123 – Where are we going and what are we doing

  Caspian’s plan at this point was to get as good a map as he could through magic, then plan how to get in to where Diana was and back out. Rox’s job was to hide their presence for the moment, and shield Caspian’s magic from detection.

  Rox set up her shields as small and unobtrusive as she could, and set then to camouflage by blending in to the ambient energy. Caspian put his staff down, the light from the carved head at the top pointing into a spot on the floor. He tested her setup, and then cast a spell that began to map the area via the air currents. This fed into an image spell to form a visual map in front of him. First the chamber they were in was shown, then the five passages connected to it began to show. These quickly showed more chambers and passages, as the spell split at every intersection. As the map expanded, the scale of the overall image changed to keep the whole image about a cubic cubit. Caspian kept a sense of the expanding mapping spell, and whenever a passage seamed to be beyond the general boundaries of the community he would cease its expansion.

  After the spell completed, they had a floating map with several large blobby caverns as central structures connected by knots of smaller tunnels, with smaller caverns interspersed, and several arrays of satellite caverns like the ones they were currently in.

  “Can the magic of the map and of this tracker interact and tell us where in the place Diana is?” Rox held the tracker ready.

  “No,” Caspian answered, looking the map over. “The tracker’s spell is not designed to interact with any other magic.”

  Rox looked over the floating image, careful to keep her own magic going. “I see three main caverns.”

  She ran her hands across one long cavern that curved up and around like a long misshapen bean, a second above half of and rotated a bit from the first that looked like a splattered pancake, and a third that went away from the first two that also looked a bit bean shaped. This third one had a constellation of smaller caverns closely around it at assorted altitudes, connected by a series of orderly tunnels. The interconnecting tunnels between the main ones looked like roads connecting three towns, a few main roads through the shortest available intervening space, and longer ones at almost random. There were a handful of medium sized and dozens of smaller caverns along and among the tunnels. Several passages seamed to circle the whole community at assorted altitudes and angels with larger chambers strung along them like pearls. These were interconnected by more knots of smaller passages and chambers. The chamber that Rox and Caspian were currently in was on one of these external passages. Five separate larger roads led out of the community, each in a different direction, each starting from a medium sized cavern that had a myriad of smaller tunnels attached. The way they had come from was identifiable by three medium sized chambers along that road.

  Caspian just stared at the image. “Ideas?”

  Rox looked it over, beginning to spot a pattern. “We know the tracker runs on straight lines. You said it will not interact with this map. I expect she will be in one of the larger caverns, as those would be better for housing. They need space for growing food, this upper cavern almost looks like a mining operation, or at least that they are clearing the rock out to expand the available volume. They need a water source, but that could be anywhere. We have seen plenty of springs, and I suppose we are deep enough to be under the first layer of aquifer. We don’t want to spend long here, and avoid capture.”

  Rox traced a few peripheral tunnels to the main caverns. “With some disguise, we could scout a few of these, and see which way the tracker says she is. That will eliminate which of the rest we have to risk.”

  Rox paused. Her spells were still going, properly. “Can you recall the image of this map, once you dispel it, or is it dependent?”

  Caspian thought, then got a bit of paper from a pouch. He held the paper flat in his palm, sprinkled some dirt on the paper and cast another spell. The dirt started organizing on the paper, into lines and smears. The excess dirt ran off the side, leaving an image on the paper that looked like a scribble done by an enthusiastic child with a crayon.

  Rox could see that it was a two dimensional image of the three dimensional map. There was residual magic on the map, not just holding the dirt on.

  “I can now recall the map from this at need.” Caspian put the map aside. “In the mean time, I agree. We need to go along this tunnel here,” he ran his finger through the image. “It goes between the two larger areas, while pointing at the third. There the tracker should tell us which one. Then we can scout things further. I just hope these elves are not a militant as the last group of this race I encountered.”

  “What happened then?”

  “I got my crossbow, and a few scars. They got a cave in.”

  Rox almost asked how big a cave in but let it go, not really wanting to know. “I haven’t sensed any magic yet. But I can’t say that I would know for sure.” Rox rechecked her spells. They were humming along just fine.

  “I haven’t ether. You would have noticed. And you don’t need to keep checking yours so much, unless you set them wrong or deliberately unstable.” Caspian answered, then got an unfocused look. “There he is.”

  Caspian stayed that way for a moment.

  Rox waited, figuring correctly that Caspian was communicating with his familiar elsewhere in the complex.

