The Quest for the Sapphire Stone (Daring Do #1)

by BookeCypher

Chapter Nine

Gems.

The stone wall of the cave towered above her under the light of dozens of lamps like the one she had just dropped and, across its entire service were hundreds – no, thousands – of gems in every hue imaginable. Rubies, sapphires, emeralds, opals, topaz, amethyst and diamonds the size of her head. It was, to put it simply, mesmerizing. “Sweet Celestia...” Daring managed to murmur as she continued to stare up at the wall of precious stones. She had talked to a unicorn that helped run the University's mineralogy department on a few occasions on the topic of precious stones – usually about their value across cultures. Daring had no doubt that he would have been able to give her a fairly accurate estimate to the value of the wall, but the closest Daring could get was 'a whole lot'.

One thing she did remember from their discussions was that rare gems were, you know, rare. Precious stones were usually in small clumps – not a veritable mountain of gems. So, the million bit question was how the hay did they all get here? Daring finally tore her gaze from the wall and checked the rest of the area. The Cavern looked natural, save for the tool marks where gems had been pulled from the wall and where they had cut out the stairwell. The floor was rough stone, curving up at the edges and blending into the walls that stretched upward before finally meeting somewhere in the gloom overhead. She could feel a draft, warm and dry, wafting from one direction. With little other lead to go on, Daring followed the flow of air. She thought the air would have been coming from somewhere outside and, hopefully, wherever Ahuizotl had set up his camp. As it turned out, she was only partially right.

The tunnel she had been following opened up suddenly into another cavern, exposed at the far end to the outside by a fissure through the rock. That, she surmised, was the source of the breeze. Though the giant pit of lava sitting several stories bellow her might have had a part in it.

Molten rock bubbled in ponds far below, heat so intense she could feel it rolling over her like a physical thing even from as far away as she was. The soft orange and red glow of the rock illuminated the surrounding stone, reflecting and refracting of off the countless gem stones that studded it like stars in a night sky. Ridges of harder, tougher stone separated the pools like dams and connected to the narrow ridges that edged the cavern and included the perch Daring had found herself standing on as she took in the impressive and almost entirely unexpected sight.

Daring slowly edged her way across the ledge, one eye on the molten rock below as carefully made her way across the cavern and toward the cave opening. Stones slipped and shifted under her hooves with every step and low rumbles from somewhere far below shook the ground beneath her at irregular intervals, threatening to throw her off into the abyss. And, above it all, a dome of gems glinted in the gloom.

At least she knew where the Achi got all of their power. Far Flung had been right. They had literally built their entire civilization on top of their fortunes. The volcano that had created the island had also brought them their wealth, the lava flows collecting the gems and dumping them all in one spot. No wonder they had never left the island. The vast jewel deposits probably seemed like a gift from their gods, and they had worshiped it as such. That sort of wealth meant they could by nearly anything – power, influence, armies, goods and more. Their island location would have helped them hold on to their wealth, but only so far – a determined invasion would have broken them. So they hid themselves, hid their treasure, and kept them secret. No secret magic, no great mystery or powerful artifact – just a very, very exquisite sapphire. A stone so perfect, so beautiful, they took it as a sign and symbol of the gods. A stone that was worth untold fortunes, worth fighting and dying and killing for.

Daring had never taken Ahuizotl as the type simply trying to get rich. Whatever his usual reason for hunting after artifacts, he seemed to have some sort of larger goal. Money had never seemed to be a concern for Ahuizotl, but everypony had bills to pay Daring guessed. Paying those cats couldn't have been cheap. Or building those bases and getting to all of those remote ruins and temples.

As she finally finished crossing the cavern, she looked up at the cave opening that had been her goal. Now that she was finally in front of it, she could see at least one problem. This close to it, she could see that the opening was nowhere near as close to the ground a it had looked from the other side and their was little in the way of rubble that she could use as a ramp or ladder. “yet another plan falls apart.” Daring let out a sigh as she walked along under the cave mouth and tried to enjoy the gentle breeze that was leaking in. She was at another apparent dead-end, and little clue of where to go next. Once again, she found herself wishing she really had taken somepony up on their offer to come along. At least then she wouldn't have been miserable alone.

