Chapter 6

 

 

With Lore hanging onto him, Dom just had time to take a deep breath before they hit the water. An icy shock hit him and he couldn’t help but gasp. A coughing splutter seized him as the water churned around him. Then Lore bobbed to the surface and he was thrust clear where he took some gasping breaths.

 

‘Hang on, Dom!’ Lore exclaimed. ‘We’re in for a ride!’

 

Dom got a brief glimpse of the gorge walls rushing by and then they were swept into the cave. They were tossed and spun along, the water carrying them down a long, dark tunnel. Then they were carried around a bend, sweeping very close to a wall. He thought they would be dashed against it. But incredibly they were washed up onto a low, stone ledge.

 

Lore managed to drag himself further up it, coughing and spluttering as he got his breath back. He put Dom down and they both lay there, gasping from the exertion.

 

‘Well, we’re in a fix now aren’t we, Dom?’ Lore said finally.

 

Dom nodded and sat up. He looked back up the tunnel where a little daylight showed around the bend from the cave entrance.

 

‘I thought we were finished when that boulder came crashing down on us!’ he said.

 

‘It was a close thing,’ Lore agreed. ‘At least Nyssa got away so she could give Eldor Queen Erin’s message.’

 

‘Do you think they got away from the goblins?’ Dom asked.

 

‘I think so,’ Lore said. ‘The goblins couldn’t climb down the cliff to get at them. That’s why they rolled the rocks down on us I reckon.’

 

‘So what do we do now?’ Dom asked, wet through and beginning to shiver in the chilly air.

 

Lore looked back up the tunnel.

 

‘Well… we can’t swim back that’s for sure,’ he replied. ‘The current is just too strong.’

 

They sat there in silence for a bit, each thinking of what they were going to do next. Dom certainly didn’t like the idea of sitting on the ledge till they starved or froze to death. As he peered down the tunnel he was reminded of another he had been swept into just over a year ago.

 

‘This reminds me of the tunnel Jena and I were swept into,’ he said. ‘It eventually took us to safety.’

 

‘Well, we’ll freeze or starve to death sitting here,’ Lore said. ‘The only thing we can do is get back in the water and hope the tunnel does lead somewhere. It might flow into a river below the mountains.’

 

Dom didn’t think he sounded very confident about it, but knew they had little choice.

 

‘Not much of a choice is there,’ he said.

 

Lore shook his head and suddenly grinned.

 

‘Come on, this will be just another adventure.’

 

He lifted Dom up and put him on his back where he could straddle his neck with his legs. As long as Lore kept his head above the water, Dom would be above it as well. He could also rest against Lore’s pack, which was still looped over his shoulders.

 

‘If we come to any drops, just grip my neck with your legs and grab onto my shirt,’ Lore said. ‘Just don’t let go. It’s going to be utterly dark and if I loose you, it’ll be impossible to find you again.’

 

‘Don’t worry, I’ll hang on like a leech!’

 

‘Well… here goes!’ Lore said and clambering off the ledge, lowered himself into the water again.

 

Its swift flow carried them quickly away and the light from the entrance began to fade away. But as they went deeper down the tunnel they found that there was another light source. The walls of the tunnel were speckled with a gleaming silver mineral that whilst quite faint, was bright enough for them to see a little in the gloom.

 

‘This is the same kind of light Jena and I saw when we were carried under the mountains of our old home,’ Dom said. ‘Do you know what the speckled glow is?’

 

‘It’s a mineral called Glimmer,’ Lore replied. ‘There are places beneath the Chill Mountains where we find it too.’

 

The tunnel broadened after a while and the current lessened so Lore could breaststroke comfortably along with it. They drifted on for some time and Dom lost count of how many bends they were swept around. Occasionally they came to where the tunnel dropped away beneath them, but luckily they were only short falls. But by the time several hours had gone by he was almost constantly shivering in the chilly air.

 

‘I’m freezing, Lore!’ he said. ‘I can barely feel my arms and legs anymore!’

