Against the Giants

’ere ain’t either. I smeltMobwef and warned Mal. Any of us go search out there first, it’s me.” Her facewas a study in frustration. Probably, Lhors thought, she didn’t have use wordsas persuasion very often. “Master thief Mobwef, ’e had a rule back in th’ city.Job gets tricky so’s you maybe lose a thief or so, don’t risk th’ good onesor your green ’prentices neither, or them’s as don’t have experience in th’kind of place they’re robbing. Pick so th’ loss won’t hurt yer guild, but stilluse one who knows ’is job.”

“She’s saying,” Malowan added tiredly, “that she and Lhorsare the most expendable of us all, but that Lhors wasn’t raised in a city andshe was. She won’t be fazed by stone mazes.”

“That’s it,” Agya replied then settled back on her heels. She spared a glanceat Lhors, but then divided her attention between Malowan and Vlandar.

Like I’m of no account, thought Lhors, like what shesays matters-not what Vlandar decides! His face felt hot, and he hoped hissudden anger didn’t show. Oh, for a chance to see her out in hill country whereshe can feel as lost and useless as I do, he raged internally. I’ll show theskinny little-

He knelt and busied himself rearranging things in his pack. It wouldn’t be so bad if she wasn’t at least three years younger, so set onherself, and so gods-blasted self-sufficient.

Agya’s voice tightened the back of his neck. “Stone and darkby themselves don’ scare me. I’m little, a thief, and good at it too. If not,I’d be dead by now. And ’member you tested me back in city. I can go ’bout aplace I ain’t been afore and give you a proper map of it.”

“I’m persuaded,” Vlandar said as she paused for breath. “Iknow you can help me map this place, but Mal will go with you.” He held up ahand when she would have protested. “Do not argue with your commander. Rememberthat Mal has weapons and other skills that you may want if that beast attacks you.”

Lhors turned back as Agya nodded. She seemed pale and momentarily beyond speech. Vlandar, the youth thought with some satisfaction, must have done that on purpose. Wisely, too. It would do no good if any of them went out there so overconfident that he or she died. His father had warned him against overconfidence on the hunt.

Malowan and Nemis were already pressing aside a panel on the north wall that the mage had found earlier. The panel slid aside, revealing a heavy iron wheel. Khlened and Vlandar had to work hard to get it moving. Lhors gaped as the east wall of the little chamber slowly lifted into the ceiling. The whole system must have been recently oiled, because everything moved smoothly and in silence.

The chamber beyond the door stretched for some distance north and east. The south wall and most of the cavelike ceiling were lost in gloom.

Malowan gazed around for a long moment, then touched Agya’sarm. “There is a door almost straight across. Do you see it?”

“A bit of light,” the girl agreed in a low voice, “andthere”-she pointed just north of the light-“maybe another passage.”

The paladin met Vlandar’s eyes. “Let the door down behind us.Nemis will know when we need it raised again.”

The warrior nodded and clasped his arm. “Trithereon’s cloakcover you.”

The two slipped from the little chamber. Vlandar waited long enough to be sure that some guard hadn’t spotted them, then he and Khlenedlowered the door.

11

Faced with nothing better to do in the quiet dark, Lhors satand watched Nemis go through his supplies. The mage’s hands were steady and hismien thoughtful as he brought out the bottles he’d taken in the maids’ quarters.He seemed to be testing them, though he never removed any of the stoppers. Lhors wanted to ask how he did that, but he felt a little foolish around the self-contained Nemis. The man’s story about dark elves had made little sense tohim, but it sounded frightening and the tale had certainly upset the rangers.

He couldn’t ask the mage anything now anyway. Nemis had justmurmured a spell of some kind and looked as if he were in a trance, eyes closed but lips still moving.

Lhors glanced at the watch-vial Vlandar had pulled from his pack: a sand-shifter that marked time, much like the one Lharis had owned. The warrior only turned the thing over once before Agya and Malowan returned.

Vlandar settled them down near the closed door and handed them water.

Malowan passed the water bottle to his ward. “The main roomis joined by passages, north and east. They’re as narrow as this one but longerand unlit. They seem deserted-no one lives in either, and they are seldom used.There is an apartment about this size just across from here, and the giant Agya heard lives there with his two apes. All three are inside and sleeping. To the south, a long passage ends in a cross-corridor. We did not check further, but I sensed guards: bugbears or possibly orcs.”

“Bears?” Agya’s voice rose sharply. “You dint say nothin’bout bears! Bears and apes?”

“Bugbears,” Nemis replied. “Bears are animals. These aredifferent. They’re intelligent as half-witted humans and good fighters, muchlike ogres, very strong and evil. They hate our kind.”

“Don’t care,” the thief replied flatly. “Long’s they ain’tbears. Nasty things, bears. One used to juggle in th’ market and et ’ismaster. I know, ’cause I saw ’im do it. Filthy way to die. These… bugbears,is it? Let ’em hate. I’ll hate ’em right back.”

Malowan gave her a distressed look but went on. “At the farend of the south corridor, I could see a door. There are prisoners kept there. Somewhere beyond that is a smithy. The whole area was quiet, oddly so, to my mind. Still, it is daylight up there. Nosnra and his followers may believe that we are trapped and that they can sleep the day away as they normally would, then seek us out at their leisure.”

“Perhaps,” Nemis said. “I just completed my own search. It isvery quiet out there-except for the manticores to the west. I also sensed asmithy southward and prison cells here and there.”

“Very good,” Vlandar agreed. “We won’t trust to our beingalone here, but it is reassuring. I think we can trust to this, however. Nosnra and his fellows have no magical communication with those down here, or else we would have had company waiting when we opened that door.”

“Maybe they wanted to lure us into the open instead?” Maerasuggested.

“Why,” Vlandar asked, “if they could surround this passageand take us without a fight? Sensible of you to suspect such a trap,” he addedwith a smile, but Maera did not smile back, “but there’s no sense in ouranticipating traps within traps. If hill giants were good at tactics, I would never have come against them with so few companions.”

Khlened laughed. Maera gave the barbarian a dark look but let it drop.

Nemis smiled briefly. “I found more. I am not sure what allof it means, but I can also help you map this place. One of my own spells is a variant on one the drow taught me: how to let the shape of a maze come to you.”

Malowan puffed up at this. “That would have been nice to knowbefore I risked my life and Agya’s-twice now! — in scouting out this place.”

“Forgive me,” Nemis said, “but the magic works only todetermine the layout of caves and buildings. It would not help in finding guards and such, which is what you and your ward were searching for.”

The paladin nodded, but still looked very unsatisfied to Lhors.

“What’s done is done,” Vlandar said. “What have you found,Nemis?”

“Two ways out, but neither is useful to us. One is at the endof a long, black passage that leads to a pool. To reach the outside, we would have to swim below a wall deep inside the pool. Beyond that, if you survive the depths, is a way out.”

“I’m not one for swimmin’, way out or not,” Khlened said.

“Peace, Khlened!” Vlandar said. “All of you! Let the manfinish.”

Nemis nodded thanks to Vlandar, then continued, “The otherway out follows an underground stream, but the way soon narrows such that I fear we would soon be forced to swim again.”