Gradually the mouth of the tunnel faded to a pale, dim square incredibly far behind him. The gray light ahead seemed only a little closer. All around him were darkness and the smells of earth and air that never saw the sun.

His hand came down suddenly on something hard. He drew back, then felt cautiously. It was a human rib cage. A little exploration by touch turned up skull and leg bones. He didn't feel like looking for anything more. The bones were totally fleshless, and as dry as anything could be down here. Like the tunnel, the bones had been here for a long time.

Blade crawled past the bones and on into the darkness. It was now impossible to tell what lay around him except by feel. Blade moved on still more slowly, feeling his way before each movement.

It was just as well that he did. Suddenly his probing bar came down not on solid ground, but on empty air. He swept the bar completely across in front of him. He was on the edge of a wide gap in the tunnel, where the floor dropped away into-what? In the darkness, it was going to be hard to tell.

Blade got down on his stomach, wormed his way forward until he lay on the very edge of the gap, then reached out as far as he could. He swept the bar up, down, and sideways, without meeting anything but air.

Damn! The gap might be fifty feet wide. It might also end five inches beyond the end of his probing bar. There was no way to tell, and there wouldn't be any unless he could bring some light down here. But how to do that?

Perhaps he could climb down one side of the gap, across the bottom, and scramble up the other side? It would not be impossible to kick hand- and footholds in the earth, although it would take a while.

Moving as quickly as he dared, Blade scrambled back to the skeleton. He picked up one of the bones, then crawled back to the gap. He had to find out how deep it was before he risked starting a climb down into it. He held the bone out at arm's length, then let it fall.

He heard a faint whisper of air as the bone dropped down into the blackness. It fell for a long time, gradually fading away. A still longer time after that came a faint, incredibly distant thump as the bone landed. It must have fallen close to three hundred feet.

Blade swore to himself. Climbing down one side of the gap and up the other had been a good idea, in theory. It was not going to be a good one in practice, not if losing his grip meant a three-hundred-foot fall. He understood now why the tunnel was still there and so easily accessible from the prison chamber. All it was good for was a quick way of committing suicide. Blade wondered how many prisoners had done just that, and how many sets of smashed bones lay far below in the darkness.

Slowly he turned around and started crawling back toward the chamber. So one way out was blocked. Well, there would be others to be found, or if necessary made.

As Blade crawled back toward the main chamber, he realized that something was blocking off part of the entrance to the tunnel. A disagreeable thought flashed through Blade's mind. Had the guards come in to wait for his return and punish him for his curiosity?

Blade gripped his bar more tightly and crawled onward. Gradually he saw that the light was being blocked by a human figure sitting inside the tunnel. A few yards farther on, and he recognized Princess Neena. He practically scrambled up the last stretch of tunnel, then stopped abruptly as he reached her.

Neena's face was no longer set and expressionless. She was grinning broadly, and hugging her bare knees with both arms. Her shoulders shook with silent laughter. She looked as though she had either recovered from her numbness and apathy, or slipped out of apathy into madness.

Chapter 7

Blade's surprise must have showed on his face. Neena's eyes rose to meet his. Then she could no longer keep her laughter silent. She threw her head back and howled with laughter until the tears ran down her dirty face and the echoes ran up and down the tunnel.

Finally the princess leaned back against the wall, gasping for breath, and sighed deeply. «Oh, warrior, I am sorry if I frightened you. But you looked so funny, staring at me like an ox staring at the butcher just before the axe comes down.»

Blade let the unflattering description of him pass. «Well, my lady princess, do you wonder that I was deceived? You played your part with great skill.»

«I had good reason to,» she said bluntly. «Can you deny that?»

«No I-«

«Then do not complain or find excuses for yourself. I intended to deceive you as well. You looked like a warrior and a man of sense, but I could not be sure you would be a friend, or even a neutral. You seem of no people I have ever seen or heard of. I could not be sure that you would not think to buy the favor of Lord Desgo by telling him of my deception. So I aimed to convince you as well as him. Do not feel small because I succeeded. You are right, I am a skilled actress.»

Blade took a deep breath and then mentally counted to ten before answering Princess Neena. She might have a great many gifts, but tact wasn't among them.

«My lady princess, you acted wisely according to what you knew. I am indeed from a land and people more distant than you could hope to know of. But I am a prince in my own right among my own people, traveling to prove myself and learn of other lands. I would not have betrayed you to Lord Desgo.»

«How so?» said Neena. «Are you familiar with the ways of those of Trawn? Do you know how hard it is to buy their favor?»

«No, I had never heard of Trawn before I came to Gleor.» He was tempted to add that he'd never heard of Draad either. «There are such people in my homeland, however. I know perfectly well how hard it is to buy their favor, and how seldom they keep faith even when you have sold yourself to them.

«Besides, I will not sell myself to such vile people as those of Trawn even if they are willing to buy. As a prince I have some notions of honor, and as a man I have some notions of decency. I ask you to accept that.»

Neena laughed, this time softly. When she spoke, her voice was quiet and the edge was gone from it.

«Warrior-Prince-what is your name?»

«Blade.»

«Prince Blade. I accept what you've told me. You seem the sort of man of whom I can believe this. Also, I am grateful for your opening this tunnel for us. I doubt if I would have been strong enough to get through the grating. Now we have a place where we can sit and talk to each other. We will not have to be silent and look dumb or dismal to fool whoever watches from above.»

It was Blade's turn to laugh. «You see things very clearly, princess. Unfortunately, I hoped for more from this tunnel than it can give us.»

He told her briefly of what he'd found down there in the darkness. Neena looked sober, then frowned.

«You say there is no way to find out how wide that gap may be?»

«None that I can think of,» replied Blade. «I know the gap is deep enough so that anyone who falls into it will be smashed to pieces. But the width-«He shrugged.

«Well, if the thing was not wide enough to make a barrier for prisoners, they would doubtless have sealed off the tunnel entirely. Then we would be even worse off than we are.»

«Perhaps,» said Blade. «But I still wonder why they didn't block all access, even to the gap. It is certainly a way to a quick death, and I imagine many prisoners must be looking for such a death.»

«Those of Trawn do not find it easy to understand how the minds of other people may work,» explained Neena. «They do not see their own people trying to flee from cruelty-or at least not very often. They do not expect to see other people do the same.»

«Not very wise, are they?» said Blade drily.

«Perhaps it is a lack of wisdom, perhaps it is their curse from the gods.»