Hammer 20: Thief

Corvan opened his eyes, blinked, then blinked again to make sure they were actually open. Absolute dark was an unsettling sensation. It was like he was breathing the black into his head and then it was seeping out his eyes.

A faint glimmer appeared on the other side of the pool, then a growing light pushed the shadows away. Tsarek walked toward him with the barely lit stub of a fire stick hanging limply at his side. Giving the pool a wide berth, he shuffled up to the stone table.

“Did you find a way out?” Corvan asked.

“No, I did not.” The lizard hung the glowing end of the short firestick off the side of the flat stone. “I found only one thin, twisting tunnel and followed it for a long way. It was going lower, and I thought it might work but then it reached a narrow crack you cannot fit through.”

“So, it’s a dead end?”

“No.” Tsarek scowled at him. “There is a larger cavern after the narrow place, but as I just told you,youcan’t fit through.”

“But it’s the only way out of here?”

“Yes.”

“Then we have no choice but to try.”

Tsarek pulled himself wearily onto the rock. “You are the master, but I will need to rest first. If you could let me eat one of your cows, I would be grateful.”

Corvan pulled out a long piece of jerky and handed it to the lizard.“My fire stick must have burned out. It was pitch black in here before you came back.”

Tsarek talked past a chunk of meat. “Then you must have put it out before sleeping. It should have at least two segments of burning left.”

“I don’t recall doing that.” Corvan left the table to check where it had been stuck in the rock. “It’s not here. You must have come back for it.”

The lizard stopped chewing and shot him a withering glance. “And how could I do that and be far away down that very long tunnel at the same time?”

Corvan pointed to the ground. “Well, it’s not here.”

In a flash Tsarek was beside him and searching the ground. Dropping to all fours, he sniffed at the rocks, then scampered from side to side. He groaned as he stood up. “Not lost. It was stolen. The Kate has come through here while you slept. Her flower scent still lingers.”

Corvan’s head snapped up, and he searched around the cavern. “Kate was here? Why didn’t she wake me?”

The lizard’s short arms shot up over his head. “Wake you? Be glad she did not kill you! The Kate is under the control of the band. It is full of hate, but she must have sensed the hammer and dared not come close to . . .”

Tsarek bounded away to the far wall where he had carefully stored his possessions. “Nooo! The thief! She has stolen it from me!” The lizard stamped back to the rock table while hissing and muttering.

“What did she take? That silver thing?”

The lizard’s eyes blazed as it leapt onto the table. “Who said you could look at my things?” He pointed a claw into Corvan’s face. “Is that why you hid it in your pack? Because you wanted it for yourself?”

Corvan took a step back from the glistening claw. “No. I saw the edge of it when I took it out for you. Even inside the rags it was … warm.”

Tsarek sank down onto the rock. “Yes, it is warm and comforting. Often, I would hold it to ease the burden of the black band.” His body sagged lower, his head on his chest. “Without it, I would have been completely lost to the darkness. When I held it too close, the band would burn me, but mostly I did not care.”

“Maybe it will also help Kate?” Corvan asked. “Keep her from going directly back to the evil one?”

Tsarek sat up straighter. “We can only hope. He loves to collect things like that. He would take it away from her.” He slid off the flat rock. “I thought he would take it from me too.”

“Why would I do that?”

Tsarek shifted from one foot to the other without looking up. “Because it belongs to the hammer. It is the counterpart.”

Corvan sat bewildered. Tsarek said Kate was a counterpart and now the hammer also had a counterpart? “How do you know it belongs with the hammer?”

“I saw the markings on the bottom of the hammer when you were going to punish me with it.” Tsarek said, then looked away. “They are the same as the ones on the silver disc.”

“Are you sure?” Corvan asked, standing up and putting his hand on the top of the holster.

Tsarek stared at the ground and then nodded. “I know it belongs with the hammer because,” he drew in a long breath, “because it was in your past-father’s hand when he died.”

Corvan’s mind reeled, and he dropped back onto the block of stone. If his grandfather was coming back to the surface with the silver disc it had to be the third piece in his grandfather’s letter, the one Corvan was supposed to take along on this journey. Instead, Kate was taking it to the lizard’s evil master.

