Gagging on the stone dust that hung in the stagnant air, Corvan spat a thick gob of gritty phlegm on the floor. Stepping away from the scattered pile of rubble, he leaned his pickax against the tunnel wall and rubbed his hand. His broken finger had healed up quickly, but it still ached whenever he was working hard.

Going to the store for his mother that afternoon had left him worn out and irritable. He couldn't handle bright sunlight since coming back from the Cor, and his headaches were becoming more intense. Retreating underground into the cellar or working at the coal mine was the only way to get the pain to ease. Now he understood why his dad was so depressed in the summer months when the mine was shut down, and why he loved puttering away on his metalwork in the shadows of his workshop.

The dust settled and Corvan inspected the wall of the channel he was chipping through the bedrock beneath their home. The smudged chalk marks revealed the bitter truth: in the past week he had gained only three precious inches. There had to be at least six feet of solid rock left to chip through, possibly more if his calculations with the string line were wrong.

Turning away, he dragged himself back to the cellar. Even if he could break through into Tsarek's dwelling under the castle rocks, could he find a way through the labyrinth without the real stone hammer? The medallion might possibly work or the silver book in the oak chest might help, but with no way to open the secret compartment, he couldn't find out for sure.

Corvan ran a hand through his gritty hair. Each day his desperation grew. He considered trying some of the explosives from the mine, but lately he had learned enough about dynamite to understand it was far easier to break out a wide seam of coal than to blast a narrow channel through solid granite.

He might have no choice but to at least give it a try.

Closing the section of shelves masking the hidden entrance to the secret tunnel he stepped back and admired the why the door fit seamlessly in with the other sections. His father made been careful to make sure no one would discover he was slowly but surely carving a tunnel out to the Castle Rock.

He had just reached the table when the cellar doors creaked. Corvan looked up to find Kate silhouetted against the moonlight. His irritation with her rose back to the surface. All of this was her fault. She should never have put the black bracelet on in the first place. None of this would have happened if she had shared her discovery instead of keeping it for herself.

Kate approached the table. "I wanted to say good-bye."

"Good-bye?" Corvan asked. In spite of his annoyance with her, he did not like the sound of those words. "Are you leaving?"

Kate hesitated. "You'll be at the mine all weekend, so I won't see you until next week when your mom gets back."

"Oh yeah, right. Okay, I'll see you then."

"Corvan, I . . . I'm sorry about earlier today. I came down because I wanted to ask you something.” She pointed overhead. “Can we turn a light on?"

"They don't work. I took the bulbs out."

"Do you have a candle?" she asked.

Corvan pick up his dad's small acetylene mining headlamp sitting next to the wooden box. Twisting the knob, he waited for water to drip onto to the lumps of calcium carbide. Pulling a match from the waterproof metal tube attached to the lamp, he scraped it along the top of the table and held it close. The gas sputtered, then caught, flickering and smoking in the center of the polished reflector.

"Isn't that your dad's raincoat?" Kate pointed into the box.

"Yes. The one he always wore to work."

"I thought so. When I touched it today, I had a memory of him carrying me out of the mine."

Corvan turned the light toward her and studied Kate's face.

"Do you remember anything else that happened before your accident?” he asked.

Kate shook her head. "All I remember is falling down at the castle rocks at night, I think that’s where I got this." Kate touched the scar on her cheek. "After that I was waking up in the hospital after your father found me in the mine. There's nothing in between."

Corvan nodded. He didn’t like to deceive Kate, but how could he tell her about a lizard named Tsarek or a black band drawing her into the underground world of the Cor? Until her memory returned, he couldn't tell her anything. Her doctor said she could have mental breakdown if her memories came back too fast and then they would have to send her to the special hospital up north.

Kate spoke softly over the hiss of the lamp. "Your father saved my life. I wish he were still here, so I could thank him."

Corvan nodded. As he set the lamp on the table, his hand bumped the controls and the flame increased.

