Otis led them back to the Second Cavern.
There were a dozen caves in the cavern wall, like shops on a street. Most were a few steps up from the cavern floor, but the one Otis led them to was on a level with the floor and contained a long, polished stone bar. Behind it were two dwarf men washing white cups and talking.
Otis stood in front of the bar. The bar came up to his tummy. He reached into his pocket and put seven silver coins on the bar. One of the men stepped forward. He had a thick, black, beard.
"What can I get for you, sir?" he said in Latin.
Otis did not speak Latin, but he held up three fingers and said a word Sallina had never heard before.
"Cappuccino."
"Anything else?" the dwarf said.
Otis looked at Sallina.
"Do you want anything else?" Sallina said in Weilandic.
Otis looked at the pastries sitting beneath a glass cover on the bar. After a moment, he shook his head. "Just coffee."
Sallina said to the dwarf. "Nothing more."
The dwarf smiled at her through his beard. "I like your accent, Miss." He looked at Otis's silver coins. "Father," he said to the other man behind the bar, "What do you think about taking this silver coin?"
The other dwarf walked up to the bar. He had a short white beard and deep lines about his face. He touched the silver pieces with his thick fingers and moved them around on the counter-top. He said something to the man with the black beard and walked away, all without looking at the sapiens.
The man with the black beard said, "We'll take one of these for the coffee." He held up one finger to Otis.
Otis nodded. He pushed a silver piece towards the dwarf, slid the rest of the pieces off the bar into his hand, and put them in his pocket.
The man with the black beard looked at Sallina. "Tell your friend to go to the bank and buy some Cloghlogan Shillings. He'll get a better deal."
It took her a few moments to figure out what the man had said. She heard "bank" and "shilling" and guessed the rest. She nodded. "Okay."
The man pointed to the metal chairs and tables in the cavern. "Take a seat."
Otis turned and walked to a table a few paces from the bar. He sat down and stretched his legs. Baat looked around the cavern and sat with his back to the bar. Sallina sat between them. She took her piece of mink fur from her pocket and rubbed it between her fingers under the table.
The gurgling and hissing she had heard earlier started up behind the coffee bar.
"What is that?" she said.
"That's them making my cappuccino," Otis said.
Sallina watched the man with the black beard working at a machine with levers, cups, and spouts. Steam burst out from one place on the machine, and then another.
"Are all three of these cappuccino things for you?" Sallina said.
"No, Miss. One for each of us."
"Thank you, Otis."
Baat looked once at the cappuccino machine, but otherwise watched the cavern. He seemed relaxed in his chair, with his legs stretched out like Otis. But he had his hand upon his sword hilt. Sallina stroked her wrist with her piece of fur. Baat should not have used his sword. Now they were in trouble with the police. Even if they were defending themselves, they would have to explain to someone what had happened. They might even be arrested.
There were yellow birds in cages around the cavern. Ten or twenty dwarves sat at tables. Some were talking. Others were reading books. One was writing in a notebook with a long feather pen that waved in the air. The lights hanging from the roof were not bright compared to daylight, but they were bright compared to the light in the avenue. Here in the cavern, she could see other people's faces easily.
The man with the black beard put a tray upon the table. On the tray were three white cups on saucers. He put one cup in front of each of them, picked up the tray, and walked away.
"Thank you," Sallina said, but he did not answer.
In her cup was a drink with white milk-foam on top. The white foam was mixed with brown foam. The brown foam was in the shape of an apple. Sallina looked at Otis's drink. His brown foam was in the shape of a pick-axe. Baat's was in the shape of a spiral.
"Pretty ain't it?" Otis said. He picked up his cup and sipped his drink. He closed his eyes and put the cup down. "Ah, that's good, that is."
Sallina tasted hers. "It is good."
Baat tried his coffee and said he liked it too.
They sat in silence. Otis and Baat sipped their coffee and watched dwarves coming in and out of the cavern. Sallina looked down through the holes in the metal table at her piece of fur. She had to sell her pelts or she would not be able to go home. She had to pay back all the money she and Garibaldi had found in the chest in the Duke's forest. But right now, she had to deliver her letters to Margaret MacLockanlock. That was her most important problem. Dan was ill. He might die. Margaret must be told about Dan's wound as soon as possible.
She looked up at Otis. "That guy from my home town might walk in here with the police at any time. We might all be arrested for assault with a deadly weapon, and then we won't be able to deliver our letter."
