Their heads cleared the surface. Smhee laughed.

'Were you as frightened as I? I thought sure a bengil had me!'

Gasping, she said, 'Never mind. What's over there?'

'More of the same. Another air-space for perhaps a hundred feet. Then anotherdowncropping.'

He clung to the stone for a moment. Then he said, 'Have you noticed how freshthe air is? There's a very slight movement of it, too.'

She had noticed but hadn't thought about it. Her experience with watery caveswas nil until now.

'I'm sure that each of these caves is connected to a hole which brings in freshair from above,' he said. 'Would the mage have gone to all this trouble unlesshe meant to use this for escape?'

He did something. She heard him breathing heavily, and then there was a splash,

'I pulled myself up the rock and felt around,' he said. 'There is a hole upthere to let air from the next cave into this one. And I'll wager that there isa hole in the ceiling. But it must curve so that light doesn't come in. Or maybeit doesn't curve. If it were day above, we might see the hole.'

He dived; Masha followed him. They swam ahead then, putting their right handsout from side to side to feel the wall. When they came to the next downcropping,they went through beneath it at once.

At the end of this cave they felt a rock ledge that sloped gently upward. Theycrawled out onto it. She heard him fumbling around and then he said, 'Don't cryout. I'm lighting a torch.'

The light nevertheless startled her. It came from the tip of a slender stick ofwood in his hand. By its illumination she saw him apply it to the end of a smallpine torch. This caught fire, giving them more area of vision. The fire on thestick went out. He put the stick back into the opened belt-bag.

'We don't want to leave any evidence we've been here,' he said softly. 'I didn't