Against the Giants

passage.

It wasn’t quite as dark that way-enough that Lhors could tellthe passage branched again farther on. Ruddy light stained the walls down there, and he could hear the distant sound of a hammer battering metal into shape and, when that ceased, the loud huff of a bellows. I was right about the smithy, he thought. He felt a little better. Maybe he had contributed something after all.

Maera was back almost at once, and Rowan came back a moment later. The rangers exchanged rapid and complex sign Lhors couldn’t follow, thenMaera moved light-footed toward the opening straight ahead. Lhors tightened his grip on the spear and was glad the rangers couldn’t hear his wildly beatingheart.

The chamber was a horror of bloodstained flooring, instruments that left him sick and weak at the knees. Some had obvious uses. Others he couldn’t begin to imagine their exact purpose. High-burning fireslicked at metal clamps or turned huge twisted branding irons a glowing red. In the midst of all this, two giants slept heavily, back to back on a filthy mat. The one facing out was smiling, as if in the midst of a pleasant dream.

Maera edged forward, gesturing for her sister to come with her, but Rowan shook her head fiercely, then beckoned, drawing her sister and Lhors back up the hall and into the shadow of the angled hallway.

“You want to kill them, Maera? Why?”

Maera sighed, clearly exasperated. “Can you even ask? Theyare torturers. They deserve to die!”

“Yes,” Rowan replied sourly. “So what do we do then, murderthem while they sleep or let them waken first and then kill them?”

“Why let them waken?” Maera demanded. “Go in, kill them, andbe done with it! It is not sporting, but this is not sport, sister. This is survival.”

“Do not lecture me, sister,” Rowan retorted. “Whateverthey are, whatever they have done, that does not justify acting in the same fashion. Leave them. I doubt they will waken while we are here. If they do, then death is their fate, but I will not dishonor myself with their blood, nor allow you to do so.”

“Arrogant,” Maera hissed. “Is it not arrogant of youto assume we will be able to kill them if they waken?”

“If, was, could have been,” Rowan replied evenly. “It doesnot matter, Maera. I will not aid you in this.”

Maera’s lips twisted, but she finally sighed and gesturedassent. “You would better serve Heironeous than Ehlonna,” she said acidly.

Before Rowan could reply, her twin was gone, moving at a swift pace to rejoin the others.

Rowan laid a hand on Lhors’ shoulder. “I am sorry you had to be party tothat,” she said quietly. “My sister is a good person, but she has a specialgrudge against giants.”

“I hate giants,” Lhors said after a moment’s thought “Myfather… my village… But I could not have killed those two while they sleptHowever evil they must be to work in such a horrid place, it does not make it right for me to act the way they do.”

“You speak for me,” Rowan said as she eased back into themain corridor, “but I would not share such opinions with Maera were I you.”

Maera had apparently failed to convince Vlandar either. She and Malowan had drawn aside and were arguing in fierce whispers as Rowan and Lhors rejoined the company. Rowan went over to Vlandar and briefly explained what the three of them had seen.

“South up there is the passage leading to the smithy. Northare slave pens or prison cells with bugbear guards. And there is”-shehesitated-“a trail of blood, fresh and old both, that goes between the northpassage and the torture chamber.”

“There are prisoners that way,” Nemis said softly. “Nohumans, no elves-orcs and trolls. I pity them, but I will not risk my life tofree them.”

Vlandar nodded. “Even Mal agrees we dare not try to helpthem. Most of them would not thank us and might even try to kill us to win favor from Nosnra.”

“Let us go before any other guards come out of thatbarracks,” Malowan said. “There are more bugbears in the farther rooms-behindclosed doors, fortunately for us. But they are not the only enemy that might come through here.”

Vlandar nodded and took up the lead, the rest following as they had before, but this time Rowan moved sideways so she could both watch where she walked and keep an eye on their back trail.

Once inside the southwest passage and out of the light from the torture chamber, Vlandar halted again and beckoned Malowan up with him. The two exchanged a few brief signs. Lhors could follow some of it, including “search,” and “caution,” but some of it must have been personal sign between thetwo. Vlandar held the rest of the company back with him while Malowan and Agya stole quietly forward, stopping at the barely visible bend in the hallway. They were back almost at once.

“It is very loud in there, so no one will hear us,” Malowanwhispered softly. “There are dwarves in there. The ones I could see are chained,but there were others that I could sense but not see.”

Vlandar frowned at the opposite wall. “Some are prisoners,but some might not be. Some of them might be allies of the giants, especially if they are not all from the same tribe. You could not tell, Mal?”

“I would have to get closer to use such a spell.”

“Hmmm.” Vlandar considered this briefly. “Some are prisonersat least. How many giants?”

“Two,” Agya whispered. Lhors thought her eyes seemed huge.Whatever was in that room had scared her, it seemed. “And they’rebigger’n those rotters up above and blacker’n a cook pot.”

“Fire giants,” the paladin said evenly. “We will need to hitthem hard and fast.”

“I know,” Vlandar replied tiredly. “No Mal, I’m not arguing.I’m of your mind. A warrior who won’t help the broken and downtrodden is nothingbut a thug with free room and board from his king. I just-”

“Consider this,” Malowan broke in. “The guard-change off thatbig chamber happened just as we came out. Have you ever known a lair where guard-changes were not all done at the same time? So the guard on that rockslide likely just changed also.”

“You’d trust to that?” Maera demanded.

“No,” Malowan said, “I call it likely. But stay ready for theunlikely all the same. It is likely that any dwarves imprisoned down here are not used only in the smithy. Once the fires here are banked, they would be put to work elsewhere. If that is so, at least some of them will know their way around down here. Freed, they could be strong allies.”

“Damn you for a logical man anyway,” Vlandar said with afaint smile. “I wish I could find fault in your argument, but I can’t.” Hetapped Nemis on the shoulder.

The mage, who had been keeping an eye on the corridor, turned and asked acerbically, “Can we leave this place before we are discovereddithering out here?”

“At once,” the paladin assured him. “One question. Do youhave a spell to make a wall of silence across the entry to the smithy, should we need one?”

Nemis shrugged. “I memorized a number of them, knowing wewould need them.”

“As soon as we’re ready,” said Vlandar, “put it up so thatthe noise doesn’t travel.”

Agya started and shivered as the distant roar of a great ape suddenly echoed down passage.

“Yes, we are getting away from that,” Vlandar assured her.

“Aye. To go after brutes in a room wi’ more swords’n I cancount. You’re certain on this?” she demanded of the paladin.

“Certain I must try,” he said with an unapologetic shrug.

“Get yourself killed yet,” she said tiredly, “but if you’reon, so’m I.”

Khlened licked his lips. “I’ve fought with dwarves before.They’re not all so bad, though it’s a job o’ work to make ’em divide treasureup.”

Maera stirred, but Rowan gave her an urgent and complex sign. Maera cast her eyes up and shrugged when Vlandar glanced at her, clearly awaiting her response.

“It wouldn’t be my choice,” she said brusquely, “but I’ve nosay. Go on.”

“Thank you,” Malowan replied simply. He led the way down-halland then down the angled passage toward firelight and an increasingly loud din of hammers and harsh voices that sang a guttural song to match the rhythm of the hammer strikes.

Vlandar eased to the fore, stopping just short of the ruddy light, and waited for Nemis to create his wall of