125 – Planning and Causing Trouble

  Rox nodded. “Let me see the map.”

  Caspian pulled out the sheet, and energized it. The glowing image of the map sprang from the paper. Rox looked it over. She touched a set of rooms off the side of the ring.

  “I believe we are here. This passage leads to this chamber, which leads to this exit tunnel.” Rox traced the passages as she spoke.

  “Problem: that is not the way we came from.” Caspian pointed at the passage they had come from it was a third of the way around the map from where Rox was pointing.

  Rox looked at the passages. “Okay. My scouting says Diana is in this section of the main cavern.” She pointed at the end closest to the third, expanding cavern. “We are here right now.” She pointed at the series of rooms on the side away from the second cavern. “If we cause enough distraction, we can get back here, and around and out the way we came.”

  Caspian looked at the map. “The area I am looking to make my distraction in is over here, on the far end from where you will be. I can take our bags and leave them there, then we pick them back up on out way out.”

  He ran his finger out of the cavern, back onto the ring, and around the way they had initially traveled.

  Rox looked at it. She was flummoxed. If there was more time . . . but there was no more time.

  “Okay. Let’s do that. I will come over to here, fire a few of my gimmick arrows toward the center of things. You will hear them land. Then you start your distraction. I follow the tracker to exactly where Diana is, and get her. I fire a few more arrows as needed, and we go out and around, meet at the elevator, and go down and out that way.”

  Caspian nodded and put the map away. “Sounds good. Don’t start without me. Give me a bit to get back into position.”

  He picked his bags and hers, and then went out of the room, Cyrril leaping onto his shoulder as he left.

  Rox took a deep breath, and sent the Astronaut’s Prayer to heaven for good fortune. Then she pulled her bow from the low carry she had slung it at on her belt. She pulled the sling’s slack out and wrapped the excess around itself to its shorter position. Next she opened the small box from earlier. Eight crystal bread-head arrow heads rested in felt padding. One at a time, Rox drew eight of the local made wooden arrows from her quiver and slotted the crystal broad head over the metal arrow head, and slid it to the shaft until it stopped. With all eight ready, Rox put her hands on either side of the lined up arrows; she put the magic safeties in order, and then activated the spells on the arrowheads. Each began to glow in her magical senses. The activation finished, she scooped up the arrows and put them back into the upper box of her quiver with the other wood arrows, her other aluminum ones on the lower box. Rox opened the draw string on the cloth closer of both boxes, to quickly draw as she needed. Satisfied she slung her bow on her shoulder, and tested her disguise spell. The spell was still working. Rox squared her shoulders and stepped out.

  Rox did not see Caspian ahead of her. She looked both ways in the ring cavern, and caught sight of him making his way to his start point, off to her right. She turned left and went back in the direction she came from. Rox passed a town constable or militia man as she went this time. This unnerved her a bit, but she held her discipline and kept going. She was certain that was what or who he was as he wore armor and carried a sword. No one else did.

  Thinking of the ring-passage like a race track, she was going the wrong way on the back straight away, toward the turn from the short passage, though in this part of the ring it was more just a gentle curve all around. Rox checked the tracker. The dot subtly shifted as Rox walked. Now it was on her right side, and as she turned the corner, it slid slowly around to more in front of her, but still to her right, in the cavern.

  Rox waited to be past the open areas before turning into the cavern. Three other chattering locals followed her into the cavern. She stuttered her steps briefly then stepped boldly through the fields that filled the archway into the cavern. Nothing happened that Rox sensed. The three behind her likewise went through without incident and walked into the main cavern of the Urnvtai village of Chigoria.

  This cavern looked like part of this end had been carved from the inside of a huge geode. Most of the crystals had been cut and cleared for space, but a few had been left to support buildings. The crystal tiling and cobbles on the road continued, sometimes up the side of a building. The road was wide enough for two wagons to pass, with sidewalks. Every so often a water pump and trough intruded on the sidewalk, leaving the road clear. In the first intersection Rox came to, a large crystal had been carved into a statue. Rox turned to her left and looked for the first alley she could. But the buildings were built continuously. So she looked for a non-busy side road.