Tsarek put a paw on his leg. “I am sorry to bring up your past-father’s death,” Tsarek said softly. “I see it has hurt you greatly yet again.”

Corvan focused on the lizard’s eyes. “It’s more than just his dying. He was going to get me ready to come down here. I don’t understand why the hammer would be matched up with a flat metal disc.”

“All I know is that the hammer tells me what I am,” Tsarek said, “but the disk always gave me hope that I could be better. That I could be free to do what is right.”

“It still seems the hammer should be with another tool, like a saw, or maybe a large spike or nail.”

Tsarek shrugged, then went to the clothesline, touching things to see if they were dry and pulling them off.

Corvan slipped the hammer free of the holster. Maybe it wasn’t a tool after all. It was too small to be any good for building things; the handle was too short. It was more like a model you’d see on a shelf or on a desk and that’s where he had seen one like it in the past. At home, he had seen a small wooden hammer that was lying next to a round disk on an ornate table. Closing his eyes, he pulled the faint recollection forward.

“Of course! That’s it!”

“Sir?” Tsarek scurried back to the table with an armload of clothes.

“It’s not a hammer, Tsarek, it’s a gavel, and the disk is what it pounds on.”

“Gravel, sir?” Tsarek came closer to the table. “I thought that was your word for very small rocks?”

“Not gravel, gavel. It’s a ceremonial hammer that a judge hits on a wooden disk to stop an argument. I saw one at the town council meeting when they tried to take our field away. Old Man Fry was shouting at my dad, and the mayor banged his gavel on a disk to get everyone to be quiet.”

Balancing the hammer in his hand, Corvan thought back to the council meeting and the injustice his father had suffered. He had been angry to see how prejudiced people were against his father. It was good to seek the truth, but there also needed to be some kindness toward others. He nodded to himself and held the hammer higher. Maybe that’s why the hammer needed a counterpart. The disk could ensure the truth was balanced with compassion.

The hammer lit up and light flowed down his arm. Tsarek took a step back and pointed to the glow of the firestick. “If we are going to try the long passage we should leave while we still have light. If it is permissible, I would like to put a few things in your pack. I no longer have a way to carry them.”

Corvan nodded and Tsarek ran off to the far wall. One of the side pockets hung open. The wrapper full of cookies was gone. For a brief moment, he was angry at Kate for stealing them, but thought of her wandering alone in the darkness with nothing to eat. He wouldn’t even mention it to Tsarek—no use getting him more upset.

The lizard approached as if he were in a funerary procession, his tail dragged limply on the rocks, and his crystal was cradled against his chest. “She also took the small read knife. There is nothing else I will need, except this.”

Corvan wanted to say no, that the pack was too heavy, but the sadness in Tsarek’s eyes would not let him. Adding the crystal to his pack, he retrieved the krypin and his clothes. The fireworks lay on the ground where they had tumbled out of the cloak. By wrapping them in the special fabric, they had been kept completely dry. He was tucking them back into the pack, with the t-shirts when he realized that the wet sneakers, he had tossed on the ground were also missing. No doubt old sneakers Kate had taken from the scarecrow were too big for her feet, so she had stolen his. Now that he had the new slipper shoes, it didn’t really matter, and the pack would be lighter.

Tsarek pointed at the krypin rope. “I have seen where people use the flattened end to hold the loops of a coil but also to attach it to their waist belt in case it is needed quickly.”

“That’s a good idea.” Corvan played with the control end to open up the rounded head holding the coils together, then wrapped them around one of the pack straps and activated them again.With his hammer in its holster on one side, and the coiled rope on the other, a renewed sense of confidence settled over him. He was ready to find a way out of this place and look for Kate. Although he felt bad that Tsarek had lost his silver disc, knowing it might slow Kate down was a relief.

Tsarek nodded, picked up the short piece of glowing firestick and turned toward the pool. “If we don’t find a way out of this part of the labyrinth,” Tsarek said over his shoulder, “I fear this cave will be our tomb.”

Corvan followed, trying hard not to think of what would happen if Tsarek was right.