Dark Currents

I-”

“Found something,” Maldynado said.

“What?” Amaranthe rushed to join him for reasons beyond curiosity.

He rotated a cobweb-cloaked chalkboard standing on wheels in the corner. A giant diagram was tacked on the backside. Several warrens of horizontal, vertical, and diagonal lines crisscrossed the paper.

“The mines.” She tapped a circle that represented the northernmost one.

“You’re welcome.” Maldynado puffed out his chest.

Amaranthe traced the line leading from the circle. “Different levels, twists, and forks. This is a maze.” She squinted at words scrawled in the faded ink. “Not to scale. Not representative of all tunnels. See Document Four A dash Six for complete map. Uhm, anyone seen that?”

Maldynado deflated. “Er, no.”

Basilard shook his head.

Amaranthe eyed the broken desk and surrounding furniture.

“We’ve searched everything,” Maldynado said. “If there were other maps here, I figure that fungal mass ate them.”

“I told you it wasn’t wholesome.” She ticked her fingernail against the chalkboard. “It doesn’t look like the adjoining mine connects to the shaman’s. The only other way into his is…”

Maldynado pointed to a long, vertical line that connected with the mine of interest. “Looks like a backdoor to me.”

“Looks like a long drop down a hundreds-of-feet-deep shaft to me,” Amaranthe said.

“Enh, we’ve got rope. And Sicarius has trained us all to be expert climbers. Of course, I was already an expert.”

Basilard’s eyebrows flew up. Last month, you fell.

“That wasn’t a fall. It was a premature release, due to that beautiful lady ranger who was strolling along the base of the cliff. She had the biggest-”

“Problem,” Amaranthe said.

“Hm?” Maldynado asked.

“I suspect this shaft only exists for water removal purposes. There’ll be a steam engine on top that was designed to power a pump far below.”

“Well, it won’t be working, right? Unless the shaman is doing a little hobby mining on the side. Maybe the shaft is big enough that we can climb down it around the equipment.”

Basilard shook his head slowly, catching on before Maldynado.

“If they needed a pump during the mine’s heyday,” Amaranthe said, “it was because the lower levels filled with water. If the pump hasn’t been operating…”

“Oh,” Maldynado said. “Guess we should have brought the diving suits along.”

Amaranthe tapped the vertical line. “I’ll have you, Basilard, and Akstyr check it anyway. If it’s flooded, you come back and go in the front. With luck, I’ll get the shaman out of his warren by then and give you time to search for Books.”

Maldynado shared a bewildered expression with Basilard. “How’re you going to do that?” he asked. “And what will Sicarius be doing?”

“Nothing he’ll be happy about,” Amaranthe said.