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prevented him from stumbling. Even after his eyes did finally adjust and he could see well enough, the rapid pace she was setting prevented him from moving back ahead of her.
    The passage wound on for more than a mile, sloping down for short distances and then leveling out again. Though Martok was by no means helpless, the absence of magic was growing increasingly unsettling for him. It brought back too many bad memories. Memories that, if he could, he would banish forever.
    “Just how deep does this damn place go?” muttered Kat after a time. “And how do you know about this thing we're looking for anyway? This dwarf device, crystal, or whatever.”
    “The elves brought it here after I was killed. When Ethan bonded with them I was able to see small flashes of the knowledge they share. I knew then it was hidden in the Dragon Wastes, but not precisely where.”
    Kat opened her mouth to ask another question, then hesitated as a low rumble echoed from ahead. Both of them remained absolutely still while listening. The rumble continued for more than a minute before fading away.
    “It's probably nothing,” Martok said. “The deep places of the world often growl their displeasure.”
    “So long as it just growls, I’m fine.”
    After another half mile they came to some steps leading further down. At this point, the walls of the passage became peppered with tiny blue stones that glowed dimly. These looked similar to rajni stones, though with a slightly different hue. Kat paused to admire them for a few seconds, but seeing the urgency in Martok’s eyes, quickly started out again.
    The steps must have taken them more than a hundred feet further down before eventually leading into a fifty-foot square chamber. Here, the air instantly became much cooler and more humid. The low ceiling and walls with naught but the blue stones set within them gave no indication of the room’s purpose. The only thing of interest was at the far end where a narrow slit in the wall appeared just large enough to squeeze through.
    As they approached this they could hear the sound of rushing water. Martok peered through the opening and saw that the walls on the other side opened up into a massive cavern, the ground of which was covered in a thick moss. The glimmer of a fast moving stream split the cavern in two, its reflection sending tiny rays of blue light dancing on the crystal covered walls and ceiling.
    He sniffed the air. The dank smell of rotting vegetation and muck mixed with a sour, unidentifiable odor. “Wait here,” he instructed Kat, then quickly added: “Please. We cannot afford to risk both of us getting hurt.”
    Reluctantly, she nodded her agreement. “Stay where I can see you,” she told him.
    Martok smiled. “I will.”
    After wriggling through, he found the moss was even thicker than it appeared: his boots sinking down more than two inches as they stepped onto it. A few twisted bushes were growing on the left side, though he was not able to identify them. To the right were several low mounds of earth scattered about. The shallow stream entered the cavern through a narrow horizontal slit and then ran over a bed of similar blue crystals to those embedded in the walls. On the far side, the water vanished through a gap yet to be inspected. Were it not for the unpleasant odor, which by now was growing steadily stronger, he would have found this place to be quite pleasing.
    Martok glanced over his shoulder to see Kat watching him intently through the crevice. Kneeling by the stream, he dipped the tip of his finger into the clear water. It was ice cold. A sudden, almost inexplicable thirst prompted him into tentatively sucking his finger. There was nothing sweet about the water's taste as he imagined there might be, but there was nothing unpleasant attached to it either. Strangely though, his thirst had abated as quickly as it had arrived. A smile formed. A mere thimble full of this could last a traveler in the desert for weeks.
    He