lined and arched. A few feet from where Trap stood, an empty sconce showed where one of the dwarves had found the torch.
Ripple blinked against the light and walked to the bottom of the steeply canted chute that had dumped them more than a hundred feet below street level. She tried three times to climb it, but the bottom was slick. It was marginally too wide and high for a kender or a gully dwarf to reach the sides or ceiling. They could not brace themselves to climb.
'Beans!' she said as she slid back a third time. 'We'll have to find another way out.'
'Could have told them,' the first dwarf said.
'Me too,' said the second.
'Hello,' Trap was already growing tired of the dwarves conversation that excluded the kender. 'I'm Trapspringer Fargo. This is my sister Ripple.'
'His name Trapspringer,' the taller dwarf said.
'She Ripple. She pretty,' the other replied.
'Thank you. That's very nice. What's your name?' Ripple asked. The compliment had made her forget her irritation.
The larger of the two seemed to draw himself up. 'Me Umpth Aglest. Me leader mighty Aglest clan.'
'You have a clan?' Ripple asked. 'Can they help us? Maybe they could drop a rope down the chute.'
'That's a good idea,' Trap nodded.
'No. Clan here,' Umpth pointed at his companion. 'Grod Aglest, brother. Him clan.'
Trap looked around, peering up and down the passage as far as he could see in the light of the sputtering torch.
'Which way?' he asked of no one in particular. Umpth immediately pointed to the right and Grod to the left. They exchanged glances and both pointed in opposite directions. Since Ripple had not expressed an opinion, Trap set off to the left, with his sister close to his side. Behind him came the dwarves. Umpth rolled the wagon wheel. 'Kender smart,' Umpth observed. 'Me point this way.'
'Me too,' Grod said.
'What is this place?' Ripple asked.
'This no This Place,' Umpth answered. 'No live here.'
'I know you don't live here, I just thought you might know about this place.'
'No
'Kender don't talk good,' Grod said.
'Don't know This Place from any place,' came the reply.
'Do they make any sense to you?' Ripple asked Trap. She spoke softly, not wanting to hurt the feelings of the gully dwarves.
'It's hard to tell,' Trap replied. 'I hear words I think I know, but they're not strung together right.'
'Kender have big words, no sense,' Umpth observed.
'Keep eye on him,' Grod suggested. 'Me watch her. She pretty.' He reached out to touch the single long golden curl that had fallen over Ripple's left shoulder, but she stepped back, away from his grimy hands.
As they walked along the passage, they occasionally saw old torches in the wall sconces. Ripple inspected them, taking the first three that were at all usable. When she found more she gave Grod three to carry. They had been walking for half an hour when they found a set of steps going up about thirty feet. At the top was a door with a heavy lock.
The dwarves ascended the stairway behind them, but were having a hard time rolling the wagon wheel up the steps.
'Why did you bring that wheel?' Ripple asked, looking back at the struggling dwarves. 'It's no good. Half the spokes are gone. The rim is loose too.'
'Wheel magic,' Umpth said. 'Aglest clan magic.'
'Wow! Really? Big jiggies!' Trap asked, suddenly interested. 'How can a wheel be magic?'
'Belong to ancestor. All left of wagon bring Aglest clan to This Place. Ancestor magic strong.'
'I've never heard of a magic wheel,' Trap said, not sure he believed it, but at the first opportunity he wanted to see what the wheel would do.
'See, no sense,' Grod said. 'Not know This Place, not know magic, no sense.'
'Don't be rude!' Trap said with a dark look over his shoulder. In his irritation he forgot his interest in the wheel.
While Ripple held the torch, Trap pulled out the set of lock picks his father had given him as a traveling present. After a few pokes and twists the lock clicked. Trap pushed the door open to the squeal of rusty hinges and a shower of crusted dirt and small stones fell way. Obviously it had not been opened for many years.
They found themselves in another passage. This one was already lit with torches, dry and swept clean, though a few cobwebs decorated the arched ceiling. The air was reasonably fresh, kept so by the burning torches, and from a distance they heard voices. Ripple put out the light she carried by the simple expedient of rolling it on the floor until the flames died. The four wanderers crept down the hall as quietly as the rolling wagon wheel would allow.
The voices became louder as the foursome reached a doorway at the end of the passage. The thick heavy door stood ajar, and Trap looked in to see a huge chamber, one unlike anything in his experience. Shelves of books in red bindings lined the wall on the far side of the chamber. At the end of the room more shelves held hundreds of glass jars containing strange and wonderful objects. Old but still colorful rugs overlapped each other on the stone floor. In the center of the room, a litter of books, scrolls, and strange paraphernalia covered four tables.
A human in red robes stood on one side of the room. He pressed his elbows tight to his sides and bent his arms so his hands, palms up, were close to his shoulders. From each palm came a pale, glowing light. He was humming a soft, even tone. The glow from his hand rose to form an arc of light above the man's head. Behind him stood what Trap thought was a child in a red robe. The girl played a lute, stroking the same note the man hummed. Their tune could get boring very quickly, so Trap thought the two humans might enjoy learning more about music.
'That's very boring,' he called across the room. 'If you like, I'll show you how to make-' He intended to offer his help, but he had startled the small one, who jumped and struck a sudden loud, discordant note. The man's voice rose in the same discordant note and suddenly the arc of light changed, disappeared, and a blackness deeper than velvet opened around the red-robed human. He stepped back with a cry as a hot wind, strong as a gale, blew through the hole.
The torches blew out and a variety of objects, impossible to see in the sudden darkness, were hurled about by the gale. A piece of cloth hit Trap in the face and as he jerked it away an unknown object struck him sharply on the shoulder.
'Orander!' a voice called out in fear.
'Halmarain,' a man's voice called back. 'Stay away from the portal!'
'A portal? What is a portal?' Trap asked the room at large. 'Is it a magic door, does it lead to some interesting place?'
No one answered him, but he heard what he thought was a cry and a whimper, though he could not positively identify the sound. Suddenly the chamber filled with a roar that had nothing to do with the hot wind. Dimly, over the roar, he heard a thin scream that could have been human or kender, and he wondered if Ripple had entered the chamber.
He heard the sound of splitting wood and the thud of heavy furniture hitting the wall. Suddenly Trap was grabbed by a huge, clawed hand. His feet dragged against an opening as he was pulled through some unseen door. It seemed to be the meeting place of the gale, where the winds were blowing in both directions.
Chapter 4
When the giant clawed hand pulled Trap through the portal to the other plane, the kender found himself in deep twilight. The air was so hot he could hardly breathe. He saw two huge eyes looking at him out of a giant,
