Unicorn Milk

Part the Sixth

vi

"Now what?" Thakko looked at his bent crowbar. The cap stone remained firmly in place.

They were all cramped at the bottom of a narrow shaft, the scene lit by flickering torchlight. The tunnel ended at a solid wall of rock. Embedded in the wall there was a large square block of worn red metal embossed with a chubby, screaming face.

Taisce chewed her lip. "Lumbar, you're the thief. How do we open this?"

"You don't need a thief for this. You need a pile of black powder. Even that would more likely collapse the tunnel than open that door"

"Can we drill through it?" Taisce asked.

"Did you bring a drill?"

"No."

"Should answer your question."

"How much rope do we have?" Uros asked. "Perhaps we could rig a pulley of some sort and have the horses pull it free?"

Taisce nodded. "Few hundred feet. We would need wood blocks to negotiate the tunnel turns. Maybe some pulleys?"

"But what do we tie the ropes to?" Asked Zucchetto.

"I've got glue!" exclaimed Dilo.

"Glue?" Taisce said, skeptically.

"You don't know the power of Nomeish glue." Dilo said.

"Be that as it may, there is no way that any glue would be strong enough to pull a solid block of metal out of a wall."

As the discussion rage on behind, Thakko was staring at the wall, touching the cool stone around it. Seemingly satisfied, he picked up the sledge hammer from his tool roll and shooed the still arguing group back a few feet.

"Excuse me." he told them, then swung the hammer onto his shoulder.

"No, lad! You'll break your arm!" Lumbar yelled, but it was too late. The barbarian brought the hammer down with a ear splitting crack, but he didn't strike the cap stone. He brought the hammer down onto the solid rock below the capstone, causing it to crack slightly. Raising the hammer again, he slammed it home again and again, quickly reducing the rock below the cap into a pile of rubble. After half a dozen blows, the cap stone, now robbed of any support, slid almost gently onto the top of the rubble pile. A black hole, roughly three feet square disappeared into the wall before them.

"Metal's hard. Rock's not." The barbarian said with a shrug.