She took a seat at the base of the wall about halfway along its length, the strain of the last few days taking the chance to catch up on her. She was willing to admit that, maybe, all of her friends and her brother might have had a point. So she didn't want her friends to get into trouble – sue her. But should she really be surprised that they don't want her to get into trouble either? Daring leaned back, letting her head rap against the stone behind her. “Stupid, stupid Daring.” She muttered to herself, “How many stupid death traps do you have to get out of to take a hint?” Well, she wondered, it depended – what were the chances her friends could get through them any better then she could? “Stupid question – Coco deals with crazed lunatics for a living and your brother knows almost as much about this sort of thing as you do.” Yeah, but does that make this sort of thing any less dangerous for them? “Heh,” Daring snorted. “As if.” What about for you? “Now your changing sides!” And you're arguing with yourself. “Didn't bring anypony else to bicker with – kinda the point of this little chat.”

Daring let out another sigh. As much as she could probably use a little chat, she doubted it was with her self and she was almost positive she didn't have any time for one now. “Once I get out of this mess, I'm buying Coco a drink.” She never really paid her brother back for the information on Coco either. Well, she could probably use a vacation after this mess anyway. She groaned as she stood up, muscles protesting the action. “I swear to Celestia that I'll never complain about grading papers again.” A complete and utter lie, but she would probably make it to mid-terms, at least.

Daring started down along the ledge again, muttering as she went about exactly which cider she was going to order once she got out of this place as she went. The ledge itself continued on until it passed out from underneath the cave opening and continued on into the murky black. She passed back out of the light of the sun and once again the only illumination was from the molten rock that flowed below and the occasional lamp that was hung above. The further she went, the more muted the sounds from the outside became until she was once again accompanied by only her hoof falls. As she pressed further on though, another sound started making itself known. It was low at first, just at the edge of her hearing, but it was steadily growing louder. It was a steady, rhythmic, mechanical sound - the sound of gears and pulleys and digging equipment. Daring slowed her pace as the ledge turned into a short tunnel, a steady thrumming light emanating from the far end. She edged her way down that last several paces, slowly peaking around into the space beyond as she reached the end.

It was another cavern, smaller then the last but still more the enough to qualify as 'massive' by most ponies standards. It was a single over-sized central chamber a good five or six stories tall. It was hard to be sure, since the surrounding floors weren't really floors. Instead, it was a honeycomb-like collection of tunnels and walkways at irregular levels and intervals. The entire space was filled with wooden scaffolding, pulleys, cranes and a network of cart tracks. And across all of it, dozens upon dozens of cats were at work, chipping away at the surrounding walls and prying out the precious stones or, as was more often the case, pulling free entire chunks of rock face before depositing them into waiting carts. A steady stream of carts flowed into and through the cavern, some having to be lowered down from the higher levels, others hoisted up from further below, until the reached the Towering structure of iron and steam at the center. It shook and groaned like a displeased dragon as the cats tipped cartload of raw stone into its waiting maw, every batch thrown in eliciting a belch of steam and dust as the deep rumble of stone getting crushed rippled through the cave, the processor working away until its end product was deposited out at the other end into two carts. The first was a steady stream of carts, waiting until filled with waste material before being hauled off. A much slower stream of carts was hauled in a different direction, laden with precious stones.

It was a strip mining operation on an impressive scale employing a lot of cats, and Daring had a feeling she was going to have get past probably all of them if she wanted to get out of here with the stone. Of course, she could just turn around, make her way back up through the tunnels and out through the ruin she came in at and just improvise her way off this Celestia-forsaken island. She might even get to shore before Ahuizotl even realized his little death trap had failed and went looking for her again. She could just turn around, go home, and let Ahuizotl have the stone. She could just let him win for once. “Heh.” Daring snorted. “as if.”

Daring took a quick glance around before slipping out onto the overhang and ducking behind a column of rough stone. She was, at the moment, alone in her little corner of the mine. The nearest cat was a black and tan fellow two arches over running one of the cranes for the mine carts and, at the moment, facing firmly away from her. Trying to keep her self as low and as small as possible, she started to work her way toward a stack of now familiar looking crates, one eye keeping watch on the cat as she sneaked along. She was about half way to her goal when their was a cry from one of the levels above her, and the cat turned around to look up at the source, yelling and hissing something back while making a series of increasingly rude paw gestures. Daring's heart pound in her chest, doing its best to break out and run as fast as it could back into the tunnels. Every muscle in her body froze as the cat yelled at his compatriot up above, the only thing concealing her from view the tilt of the cat's head. She didn't even dare to breathe out of fear the slight movement would catch the cats eye. Those few moments stretched on for what felt like an eternity until, finally, the cat turned back to his work with a grumble and a another vaguely rude paw gesture at the level above.

