“Scroll?” Maera demanded. “What scroll?”
Malowan stirred. “There was no time to share the informationbefore. Also, I wanted to be certain of its contents.”
Nemis’ lips twitched. “You did not trust me, youmean. I cannot blame you-”
“Save that,” Vlandar broke in briskly. “Maera, I chose tokeep that matter to myself. Now I intend to share it. That is my right as commander, is it not?”
She nodded and settled back against the wall.
“From now on, our main goal is to escape this place. Bestwould be a forgotten doorway to the surface, but I doubt we will find one. There may be ways guarded by spells or beasts, and even if we do make our way back to the surface, we may have a long journey back to our horses.”
“There may be other ways to leave, Vlandar,” Malowan saidmildly. “Ever since I first heard Lhors’ tale, I thought these giants must havea spell or some magic device to get them from here to Keoland. Upper Haven is many days’ journey from here, even for giants. I find it odd that they have notbeen seen more often. The land is not that underpopulated.”
“True,” Vlandar said. “And we may find such devices or magicitems on this level. I have led enough raids against bandits and robbers to know that those who have a permanent hiding place keep their most valuable things apart-often in a secret space beneath the chief’s personal quarters.”
“I agree,” Malowan said. “I still believe the scroll cases Ifound in that woodpile were temporarily hidden-set where they would not be seenby everyone, but near enough that they could be retrieved quickly. Once the orders written there are carried out, I believe the scroll would be put with previous orders in a locked chamber close by. Perhaps down the nearby stairs?”
Vlandar nodded. “I agree with you, Mal. I hope to findanother way into that passage from down here. The two staircases cannot be very far apart. We shall see. So far, Nosnra and his crew seem not to have warned any guards down here where we are and what we have done.”
“How do you know that?” Lhors asked.
“Because there is no company of giants breaking in either ofthe doors, and… Nemis?”
The mage murmured a spell-probably the reveal danger one thatLhors knew he used often. Nemis shook his head no.
Vlandar went on. “We are alone. Nemis would sense anyonenearby. Either this level is largely deserted, which I doubt, or no one down here knows what happened up there, which I also doubt. If there are dungeons and housing for slaves and such down here, as I think likely, the giants are involved in their normal routines. Still, we dare not stay here much longer. We have all rested some. All of you, eat something and drink a little. Nemis, I think it’s time to explain.”
“As you choose,” the mage said and set his book aside with afaint sigh.
“Me first, then you,” Vlandar replied.
Nemis merely nodded.
Lhors thought he looked resigned, but it was hard to tell. The mage’s face didn’t reveal much.
Vlandar went on, “The scroll Mal found is written inGiantish. The scroll Mal found gives us written proof that these giants were ordered to attack villages. We do not know why, but we do know who. I can assure you that if we come away with nothing but this one scroll, we will have accomplished part of our task. When we find a way out, I may choose to divide our force and send some of you to take that scroll back to Cryllor. The Lord Mebree’s sorcerers can easily transport it to wherever the king presentlyis.”
“But if our boats and the horses are already gone…?”Maera asked.
A muted grumbling rippled through the party.
“They will not be,” Malowan replied. “I left the mate thischarm.”-he fished a little device from his belt. “At least once a day, I let himknow that we still live. He waits for another signal from me if we need help, and by yet another to tell the Flennish to set sail back east while he and the lad return the horses to Cryllor.”
“Now,” Vlandar went on, “I see most of you are dissatisfied,but there is more to all this than you know.” He gave Nemis a steady look.
The mage sighed, but came away from the wall. He looked resigned, Lhors thought. Like the day you had to admit to old headman Yerik that you sneaked into the onion fields and ate bulbs, he mused. The headman had been really angry until Gran broke into her cackly laugh and reminded the headman of his own forays into that same patch.
Nemis now wore the same look on his face that Yerik had.
“All right,” the mage said. “I have something to tell all ofyou, and I… well…” He settled cross-legged on the floor and drew a deepbreath. “The scroll was written by a being called Eclavdra, a dread sorceress ofthe dark elves, the drow.”
Rowan caught her breath sharply, and Maera sat up straight.
Nemis eyed the rangers. “Yes, I see that you know of drow.For you others, drow are elves, but unlike Rowan or Maera, they are black skinned, silver or white-haired, and they live beneath the ground. Unlike our rangers, they despise growing things. They are selfish, cold-minded, and cruel. Long ago, they fought the other elves for control of the surface lands and lost. They were driven underground where they have since made their home. They do not want to return to the surface, unless they have greatly changed. They prefer the dark depths of the earth, but they hate other elves, half-elves, and all who dwell under the sun.”
“It is an ancient hatred,” Rowan said. She sounded shaken,and Maera’s face was pale. “Of course we know of drow, but no one has seen themin many of our lives. We hoped they were all dead.”
“They are not,” Nemis said evenly. “I have seen them.My master was a skilled mage who made a study of the drow. What he learned drove him to fear them, and I think his fears made him a little mad, for not long after I was bound to him, he sought the drow, and they found him. Before that year’s end, my master and I were housed in a chamber far below ground in themidst of a vast city of drow. He had pledged himself as apprentice to one of their most dire sorceresses, Eclavdra. As his apprentice, I was also bound to her.”
Rowan looked at Maera, who was honing the points of her spears on a whetstone. Maera shrugged.
“I have never heard that name,” Rowan said.
“Few have,” Nemis admitted. To Lhors, his eyes lookedhaunted-like Gran’s eyes the morning after the giants’ attack. “She is manythings: sorceress, dour warrior, a black cleric, and”-he swallowed-“extremelycharismatic. She draws people of all kinds to her service. My master went to her from fear. I for other reasons.” He stared at his hands. “She wanted me for herown… personal… reasons. Because I pleased her, I was giventraining in the drow magic. Eventually, I learned enough that I was able to strike down my master and escape.” He looked at Rowan. “Yes, that could be a lieto hide that Eclavdra trained me and sent me onto the surface to spy for her or do worse things. I can only swear to you that I am no spy for the drow.”
“I know that,” Malowan told him. “You others, remember thatas a paladin, I can discern when someone lies. Nemis is not lying.”
“In that case,” Maera said, “we have a problem.”
“Mal!” Agya hissed urgently. She was exploring the east wallas the rest of the party prepared to set out. “Mal, come ’ere! There’s a loosebit just ’ere.”
Malowan came over to see, and Vlandar followed. Lhors, closest to the girl, could make out the fingertip-sized circle that slid aside as she pressed on it. “Lookit,” she breathed. “I can see out there!”
She stepped back as the paladin crouched to set his eye to the opening. Malowan nodded cautiously and gestured for Vlandar to look, then signed Agya to ease the cover back into place. “There is no one out there justnow, but someone might come and hear our voices,” Malowan said quietly.
“What is it?” Lhors asked.
“A very large, dark chamber,” the paladin replied,“apparently empty for now.”