IX - Solomon's Mines

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Iatus and Aelith stood in front of a circle drawn in the sand and Iatus said a few words.

The circle glowed yellow and Opher appeared in a spurt of sand, looking quite indignant at being pulled through space.

"So, where is it then?" Iatus asked impatiently.

"How should I know," the worm replied indignantly.

"Because I just sent you to find it," Iatus growled.

"Well I found it, but now you've summoned me I've lost my bearings."

"Well, where was it in reference to our original position?" Aelith asked reasonably.

"About a league north-east."

Aelith opened his wings and took off, circled around then landed on Iatus' shoulder again.

"Looks like the slavers took us about 20 miles back south, if we leave now we should get there by nightfall."

"Right," said Iatus, "Onwards!"

He dismissed Opher, who gave a satisfied grunt, and mounted his horse, setting off at a gallop northwards.

The galloping didn't last long. The horse was little more than a pack mule and wasn't exactly used to racing speeds. Soon it was carrying an annoyed Iatus along at a lumbering craw.

Consequently it was well into the night before they arrived at their destination.

"So... how do we know if we've reached our destination?" Iatus asked.

"I think we've gone about a league from where we were taken, so anywhere here, I guess."

Iatus reached out his hand and blasted a beam of light into the sand, causing it to bubble and leak away in molten rivers of glass. However he had not bored down more than a metre when the beam flickered and died, and he toppled off the horse.

Aelith shook his head, not even attempting to catch him, "Iatus, when will you learn that you're human now, you can't just run around blasting everything?"

Iatus groaned through a faceful of sand.

Aelith sighed and set up a small twister that sucked away the sand and flung it away on the wind.

Iatus rolled himself upward and looked into the clear night, the million stars of the desert twinkling shyly, filling up the sky with rivers of light. Iatus scowled at it.

The twister was a slow, but efficient way of moving the loose sand and earth, and after about an hour Aelith dismissed it to look down at the 10 metre deep shaft.

"I think we've found something solid," he said.

"The Mines?" asked Iatus hopefully, sitting up with a mad grin.

"Only one way to find out," Aelith replied, picked Iatus up with a gust of air and threw him into the hole.

Iatus was grateful that the owl had at least the courtesy to stop him before he collided with the stone at the bottom.

After Iatus had concisely explained what he thought of Aelith and what he would like to do to him, Iatus shouted up to the bird, "The stone looks chiselled, this has to be it."

"Excellent," Aelith smiled as he floated gently down the shaft.

Iatus placed his hand on the stone and slowly began to melt his way through, eventually revealing a dark, square tunnel.

They dropped down and Iatus shone a beam of light down both directions but they never hit anything, the tunnel seemed to go on for ever.

"Which way do we go?" Iatus asked.

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