On Charax, Hilko and Silna found getting back through the fissure to the tunnel easier and faster as they followed the slope down. Soon they were back in the mineshaft leading to the three arched entrances. Silna followed Hilko, remaining uncharacteristically quiet. She listened to his excited chatter about what they had just accomplished.
"We've snatched the most precious artifact from under the noses of the Faters. Nothing could beat that," he stated proudly.
They reached the chamber with the shaft leading back to the house, where Regaar waited for them. Hilko went to the narrow tunnel and called out to the one-eyed man. Almost immediately, they heard the man's voice echo back to them.
"Did you get it?"
"Yes, we have it. We're coming back now." Hilko smiled at his friend. Silna shook her head, her expression still uncertain.
"Come on," he told her. "We're in too far now to worry about it. Let's get the hamar and go from there. It'll be enough for us to get off this rock."
He climbed into the shaft and began crawling. Silna quickly pulled in behind him, and the pair started their crawl on the last leg of their adventure.
The small room they crawled into was empty. Hilko looked around as he helped his friend pull herself through the narrow hole.
"Regaar?" the runner walked to the doorway, holding the candle. He immediately saw the extra people in the room. The one-eyed leader of the tunnel thieves stood by the door while holding an oil lantern.
"Show me what you have," the one-eyed man ordered him gruffly. Hesitating, Hilko pulled the disk from under his coat. Regaar grabbed it and pulled his lantern up to inspect the object.
Hilko noticed the many unknown symbols that filled the disk's cupped area in the pale-yellow light. Movement from behind Regaar caught his attention as a stranger came into the light. The man gave the smuggler a cursory glance, his thin face with a long nose not impressed at the young man. Hilko stared at the man's close-fitting velvet jacket with a lace collar and cuffs.
A Chara!
"That's it," the stranger stated confidently after a brief look at the disk.
"Good, then we're saved," came a voice in the background.
"Not yet; there's the recovery cost for this item." Regaar smiled at the fortune in his hands.
"Of course." The stranger nodded, and a servant, dressed in similar Fater's attire, placed a small chest on the floor and stepped away. Regaar signaled to Makra, who immediately fell to his knees to open the box. Inside, dozens of gold hamars glimmered in the light.
"We get our hamar, and we go," Silna crouched near Makra while staring at their fortune.
The one-eyed man laughed.
"My friends, you came through as I thought you would. However, there is one minor item I forgot to mention. This disk cannot just vanish. We need to have something for the Conclave of Chara. Isn't that correct, Justar?"
Regaar kneeled by the chest while the stranger nodded. The one-eyed man crouched down to pull a golden coin from the box. He waved Hilko closer to hand the young man a gold piece. Instinctively, Hilko took it.
"You see, Hilko, you might be the best runner I have, but you are still a Guryo. Unfortunately, our King Gaur must have someone to blame. You know the Amryno will need someone to hang in the gibbets. Who is better than someone like yourself? I believe you mentioned poor decisions from drinking tunnel brew. We certainly can't have that happen now."
Hilko's stomach nearly turned over. The fat man was selling him out.
"But I'll tell them you have it," Hilko backed up as his voice rose. "That won't kill me for something I don't have."
He looked over at Silna as she got to her feet. He decided the fear on her face must have matched his own. Hilko glanced around the room, looking for a place to escape, and noticed Regaar's thugs moving closer. Silna, who caught his glance, looked over at the open door into the next room.
"Oh, but I won't have it," Regaar replied smoothly. "Justar only needs a scapegoat. So, the Faters have their scapegoat. This disk will be long gone from the island but still controlled by the Chara. It's too bad; they'll make you suffer as you die in a public display. I told Justar you must have smuggled it off the island. Perhaps if you make that statement during your torture, you will not endure so much."
"That's really the best option," Justar agreed as he and Regaar smiled.
"Here, Justar. You can make this disappear now." Regaar started to hand the disk to the thin-faced man when Hilko suddenly grabbed it.
In a flash, the runner was in the next room, scrambling through the dark shaft. Silna saw the move coming, and she nearly yelled a warning to Regaar. Instead, she hurried behind Hilko as the small man crawled forward. The woman tried to follow; however, Makra got to her legs as she pulled herself inside the tunnel.
"No!" she yelled, kicking hard at the man.
Hilko stopped and began trying to back up, unable to see her in the pitch black.
"Grab my leg," he pleaded.
"No, get out of here," she screamed as more hands grabbed her legs.
Suddenly she was gone, pulled from the shaft, and Hilko caught a splash of yellow light surrounding him from a lantern behind him.
"Come on, boy. Bring it back. You can't get out of there." Regaar's voice growled.
Hilko crawled on his belly until the light disappeared, then stopped.
"Come and get it, you one-eyed pufta. I've had my fill of you."
Hilko heard the leader of the thieves ordering Makra to go after him. Hilko grimly smiled when he heard the thug enter the shaft, the yellow light coming past him in the narrow tunnel.
"Come on down, you ass kisser. You can get lost with me."
Feeling the desperation overwhelming him, Hilko gave a maniacal laugh before he pushed forward as fast as he could crawl. The smuggler had enough light from his pursuer's lantern to see the fork and take the right tunnel. Now, he could move faster on his hands and knees, quickly outrunning the light from his slower pursuer. He heard Regaar shouting down the shaft to his henchman to follow the left tunnel.
"Fine," the runner thought to himself. "I'll lose you in the next chamber."
Not long after, Hilko plunged headfirst into the room. Tumbling to his feet, he stood. Despite the pitch darkness, the young man recalled the basic layout of the chamber, and he got his bearings. He shuffled ahead toward the middle entrance, gagging at the growing stench. The light slowly crept into the room from Makra's lantern in the tunnel, allowing him to see enough to navigate around the collapsed mound of rock. Squatting down, he looked around the area inside the tunnel behind him, but there was no place to go but an open shaft. The rock pile barely hid him, forcing Hilko to grab a heavy piece of stone as he waited.
Curse Regaar, I'll make 'em kill me!
The yellow light grew stronger, and the runner watched Makra slowly pull himself out of the shaft. Crouching down as low as possible, Hilko kept himself in the shadows while watching the thug calling back to his boss. The young man only heard one side of the conversation, but he understood when Regaar's henchman took the same path toward the tunnel leading to the vault room. Holding his breath, Hilko watched the man with the lantern walk out of sight. Soon, the light faded, and the chamber went black.
Hilko waited in the dark, trying to think of what he could do next. Makra would eventually reach the vault room and return. No doubt, Regaar would wait until the thug returned and ordered him to try the other tunnels. He remained trapped unless he found another way out. The thought depressed him and his worry about Silna. He felt like a coward for not pushing her through the shaft first.
No, Silna would die in the tunnels with him. Regaar would never send someone after her. Instead, the one-eyed pufta would simply seal the entrance. He told himself that would probably happen if Makra came without him.
The runner pulled out the half of a candle he still had, along with his dagger, flint, and tender. Using his fingers, he struck the flint across the back edge of his blade in the pitch-black darkness. Then he paused. He had the unnerving sensation that someone was watching him. The hairs on his neck stood up, and he felt the goose quills prickle on his arms—a glance around the dark revealed nothing. Hilko went back to his work, and the sparks caught the tender; he quickly lit the candle and knocked out the small fire on the tender. As the man picked up his candle and turned, he saw a hideous white face right in front of him.
"Boo!"
