They became gradually aware of a distant sound. At first they thought it might just be a ringing in their ears, but it grew louder and more definite as they descended. It was a crackling, hissing noise, like that of some great fire, but the noxious fumes told them this was no fire dedicated to Oromasd. The men could make out a glow ahead of them that grew to a crimson blaze as they approached an opening of their tunnel.
The passageway opened out into a vast cavern, so huge that its roof could not be seen and the walls to left and right were obscured from the two men’s sight. Before them, perhaps a quarter of a parasang away, was the far wall, in which they could barely see another stone passageway. Arching across the chasm from their feet to the entrance of the tunnel at the other side wa
