ached for it.

"The knife--"

The stranger glanced down at the blade he wore in surprise, as if he
had forgotten it. Then with one swift movement he drew it from its
sheath and flipped it to Dalgard.

On the track behind the clamor was growing, and the colony scout
worked with concentration at his task of fitting the blade into the
crack and freeing the door. As soon as there was space enough, the
merman's claws recklessly slid under, and he added what strength he
could to Dalgard's. The door arose and fell back onto the pavement
with a clang, exposing a dark pit.

"Got 'em!" the words burst from the stranger. He had pressed the
firing button of his weapon. Where the passage in which they stood met
the main corridor, there was an agitated shouting and then sudden
silence.

"Down--" The merman had crawled to the edge of the opening. From it
rose a dank, fetid smell. Now that the noise in the corridor was
stilled Dalgard could hear something: the sound of water.

"How do we get down?" he questioned the merman.

"It is far, there are no climbing holds--"

Dalgard straightened. Well, he supposed, even a leap into that was
better than to be taken a second time by Those Others. But was he
ready for such a desperate solution?

"A long way down?" The stranger leaned over to peer into the well.

"He says so," Dalgard nodded at the merman. "And there are no climbing
holds."

The stranger plucked at the front of his tunic with one hand, still
holding his weapon with the other. From an opening he drew a line, and
Dalgard grabbed it eagerly, testing the first foot with a sharp jerk.
He had never seen such stuff, so light of weight and yet so tough. His
delight reached the merman, who sat up to gaze owlishly at the coils
the stranger pulled from concealment.

They used the door of the well for the lowering beam, hitching the
cord about it. Then the merman noosed one end about him, and Dalgard,
the door taking some of the strain, lowered him. The end of the cord
was perilously close to the scout's fingers when there was a signaling
pull from below, and he was free to reel in the loose line. He turned
to the stranger.

"You go. I'll watch them." The other waved his weapon to the
corridor.

There was some sense to that, Dalgard had to agree. He made fast the
end of the cord and went in his turn into the dark, burning the palm
of one hand before he was able to slacken the speed of his descent.
Then he landed thigh-dee