My business is against the north wall. If there are giants close by, I may be able to learn what they plan.”
The mage eyed him. “If-”
“If I can, then we may have useful information. If not, wewill not have lost anything. Either way, I will join you at once. I do not seek a martyr’s death here, my friend.”
Agya stirred.
“No,” he added. “You stay with them. I am safer alone.”
To Lhors’ surprise, the girl nodded and slid back intoshadow while the paladin edged along the east wall, heading north. He gave the doorway around the guards’ room a wide berth, skirted the north opening, thensettled against the middle of the north wall, listening intently.
Vlandar got to his feet and led the party straight across the open, the shortest distance between east passage and south corridor.
There was light in the vast open area, most of it leaking around the door leading to the prison cells. Once they plunged into the corridor, however, the darkness was daunting. There were no openings of any kind along either wall, and it seemed to go on forever.
Halfway down the corridor, Malowan caught up to them.
“Anything?” Vlandar asked softly.
The paladin nodded. “Not now.” He sounded short of breath.
Near the end of the long passage, Vlandar stopped and drew the company around him, then gestured for Lhors and Rowan to check the cross-passage. The youth nodded and moved out along the west wall, glancing now and again at the ranger, who had set her back to the east wall and moved in utter silence. He hoped he didn’t look as afraid as he felt.
Rowan reached the corner and dropped to one knee, then went flat, listening for a long moment before she edged the top of her head into the open. She looked behind her first, then turned her head slowly so she could look over the west tunnel. She made no sudden moves, Lhors realized, and she moved the way his father had taught him when they hunted deer. Silent, slow, steady, cautious moves were unlikely to be noticed by those who called an area home. He suddenly felt more confident than he had in all their journey. This is something I know, something I’m good at, he thought. Sliding down the wall, he slippedquietly into the open to check the east corridor.
There wasn’t much of it. Seven or eight long strides on,enormous boulders blocked the way as if there had been a slide. He could see this clearly, he suddenly realized, because of an opening to his left, halfway between him and the stones, where a torch was burning. The sputtering flame cast an uncertain light on the shaggy bugbear guard who sat bolt upright just inside the doorway, its back against the nearest side of the opening, its attention fixed on that boulder-pile-or possibly something beyond it.
Lhors brought his head slowly back around. There was a door just beyond the guard on the other side of the hall. There was a door opposite Rowan also, and a dreadful smell came from the hand’s width of space betweenfloor and ill-fitting slab of wood. Possibly a prison, Lhors thought. The door didn’t seem to fit well enough into its stone sill even to latch, but there wasa thick iron bar on the outside, holding it shut.
Somewhere to his right, he could hear the distant but unmistakable rhythmic clang of a hammer on an anvil. There was a smithy down here.
He looked over at Rowan, who was waiting for him. She sent her eyes sideways, back the way they’d come, then slowly began easing away fromthe opening. He did the same, only getting to his feet after she did. With one last look toward the cross-hall, the ranger came over and wrapped an arm around Lhors’ shoulders, briefly hugging him.
“Well done,” she murmured against his ear.
Lhors nodded. His face felt hot, and he was too embarrassed by the unexpected praise to know what to say. Besides, it was hard for him to remember that she was at least as old as his mother would have been. She was warm and sleek-bodied, like a very young woman. Her hair was soft. He forced his mind back to more serious matters-such as how to briefly let Vlandar know whathe’d seen down there.
Vlandar drew him back a little farther up the broad passageway where he squatted near the wall close to Malowan. Agya crouched by his feet, eyes moving constantly. The paladin’s eyes were closed, his handsoutstretched, and his lips moving soundlessly. As soon as the two passed Malowan’s fingertips, Vlandar nodded and spoke in a low voice. “You can talkhere. Malowan has worked a spell to keep sound within the tube of space formed around his arms.” A faint smile turned his lips. “Had he longer arms, everyonecould hear at the same time.”
“I’ll pass on to my sister anything she needs to know,” Rowansaid. She glanced up the hall where Khlened and the Maera stood.
Lhors gave a brief account of what he had seen. Once he was done, Rowan took up the narrative.
“There is a long passage, half the width of this, and achamber at the end with no door. There are two giants asleep on a mat near a fire, and there may be others. I know there are more fires. I could see the light of at least three. It must be a torture chamber. I am sure I saw a rack and a spiked crown of pain hanging from a chain. There is a door straight down from here flanked by matching doors. Both are barred. Farther west, an opening seems to angle southwest. There may also be another passage going north. I could just make out shadow but nothing else.”
Vlandar nodded, then fixed his gaze on the opposite wall as he decided on a course of action.
Lhors studied the rest of the group while he waited for Vlandar’s decision. Maera seemed to be talking to Khlened. As Lhors watched, theranger drew the man into the middle of the corridor away from the wall. What Lhors could see of the barbarian’s face was unnerving. He was dead white andsweating freely. His eyes were screwed shut, and he was chewing on a corner of his moustache.
“He fears caves,” Rowan murmured against his ear, “any darkand enclosed place. He admitted that last night when Maera and I pressed him about it. Do not let him know you know it. It shames him to be afraid of anything, but he cannot control it.”
“Two of the women in my village had such fear,” Lhors said.He eyed Khlened for a long moment. “It must be hard for such a brave man tolearn he can fear something.”
“Yes. He can learn to bear it, if he will listen to Maera.”
Vlandar nodded sharply and dismissed them, beckoning for Nemis, Khlened, and Maera to join him. Lhors watched from nearby. He could see Vlandar’s lips moving, then Maera’s and Khlened’s. Nemis merely folded his armsand listened, but Lhors could hear nothing of what was said.
Several moments passed before Nemis beckoned. Rowan gripped Lhors’ shoulder and drew him back over to the rest of the group. The magecaught hold of Mal’s hand and stretched his own arms as far as they would go.
Making a bigger tube, Lhors realized.
Vlandar gestured for all of them to come close. The air inside the tube felt as if a storm was coming-Nemis’ contribution, perhaps.Lhors swallowed dread and tried not to think about the last time his hair had stood on end.
Vlandar cleared his throat. “We can’t stay like this for long. Anyone oranything down here sensitive to magic will sense the tube and surely know we aren’t their kind. If you must say something, it better be important.” Thewarrior quickly laid out his plan. “We won’t go east. Nemis says the regionbeyond the rockslide leads to the caverns he sensed earlier-with the way outthrough water and the other through dread creatures. Besides, there is one bugbear just visible, and it seems to have orders to keep constant watch on the ruined passage. There are others inside the chamber, and they are ready to fight.”
“Why?” Lhors asked. “What enemy could they have back there?”
“Mal thinks they are orcs-a good many of them. From what wesaw of the way these giants treat their servants and slaves, I believe there may have been rebellion down here. The bugbear on guard down there feels anxious, Mal said, and his companions are very alert.”
“Bugbear guards… afraid of
“Orcs are as big and as bloodthirsty as bugbears. If theywere enslaved and are now armed and spoiling for revenge… well, they wouldbe a dangerous enemy even if there were only a few of them.”
Several of them nodded agreement, then Vlandar continued, “Sothat is no way for us, even if we chose to face the pool or chance the other portal. Nosnra is also