Otis shook his head and smiled. "You worry too much, Miss. That little brat ain't going to do anything. He's all bark and no bite. And none of the dwarves are going to listen to him anyway."
Sallina looked up at the roof and frowned.
"It just fight," Baat said. "Why police make worry? Just fight."
There were crystals in the blue paint of the ceiling. When Sallina moved her head, the crystals sparkled. She stared at them for a while, wondering if Otis could be right.
He probably was right. He was old and wise. That was why she had asked him to come along. But she was not certain he was right, and she wanted to be certain that she delivered the letters. Lawrence could come walking in with the police at any time. It was possible. He said he was going to the police. Why wouldn't he? Baat had cut one of Lawrence's sailors with a sword. What if the police told Sallina and her companions to leave the dwarf city? She would have to go back to the Captain and say she had failed to deliver the letter. Someone else would have to deliver it instead. She would be ashamed. Perhaps the Captain would decide he did not want her to be a sailor on his ship after all.
She drank the last of her coffee and put the cup in its saucer. "I want to go back and check Margaret's apartment, or whatever it is, at number six Cinnabar Street."
Otis raised his eyebrows. He pointed to his coffee cup. "I'm not finished with my coffee."
"Well, finish it," Sallina said. "I think we should go now."
Otis rubbed his white beard with one hand. He stuck his chin out and showed his straight, yellow teeth. His teeth were yellow from smoking his pipe, even though he cleaned them three times a day with a tooth brush. "I don't know, Miss. You're the boss on this here mission, so I'll take your orders, but I don't have to like it. If you make me leave my coffee, what I paid premium silver for, I'm going to think twice about agreeing to come along with you again."
Sallina frowned.
"I think like Otis," Baat said.
Sallina looked at Baat. He was smiling. "I like this cappinochino," he said, and pointed to the cup. "I like very much."
Sallina sat back in her chair and folded her arms. Otis watched her and sipped his coffee.
Sallina sat up. "I'll go back there on my own." She put her piece of fur in her pocket. "You stay here and have your coffee." She put her hands upon the table. "I'll be back in a few minutes."
Otis shrugged. "Very well, Miss." He raised his coffee cup. "We'll be here."
Sallina stood up, pushed her chair back, and walked away across the cavern towards the sign that said Cloghlogan Avenue West.
She reached Number Six, Cinnabar Street. She rang the doorbell. She waited. Nobody answered. She stood in the street. She looked around. Perhaps someone would walk past and she could ask if they knew Margaret, and whether or not Margaret lived here. She crossed the street and leaned against the wall.
After a while, a dwarf woman came walking along the street towards Cloghlogan Avenue. She was whistling to herself. The whistling echoed along the street. Sallina liked the sound of it.
When the woman was walking past her, Sallina stood away from the wall and said, "Excuse me."
The woman smiled at Sallina and nodded, but she did not stop walking or whistling. She walked right past Sallina to the end of the street and stepped into Cloghlogan Avenue.
Sallina frowned. Had she said something rude? Was her Latin verb wrong? She waited a while longer. Nobody walked along the street. Where was everyone? Didn't they walk around during the day? Were they all sleeping? Otis and Baat might be worrying about her by now. She should go back to the cavern.
She walked to the door of Number Six. She took the two letters out of her pack and held them in her hand. Should she slide them under the door? She stared through the iron gate. No, she would not leave the letters here, not yet. She was not sure this was the right house. There was no name on the door, or any sign that this was Margaret MacLockanlock's house.
She put the letters in her pack and walked back to Cloghlogan Avenue.
She walked slowly to the Second Cavern. As she stepped into it, she saw a tall sapien man and two dwarves in plumed helmets standing next to Otis and Baat's coffee table. The tall sapien man was Lawrence. She stopped walking. Otis and Baat were still sitting there. Baat saw her but said nothing. She stepped towards a large potted plant.
Lawrence's voice rang out in the cavern. "There she is!"
Without looking back, Sallina went back to Cloghlogan Avenue West and started running. She ran to the entrance of Cinnabar Street, said, "Excuse me," to the dwarves working on the exposed copper pipes, jumped though a cloud of steam, and ran along the street.
She stopped at the door of Number Six and took off her pack. She opened the top of the pack and reached inside. Her hands were shaking. She took out the letters, dropped one on the floor, picked it up, and threw both of them through the iron gate so they landed upon the carpet where Margaret would see them.
Now what should she do? If Lawrence and the police ran after her, they would be here very soon. Maybe she should try to find Margaret herself. Maybe she should let the police catch up with her. She did not know what to do. She needed time to think.
