'I know one thing — you're a half-derro. You don't look like a derro, or even other Theiwar,' he shot back. He crossed his arms smugly. 'And I know that no one who thought like a Theiwar would have defended a hill dwarf at the Beast Pit.' His eyes narrowed. 'Why did you do that, anyway?'
Perian squirmed under his scrutiny. 'I don't know. For years I've stood by and watched Pitrick abuse everything from Aghar to… to me, all for his own twisted amuse ment. I guess something inside me just snapped today, when
I heard what he did to your brother, when I saw that fright ened Aghar go over the edge… I just couldn't stand by and let something happen one more time.'
She snorted. 'Frankly, it never occurred to me that he would push me in.' Her hands clenched into fists. 'Pitrick deserves a long, slow, torturous death.'
'He'll get it, the black-hearted bast — ' Red-faced, Flint glanced up at Perian. 'He'll pay for what he's done to all of us, but especially for Aylmar.' Flint snapped a piece of pot tery between his thumb and forefinger.
'Who's Aylmar?' Perian asked.
Bitterly, Flint told the tale of his brother's murder. His an ger flared, fueled by the frustration of their forced inaction.
'Where is that Bonehead fellow?' he roared impatiently.
'Nomscul,' Perian reminded him.
'Whatever!' Flint marched to the door and poked his head out.
The little imp abruptly sprang from a corridor to the left, staggering under the weight of a large wooden box. Noms cul elbowed his way past the barrel-chested dwarf and dropped his heavy load unceremoniously onto the dirt floor.
Flint looked in disgust at the box. 'What in the Abyss is that?' he bellowed, nearly bowling the smaller dwarf over.
'That two leafs king and queen want!' Nomscul pro nounced, happily waving a dirt-caked hand toward the box. Flint and Perian squinted at the container and saw that it did, indeed, contain a sloppy pile of dirty, wet, decompos ing leaves. 'King find good grubs in there for queen to eat!'
Nomscul winked conspiratorially at the hill dwarf.
Flint could see Perian gulp down her disgust. It was with the greatest drain on his limited patience that Flint managed to growl, 'We don't want leaves. We want to go away, to get out of here. Please lead us — or if you're too busy collect ing leaves — get an escort to take us to the surface.'
'King want a skirt for queen now?' Nomscul was obvi ously puzzled by this new request. His queen looked dirty enough. Shrugging, he spread his hands wide to measure her thick waist, resolving to find one of the skirts that helped differentiate Aghar frawls from harrns.
'Of course, we don't want a skirt, you ridiculous little worm!' the hill dwarf exploded.
Perian put a hand on Flint's shoulder. 'He doesn't under stand.' Turning to Nomscul, she asked, 'How many ways out of Mudhole are there?'
The Aghar wiped his nose with his sleeve. 'There one way — ' He held up three fingers '- to get out of Mudhole.
Beast Pit, garbage run, and big crackingrotto,' he said.
'Garbage run?' Perian asked, with a sinking feeling.
'Up in warrens,' Nomscul told her. 'Get good food from weird-eyed dwarves.' The Aghar forced his eyelids open wide with his fingers, then crossed them and giggled.
Seeing Flint's puzzled look, Perian explained. 'The gully dwarves raid Theiwar City's dumps and warehouses in the north warrens all the time.'
Flint nodded in understanding. 'What is the 'big crackin grotto,' and where does it lead, Nomscul'!'
'There big crack in wall of grotto, and it go out,' the gully dwarf said simply. Nomscul picked a bug from his scalp, in spected it closely, then popped it into his mouth.
'Where is the grotto?' Flint demanded.
'That way.' Nomscul chucked a thumb toward the corri dor beyond the room. 'Past bedrooms of Aghar — lots of
Aghar in Mudhole!'
'That's good enough for me,' Flint said, taking Perian's arm and pulling her toward the door. 'We'll just explore around until we find something that looks like a grotto;
Mudhole can't be that big. Come on, Perian.'
'Where we go?' Nomscul asked, bouncing at their sides.
Flint did not stop to look at him. 'I don't know where you're going, but Perian and I are gonna look for the crack ing grotto.'
Nomscul looked crushed. He fumbled in a pocket on his right side and pulled out a carved wooden whistle. Placing it between his thick lips, the gully dwarf blew so hard on it that his face turned red. Both Perian and Flint jumped at the unexpected shrill noise. Before either could turn or ques tion, though, they were stampeded from both doorways by running, screaming, jumping Aghar, all talking at once.
'You can tell he king. He got big nose!'
'That your real hair, Queen? Hair not usually come that color!'
'Two chairs for king and queen! Hip-hop hurry! Hip-hop hurry!'
The teeming masses of Aghar flooded in endlessly from the corridors, tearing the astonished Flint from Perian's side. Where were they all coming from? the hill dwarf won dered as he tried to make his way to the door again. On every grubby face was an adoring smile, and each one he squeezed past reached up to touch his hair, her hem. What on Krynn did they all want?
'King getting away!' Nomscul shouted. Suddenly every gully dwarf within ten feet launched himself into the air and onto Flint's back and head, hugging him, squeezing his arms and cheeks as he was crushed to the floor. Someone poked him in his black eye, but the right side of his face was pressed into the cold stone floor and he couldn't even move his mouth to swear at the perpetrator.
'What is going on here?' Perian screamed over the din.
Though she had not been knocked to the ground, ten gully dwarves clung to her legs and arms.
The Aghar atop Flint rolled off into a mound of wiggling, flailing limbs, as the hill dwarf struggled to his feet, shaking his head. His face was hot with anger, and he swung about in a wide circle, his fists raised and ready.
'King and queen must stay in Mudhole!' Nomscul an nounced, standing on top one of the tables to be seen. 'The property say so!'
'Pro-per-ty! Pro-per-ty! Pro-per-ty!' The gully dwarves chanted, dancing and whooping and gibbering around their stunned dwarven visitors.
'What are you talking about?' Perian demanded. 'What 'property?' '
That all-too-familiar puzzled look crossed Nomscul's face again. Suddenly his eyes narrowed suspiciously. 'You test ing Shaman Nomscul to see if he know!' The gully dwarf squinted in concentration, his eyes sinking into his skull as if he would find the answers there. At last he began to recite in an irritating, singsong falsetto.
King and Queen descend from mud,
Land in Beast Pit with a thud.
Aghar crown them, dance and sing,
And they be king and queen forever.
Nomscul began to hop up and down happily at having passed the test. 'That what property say!' The gaggle of gully dwarves once again whooped, gibbered, and bounced around its newly acclaimed monarchs.
'That's terrible!' moaned Perian. 'It doesn't even rhyme!
And he must mean prophecy, not property.'
Flint cast her a stony glance.
'We touch king! We touch queen!' the Aghar chanted, drawing a sloppy circle around the two.
Flint batted away their groping hands. 'Stay back!' he growled. 'Keep your disgusting paws off of me!' He made one last lunge for the door, but the press of bodies was too thick, and they brought him down again.
'Tie king up!' Nomscul commanded. Dozens of hands lifted Flint from the floor and stuffed him into a rickety chair made of beams. Eight dwarves sat on his thrashing form while Nomscul and a frawl the shaman called
