shattered knee.
Bradok turned again, just in time to see Halum and Kellik bashing and slicing their foe into pieces with brutal efficiency.
“Look out!” Dallon called just in the nick of time.
The squat dwarf was back, carrying his severed arm and swinging it like a club. The wounded end of the arm hit Bradok in the shoulder, leaving behind a smear of foul-smelling blood.
Bradok didn’t hesitate. He chopped away the dwarf’s good hand, then smote off his head in a single stroke. The headless body stumbled forward to continue the attack, but Dallon bashed its hip with a sideways blow of his hammer, sending it into a writhing pile on the cavern floor.
Chisul and Rose had backed away from their victim, who lay undulating on the floor, her remaining hand pressed to her abdomen. She screamed as the flesh beneath her hand began to expand in some bizarre mimicry of pregnancy.
“What’s happening to her?” Rose gasped, disgust in her voice.
“I don’t think we should wait to find out,” Chisul said, horrified, edging back.
“Good idea,” Bradok said. “Everybody out!”
They all turned and raced for the hole. During their fight most of the others had escaped, and the rest scrambled to get away.
Chisul dived through the opening, headfirst, followed by Rose. As Dallon, then Vulnar, retreated, Bradok glanced back.
The writhing woman’s abdomen had distended beyond the size of mountain boulder and seemed ready to burst.
“Hurry up,” he told Kellik as the big smith forced his burly body through the opening. Then Bradok plunged through the gap.
“Get up the tunnel,” he yelled at the loitering dwarves. “Now!”
No one saw fit to argue. They turned and ran, chasing after the light ahead that marked the flight of the others. Dallon carried their second lantern. They had gone only a few steps up the tunnel when there came a tremendous bang and the sound of wet, pulpy material exploding against the walls of the cavern.
As they whirled in horror, they saw a golden mist flowing out of the hole. Little flecks of something were suspended in it, undulating and moving as it spread.
“Quick! That mist has to be poisonous,” Rose warned before turning to run.
“Move!” Bradok echoed, and the remaining survivors sprinted away as fast as they could after their fleeing companions.
CHAPTER 11
Fire burned in Bradok’s lungs as he ran headlong up the passage of rock. Ragged breathing filled the space around him as his companions raced with him away from the golden mist. His foot struck some unseen protrusion in the floor of the passage and he stumbled. A strong arm shot out of the darkness and grabbed his elbow, steadying him then shoving him forward, urging him on.
“What were those things?” Halum said, his voice shaky and uncertain.
“Who cares?” Vulnar cried, his voice huffing through his ragged breaths.
“That mist cloud looked like spores,” Dallon gasped, his voice close behind.
“What in the world could it be?” Chisul asked.
“I don’t want to find out,” Rose said.
“Talk about it later,” Bradok wheezed.
He could already see the blue light that marked the place where the rest of the group waited for them.
“Are you all right?” Tal asked as the panting, sweating dwarves joined them, collapsing into heaps on the floor.
“Rose and Chisul,” Bradok said, leaning on his knees to catch his breath.
“It’s just a scratch,” Rose said, waving Tal off as he tried to examine her arm. Turning to Bradok, she said, “That mist-do you think it might follow us?”
A cold chill ran down Bradok’s spine. He knew that it was more than possible. They couldn’t tarry there long.
“Let’s see what we can find out,” he said, reaching for the compass. To his utter horror, his hand found only an empty pocket.
“It’s gone,” he gasped.
“What’s gone?” Rose asked in a low voice, looking around to make sure the other dwarves hadn’t heard and been alarmed.
“The compass,” he said, frantically patting his other pockets. “I must have dropped it during the fight, or maybe when we ran up the passage.”
He sprang to his feet, feeling his heart beat fast. “I’ve got to go back,” he said.
Even before he could take a step back down the passage, Rose and Chisul had grabbed his arms.
“Are you insane?” Chisul said. “That mist could be churning up the passage right now.”
“But I’ve got to get the compass,” Bradok said, struggling against them. “We need it to tell us how to survive down here.”
“Survive?” Chisul said. “I’d say we get as far away from that mist as possible, and our chances for survival will go way up.”
“He’s right,” Rose said. “Maybe the compass has served its purpose, like the ship.”
Bradok stopped struggling, and they released him. “I must have dropped it,” he said ashamedly to Rose.
She put a reassuring hand on his shoulder and looked into his eyes. “Then we’ll just have to go by faith, won’t we?” she said gently. “Now let’s get these people moving. We want to put as much distance as possible between us and that mist.”
Erus, or Reorx, or whoever it was had given that compass to him for a reason, and he felt sure that reason still existed. But he had let everyone down by losing or dropping it. Some leader he was.
Bradok turned to the survivors. Anxious faces looked up at him. They had heard some of the discussion and were apprehensive about the loss of the compass. He tried to adopt a strong, stoic mask.
“All right, everyone,” he called out. “The danger is behind us, but we should probably make as much distance as we can today, so let’s get going.”
“Very diplomatic,” Tal whispered, falling in beside Bradok as the group began to move. “Just like a true leader.”
Bradok shook his head. “They know the compass is gone,” he said. “They’ll have to hear the truth sooner or later.”
The fight had taken a lot out of him. Bradok felt age and pain as they walked. He listened to the conversations around him. A young couple, whose names Bradok couldn’t remember, were taking turns carrying their toddler daughter, telling her all about the wonderful things they would do when they got to where they were going. Where was
Seerten Rockhide, an armorer from Everguard, was exchanging forging tips with Kellik. Much was walking alongside the pregnant Lyra and fussing over her and her daughter, Jade. She must bring out the grandfather in his old friend, Bradok thought.
Everywhere around him, the survivors were walking and talking and letting some of the tension slip away. After two days of desperate hunger, it felt good to hear their voices again.
Several hours later, they emerged into a small, round cavern. With the exception of the hole Bradok had made in the wall, it was the only change in the long fissure since they had left the beach almost a week before.
