Kingdom Fall (Ethereal #1)

- Chapter 33 -

The Hole

Archie

Rahim returned with a rather perplexed look on his face. The children were quite impatient while they waited gritting their teeth for almost one hour before lifting up their heads to hear the news. Alshaam could only sigh at their enthusiasm.

'What did you see, Rahim?'

The poor mercenary seemed to have been lost for words before he rubbed the back of his neck and said, 'A very big hole on the ground, sidh.'

'A hole?'

'A hole.'

'How big?'

'As thick as a five hundred year old thoobak.'

'Thoobaks live for five hundred years?' Sapphire whispered to Akyuliya.

'Yes. If time permits.'

'That big?' said Alshaam.

'Maybe it's a sinkhole,' said another mercenary.

'But why build a fortress around it?'

Prince Tyler shrugged, 'I have seen too many weird things that I quite lost the urge to question them.'

'Like what?' said Akyuliya with a raised eye-brow. The prince ignored her.

Yet, Rahim was not done, 'It was a hole, but it seems like they were mining.'

'Mining what?'

But the mercenary didn't seem to have an answer for that since he shook his head, 'I do not know, sidh. They forced the slaves to enter the hole, I could only think that they might be forced to mine something.'

'So, you mean to say that they are simply digging a giant hole?' said Prince Tyler. 'What can Queen Toja do with a giant hole?'

'Maybe there is something buried underground?' Sapphire pointed out.

Rahim shrugged.

'Yeah, but I think an excavation site would look quite different,' said Prince Tyler. 'How deep do you think this hole was?'

'I don't know.'

'Did you clearly see it?'

'Yes. I glimpsed a look when the gates were opened to let in the slaves. There were frames built over the hole, and had ropes attached. I saw a man using the ropes to get down.'

'A pulley system,' said Sapphire. 'Not ladders. So the hole is pretty deep.'

'What do you think, Rahim,' said Alshaam, 'From what you saw?'

'The ground in firm, sidh. It was like a hole dug out by a thoobak and stayed open.'

'They can dig through firm ground?' said the prince, 'Not sand?'

Alshaam shook his head, 'Thoobak's cannot bear the sun. They remain buried. In sand, in earth. Anywhere. Their teeth are strong enough to eat through earth. The older they are, the tougher and bigger they become.'

'So they are basically giant meat eating worms?' said Sapphire.

Alshaam shrugged.

'Well,' said another mercenary, 'If a thing that is big around here, I ain't want to stick around.'

The other mercenary nudged the other's elbow.

'Hay! We all want to live.'

'I have to agree with him,' said Sapphire, 'If the thing we saw before is not the biggest, I don't want to meet anymore of them.'