Against the Giants

least once a day, I let himknow that we still live. He waits for another signal from me if we need help, and by yet another to tell the Flennish to set sail back east while he and the lad return the horses to Cryllor.”

“Now,” Vlandar went on, “I see most of you are dissatisfied,but there is more to all this than you know.” He gave Nemis a steady look.

The mage sighed, but came away from the wall. He looked resigned, Lhors thought. Like the day you had to admit to old headman Yerik that you sneaked into the onion fields and ate bulbs, he mused. The headman had been really angry until Gran broke into her cackly laugh and reminded the headman of his own forays into that same patch.

Nemis now wore the same look on his face that Yerik had.

“All right,” the mage said. “I have something to tell all ofyou, and I… well…” He settled cross-legged on the floor and drew a deepbreath. “The scroll was written by a being called Eclavdra, a dread sorceress ofthe dark elves, the drow.”

Rowan caught her breath sharply, and Maera sat up straight.

Nemis eyed the rangers. “Yes, I see that you know of drow.For you others, drow are elves, but unlike Rowan or Maera, they are black skinned, silver or white-haired, and they live beneath the ground. Unlike our rangers, they despise growing things. They are selfish, cold-minded, and cruel. Long ago, they fought the other elves for control of the surface lands and lost. They were driven underground where they have since made their home. They do not want to return to the surface, unless they have greatly changed. They prefer the dark depths of the earth, but they hate other elves, half-elves, and all who dwell under the sun.”

“It is an ancient hatred,” Rowan said. She sounded shaken,and Maera’s face was pale. “Of course we know of drow, but no one has seen themin many of our lives. We hoped they were all dead.”

“They are not,” Nemis said evenly. “I have seen them.My master was a skilled mage who made a study of the drow. What he learned drove him to fear them, and I think his fears made him a little mad, for not long after I was bound to him, he sought the drow, and they found him. Before that year’s end, my master and I were housed in a chamber far below ground in themidst of a vast city of drow. He had pledged himself as apprentice to one of their most dire sorceresses, Eclavdra. As his apprentice, I was also bound to her.”

Rowan looked at Maera, who was honing the points of her spears on a whetstone. Maera shrugged.

“I have never heard that name,” Rowan said.

“Few have,” Nemis admitted. To Lhors, his eyes lookedhaunted-like Gran’s eyes the morning after the giants’ attack. “She is manythings: sorceress, dour warrior, a black cleric, and”-he swallowed-“extremelycharismatic. She draws people of all kinds to her service. My master went to her from fear. I for other reasons.” He stared at his hands. “She wanted me for herown… personal… reasons. Because I pleased her, I was giventraining in the drow magic. Eventually, I learned enough that I was able to strike down my master and escape.” He looked at Rowan. “Yes, that could be a lieto hide that Eclavdra trained me and sent me onto the surface to spy for her or do worse things. I can only swear to you that I am no spy for the drow.”

“I know that,” Malowan told him. “You others, remember thatas a paladin, I can discern when someone lies. Nemis is not lying.”

“In that case,” Maera said, “we have a problem.”

“Mal!” Agya hissed urgently. She was exploring the east wallas the rest of the party prepared to set out. “Mal, come ’ere! There’s a loosebit just ’ere.”

Malowan came over to see, and Vlandar followed. Lhors, closest to the girl, could make out the fingertip- sized circle that slid aside as she pressed on it. “Lookit,” she breathed. “I can see out there!”

She stepped back as the paladin crouched to set his eye to the opening. Malowan nodded cautiously and gestured for Vlandar to look, then signed Agya to ease the cover back into place. “There is no one out there justnow, but someone might come and hear our voices,” Malowan said quietly.

“What is it?” Lhors asked.

“A very large, dark chamber,” the paladin replied,“apparently empty for now.”

“We’ve been quiet enough,” Maera replied. “Besides, ifsomething had been that close, either you or the mage would have detected it, wouldn’t you?”

“Probably,” Malowan conceded reluctantly, “but our magic isnot infinite. Someone could have crept in and away again without us noticing, though it is unlikely.”

“Well,” Agya interrupted, “tell you what, just before Iopened that spy-bit, there was somethin out there-not in th’ open, morelike clear across. First off, I caught an echo, then p’raps whatever it was wentbehind some door, ’cause was not so loud and no echo. But I did catch someonespeakin’ what sounded like Giantish, like it was bellowin’ orders. But th’ otherdin’t have words.”

“What exactly did you hear?” Malowan asked.

“Ah, wait,” Agya said and shut her eyes to concentrate. “Goorzh, nigheye! Zharhoye!”

To Lhors’ surprise, it sounded like the guttural, spittingsound of Giantish. “’Tis all I could catch aright.”

“How’d you know that,” Lhors asked, “if you don’t understandgiant-talk?”

“I don’t understand it,” the girl retorted.

Malowan cleared his throat, defusing a potential spat. “Agyadoesn’t read. Like many who don’t, she has excellent recall of sounds-even wordswhose meaning she doesn’t know.”

Agya waved that aside. “So? It means-well, what?”

“It is an order,” Nemis said. “‘Stay put, you brute, andguard!’ As if the giant spoke to a pet.” He looked to Malowan, who was pressedagainst the east wall, eyes closed.

“I sense incredible evil, despair, pain, and anger. I thinkthe giant may be a cell guard, and there is a beast to aid him in that task.”

“Beast?” Agya looked unhappy. “Like Jufas’ monkey? It weren’t no pet. It bit people, nasty creature, gave ’em awful fever. Jufasnearly got kilt when th’ brute jumped ’im wi’ no warnin’ at all.”

Rowan nodded. “That is the worst of wild beasts being kept infetters. Bears and apes will usually leave you alone in the wild. Kept prisoner and tormented-well, they act no worse than any of us would in their place.”

“P’raps,” Agya said. Lhors didn’t think she sounded convincedat all. “But any kept ’ere won’t be yer wild, free things as leaves usalone, will they?”

“Agya,” Malowan murmured and laid a hand on her shoulder.“Unfortunately, you are right. Beasts here will be pent and angry or trained toattack. And Vlandar, there are three or four other pent-up brutes to the west-Iam nearly certain they are manticores, and it will do us no good to go after them. Remember where we are in the northwestern corner of the Steading. The west door may not lead anywhere but to a trap.”

“I agree,” Vlandar said. “Better to avoid manticoresaltogether. The sting from their tails is said to be bad.”

Nemis laughed, but his eyes weren’t amused. “Call it lethal.”

Vlandar nodded. “Yes, I know. We go the other way, then.”

When he turned to pick up his armor, Agya cleared her throat. “Wait. If y’ask me, we better learn ’xactly what’s there. I mean, what’s yonsounded mad to me and prob’ly not fussy if its dinner’s still alive. Seems senseto me if someone takes a look proper-like.”

“We have Nemis-” Vlandar began.

The girl shook her head. “Aye, and we have Mal-both of ’emfor magic. But sir, we need a real search. ’Tis no time to be trustin’ only tomagic.” She eyed Malowan sidelong. “’Member when you looked in th’ thievesguildhall for Mobwef and nearly got skewered?”

“I did not,” the paladin replied with dignity, “nearlyget skewered. I merely-”

“’E had a noble’s spellstone e’d stolt,” the girl remindedhim sharply, “and it was good enough that you wasn’t aware of ’im. Someone might’ave a thing like that ’ere.”

“And you would see him?” Nemis asked mildly.

Lhors thought the mage was holding back temper-but only justfrom the way his eyes looked.

“No,” she replied, “but I might smell ’im. Back in th’ city,Mobwef and ’is crew weren’t much for baths. Things