Free BlackMoon Reaper by Charlotte Boyett-Compo Page B

for the captain and
    do a bit of reconnoitering?”
    “You can do all the reconnoitering you want to,” Fontabeau snapped. “I told you
    I’m not going down into that mine, and I’m not sure you should either.” He narrowed
    his eyes. “Leastwise not in humanoid form.”
    Phelan thought about that. “You’ve got a point.” He looked about, spied a copse of
    trees around which no one was milling. “I’ll just wing my way in.”
    “As an owl?” At Phelan’s nod, Fontabeau relaxed. “Can you shield your passing
    like one of my kind can?”
    “They’ll never see me,” Phelan said.
    “I’ll wait here for you to return,” Fontabeau said, taking off his hat and hanging it
    on a peg on the wall. He mopped at his sweaty face again. “I’ll never get used to the
    heat on this world.”
    Phelan moseyed on over to the door and over to the copse of trees, not surprised in
    the least that no one looked his way or stopped to watch him. The men coming from
    and going into the mine kept their eyes straight ahead, shambling along as though the
    weight of the world were on their shoulders. Once in the cover of trees, Phelan shifted
    from his humanoid form into that of a small burrowing owl then took to the air,
    winging straight through the mine entrance, staying close to the wooden roof supports
    as he followed the rail system deeper into the gloom of the mine.
    What struck Phelan as being even stranger than the quiet outside the mine was the
    silence within. There was no sound of metal wheels clicking over the track, no shriek of
    chain, no thump of pick or scrape of shovel. The mine was eerily quiet with only the
    shuffling of the feet of the miners over whose heads he flew. Around him the air was of
    good quality—suggesting the intake pipes were functioning well. It was cool and dry,
    and the deeper he went, the atmosphere grew more claustrophobic for him, the tunnels
    seeming to close in, become narrower. He knew it was an illusion but it made him
    uneasy and at one point he flew to a roof support and perched there, swiveling his head
    one hundred and thirty-five degrees as he took in his surroundings.
    One by one the miners trudged along with their eyes never wavering from the path
    in front of them. It was dark with only a lantern every twenty feet or so, but the miners
    didn’t seem to notice. They ambled along as though they were following an inner
    beacon.
    The silence was unnerving and Phelan was reluctant to spring from his perch and
    continue on, but somewhere within the vast complex of twisting and turning tunnels—
    many bisecting the rail track at forty-five- and ninety-degree angles and venturing into
    total darkness—was a place where humans were being turned into automatons. He had
    to find that place and put an end to the Ceannus’ evil plan.
    He flew past the inclined shaft where several levels of tunnels stretched into ebon
    stillness then circled back, winging his way to where a cage sat unused beneath what he
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    reasoned was the headframe building. Flying down the shaft, he met only more
    darkness without so much as a flicker of light in the pitch black. He spied the skip hoist
    sitting idle along with several two- and three-car wagons on the tracks. None of the
    conveyors by which he passed were in use. There did not appear to be any work being
    done in the mine.
    Flying down one of the galleries, he detected a faint light far ahead and increased
    his speed. No one was headed this way, but the hint of light in the unrelieved darkness
    needed to be investigated. The closer he got to the speck of illumination the stronger his
    sense of claustrophobia increased. He knew he was far below the surface and going
    farther still, but at last there was light in this torturous gloom.
    It was into a large cavern he flew where several lanterns flickered from brackets
    hammered into the rock wall. A lone metal door stood partially open and it was from
    behind this mysterious portal