  Caspian’s awareness returned to here. “Cyrril finds a standing field at the entrances to each of the main caverns. He is not sure what kind or how large the magic field is. Also the third cavern is being slowly enlarged, but there are people living in it as well. Near as I can figure from what Cyrril reports, they are between their lunch and dinner time.”

  Rox’s stomach growled. “So are we.”

  She was splitting her attention, tracing the floating image before her, maintaining her spells, and listening to Caspian. She traced the floating map.

  “Looking at this, we can get to the tunnel we want by going out this one, up at this node, and then along this one, and into this main tunnel. Then about what, halfway, and check things. Question is, how much traffic is there to avoid, and how.”

  “We won’t find out about the traffic, until we start moving. If I cast any magic to tell us more than I have, it will let every magic user in the area know where I am. The next question is whether they will pay attention.”

  Rox was at a bit of a loss, yet several ideas mostly out of fiction were floating around her head for how to sneak about and not be noticed. “How much traffic does Cyrril see, or have to dodge?”

  Caspian went unfocused again. “Some. They are not paying him attention just yet. That might be because of the time of day.”

  Rox nodded. “Then let’s go. Tell Cyrril to keep watch for traffic in this main passage., and we will try to meet him there.”

  “Right. That dampening spell I taught you? Now is the time to use it.”

  Caspian let his spells go, and cast a quick spell around himself and his equipment.

  Rox relaxed and dispelled her shielding and camouflage spells. Then she followed Caspian’s example and cast a spell over herself and her equipment. The most noticeable result was that Caspian’s staff stopped buzzing in Rox’s senses and instead only continued to visibly put off light from the dragon’s head.

  Caspian had been teaching and helping Rox practice this spell since Shalaia. It essentially blended the presence of whatever object or group it was cast on into the background, insofar as magical sense went, regardless of the actual magical presence of the object or being.

  As Rox took time to look the rest of the garden room over, she noticed could see that the living things put off a heat sufficient to navigate around. The leafless trees or wooden roots or whatever hanging from the ceiling were arranged almost random, but actually in general rows. The plants on the floor of the chamber were also in rows. Rox could neither see nor hear anybody else in this chamber. Remembering from the map, she started toward the exit she had proposed.

  “I though you wanted to eat.”

  Rox paused. “I do, but . . .”

  Caspian understood. “You are focused on the task at hand. Eat first. Then we will go look. It will be easier to deal with things if you are not hungry.”

  Caspian got out his own food, from his bag as Rox turned to her pack and got hers. They ate quietly and quickly. Rox knew she was eating a sandwich, but was not aware of what it consisted of or tasted like, her mind working over what she would do if and when she encountered anyone between her and Diana.

  Caspian finished first, and contemplated his staff for a moment. “I can’t just walk around with this light going, If I do I may as well walk around with a big banner saying ‘shoot me’ on it.”

  Rox watched as he prepared another spell. He cast it on himself, and then extinguished the light from his staff.

  “Now you can see in the dark?” Rox asked.

  “Yeah. Unlike your visual gifts, this is only seeing in grays; it’s really uncomfortable, and prone to flash-blindness. That’s why I haven’t done it before now. Once we are clear of this place I will shut it off.”

  Once the food was consumed and trash packed away, they stood, put their gear back in order and on, and started out. Rox led to the passage, carefully looking around, and not seeing anybody. They also listened, and did not hear anybody. The slight breeze that flowed through the caverns they were in gave everything a barely perceptible whistle. The passage went into was typical of the previous ones they had followed to get here, being carved from the natural rock, and wide enough for a several people to pass along it. This passage went generally straight and emptied into a crossroad/chamber with a larger passage going to either side. The air could be felt passing from their right to their left. Just past the edge of the side passages, a shaft ascended and descended to other levels. Rox wanted to go up. She could see the bracing that had been constructed to support the sides of the shaft, tracks for a lift built onto the braces, and a second set on the left side as she faced it for the counterweight. Cables of some kind ran down in the middle of the counterweight’s frame. A ramp spiraled in a right-hand spiral around the outside of the shaft that would allow the defender to stand above and swing right handed with the wall to his left. She looked down and up the shaft briefly, then back to Caspian.

  “No traffic, and if there is a lift, it is above us.”

  Caspian looked around quickly, then back to Rox. “Do you know what you are doing?”

  “Yeah. I’m sneaking around potentially hostile territory to find and retrieve my kidnapped daughter.”