We fell for what seemed an age. As I tumbled through the damp air I closed my eyes and saw the far green country under a swift sunrise that Glorfindel had once spoken of. It seemed like a distant memory to me now, like all the others.
But then I felt a soft hand on mine. Finduilas was gazing at me with tears welling in her eyes. But even though we both knew that this was the end there was a peace behind those tears. Even as I felt my spirit struggling to escape its fate I saw acceptance there. I had a vague awareness of our torches falling with us and of the blurred shadow of Lofar pushing falling masonry towards the walls.
Then there was cold darkness.
It seemed that my body knew it was under water long before my mind. It was only when my lungs seemed about to burst that I stared about me, trying to find which way was up.
I frantically kicked my legs towards what I thought was the surface. When at last I sucked in cool, sweet air there was the soft green glow of the moss all around me.
I heard Lofar spluttering as he struggled to keep his head above the water but then Finduilas made reassuring sounds as she swam towards him. My first thought, to my shame, was of the map. It was only then that I realised that there were only three of us.
"Where is Aglahad?" I looked around frantically, treading water. "Aglahad," I called. But there was no reply. Lofar seemed to have calmed down and as my eyes adjusted I saw that Finduilas was helping him swim towards a dark hole in the shaft wall.
I called the boy's name again as I rummaged inside my tunic for the lamp shard. Still there was no reply and I started to swim after the others. But then behind me, there was a great splash and then a gasping sound.
"Aglahad?" I turned back and held out the shard. The boy's dark shape sat bobbing in the water before me. I couldn't help laughing with joy.
He smiled through his matted hair. "A fine day for a swim," he spluttered.
"Come," I laughed. "We seem to have found a short cut." We followed the sounds of the others and I held the shard aloft as they clambered over broken masonry at the water's edge.
"As it happens," rumbled Lofar as we stood dripping into the shallow water, "I was long due a bath."
"Dwarven engineering indeed," Aglahad ribbed.
"It is as though we have fallen down a giant's well."
"It's an overflow shaft," the Dwarf corrected. "For the lake above. The outflow must've silted up."
"And it overflowed into this hall?" Finduilas said, looking at the opening in the wall.
"Another cave-in?" I offered.
Lofar examined the broken masonry around the opening. "Something put a hole in this wall. And I doubt it was an earth tremor."
We stood at the opening and passed the miruvor around as we undertook a weapons check. The soft but constant white noise of falling water filled the silence.
"I lost another throwing knife," Finduilas sighed.
Aglahad took out his lamp-shard and we ventured into the dark. He held it aloft and took the lead but he almost flopped into the water as he lost his footing.
"Take care," he said as he regained his composure. "There are steps here."
"Aglahad," I said and held out my staff.
"Are you sure?"
"As long as you do not lose it."
We felt our way down the short stair, slippery with mud, until I was waist high in the water.
"I thought I would never say it but I would dearly like a boat," Lofar said. The water was up to his chest.
"Or perhaps a pair of stilts," Aglahad returned.
"So, this is the Under-deep," Finduilas said. "The Hall of the Dead."
"It would seem so," I said, looking at the map. "Although, I do not see any egress."
"I made this marking in the Great Hall," Lofar pointed out, peering over the edge of the map. "Perhaps it's a stair. Aye, a stair. Here, look. It seems to lead up to the Sixth Deep. Then these ramps lead to the Deeps above."
I started to fold the map. "But if the scale of this is correct we will be wading through this for half a league."
Aglahad held out his crystal and moved away. "Then let us not waste any time."
We trudged through the black, icy water and soon we were surrounded by the dim shapes of tombs. They were all alike and set out on a grid, seemingly in all directions. From the map and Lofar's north-shard, we judged that we had to simply head west. The Hall was laid out with that orientation so it was simply a matter of not deviating from the aisle we were on.
Aglahad paused and turned back to the rest of us. "How do we know where the stair will be?" It was a fair question.
