was Escalla makinglittle chipmunk noises in her sleep.
The scent struck-sharp and utterly delicious! Overcomingfear, the creature edged slowly forward, then suddenly saw its prize lying on the cave floor nearby. Its feelers reached out toward the Justicar. A long tail tipped with strange propeller-like blades waved happily in the darkness as the creature carefully began to feed.
Several minutes passed, then quite suddenly, Escalla shot bolt upright in bed, her eyes wide open and staring at the dark.
“Dad! The sculptures of me were all fakes. I swear!”
The creature froze, then bolted off in panic, its belly full and its legs galloping off into the gloom.
Far behind the fleeing creature, Escalla collapsed back in bed. Sleeping the deep sleep of the just, she snored raucously for many long and uneventful hours to come.
14
The noise shot Escalla up out of her bed, eyes wide open and her hands moving to snatch spellbooks, pens, and scrolls to look as though she were still working. She blinked about in a daze, only to see Jus looming over the dead campfire and wringing something in his hands. The faerie instantly turned invisible.
“It wasn’t me! It was Polk!”
Polk awoke in a mad confusion of blankets. “It’s a lie! Alie!”
“Of course it’s a lie!” Jus whirled, uncannily able to seeright through Escalla’s invisibility. “You slept on guard!”
“It’s not my fault! I was working! Everyone knows I fallasleep when I’m working!” Now near the ceiling, Escalla took shelter behind astalactite. “Look. Everyone’s still alive. What is your problem?”
Hundreds of pounds of stubble-headed fury paced like an enraged cave bear below Escalla’s hiding place.
The black blade was now nothing but a rusted stump about half a finger long. Escalla blinked back into view, hoping that calming words and a nervous grin were better than calming words alone.
“It wasn’t my fault.”
“Then whose fault was it?!?” Jus’ bellow must have reachedhalfway to the drow citadel. “We left you in charge!”
“Well, Cinders was there!”
“Cinders is still humming away from some damned idiot’srepair spell! We’ll be lucky if he wakes up before lunchtime!”
Huge with anger, the Justicar paced back and forth, his furious eye always fixed upon Escalla.
“That sword saw me through a hundred fights. That swordwasn’t stopped by any blade. That sword was the only thing I had to keep usalive long enough to beat your damned murder charge!”
Private Henry peeked out from behind a stalagmite. “Murder?”
“It’s a bum rap!” Escalla shot a comment at the boy, thensqueaked as Jus’ hand fastened around her and dragged her down to face him.“All right, I made a teeny error of judgment! I was tired, man! Those drowreally blasted me!” The girl clasped her hands. “I’m really sorry. Really reallyreally sorry! Really really really really
Jus released the faerie and sat down, fuming angry and swearing at the dark. Polk cleared his throat to speak, but Escalla waved the man down before he could make a bad situation worse.
“Jus? We can get you another sword.”
“We are in the bowels of the earth a hundred miles fromanywhere!” Jus seethed, his head stubble standing up like porcupine quills.“Where were you planning on going shopping?”
“Hey! We’ve got swords! See! Lots of swords!” In a mad panicto head off Jus’ rage, Escalla spilled captured drow short swords all over thefloor. “See? These are swords.”
The drow weapons were scarcely eighteen inches long. Jus picked one up, the weapon looking like a toothpick in his hand. He dropped it and sat down to brood, seething in annoyance at the whole wide world.
Escalla wrung her hands in misery and hovered at his side. “Jus…?”
“I’m really mad, Escalla.”
“I’ll make it up to you. I promise! I’ll find a better sword,a much much better one.” The girl bit her thumb in shame. “And I’m really sorryabout falling asleep. I stayed up for
He smoldered. Escalla ended up in his arms, trying her very best to be contrite.
“I promise you I’ll do the next thr-err, two things you orderme to do without question. All right?” Anxious and much cowed, Escalla sketcheda little salute. “Promise.”
Looking at the sad little stub of his sword-the wolf skullpommel still intact, but the blade a total ruin-Jus sank into a bearlike sulk.
“I pulled that sword out of my dead master’s hands back inthe Iuz wars. Killed the wight that was after me. Saved my life a thousand times.” Bitterly unhappy, Jus sheathed the blade stub then jammed a drow daggerthrough his belt. “We’d better find some proper armament before we run into anymore of our murderer’s little friends.”
There was a shy shuffle from behind. Looking up at the Justicar, Private Henry cleared his throat and timidly offered his sword.
“Sir? I’m really not much use with it.” The boy unsheathedthe first few inches of the blade and looked down at his feet. “I watched youfight. I… I could never be a fighter like that.”
The Justicar looked down at the boy with a sudden grim pride. Rage and annoyance forgotten, he laid a hand on Private Henry’s shoulder.“What’s your name again, son?”
“Henry.”
“Thank you, Henry.” Jus hefted the boy’s sword, then laid itback in Henry’s hands. “Keep it. You’ll need it. You kept a drow off my back.Well done.”
Henry slumped in self-made misery. “It was only one, and shewould have killed me if it wasn’t for the faerie.”
Perking instantly up, Escalla whirred over to the rescue.
“Spell! Ha! That’s right! That was
Private Henry drew himself fully upright, reaching almost to Jus’ chest. Full of pride and energy, he clapped a bolt into his crossbow,squared his helmet, and marched off into the passageway. Watching him go, Jus cradled Escalla in the crook of his arm.
“Was that true about that spell?”
“What, stoneskin?” Escalla pulled her nose. “Naah! But lookhow good it made him feel.” The girl spread her wings and whirred into the air.“Come on, J-man! Time’s wasting, and that slowglass is gettin’ halfway to drowcentral!”
Jus sighed and hung back a few moments to use his healing spells to cure his wounds. Unarmed yet still dangerous, he stalked out of the cave mouth and moved into the dark.
They walked into the vile tunnel, water dripping and worms slithering wetly through the mold about them. Polk marched unsteadily, dwarfed by the pack of loot balanced on his shoulders. Somehow the little man never minded the load, being driven onward by sheer bloody-mindedness as he cleaved the dark like an icebreaker forging through a polar sea. Coming level with Escalla, he shot the girl a long glance, swelled his pigeon chest, and cleared his throat. “Discipline!”
