leading us into a trap.'
'Seema wouldn't do that,' said Atreus.
'Because you two did a fracas?' Yago mocked. Among ogres, it was not uncommon for an unhappy wife to arrange her mate's death. 'Maybe that's the reason. It's not like you've had a lot of practice with the real thing.'
'Seema's not a thing,' Atreus said. 'And humans don't treat their mates… er, lovers… that way.'
'Why didn't she warn us about that Dweller?' Yago demanded.
'The Dwellers summon every person differently,' Seema said. 'I have heard of people being sung to or lured with sweet aromas-'
'And she didn't want us to come here in the first place,' Yago continued, speaking over Seema. 'She's trying to protect something-just like she was trying to protect Langdarma when she nearly got you killed.'
'Yes, and I suspect now she's trying to protect us,' said Atreus. He gestured into the shadows, which were empty of the Dweller. 'Whatever that thing is, I don't think weapons would do us much good.'
He gave Seema an apologetic shake of the head, picked up his pebble bucket, and gestured for her to lead the way. The Dweller did not show itself again, but they could hear it paralleling their course, its heavy body making wet sucking sounds as it slithered through the shadows alongside them.
After Atreus's nose grew accustomed to the cavern-like smell of the place, he began to notice the subtle stench of brimstone wafting through the alabaster forest. At first, he thought it might be some odor the creature was emitting. Then he started to glimpse the jagged throats of rough-hewn tunnels along the palace walls. They had passed into the mountain itself.
As they neared the back of the huge chamber, the forest of alabaster pillars gave way to a black granite wall. The aura of silver radiance continued to brighten, and they soon recognized it as the shining aura of a small pond, formed when an alabaster pillar toppled or was pushed across the stream. The falling column had brought with it a sizable heap of rubble that someone had shaped into a shallow dam. On one rim of this dam sat a small marble bench, and scattered across its surface were a dozen floating lotus blossoms.
Beyond the pond, barely visible through its cloudy aura of brilliance, an even brighter stream of twinkling water cascaded down a stairway from the unseen depths of the palace's inner sanctum. Atreus smiled. The water appeared to be growing more potent as they neared its source.
The Dweller emerged from the shadows beside the pond, its big belly scales hissing across the stone floor as it slithered up to the dam. Atreus's stomach turned cold and queasy again. Without really meaning to, he stopped and averted his gaze, watching from the corner of his eye as the monster stuck its tentacle-festooned head into the water.
The creature looked as though it were drinking, but then it began to stretch forward and twist its neck about, searching for something on the bottom of the pool. Seema continued forward until she could peer over the rubble dam down into the pond, and waved her companions forward.
'This is very special,' she whispered. 'You must see.'
Rishi crept ahead without hesitation, but Atreus found himself lagging behind, struggling with his memory of how easily the monster had taken control of him. Only his bodyguard's looming presence, and the certain knowledge that the ogre would interpret any hesitation as further evidence of Seema's trustworthiness, compelled Atreus forward at all.
When he reached Seema's side, he bit his cheeks to keep from crying out in wonder. The bottom of the pool was buried in diamonds, rubies, sapphires, every type of precious stone, all in their natural form and some as large as a man's thumb. The Dweller was rummaging through the jewel bed, pulling out the brightest stones and holding each one to an eye for a closer examination. It threw many stones back, usually those cloudier or less deeply colored than their fellows. It placed the other gems into the scarlet mouths at the end of its tentacles and sucked them up inside the scaly appendages.
'Seema, you are a hopeless liar!' cried Rishi. 'Did you not tell me just this morning there was no treasure in Langdarma?'
'This is not Langdarma's treasure.' Seema smirked at the Mar as though daring him to steal it. 'It belongs to the Dwellers, and you must not touch it.'
'Are you mad?' Rishi gasped. 'Those are diamonds… and rubies. They are not meant to fill the gizzard of some overgrown snail!'
'They will not,' said Seema. 'The Dwellers take them down into the mountains and plant them beneath the far reaches of the Yehimals.'
'Where they will not be found for centuries?' A larcenous gleam appeared in Rishi's eye, and he seemed unable to rip his gaze from pool bottom as he said, 'What good does that do? It is better for me to take them now. I can carry them straight to the finest markets in the Five Kingdoms.'
The Mar dropped his bucket and started forward without awaiting Seema's reply, but Atreus quickly caught him by the shoulder.
'Don't you think the Dweller will object to another pair of hands in its gem bed? Seema promised no harm would come to us as long as we did what she said. I intend to see to it that we honor our agreement.'
Rishi's gaze ran along the pool bottom to one of the Dweller's scaly tentacles, then up the appendage to the shapeless bulk of the monster's huge body. The larcenous gleam faded from his eyes, and he seemed slowly to return to his senses.
'You are absolutely right. A thousand gratitude's. I was lost in the monster's fiendish grip and would certainly have brought a swift and terrible end to us all if not for your ready intervention.'
'The Dweller calls to each of us in a different way,' Seema agreed. 'I am glad you have heard yours and returned to us whole.'
'We will have to wait until after the monster is gone,' the Mar said, then sat down on his pebble bucket, his gaze still fixed on the pool. 'Surely, there will be a bucketful left for us.'
Seema's face grew stern and she said, 'Even if you had so many days, that is not why I brought you here.' She jerked Rishi to his feet, snatched his bucket up, and thrust it into his hands. 'Let us do what we came to do and be gone.'
Seema cast an angry look at Atreus, clearly holding him responsible for the Mar's sacrilege, then climbed onto the dam and dumped her pebble bucket into the shining basin. A tentacle snaked over to inspect the stones and rose briefly out of the pool and slapped the surface, splashing Seema with a stream of shining water. It was impossible to guess whether the gesture was one of thanks or irritation. Seema motioned the others over, gesturing for them to do as she had. After dumping their buckets, Atreus and Rishi each received a similar splash. When Yago dumped his cask, the Dweller rested its tentacle on his shoulder and rubbed his face, smearing the ogre's orange cheek with white slime. 'Hey!'
Yago knocked the tentacle away and the Dweller responded by flicking the appendage back toward him. When the ogre fell for the feint and brought his other arm across to block, the monster struck, slapping Yago alongside the head so hard that he tumbled backward off the dam. He landed with a deafening crash and sprang instantly to his feet, only to find the tentacle's finger-like end tendrils waving in his face.
Keeping a cautious eye on the tendrils, Yago began to edge toward the marble bench.
'Yago!' Seema hissed, wrapping both hands around the ogre's wrist and pulling him toward the head of the pool. 'What are you doing?'
'You saw,' the ogre said as he backed away from the Dweller. 'That thing went after me!'
'It was only playing,' Atreus said, hoping he was right. 'If that monster had been attacking, I doubt any of us would be here.'
Seema nodded, her eyes as hard as ice. 'I pray we are not about to discover the truth of that,' she said, and began to edge along the dam toward the granite stairs. 'I do not know what the Dweller will do when we pass the Pool of Gems. I have never been beyond here.'
Rishi rolled his eyes, clearly believing this was just one more lie designed to protect Langdarma's secret treasures.
Atreus stepped to the head of the line. 'In that case,' he said, 'let me go first… alone. If the Dweller objects, perhaps he will only attack me.'
'I'm the bodyguard,' objected Yago.
'But it's my quest,' Atreus said, then made the small leap from the dam to the first step. 'What does it