She ran up the street, away from Cloghlogan Avenue, carrying her pack in one hand. The street bent to the left. The gates to the houses were on the outside of the bend. Two dwarf men were walking the other way. They stopped as she ran by and said, "Good morning."
"Good morning!" she said, and kept running.
The street kept bending to the left. It must be bending back to the avenue, she thought, like MacIntyre street had done. The gates to the dwarf homes were on her right. Between two gates there was a solid iron door. She stopped. She looked up and down the street. This door was not like the other doors. Where did it go?
She heard a voice echoing along the corridor. "Up here!" is said, in Latin. It was a dwarf's voice. The voice sounded like it was right behind her, but it could be coming from the entrance to the street. Noise traveled easily between the walls.
Sallina turned the handle of the door and pulled. The door opened. Behind it was a dark passage, just wide enough for a two-wheeled cart, and just higher than her head. Air rushed past her and into the passage.
She stepped into the tunnel and closed the door behind her. She reached out with her free hand and touched the wall. It was absolutely dark in the tunnel. She took two steps forward. What if she bumped into something? She put her pack on her back. Her hands were still shaking and she was breathing hard. It took her a few seconds to get her arms through the straps of the pack.
She touched the wall with one hand and felt in front with the other. She walked forwards. After twenty steps, she felt a cold metal door. She found a handle on the door, turned it, and pulled. Nothing happened. She pushed and the door opened.
The air on the other side smelled of garbage and many other things that she remembered from the dirtier streets of her home town and Prudence City. She heard a far-off roaring sound, something like the large fountain, but not a fountain. There was no light in the new passage, so she could not tell which way it went, or even if it was a passage or a room. But the roaring sound was in front of her, so she figured there must at least be a passage going that way.
Her heart pounded in her chest. All she needed was time to think. Perhaps she could stay here and think. She listened. She heard heavy boots in the street behind her, on the other side of the first metal door. If they opened that door, they would see her and she would be caught. She would not have time to think. Why did she need time to think? She could not remember, but she was sure that she did need time to think.
She stepped into the smelly passage and closed the second metal door behind her. She leaned against the door and listened. She tried to breath slowly. The smell of the air was not too bad, but she did not like it. After a while, she realized that there was light in the passage. The light was coming from both the left and the right. In front of her was the dark entrance of another passage. Perhaps if she went one way or the other, she would find another passage with doors leading back to Cloghlogan Avenue, or some other street. She might be able to go back to the Second Cavern, find Otis and Baat, and get out of the city before Lawrence and the police found her.
She started walking along the passage to the left. After a few steps, she saw an iron gate, just like the ones in the street. It was in the left wall and faced towards her. Light was shining under a curtain in the hall behind the gate. The curtain moved slowly. Air moved out through the gate.
What was this passage, she thought? It ran along behind the dwarf homes. It was some kind of back-alley.
She heard a voice behind the curtain. It was a dwarf woman. The dwarf woman was singing to herself and coming close to the curtain. There was a barrel outside the iron gate. Sallina thought she might hide behind it if the woman came out. When she brushed against the barrel, it rattled. The barrel was made of metal, with a metal lid.
A hand pulled the curtain aside. More light shone into the entrance hall. The dwarf woman was about to step into the hallway. Sallina did not want the dwarf woman to see her, but what could she do?
"Go on, Sabrina," the dwarf woman said. There was a little dark shape on the floor. It was a cat. "Go on out," the dwarf woman said to the cat. But the cat stared at Sallina and would not move.
Sallina held her breath and walked backwards as quietly as she could to the solid iron door she had come through. It was hard for her to walk quietly because she was wearing her boots, but she did her best. When she reached the door, she took four quick steps across the back-alley and entered the dark tunnel that led to the roaring sound. Once she was inside the tunnel, she let her breath out. The dwarf woman would not be able to see her in here.
Air was blowing out of the back-alley and into this dark tunnel. She could wait here and think for a while. She leaned against the cold stone wall and breathed slowly.
Why was she running away from the police? She thought for a while. She was running because she was not sure that Number Six Cinnabar street was the place Margaret MacLockanlock really lived. She wanted to make sure that Margaret received the letters. But it was too late to get them back now if they were in the wrong house. What more could she do?
A brighter light flickered in the back-alley. It was coming from the direction of the dwarf woman's house. Had the dwarf woman seen her? Of course she had. The passage might be dark for Sallina, but dwarves must be able to see better than sapiens in the dark, or else they would have brighter lights all over the place.
