“Who’s tha— Kli-Kli, is that you?”
“Well, at last!” the royal jester jabbered in delight. “I was beginning to think that flinny had lied!”
“Are you alone?”
“No, with Egrassa.”
“Can you shift the grille?”
I never thought I could ever feel so delighted. I almost launched into a dance!
“No, Harold,” Egrassa replied. “There’s a lock on it. If we break it off, the orcs will hear. Do you know who has the key?”
“Wait a moment! If I get your mittens off, can you shift the grille quietly?” I asked Glo-Glo, who hadn’t said a word all this time.
“Yes.”
“We don’t need a key. Have you got anything thin and sharp?”
“I do! A nail!” Kli-Kli informed me.
“Throw it to me!” I said happily, trying not to think about what the goblin would want a nail for on the march and whose boot he was planning to put it in when the time came.
The nail was very, very small and very, very thin. It could have been made to order.
“Have you found it?” a voice asked from above.
“Yes, now wait.”
“Get a move on! The orcs could turn up at any moment.”
“Don’t rush me!” I hissed, and started desperately fiddling with the lock on Glo-Glo’s left mitten.
The shaman waited patiently.
“How much time is there before it starts getting light?” I asked him in a quiet voice.
“About two hours…,” he replied just as quietly. “Maybe a bit more. It will start to rain in about ten minutes.”
“How do you know that?”
“Shamans have to know when it’s going to rain.”
“Like frogs?” I asked with a stupid giggle.
Was it my imagination, or was the goblin really smiling in the darkness? Just at that moment the lock gave a gentle click and the shaman took the mitten off. I started on the other lock.
“If it starts to rain and the alarm hasn’t been raised, we have an excellent chance of covering our tracks.”
“And if that doesn’t work?”
“Imagine what the Firstborn will do to us for ruining their festival after they sober up.”
I gave an involuntary shudder, but then the second lock clicked. Now Glo-Glo was free of his mittens.
“That’s great,” he muttered. “Get back against the wall and tell your friends to move away from the grille.”
“Egrassa! Kli-Kli!”
“Yes? How did it go?”
“Fantastic! Get away from the grille. About ten yards! There’s going to be a bit of conjuring!”
“But you…”
“Kli-Kli, for once just don’t argue!”
“But…”
“We’re moving,” said Egrassa.
The elf probably just grabbed Kli-Kli by the scruff of the neck and dragged him away. In the darkness I couldn’t see what the goblin was doing, but a wind suddenly started humming in the pit, then it darted upward, and the grille went flying off and up into the sky without making a single sound.
“That’s all,” Glo-Glo sighed. “Call your friends and get them to hoist our backsides out of here.”
“Won’t it fall back down on our heads?” I asked. I must admit, I thought the demonstration the old man had given was marvelous.
“Don’t worry, my boy.”
Then the ladder was lowered down into our pit, and I clambered out first. At the top I was grabbed by a pair of strong hands and there it was—the surface of the earth. There was much more light up here than down below, and I could make out the contented faces of Kli-Kli, Alistan Markauz, and Egrassa.
“Alive, thief?”
“Yes, milord.”
“That was some conjuring trick you just did!” Kli-Kli jabbered. “Whoosh, and it went flying up into the sky! I couldn’t believe my eyes!”
“I’m not alone,” I warned my rescuers, and just then Glo-Glo appeared. “This is the venerable Glo-Glo, a shaman.”
“Oi!” Kli-Kli squeaked when he saw my friend, and for some reason or other, he hid behind the elf.
“Pleased to meet you,” Milord Rat said with a nod. “And now, if nobody has any objections, let’s get away from here before the orcs turn up.”
“They’ve got the Horn,” I announced.
“Not anymore,” Egrassa contradicted me, and handed me my bag.
“But how?” I asked, unable to believe my own eyes.
“The flinnies made a special effort. For that ring you gave them they’re indebted to us to the grave,” the elf explained.
“And Shokren?”
“What Shokren?”
“The shaman who had my bag,” I explained.
“He got an arrow in the throat,” Milord Alistan said, and I felt delighted. “So we’d better get away from here before they raise the alarm.”
I didn’t ask them how they’d managed to steal into the heart of an orc village, then kill the shaman and take the bag with the Horn, all without being noticed. And I also tried not to think about the fact that they’d saved the Horn first, and then me.
“Follow me, but quietly,” Egrassa warned us, and set off.
I followed straight behind the elf, but Kli-Kli overtook me and installed himself in front of me. Glo-Glo and Alistan brought up the rear. We could see fires burning somewhere on the edge of the village and hear singing. Eel rose up out of the tall dry grass like a phantom. He noticed me and gave a sight nod, then looked Glo-Glo up and down in surprise, but didn’t say anything until Alistan Markauz asked him, “All quiet?”
“Yes, but these two were going toward the pit, so I had to deal with them.”
I saw the two dead bodies now, and I couldn’t resist going closer. I was right. Olag and Fagred. Both killed with throwing knives borrowed from Kli-Kli.
“Was there any noise?” Milord Alistan asked anxiously.
“They never knew what happened,” Eel said with a chuckle.
Glo-Glo spat juicily on Fagred’s body.
“Everyone into the trees!”
We crossed the clearing at a run and took shelter under the sleeping maples. Two short figures detached themselves from tree trunks.
“I told you they’d do it, beard-face!”
“And if we hadn’t been stuck here in the forest, it would have been done even better, hat-head! Cheers, Harold! I haven’t seen you for ages! Ugh! You’ve grown yourself a beard, just like me! And who’s this with you?”
“Looks like a goblin,” said Deler, moving closer.
“I couldn’t stand another jester!” Hallas groaned, but Egrassa promptly told them both to shut up.
Something rustled through the leaves of the maples and the first drops of rain fell on my face.
“We need to get away, honorable sirs, and get away quickly!” said Glo-Glo, taking the initiative.
“So now a goblin’s going to tell us what to do!” Hallas grumbled.
“We should go east now,” the old shaman continued as if he hadn’t heard. “As soon as we get past the cliffs,