The Dwarf's voice warbled and stammered as he started to shiver. "Can I suggest we have this discussion on the move? I can no longer feel my toes." We started to wade down the aisle. "As for your question, laddie, I will never know how the ancients thought but if I were to design this place, I would put the stair in the middle. We Dwarves love symmetry."
"If that is the case, might there be two stairs at either side of the Hall?"
We all stared at the map.
"I will not suggest that we split up," I sighed.
"A good decision," Finduilas said. "We should stay together."
I nodded. "Then let us assume that Lofar is correct in his assumption. By my reckoning, we are at the north-eastern corner of the hall. If we head south, we might come to a central avenue."
With that, we turned left. By now, my feet too were numb while my thighs burned from the cold. We were all shivering and Lofar's teeth were chattering. For some reason, I had assumed that the Hall of the Dead was long and narrow. It seemed to me, therefore, to take forever to reach the main avenue. It appeared as a pale smudge of a line in the darkness and as we drew near, we were overjoyed to find that it was raised above the surrounding tombs, perhaps two feet above the water. We pushed Lofar onto the avenue before helping each other out of the water.
Lofar lay on his back with his knees in the air. "I would give my right arm for a bundle of dry firewood."
Aglahad handed my staff back to me and knelt down next to him. "If your right arm were made of firewood I would cut it off myself."
"Come," Finduilas said. "The best way to keep warm is to keep moving."
The others grumbled while they got back to their feet.
"Onward," Aglahad sighed, leaning on the Dwarf's shoulder.
We walked along the avenue; I for one revelled in the small comfort of walking on dry, level stone.
"We are getting closer to the waterfall," Finduilas said. The sound of falling water was becoming so loud that we had to raise our voices to be heard.
There was no indication of the source of the sound but in the pale light of the crystal, a black slab appeared before us. The avenue split around the huge tomb that stood like a small house in the middle of this black lake. We stepped towards the nearest face and the soft shadows of Dwarf runes became darker and more defined as Aglahad held up his crystal.
"Can you read it, Lofar?"
The Dwarf cleared his throat. "It says: Here lies Magunzigil," and now his voice trembled, "Father of the Broadbeams and First Lord of Belegost."
We were all silent for a moment.
"Am I to understand that this is one of the seven Fathers of the Dwarves?" I was dumbfounded.
In answer, Lofar dropped to his knees before the tomb. He removed his gloves and placed them neatly next to his knee. We bowed our heads as he placed his hands then his forehead on the stone plinth. He muttered under his breath for a while then straightened up. When Aglahad helped him to his feet there was a tear in the Dwarf's eye.
"If I never see daylight again, I will die happy."
We walked around the tomb, marvelling at its sheer grandeur. Our pale reflections appeared like ghosts on its polished surface. From its size it was clear that not only the Lord was interred here. The tomb must have been packed with riches. Lofar stepped reverently along the pedestal, his head bowed. When we reached the other end I turned and held up my lamp shard.
The footstone of the tomb was decorated with a ceremonial shield, set into the marble. It was of Elven design and had been forged and shaped from mithril into a garland of slender branches and leaves. In the middle of this was an even more intricate work in the likeness of a bird's nest. And in the middle of this was something that, in the pale blue light of the crystal, looked like a starling's egg.
"Can it be true?" Lofar muttered.
"Nimphelos," I whispered, "the Pearl of Belegost." I stood for a long while before realising my mouth was open. "We thought it was lost."
"I know of this," Aglahad said in wonder. "It was given to the ancient Dwarves as reward for building Menegroth."
I drew closer to the Pearl. "A reward among many, Aglahad. But the Lord of Belegost, it is said, prized her over a mountain of wealth." I turned to the Dwarf. The light from the crystal, reflected on the shield, gave his face a green glow. "Lofar, we must take this."
His head snapped around and he glared at me.
"It is of great historic significance," I said.
He shook his head.
"It belongs with your people," I said.
