The Deepcombers

Chapter Thirty Five

Lon held the front half of the cracked ladder at his waist and hustled away from the dangerous hole.  They didn't need a map. He smelled their way back through the damp stone passages. The exercise helped Lon recover and it soothed his mind. He just wanted this adventure to end.

"Lon, you do realize..." Melcart spoke after a time, "...if you saw a glyph on that cube stone..." he paused and then continued, "then Kluth himself showed it to you."

The white-haired lad warmed at that thought. Could that be true? He slowed to a brisk walk again and surveyed what remained of their last torch. They could make it, barely.

"Because of the.. Crols?" Lon asked over his shoulder.

"Hmmm uuum no."

"True pattern?" he asked.

"No. It's the path," Melcart said. "You are on a clean path, and the mysteries of Kluth are revealed to you.'

"Will you tell me then.. What path are you on?"

Melcart didn't answer. They walked on another fifteen paces before he spoke again. Lon heard him mumble.

"...A scavenger's path."

"That's what it's called?"

"That's the kindest term I've heard," Melcart said. "Scavengers' not supposed to tell their path, by the way."

"And Saeya and Val?"

"Solopaths who became symbiots," Melcart said. "That means they can share basics, but not the two-handed Varget."

"Two-handed Varget?" Lon asked, "And please don't ridicule me for not knowing."

"I'm a little foggy on it too. Do you remember in the sheets...? Every time Spertane used two hands? "

"Spertane was Emerald Key, right? Emerald Eyes? We didn't have those in Dundae."

"Atar has all the Emerald Eyes sheets lacquered in his lodge. So Zed says."

"So, what about Spertane?"

"The sheets say, er they stress that Spertane used both hands to turn the air black with tornadoes, and he raised both hands to freeze a wedge and break the river dam," Melcart replied.

"Two handed Varget?" Lon thought back to Gladragos and Blue Key News. There was a time when he could have quoted those sheets from memory. In every adventure the Varget master in the company would produce some spectacular solution to the group's problem. But hand movements were not recorded in those prints. When Sapphire was in Amaran, the print read that Gladragos spoke and fire appeared in the air. In another story he spoke, and a bolt of lightning jumped from his fist. But there was no mention or him ever needing both hands. Was this more of Melcart's malarkey? Or something he was confused about himself because of his sole reliance on Emerald Eyes' accounts.

"Two-handed like the maestro in the fair prince's court," Melcart continued as they walked. "Like the music-conductor in the parade; he waves-in fiddles and encourages horns you see. He uses both hands at once to make one piece of music. "

"Is this your theory? Or something more widely believed?"

"Just my belief. I cannot imagine a Varget construct that would require two hands, let alone know the words or meanings... Tornadoes? I mean. I'm sure its possible."

"Did Atar show you the mill and the gears and cogs?"

"No." Melcart sighed. .

"How did you find yourself on your.. er.. Path?" Lon asked, relentlessly.