Before Corvan could move, the shadow launched itself at his waist and knocked him to the ground.

"Oh, Kalian, I am so happy to see you."

"Tsarek?" Corvan exclaimed, sitting up.

The lizard pushed himself upright. "It is I, Sir. I am so sorry to have pushed you down, but I am very full with joy."

"But how did you get in here?"

The familiar pleased-with-himself grin crept over the lizard's face. "I made it back into the labyrinth using the long water tunnel. When I got to my dwelling, I could hear you knocking on the other side of the rocks, so I started cutting with my small fire sticks. Come, I will show you."

The lizard gestured toward the end of the room with a paw wrapped in a bloody cloth.

Corvan stood to his feet. "Did you burn your paw on a fire stick?"

Tsarek's face darkened. "No. She did it."

"Who?"

The lizard waved its bandaged paw overhead like a flag. "She tried to kill me and I lost my poison claw, but that left me with no defense against the bad men in the cellar, so was trapped here and then the Kate stole the . . ."

Corvan grabbed hold of Tsarek’s paw. "Kate was here? I thought she left."

"Yes, she did. The Kate left through the labyrinth."

"She what? Why would she . . . How did Kate open the door?"

"With the medallion," Tsarek said.

"Kate took my medallion? From the dumbwaiter?"

"Yes,” Tsarek stated emphatically. “She stole it and now she is taking it back to Him."

"Him? Do you mean the master of the black band?" Corvan’s face flushed. “Why would she do that? Are you sure?”

The lizard nodded vigorously. "She said so herself. I heard her."

An intense wave of anger engulfed Corvan and raged through his body. It was because of Kate that his father had been abducted by the Rakash. She was obviously still under the control of the black band. No wonder she had wanted to stay at his house and was always hanging around the cellar. This whole time she had been waiting around to steal the medallion and take it back to the Cor. It was her spying on him when he threw it into the dumbwaiter.

The rage intensified. Corvan screwed his eyes shut as is heart pumped the latent lumien power through his veins. If he could catch up to Kate, he would take his medallion back, rescue his father and leave her down in the Cor for good.

"Sir, you are hurting me,” Tsarek squeaked. “Please put me down."

Corvan opened his eyes. Tsarek hung in midair from his hands clamped around the lizard’s neck. Quickly directing the lumien power away from his arms, he unlocked his hands and dropped Tsarek to the ground.

"I am sorry, Kalian." Tsarek whispered. "I did not mean to fail you. I should have stopped her."

Corvan slumped to the floor beneath the blue light of the lumien and closed his eyes. His heart raced, and the power ran wildly through his arteries. Concentrating, he gathered the energy back into his heart, groaning as he squeezed the last shards of power into place. He had never been that angry in his life, not ever. The lumien seeds did far more than make him stronger; they exaggerated his emotions.

The hatred filled face of the Chief Watcher in the temple hall loomed in his thoughts as the rivulets of sweat ran off his face and soaked into his T-shirt.

Opening his eyes he found Tsarek studying him intently. The lizard's gaze wandered up to the severed lumien stem hanging overhead.

"Oh, Sir. You should not have done that. I warned you not to eat the seed. It is so dangerous for your kind. How many . . ."

Corvan held up two fingers and the lizard gasped. "You have the power of two seeds inside you?"

Corvan shook his head and pointed overhead to the hole melted in the rock.

Tsarek clucked his tongue against his teeth. "It is good you let the power out, but also very bad to have so much inside. If you let that much out at once, your heart may never recover, and you will die."

Corvan nodded. "That's why I ate a second one right away. I had to do it, but now I'm done. I don’t want any more."

As soon as the words left his lips, he knew it wasn't true. He wanted another lumien, and now. He stared up at the blue globe of the mother plant.

Tsarek leapt up beside him and put his cloth bound paw over Corvan's eyes. "Please turn your eyes away. Now that you have used its power you will always want more, but it will kill you in the end. Please, Sir, stop now before it is too late."

Corvan slapped Tsarek's bandaged paw away. "Leave me alone. I can handle this."

Tsarek pulled away, clutching his injured paw. He crouched on his haunches against the far wall.

"Don't just stare at me," Corvan snapped.

"I am leaving you alone," Tsarek said, his eyes brimming with what could only be tears.

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"Stop it.” Corvan said. “I hate it when you do exactly what I tell you."

Tsarek turned his head to look along the tunnel towards his dwelling.

Corvan tipped his head back against the wall. Gathering the raw energy back into his heart had exhausted him. "What did Kate actually say to you?"

"She said those very words, 'I must take it back to Him.'"

"And what did she do to your claw?"

"The Kate closed the labyrinth portal to snip it off when I reached in to take my medallion back,” Tsarek said in a wounded tone. “But not to worry. A new claw will grow back, although it will be ugly and long. I will end up looking more like the Chief . . ."

Corvan held up his hand for silence. He had originally believed that the Rakash leader had taken his father get the cloak back, but now it was clear the Rakash was trying to force Corvan use the medallion and return to the Cor. It was the medallion it wanted, not the cloak, but now Kate was taking the glowing medallion to the master of the black band, the one Tsarek called ‘Him’. Is that who the Rakash served?

Corvan pushed himself upright against the tunnel wall. "We've got to stop her before she reaches the Cor. If the master of the black bands gets the medallion, he will no longer need my father as ransom and . . ."

Tsarek jumped up. "We should leave immediately. Do you have the hammer?"

"No, I left it with Tyreth in Kadir.” He looked down at Tsarek. “If I had the hammer, I wouldn’t have been cutting this tunnel to get inside the Castle Rock."

