Hammer 21: Collarbone

Tsarek insisted they save the last piece of firestick. As soon as he put it out, a suffocating darkness pressed around Corvan. The low tunnel was much tighter than any place he had been in the mine. Pulling out the hammer, he found the insignia was giving off a feeble blue light—like a flashlight with the batteries almost depleted. It was enough to keep him from stubbing his toes on the occasional rock on the sandy floor, but Tsarek stayed well ahead of the pool of light, as if he were afraid it might bite his heels.

“Is it much farther? We’ve been walking for hours.” Corvan made no attempt to curb his growing frustration.

“Just a bit more. The roof is—”

“Ouch!” Corvan exclaimed as his head scraped the ceiling.

“It is even lower up ahead,” Tsarek said. “You will need to crawl.”

Corvan got down on all fours. “How much farther to the tight spot?”

“Not far.”

Corvan soon realized that not far meant something different to Tsarek than it did to him. Eventually, as the ceiling dropped lower, he had to jam the hammer under the strap of the pack and roll the cloak under his belt to free up his legs. He was about to ask Tsarek if they could take a break when the lizard twisted around in the narrow confines of the passage to face him. “Just ahead is the tight place I spoke of. It would be best if you take off your pack and push it along.”

Corvan pulled the hammer free, unbuckled the straps, then rolled on his side in order to remove the pack. He looked to Tsarek. “If I push the pack ahead in front of me. It might get stuck.”

“Perhaps if you tied it to your leg with the krypin, and pulled it along behind you?” Tsarek said, then quickly shook his head. “No, that won’t work,” he muttered. “If the pack gets stuck, I could not get past you to release it from your leg. Then we would both be trapped.”

Corvan shivered at the thought. His father had told a story about a caver named Floyd Collins. In a tight crawl, a rock fell behind him and trapped his legs. His rescuers could see him, but they couldn’t pull him free. They attempted to tunnel around him, but he lost too much body heat and died from hypothermia.

“I guess we should leave pack behind for now,” Corvan said. “I’ll leave the rope as well. If I can get through, you can bring me one end of the rope and I can pull the pack through from the other side. Is there enough space to turn around after the tight spot?”

“Yes, it comes out in a larger cavern that might be the outer limits of the Cor. The band of rock we call the Cor shield transmits light from deep inside the Cor. I saw a bit of that light inside the crack. Either we are still a long way out, or the Cor was in a dark phase.”

Corvan didn’t understand all that Tsarek was saying, but it sounded like there was at least some hope of getting out of the labyrinth.

Tsarek scrambled into the darkness, and Corvan followed with the soft glow from the hammer lighting the way. Soon the tunnel became so low that he had to wiggle snakelike along the floor, with one arm out front and one pushing from behind.

The sleeve of the cloak snagged on a rock. Corvan pulled on it, but found he was unable to move forward or back. Panic welled up at the realization that there were millions of tons of rock above him. The passage seemed to squeeze in tighter and everything in him clamored to thrash about to get free of the constricted space. The musky-smelling dust clogged his nose. He gasped and tried to pull in a deeper breath, but the intense pressure on his chest cut off his attempt. It was as if he were drowning again, but this time in solid rock.

Clutched in his forward hand, the hammer cast the light of its circular words on the wall by his face. The script seemed more natural projected onto the rock. He still couldn’t read them, but somehow the words gave some reassurance that things would be okay. The soft glow calmed his mind, and he concentrated on long slow breaths until his pulse returned to normal.

Tsarek had vanished into the darkness ahead and there was no point in calling him back to help. Instead, Corvan imagined his cloak and the jagged rock that had hooked it, then rotated his shoulder and twisted his arm until the trapped sleeve slid free. Keeping the light of the hammer out in front, he wiggled further up the tight crawl.

“Look this way, sir.” Tsarek’s muffled voice came from Corvan’s immediate left, where two gleaming eyes looked at him through a narrow crack in the wall. “This is the spot, sir. You must get through this hole to make it into the cavern I am now standing in.”

Corvan inspected the crack. The low passage he was crawling through ran horizontally, but the crack ran vertically. Where the two met, a small trapezoidal opening had formed, but Tsarek was correct, it was far too small. He lowered his forehead to the cold floor. “My shoulders won’t fit through there,” he said into the dust.

“You must try, sir! There is no other way. If you do not make it through, you will most certainly die in there.”

Most certainly die … his stomach clenched at the thought of wriggling backwards through the tunnel to die of starvation and cold in that last cave. Kate would also die if he didn’t find her. The memory of her face when she had passed through the last cavern had been haunting him. He was certain her eyes had been begging for his help, despite what Tsarek had said about her and the black band.