Daring let out a long held sigh of relief as her muscles finally decided to loosen up a little. Daring started toward the crates again, continuing to try and keep her self as low as possible as she passed a wooden beam holding up the rock overhead. She was maybe three steps past it when her hooves found a spot of loose stone, probably from the mining work, maybe simply loose rock that had fallen from the roof. Her front hooves slip in opposite directions and her eyes widened in panic as she tried to keep herself upright, the sound of rocks and rubble scattering in a dozen directions echoing loudly in her ears.

The cat at the crane turned around at the sound of falling stones, but saw nothing but an empty ledge and a few stones tumbling over the edge before landing below with in a smattering of clinks and cracks. His gaze scanned the ledge for a moment before, with a shrug, he went back to working the crane and moving the carts. He never noticed the nearly hyperventilating pegasus pressing herself against a stone column, doing her utmost to make sure neither hide nor hair of her self was poking out from behind her impromptu hiding spot. “Okay,” Daring whispered to herself. “I have got to be getting close to my 'close call' quote for the day.” Daring gave the cat one final look to make sure he was once again back at work before slipping out from behind the column and finally crossing the last few paces to the collection of crates she had been aiming for.

The crates were gathered at what looked like some sort of combination of antechamber and intersection. Off to one side several other tunnels peeled off while the other side was linked to the central superstructure by one of the numerous rope bridges. As she wormed her way through the narrow gaps between the boxes, nesting herself right in the middle of the collection, she could hear the sounds of numerous cats nearby. Some of it was echoing up from some of the tunnels, while much of it was coming from the working party nearby across the bridge. She could work out at least two voices, however, that sounded like they were coming from a lot closer then either of those two spots.

Making sure she stayed hidden behind the piles of crates, Daring crept closer to the source of the voices. Leaning on the stacks of boxes were a pair of cats as they chatted with each other, what looked like spears leaning on the nearby wall and mostly forgotten. She couldn't make out most of what they were saying, the words lost under heavy accents and a dialect she was not familiar with, but she was fairly sure she caught the word 'marshmallow'. She peered around them a best she could, and bit back a curse as she noticed that, save for the way she had come, all the available paths to her were in clear view of the two cats. Even distracted as they were, they would have to be blind to miss a tan coated, gray-scale maned pegasus sneaking past right in front of them. Not exactly a good plan. Instead, she was going to have to figure out how to get the guards out of the way. What she really needed was a distraction...

Well, those rocks had distracted the other cat well enough – time to see if the same trick would work twice.
She felt around for a moment until she found a decent sized stone and scooped it up with her hoof. She weighed it for a moment before taking aim and tossing it over the crates and across the room. The stone arced through the air before landing on the other side of the room with a clatter and skidding across the far hall. Both cats ears pivoted around, there heads following close behind with a jerk. The one on the left elbowed the other and pointed at the hallway with a low growl, to which the other cat responded with a similarly low growl. Daring brought a hoof to her face as she sighed, not needing to speak the language to understand what they were doing. The two cats continued to argue for another moment or two before the second one finally got to his paws with a grumble, picking up his spear before heading toward the hall. His partner, for his part, merely leaned to one side slightly to get a better view of the ongoing proceedings. With both of their backs turned and otherwise distracted, Daring made her move.

Carefully slipping to just next to the crate nearest the cat as he leaned over, Daring checked one last time to make sure he was still watching his partner before she pounced. In a single smooth motion, she reached over the crate, wrapped one foreleg around the cats neck as she shove the other hoof over his mouth, and yanked him over the crate with naught but a whisper of wind and a strangled 'gurk!' from the hapless cat.

