'Oh blast,' said Ivy seeing Mumchance's frown at Wiggles's actions.
Mumchance whistled one high sharp note. With drooping tail, the dog came back to his side. 'It's your fault, Ivy, that she chases after such things,' scolded the dwarf.
Ivy had taught Wiggles to catch bones when she threw them to her. 'Well, she started doing that little dance for bones all on her own,' Ivy said, defending her earlier actions to Mumchance.
'She did not. You encouraged her to do that. And its just not dignified!'
Ivy considered that any dog bearing the unfortunate moniker of 'Wiggles' already lacked dignity, but she knew better than to say it out loud. Instead, to soothe the dwarf's feelings, she asked him if he thought the skeleton warrior could be of any use to them.
'Lead us out of here, you mean? No, those things are brainless, and this one is more so than most,' observed Mumchance as he circled left to avoid the headless skeleton. 'Somebody looted whatever armor and weapons these poor sods had. They just left the bones behind because they're worthless.' The skeleton seemed to sense that Mumchance was talking about it, because it began its mad lurch toward the dwarf.
'Let's leave before it bumps into anyone. It looks a bit moldy under that glow,' said Gunderal, pulling her skirts close with one hand to avoid any contact with the thing. 'Or before it kicks up more dust!'
'Shouldn't we kill it?' asked Sanval, still eyeing the lurching green bones with an uneasy look.
'Gunderal can knock it over with a spell,' declared Zuzzara. 'Go on, show him.'
'It's a waste of magic,' answered the wizard with a small frown of her pink lips. 'Why should I do anything to it?' The skeleton was now reeling back and forth, obviously both attracted and distracted by the sound of their voices.
'It is harmless,' agreed Ivy. 'And it is already dead.'
'I think we need to go east,' said Mumchance, still walking in circles to avoid the skeleton. The dwarf ducked around the columns.
'Hey,' yelled Ivy, 'don't leave us in the dark.'
Mumchance popped around the column that Gunderal had marked earlier, holding his lantern above his head to cast the widest possible circle of light. 'Kid was right. Several ways out of here. I think we have gone west of the city, so we need to find a tunnel leading east.'
'And that will lead us under the walls and then out,' Ivy concurred. 'Let's start moving. Come on!'
But Gunderal and Zuzzara were paying no attention to Ivy. They were still arguing about Gunderal's reluctance to cast a spell.
'I am not disanimating that skeleton,' said the wizard, with the suggestion of a pout starting to form on her lower lip.
'Why not?' Zuzzara wanted to know. The half-orc's teeth were beginning to show under her upper lip-a sure sign of annoyance.
'Just because I don't feel like doing it,' Gunderal replied. The headless skeleton started its weaving wander toward them.
'You always put down bones when you can. You have lost your magic!' The last was shrieked by the half-orc. The skeleton made an abrupt about-turn and lurched away from them.
'Don't be foolish! I can't lose my magic. I'm just tired, and my arm hurts, and you keep screaming at me!' Gunderal stamped her foot, raising up a cloud of ash. 'Look what you made me do. It will take me forever to clean these skirts.'
'You're still in pain. I told you that I should carry you out of those tunnels. You have exhausted yourself,' said Zuzzara, modulating her voice into something less than an orc shout but still loud enough to make everyone else in the room wince. The skeleton picked up speed away from the half-orc, lurching rapidly toward the nearest tunnel entrance. Ivy watched it go with a mild expression of envy. Once Zuzzara and Gunderal got to the screaming stage, it was difficult to shut their mouths with anything less than an avalanche.
'I'm not a child,' Gunderal answered back, her voice going higher, like a stubborn little girl. 'Besides, that tunnel was so narrow, you could barely get yourself through it.'
'But you're all white and dizzy.'
'Because I'm wasting breath arguing with you. Leave it be, Zuzzara, I'm fine. The arm just aches. I'm not going to die from a sprained arm.'
'So why can't you do any spells? You can always do spells.'
'Not when I'm in pain and somebody is shouting in my ear!'
The skeleton was just a faint green glow, disappearing into the black tunnel.
'Shut up!' shouted Ivy, cutting across their words with a parade ground bellow. 'They can hear you all the way back to the Thultyrl's tent. Zuzzara, if Gunderal faints or even starts to faint, sling her over your shoulder. Until then, leave her be!'
'Sorry, Ivy,' muttered Zuzzara.
'Sorry, Ivy,' echoed Gunderal.
Ivy shook her head at them, a little startled that they had actually paid attention to her. They must both be feeling exceptionally bad. 'You should be sorry. Disgraceful, Zuzzara spending so much time worrying about you, Gunderal. And Gunderal, you should stand up to her more. Just because you're such a shrimp…'
Gunderal squealed an indignant reply. Zuzzara frowned at Ivy. 'She's not a shrimp. That's not a nice thing to say, Ivy. She can't help being short.'
'I am not short!' yelled Gunderal. 'I'm just not oversized!'
'Yes, yes,' said Zuzzara, patting Gunderal on her head.
'Zuzzara!' Gunderal ducked out of reach of the half-orc's friendly pats and checked her topknot with her good hand to make sure that it was still straight. Her hair had slid a little to the side. Gunderal pulled a small round silver mirror out of her pouch with a sigh. The mirror, unlike her potions, had survived the fall. She handed it to Zuzzara with a sharp command of 'make yourself useful, hold this for me.'
Ivy rolled her eyes. The world could be ending and Gunderal would still be combing her curls or arguing with Zuzzara. 'Never, ever, go campaigning with a pair of sisters,' Ivy said to Sanval. 'Just because they are related, they will drive each other crazy as well as everyone else around them.'
'They are sisters?' He nodded toward them, his eyes wide. The half-orc, with her gray-streaked braids caught in iron beads, her sharp-toothed grin, and her large-boned frame, towered above the delicate Gunderal, with her fine features, rose petal skin, violet eyes, and a cloud of blue-black hair sliding out of its enameled pins and shell combs. Ivy could see why he had not caught the family resemblance.
There were never two women more physically different than Gunderal and Zuzzara, and most of the mercenaries in the camp never even guessed that they were half-sisters-unless they came flirting after Gunderal only to meet the point of Zuzzara's sword. Or picked a fight with the half-orc and suddenly found themselves entangled in one of Gunderal's spells.
After a decade of living with them, Ivy sometimes forgot about the physical differences. It was something about the tone of their voices, the quickness in which they could dissolve each other into tears or laughter, or the way that they would both nag her simultaneously. She had a hard time seeing them as anything but sisters.
'How can they be so different and still be sisters?' Sanval asked.
Ivy shook her head at the Procampur's stodginess.
'Same human father, very different mothers,' she said.
'They each take after the maternal side of their family. Look, we don't have time to discuss their family history, because it is extraordinarily complicated. Ask Mumchance some time; he knew their father.' To everyone else, she shouted, 'Let's get moving!'
'Ivy, I hear something,' Mumchance said. 'Listen. Something is coming. From there.'
The dwarf pointed toward the far side of the huge hall in the direction they would have to travel. Ivy shifted her sword off her back, clipping the scabbard on to the side of her weapons belt, so it would be easier to draw. She saw that Sanval already had his blade out. It, of course, gleamed in the light of Mumchance's lantern.
Kid pricked up his pointed little ears, swiveling them in the direction that Mumchance was pointing. 'Feet. Many little feet.' Kid licked his lips with his purple tongue. 'Many little scaly reptile feet running toward us.'