Summoning his courage, he breathed in and out a few times to steady himself and then bent at the waist and wiggled in closer to the small opening. “There’s more than one way to skin a cat,” he mumbled.

“It is not worth the effort, sir,” Tsarek said. “I have tried the creature they call cat. They are tough and not at all tasty.”

Corvan looked at the unblinking eyes. His mother had wondered what had become of her favorite tabby. “It’s just an expression,” Corvan said. “It means there are always other solutions if you look hard enough and take the time to think things through. I’m not going to die of hunger in the next ten minutes, so let’s examine the problem carefully. My shoulders can’t get any smaller, but maybe there’s a way to make the hole larger. How about the hammer?”

Tsarek frowned. “I do not think this hole is very stable, and on this side, there is a large overhang of rock above it. It looks like it could crack off and collapse at any time. It may not be the best skinning of a cat to try the hammer on the hole. I am sure this rock is the Cor Shield and it is very tough. The risk is great and—”

“All right, I get the picture. How about our last piece of fire stick? You said it could burn through rock.”

“Not this rock. As I said already, this is the Cor shield. A fire stick will not burn it, and if we try, the piece of stick might explode in your face.”

Corvan held the hammer closer to the vertical crack. The rock around it was shiny and black, like the piece of obsidian he had in his collection at home.

“So, this is the main wall that surrounds the Cor?”

“I believe it is. At least my side smells like the Cor.”

Corvan sniffed at the air wafting in through the hole. It was damp and smelled of rotting compost. “It doesn’t smell very good.”

The eyes blinked rapidly. “It smells like my home. This side is not part of the labyrinth.”

“Then I must make it through. If I twist diagonally in the opening, that might give me a bit more room, but I need to take the cloak off first. It could bunch up again and trap me.”

As he squirmed out of the cloak, Corvan realized just how cold the cave was. Pulling his legs up behind him, he dug his toes into the soft sand and rotated his body around until he was heading toward Tsarek. He pushed into the crack and stopped. “If this is a shield wall, will it close and squish me like the blue wall around your fire stick?”

“I don’t think so, sir. This one is black, so it is a very old crack. It’s the new ones that can close up on you. Those ones are a lighter color and have more light inside them. I touched it coming through and it seemed fine. No movement at all.”

Corvan gingerly touched the hard crystalline surface. Nothing changed. “All right, then. Here goes nothing.”

“Excuse me, sir? Where is the nothing and where will it be going?”

Ignoring Tsarek’s questions, Corvan extended both arms into the opening and pushed forward.

Tsarek backed away from the hammer’s glow. “You are doing it, sir. Keep coming—not far now.”

Corvan pushed until his feet began to slip and his toes lost their grip. Wriggling and squirming, his body crept forward into the crack.

“Your hands are through, sir. It’s working!”

The rock surface tore at Corvan’s shoulders, as if the Cor shield was doing its best to keep him out of the Cor. Panicked, he jerked erratically in the tiny space, banging his knees against the floor behind him. He gained a few precious inches and his face emerged from the other side of the crack with the hammer held out awkwardly in front of him.

“You are here, sir. I am so happy,” Tsarek exclaimed.

Tsarek’s face was level with his and by the hammer’s glow he could see lizard was standing on a narrow rock shelf. Below Tsarek, a scree slope of broken shards stretched away into the darkness.

“My head may be through, but my shoulders are too wide. If I can get one shoulder out, then my body will follow. I need you to pull on my arm.”

Corvan wiggled his left hand. The lizard held out both paws and intertwined his claws so Corvan could wrap his fingers around them.

“Okay, Tsarek, lean back and pull.”

The lizard pulled and Corvan’s shoulder moved an inch, then jammed tight. The folds of his shirt bunched and pinched at his flesh.

“I think my shirt is part of the problem. Can you climb up by my shoulder and pull some of the cloth through the opening?”

The lizard scrambled up the wall and got in close to the trapped shoulder. A sharp yank was followed by the sound of tearing cloth.

“So sorry, sir,” Tsarek said in his ear. “I have ruined your garment.”

Cool air flowed over his arm as Tsarek climbed down and reappeared with a piece of Corvan’s shirt sleeve draped over a claw.

“I think we must remove the skin from a different cat, sir.”

Corvan managed a wry smile. “We’ve got to free my shoulder. Take the hammer and try to carefully chip away at the rock lip that has it trapped. If this black rock is so old, maybe it can be opened up a bit.”

