[Arry]

It was Carandû who took the lead this time. He’d spied another tunnel half hidden behind a pile of loose rock that had apparently fallen down from the ceiling. The four searchers cleared away the pieces – carefully, as Freyn and Galhardir reminded them that the rock, though soft and easily flaked often bore sharp edges where it had separated from the surrounding stone facings.

Freyn was tied on to Carandû and him in turn to Galhardir, with Annû bringing up the rear. The tunnel itself was short, and thankfully high enough that it could be crawled through without elbows or skulls hitting the sides and top of the passageway. Once they were in, the cavern it connected with was another small sized on, at least in ground area, but to the Elves’ delight, it was tall enough for them to stand.

‘I think we should untie ourselves and each take a torch,’ offered Galhardir as he looked about the area. ‘Good idea,’ said Annû. ‘We can each go over a quarter of the ground.’ He looked about the small area. ‘It does look promising. The tunnel was big enough for the smaller of the palantir to be wash in. and there are plenty of piles of loose rock that it could be hidden beneath.’

The four men divided up the search area and going to the farthest boundary of their part of the little cavern. They got down on their hands and knees and began an examination of the floor, moving the piles of rubble carefully as they did so..

‘Remember,’ said Carandû, calling out from his lit corner, ‘work as quickly as you can without hurting yourselves. We can’t spend long in here. The tide will be coming back in soon . . .’