From his hiding place behind the rocks, Corvan watched the High Priest light his firestick, return to the stairs and jam it into a crack in the rocks. The man then bent over the steps, untied his food bag, and pulled out a piece of dried fruit on a shriveled stem.

Corvan stared at the man’s back as the High Priest gnawed on the tough fruit. Not only had the High Priest escaped the water creature after stepping off into the temple karst, but now he was using Tyreth to take control of Kadir.

The water in the pool between them crested and a long tentacle whipped out, wrapped around the man’s waist, and lifted him in the air. Corvan sucked in his breath, but the priest only glanced half-heartedly over his shoulder as the bulbous white head surfaced.

More tentacles slithered out to grip the rocks and pull the creature's flaccid body closer to the shore. The Volisk turned the priest around mid-air and another finger-like tentacle probed the folds of the High Priest's robe.

"Put me down." The High Priest barked, slapping the tentacle away. "You're getting my robe wet."

High-pitched chirping erupted from the creature's pointed mouth as it lowered the man to the ground. The priest smoothed his robe. "Yes, I know you are hungry. Be patient and soon I'll give you a good meal,” the man said with a chuckle. “Although she might be a bit old and stringy."

A tentacle pointed at the priest's side. He reached inside his robe to pull out a small bottle of luminescent fluid. "I only have a little left. After this you'll need to wait until I can return to my own home to make more." Wiggling the cork free, he held the bottle out. The tentacle encircled the bottle, emptied the contents into the creature's maw, shook it to get every drop, then delicately returned the bottle to the priest's waiting hand.

A long shiver went through the Volisk’s limbs, then it chirped out a melody of high notes.

The High Priest looked up from corking his bottle. "A man at the upper pool?" He stepped into the shallow water among the mass of tentacles. "With one of the watchers?"

Corvan crouched lower in his hiding place. but one of his feet slipped in the yellow slime, dislodging a pebble that clattered down to the water's edge.

"Who's there?" The High Priest's deep voice filled the chamber, as he retrieved his light and held it high. "Show yourself!"

Corvan froze in place.

Clicks and chirps echoed through the cavern before a wave of water slipped under the rocks in front of him. Lumien energy flooded his muscles and Corvan splashed frantically on his hands and knees towards the crevice leading into Gavyn's tunnels. The narrow crack would be too small for the High Priest but not for the water creature's arms. Squeezing himself through, he tucked in quickly around a sharp bend and out of sight.

After a long silence, the white tip of a tentacle appeared in the passage and probed toward Corvan's hiding place. Flattening himself against the rock wall, he held his breath as it felt around the rocks, just inches from his foot.

At a sharp command from outside, the tentacle withdrew.

Light flowed into the tight crawl, followed by a hoarse whisper. "I know you're there,” the High Priest said. “I can hear you breathing,"

Corvan tried to hold his breath but the erratic spikes of lumien power weren’t helping.

The priest spoke again. "Listen to me. Whoever you are and whatever side you are working for, I will pay you double if you will join me instead. You need not be afraid. I can protect you."

While the man spoke, Corvan edged away along the wall. The tentacles could reach a long way.

"Do not leave,” the man urged. ‘You and I need to talk."

Corvan kept moving.

"Here, I will throw in my torch as a pledge of good faith," the High Priest said.

Corvan crawled away as fast as he could.

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Something bounced off the walls in the space behind him and he glanced over his shoulder. A fire stick, bent like a horseshoe and held in place by a leather thong, lay burning on the tunnel floor, its flame smoking and sputtering. The thong tightened; the fire stick twitched—it was about to explode!

Corvan scrambled forward on his hands and knees. The roof grew higher, and he jumped up, lumien energy shooting him down the narrow passage.

A flash of light and deafening explosion of sound caught him from behind and knocked him flat. Rocks crashed at his heels as the passageway collapsed behind him. Getting to his feet, Corvan groped his way along the walls in the darkness, choking on the dust filling the tight space. Even with his improved eyesight he couldn’t see a thing.

Removing his grandfather’s special pack from under his tunic, he touched it open and felt about inside until he located his dad's acetylene lamp and the waterproof tube of matches. Drawing a match out, he lit the lamp and winced. It was too bright in this close space. He turned it down to the lowest setting. It sputtered and smoked but it was enough to see up ahead to where the passage split off in four directions.