The cat struggled for a minute, thrashing about, but Daring adjusted her grip and brought her hind-legs into the equation, quickly pinning all four of the cats legs as she continued to choke him out. She moved the now limp cat as silently as she could, dragging him toward a nearby crate before dropping him into an unceremonious pile as she started pulling the top off of a box. A quick relocation of its contents later and she had the unconscious cat stowed away neatly inside. With the lid reattached and another crate shoved on top, she was certain that the cat wouldn't be going anywhere. The first cat taken care off, she moved back to her original spot to get ready to handle the second. She slipped behind the crates just as the second cat returned, grumbling to itself as it marched back. He was half-way across the room when he finally noticed his partner was nowhere to be seen and froze. The grip on his spear tightened as he slowly scanned the room, slowly turning in a circle, weary of almost everything. Daring watched him closely from her hiding spot as he started to sweep the room, occasionally stabbing into the stacks of crates with his spear. Daring ducked further behind the crates has the steady sound of the slicing blade grew slowly closer before seeming to stop. She started letting out a relieved sigh when the blade sliced through the crate a hairs breath from her ear. Wide eye watched as the spear pulled back with barely a sound before its owner moved on slowly. “Okay,” Daring whispered. “Time to find a new spot.” Daring slipped out from behind the crates as the feline kept up his search, slipping behind him as he moved on. Daring knew she should probably just take the chance and go, but really – it was too good of a chance to pass up.

The cat turned another corner, ready to strike, only to find it empty. He slammed his staff down as he let out a grumble, one paw coming up to scratch at his head. Daring chose that moment to move up behind him and calmly tapped him on the shoulder. The can turned around lazily, only to freeze as he made eye contact with the grinning pegasus. “hiya.” Daring's hoof slammed into his jaw before he could open it to say anything, the uppercut sending the cat sprawling and putting him out of commission in one hit. “and see-ya.” Daring finished. Well, that was easier then she had expected. She dusted herself off before she started to drag the feline toward the crates. She managed to find another suitable crate in short order and, after relocating its contents like she had the last one, had the second guard tucked away nice and snug for his little nap. “Really guys,” Daring said to the unconscious cat as she put the lid to the crate back in place. “You both have been working far too hard – take yourselves a nice long break. Really, its no problem, at all.” As expected, neither cat bothered to reply. “Well then, gent's – I think I'll just be moving along. Don't mind me.”

The working party across the rope bridge was still absorbed in their work, and were squarely placed right in the middle of it. So, thats one choice out the window. Of the others ones, only one was heading upward and Daring didn't think Ahuizotl was the sort to hide at the bottom of a hole – at least, not when he thought he was winning. Knowing him he had found himself a nice little throne room to rebuild and was busy gloating about his victory. Well, Daring thought, time to burst his bubble.

Daring started up the narrow tunnel, following it as it wrapped around the cave. Luckily, she didn't run into any more lounging patrols as she worked her way slowly upward. The cats she did pass were all to busy with their own work to notice one bruised and battered pegasus slipping past behind them. She grumbled to herself about the lack of equine employee's as she ducked behind a support beam, waiting for a pack of leopards to pad past. She couldn't exactly steal one of the cats uniforms and pose as one of them to walk around. For one, they weren't wearing uniform. Second of all, she was lacking the razor sharp claws and teeth anyway. Then again, maybe it was intentional – Ahuizotl could, occasionally, prove to be surprisingly clever. Employing all cats kept security checks really straight forward, at the very least. After a moment, the wandering group of felines finally passed and Daring could continued on her way.

She watched the cats work as she kept moving upward, cats of gems being hauled or pushed ever upward, joined into trains where they were collected before being hauled further along. The steady rhythm of machinery at work echoed in the strange acoustics of the mine and the surrounding tunnels. Every so often, at spot where the carts were stopped, a waiting cat would pick through the stones, finding one and examining it with a jewelers glass before tossing it back into the cart and signaling the mining train to continue. Though, she noted, sometimes the gem didn't quite make it back into the cart.

The inspectors weren't the only ones who seemed to have sticky fingers. Several of the felines mining the cavern walls seemed to be inclined to awarding themselves bonuses, taking furtive glances around before slipping a ruby or a emerald into a waiting pocket. Sometimes, however, they didn't look around quite enough. She watched as one cat was grabbed mid-way through stashing the gem in his pocket, the feline staring up at the larger cat – a supervisor, most likely – that had his foreleg trapped in its grip like a vice. The would-be thief stared for a moment before the color drained from his face and he started struggling, but to little avail. The supervisor simply gestured for two of the other cats to come over and assist him. Between the three of them, they quickly restrained the would-be robber and hauled him away, his shouts and hisses filled with a sort of fear that made daring shutter.

