Free Jalia and the Slavers (Jalia - World of Jalon) by John Booth

trail. If you reach a dead-end make your way back to the hotel and await instructions.”
    Marcus paused, “If you find the trader or either of his bitches, kill them on sight. We know the gold can’t have gone far as they haven’t had the time to move it. If you find the gold, stay with it and send one of your team back to the hotel to report.”
    Marcus realized he would need to leave someone back at the hotel to relay any messages. He pointed at two of the men near the back, “You two stay here and guard the gold as it comes back. Follow me, men, we have work to do.”
     
    Marcus led sixty of his men downstream, the way that Jalia and Daniel had travelled, while the other half went upstream. Within the first half hour, they found the gold bars that Daniel and Jalia dropped to convince them the gold had been taken that way.
    Those bars were taken back to the hotel. The men carrying the bars back were told to return to the tunnel as soon as they finished. Marcus expected to find the rest of the gold bars quickly and would need all his men to carry it. The gold was far too heavy to have been moved much further than they had gone. He laughed with pleasant thoughts of what he would do to Daniel and Jalia when he finally located them and the gold.
     
    Jalia and Daniel descended to the narrow ledge cut into the rock. It was three feet above the water and they saw more dark shapes moving in its depths, attracted by the light of their torch. They edged along the narrow ledge carefully and soon found themselves facing a torrent of water from above. The ledge had been cut to create a passageway under the waterfall, the waterfall itself having been undercut by whoever cut the ledge. As they edged their way under, the flow of water was only inches from their noses. It was difficult to inch their way across and keep the torch alight.
    As they eased out from the far end of the waterfall, Jalia, who was ahead of Daniel, abruptly stopped, “Daniel there’s something with us on the ledge.”
    Daniel leaned out to have a look, taking care not to fall. Just ahead of Jalia, sitting on the ledge was what looked like a boot.
    “It’s somebody’s old boot, kick it in the water.”
    “I will, but I recognize that boot as belonging to the bald guard we killed in the Gathering Pool, and what’s more Daniel…”
    “What?”
    “It still has what’s left of a man’s foot in it.”
    Jalia kicked the boot into the water. Instantly, a swirling frenzy of action began with two reptilian saw toothed mouths gaping out of the water and missing Jalia’s legs in their sweep by inches. A second later, a scaled tail, at least eight feet long swept the edge of the ledge beyond them as the fight for the boot and the foot continued.
    The waters churned for minutes as Daniel and Jalia clung to the wall and prayed the creatures would not venture out of the water. Eventually the churning stopped and the lake went still.
    “Next time I ask you to kick something in the water, please tell me where to go.” Daniel whispered.
    “I will, with considerable pleasure.”
    They made their way along the ledge, taking care to be as quiet as they could.
    The next waterfall they came too had steps cut into the wall beside it and Daniel and Jalia climbed them. Daniel looked into the darkness of yet another tunnel with a river running through it.
    “Chances are it leads to another hidden entrance in the city, and I would like to point out we are running out of torches.”
    “Lead on, Daniel. Anywhere is better than this lake.”
    They started walking upstream in the hope it would lead them to a way out.
     
    Marcus and his men filled the width of the tunnel as they marched along looking for gold. The men who had taken the first gold bars back to the hotel rejoined them. As the tunnel widened, the men spread out across it so that they could locate any gold or other tunnels. The moving wave of men was three men deep and twenty wide when one of them saw the gleam of