If he was to make his way out of this maze of tunnels, he needed to find the garden room with the baobab looking tree and hope that Gavyn would show up to lead him from there. The problem was that the last time he had been here, he'd been too tired to notice what path he and Gavyn had taken.

Taking off the lamp, Corvan used the smoke from the flame to mark the passage farthest to the right with the letter A. He would try this direction for five hundred paces and if nothing showed up, he would retrace his steps and try one of the other tunnels.

At fifty-six paces, a new passage branched off to the left. Corvan marked his location with an arrow and the letter B. Walking past the opening, he kept counting. At almost three hundred paces he came to a four-way intersection. His heart sank at the sight of the letter A.

He had managed to escape the water creature and the High Priest, but now he had to get out of Gavyn’s tunnels and meet Tsarek near the falls of the abyss as soon as possible. Marking the passage to the far left with the letter C, he set off again.

Three intersections later, he was hopelessly lost. Sitting on a narrow slab of rock by the wall, he closed his eyes and let a bit of lumien energy flow into his mind. His thoughts ran clearer and his memory of following Gavyn through these passages was less murky. He recalled the entry to Gavyn's tree room was close to a waterfall. Would it be possible to pick up the sound of falling water if he directed a little of the lumien power to his ears?

Corvan focused inward, assessing how much energy remained in his heart. It wasn't much. If he needed to run, he wouldn't get very far before his strength gave out, but at the same time it appeared logical that it was worth taking the chance.

Directing a minute amount of the remaining lumien power to his ears, he winced at the harsh sound of the gas escaping from the lamp. Extinguishing the flame, he tried again but heard nothing but the rush of his own blood through his veins and the clink of the lamp's reflector cooling off. As the reflector's noise faded, a different sound came through. He stood and it vanished. Crouching down, he listened again. Water was falling somewhere to his right.

Corvan concentrated on his right ear and swayed his head, scanning back and forth like a bat in the darkness. A shiver went through his body. This was what the Rakash did to find their way in the dark. They also must have acquired the ability from eating lumien hearts. Corvan quickly dismissed the thought. He could never turn into one of the Rakash simply by eating a few seeds.

Putting his lamp away and fastening the pack back under his cloak he crawled toward the sound, scanning, then moving and scanning again. Finally, he detected the water's murmur near a fissure in the wall. Squeezing through the crack he felt his way down into a wider passage. Moving forward, the sound increased, and moist patches of glowing moss appeared on the walls. Upon rounding a corner, he stood before a waterfall that tumbled down from a rock ledge and ran across the path to disappear into a hole in the floor.

Corvan could recall walking behind this waterfall to get into Gavyn's hideout. Raising his hood, he leaned his head close to the wall and blinked past the spray. Sure enough, there was a crack in the wall behind the water. Sliding along behind the cascade, he squirmed through the crack into a wider tunnel with faint lumien light up ahead.

Corvan ran toward the light and skidded to a halt just inside the entry to Gavyn's garden cavern. The large lumien overhead and the small bulbs that lined the ceiling and walls of the domed space gave barely enough light for him to see that something wasn't right. All the plants in the raised beds along the sides of the paths leading toward the tree were suffering. Piles of brittle leaves crunched under his feet. "Gavyn? Are you there?" The rustling of small creatures hiding under the debris was his only answer.

The small gate through the short wall that encircled the tree hung open. Corvan passed through and knelt beside the spring bubbling out between the gnarled roots. He scooped a handful to his mouth. The ache in his chest eased and the desire for more lumien power faded. He drank his fill, then stood, scanning the perimeter of the room.

Other than the path he entered from, each of the other paths radiating out from the tree looked like no one had set foot on them for a long time. He circled to the other side and glanced over to the arched exit that he and Gavyn used to climb up to the priest's pantry.

The thought of food made his stomach rumble, and he was about to leave the tree room in search of both Gavyn and food when the glow of an approaching torch lit up the floor just inside the arch that led to the pantry.

He had never seen Gavyn carry a torch.

Someone else was coming down from the temple.