The Wizard And The Dragon by Joseph Anderson Page B

pickaxes he had on his belt and handed me the bottle of
light. I clutched it awkwardly while still carrying the bags and food plate. He
struck the wall once and the sound of the impact rang down the tunnel behind
us. He struck twice more and then turned around to peer down the tunnel. I held
the light up and let a few moments pass in silence. He seemed satisfied and
went back to strike the wall.
    This
became our routine. Tower would chip away at the wall while I kept watch.
Occasionally he would tap my shoulder and I would hold open one of the sacks
for him to deposit a large chunk of stone. The bags filled slowly and sometimes
more than an hour would pass with nothing being dropped into the sacks.
    For
some reason I thought he would have been more precise and pried out individual
gems instead of large lumps of the wall. The work benches, piles of rocks, and
other tools I saw in the cellar suddenly made sense.
    I
don’t know how long it took to fill the first two bags. They were heavy and I
dragged them aside and Tower plopped himself down next to me. Sweat covered his
face and had soaked through places in his clothes. He picked up the food we had
brought and removed the spell from around it. We ate in a miserable silence.
    I
don’t think I even tasted the food. I don’t remember doing so. The sound of
chewing it made me uncomfortable and I was never quite sure if the noise in my
head was my teeth or something moving down the tunnel. Tower seemed to share my
reservations, at least in part, and kept watch the entire time.
    When
we were finished I stuffed the plate into one of the bags. The clanging of
metal against rock continued for several more hours until the remaining two
bags were full. Nothing attacked us or even seemed to notice us the entire time.
At any previous point in my life I may have been a little disappointed but as
we finally left the mine unscathed I only felt relief.
    In
the cellar, after the barriers had been put back into place, we washed
ourselves and drank from the well. The bags were emptied. The candles were
extinguished and we headed back up the stairs to be greeted by the twilight of
the day, when the coiled light around the inside of the tower began to give off
its most prominent shine.
    I
slept well that night, and every following night of that week since we spent
each day in the mines. My nightmares still came but I still relished the rest.
After a few more excavations I began to relax a little down in the dark. None
of the creatures seemed to care about what we were doing and I began to believe
what Tower said about usually being undisturbed.
    On
the final day, when Tower announced that we only needed one more trip to get us
through the upcoming winter, I was shown what happens when we weren’t left
alone.

Chapter
Five
     
     
    The mining session
started as smoothly as all of the others. I was keeping watch and holding up
our light while sitting on a portion of the wall that Tower had excavated. Over
the week he had extended the tunnel by only a step or two. He told me that
after today we would begin to grind down what we had collected and extract the
gems. I was looking forward to something new to do but more than that I was
relieved to not be returning to the mines.
    “How
much space is left in that bag?” he asked in a low whisper.
    We
had started to risk talking to one another after being left alone for so many
days. The sound created by the pickaxe making contact with the wall was louder
than our voices, but Tower explained that it may be heard as normal noise to
some of the creatures that lived down there. The sound of a voice would be more
foreign and draw attention. Still, Tower seemed confident enough to take a
chance after we had not been disturbed.
    “Enough
for one or two more pieces,” I replied, keeping my voice even lower than his.
    “Let’s
eat now then. I’m hungry today.”
    I
refused to let the bottle of light leave my hand and picked at my food with my
free one. I