Tsarek shook his head so vigorously his scales rattled. “I cannot touch the hammer. It may kill me, and you will be stuck forever. I don’t want to try that.”

“Then wrap my shirtsleeve around the handle, like you did on the Castle Rock.”

Tsarek’s eyes brightened. “That may work. Just a moment.” Tsarek bent to the ground, then Corvan heard the soft hiss of a fire stick.

Brilliant light stabbed into his eyes. “Put out the light! Corvan cried out. “It’s too bright!” He clamped his eyes shut to push away the pain.

“So sorry, sir. Is that better?”

Corvan opened his gritty eyes. All he could see was milky white orbs. “Is it still on?”

“No, sir. The firestick is out.”

Corvan recalled this happening when his father was welding metal and his goggles had fallen off. His dad couldn’t see much for almost a week.

His cramped body tightened with fresh fear. He forced himself to calm down. His eyesight should eventually return. For now, he had to find a way out of the crack.

“Move your fire stick farther away from me on the other side, then light it again so you can see what to do. I will drop the hammer, and you try to chip away the rock by my shoulder.”

Tsarek scrambled out of the way as Corvan relaxed his fingers and let the hammer go. As it fell from his hand, a fresh wave of nausea coursed through him. Forcing himself to relax, Corvan focused on the white lights floating before his eyes. They had already faded slightly. That was a good sign.

The area in front of him seemed to brighten a bit and then Tsarek was back. “I am wrapping the handle now. There it is ready. Please hold still.”

A sharp crack was followed immediately by a deep gong and a rumbling whoosh past Corvan’s ears. The air was filled with chocking dust. He coughed, his chest squeezing painfully against the rocks.

“What was that?” Corvan asked.

The only reply was sliding rock and crashing boulders on the slope below.

“Tsarek?”

Distant thudding echoes were mixed with the clatter of small rocks peppering down from above. The acrid taste of fear mingled with the dry talc in his mouth.

“That was a close one, sir,” Tsarek said quietly in the dense air. “I barely touched the black rock and the whole wall shook. A piece of the large slab above your head came down and just missed you. The rest of the boulder hangs just above and may come down at any moment.”

A small rock clattered down, glancing with a sharp blow off Corvan’s head and bouncing down the slope. A low grinding followed.

“The rock is sliding. Pull your head back!” Tsarek pushed frantically on Corvan’s head, then stopped as the cavern fell silent.

“Sir,” the lizard’s tense voice whispered in his ear, “we must push you back or pull you out now. That huge rock balances just over your head and soon we will both be crushed. We must make your shoulders smaller.”

As soon as Tsarek said the words, Corvan recalled a diagram in one of his dad’s caving books. They showed that as a last-ditch effort to release a trapped person, the rescuers could break one of the trapped person’s collarbones and then push the shoulder in toward the body.

He shuddered.

The rock grumbled.

Tsarek tensed, digging his claw into Corvan’s forearm.

Pain would be better than death. “Tsarek, you must use the hammer again.”

“But if I touch the wall, the rock will surely come down on us.”

“Not the rock, Tsarek. This time you must hit me.”

Tsarek’s eyes widened. “Sir?”

It took a bit to convince the lizard of the necessity of the operation and the method by which it had to be accomplished. At first, Tsarek argued vehemently against striking Corvan, but slowly he began to understand. In the end, Tsarek refused to use the hammer and went to find a smooth rock.

Corvan was starting to have second thoughts by the time Tsarek came back. “I am ready, sir.”

“Make sure you hit me hard enough. I don’t want to do this more than once.”

The lizard’s claws caressed Corvan’s skin, making sure of the placement of the long, thin bone. Corvan closed his eyes and waited.

There was a long pause. Corvan was just about to ask Tsarek what he was doing when an intense jolt of pain ripped through his body. In a haze, he heard Tsarek talking in his ear, begging him to push with his legs. The lizard was tugging at his torn shirt and pushing in on his broken collarbone.

Corvan tried to yell at him to stop, that the pain was too great, and no words came out. He thrust with his feet and a ragged cry escaped his throat as his body slid free of the crack. He tumbled painfully down the rocky slope until he came to rest against a large boulder.

Tsarek was beside him. “Are you still alive?” he whispered.

Corvan groaned.

Tsarek put a paw over Corvan’s mouth. “I know you are in much pain, sir, but you must wait here quietly while I get your pack,” Tsarek whispered. “There are buraks in the outer reaches of the Cor, and they feed on anything or anyone they can find. They have the most excellent hearing and with all our noise they will certainly come to investigate.”