After a few seconds another note floated down from the top. There was a clanking, as of heavy, ancient chains.
"This is quite a short lift compared to some up in the mountains," said Dee, as an iron plate ground across the entrance, sealing it. "There"s one half a mile high that will take a string of barges."
Water boiled beside the boat. Vimes saw the walls begin to sink.
"This is the only way to the Scone," said Dee behind him.
Now the boat was rocking in the bubbling water and the walls were blurred.
"Water is diverted into reservoirs up near the peaks. Then it is simply a matter of opening and closing sluices, you see?"
"Yes," mumbled Vimes, experiencing vertigo and seasickness in one tight green package.
The walls slowed. The boat stopped shaking. The water lifted them smoothly over the lip of the well and into a little channel, where there was a dock.
"Any guards below?" Vimes managed, stepping out on to the blessedly solid stone.
"There are usually four," said Dee. "For tonight I... arranged matters. The guards understand. No one is proud of this. I must tell you, I disapprove most strongly of this enterprise."
Vimes looked around the new cave. A couple of dwarfs were standing on a lip of stone that overlooked what was now a placid pool. By the look of it, they were the ones who operated the machinery.
"Shall we proceed?" said the dwarf.
There was a passage leading off the cave, which rapidly narrowed. Vimes had to bend almost double along one length. At one point metal plates clanked under his feet, and he felt them shift slightly. Then he was standing almost upright again, passing under another arch, and there...
Either the dwarfs had cut into a huge geode or they had with great care lined this small cave with quartz crystals until every surface reflected the light of the two small candles that stood on pillars in the middle of the sandy floor. The effect dazzled even Vimes after the darkness of the tunnels.
"Behold," said Dee gloomily, "where the Scone should be."
A round flat stone, midway between the candles and only a few inches high, clearly held nothing.
Behind it water bubbled up in a natural basin and split into two streams that flowed around the stone and disappeared again into another stone funnel.
"All right," said Vimes. "Tell me everything."
"It was reported missing three days ago," said Dee. "Dozy Longfinger found it gone when he went in to replace the candles."
"And his job is..."
"Captain of the Candles."
Ah.
"It"s a very responsible position."
"I"ve seen the chandeliers. And how often does he go in there?"
"He went in there every day."
"Went?"
"He no longer holds the position."
"Because he"s a prime suspect?" said Vimes.
"Because he"s dead."
"And how did that happen?" said Vimes, slowly and deliberately.