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___“That don’t seem overly safe…” Pooralay muttered.
___“Qarfax was heavy and tall.” Seifas sounded as if he was stifling a chuckle, while watching the couple descend into the pit. “I think the plank will hold them both.”
___Pooralay angled an eye at Seifas. “I didn’t mean th’ plank…”
___Jian and Portunista sank beneath the level of the wooden floor. Around them rattled machinery. Jian pulled one of the lever-cords, jolting the plank to a halt.
___“Well?” he loudly asked.
___“Well, what?”
___“Will you whistle up some lights? I didn’t bring a torch…”
___She expelled a sigh, and cursed herself. What in all nine hells had she been thinking? Her imagination promptly gave her answers to that question…but she firmly clamped her imagination.
___As a consequence, she clenched her jaw so tightly she could barely focus her intent or even whistle.
___It took several tries to get some wisps.
___“Any problems?” Blue suffusion softly lit his pale and curly hair, she noticed…
___“Focus, dammit!” Portunista growled.
___“Ooookay,” Jian recoiled, then shrugged and started examining their surroundings. Portunista did as well—being careful not to look in his direction.
___The lights showed millhouse wheels, set along the walls in frameworks. Streams poured down and over them, vanishing below. Although the cords had disengaged the gears, up in the headworks space, these wheels continued turning under force of falling water, working other shafts and gears nearby within the pit.
___“Seems a lot of effort for a water well!” Jian was speaking loud enough to hear, but not intrusively. Portunista wryly smirked at his consideration.
___And remembered not to look at him…
___All the distractions were giving her trouble in keeping the wisps in existence. So, she unbound them all but one.
___“Are you okay?” Seifas boomed from above.
___“Just fine!” she yelled. “And trying to think!” The men above could light the sconces she had seen upon the ‘basement’ wall.
___She guided her one remaining wisp over to a wheel—the southern one, she thought.
___“Neat!” she heard Jian say. “I had forgotten you could do that!”
___Ruefully she shook her head and smiled. Here she was, sitting on a full-grown man who still said “neat”! Well, maybe it fit; they were on a sort of swing…
___She put the wisplight through a series of acrobatics, darting it over, around and behind the machinery, dancing among the shadows, scampering through a millwheel’s massive spokes.
___She tried to pretend she was only exploring meticulously.
___But Jian was laughing.
___She could feel him laughing, in her, under the rumbling machinery. She was showing off, and enjoying showing off, not for her own sake…
___…but because she was making him happy.
___She had to look.
___She put the wisp through a complex series of curving loops, for keeping his attention…and turned and looked at him.
___Was he laughing as a ploy—the way she laughed sometimes?
___No. She could see his face.
___He truly was enjoying her, her skill and ingenuity, for those were her in action, her enaction.
___So she spent another minute, cleanly feeling and enjoying Jian enjoying her.
___The wisplight floated to a hover, her attention drawn away. And so he surprised her when he turned to see her watching him.
___They blinked together.
___“You should smile like that more often.” This she heard or felt him say. Was she smiling? Was her smile like his?
___A corner of her mind concluded that his eyes must be the wisplight color, for his irises shone white. His pupils, though, shone deeply black; blacker than the shadows farther than her light could reach. She wanted to reach into those shadows, and discover what was there. She wanted to curl up in those shadows, safe and warm beyond the world…where there was only healing and nothing that would ever hurt her…
___“Ahem…” She heard a cough, from in the shadows. She was there right now…Wasn’t she? Was she? She looked around, in her security, and saw the restful nothing, which meant there was nothing to be fearful of…
___“AHEM!” Now the cough was more insistent. “Portunista!”—that was her name. Someone was saying her name, who didn’t fear her, didn’t hate her, didn’t want to use her. Maybe he would say her name again…
___“It’s hard to learn without a light to see by, Portunista!”
___And with a physical shock, machinery noise asserted itself. She could hear, but couldn’t see; she could hear him, but she couldn’t see him. Why could she not see him?! She could hear and feel him; she could even taste his smell, the-smell-that-was-him and no one else. Why couldn’t she see him? She wanted to see him!
___“Why can’t I see you?!” Portunista shouted, her security evaporating. Something was wrong. Everything was right, but something still was wrong!
___“I think the wisp burned out. Can you make another?”
___Her attention fully returned, to her self.
___With a snarling sigh, she whistled up another light, nearby. Jian looked curious more than worried, although he did blink several times, his pupils having dilated in the darkness.
___“Was there a problem?” he asked. “Did something happen? Was something wrong?”
___Her anger at herself spilled over. “No, nothing happened! Everything was right—Nothing’s wrong! Just be quiet for a moment!!”
___He recoiled; and her heart was wrenched—because his smile was gone, and there was hurt within his face. She had put it there; for no good reason.
___But she was angry—she wanted to be angry at him—so she didn’t apologize. What could she say?—that she had plunged them both into darkness, because she had let her attention slip while searching in his eyes?! She might as well tell him that she was a scatterbrained fool!!
