Laraelra darted forward with her torch.'Harug, is Dorn still all right?' she called out.
'No, he's far from that, lass,' Harug replied. 'He's trapped under rubble in a puddle of rising filth.'
Laraelra and Meloon moved to the left side of the passage, as the ledge continued only on that side. They turned into the lit entrance of the smaller tunnel, the close confines of which concentrated the stench. The light of their torch merged with that of two others, and they could see the situation.
Part of the side wall had collapsed inward, though the ceiling arch overhead remained intact due to support pillars on both sides of the collapse. Sewage flowed out of the gap in the wall, cascading atop the pile of loosened stones and dirt. A makeshift shield of rocks kept most of it from splashing onto the two dwarves. The mobile one worked to move rocks while the other laid still, his legs trapped beneath the fall.
'About time ye made it back, lass,' Harug snapped. 'It's getting deeper around me nephew there, and I can't stop the flow long enough to redirect it.'
The old dwarf seemed exhausted, his shoulders sagging, but he kept moving, barely facing them before he returned to repairing the crude screen that kept the worst of the sewage off his fallen companion. He kept darting glances up at the dark recess that had opened in the wall above him.
Laraelra's eyebrows arched in surprise and anger, and she felt a flare of heat flush across her face. 'Why aren't Parkleth and Narlam here helping you clear rubble?'
Harug turned and shot her a knowing look.
'Those tluiners just left you here?' she said. 'Oh, when I get my hands on those parharding wastes of air!'
'How 'bout me first, Elra?' The trapped dwarf opened his eyes briefly and chuckled. 'The cowardly bigots can wait.'
Her temper cooled, and she dashed toward her old friends. 'To be sure, Dorn.'
Laraelra knelt by her friend, brushing some mud away from his eyes. She hoped her face didn't betray how concerned she was about the gash on his forehead or the muck rising around him. To hide her worry, she talked over her shoulder at the other men. 'Meloon Wardragon, meet Harug Shieldsunder, the most cantankerous dwarf in the city and one of our guild's best tunnel workers. The muddier one here is Dorn Strongcroft, his vastly more pleasant nephew. How can we help?'
'Move yer skinny self out of our way and get the lad to brace his back against that pile,' Harug said. 'If he can lift that main pair o' rocks for a trice, we should be able to pull Dorn free without the whole thing crushing all of us. Can ye do that, lad?'
'Aye,' Meloon said, as he leaned his axe against the wall and ledge. He stepped over and straddled the fallen dwarf, making sure his footing was secure. He squatted and reached behind his back to grab the two largest rocks. He nodded at Laraelra and Harug, who grabbed the groaning Dorn by the arms. The three of them nodded in unison, and on the third nod, Meloon grimaced and lifted, using his legs and arms to pull the weight of the pile off of the dwarf. Rocks and sluice water, now free of the temporary dam, engulfed the tall man, and he gasped at both the stench and the cold water as it soaked him from head to foot.
Laraelra and Harug yanked Dorn free of the rubble, the wet muck making a sucking noise as he slid free. The dwarf himself only made a perfunctory grunt, then his head lolled back as he passed out. Laraelra and Harug pulled Dorn more than three body lengths away from the collapse and up onto the ledge before they stopped.
Sighing in relief, Laraelra called back, 'Meloon, you can let go now,' and heard him groan as he lowered his burden. The rocks and dirt rumbled slightly as they settled into the space where Dorn once lay. More rocks tumbled from the broken wall, widening the dark gap.
Laraelra focused on Dorn, whose crushed, mud-encrusted legs were twisted unnaturally. She shuddered, remembering the far-lesser pain of a twisted ankle, and she thanked Tymora that
Dorn had fallen unconscious from the pain. She needed to keep his wounds clean and determine if any bones broke through his skin. She closed her eyes, focused on the image of a sunbeam becoming a rainbow, and summoned her power. She opened her eyes and spread her fingers in a fan over his legs. The mud shimmered and separated, the water flowing away and the dirt and offal falling off of Dorn's legs in chunks. After a breath or two, she relaxed, not seeing any blood staining his now-dry clothes.
