Fall Revolution 4: The Sky Road

only about twenty metres deep,’ he
told me.
    ‘Good grief, man, you’re not talking about going
down there, are you?’
    ‘Aye, I am that,’ he said. ‘It’s safe
enough, so long as you hang on.’
    ‘But do you know what’s at the bottom?’ I
looked at him suspiciously. ‘And how do you know about
this, anyway?’
    Druin sighed theatrically. ‘What’s at the bottom
is a tunnel – I don’t know if it’s part of the
original hydro-station or something that got added later. This
whole hill has been tunnelled and mined; it was used as an
underground base by the British army, and by the Republicans
during the civil war before the First World Revolution –
changed hands a few times, I think. As to how I know about it
– ’ He laughed. ‘There’s a map and a
diagram of it all in the museum at Jean town! Mind you, I guess
the tinkers will have made yon diagram out of date, one way or
the other.’
    ‘Looks pretty dark,’ I said.
    ‘Ach, there’ll be some kind of lighting down
there. And I’ve got a torch.’
    ‘Was this on your mind all along?’
    ‘Aye,’ he admitted. ‘But I didn’t want
to tell you beforehand, in case you got cold feet from worrying
about it before we even got here. As it is, I’m just
beginning to wonder if I was right in thinking youhad a spirit of
adventure. You’ve done nothing but raise objections this
past five minutes. Do you want to go after this woman, or
no?’
    ‘Of course I do,’ I said, stung into action
– as he no doubt intended – by his hint at cowardice.
I slung the rifle across my back and scrambled up and set my feet
on the rungs as I lowered myself in. ‘You’ll be
coming too, will you?’
    Til be right above you,’ Druin said.
    For the next couple of minutes I concentrated entirely on
descending the laddered steps. The rungs looked rust-free, as did
their bolts – in fact, the metal and the ceramic of the
shaft were both unknown to me. But I could not be sure that every
rung had survived the centuries, so I tested each one before
putting my full weight on it. The slung rifle made it even more
awkward. One upward glance confirmed that Druin was following.
Above him the hatch was visible as a small, bright hole.
    After what seemed a long time my foot encountered empty air
where a rung should have been. After a moment of fright I lowered
the foot further, cautiously, and touched a floor. I grunted with
relief and stepped down and away from the ladder, still taking
care where I placed my feet. Druin completed his descent a moment
later and we stood together in dark and silence.
    On the descent my eyes had adapted to the diminishing light
and even here, at the bottom of the shaft, it was not entirely
dark. I became aware, without quite knowing why, that we were
indeed in a tunnel and that it sloped fairly sharply. Looking
around, I could see a brighter area lower down. I peered at Druin
and gestured in that direction. The pale oval of his face made a
bobbing motion whichI interpreted as a nod. Together we turned
and headed down the slope.
    After a few steps I stubbed my toe on something hard.
‘Damn,’ I muttered, pulling up short. Druin bumped
into my back and we both swayed dangerously.
    Tuck this for a game of soldiers,’ said Druin. He
undipped the torch from his belt and switched it on. A powerful
beam of white light illuminated the tunnel in front of us. It
revealed that the floor was indeed littered with obstacles
– oddly shaped seer-stones of various sizes. It also
revealed that the tunnel was full of people.
    Druin yelped a curse and brought his rifle to bear in a
surprisingly smooth and swift movement. The torch-beam wavered
hardly at all. I was still stiff with shock; the instant I
recovered from it I looked over my shoulder and saw more figures
crowding behind us, dim in the backwash of the torch’s
light. One such figure was apparently in the act of reaching out
for me – I struck wildly at his arm, and almost fell over
because my fist passed right through it. Druin whirled around at
the same moment, and the torch-beam cast my shadow grotesquely on
the figures before me. They responded neither to the shadow nor
the light. Druin let out his breath in a gusty gasp, then
laughed.
    ‘They’re just hollows, man!’
    ‘Ah.’ I stood looking at them in amazement.
‘Aye, like the tinkers scare children with at
fairs.’
    ‘That’s it. God, they had me scared