The broken lands beyond would have made ideal trading grounds. A hundred camps could be set up within a half-mile, each in its private corner, and all interconnected by the maze of stone-walled paths. It would have been a trading bazaar like nothing ever seen in Thorbardin, even in the great centers of the Daewar city.
It was a pity, that such things no longer were.
'If ever there is peace,' Chane muttered, 'real peace and cooperation, it will be warriors and fighters who bring it. For they are the ones who have seen the most of chaos.'
Chess glanced around at him. 'You sound like an elf.'
'Or a human,' Jilian observed. 'That does sound awfully human, Chane.'
'I wonder,' he said. 'I wonder if there's that much difference.'
'I think I'll take a look around,' Chess said. 'Things are getting dull around here.'
Before he could turn away, though, the kender looked up and grinned.
'Things may perk up a little, I guess. Bobbin's back.'
Like a speck against the mountainside, rapidly growing, the soarwagon dipped and tumbled toward Chane, Jilian, and Chess. The kender's supply pole dangled below it, horizontal, attached to the hook on Bobbin's lifeline. They walked a few steps out on the bridge to watch its approach, and Chane's foot bumped something protruding from the bridge rail. He knelt for a better look. It was a metal ring the size of the palm of his hand, just inches above the bridge's floor. He raised his eyes, searching along the rail. There was another a few yards away, and another beyond that… and the same along the base of the south rail. Metal rings were set in the stone at intervals, as far up the bridge as Chane could see. He knew what they were. Every cable-cart tunnel in Thorbardin had such rings at every change in grade. Such winch rings were used for the hoisting and lowering of laden carts along slopes, by use of pulleys.
Just like in Thorbardin.
But why equip an open-road bridge with winch-rings? Unless…
Chane stood, gazing past the rising bridge, across the gorge at the sheer face of Sky's End. They had come down from a high ledge, along a narrow switchback trail that approached the bridge from a sharp angle. No straight approach from the west was possible, because the bridge footings ran nearly to the sheer, clifflike face of the cutaway mountain. It had, now that Chane thought of it, seemed odd that a bridge should end at right angles to the foot.of a diff, but he had other things on his mind when they'd first encountered it.
Chane took a deep breath and nodded. Intuition so strong it was beyond question poured through him.
'I know where it is,' he muttered.
Beyond the west end of the bridge, at the foot of Sky's End's towering cliff, was a rockfall. And behind the rockfall… it had to be. An ancient tradeway, under the mountain. A tradeway that would lead to the warrens.
The forgotten entrance to Thorbardin. Forgotten because an old war had brought an end to trade.
'Hello!'
Chane blinked and turned. Just a few yards away, level with the bridge, the soarwagon hovered over the gorge. The gnome waved at them. 'Do you want this pole back?' he called. 'I don't have any use for it, and it's a clumsy thing to carry around.'
'Why don't you just drop it?' the kender asked.
'It's a nice pole, and you might want to send over some more raisins some time. Why don't you keep it?'
Chess smiled. 'All right. Let it down, and I'll keep it.'
'Not here,' Bobbin said. 'I'm afraid to get too close to that bridge.
But I can let it down just past those towers.'
The soarwagon edged upward, dipped, and soared out over the gorge in a wide circle. It settled to a hover again just past the foot of the bridge.
'I'll go get the pole,' the kender said.
Bobbin began lowering the horizontal pole, working his winch, then paused, looking toward the breaks. He cupped his hands and shouted, 'Did you know there are goblins here?'
In the instant the gnome took his hand from the winch, the pole dropped free. In that same instant a company of armed goblins surged out of hiding just beyond the bridge abutments and charged.
The pole and the lead hobgoblin arrived at the gap between the pillars at exactly the same time. The creature's midsection hit the pole, jamming it against the pillars, and he flipped over it and fell. Several goblins fell over him, and others over them; the pole splintered, and Bobbin's line broke free. The soarwagon bobbed skyward as Chestal Thicketsway turned and ran, back up the rise of the bridge.
'Goblins!' Chess shouted needlessly, for the sprawling, shouting mass of creatures behind him would have been difficult to overlook.
Chane leaped to Jilian's side, grabbed her arm, and pulled her to the nearest vertical riser on the bridge rail. Without a word, he thrust her down behind it.
Chess turned and drew his hoopak sling. As the hobgoblin tried to get to his feet, spilling goblins around him, the kender bounced a rock off his helmet, knocking it askew.
Momentarily blinded, the hobgoblin waved his sword and screeched, 'Rush
'em! Cut'm down!'
A goblin free of the rest started to charge, and a whining pebble took him in the eye. He went over backward, screaming.
Jilian Firestoke had no intention of hiding behind a vertical pillar of a bridge rail, when there were things to be done. Holding her sword in launch position she rushed past Chane and headed for the enemy.
Chane started to shout at her, then saw one of the goblins beyond her raise a crossbow. He drew his sword and threw it, as hard as he could. End over end, it flashed in the sunlight… over Jilian's head and downward.
Point first it hit the goblin's breast armor, and the sheer weight of it drove it through. The goblin fell, skewered through the brisket, and his dart sailed out over the gorge.
Jilian swung at the nearest goblin, missed, and spun around, clinging to her centrifugal blade. The creature's laugh was cut short as the sword came around again, this time full across his luring face.
Chane hoisted his hammer and waded in, following Jilian.
'Fall back!' the hobgoblin shouted. 'Fall back! Use th' darts!' He sprinted for cover as Jilian whirled toward him. Her blade took the tassel off his helmet, the stock off his crossbow, and the tail off his kilt before he got out of range.
For a moment there was scrambling, fleeing goblins everywhere, then the bridge was clear. Chane dived under Jilian's flashing sword to keep from being beheaded. 'Stop now!' he roared, catching her around the waist in a diving tackle. They tumbled across a dead goblin and rolled against the bridge rail.
'I said, stop,' Chane panted.
Jilian picked herself up and smoothed her hair. 'I was trying to. You didn't have to be so grabby about it. Honestly!'
A bronze dart ricocheted off stone beside the dwarven girl. Chane glanced around, then grabbed her hand and headed up the bridge, seeking cover. Darts zipped around them, and pebbles flew in answer.
The kender was dodging in and out of the cover of stone uprights, stepping out to use his weapon, then darting back to cover to reload. But as the dwarves piled in behind him, he reached into his pouch and his hand came out empty. He was out of pebbles, and there was nothing on the bridge to throw.
Chess dug deeper into the pouch. 'I've probably got some things in here that I can shoot.'
He searched, found something, and slipped it into the hoopak's sling just as a goblin peered around one of the bridge spires. The kender let fly, and his missile burst and splattered on the creature's face.
'What was that?' Chane called.
'Pigeon egg,' the kender admitted. 'Not a very good choice, I guess.'
Darts continued to fly and zing around the defenders.
'We'd better retreat,' Chane rumbled. 'Come on. Follow me across the bridge.'
Chess glanced around, and his eyes widened. 'I don't think so,' he said.
'Look.'
Above and behind them on the bridge stood an ogre with a huge club in his fist. As the dwarves turned and saw him, the creature grinned. He pointed his club at Chane Feldstone. 'You see me, dwarf?' he thundered. 'I see you, too. You think Loam don't remember you?'
