Zale stopped beside the narrow opening. 🌑
THE BOOK OF TAD
PAGE 80
A SMALLER WAY IN 🌑
A narrow opening ran behind the trapped end. Glint uncovered his lantern at its dark mouth. Green light reached a turn, then stopped.
“I know it,” Zale said. “Let me look. No work yet.”
“Look,” Bront said. “I won’t touch you.”
Glint guarded the mouth while Zale slipped round the turn. A pale sandy pocket waited beyond it. He searched its floor and crevices: no nests, no shells, no inhabitants. Through the rear opening he could see the empty broad channel where the freed water would go.
He returned slowly.
“Gravel under the wood. I can reach it.”
“After food,” TurboTAD said. “Our fifth traveller also needs to know where we are. We haven’t agreed to the work.”
Finley looked sharply at him. TurboTAD held his gaze.
Bront settled the plate beneath his forelegs. “Then don’t agree hungry. Hungry workers slip.”
They withdrew along the upper rib. At the first turn, Zale pressed his flippers against a stone.
“That pocket. It’s how I got away before.”
Glint lowered beside him.
“If we free the channel,” Zale said, “the soft wall washes out. There won’t be a pocket.”