Vlandar gestured for silence, listened intently, then led them along the west wall where there was little or no light from the one dim torch burning between a north passage and a rough door. Agya touched the warrior’s hand, pointed toward the door and signed, Giant. Beast. Thewarrior worked this out and nodded. After a moment’s consideration, he indicatedfirst the dark opening straight across from them, then the ill-lit door just south of that.
Passage? He signed then pointed toward the opening.
Malowan nodded then pointed at the door and signed back, Prison.
The prison door rattled slightly, and someone behind it cursed in a hoarse, thick voice. Vlandar looked around, then stabbed a finger toward the far side of the chamber. Malowan touched Agya’s arm to get herattention, then sprinted across the vast stone floor to vanish in the darkness of the hallway, the girl right on his heels. Vlandar put Lhors in front of him. Khlened came behind and the rangers, and Nemis brought up the rear.
The mages lips and fingers were moving in his personal beneath notice spell as he gained the east passage. The man spun around and knelt just behind the opening, one hand fumbling at his belt as everyone else crowded close behind him. Lhors could see a little box, but before he could study it further, an enormous, shaggy creature stumbled into the open, backlit by torches in the cell area. The sudden light hurt the youth’s eyes, and heshrank against the wall, blinking furiously. Vlandar’s hand closed reassuringlyover his forearm-the warrior had his sword in the other.
“It’s a bugbear,” he whispered against Lhors’ ear. “We’reprotected by Nemis’ spell.”
The brute snarled an oath at someone in the pens and gestured furiously. The door slammed behind him. Nemis seemed half-blinded by the light as well. He worked the lid from the box by feel, then froze as Malowan touched his shoulder.
“It’s only me,” the paladin breathed against his ear, hisvoice prudently low even with the beneath notice spell in place. “What have youthere?”
Nemis held the box out. “Illusionary wall.”
“Not a good idea. The creature sees a wall where there shouldnot be one and he’ll raise an alarm. Save your box. I know how long it takes toprepare that powder.”
“What would you use?” Nemis whispered.
The paladin grinned, his teeth ruddy in the faint light. “Fear.”
The mage shook his head. “That takes as long as the wall toprepare!”
Vlandar tapped both hard on the shoulders and drew a meaningful hand across his throat.
Nemis eyed him sidelong and nodded. “Won’t do, Mal. He sensesfear, he’ll raise an alarm or run yelling for help. Wait.” He leaned forward,keeping a close eye on the massive brute. It was mumbling to itself in a nasty-sounding guttural voice. The creature shambled off straight south. A little dim light leaked into the chamber as the south door opened, but it cut off as the door slammed. “Save your spell. We are clear for the moment.”
Vlandar eased around mage and paladin. He froze as the door into the prison slammed open again. Lhors swallowed dryly. Someone in there was wailing in a high, broken voice and two guards were bellowing furiously at each other.
How can Vlandar bear that? he thought. The warrior showed no emotion whatever as he looked a question at Nemis, who nodded. I hope that means his spell is still working, Lhors thought.
Another door-the one set in the south wall perhaps-bangedinto stone, the sound echoing briefly through the chamber before it was swallowed by a blare of arguing, shouting, and fighting. Someone stomped into the open and bellowed what sounded like an order. The prison door slammed shut, and a moment later, the second door cracked into its frame. Utter silence followed.
Vlandar sighed and eased back on his heels. “All right,” hewhispered. “Unless the guard and his ape came out unheard during all that, wehave the space to ourselves. I suggest we make use of it and get ourselves down that long hall before someone else comes.”
“No one else is out there,” Malowan said. “I would know. Getgoing, Vlandar, and I will catch up in a moment. My business is against the north wall. If there are giants close by, I may be able to learn what they plan.”
The mage eyed him. “If-”
“If I can, then we may have useful information. If not, wewill not have lost anything. Either way, I will join you at once. I do not seek a martyr’s death here, my friend.”
Agya stirred.
“No,” he added. “You stay with them. I am safer alone.”
To Lhors’ surprise, the girl nodded and slid back intoshadow while the paladin edged along the east wall, heading north. He gave the doorway around the guards’ room a wide berth, skirted the north opening, thensettled against the middle of the north wall, listening intently.
Vlandar got to his feet and led the party straight across the open, the shortest distance between east passage and south corridor.
There was light in the vast open area, most of it leaking around the door leading to the prison cells. Once they plunged into the corridor, however, the darkness was daunting. There were no openings of any kind along either wall, and it seemed to go on forever.
Halfway down the corridor, Malowan caught up to them.
“Anything?” Vlandar asked softly.
The paladin nodded. “Not now.” He sounded short of breath.
Near the end of the long passage, Vlandar stopped and drew the company around him, then gestured for Lhors and Rowan to check the cross-passage. The youth nodded and moved out along the west wall, glancing now and again at the ranger, who had set her back to the east wall and moved in utter silence. He hoped he didn’t look as afraid as he felt.
Rowan reached the corner and dropped to one knee, then went flat, listening for a long moment before she edged the top of her head into the open. She looked behind her first, then turned her head slowly so she could look over the west tunnel. She made no sudden moves, Lhors realized, and she moved the way his father had taught him when they hunted deer. Silent, slow, steady, cautious moves were unlikely to be noticed by those who called an area home. He suddenly felt more confident than he had in all their journey. This is something I know, something I’m good at, he thought. Sliding down the wall, he slippedquietly into the open to check the east corridor.
There wasn’t much of it. Seven or eight long strides on,enormous boulders blocked the way as if there had been a slide. He could see this clearly, he suddenly realized, because of an opening to his left, halfway between him and the stones, where a torch was burning. The sputtering flame cast an uncertain light on the shaggy bugbear guard who sat bolt upright just inside the doorway, its back against the nearest side of the opening, its attention fixed on that boulder-pile-or possibly something beyond it.
Lhors brought his head slowly back around. There was a door just beyond the guard on the other side of the hall. There was a door opposite Rowan also, and a dreadful smell came from the hand’s width of space betweenfloor and ill-fitting slab of wood. Possibly a prison, Lhors thought. The door didn’t seem to fit well enough into its stone sill even to latch, but there wasa thick iron bar on the outside, holding it shut.
Somewhere to his right, he could hear the distant but unmistakable rhythmic clang of a hammer on an anvil. There was a smithy down here.
He looked over at Rowan, who was waiting for him. She sent her eyes sideways, back the way they’d come, then slowly began easing away fromthe opening. He did the same, only getting to his feet after she did. With one last look toward the cross-hall, the ranger came over and wrapped an arm around Lhors’ shoulders, briefly hugging him.
“Well done,” she murmured against his ear.
Lhors nodded. His face felt hot, and he was too embarrassed by the unexpected praise to know what to say. Besides, it was hard for him to remember that she was at least as old as his mother would have been. She was warm and sleek-bodied, like a very young woman. Her hair was soft. He forced his mind back to more serious matters-such as how to briefly let Vlandar know whathe’d seen down there.