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.It is not natural.The boy is right.The building is a trap.”Martin said, “This cave system has had two thousand years or more to wear away.With that fissure above us, rain comes through here every winter, as well as seepage from the lake above.It has worn away most of what was carved upon the walls.” He ran his hand over what seemed at first glance to be swirls in the stone.“But not all.” He indicated some design on the walls, rendered abstract by years of erosion.Baru said, “And so we dream ancient dreams of hopelessness.”Jimmy said, “There are some tunnels we haven’t explored yet.Let’s have a look.”Arutha looked at his companions.“Very well.You take the lead, Jimmy.Let’s backtrack to that cave with all the tunnels, then you pick a likely one and we’ll see where it leads.”In the third tunnel they found the stairway leading down.Following it, they came to a large hallway, ancient from the look of the sediment upon the floor.Regarding it, Baru said, “No foot has trod this hall in ages.”Tapping the surface of the floor with his boot, Martin agreed.“This is years of buildup.”Jimmy led them along, under giant vaulted arches from which hung dust-laden torch holders, long rusted to near-uselessness.At the far end of the hall they discovered a chamber.Roald inspected the giant iron hinges, now grotesquely twisted lumps of rust, barely recognizable, where once huge doors had hung.“Whatever wanted through the door that was here didn’t seem willing to wait.”Passing through the portal, Jimmy halted.“Look at this.”They faced what seemed a large hall, with faint echoes of ancient grandeur.Tapestries, now little more than shredded rags with no hint of color, hung along the walls.Their torches cast flickering shadows upon the walls, giving the impression that ancient memories were awakening after eons of sleep.What might have once been any number of recognizable things were now scattered piles of debris tossed about the hall.Splinters of wood, a twisted piece of iron, a single gold shard, all hinted at what might have once been, without revealing lost truths.The only intact object in the room was a stone throne atop a raised dais halfway along the right-hand wall.Martin approached and gently touched the centuries-old stone.“Once a Valheru sat here.This was his seat of power.” As if remembering a dream, all in the hall were visited with a sense of how alien this place was.Millennia gone, the power of the Dragon Lord was still a faint presence.There was no mistaking it now: here they stood in the heart of an ancient race’s legacy.This was a source of the moredhel dreams, one of the places of power along the Dark Path.Roald said, “There’s not much left.What caused this? Looters? The Dark Brotherhood?”Martin looked about, as if seeing ages of history in the dust upon the walls.“I don’t think so.From what I know of ancient lore, this may have endured from the time of the Chaos Wars.” He indicated the utter destruction.“They fought on the backs of dragons.They challenged the gods, or so legends say.Little that witnessed that struggle survived.We will probably never know the truth.”Jimmy had been scampering about the chamber, poking here and there.At last he returned and said, “Nothing growing here.”“Then where is the Silverthorn?” Arutha asked bitterly.“We have looked everywhere.”Everyone was silent for a long minute.Finally Jimmy said, “Not everywhere.We’ve looked around the lake, and”—he waved his hand around the hall—”under the lake.But we haven’t looked in the lake.”“In the lake?” said Martin.Jimmy said, “Calin and Galain said it grew very close to the edge of the water.” So, had anyone thought to ask the elves if there have been heavy rains this year?”Martin’s eyes widened.“The water level’s risen!”“Anyone want to go swimming?” asked Jimmy.Jimmy pulled his foot back.“It’s cold,” he whispered.Martin said to Baru.“City boy.He’s seven thousand feet up in the mountains and he’s surprised the lake’s cold.”Martin waded into the water, slowly, so as not to splash.Baru followed.Jimmy took a deep breath and followed, wincing every step as the water reached higher.When he stepped off a ledge, he plunged in up to his waist and opened his mouth in a silent gasp of pain.Upon the shore, Laurie winced in sympathy.Arutha and Roald kept watch for any sign of alarm on the bridge.All three crouched low, behind the gentle slope down to the water.The night was quiet, and most of the moredhel and human renegades slept on the far side of the bridge.They had decided to wait until the hours just before dawn.It was likely the guards would be half-asleep if they were humans, and even moredhel were likely to make the assumption that nothing would occur just before sunrise.Faint sounds of movement in the water were followed by a gasp as Jimmy ducked his head underwater for the first time and came right up again.Gulping air, he ducked back under.Like the others, he worked blind, feeling along.Suddenly his hand smarted as he stuck himself on something sharp among the moss-covered rocks.He came up with what seemed a noisy gasp, but nothing at the bridge indicated he was heard.Ducking under, he felt the slimy rocks.He located the thorny plant by sticking himself again, but he didn’t jump up.He took two more punctures getting a grip on the plant and pulling, but suddenly it came up.Breaking the surface, he whispered, “I’ve got something.”Grinning, he held up a plant that gleamed almost white in the light of the little moon.It looked like red berries stuck onto the branches of a rose branch with silver thorns.Jimmy turned it in appreciation.With a tiny “Ah” of triumph, he said, “I’ve got it.”Martin and Baru waded over and inspected the plant.“Is this enough?” asked the Hadati.Arutha said, “The elves never told us.Get some more if you can, but we wait only a few more minutes.” Gingerly he wrapped the plant in a cloth and stowed it in his pack.In ten minutes they had found three more plants.Arutha was convinced this was enough and signaled it was time to return to the cave.Jimmy, Martin, and Baru, dripping and chilled, hurried to the crevice and entered, with the others keeping watch.Inside the cave, Arutha looked a man reborn as he inspected the plants under the faint light of a small brand Roald held aloft.Jimmy couldn’t keep his teeth from chattering as he grinned at Martin.Arutha could not take his eyes from the plant
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