 

‘I know,’ Lore agreed. ‘Mine are starting to get really tired… they feel like blocks of ice! We’ll look for another ledge where we can stop and can rub some feeling back into them.’

 

But a little further on they heard a dull, but growing rumble coming from ahead.

 

‘That… that sounds like a waterfall ahead… a big one!’ Dom said nervously, knowing it might mean a very long fall.

 

‘Yeah,’ Lore agreed, worried as well. ‘Let’s just hope we don’t have to fall far.’

 

They swept round another bend and ahead they could see the tunnel opening out into a vast cavern. In the dim light they could see spray tossed up by the waterfall. Then they were swept over it and plunged downwards. They took deep breaths and then hit the water again with a huge splash. They tumbled about a bit in the current, Dom hanging onto Lore as tight as he could.

 

Then the surfaced again and wiped the water from their eyes. They then stared in wonder at where they had arrived. A huge underground lake lay under the mountains. It was so big they couldn’t see its far end. A broad shoreline was on their right and Lore swam over to it wearily. He waded ashore and putting Dom on the ground, they both stood there dripping wet and shivering.

 

‘Well, this is a bit of luck,’ Lore said through chattering teeth. ‘At least we’re out of the water.’

 

‘How big do you think the lake is?’ Dom asked, peering into the dim light cast by the Glimmer in the walls.

 

‘Oh, the cavern could be huge,’ Lore replied. ‘There are underground lakes like this under the Chill Mountains that stretch for miles. We come across them occasionally when mining.’

 

The shoreline appeared to follow the entire length of the lake and it was the only way to go. But before they set off Lore had them strip off their clothes. They then wrung them as dry as they could before putting them back on. Lore said they would now dry out a bit quicker and they wouldn’t feel so cold.

 

They started to head along the shore. Dom was glad to be on his feet and warming up with a b it of exercise. He gazed about the cavern, fascinated by its massive size. Huge stone growths in the shapes of cones rose from the ground and similar formations hung from the ceiling. Water dripped constantly from their pointed ends.

 

* * *

 

They didn’t know how long they walked for, the lake stretching on and on. But it was long enough for their clothing to almost dry out completely. They eventually stopped, tired after their ordeal. They ate some of the food that had survived in Lore’s pack, some soggy cheese and dried fruits. The biscuits had been totally ruined.

 

The slept then for several hours and woke a little refreshed, but still cold. They headed off again and had not gone far when out of the gloom something utterly surprising appeared. A large stone jetty jutted out into the lake. A pathway of stones led away from it to an archway in a wall, the entrance to a tunnel.

 

‘This looks like a way out,’ Lore said happily.

 

‘Do you think it leads outside?’ Dom asked.

 

Lore nodded.

 

‘It looks like it was dug out on purpose,’ he replied. ‘So that’s a good sign.’

 

But first they stepped onto the jetty and walked up to its end. Looking down into the shallow water, they could see the rotted, wooden remains of several boats lying on the bottom.

 

‘Eldor’s folk must have made this jetty,’ Lore said in wonder. ‘I’d say they used the boats to row about on the lake.’

 

‘Do you think they ever rowed to its far end?’ Dom asked, thinking that rowing on it would have been good fun.

 

‘I reckon they would have, Dom,’ Lore replied. ‘Makes you wonder what might be down there, eh?’

 

Leaving the jetty and the sunken boats, they walked up to the archway. The tunnel beyond burrowed through the mountain stone into Glimmer lit shadows.

 

‘If the tunnel leads outside, will we try and find Eldor?’ Dom asked.

 

Lore hadn’t considered that with all that had happened. He did know it would be foolish to go into the Rethan with the Shiver there. There was also no real need to look for him now that Nyssa had given him the message from Queen Erin.

 

‘There’s probably no need to,’ he said. ‘But I wouldn’t mind a glimpse of the city… from a safe distance of course.’

 

‘Me, too!’ Dom agreed.

 

‘Well, let’s see where the tunnel takes us first, eh? Then we’ll decide.’

 

He scooped Dom up and putting him on a shoulder, headed away.