___“What are you waiting for?” she demanded. He had already shrugged her harsh words off—she thought she had seen him mutter “Oh, well…”—“We need to go farther down!”
___“As you wish!” he cheerfully answered; then he crinkled his face in concentration, as he considered the ratcheting cords—pulling one would raise the other on its notching lever. As he worked to operate it right, she watched his nose—not his eyes!—his nose was twitching at the tip; not a lot, just a little…
___The plank jerked into movement, and she bit a curse in two. Had she actually been thinking of nipping the tip of his nose?!
___She sent the wisplight off again, as straight as if on rails—No dancing! she determinedly told herself—and kept it steady during their descent. As they passed the bottom of the wheels, she ordered another halt.
___The wide stone well showed polishing down to this point—by jotting, she suspected—but below the wheels the sides were rougher. She whistled up another wisp successfully, and sent it farther down. By its light, she saw the well wasn’t only more natural here, but also narrowed from a width that was almost the same as the room above, into a throat a little wider than the plank. This rocky throat drank down the streams into a rushing water which seemed to be racing—she oriented with the Tower in her memory, south. A river underground.
___Something sparkled in the light, around the river’s throat. What was that—?
___“Say,” Jian interrupted her thoughts. “Isn’t that a ledge?”
___“What?” she answered absently, while trying to decipher what was being revealed beneath them—
___“A ledge of stone,” Jian clarified. “I think it’s solid all the way around the well down here.”
___She looked up to where he pointed—and she saw he was correct.
___She sent the upper wisp to slowly pass along the ledge. It seemed built sturdy enough…or maybe…
___Closing her eyes, she chuffed in syncopated tones, focusing her intention and attention. Flecks of elemental Yrthe coalesced beneath her eyelids as she concentrated. Binding her jott, she scruted the ledge, and also the walls around them.
___Ah; they had been jotted into their current shape!
___And…
___Her eyes popped open in surprise; ferociously she blinked to flush evaporating Yrthe.
___“That must be uncomfortable,” Jian said sympathetically.
___“It could be worse,” she wryly snorted, drying the tears from her cheeks. “It could be Phyre.” She ignored his wincing ___“Ouch!”, and looked around again with natural eyes.
___“We need to reach that ledge,” she told him.
___“I don’t believe that you can safely leap there,” Jian replied in doubt.
___“Look!” she exclaimed. He turned toward her. “No, not at me!” she waved. “I mean look over there!” He dutifully followed to where the wisplight trailed; a shaft was spinning one small wheel in barest contact with the wall, at the ledge’s level.
___The wall there glowed with sigils—very faint but deeply purple in the wisplight.
___Jian whistled in appreciative understanding, almost leaning from his seat to get a better view.
___“Hold still!” Portunista warned. “And look…” They locked their eyes together on the wisp, following as she traced around the ledge, revealing what her scrution had detected. The sigils encircled completely to a height above the ledge about two wrisths. On every cardinal compass point, a small wheel spun in contact with the tracing.
___“Wouldn’t they grind away the…um…sigils?”
___“I don’t know,” admitted Portunista. “It depends on how they were made, I guess.”
___“So why would anyone want to scrape them?”
___Portunista sighed. “I don’t know—which is why I’m wanting over there!”
___“Oh. I see. Well…” Jian considered the plank-lift they were sitting on.
___“I think…” the maga murmured, squinting in the soft blue light. “I think those contact-wheels have sigils on them, too. It’s hard to tell, they’re spinning so fast…”
___“I have an idea! We’ll swing back and forth, until we get you close enough to jump!”
___Portunista flatly turned her gaze to him; he was nodding his head, quite pleased with his idea.
___“Even if I did that,” she retorted, “how am I supposed to get back on?!”
___This shaved his satisfaction somewhat. “Ummm…I swing over again and you jump?” His suggestion faltered under her increasing glare. “Well,” he offered, “if you have another plan, I’m certainly willing to try. How did Qarfax get there, do you think?”
___“He probably tessered over, and then back again.”
___“Couldn’t he do that from above?” Jian looked up to where the subcommanders waited.
___“I don’t know. I guess so, but…then what was this plank-thing for?!” And Portunista sighed again in irritation. “Okay,” she relented, “fine! I can’t think of another way, so let’s try yours.”
___“Since the ledge goes all the way around, we’ll simply shoot for that part right in front of us…erm…I mean behind you and in front of me.”
___“I’m going to leap backwards?!”
___“You can’t leap over my head,” Jian shrugged, “and you might snap my neck if I leaned to let you jump. Just turn around on my lap. When we swing close, pretend that you’re a girl again. You’ve launched yourself from swings before—right?”
___Frankly, Portunista couldn’t remember. She was entirely certain, though, that this was a freakishly stupid idea!—but she did want to see those sigils up close.