Tsarek nodded. "But now we have no way to open the labyrinth doors. We cannot return to the Cor without the hammer or the medallion. What can we possibly do now?"

Corvan tried to think things through, but his thoughts were jumbled and disconnected. Letting a little lumien energy flow into his head he found the exhaustion dissipating. The problem at hand came into sharp focus along with a myriad of solutions. His accelerated thinking rapidly explored each possibility, tossing the dead ends aside. It was true that the pathway to Kadir went through the labyrinth, but he and Tsarek had bypassed a portion of the maze of tunnels in the past.

"Doesn't the first door open with the phases of the moon?" Corvan asked.

"Yes, it will open tonight but then we would be trapped in that first section and would wait another month, just to get back to my dwelling."

"There is another way out of the first cave,” Corvan said.

"Sir?"

"The small fire sticks you used to weld the metal artwork in your cave. Do you have any left?"

"Ten or more,” Tsarek said, “but they are very dry."

"Will they work for us to breath under the water?"

Tsarek hesitated, then nodded.

"Then we can go down through the pool of water in the first cavern, where the water creature with long arms pulled me in. You said that one was the smaller offspring of the large one at the temple karst. If the small one migrated up to that cavern through the water course, then we can use your fire sticks to breath under the water and follow the underground river all the way back to Kadir."

Tsarek shook his head. "I do not have enough fire sticks for both of us to make the long journey. It was difficult work to travel through the water to get back here and our breathing will use them up before we get back."

Corvan squinted at the lizard. “You’re not thinking this through logically. When you were moving up to the surface, you were fighting the current, but on the way down, it will sweep us along. We won't be breathing hard."

Tsarek shook his head. "But there will be rocks we might hit and tight places and many things to go wrong."

Corvan's jaw clenched as his irritation mounted. He took a deep breath to calm himself. "If Kate is taking the medallion back to the one you call ‘Him’, then my father is in greater danger."

Tsarek nodded. "It is important for you to reach your father quickly. I will go with you."

Corvan got to his feet and caught sight of a wooden box sitting by the hidden door into the cellar.

"Is that my stuff?" he asked.

Tsarek scurried over and tried to drag the box away from the wall. "I did not want to let the large boy have your things."

"Billy Fry was here?" Corvan asked, moving over to the crate.

"With the older one called 'Pa'. They were looking for a key to the rock to find a treasure, but he will think twice before coming back.” Tsarek held up his bandaged paw. “I scratched the Pa, but that was before the Kate cut off my claw. I cannot help you if he returns, as I must wait for it to grow back. I’m sure it will be fairly quick though."

Corvan was only half-listening as he knelt to empty out the crate. Billy and his father were looking for treasure because Billy had seen the medallion and assumed there must be more of them. He should leave a note to warn his mother to watch out for them before he left but what would he write? Bye Mom, I'm going underground to rescue my father from an evil master who has enslaved Kate, but watch out for Billy because he wants my secret medallion? There was nothing for it. He would have to trust that his mother was smarter than Billy's father, and likely stronger as well.

Pulling the holster out of the crate he flicked open the flap to reveal Gavyn's fake hammer. This one couldn’t open the labyrinth doors, but it looked enough like the real one to be of some use in the Cor.

Pulling his father's raincoat from the crate, he stuck the holster into one of the pockets. Later he would try to exchange the raincoat for one of the hooded cloaks the people of Kadir wore, but for now it would keep him warmer than his light work jacket. Corvan tossed his work jacket into the corner and heard something bump against the wall. Good thing dynamite didn't go off by dropping it. He pulled out one of the packets. Whatever happened down below, dynamite might prove to be useful. He slid the packet into one of the raincoat's inner pockets.

At the bottom of the box was faded pillowcase and the gray slippers he had worn on the last trip. The special slippers would keep his feet warm and also to make it easier to move around without being heard. Taking off his sneakers, he pulled the slippers on.

Opening the pillowcase, Corvan drew out the white scarf, held it to his face and inhaled the familiar sweet scent of Tyreth's perfume. With the bits of lumien power lingering in his head, the aroma was more potent, as if Tyreth were standing right beside him. The memory of her lips pressed to his at the temple karst made his heart skip a beat. At least there was one person he could trust in Kadir.

Reaching into the pillowcase, he pulled out the jewels Kate had been wearing at Saray’s home in the Molakar settlement. He had kept both items under his pillow on the cot for weeks and would often pull one or the other out at night. Initially he was planning to give the band of gems back to Kate when her memory returned, but now she'd stolen the medallion, she didn't deserve them. He'd bring the tiara and give it to Tyreth instead.

Shoving the jewels into his jeans pocket, he rolled up the scarf and pushed it deep into one of the coat's inner pockets and buttoned the flap over. He didn't want the water to wash away Tyreth's perfume.

"Do you want that as well?" Tsarek asked, pointing at the floor.

Corvan picked up his father's acetylene lamp. The lantern would come in handy as long as he had a supply of calcium carbide along. "I need some fuel from the cellar."

Picking up his work jacket, Corvan pushed through the hidden door and crossed over to the workbench. The flat tin of fuel for the lamp had been knocked from its alcove but the seal was still in intact. If water seeped into the can when they were underwater, it could explode in his pocket. Leaving his work jacket on the counter, he placed the tin into one of the inner pockets of the raincoat and strapped the acetylene lamp to his head.

Deep in an alcove cut into the wall at the back of the workbench was the rounded top of his Roy Roger's metal lunchbox. For the past few weeks, he had been stashing a few food items for the trip to Kadir safe from the mice. Pulling it out, he turned towards the hidden door.

"Let’s go, Tsarek. I need to see how many firesticks you have left."