The men thrust free of the wharf and dug their paddles. The canoe leaped for the down-river cavern. Only dripping gloom met straining eyes. Only the liquid swishing of three paddles digging fast and deep came to the ears. And ever Toka's being strained ahead to that hell-hole where Roya was....
III
The canoe shot on like a fleet black ghost. Suddenly the river ended in a great whirlpool just ahead and the cavern spread away on the right, its extent shrouded in shifting haze rising from pools of many colors. Slowing the canoe into a cluster of stalagma, Toka tied it secure and stepped ashore. Slithering dangerously on the warm muck, he ran between boiling pools and swallowing slime holes, Rok and Old Ledo at his heels.
The mucky way led uphill and the haze began eddying into thin strands to reveal a glistening black wall ridged with colorful columns. Peering from behind one that towered away into the shifting haze, Toka considered the huge opening at the summit of this mucky slope.
Old Ledo wrinkled his nose eloquently. "The thing's in there!"
"Rok and I will get behind those columns to each side of that opening," Toka decided swiftly. "When I wave my arm Old Ledo will tap this column with his ax."
The haze eddied back. Toka and Rok separated on their swift ways. Rok was quickly into position. Edging out, Toka peered warily into the tunnel. Midway back and dimly revealed by the weird light reflected in from out here was one of the huge dragons, fanged head resting atop mighty coils and wings, lidless pink eyes watchful.
Raising his arm and dropping it, Toka poised. Old Ledo tapped the column and a deep chime-tone shimmered on the warm air. There was a scaly sliding within the tunnel and that huge fanged head thrust out. That greenly mottled yellow body began following in long undulations. That rattlered tail finally flipped clear and Toka shot across the muck. His mighty battle-ax bit home and tore on through—and that tail could buzz no warning. The dragon convulsed with beating wings only to have Rok's great ax whistle into the base of its skull. Old Ledo came loping up the mucky slope and in intense moments it was all over—the remains tossed into slime holes that gulped away all traces. Even the wildly churned muck of the slope was settling back into a tawny smoothness that told no tales.
Rok and Old Ledo at his heels, Toka raced the length of the tunnel. It opened onto a small red ledge overlooking a shifting haze shot through with varicolored light. Columns of brilliant shadings thrust massively from it only to vanish again into the yellow vapor. Pale green moss hangings swung lazily and the musky stench of reptiles was heavy on the steamy air.