Lin Carter - Down to a Sunless Sea by Lin Carter, Ken W. Kelly - Cover

exhaustion, they rested again, and fed on the last scraps, and fell asleep. All but Will Harbin. Although he was as weary as any of them, doubtless, his scientific curiosity had roused itself again. He was determined that the discovery would be his alone, and that he would be the first to find whatever it was had lain hidden here for ages, buried in the bowels of the ancient planet. Careful not to awaken his companions, Doc rose and stole limping down the stair and into the growing light.
    A time later, Brant roused himself with a grunt and noticed that the old scientist was missing.
    "Crazy fool, sneaking off alone, when none of us knows what danger we may find at the bottom!" he growled, cursing and waking up Agila and the women.
    They went down the stair, and, quite suddenly; they came to the bottom of k. The passage turned at a sharp angle and then opened into a doorway, on whose broad stoop Will Harbin was sitting, staring about with wonder in his face.
    The four stopped abruptly as if petrified in their tracks. Their eyes widened incredulously, jaws dropped open, and Zuarra clutched at Brant's arm, as they stared upon a secret locked away from the world for unknown ages. . . .
    Far above where they stood, Tuan also stood staring. He was staring at the metal door which shielded the secret stair from the knowledge of men.
    "The thief could only have gone this way, O Tuan, for there is no other path to follow. He and his accomplices, the hated f'yagha, will be crouching behind that door, besoiling themselves with fear!"
    "Mayhap," growled Tuan. He and his warriors had lingered for what must have been hours, cautiously watching for any sign of activity within the cave, before venturing therein, only to find it devoid of any living thing save for the lopers, hissing with terror, who had retreated from their fire to the farthest reaches of the cave.
    It was not that he was not brave, this Tuan, but the cave—dark and narrow—made a perfect trap, should any of the Hated Ones remain alive. And prudence—caution—was a quality which a chieftain learned to develop early on in his career or that career seldom lasted very long. And you do not go charging by ones and twos into the very teeth of the enemy, presenting a tempting target as you do so, silhouetted against the day.
    "Mayhap," he repeated thoughtfully. Tuan, once a princeling of the Dragon Moon nation, was a tall, lithe, broad-shouldered man, lean and tough and sinewy, with cold green eyes and a hard mouth.
    "There is some writing there, O Tuan!" muttered another, pointing. It was in the Old Speech, and none of them could read it. But they knew in their hearts that it was a warning of some kind.
    "What shall we do, my chief?" asked another, a one-eyed rogue called Asouk. "We have the sacred dish, safely returned to us. ..."
    "We shall see what lies beyond the door," growled Tuan. "Break it down, O Naruth," he said, speaking to the burliest of his outlaws. "Use the power guns if it be sealed or barred from behind."
    They broke through the door erelong and found the hidden stair. Muttering and signing themselves superstitiously, they peered down the winding stair into the ultimate blackness of the pit.
    "What now, O Kiridh?" demanded Tuan. "The dogs are not cowering and wetting themselves in terror, as you said."
    The man called Kiridh blinked stolidly in the face of this small rebuke.
    "That is for my chief to say," he muttered. Scratching his jaw with one thumbnail, Tuan considered. Then:
    "We descend the stair," he grunted.
    IV
    DOWN THERE
    16
    Many Marvels
    At first, the travelers looked down. From the edge of the stone stoop where Doc Harbin sat, the ground declined in a gentle slope. The slope was thickly carpeted with tightly curled and interwoven moss of an amazing color, or variety of shades, which ranged from peacock blue to metallic azure to deepest indigo.
    It was moist and beaded with dew, the moss that grew like a living carpet, and starred all over with