to life, wound its branches round the green creature, and sucked it in.
“Ugh!” was all I could say at the sight of this wonder.
“Nothing surprising about that,” said Glo-Glo, dusting off his cloak. “Those things were created by the same spell as the wall, so if they touch each other, they just merge together.”
“The things you know!”
“I’m a shaman, my boy, not some marketplace charlatan! And a shaman has to know all sorts of things, otherwise his tribe won’t last very long. Come on, get those hooves moving, there’s not far left to go now.”
And we didn’t go very far, because at the next intersection we came across another Hunter. Fortunately, he was standing with his back to us and gazing off into the distance, holding an arrow ready on his bowstring. Was he lying in ambush for someone?
The Hunter was no more than seven yards away from us. No distance at all but, speaking for myself, I wasn’t too sure that if I tried to attack him, I wouldn’t end up with an arrow in me. Glo-Glo and I looked at each other, and he pointed to my sword with his eyes. I sighed and started slowly pulling the sword out of its scabbard. Fortunately for me, the orc never turned round. But then, as bad luck would have it, our chain clanked.
There was no time to think, and I flung the short, heavy weapon at the orc with all my might. And something impossible happened. Luck must have been on my side that day, because the sword turned a few somersaults in the air and buried itself in the Firstborn’s chest before he had time to shoot. It hit him so hard that he went flying backward and smashed into the wall.
“Well, may the forest spirits take me!” Glo-Glo exclaimed, shaking his head in delight. “I had no idea you could do that.”
“Neither did I,” I told the goblin, watching ruefully as the orc’s body disappeared into the thick green barrier, taking my sword with it.
“Come on, Harold, only two more intersections to go and we’re there. Orcs! We’ll diddle the lot of them.” And Glo-Glo stomped on, paying no attention to where the orc’s body had disappeared and my lost sword.
“Are you sure that in the last thirty years the orcs haven’t blocked off your little passage?”
“No, but we have to hope for the best.”
Two intersections after that the goblin grabbed hold of my arm and said, “Look.”
We were facing an open space exactly like the one where we met the bubblebelly. But there weren’t any exits leading off this one, and there were three tall green columns standing in it. Two of them were just plain columns, but the third one had two arms growing out of it, and they looked very much like the jaws of a praying mantis.
“What are we in for this time?” I groaned.
“These are the pillars I told you about,” the goblin muttered. “The ones without claws are sleeping, and that one’s on guard. They’re terribly quick, but if we can slip past them, we’ll be right beside the passage.”
“But where is the passage?” I asked. The pillars didn’t seem to be taking any notice of us, and I relaxed a bit.
“There it is, look!” the goblin said, as cool as a cucumber, pointing to the other side of the open space.
I had to strain my eyes to make out the goblin’s passage.
“Are you kidding?” I roared almost at the top of my voice. “A pregnant mouse would have a hard time trying to get through there.”
“Let’s not forget that last time I got through without any problem,” the goblin replied peevishly.
“But I’m not you! I’m not climbing in there!”
“Oh yes you are!”
“Why in the name of darkness did I ever listen to you?” I groaned.
“Because there’s a very good chance that thanks to me, you might survive.” Nothing could embarrass the goblin. “Believe me, my boy, the passage is a lot bigger than it looks. All right, if we waste any more time, one of the other Hunters or some other beast will find us. Just sprint for the passage as fast as you can and don’t get in the way of that pillar’s claws.”
“What about the others?”
“The others will take half a minute to wake up. Ready?”
I gulped hard and nodded.
“Run for it!”
Before we’d covered even a quarter of the distance, the pillar started moving toward us very fast, without making a sound.
In a single heartbeat, it was already towering up over us, and it took every last drop of agility I had to avoid a descending claw. I avoided it, but the pillar immediately struck again, after swinging its arm back round in some incredible fashion. I jumped one way, Glo-Glo jumped the other, and the claw hit the chain fettering us together close to the goblin’s arm.
The chain snapped, and Glo-Glo was left with just a bracelet, while I had all the rest. Setting the Labyrinth ringing with choice obscenities, I launched into a run, winding the chain onto my arm as I tried to catch up with the goblin.
The pillar was treading on my heels, so I dived into the narrow entrance after Glo-Glo like a fish. Somewhere behind me, claws clattered on the stone slabs, and I started working desperately with arms and legs, hauling myself as far away as possible from the rather agitated pillar. Fortunately for me and the goblin, the rotten beast didn’t try to storm the wall, and gave up on us.
“Glo-Glo, may you…,” I growled at the goblin crawling along in front of me. “Go slower, I can’t keep up.”
The goblin obligingly stopped and waited for me to catch up with him.
“Well, we pulled that off neatly, eh?”
“If you ignore the fact that your pillar very nearly nailed us and your passage is narrower than the space under a tight-fisted merchant’s bed, then yes … it was very neat.”
“Don’t worry, you’ll fit through here just fine!” Glo-Glo was much too pleased with himself to take any notice of my whinging. “Only don’t lift your head up, or you’ll end up in the wall!”
He didn’t have to remind me! I already knew that one twitch to the left or the right, and I’d touch the green walls of the patch.
“How far do we have to crawl?”
The shaman didn’t risk turning his face toward me. One wrong move in this place could lead to a grotesque death. It would be like escaping from the Gray Stones, tripping over your own feet, and breaking your neck. The law of universal swinishness in action, so to speak.
“Can you manage a hundred and fifty yards?”
I ground my teeth and said, “What choice do I have? I’ll manage it. Just as long as it doesn’t get any narrower.”
“It won’t. Keep crawling.”
We crawled on. The only place I’d ever “enjoyed” myself so much was in Hrad Spein, when I crawled through that long, narrow stone tunnel. When I reckoned we’d already covered most of the distance, Glo-Glo suddenly stopped moving, stopped panting, and announced: “Er, Harold … we’ve got a little problem here.”
“What kind of problem?” I asked in a trembling voice, already imagining that the goblin had come nose to nose with some other monster of the Labyrinth.
“There’s a skeleton lying across the path.”
“So what’s the problem?”
“The problem is that he’s lying right across our path,” he repeated patiently. “I might be able to crawl over him, but I doubt very much if you can.”
“Just don’t tell me we have to crawl back,” I hissed angrily.
“Absolutely not! I’ll take him apart.”
“What do you mean?”
“Bone by bone. Wait.”
I had to lie there, listening to the goblin snuffling. Eventually even my patience ran out and I hissed like a grass snake with a cold: “Well, how much longer?”
“It’s done. I hope the deceased isn’t offended with us. Right, I’ll just get the skull out of the way.… Why, you! There … that’s it. Crawl!”
