The Spirit Ring Read Online Free PDF

it. Squeeze it to get it to tell him where gold or silver lay, or something. Yet its wrinkled countenance, like a dried apple, made it seem venerable, not evil or menacing.
           It sidled toward Thur. He tensed. Slowly, one cool knobby finger reached out and touched Thur's wrist. I should seize it now. But he couldn't, didn't want to, move. The kobold jittered across the stones and rubbed up against the discolored vein in the rock. It oozed, seeming to melt— It's getting away!
           "Master Kobold," Thur croaked desperately, "tell me, where shall I find my treasure?"
           The kobold paused. Its half-lidded eyes stared directly at Thur. Its answer was a creaky chant, like the overstrained wood of a windlass lifting a heavy load. "Air and fire, metal-master, air and fire. You are earth and water. Go to the fire. Ice water will put you out. Cold earth will stop your mouth. Cold earth is good for kobolds, not for metal-masters. Grave digger, grave digger, go to the fire, and live."
           It melted into the vein, leaving only a fading giggle behind. Riddles. Ask a blasted gnome a straight and simple question, and get riddles. He should have known. The cadence of its speech had infused its words with doubled meaning. Grave digger. The solemn miner, or the man who chipped out his own tomb? Meaning himself, Thur? The sweat drying on his body had chilled him to the bone. He sank shivering to his knees. His heart was laboring, and there was a roaring in his ears like Master Kunz's furnace when the bellows played. His eyes were darkening... no, it was the lamp flame dwindling, low and weak.   But there was plenty of oil....
           Farel's voice rang painfully in his ears. "By Our Lady, the air stinks in this pocket!" And then, "Hey, boy, hey...!"
           A strong hand closed around Thur's arm, hauling him roughly to his feet. Thur swayed dizzily. Farel swore, pulled Thur's arm across his own neck, and began to guide him up the tunnel.
           'Bad air," said Farel. "The ventilation bellows are pumping all right now. There must be a blockage somewhere in the pipe. Damn! Maybe the kobolds did it."
           "I saw a kobold," said Thur. His heart was still pounding, but his vision was beginning to clear, in so far as anyone had vision in these staring shadows in the heart of the mountain.
           "I hope you shied a rock at it!" said Farel.
           "I fed it some milk. It seemed to like it."
           "Idiot boy! For God's sake! We're trying to get rid of the vermin, not attract more! Feed it, and it'll be back with all its brethren. No wonder we're infested!"
           "It was the first time I ever saw one. It seemed nice."
           "Agh." Farel shook his head. "Bad air, all right, and bad dreams from it."
           They reached the fork of the tunnel. The air was fresh enough here. Farel sat Thur down beside the hollow wooden tube that piped the forced air into the lower reaches of the mine. "Stay there, while I get Master Entlebuch. Are you going to be all right?"
           Thur nodded. Farel hurried away. Thur could hear him shouting up the lift shaft over the creaks and groans of the wooden machinery. Thur was still chilled, and he wrapped his arms around his torso, drawing up his long legs. Farel had taken the lamp. The blackness closed in.
           In time Farel returned with Master Entlebuch, who held his lamp up to Thur's face and stared at him in worry. He questioned Thur about his symptoms, then went back down the tunnel with Farel, tapping the wooden air pipe with a stick as he went. At length, Farel came back carrying Thur's abandoned lamp and tools.
           "A piece of pipe was crushed in a rock fall. Master Entlebuch says, forget the upper tunnel today. As soon as you feel able, go join the crew on the lower face and haul baskets for a while."
           Thur nodded and rose. Farel shared flame from his lamp to rekindle