He bowed his head. "I will say nothing on this matter except this. If we had found Nimphelos anywhere else in Belegost, I would have snapped her up in an instant. But the Pearl belongs with her Lord."
I stared at him, trying to find a reason to argue. Finally, I nodded slowly. "Very well. She will stay where we found her. But if you will allow it, I would like to touch her before we take our leave."
Lofar stood back as I knelt at the feet of Lord Magunzigil and ran my fingers across the Great Pearl. I handed my lamp-shard to Lofar as I explained that I needed to make a quick sketch. The others stood, silently, patiently, while I hurriedly set down a sketch of the nest and its precious egg. Never before had I seen its like and never will again.
It was when we were walking sombrely away from the tomb that the flying things attacked us. There was a terrible roar all around us and the air filled with what looked like huge black moths, swooping and screeching at us. Finduilas and Aglahad drew their swords as one of the things swooped overhead. It had two pairs of pale sightless eyes at either side of a head that looked like the beak of a crow, which it slashed side to side as it tumbled past. Its back had pale swellings from which grew long hairlike bristles.
The cool, dank air of the Hall seemed to be flushed out by the warm stench of the things. It reminded me of a cheese I'd once tried in Kenech-hu. Put I realised it was more like the stink of decay, of pus.
We sprinted along the avenue, following the constant roar of the water and soon came to a black, foaming column. It seemed to be falling from the middle of the ceiling, perhaps from the lake above. The moth-bats were now over our heads and at our heels. I swung my staff wildly above my head and managed to strike one or two of the things. The others had more luck. They walked backwards, hacking at the bats, slicing wings off, hewing others in two.
"Aglahad! Lofar!" I called out above the din. He glanced at me as he continued slashing at the swarming atrocities. "The crystals. Hold them aloft."
Without delay, the boy lowered Bregedúr and thrust his other fist into the air as Lofar padded his tunic for the other shard. Immediately the moth-things recoiled, screeching and whining, trying to find the soothing darkness.
We ran onwards, past the waterfall, Aglahad leading and Lofar taking up the rear. The avenue seemed to rise up towards the low vaulted ceiling. Some of the braver moth-bats harassed us relentlessly as we ran but most stayed well clear of the pale light.
And then the water was gone. The avenue levelled out onto a wide floor dotted with sinkholes. Before us, I discerned dark patches to either side. Two archways.
"Which one?" Aglahad shouted.
"Does it matter?" said Lofar.
I swiped at a moth-bat and knocked it into one of the dark holes before turning to Finduilas. She was battling three or four of the things near the water's edge. She pierced one of them with Calmegil but then the others flew off, flailing to either side into the darkness.
In their place loomed a huge, black shape, like a spider on stilts. It tarried on the edge of the light from the crystal.
"Into the tunnel," Finduilas cried as we all stared at the thing. Aglahad stepped back and the thing moved forward. He held up his fist and strode towards Finduilas as the spider thing tottered back into the water.
Finduilas held out her hand. "Go, Aglahad. Take the others up the stair."
"I will stay with you!"
"Be gone, you fool!"
"We shall wait. In the tunnel."
"No! Find the stair and do not stop climbing."
At last Aglahad relented. He gave her the shard and backed away. As he turned towards us, a long leg darted from the darkness like a spear and swiped the crystal from Finduilas's fist. It tinkled across the floor, leaving a trail of bright splinters before tumbling into a sinkhole. Lofar started to run forward with his shard but it was too late the dim shape of the spider thing lunged at Finduilas and grabbed her with its huge mandibles.
The water splashed as it took her into the blackness.
"Finduilas!" Aglahad cried as he joined Lofar at the water's edge.
"We must leave!" I said as the terrible wet flapping of the moth-bats wings swelled in the dark. We stepped back towards the tunnels, Lofar holding up his glowing fist. As we backed into the tunnel a great crack rumbled through the blackness. A loud roar of water, as of a dam breaking, filled my ears. We stood in horror, staring into the dark. But then the bat things regained their bravery and came at us again. We stumbled through the archway.