The light was coming closer. If the woman could see so well in the dark, why was she carrying a bright light?
Either way, Sallina did not want the dwarf woman to find her. She was not frightened of the dwarf woman, it was more that she would be embarrassed, being caught hiding in a tunnel behind the woman's house. How would she explain herself? Would she say, "Don't mind me, I'm just running from the police?" She wasn't even a dwarf.
Sallina looked down the dark tunnel in the direction of the roaring noise. She took a deep breath and started walking along with one hand in front and the other touching the right wall. The flickering light kept getting brighter behind her. After twenty steps, the tunnel ended. Another tunnel ran left and right. She stepped to the left and leaned against the wall of this new tunnel so that whoever was carrying the light would not see her.
The flickering light entered the tunnel behind her and shone into the new tunnel. The floor of the new tunnel was made of large stone slabs. From under the slabs, she heard the rushing of water. Up above, along the ceiling, were copper pipes.
The tread of heavy boots sounded in the tunnel she had just come down. The light waved up and down on the wall in front of her. She looked left along the new tunnel. That was the direction the roaring noise was coming from. She did not want to go towards the roaring noise, but if she went the other way, she would have to cross through the light, and whoever was following her would see her.
She did not want to be caught. There were not many dwarves walking around even in the streets of the city, so these smelly back passages with no lights must have hardly anyone walking along them. Once this woman, or whoever it was, went by, she should be able to stay hidden here as long as she wanted. What she really wanted right now was a little time hidden away somewhere to figure out what she should do.
She walked along the passage to the left. The light helped her go quickly at first, but the passage went around a bend and it was dark again. She held out her hands and went slowly. A steady breeze, carrying the smell of cooking, smoke, coffee, garbage, and toilets blew from behind her.
Sallina had never been afraid of the dark when she was young. Other people would be scared of ghost stories, and vampires, but Sallina did not believe in ghosts. She knew about tigers and wolves, but there were no tigers where she lived, and the wolves came only in winter, and they always made lots of noise so you knew they were about. No, she did not believe in ghosts or spirits.
She moved forward through the darkness. The roaring grew louder. Now it came from the other side of the tunnel. The breeze blew into a side tunnel from both directions. The wind was blowing towards the roaring noise.
Which way should she go? She could just wait here. Most likely, the dwarf woman would give up and go back to her home. If it was the dwarf woman. What if it was someone else? She waited. She was just beginning to relax when the flickering light appeared around the bend behind her. Now she could see ahead of her. The tunnel ran straight for fifty paces.
Oh no, she thought. She could not get to the next bend in time.
She crossed the tunnel and followed the breeze and the roaring noise through the side opening. After two steps, she bumped into a rock wall. Her head smacked against the stone.
"Agh!" she said. She saw little flashes of white light moving around. She sank to her knees. She felt sick and dizzy.
The flickering light in the tunnel behind her was getting brighter. She looked up. The new tunnel turned to the right. She had not expected it to turn so soon, and had bumped right into the corner. She stood up and followed the tunnel. It turned sharply once more. It went back and forth. After the third turn, she could see nothing, not even the flickering light behind her. The roaring was getting louder with every step. A wind blew upon her back and rushed around the passage corners. She turned one way and another. The feel of the wind on her back told her which way to go. She went where the wind blew.
She banged her nose against something. Whatever it was, it was hard and cold and it made a ringing noise when she bumped it. She sat on the floor. She felt her nose in the darkness. Her fingers were wet. She tasted them. They tasted of blood.
The flickering light shone in the tunnel behind her. Above the roaring noise and the sound of the rushing air, she heard a growl. Whatever was coming along the twisting passage was growling. What could it be?
She had never believed in spirits or ghosts. But now she remembered that she never believed in dwarves either. But they were real. Maybe ghosts were real too, and vampires, and here she was, deep under the ground in a dark tunnel with something following her.
She slid herself into a corner, curled up into a ball, and tried to make herself as small as possible. She had nowhere to run. Blood seeped from her nose and into her mouth. She clenched her teeth to stop herself from crying.
The flickering light came around the last corner. It shone in Sallina's face. She put her hands over her eyes and tried to look between her fingers.
"Well, now I've seen everything," a voice said. The light moved to the floor.