"Someone said your dad died because I got lost in the mine, that it was my fault."

Corvan's anger flared with the rising flame. "Why would they say that?" he demanded.

Kate bit her lip. "Do you think I am to blame for his death?"

Corvan turned the flame down. "Forget about what people are saying. It doesn't matter anymore."

Kate's face creased into shadowed lines. "Your dad died, but at least you had a home with parents who loved you. The way you act now, it's like none of that counts for anything." She rubbed a finger over the scar in her palm. "Sometimes I want to hold on to my anger against my mom and how people treat me in this town, but I can't anymore. Something changed for me at the hospital, or maybe before my accident, I don’t know for sure."

Corvan swallowed the lump in his throat. Kate could never accept the story of how she was saved from the effects of the black band by the red seed from the mother plant. The only reason she believed him about the hammer at the outset was because she actually met Tsarek face-to-face.

As they stood in silence over the lamp and the box on the table, Corvan was struck again by how much her appearance had changed since she took the black band from Tsarek. The power of the red seed from the mother plant had done more than just heal her body, it had affected her looks as well. She was no longer the tom-boy with cropped red hair. Now her hair was longer and almost black. In fact, in the lamplight, with the scar on her cheek and the long dark hair, Kate and Tyreth looked a lot alike.

At the thought of Tyreth, a pang of guilt washed over him. Breaking Kate's gaze, he turned back to the workbench to tidy up his tools.

A dull silence fell between them before Kate spoke again. "I'm glad things are going well for you at the mine. Everyone in town says you work well underground, just like your dad."

Corvan continued hanging up tools. He didn’t care what people in town thought and he was sick and tired of people trying to make him feel better about his dad. Not one of them could ever understand what really happened, never mind believe the truth about the complex world that lay directly beneath their feet.

"I guess I'll see you next week?" Kate asked.

Corvan nodded, keeping his back to her. Maybe by then she would remember more, and they could finally talk.

Kate walked away, and he glanced over his shoulder to find her wiping tears from her eyes as she closed the cellar door. Kate was no longer ashamed to let people see her cry. Since their time in the Cor, she had become more sensitive to the feelings of others and was being a good companion to his mother during his mother’s grief.

Unfortunately, he could not have that same relationship with her.

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Slamming a wrench down on the workbench, Corvan went back to the table and twisted off the acetylene headlamp. This was all too confusing and there was nobody he could talk to. If Tsarek was around he would at least have someone that could help him figure out what to do next.

Shoving the lamp back into the box, a green glow spread along the wooden slats. Peeling back the oilskin raincoat, the light of Kate's medallion leapt out, projecting its three words onto the ceiling.

Jorad must have been upset when he got the one that didn't glow, but Corvan was glad. It served Jorad right to end up with a fake medallion. No doubt the new High Priest’s desire for the glowing medallion also involved his plans to use Tyreth to take over Kadir. If he could ever get to see her again, Corvan was going to warn Tyreth about getting involved with that deceitful man. She could do much better.

Picking up the medallion, he wrapped its slender chain wrapped around the points, then cupped it in his hand. Warmth flowed through his hand and the pain in his broken finger faded away. The healing sensation moved up his arm and into his chest, easing his anger and bitterness toward Jorad. He hadn't held the medallion since he caught Billy Fry spying on him up on the Castle Rock. Corvan had taken it there to see if the medallion could open the door when Billy appeared. For once the bully said nothing, only stared at Corvan and the silver medallion before running off through the field toward his home. As it turned out, the medallion couldn't open the door and Corvan had not returned to the Castle Rock since that evening.

As Corvan studied the glowing symbols on the medallion, the pain behind his eyes subsided and his thoughts ran clearer. If he were honest, he would have to admit that he would be glad to return to the Cor alone because he wanted to see Tyreth on his own. Ever since saving Tyreth's life at the temple karst and pressing his lips to hers, the beautiful daughter of the High Priest was almost constantly in his thoughts. He needed to find out if she liked him, and not only as the person who saved her from drowning.

