Forest Kingdom Trilogy 3 - Down Among the Dead Men

floor, and then held his lantern out before him. The pale golden light reflected back from thousands of tiny crystals embedded in the cavern walls. They shone brightly in the darkness, like so many distant stars on a moonless night, illuminating a cavern so huge it took MacNeil’s breath away. There wasn’t enough light to fill all the cavern. It had to be at least half a mile in diameter, and possibly even more in height. The tunnel opened out high up on a wall, with the cavern floor hundreds of yards below. A narrow ledge ran along the wall, leading from the tunnel mouth to another opening some fifty feet away and perhaps ten feet lower down. MacNeil didn’t like the look of the ledge. It was barely two feet wide, and the dark stone was cracked and uneven, as though it had only recently been cut from the bare stone wall. MacNeil looked down into the darkness and felt a sudden surge of vertigo. He turned his head away and breathed deeply until it settled.
    Jack and Hammer stood on either side of him, staring out into the cavern. The glowing crystals stared back like so many knowing eyes. Hammer caught his breath for a moment, and then quickly let it go in case anyone had noticed. The cavern made him feel small and insignificant, and he didn’t like that. Jack studied the narrow ledge cut into the cavern wall, and chewed his lower lip dubiously. It looked to be a long way down if someone lost their footing.
    “How far down is that, do you think?” he said finally.
    “I don’t know,” said MacNeil. “A hell of a long way, whatever it is.”
    “Do you think the Beast’s down there?”
    “Has to be,” said Hammer. “But is the gold down there with it, or could it be in that other opening?”
    MacNeil frowned. Anyone out on that narrow ledge would be very vulnerable to a surprise attack. They’d have to go in single file, hugging the cavern wall all the way… . But when all was said and done, he couldn’t ignore the opening. Hammer was right; there were only two places down here the gold could be, and the second opening was the easiest to get to. He nodded slowly.
    “All right, Hammer, it’s worth a try. I’ll go first.”
    He stepped out onto the ledge, testing it carefully before committing all his weight to it. The cracked stone seemed solid enough, and he moved farther along the ledge, pressing his shoulder against the cavern wall. He looked down once and immediately wished he hadn’t. Heights didn’t normally bother him, but this was different. Very different. He looked resolutely at the second opening ahead, only some ten feet below him and fifty feet away. It hadn’t looked very far from the tunnel mouth, but out on the ledge it seemed a hell of a long way to go. He leaned even more against the cavern wall and kept going. The solid rock face was a comforting presence. Hammer moved out onto the ledge after him, once he was sure it was safe, and Jack brought up the rear. Of all of them, Jack was the only one unaffected by the long drop. In the Forest he climbed the tallest trees for fun. On the other hand, he hadn’t liked the enclosed space of the tunnel at all, so the much larger space of the cavern actually helped to put him at his ease. He moved confidently along behind Hammer, holding his torch high and staring happily about him with easy curiosity.
    The second opening in the cavern wall proved to be the entrance to another tunnel. MacNeil crouched down on the ledge before it and studied the circular tunnel in the light of his lantern. It was roughly seven feet in diameter and appeared to have been bored through solid rock. Its walls were unnaturally smooth. MacNeil’s imagination conjured up a picture of some monstrous worm wriggling blindly through the solid stone, and he scowled thoughtfully. For as far as he could see in the lantern light, the tunnel appeared to be deserted. And when all was said and done, he wasn’t going to discover anything more just squatting there on the ledge. He sighed regretfully and moved forward into the tunnel. Hammer and Jack followed close behind him.
    After some twenty or thirty feet, the tunnel opened out into a cave. And in that cave, piled carelessly one upon the other, lay hundreds of stout leather sacks, each bearing the royal imprint of the Forest Treasury. Hammer pushed past MacNeil and ran forward to kneel before the sacks. He grabbed the first that came to hand and opened it, clawing impatiently at the drawstrings. He thrust his hand into