Sallina looked up. A dwarf man stood before her. He wore a metal helmet with a light on top. The light shone forwards in a beam, like Dan's light. She could not see his face because the light was shining from just above his forehead, but she saw that he had a long, gray beard. On his feet were big, black boots. He wore leather gloves. His jacket and trousers were made of leather also. He wore a thick belt, and from the belt hung metal tools of many sorts. Sallina recognized a hammer and a pair of pliers. On his back was a pack with pipes sticking out of it.
"You are a sapien aren't you, girl?" the man said.
Sallina nodded. She was shaking all over.
"You're hurt," the man said. He pushed his light up to the top of his helmet, so it shone straight up. "What are you doing here? You should not be wandering around the tunnels without a helmet, and a lamp." He looked at her feet. "At least you're wearing boots."
The dwarf was saying all this in Latin. Maybe she did not understand everything he said, but she understood some of it, and she was sure he was being kind to her. She took her piece of fur out of her pocket and wiped her face.
The dwarf kneeled down beside her. "Can you walk?"
Sallina nodded. "Well, come along. I can't help you here. Come to my office and I'll see what I can do."
He stood up and moved backwards. "Come on, girl, you're bleeding. I haven't got a single piece of cloth on me that's not dirty. You need a bandage."
Sallina stood up.
"Well, now," the dwarf said. He smiled up at her. "Aren't you tall!"
She took a few breaths and watched the man's face. His beard was bushy and gray. His smile was wide. His large eyes stared at her from beneath a forehead with deep lines running side to side. He was old, like the father of the man in the coffee shop. But he stood straight, and he must be strong, because his pack was large and full of metal things.
"Who are you?" Sallina said.
The man laughed. His voice was deep and loud. "Who am I? Lady, who are you? Tell me that, and I'll tell you who I am."
"I am Sallina from the good ship Reliant. I am here to find Margaret MacLockanlock, if she still lives in this city."
"Margaret MacLockanlock?" the old man said. He laughed.
"Yes," Sallina said. She put her hand to her forehead. There was a lump there and it hurt. Her nose was still bleeding, but she was catching the blood in her piece of mink fur. "A funny name for a watchmaker."
"It would be a funny name for anyone," the man said, "But it's MacLoghanlogh, not MacLockanlock."
When he said the "gh" sound, it came from the back of his throat, like in Cloghlogan.
He laughed. "Well, let's see about your injuries first. Come on."
He turned his back on her and walked away around the turns of the twisting passage. Sallina followed him, her mink fur under her nose, and one hand touching the walls. She could see well enough with his light, but she touched the walls to keep her balance. She felt dizzy.
The old man led her back to the straight tunnel, turned to the right, then left, went around a corner, and took another turn. After the fifth turn, Sallina gave up trying to remember them all. All the tunnels looked the same to her, and all of them smelled bad. When they had been walking for about a thousand paces, they came to an iron door. The old man opened it and they stepped into a large room filled with tables and shelves. Most of the tables were piled high with machines made of metal and glass. The shelves had cans of nails, screws, and other metal parts. Tools hung from racks on the wall. Under the tables were more strange machines. Some of them were obviously broken. The room smelled of grease, oil, and other things that Sallina had never smelled before. But it did not smell of garbage.
The old man took his light out of his helmet and put it in a holder that hung from the roof. He took his pack off his back, which he did while grunting and complaining, although Sallina could not understand what he was saying. He dropped the pack on a table.
"Close the door," he said.
She closed the door. There was another door on the other side of the room. Both doors had windows with metal bars.
"Sit there," he said, and pointed to a chair.
She sat down.
He went to a sink in the corner. The sink was made of white porcelain. He turned a tap and water rushed out into the sink, with a cloud of steam rising above it. Sallina looked around the room. She could not think clearly. She blinked. The light was too dim. Her eyes were getting so tired. She could hardly see.
"Here," the old man said. He held out a clean, white cloth. She took it from him. It was hot and wet. She held it over her face and breathed in the steam. He held a silvered-glass mirror in front of her. She looked at her reflection. She wiped the blood from around her nose and mouth, cleaned the dirt off her forehead and cheeks, and wiped her hands.
"Thank you," she said.
He took the cloth, put the mirror down and went back to the sink. He squeezed hot water from the cloth.
"I am the Chief Custodian of Cloghlogan City."
"Thank you Chief Custodian," Sallina said, "It is nice to meet you."
He hung the cloth up on a metal rail above the sink. "I do love your accent."
Sallina smiled. "You are the second person to say that today."
"I'm not surprised," he said. He pulled a stool out from under a table and sat upon it. "Now, young lady, what were you doing in my tunnels?"