in sight. The children, unused to expressions other than depression and grim-lipped determination on the faces of their parents, suddenly clapped their hands and laughed. All appeared happy except for the little weasel-faced man who watched them with a look of suspicion and cunning in his dark, skeptical eyes.
The women, perhaps unable to express their joy in any other manner, turned to their meager supplies and made themselves busy with much clanking of pots and rattling of pans. Soon, good smells rose from the cooking fires.
Later, over pipes and tiny allotments of homebrewed honeyed-ale, Hornsbuck and the leaders of the underground people worked out the final details of Mika's plan, which they had decided would be carried out the following night. At last, even the weasel- faced man seemed persuaded, and the assignments were given out with enthusiasm. The underground people smiled at each other, knowing that if their plan succeeded, Exag would never be the same again.
As they made ready for sleep, unrolling their cloaks next to the fire, Margraf called out, 'Good night, Mika. Sleep tight, and don't let the rusties bite!' All around the large room others echoed his words.
Mika smiled, thinking it some quaint local saying, and nodded in agreement. Tam and the princess curled up near the fire at his feet and were soon sound asleep. RedTail slumbered next to Hornsbuck and Lotus Blossom, who were locked in their usual embrace. Mika placed his sword and knife alongside his cloak as was his custom, readily available should there be trouble in the night. Soon, he, too, was fast asleep.
Sometime in the middle of the night Mika began to dream of birds. Or maybe it was crickets. Or locusts. The sound so troubled him that the iln ч same passed away, leaving him almost uncooacaoas, wrapped in his cloak, more than half asleep bat listening to a peculiar chirping noise that fit no category he could identify.
He lay there for a moment more, half listening to the soft, chittering noise. It was a happy, non- threatening sound, almost like a pleasant murmuring carried on with oneself while occupied in a pleasant task. Sort of like humming. Mika almost fell back asleep, so pleasant was the sound. Then he heard the scuttle of feet and the rasp of metal on stone, and the soft sounds began again.
Mika's eyes blinked open. Feet. Movement. Metal. He whirled over, his hand reaching for the hilt of his sword. His hand met with something else. Something hard and chitinous. There was a moment's pause, and then the thing squeaked in alarm and scuttled away, chittering loudly.
Mika groped for his sword and knife, cursing audibly as the strange little creature made its escape. Mika had never seen anything like it before in his life. Since he seemed to have frightened it away, he gave up searching for his weapons and watched as the creature disappeared into the darkness.
The thing was about the size of a wolf but rounded, its body a mass of something that closely resembled metal-plating. Two long antennae protruded in front of the creature's body and waved back and forth as it trundled along on four bony limbs. A long segmented tail arched over its back and ended in a strange windmill-like protuberance.
Mika watched it go with a bemused smile on his face. What a peculiar little thing! The last of its alarmed squeaks had all but faded away when Mika turned to look for his sword. But it was nowhere to be found. Nor was his knife. He leaped to his feet in alarm and threw the cloak aside, thinking that perhaps he had rolled over the weapons in his sleep. But there was nothing to be seen except a small pile of rusty detritus.
Tam and the princess got to their feet and snuffled among the folds of the cloak. Tam sneezed and sat down on his haunches and yawned. The princess merely looked puzzled, curled up on the cloak, and closed her eyes.
'Great protector you are!' Mika yelled at Tam. 'Someone sneaks in here and steeds my sword and knife right under your nose, and you sleep through it. What good are you? Why are you here? All you do is make moon eyes at that stupid princess. I wouldn't even be here if it weren't for her. Thanks a lot, friend. I get the trouble and you-you get the girl!'
Mika was working himself up to a fine rage, almost beside himself at the loss of his weapons. Nervous enough about being trapped underground against overwhelming odds with nought but a bunch of half- starved losers to help him, the loss of his weapons seemed the fined blow.