Between his thoughts about Tyreth and his inability to relate to Kate it was all too confusing At the Molakar settlement, when Saray put the seed in Kate’s hand, he told Kate he loved her, and it seemed to turn things around for Kate. Earlier today he wanted to hug Kate and there were times when thought about kissing her.

He squeezed the medallion until the points dug into his skin, the frustration building with the pain in his hand. The medallion could provide comfort but seemed only to increase his confusion over Tyreth and Kate.

"Stupid thing," he muttered, tossing it away along the workbench. The metal disc ricocheted off the peg wall next to the screwdrivers and then bounced into the room, trailing its chain like a green comet racing away into the void. It flew straight into the dumbwaiter to lay flat on the floorboards. The silver chain began slipping through a crack between the boards, one link at a time, then faster, like a shimmering snake gliding away. Corvan lunged forward, but with a final tug, the weight of the chain tipped the medallion upright and tugged it down through the crack into the empty space at the bottom of the dumbwaiter shaft. The green glow died, and the cellar went dark.

Corvan turned away. He might as well leave the medallion where it fell until he was able to break through the rock into Tsarek's dwelling. Then he could come back for it and find out if its power could lead him through the labyrinth and back to the Cor.

The cellar doors creaked, and he glanced up. There was only a wedge of moonlight floating through the crack between the cellar doors. For a normal person, the pale light wasn't bright enough to see by, but Corvan's journey to the Cor had permanently changed his vision and the sliver of light lit up the room like a morning sunrise.

Retreating to the table, he crammed the raincoat into the box. His dad always wore it when he worked in a wet area of the mine but after the search for his father was called off, Corvan had found the raincoat still hanging on the hook at the back door. Immediately he knew what had happened. His mother had brought the cloak Corvan brought back from the Cor, the special camouflage cloak that once belonged to the leader of the Rakash, and hung it up in the back porch. When his father went to close up the mine, he had grabbed it by mistake and left his raincoat behind.

Running his hand over his father's raincoat he encountered a bulge in the front pocket. A while back, he had put his Texas Star holster in the coat for safekeeping. Pulling it from the pocket, he flipped the snap open, and looked in at the fake black hammer. Gavyn had done an incredibly good job of copying the stone one, but it couldn't open the door up in the Castle Rock nor the secret compartment in the oak chest.

As he removed the hammer from the holster, a small leather pouch tumbled onto the table. Picking it up, he realized that it was the same one with the two remaining red seeds he had given to Saray when he left the Cor. He rolled the fabric between his thumb and forefinger and discovered a small lump in the corner. Was there still a seed inside? He was sure Saray had kept the last two in Molakar.

Untying the drawstring he dumped it on the table. Yes, it was the last of the seeds from the mother plant. It appeared to be dead and did not glow like when he had found three of them in Tyreth's blood after the chief watcher cut her cheek.

But how did the pouch get under the fake hammer? He thought back to when he and Kate had left from the Molakar settlement. Saray had taken the pouch from him, along with the last two seeds that remained inside. The only time she might have put it under the hammer was when she put it back into the holster as she was saying good-bye to him.

At that time Saray said something about taking it along as his pledge that he would return. He thought the old woman was referring to the fake hammer but now he realized she had been asking him to return to the Cor. Saray had stuck that pouch and seed under the hammer to make sure he returned to her and to the Cor after Kate was safely home.

Corvan poked at the seed, and a flutter of light crossed its surface. A spark of life remained but he needed to attach it to the bedrock right away, somewhere that the sunlight could not reach.

Plucking the seed off the table he held it tightly in the palm of his hand to block out any natural light. There was no warmth or sense of power like when the other one had burned its heat into Kate’s body and driven the darkness away. It was likely too far gone to come back to life.

