A lesser girl might have broken down and cried, but Selima was too strong willed and had been through too many crises already in the past few weeks to become discouraged in this situation. She knew there would be a solution if only she kept her head and worked things out sensibly.
The darkness and the stench of these foul tunnels closed in about her, but now that she was no longer being chased she could move through them in a systematic way to see where they led. Her feet made no sound as they trod upon the gravel on the tunnel floors, while anyone approaching her made a characteristic crunching noise to warn her they were coming.
Some of these tunnels, she discovered, had been formed naturally within the earth, while others had been carved from the hard, black rock; during the millennia
