Their weight of numbers was too great. After a short time we were engulfed and, for the second time in the space of a week, I received a blow on the head—and this second blow was not meant in kindness as the first had been!

My senses fled, blackness engulfed me, and I knew no more.

Chapter Nine

BURIED ALIVE!

I OPENED my eyes but saw nothing. I smelt much. My nostrils were assailed by a foul, damp, chilly smell that seemed to indicate I was somewhere below ground. I flexed my arms and legs. They were unbound, at least.

I tried to get up but bumped my head. I could only crouch on the damp, messy ground.

I was horrified. Had I been incarcerated in some tomb? Was I to die slowly of hunger, or have my senses leave me? With an effort I controlled myself. Then I heard a slight sound to my left.

Cautiously I felt about me and my hand touched something warm.

Someone groaned.  I had touched a limb. It stirred.

Then a voice murmured: "Who is there? Where am I?"

"Darnad?"

"Yes."

"It is Michael Kane. We seem to be in some sort of dungeon—with a very low ceiling indeed."

"What?" I heard Darnad move and sit up, perhaps reaching with his hands above him. "No!"

"Do you know the place?"

"I believe I have heard of it."

"What is it?"

"The old heating system."

"That sounds very innocuous. What's that?"

"Narlet is built on the ancient ruins of one of the Sheev cities. Hardly anything of it exists, save the foundations of one particular building. Those foundations now make up Chinod Sai's foundations for his palace. Apparently the slabs forming the floor of the palace lie over an ancient, sunken pool which could be filled with hot water and made to heat the ground floor of the palace—perhaps the whole of it—by means of pipes. From what I hear, the Sheev abandoned this particular city well before their decline, for they later discovered better methods of heating."

"And so we are buried under the floor of Chinod Sai's palace?"

"I've heard it gives him pleasure to imprison his enemies here—having them permanently at his feet, as it were."

I did not laugh, though I admired the fortitude of my friend in jesting at a time like this.

I put my hands up and felt the smooth, damp slabs over my head, pressing on them. They did not budge.

"If he can raise the slabs, why can't we?"

"There are only a few loose ones, I've heard—Belet Vor told me all this—and very heavy furniture is placed over those when prisoners have been incarcerated."

"So we have been buried alive," I said, suppressing a shudder of terror. I admit that I was horrified. I think any man—no matter how bravewould have been at the thought of such a fate.