Zuzzara answered, because the dwarf had dropped to his knees and then stretched flat on the ground, still trying to hear the approach of the destrachans. He pulled Wiggles out of his pocket and set the little dog down beside him. Wiggles looked ready to take a quick nap, her pointed chin resting on the dwarf's rump. It had been a long day for a small dog-a long day for all of them.
'We got into siegebreaking because we needed money,' said Zuzzara, rubbing the bump left on her head by the shovel. 'Especially after we flooded out our last rainmaking customer.'
'Besides that,' Ivy prompted.
'Because we are good at what we do,' said Gunderal, looking like a defiant flower as she stepped up to her sister and fingered the bump on Zuzzara's head with gentle hands. 'Ivy, I can hold the river back. I could twist my water-calling spell to keep these tunnels from flooding for a while longer. I'm sure of it.'
'No,' said Ivy very slowly, because she had just had a new idea, but she was not sure how everyone would react. 'We don't want to hold the river back. We want to let the river in. Archlis was right. These tunnels are low and going lower. If we let the water in…'
'We all drown,' pronounced Mumchance standing up and dusting off his knees. Wiggles was staying close by his heels, very quiet, as if the little dog sensed danger was close.
'Unless…'
'We get out first.'
'But what about the destrachans?' asked Gunderal.
'We hope that they can't swim.'
'But what about Kid?' Gunderal asked. 'Oh, Ivy, you are not going to leave Kid behind?'
'Of course not. Everyone gets out. Everyone except Archlis. Don't much care about him, do we?'
Zuzzara giggled-one of those deep orc giggles that made people nervous. 'Are we going after Archlis, Ivy?'
'That magelord is just another tower waiting to be toppled,' said Ivy. 'Let's bury him down here and take down the walls of Tsurlagol!' She delivered this rousing speech in a low-pitched tone to avoid attracting destrachans, but it got the same reaction as all of her rousing speeches. Everyone looked like they wanted to disagree-Mumchance even opened his mouth and then closed it-and then everyone gave a reluctant nod. If Ivy was crazy enough to think it might work, then they might be crazy enough to go along with it.
'For once, that idea actually sounds like a plan,' said Mumchance finally. 'One that isn't completely different from what we discussed before.'
'Don't look so surprised.'
'No, think about it. The tunnels may be a bit deeper than we intended to dig,' said the dwarf, 'but we can use them just the same. They all run toward the current city as far as I can tell, or the current city was built up on a corner of these ruins, which is more likely. We have been twisting around a lot, following that magelord, but I think we are pretty close to that southwest corner. If Gunderal could force the water toward the city, we could just wash the walls away. Or'-as Mumchance became more enthusiastic about the idea, he also became a stickler for precise details describing underhanded ways of engineering destruction-'we can at least take down that weak corner that we found earlier. The spot where you told the Thultyrl that the wall would fall down.'
'That would be good,' agreed Ivy as they continued to explore the current tunnel. 'Make us look like we know what we are doing. That is so rare.'
'I'm serious, Ivy.' The dwarf stuck out his lower lip and blew a heavy breath. Ivy recognized his don't- sidetrack-me-when-I-am-thinking sigh. 'Look at the cracks running through the walls,' said Mumchance, pointing left and right. 'I bet those shrieking beasts did that. If they hunt here often, the ground will already be weak above us as well as below. Tsurlagol could end up with a pretty lake on its west side.'
'That leaves the problem of how we avoid being crushed,' said Ivy. 'Or drowned. Or eaten.'
'You will figure something out,' said Mumchance. 'You always do.'
'I do, don't I?' said Ivy with just a little more bounce in her step as she walked down the tunnel. 'Well then, let's speed up the water coming into these tunnels, and let us hope those creatures can't float or swim.'
Gunderal spread out her pale fingers and made a gesture resembling raindrops falling down. Drops of water trickled off her fingers and spattered into the dust at her feet. 'I'm feeling much better,' she said.
'Knew you could do it,' said Zuzzara, 'but don't push your magic too hard. What if you can't do what you want when you want to?'
'Sister, I do not even understand that last sentence,' giggled Gunderal. A small smile brightened her delicate features. A few long ringlets had come loose from her topknot, and she looped one long strand around her finger very slowly. 'Stopping a river is rather boring, but calling one! So much more fun.'
'Do you think you can?' her sister asked.
Gunderal's violet eyes gleamed in a way that would be called a glare in a less beautiful woman. 'You never think I can do anything.'
'I am only asking.'
'Zuzzara, I may not be as strong as you or as clever as Mimeri, but I can cast spells!'
'I only said…'
Gunderal stood in the shadow of her half-orc sister and stared up at her. 'Well, don't, Zuzzara. Don't say another word! I know a thing or two about water magic.'
'Unless you know how to kill destrachans, keep your voices down,' Ivy finally intervened. 'We need to think of some place that we could ambush the creatures.'
'Those creatures hunt by sound more than anything else,' Zuzzara said, peering through one archway into the chamber beyond.
'According to Archlis, they are blind,' Ivy agreed. 'And you saw the size of those ears.'
'So what if we make a lot of noise and draw them into a narrow place like this,' Zuzzara suggested. 'Someplace where we could get above them. That might help.'
They followed Zuzzara into a circular chamber with stairs running in spirals along the walls to higher openings. In the center of the room stood a small fountain with a trickle of water coming out of its cracked marble spouts. The water was very cold to the touch.
'There's our river,' said Gunderal with satisfaction. 'Or a branch of it at least.'
'Forcing its way in through the old pipes first,' said Mumchance. 'The dwarves built well when they built this city, every time that they built this city.'
'Strange place,' said Ivy, looking around the tower of ancient Tsurlagol.
Gunderal ran up a few stairs and rested her hand against the wall. 'It is some kind of watchtower, sunk by that weird earth magic that I've been feeling throughout the ruins. Remember the mosaic back in the bathhouse?'
'Odd or not, Zuzzara is right,' said Mumchance. 'It's a good place for a trap.'
Zuzzara shrugged. 'I may be ugly, but I'm not dumb.'
The old joke made them all laugh a little, and then glance uneasily over their shoulders as the laughs bounced around the room.
Mumchance climbed up the stairs after Gunderal, peering here and there through the openings, swinging his lantern before him. Wiggles stopped before one doorway and let out one small sharp bark. Mumchance took a look and then called back down the stairs. 'There's another tunnel. Looks like it runs straight back the way that we came, just higher up.'
'Higher is good,' said Ivy, watching the ancient fountain that bubbled in the center of the room.
'Now we need to attract the destrachans lower down,' said Mumchance. 'So the water covers them before it covers us.'
'That was what I was thinking,' Ivy said.
'Do you want me to use my eye?' The dwarf fingered his fake eye as if he were going to pop it out of his head. 'An explosion should bring the beasts quick enough.'
'Save that eye. We may need it later. I have a better idea,' said Ivy with a wicked grin. 'Everyone needs to get to higher ground first. Gunderal, go up to that platform where Mumchance is. Get as close to the exit as you can; you may need to run quickly.'
Gunderal climbed to the ledge where Mumchance stood.
'Maybe you should call from inside that tunnel,' Ivy suggested. The sound carried perfectly up to Gunderal on
