Aj IV

Hezekiah was last of the original caravan into the cave, and Aj’s warriors followed right behind him. They had left their posts after the caravan had passed. Stepping in he signed to Aj who then motioned for Hezekiah to give him a moment. Aj moved over to the wall of the cave were a small stream of water was poring into a catch basin in the cave. He plugged the hole and the water stopped. Hezekiah watched the gape in the wall slowly close as the water level in the catch basin lowered. The catch basin acted as one end of a fulcrum. When it held water the weight of the water dropped the basin. When the basin was empty there was not enough pressure to raise the bridge and open the split in the cliff face. By plugging the hole the tension on the fulcrum was gone and the step and the split in the cliff face disappeared from sight in the canyon.

The inside of the cave was dimly lighted by lanterns, so some of the maidens had pulled lanterns out of their packs where they had been stored away. This part of the cave opened into a wide natural chamber with a high ceiling that rose above the floor to about twenty feet. Hezekiah patted Aj on the shoulder and smiled from the relief. He felt safe behind the rock. Hezekiah hadn’t realized the stress he had felt the last five days crossing the plains.

The two men started following the caravan deeper into the cave. “I think we are all about worn out. How long will it take us to get to somewhere we can all sleep? Other than a couple of quick naps I haven’t slept for five days.”

Aj chuckled with a deep voice and replied, “Ten minutes up the trail and past the next hidden door there is a large chamber with water for the donkeys and a little bit of oats waiting for them. Off the main chamber there are a number of branches were everyone can get some rest. Things should quiet down outside tonight, and then I can lead everyone up to the higher tunnels. Did you find the book I wanted?”

Hezekiah nodded in the affirmative, “I found the book, but its owner wouldn’t let me buy it, however, they did let Merry and Galahad copy it.” Hezekiah put down his pack and pulled a leather bound book out of it and handed it to Aj. Aj opened the book to the table of contents, looked for a particular chapter and then quickly flipped through the book to that page. Meb read the title from underneath, “Traps From the Desert by Gor the Dwarf.”

Aj smiled down to Meb and then showed him one of the pages. It was covered at the top in an elegant print with a picture of a rock , and detailed drawings that outlined the size of the rock and how it needed to be carved so that a large dart would snap out of the rock when a trigger was tripped. Aj said, “I had heard about this little trick but couldn’t figure it out on my own. How long until your pursuers reach the flat below?”

Hezekiah looked at Meb and after Meb held up two fingers answered, “Two hours at the soonest, might be two and a half.”

Aj motioned after the caravan and said, “Let’s get everyone settled so we can watch the fun.” Aj motioned for some of his men to go down a side tunnel that moved east and down inside the mountain so that the tunnel was following the canyon that they had traveled in.

As Aj said, after about ten minutes everyone was in a large chamber with a corral on one side for all of the donkeys. The donkeys were being put away, and Aj and Merry were directing the Dwarves and organizing things. Considering how tired everyone was, in a surprisingly short time all of the donkeys were brushed and given feed and the dwarves were all sorted out to sleep in what could only be considered different dormitories for the men and women.