“Everyone all right?” Morgan whispered sotto voce.

Hearing murmurs of assent, he disengaged Kelson’s hand and stepped away from them. Kelson strained to see in the darkness, then raised an eyebrow in understanding as a faint glow began to emanate from behind Morgan’s body. He heard Cardiel gasp, but by then Morgan was turning to face them, a sphere of softly glowing verdant light cupped in the hollow of his left hand.

“Relax, Bishop,” Morgan murmured, making his way back to Cardiel with the light in his outstretched hand. “It’s only light, neither good nor evil. Here, touch it. It’s cool, perfectly harmless.”

Cardiel stood his ground as Morgan approached, watching Morgan’s face, not the light itself. When the young general at last halted before him, only then did the bishop lower his eyes to look at the light again. It was cool and green, a softly shimmering glow like that which had surrounded Arilan’s head the night he revealed himself as Deryni.

Very tentatively Cardiel put out his hand. There was nothing there to touch per se; only the cool illusion of a breath of breeze as his hand passed through where the light should be and then touched Morgan’s hand. At that touch, Cardiel let his eyes lift to meet Morgan’s and forced himself to smile.

“You must forgive me if I seem a little squeamish, but—”

Morgan smiled. “Believe me, I quite understand. Come. It isn’t far, now that we have light.”

Morgan was as good as his word. It was not far—except that the end of the tunnel came all too soon, in a pile of rock and rubble tumbled into a wide tidal pool that Morgan clearly had not expected. With a pass of his hand above the sphere of green light, Morgan made it hover in mid-air, then moved to the wall of rock and motioned Duncan and Kelson to join him.

The three laid their hands on the rocks and closed their eyes, minds probing outward and beyond to the clear corridor beyond. As they worked their way down the obstacle, finding no opening, Morgan opened his eyes and edged closer to the tidal pool, staring into the depths for some minutes, then began stripping off his cloak and gloves.

“What are you doing?” Cardiel asked, moving to Morgan’s side and also peering into the pool.

His question brought the other two as well, and they, too, watched as Morgan stripped off mail and leathers until he was left with only a sleeveless linen singlet and his belt dagger.

“I think there’s a passage underneath,” Morgan said, lowering himself into the water and easing himself over to the rock face blocking their way. “I’ll be back shortly.”

With that, he took a deep breath and ducked his head under water, up-ending and sending himself downward with a stroke of his arms and a powerful frog kick. The three watched as he disappeared into the murky depths, then waited as he did not surface.