“Because of the young lady. Presumably the one to your left, glaring at me like a true princess, arrow nocked.”

“What of her?”

“No idea. You’re not familiar with how the military works, are you? The way it works is that they don’t tell me such things unless I need to know. I’m to bring her in. It has been made clear that I am to do so with the utmost politeness and consideration for her feelings and her personal safety—which is why I’m standing out in the hot sun talking to you instead of simply marching up there behind a shield wall. Nothing was said to me about you, Fern, and so I will be more than happy to convey you, and the young Bufrects for that matter, back to civilization in a cool cabin with a lot of fresh drinking water. Or, you could all die here.”

“You keep mentioning water, as if it will wash away our resolve,” said Fern. “Since you have so much of it, do you go back to your camp and drink it or bathe in it or pour it over your head or whatever it is you do with such an abundance thereof, and leave us alone to consider matters.”

“Very well. We march up this hill at nightfall,” said Harrier. “If you make it difficult for us, you’ll be the first one into the crack.” He turned on his heel and walked away, followed by his two Beedles, who scuttled backward, shields high and eyes sharp.

Pick went through the sample case one drawer at a time, removing tools and instruments, or bits of strange rock, from some drawers and finding ways to secrete them on his person or on Querc’s. Other constituents he wistfully left in their assigned places. Then he closed it up and, with visible effort, turned his back on it. “Go ahead,” he said to Mard and Lyne, “I know you want to.”

The young men dutifully picked it up between them, carried it up to the brink, and one-two-threed it out into the blackness.

Then they took turns descending the rope into the fault. The slope became steeper the farther you went down. They went down to the point where it became a nearly vertical cliff. The waning light of the day, filtering down from above, was of little use at such depth. Pick had rocks that glowed in the dark, but their light seemed to penetrate little more than a hand’s breadth.