___Studiously not looking at Jian, she folded her legs and rotated round, until she was facing the same way as he. “Whoop!” he wobbled, as their weight shifted, bobbing the plank, throwing her backward onto him. Her heart was pounding like a mule-driven rock-breaker, as they struggled to gain their balance…
___“Hold still, blind your eyes!” Sweat trickled into her collar.
___“Um, that reminds me, Commander…I can’t see through you, so I won’t be able to help you decide when to jump.”
___“Better and better,” she groused. A prudent corner of her mind provided some visions of her leaping back to a swinging Jian, from a damp stone ledge, over a pit, leading to an Eyeforsaken underground river…!—she pounded that thought away. One thing at a time.
___“Okay, here we go!” Jian said.
___They started pumping back and forth.
___The swing gyrated in the air.
___Portunista was about to lash out with a reprimand, but he soothingly answered her first: “Wait, we’ve got to do this together, Commander. You lead, and I’ll do my best to follow.” Fine. She’d lead. That suited her, she simmered.
___She tried to put aside the unsettling aspects of the situation, and pretend that she was a girl again. She bent her legs—Jian bent his beneath and with her—and then they smoothly straightened.
___Nothing much happened. But they didn’t wobble.
___She throttled her frustration, and continued the rhythmic motions, shifting her body’s gravity along her legs.
___Her impatience soon abated: now they were moving! Steadily she breathed in rhythm with their movements—she knew she must prepare her nerve to jump, but put aside that worry while she concentrated on the immediate task. Back—forth…back—forth…a little farther every time…
___The breeze across her face invited a vivid vision—light no longer bluish black but yellow-bright as summer day, her tresses long again and flying in the air’s caresses…
___“Doing well, Commander!” Jian sang out, distantly in her ear. Yes, but she must gauge the arc for maximum effect. Too low, and she would not be carried far enough. Too high, and forward motion would be transferred to momentum rising, and again she wouldn’t carry far enough. Green grass beneath her tree lay warm with falling sunlight speckling shadows through the leaves around her as she traced along the ground expected consummations, playing, working, with a serious joy…
___Except…
___Something still was wrong…
___Hitched breath, nearly breaking rhythm—she came to herself again. No, it wasn’t going to work. They were at the point where balance lay; more force would only push her higher in her leap, not farther—it should have been enough! Why not—?!
___“The hole!” she shouted.
___“Yeah, the rope is bouncing off the edge above us! I can feel it! You aren’t going to reach it, are you?” He truly had wanted this for her…but Portunista pushed away the warmth this thought evoked—especially in their present circumstance! She jerked again, against their rhythm, imagining what the men above might also be imagining…!
___“Lower down—I need more rope!” she gritted out between her teeth, her temper rising. By the fires below, if she must be in this ridiculous situation, she was going to make it work…!
___“I don’t know…” pondered Jian, loudly in the racket that disoriented as the sounds kept shifting through their swinging.
___“It’ll work!” she told him. “Just…pull that lever—”
___“No, wait…the cord is really what controls it, the lever just gives—”
___“I don’t care, just pull the lever!” Now the time to jump was near; she was becoming vastly nervous, and therefore much more resolute—
___“Portunista, wait! This isn’t going to work!” Now Jian was shouting, too; though still he seemed to hold back out of worry for her ears.
___He might as well have been throwing oil on fire.
___“Just pull the lever!!”
___“If we go much lower, you’ll need to swing much higher to get back to level with the ledge, and that’ll mess your—!”
___“We’ll be closer, too, so do what I say and PULL THE EYEBLINDED LEVER!!”
___Above them, their companions crouched around the hole, intently staring into pitchy deeps where bluish glowing only emphasized what they could not perceive. Long moments earlier, the rope had started heaving back and forth with escalating vigorousness; and now it was shaking as well as pitching.
___“I don’t even want to know what’s happening down there,” Gaekwar drawled.
___“Probably clawin’ large holes in his throat…” muttered Poo.
___“Can you see them?” Dagon asked with bored annoyance, as he leaned against the wall back near the open door.
___“I don’t dare to lower a torch down there, as long as the rope is swinging like this,” explained the dark man testily.
___“Well I can hear them over here!” the Krygian snorted. “What are they saying??”
___Portunista’s shriek, especially clear in its intensity, drifted to them through all the machinery noise.
___“Pull the lever,” Othon reported.
___Dagon sighed, shrugged…
___…and pulled the nearby lever.
___“Actually,” he corrected them with a grunt, “it pushes, instead of pulls…”
___The knotted end of the rope shot up from out of the lever-brace, toward its ceiling-hole, although the knot itself caught there, unable to farther rise.
___Jian and Portunista, struggling over control of the plank, felt the tensions all give way on the cords.
___“Oh, spew…” the maga whispered in horror.
___Then they plunged into the pit.
Thematically erotic. Also with quite a lot of foreshadowing (for this book and later).
PLEASE DISNEY DON’T SUE ME I HAVE NO MONEY!!!