The cats had dragged the failed thief about half way to one of the side tunnels when a long, low whistle echoed through the caves, followed by several more shorter ones. Almost at once, every cat in the mine stopped what they were doing and stared upward at where the whistle had come from before suddenly launching into a flurry of activity. The activity was slow, deliberate, and seemingly well practiced. All around the mine, felines had stopped their mining work and started collecting equipment. Some started with pickaxes, pushing mine cart along and scooping up pickaxes and dropping them into the cart before moving on. Others had started pulling down the lamp hooks and lanterns, the string of lights going out one by one visible even from Daring's distance. It looked like the Ahuizotl and his cats were finally packing up shop. It seemed that, after the long days and seemingly endless game of cat and mouse, things were reaching their climax. Daring's time was running out.

Daring did her best to pick up the pace, but the increase in activity had turned the maze of paths and walkways through the cave into even more of a minefield then they had been before. The only upside was that, with all of the felines busy with their own work, less of them were looking around quite as hard for anything amiss. The number of cats running about seemed to increase exponentially as she moved higher and higher, and the number of places to duck into when she had to hide was beginning to dwindle as crates and assorted other items were slowly but steadily hauled away. “Why can this never be easy?” Daring whispered to herself as she watched a trio drag several carts of equipment past. It seemed that all the equipment was being hauled upward, and that at least confirmed to Daring that she was at least moving in the right direction. Daring's mind thought back to the pair of guards she had stashed further below in a pair of crates. With all of the crates being moved, she realized, there was the not insignificant probability that somepony – or some cat, as it were – would find them. And then the cats out of the crate.

Daring mentally kicked herself over the horrible pun, but refrained from doing it in actuality. Still, she found herself moving slightly faster then before as she continued making her way ever upward. Further below, cats were starting to dismantle the rope bridges, cutting off all but a few routes to that central piece of machinery. The machine itself, however, was still untouched. Daring was starting to suspect that the massive piece of stone processing equipment was going to be the last thing they pulled out. The supporting equipment, however, was already on its way out. The cart tracks that had guided the carts to and from the base of the machine were already being torn up and packed away.

As she pressed on, she watched as more and more cats were starting to work around the machinery that was at center stage for the entire operation. Most of the work, it seemed, was focused on the equipment at the base of the machine. Large, squat cylindrical tanks along one side were being decoupled, the various hoses and lines between them and the core structure disconnected one by one as feline work teams either scrambled along the dull metal tops or were lowered from higher up and worked from harness's. The tubes and lines were allowed to drop, left to hang limply from the tanks, the heavy stench of coal oil wafting all the way up to even Daring's perch. “Fuel tanks,” Daring muttered to herself. Most places would have just used magic to power equipment like that – cleaner so less maintenance, and less accident prone as well. Of course, Ahuizotl seemed to be lacking in pony employees so Daring guessed that wasn't an option.

With the lines unhooked, most of the cats pulled back, leaving a small group who were busying themselves with attaching heavy ropes to various spots on the tank with heavy metal hooks before tossing them over the sides and hopping off themselves. On the ground, teams of cats moved forward, picking up the lines and untangling them before pulling the lines taunt and giving them a massive heave in unison.

With the low, almost eerie groan of metal protesting its relocation, the entire tanks began to move as one gigantic piece. Daring watched in stunned silence as the over-sized piece was slowly pulled to its new position before coming to a equally slow stop as several of the cranes sitting far overhead swung around, lowering more lines as the first set were removed and the new ones were hooked into place. A little further back, a second tank was getting the same treatment the first had received as lines were disconnected and ropes hooked into place in a symphony of what was likely well practiced movement. Daring supposed it all actually made quite a bit of sense. Ahuizotl wouldn't have had time to build everything on site – he'd would have had to have brought it with him to get all of this set up so fast – and it looked like the same equipment was as quick to take down as it was to put up.

The second tank was nearly pulled all the way out, with the first now a good story and a half off the ground, when a shout echoed from one of the floors further down. Daring risked getting spotted to take a look, sticking her head out over the edge to get a clear view downward at the unfolding scene. Several floors below, she could make our a series of cats cracking open a crate and pulling a dazed an familiar looking feline guard out of it. “Oh, buck me.” Daring cursed.

Another shout made her snap her head back, staring straight across the cavern to see a lone cat pointing her direction, shouting downward at the others as the started to free the second guard. Within moments, a slow, low klaxon started blaring overhead.

Time was up.

Comments

[xpete1]

4503301 how often are we to expect updates?

[BookeCypher]

4740956

Once a week until the story finishes, with the next story around 4-6 months after that. The next update should be in three days or so.

[Pinklestia]

*She watched the cats work as she kept moving upward, cats of gems being hauled or pushed ever upward*

carts of gems, not cats of gems.