'Sir! It is not the wolfs fault,' said a small voice. Mika looked down and saw Margraf standing at his side. All around him were wakeful, watchful eyes. Looking around him, he saw with embarrassment that his diatribe had awakened nearly everyone in the room.
'It was the rusties, sir. I warned you about them,' said Margraf, his small face looking up at Mika with an earnest expression as though Mika might blame him for the loss of his weapons.
'Rusties?' asked Mika, remembering now that the boy had warned him not to let the rusties bite. He had thought it but a quaint colloquialism.
'Yes, sir. Rusties. Rust monsters,' Margraf said helpfully, peering up at Mika. 'They live down here, sir, and they eat metal, turn it to rust, they do. It's almost impossible to keep them from it. That's why none of us has a metal weapon.'
Mika looked down at the tiny heap of rusty flakes, the remainder of his sword and knife, and groaned. Only the fact that he had been sleeping with his hand tucked beneath him had protected the gauntlet. So that was what he had seen; the peculiar litde creature he had frightened away was a rustie.
A terrible thought struck him and filled with panic. He rushed over to Hornsbuck and began running his hands over the nomad's great, blanketed bulk.
Lotus Blossom wakened with a screech and Hornsbuck with a snort, his snores halted abruptly. His arm shot out, and he grasped Mika with a powerful hand.
'It's me! Mika!' squalled Mika. 'Where's your sword?'
'My sword? Why, it's right… right… Why it's not here!' mumbled Hornsbuck. 'What's this damn dirt doing in my blankets? Trouble with caves… dirt everywhere…'
'It's not dirt,' Mika said in despair. 'It's rust. Something called a rust monster lives down here. Eats metal, so it seems.'
'You mean we've no weapons?' roared Horns- buck. 'Damn its mischief. I'll kill it if I get ahold of it. Where is it?'
'It's gone, Hornsbuck,' Mika said wearily. 'Saw it run away myself. Didn't realize what it was or what it'd done. Wouldn't have done much good if we had. What would we have done, stomped it to death?'
'I'll fix you up with a club in the morning, sir,' said Margraf. 'Clubs work read good, and the rusties don't like 'em.'
'Clubs,' muttered Hornsbuck. He growled at RedTail, who closed his eyes and yawned, not at all disturbed by the rage of his bonded companion.
But curse though he did, it made no difference, the weapons were gone to rusty flakes. Lotus Blossom did her best to coax Hornsbuck back to sleep, to the relief of the goggle-eyed underground people.
After a time, Mika lay back down and, sighing deeply, managed to fall asleep once more.
It seemed that he had barely closed his eyes when he heard Tam barking and a second wolf, probably the princess, yapping shrilly. He opened his eyes, thinking that perhaps the rust monster had returned for a second course when he felt something sharp poke into his throat. His eyes opened wide and there, standing over him, was a guardsman! He started to rise, but the point of the sword pricked him painfully, convincing him that it was better to lie still.
All around him Mika heard the sounds of defeat, curses, frightened cries, and the sobbing of women. The wolves continued their harsh barking, and then there was the sound of a blow. Shrill 'ki-yi-yiing' echoed through the cave, ending in a tiny whimper.
Mika stared up into the black eyes of the guard, feeling the hate building within him, knowing thai the princess had been hurt, but not knowing how badly. All thoughts of past angers dropped away. In that moment, the princess became one with him, an extension of him as was Tam, Hornsbuck, RedTail, and probably even Lotus Blossom. He knew that whomever had hurt her would pay for it.
But that seemed very unlikely at the moment. The guard motioned him to his feet and herded him together with the rest of the inhabitants of the underground room.
It was so easily done, reflected Mika. They had been captured with no chance of resistance, betrayed by the little man with the weascly face. It had taken no more than two score of guards. But the guards appeared in good health and were well-armed. Sitting with the rest of the men, hands on top of his head in front of the dying fire, Mika saw that their plan had been doomed from the first. They would never have succeeded. But he would rather have tried and failed than to be captured while sleeping.