  The roads were generally gridded, but wandered a little; the buildings were single story with the floor at road level, or double story with a step down and a step up. Finally Rox turned right onto a smaller road, and found what she wanted. Stepping away from the traffic, she checked either side, borrowed a spell idea from Caspian, and leapt up and onto the top of the wall of the building. The roof was joists with some kind of thatching lay across, almost flat. Rox scrambled across the top of the wall to an intersection, keeping as quiet as she could. The tracker said Diana was off to her left, almost directly, and the dot almost centered.

  Rox looked across the village. She could smell smoke up here, but it was of cooking fires, rather than anything else, yet.  Rox got her bow from her shoulder and drew one of her magic tipped arrows from her quiver. She knocked the arrow and held it in place as she surveyed the village looking for a good target over the roof tops.

  She was about a third of the way across this end of the cavern, with about a third of it to her right and two thirds to her left. She was closer to the wall behind her than to either side. Also the cavern height would require a fairly flat trajectory, unless she wanted to hit the roof.

  Off to her right there were several large structures that seamed to be where the open areas she had seen were. Further away were more residential and market areas. At the far end she could begin to make out the industrial area, but it was too far to see in detail and make sense of just now. Rox looked back to the big structures, and decided they would do.

  Roxanne moved quietly across the tops of the walls to where she could stand and shoot. Standing carefully she found her balance, and drew the bow back. She took aim, adjusted her elevation, and let fly, then reached for the second arrow.

  Caspian stood, back to the rock wall, absently petting Cyrril. His part of the plan called for creating a diversion to give Roxanne an easier time on her side of this village. But he had to wait for her shot to go first. He didn’t wait long. A muffled boom echoed out of the cavern.

  At that first explosion, he began his part. He calmly started walking, concentrating on the archway he faced. The locals who had been walking in the area were nervous, wanting to go help, but not sure how or where yet. Caspian relieved them of their tedious wait, letting loose with the spell he had formulated. The keystone of the archway between the ring passage and this entry passage disintegrated, and the arch swiftly collapsed.

  After using half of her crystal tipped arrows, Roxanne had hit four targets on her side of the cavern. At that she slung the bow across her back, and retrieved her staff from its position on her quiver. She moved quickly across this block on the tops of its walls and at its end dropped back to street level, then trotted through the confusion she had just created. People were running every which way. Caspian’s attack on the other side of the village was now drawing much of the attention. Several larger structures blew up, the damage spreading in the confines of the cavern. Roxanne ignored it, and mostly ignored anybody she went past, her purposeful movement enough of a disguise at the moment for most of them, her magic doing the rest. Then a Constable put his hand on her shoulder.

  Rox turned into him leading with her staff into his face. He went down quickly, and she fled before much could be made of it.

  Caspian moved stealthily through the rubble he was causing. His task that of diversion and nuisance. He sent Cyrril to find the fuel oil storage and light it on fire. This took a few moments. But once done the results were spectacular. Next he went to the armory. He took a moment to examine the swords and then started the bows and arrows on fire.

  Rox picked her way quickly through the confusion and rubble, moving as fast as she dared, following the tracker. She thought briefly as she went that she would never have thought herself capable of something like this a few short months ago. She then cleared her thoughts and moved on. The few fires were casting strange shadows across the whole cavern and creating lots of smoke that would take a while to clear out. She could feel the magic on the passages had jumped in activation to ventilate the cavern.

  As she went, she felt relief that she had probably only injured men and a few women, and no children. Roxanne followed the tracker, watching it to see how close her daughter was, and where. She turned down a road into a square. The buildings before her were the last before an open area and the other cavern wall. Rox came to a stop, dispelled all the cloaking magic on her, and put up her magic shields. She was not anxious to enter a local house.

  More of the village burst into flames, the thatched roofs spreading embers quickly, the cavern beginning to smell of smoke. Caspian continued to cause trouble. He had blow a water wheel apart to its constituent boards. Cyrril was out looking for oils to burn. He paused at a smithy, and decided not to do anything here. He moved on, trotting around the confusion. He paused and hopped up onto the tops of the walls. He could not see any particular pursuit, and decided that the smashed water works, the caved in passage, the fuel oil storage, and what ever Rox had blown up were sufficient.

  Caspian called Cyrril to go check on Rox, and then felt her shields energize.