kender’s claims, Conundrum allowed that the error might belong to the Polywog’s original maps.

Their situation was made worse by the lessening of Sir Tanar’s light spells. Oftentimes, because of the silt and sediment stirred up by their flowpellars, they were unable to spot a passage or turning before they were almost upon it. How the navigator of the Polywog had managed to make such extensive and accurate maps of the first voyage, Conundrum could not begin to hazard a guess. The Polywog had been primarily a ship of exploration and was equipped with a number of feelers, claws, pinchers, grabbers, rules, and prods used for feeling its way through night-dark caverns, but certainly their underwater light source must have been more efficient than the wizard’s spells.

Sir Tanar was concerned that they would run out of air before light, and Conundrum had begun to share the Thorn Knight’s fears.

At the moment, he was busy puzzling over a series of interlinking passages that the Polywog had mapped but that didn’t seem to fit together in any way he could discern. He and his cousin Snork had studied this section for many weeks during the first leg of their voyage.

“You haven’t gotten us lost, have you?” Razmous whispered in Conundrum’s ear. The gnome squatted over his maps, which were spread over every available inch of the deck of the bridge.

“Maybe it goes together like this,” the kender offered, taking two portions of the confusing map and fitting them together.

“No, no, I’ve already tried that,” Conundrum said with some annoyance. “See, these passages here don’t link up properly.” He took the sheets from the kender and tossed them on the floor. Razmous sighed and picked up a handful of maps to study them, several of which unaccountably found their way into his pouches.

Presently, the ship lay motionless in a huge submerged cavern. Careful exploration had revealed at least two dozen possible exits. They might spend days-weeks-trying each one and still not find a way out.

As Conundrum stood before the porthole trying to penetrate the obscuring veils of sediment, Sir Tanar’s light spell suddenly winked out, casting the cavern once more into utter darkness. Sir Grumdish, who had been polishing the helm of his Solamnic armor, threw it to the floor in disgust.

“This is pointless,” he grumped, half to himself. “We’ll never find the way.”

Commodore Brigg sighed. “Somebody fetch the wizard and tell him he needs to renew his spell again.”

“I’ll do it,” Razmous offered, quickly skipping from the room.

Professor Hap-Troggensbottle watched him go, then said, “Sir Grumdish is correct, I think. This Life Quest is a dead end. The caverns go on forever, I’m afraid, and there doesn’t seem to be an underside to them. And I’m beginning to think that very large hot rocks don’t float at all, that the islands and continents are but the tops of mountains growing out of the ocean floor.”

“And I haven’t come across one case of hiccoughs since we left Sancrist,” Doctor Bothy added.

“Nor any dragons,” Sir Grumdish finished. “Maybe we should have taken the Thorn Knight’s suggestion and looked for the entrance to the Abyss. At least there we might find some dragons.”

“An excellent idea,” Sir Tanar said as he entered the room. He smiled, pleased that his spells-and the carefully-phrased words of dissent that he had instructed Conundrum to spread secretly and privately among the crew-were having their desired effect. “Indeed we’ve wasted enough time on this fruitless quest.”

“We are not looking for the entrance to the Abyss!” Commodore Brigg snapped, his white beard quivering with anger. “The Life Quest of this ship is to find the east-west sub-Ansalonian passage and discover the fate of the Polywog and her crew.”

“I respectfully submit that our chances of accomplishing either are undeniably poor, considering our present difficulty,” the professor said. “The wizard’s spells grow weaker with each casting. Our food, fresh water, and bottled air are running low, and Conundrum seems no closer to finding a way out of this maze than when we first entered it.”

“Technically, this is not a maze,” Conundrum corrected. “There is a missing page from the maps-that is all.”

“Hey, what’s that?” Razmous asked softly. But everyone ignored him, as they often did.

“Blast it all!” Sir Grumdish snapped. “We should go back while we still can, before our air runs out. We can at least refill our air bottles in that cavern where we buried Snork.”

At this reminder of their fallen navigator, the crew grew silent. Sir Tanar shuffled nervously. Remembering Snork might inspire them to continue with their quest, just when they were on the verge of turning back. Days of suggestive comments to Conundrum had served well to demoralize most of the command crew.

“Oh, wow!” Razmous gasped, pressing his face to the porthole.

“What do you think, Navigator?” the commodore asked, still taking no notice of the kender. “Can you find us a way through or not?”

“I could,” Conundrum answered hesitantly, glancing at Sir Tanar. The wizard nodded. “Given enough time, and provided the maps are accurate, I could. But I am inclined to doubt it, considering that the Polywog apparently came to ruin following these same maps. So perhaps we should turn back.”

“And abandon your cousin’s Life Quest?” Commodore Brigg asked.

Conundrum swallowed the sudden lump in his throat, hung his head, and sighed, “Yes.”

“There’s a light outside the ship!” Razmous cried. “Maybe it’s the Polywog!

“What’s that?” Commodore Brigg exclaimed, pushing the excited kender aside and staring through the porthole. Outside the ship, there was indeed a number of shifting beams of reddish light shining through the murky water off the starboard bow. The other members of the crew, even Sir Tanar, crowded nearer for a look at the amazing sight. Here, unnumbered leagues beneath the Khalkist Mountains, there was another light, perhaps signifying another group of intrepid travelers, perhaps even, as Razmous had suggested, it was the ill-fated Polywog herself! It had become visible only because Sir Tanar’s spell had expired, casting the cavern into total darkness long enough for their eyes to adjust well enough to see the dim glow.

“Maybe it’s lava,” Sir Tanar offered without much conviction.

“Nay, we’d feel its heat. The water would be boiling,” the professor answered. “I should know. I’ve made extensive study of lava and other forms of heated rock.”

“Maybe it’s a dragon!” Sir Grumdish exclaimed.

“With hiccoughs,” Doctor Bothy added.

“Fellow scientists and engineers, I propose that the only way to find out is to observe and record,” the commodore said while stroking his curly white beard.

Sir Tanar ground his teeth in frustration.

“Chief Portlost, engage the flowpellars,” Commodore Brigg ordered. “Crew to your stations.”

The Indestructible lurched forward. While the commodore steered toward the light, Conundrum leaned close to Sir Grumdish and whispered, “You don’t think it’s really a dragon, do you?”

The usually sour-faced gnome grinned and shrugged.