Within the piles around Dorn's legs, Harug spotted the glint of one gold and one silver ring, and he snatched those up. 'Delvarin's daubles,' he grunted at the sorceress, pocketing the jewelry.
She replied, 'You're better off using that digger's treasure to pay a cleric to heal him, Harug, or he'll never walk again. Now why did you send a runner to the guildhouse claiming you needed protection down here instead of a pump crew and an engineer?'
'Fixits always come later, lass. I figured you'd have to bring somebody big enough to help do that more quickly.' Harug thumbed toward Meloon, who was busy coughing and wiping the worst of the muck off of his face, arms, and torso. 'Oh, and to deal with those, too.'
Harug picked up a rock and threw it past Meloon's shoulder to strike a lettuce green mottled lizard in the snout as it appeared atop the pile of rubble. The mastiff-sized lizard's response was a hiss and snap of its jaws, and Meloon punched it in the nose, forcing it back into the darkness. Meloon peered into the wall cavity and said, 'There's a lot of noise and movement back here, folks. I think it's a lot more of these things.'
Laraelra stood, squaring her shoulders and facing the old dwarf. 'Harug,' she said, 'strap Dorn to a board and get him to safety. We'll take care of those things. When you've heard it's clear, I want you down here to rebuild that wall. Father may favor Rodalun for the engineering jobs, but I don't trust that drunken sot to do it right. Besides, I don't want any others-especially my father- knowing about this breach in the tunnels.'
'Finally,' Harug chuckled, 'I'm glad ye respect dwarves, even if some other Cellarers don't. Thanks, Elra lass.' Harug clapped a thick calloused hand over hers and looked in her eyes. Softly, he said, 'We owes ye both, lass, that we does.'
Laraelra felt the solemnity of the dwarf's promise, and she knew her longtime friend Harug now pledged his life to hers.
Harug's eyes snapped toward Meloon. 'Watch them sewyrms, lad. Them lizards're stubborn, but their bite's only half as bad as their tail lash.'
Meloon smiled and said, 'Thanks!' He stepped over to retrieve his axe, keeping himself between the lizard and Laraelra. In that moment, two sewyrms hopped atop the rubble pile and a third splashed into the sewer stream behind the rocks. Laraelra had to reassess her initial impression of Meloon. She watched his eyes and ears catch everything moving around him and plan his attack accordingly. Sweeping the great-axe as he spun back around, Meloon beheaded one lizard as it leaped at him. The second lashed its scaled tail over its body like a scorpion, slapping the warrior's arm and drawing blood. Meloon grunted and lopped off the lizard's tail on the return swing of his axe. That creature screeched in pain and leaped back into the darkness, out of reach.
Laraelra watched Meloon's axe slide in his grasp from all the water and filth covering him. She stepped closer and cast her spell again. Water and offal slid off of Meloon, his clothes, and axe.
He shook his head and said, 'Who did that? I'm grateful, but…'
While many still feared magic since the Spellplague, Laraelra reveled in her small and growing sorceries. Even with her paltry few spells, she knew how to winnow down the opposition from lizards at least. Behind Meloon's massive back, Laraelra said, 'If you'd move to one side, I'll do more than help dry you off. I can make this battle a lot simpler.'
'A skinny little thing like you? A sword's weight could knock you over.' Meloon chuckled.
'Don't forget who's paying you,' she said, and she tried to push by him, but Meloon swept her back with his left arm.
'Unless you've a fireball or two in your sleeves, you'd best leave the fight to me. That's what you're paying me for.' Meloon swung his axe up and cleanly decapitated another lizard.
The lizards hissed loudly. Three more leaped atop the pile as the survivor jumped down into the sewer stream alongside. The tunnel filled with splashing and hissing sounds loud enough to drown out the near-constant dripping.
'Meloon!' Laraelra said. 'We can't pick them off one by one. Pick me up!'
'Hardly time for that, though I'll be happy to oblige later, milady.' Meloon smirked as he shoved the great-axe into the rubble pile, reducing it in height but also dislodging and knocking all three sewyrms back behind it.
'Hold me up so I can see into the cavity, fool!' She punched Meloon in the side in frustration. 'I'll disable most of them with a spell, instead of us getting overwhelmed by them. Then we can both take care of the stragglers,
