through the thick, wedged gate-plug.
'You will remain here until we get the dwarf,' Val-lenswade explained.
'Why? How far away is he?' demanded Ariakas.
The Shilo-Thahn sighed. 'He was taken to a different part of the warrens … until we could determine whether or not it was safe to bring him here.'
'Safe? For him-or for you?' pressed the human.
'I wish you would answer half as many questions as you ask,' replied Vallenswade resignedly. 'Safe for us, of course. Because of his condition, we took great care so as to not risk introducing a contagion into our colony.' With that, the tall creature bent low to exit the lower door, turn shy;ing to pull the gate into its socket behind him. Ariakas heard the bar drop into place on the outer wall, and though he tugged furiously, the thing wouldn't budge. Because of the plug's wedge shape, he knew that pushing on it would only jam it more tightly into its socket.
'Damn!' He couldn't stifle the frustration. It galled him to feel so completely at the mercy of his captors.
Lyrelee regarded him silently. When he settled himself on the floor, his back against the mushroom wall, she sat beside him. Only then did she speak, and she held her voice to a mere breathy whisper.
'They know what we think,' she said.
'What do you mean?' Ariakas whispered, though he was too irritated to hold his voice down to her barely audible level. 'I told them what we think!'
'No, I mean about our actions … our intents.'
Now the warrior fell silent, giving her his full atten shy;tion.
'I observed the two warriors who followed me,' Lyre-lee explained. 'If I decided to move over to the right while I walked, one of them sidled over to that direc shy;tion-before I did anything! Merely the thought, the intent, was enough to cause him to take action!'
'Could it be a coincidence?' Ariakas questioned skep shy;tically. Nevertheless, the memory of that eerie question shy;ing, of the words entering his mind with no audible sound, nagged at him, and he feared that Lyrelee was right.
'I don't think so. Do you remember the one who held the big hook-he was the central rear guard?'
Ariakas nodded. The distinctive-looking weapon, which consisted of a steel head and a carved wooden shaft, had been slung from a strap over the Shilo-Thahn's shoulder.
'Well, as an experiment, I began to think about turn shy;ing around and snatching it from him. When I looked, he'd placed both hands on the shaft-it's the only time he touched it during the whole time he guarded us.'
'Any ideas what we can do about it?' he asked.
'I think we have to act on the spur of the moment,' she suggested. 'If we don't know what we're going to do until we do it, then they can't know either.'
'So far that hasn't been a problem,' Ariakas chafed. 'They've kept too close a watch for us to do anything]'
'I know-but consider,' Lyrelee replied. 'Does it seem to you that these are natural warriors? Or are they simply folk who've been cast into weapon-bearing roles?'
'I think the latter,' Ariakas confirmed. 'They don't seem to have the killer instinct.'
'No. It's almost like they're innately gentle. It might be that our own battle sense, at the moment of truth, will be stronger than theirs.'
'It's a hope,' Ariakas admitted, none too encouraged. 'I guess it's as good as we've got. I don't feel like waiting around here until they let us go.'
'When they take us out of here, I'll watch you,' the priestess said. 'Give no warning-but if you see a chance to escape, take it! I'll be ready.'
'That's our best shot, I guess,' Ariakas conceded. But how was he to look for a chance to escape without think shy;ing about escaping? Indeed, perhaps the range of Shilo-Thahn senses was enough that the creatures already knew about these plans! They lapsed into silence. The warrior felt an acute vulnerability, unlike anything he had known before. He tried not to think about escape or combat.
'Do you think they can 'hear' us through these walls?' he asked, after a few minutes of fruitlessly attempting to stifle his mind.
Lyrelee shrugged. 'I'm guessing that there are some real limits to their power. After all, they're not the mas shy;ters of Krynn-which they could be if they were able to read everybody's thoughts.'
'Maybe they don't want to be conquerors,' noted Ari shy;akas. The prospect of a creature having access to incred shy;ible power, yet choosing not to exercise that power, was a strange one to the warrior. Yet Lyrelee was right-there was something inherently nonaggressive in the apelike humanoids.
Shortly thereafter the light spell that had been steadily illuminating the gem on Ariakas's helm faded into black shy;ness. The full cloaking of subterranean dark closed around them, and the warrior shifted his position uneasily. Still, when Lyrelee-who also possessed the clerical power of light creation-asked if he wanted her to re- illuminate the gem he told her no.
'If they come to get us, then we'll want some light,' he suggested. 'For all we know, they'll keep us here for six or eight more hours-it won't do any good to have your spell used up before then.'
Although the warrior knew that diligent prayer to the Dark Queen would grant him a return of the light spell he had expended, he couldn't bring himself to make such a prayer in this place. Perhaps it was the ignominy of being a prisoner, or, more likely, simple discomfort at the fear that even his prayer might not remain private. In any event, he wanted to escape this predicament on his own, without having to beseech his goddess for help.
They heard a shuffling on the outer wall of the corral, and then Ariakas felt the plug slide into the enclosure beside him. Lyrelee muttered a quick word, and his gem flared into light, revealing the blinking visage of Vallens- wade.
'Come,' said the Shilo-Thahn in his ponderous, digni shy;fied tones. 'I will take you to the dwarf.'
Chapter 17
Again Vallenswade and a half-dozen of his comrades formed the escorting party. Ariakas saw that one of these still carried his red-bladed sword, and the human felt a flash of ela shy;tion, then chagrin when-as if in reaction to his hopeful shy;ness-the weapon-bearer fell back from the rest of the party.
On the smoothly paved walkways, they passed through the large cavern. As they approached the mouth of one of the smaller connecting passages, Ariakas real shy;ized that the shadowpeople had not in fact brought the Zhakar dwarf into their warren. Instead, they were tak shy;ing the two prisoners out to meet him.
'We have brought him to another place, near here,' offered Vallenswade, causing Ariakas to wonder if his captor had in fact been reading his thoughts.
The warrior tried to concentrate on not thinking about escape, but that only seemed to bring the matter to the forefront of his awareness. Around him the guards shifted, and he saw several of them regarding him with narrowed, watchful gazes.
Vallenswade led them down the twisting, narrow cor shy;ridor. The route finally branched into a side passage and proceeded to climb a very long flight of stairs-at least a hundred steps. Puffing slightly from the exertion, the warrior plodded along, noting with disgust that neither the shadowpeople nor his fellow prisoner seemed to have any difficulty with the ascent.
At the top, they reached a landing, followed by more mazelike passages. Ariakas forced his mind to wander, tried to remember pleasant nights spent drinking with Ferros Windchisel. He thought of the woman beside him, imagining Lyrelee in the throes of passion, and found the image enticing. This train of thought occupied him for a long time, until he realized that Vallenswade had stopped.
'We are holding him in here,' said the Shilo-Thahn, gesturing to a low, arched doorway in the cavern wall. The portal stood open, and in the light of the gem Aria shy;kas could see a wall no more than twelve feet in from
