odd twitching. Janas stopped near the large boulder. It was more flat than round-a large shard broken from the mountain in a past earthquake, most likely-and slightly higher than his waist. He placed his free hand on it and squinted at the moving shape.
Definitely a lizard. Not much bigger than a bird, though it had large claws and a tail that looked stumpy, as if it was growing back. It had a fanlike skin of some sort between its limbs. It continued its thrashing, twisting and turning its body, sometimes even flopping onto its back.
'Like the damned thing has an itch it can't scratch,' Janas said to himself. 'Or like it's a fish out of water.'
'Or a worm on a hook,' said a low voice from behind him.
Janas gasped and whirled, bringing his short sword up and out. He had a brief look at a club or hammer descending upon his face. There was a brief flash-lightning or pain? — then darkness.
+++++
Berun knelt beside the corpse. His cloak gathered in the darkness so that he appeared no more than a strangely shaped boulder next to a dead man.
Perch pattered up to him, back to his usual self. He looked up at Berun and chittered.
'Well done, Perch,' Berun whispered. He reached out and the lizard climbed up his arm to burrow under the hood round his shoulders.
Berun's hands were shaking. He'd just killed a man. And not in defense. Not really. He'd lured the man out into the dark and smashed in his face with the hammer. The sound of the bones shattering had reminded Berun of a green branch snapping, but the shock of the blow the hammer had sent up his arm… that had been the worst. That's what put cold fear into his gut.
He was scared. Not because he was infiltrating one of the most fearsome fortresses east of Thay. Not because men were waiting to kill him. No. Berun was scared because after all he'd been through, after all he'd done to make sure Kheil stayed dead, here he was, back where he had reveled in his life of murder, and he'd just killed a man. Killed him. Felt the blow ending a man's life.
And Berun had enjoyed it.
The sprinkle of rain increased, falling down the mountain like a shroud drawn over a man's last glimpse of life. Berun couldn't stop his hands from shaking.
Lurom didn't like the outer tunnels during thunderstorms. The thunder itself wasn't so bad. But the roar of the rain and the howl of the wind amplified through the stone passageways so that the caverns seemed to hum a malevolent tune. He turned to Ferluk, his fellow guard. 'You think we should check on Janas?'
Ferluk didn't move from where he leaned against the stone wall. Beside him at chest level, the one oil lamp they were allowed sat in a niche carved into the stone in ages past. 'Just a storm,' he said. 'Man's got his cloak. Besides, he's a Nar. Spring rain like this probably is warm to him.'
Thunder boomed outside, and Lurom could feel the stone beneath his feet shaking. They were too far inside the entrance-way to catch the flicker of the lightning, but by the force of the thunder, Lurom guessed it had been a close strike.
'We should look on Janas,' said Lurom.
Ferluk scowled. 'Look on him if you want. But leave the lamp.'
'You expect me to walk in the dark?' Lurom looked down the passageway. It was narrow-scarcely larger than one of the servants' halls in the tower where he had his rooms. The light from their lamp reflected off the stone a good twenty feet in either direction. A few feet beyond that was only dim shadow. Beyond that lay utter darkness and the heavy drone of the storm.
'I don't expect you to take an open flame into the rain,' said Ferluk. 'Besides, you know the way. And if you're going out, you'll want your eyes adjusted to the dark. Janas won't have a light.'
Lurom looked into the darkness. 'Maybe if the storm lets up. Then we-what's that?'
He pointed and Ferluk looked.
'Just a lizard,' said Ferluk. 'Probably came in to get out of the rain.'
'Animals don't come in here,' said Lurom. 'Even bats won't. You know that.'
But it was a lizard. Not a very big one, all mottled brown and still glistening from being out in the rain. It cocked its head at them and blinked.
'So chase it off,' said Ferluk.
Lurom took a few steps toward it. The little lizard stood on its haunches and hissed at him. Lurom stopped, not taking his eyes off the little creature, and said, 'You think it might be poisonous?'
Ferluk rolled his eyes and pushed himself away from the wall. He drew his short sword as he passed Lurom. 'Won't matter if I have this,' he said.
He raised the sword and approached at a careful crouch so that a strike from his blade would reach ground level. 'Go on!' he said, and swiped the sword at the lizard.
It hissed back at him and flexed its front claws. They were small but looked sharp.
'Brave little thing,' said Lurom, and forced a laugh.
'Not for long,' said Ferluk, and he lunged, swinging at the lizard.
It shot away, but rather than retreating down the passage, it ran around Ferluk, skirting the wall. Lurom leaped back, not wanting to be anywhere near the thing's teeth and claws if it were poisonous. But the lizard ran past him, not even slowing. For a moment Lurom thought it would keep going, but it skittered up the wall, its claws finding enough grip that it scampered up like a spider.
'The lamp!' Ferluk shouted, but it was too late.
The lizard blundered into the niche, knocking the lamp out, then leaped away. The brass lamp hit the floor with a clang, oil spilling onto the stone. The flame guttered, and for one moment Lurom feared it would die and he'd be left in the blackness of the passageway that still seemed to hum to the rhythm of the storm. But then the flame caught in the spilled oil and flared. It burned low and blue in a pool along the floor, giving off only a fraction of the light the lamp had.
'Pick it up before all the oil spills!' Ferluk shouted.
The darkness moved behind Ferluk, coming for him.
Too shocked to form a coherent warning, Lurom screamed.
Too late.
An arm of shadow whipped out, the meager light glinting off something pale, like bone. Ferluk had begun to turn when the pale shard passed through his throat. Blood sprayed the wall, and over the sound of the shadow's approaching footsteps, Lurom heard a hundred tiny droplets patter to the stone like rain. Ferule’s blade clattered to the ground only an instant before his body.
Lurom reached for his own blade and drew in a breath to scream, but it died in his throat.
Berun shambled through the passageway. Hunched over inside his cloak, the tiny light of the starstone shedding a deep green light before him, and dragging a dead man behind him, he looked like some herald of Kelemvor, dragging the latest doomed soul to the City of Judgment.
The weight of the guard's corpse slowed Berun, but there was no helping it. He needed the man's key to pass through the Gallery of Stone Faces, and the key might have been anything-a ring, a medallion, a coin, a pin, or even an arcane symbol etched into the man's skin. Berun had no way to know and no time to bargain with the man for his life. So he dragged the guard's corpse behind him through the twisting tunnels. It had been years since he'd last walked this path, and it disturbed him how familiar it all seemed. His starstone lit the way before him, but he thought he might have been able to walk the way with his eyes closed. It was not a comforting thought.
In his heart, he prayed that there would be no more guards before he reached the Gallery of Stone Faces. The weight of the dead man was nothing compared to the weight on his soul. He tried to remember how many men he had killed since Sauk had come back into his life. It frightened him that he couldn't remember. In that moment, only the thought of Lewan and Chereth, both ahead of him on the far side of these dark tunnels, kept him going.
'What is that?' Galban whispered.
'Where? ' said Bennig. 'What is what?'
