Toli said nothing. His countenance had hardened into features as cold and unreadable as the stones of a castle wall. Whatever he felt inside had been pushed far back into some remote corner of his being.

“This is a brave thing you are doing, fair friend.” Quentin put a hand on Toli’s shoulder and felt the tenseness of the Jher’s muscles. “Do not worry. I will be beside you.”

Toli nodded briefly, never lifting his eyes from the pool. Then he took one step in and sank out of sight with scarcely a ripple. Quentin took a deep breath and followed, clutching his injured arm to his chest so that it would not float awry.

The shock of the icy water upon his bare skin almost caused Quentin to gasp at once. It felt like 10,000 dagger points tearing at his flesh. He swallowed air into his stomach, and bubbles spouted from his nose. An instant later he was benumbed to the icy assault of the chilling water. He opened his eyes as he drifted down and down into the black, silent, dreamlike void. He looked up to see the faintly luminescent glimmer of the cavern above as it receded and dimmed with his descent.

Close beside him Quentin could feel Toli’s presence, though he could but faintly see his friend. At three spans or so below the surface of the water they reached a sharp overhang and felt along this shelflike projection with their feet, almost walking along it, until it dropped off again. Underneath the shelf was a great hollow, or that was the impression Quentin received, for he could see nothing at all. Even the dim glow above was now obliterated beneath the overhanging rock ledge.

It was with some surprise that Quentin’s feet touched smooth rock once more. Whether it was another rock ledge or the bottom of the pool he could not tell. But here it was where Toli decided to begin searching for the elusive white ore. Quentin felt a slight swirl of movement beside him and knew that Toli was inching forward toward the wall which he imagined was directly before them.

Quentin made to follow and immediately stubbed his toes against a lump of rock. The sudden pain caused him to lose some of his air as he stumbled awkwardly and slowly to his knees. With grace and ease he righted himself and weightlessly followed after Toli, whose belt of glowing lanthanil he could see just before him.

Toli had reached the rock wall, and with a jarring bump Quentin reached it too. They had only been underwater for a few moments, though already it seemed like hours to Quentin. He wondered how Toli was taking it. Another swirl of movement, followed by a dull clink, and he realized that Toli had wasted no time or motion and was already picking away at the surface of the rock face with one of Inchkeith’s handpicks.

With his good hand Quentin fumbled at his baldric for a tool and followed Toli’s example. He picked blindly away with the slow, cushioned movements of the swimmer. He could hear, like the clink of coins struck together, the tap of their tools upon the rock. After but a moment of this exertion Quentin’s lungs began to burn, and he reached out to signal to Toli that he was going up for air. Toli acknowledged his signal with one of his own. Quentin tugged on the rope and stepped back away from the rock wall. All at once he began ascending rapidly-so much so that he had to kick furiously in order to avoid the overhanging shelf above.

With a fizz of bubbles and a gasp Quentin bobbed to the surface. Durwin and Inchkeith were peering down at him intently. “It is c-cold as ice down th-th-there!” Quentin chattered involuntarily. “Could you see anything?” asked Durwin, ignoring the temperature report. “What is down there?”

“There is a rock ledge three or five spans below me here. Just under that is a space large enough for a man to stand and work. Whether it is the bottom or not, I cannot say. Toli is still there, but he should be up for air shortly.”

“That sounds as good a place as any to begin looking,” said Inchkeith eagerly. Quentin thought the old armorer would gladly have changed places with him if offered the chance; his face gleamed in the soft light of the vault with a glaze of intense anticipation.

“Toli is staying down too long,” observed Quentin. He ducked his head beneath the water, but could catch no sign of Toli’s glowing belt surfacing. Inchkeith still held Toli’s rope slack in his hands.

“I shall fetch him; he has been down long enough.”

“Yes, go and see what is keeping him. No need to overexert his lungs, even if he can swim like a fish.” Durwin began paying out the rope again, and Quentin dropped at once back into the cold, silent viscid world of the pool. Once below the rock ledge Quentin could see the dimly shining belt of Toli just below. He pushed on as quickly as he could and approached his friend in long, weightless strides.

Quentin felt in the water for Toli’s shoulder and touching it, turned the Jher around. But Toli turned away again and Quentin felt the swirl of motion and heard the odd, faraway clink that meant Toli was continuing with his picking.

Quentin, becoming worried for his friend, thought to grab Toli’s rope and tug it himself and so get him hauled to the surface whether he wanted to go or not. As he reached out for the rope, he saw something out of the corner of his eye.

He turned and saw a very faint spidery crack appear in the rock wall, as if a shining web of delicate silken strands was glowing there. He took up his own pick and, following Toli’s lead, began chopping away at the rock before them, leaving Toli to his own judgment.

In a moment the black wall of rock before them crumbled away with a flash of silver and there before them, blazing like the sun with cold brilliance, opened a vein of white lanthanil two hands wide.

Toli, quick as a snake, reached out and placed his hands on the radiant stone, and Quentin saw, in the inundating glare which so suddenly shone forth, Toli transformed. It seemed to Quentin, feeling so cold and unnatural in this watery grave of a place, that Toli suddenly appeared larger, stronger and more noble.

He had little time to wonder about what he saw, for Toli was already hammering at the stone and breaking off a big chunk of the precious rock. Quentin had hardly blinked his eyes when Toli offered him a huge piece of white, shining ore. Quentin looked at it, strange in this underwater world, and at Toli, who was grinning in spite of himself. Already Quentin’s lungs were beginning to burn again-it was time to surface. He wondered with amazement how Toli could remain submerged for such a time.

Quentin reached out to grasp the stone Toli offered him, with no more thought than to take it up to the surface for Inchkeith and Durwin to see, to tell them they had found their treasure at last. But as Toli tumbled the stone into his hands Quentin felt a shock of heat pass through his body like a flame of ice. He tingled all over as if he had been struck by lightning, but the burning passed in an instant, leaving behind a warm glow of peace and well-being. Even the ache of his lungs vanished in that instant. He suddenly felt more alive and whole and at peace than ever in his life.

In the very same moment-though Quentin was never really certain, for it all happened so fast-he felt a long shiver course through his right arm. The arm tingled as if needles pierced it all over. And then, deep within his arm, in his very bones, he felt a strange warmth that grew and grew until he thought his bones were on fire.

But the fire left just as quickly, to be followed by a rush of soothing cold, as if water were running over his arm. This startled Quentin as much as the fire had, for it was the first time he had experienced any feeling in his arm in many long weeks. He looked at Toli in the weird, shining light, and Toli grinned knowingly back at him. He stretched out his hand to touch Toli’s face and the hand obeyed him once again. The fingers flexed and the arm swung freely, though encumbered somewhat by the splint still attached to it.