Walking to the wall, he worked the hidden catch to swing open the section of the that hid the entry to the passage out toward the Castle Rock. Once inside he pulled the shelving door shut opened his palm. In the complete darkness, soft flickers of light were twisting around inside the seed.

Pinching it between his thumb and forefinger, he touched the pointy end of the small lumien seed to the bedrock overhead. It quivered and pulled away from his fingers as if it were relieved to be back on the rock ceiling. The seed swelled and flecks of color twirled across its surface, changing from red to purple before settling into a soft blue that swelled and pulsed within.

A muted sound seemed to come from the small blue sphere, but Corvan couldn't recall a seed making noise as it grew. Another thump. The sound was coming from further down the tunnel. He walked down the passage by the light of the small seed to where it narrowed into the shaft, he had been chipping toward Tsarek's dwelling beneath the castle rock.

The source of the noise was obvious. A large chunk of granite had fallen from the wall to reveal a finger-wide crack. Perhaps he was closer than his measurements led him to believe. Sweeping the pickax up, Corvan took aim and swung. The thud echoed through the rock walls as the pickax wedged deep into the crack. Corvan pushed on the handle until the wood creaked, but the rock refused to break away. Yanking back on the handle he found the head was stuck fast in the crack. He struggled until beads of dusty sweat formed on his forehead, but it was no use.

Reluctantly, Corvan retreated to the light of the tiny lumien.

The orb had already grown brighter, and small tendrils, like an ant's antennae, were unfurling on the rock around it. He looked closer. If this mother pant seed could grow here it might create other lumiens and he'd be able to eat some lumien fruit. That might give him the strength he needed to get through to Tsarek’s dwelling when he got back from working at the mine. His ride would be coming any minute and he needed to get ready for a weekend underground.

Wearily, he pushed open the secret door into the cellar. A chair scraped across the floor in the kitchen above and something heavy dropped on the table. Kate must be making sure he knew she was still awake in case he wanted to come talk to her. The cover on the stove scraped open and Kate added wood to the fire. He should go upstairs, warm himself by the fire and apologize to Kate for getting so mad at her but the honk of a horn out front cut off his good intentions. His ride had arrived.

As he gathered up his gear, another gust of wind rattled the cellar doors. At the store today, Mrs. Barron mentioned a nasty storm would be coming through this weekend. After chatting briefly about the incoming weather, she also tried to talk with him about his father's accident. Most likely that was why his mother sent him in the first place and why there had been such pity in Mrs. Barron's voice as she told him not to work so hard. The whole town was working to help comfort him about his father's death, and that only annoyed him even more.

Not one of them could ever understand what he was going through or what had really happened down at the mine. The morning after his father went missing, Corvan had been taken to the mine with a search party to show them the way to the underground river where his father had rescued he and Kate. He was up ahead of the men when he had turned a sharp corner and a face appeared in the steady beam of his headlamp.

Across the fast-flowing water of the underground river was leader of the Rakash, a firestick in its good hand. Dangling from the stump of its other arm was the special cloak his father had been wearing when he went back to the mine.

The Rakash looked steadily at him then jerked its head over a boney shoulder to where a body lay on the ground. Nodding at Corvan, the Rakash pushed his firestick into the rocks over its head. As Corvan watched by the light of his mining lamp the Rakash backed up, pulling on the exposed end of the firestick.

There was a powerful thump, and large stones began to rain down from the ceiling into the river, obscuring the figure across the water. There were shouts behind Corvan as powerful arms pulled him to safety and rushed him from the mine.

Upon reaching they reached the surface, he waved them off and they left him alone on a pile of broken slag, staring at the crescent moon overhead.

They likely thought he was in shock from the reality that, with the collapse of the mine into the water, he could never find his father’s body.

That wasn't why his stomach was churning and his jaw clenched in anger.

It was because he knew for certain that the leader of the Rakash was challenging him to return to the Cor and rescue his father.