Agya came around Malowan to peer at the contents with them. “Just a map!” she said dismissively.
Nemis had the thing spread across his knees. Lhors could not make out any of the writing on the hardened sheet of skin, but Nemis and Malowan seemed to be making sense of it.
The mage held up a black oblong box. “This was under the mapVlandar, and the map is a plan of the frost giants’ hold-Nosnra’s guide, fromwhat is written here. And here”-he pointed-“are instructions for the device thattakes him to the Rift.”
“Rift?” Agya asked warily. “Frost giants?”
“The Rift is a place of ice and cold, such as frost giantslike” the paladin explained. “I doubt we will care for it, but Nemis”-thepaladin glanced over his shoulder and lowered his voice-“will the drow bethere?”
“I doubt it,” Nemis said quietly. “Those I knew prefer heatto cold, and they would not trust Nosnra with anything that took him straight to them. They may travel to the Rift to meet with him, or he may go beyond the Rift.”
“We’ll learn when we get there,” Malowan said as he openedthe oblong box.
Lhors hoped the man felt as confident as he sounded. Lhors merely felt ready to be done with fighting and headed back home.
But you have no home anymore, the back of his mindwhispered. Lhors pushed the thought away. It was true enough, but that was a matter to deal with once he was far away from giants and bugbears and orcs.
The box held a chain, a hide scroll, and another black chain that reflected the dim light. Nemis took the black chain. “Don’t touch it, Mal,”he warned as he unfurled it. “You won’t like it.” He looked down to read fromthe scroll again. “Instructions for the chain, from ‘the Jarl, Chief of theRift.’ He addresses Nosnra as if the brute were his slave.” He glanced up. “Mal,you’re monitoring them up there?”
“As best I can,” the paladin said. “There are no giants inthe passage out there, no one nearby except those manticores.”
“That won’t last much longer,” Vlandar said. “I fear our timeis almost gone. Tell me how this chain works.”
Nemis read down the scroll, set it aside to scrub his hands vigorously on his pants, then spread the chain out across the floor. It was longer than it had looked in the chest.
“I won’t loop it properly until we are ready,” the mage said.
Vlandar got everyone together. “We’re leaving here soon, bythe magic in that chain. We have no choice at this point. It is this or fight our way out against impossible odds. It will be very cold where we’re going, sowhatever warm things you have in your packs, put them on now. And be ready to fight. There may well be guards where we emerge, frost giants. Khlened, you said you’ve fought them before.”
The barbarian’s eyes narrowed, and he grinned fiercely. “Aye.Tough brutes, and far more cunning than these hill giants, but they bleed same as you’n me.”
“Pardon me, Vlandar,” Lhors spoke up hesitantly, “but how canwe be sure that this chain won’t drop us into a frost giant’s cook pot or in themiddle of a dragon’s nest?”
Vlandar looked grim, but before he could answer, Nemis jumped in. “It is a possibility. I won’t deny it. But things of this nature are seldomthat precise. Nosnra is a thickheaded brute, but even he would want to travel safely, and the frost giants wouldn’t want others dropping in at any time. Thatwould be dangerous should the device fall into the wrong hands.”
“Like ours, y’mean,” Bleryn said.
“Precisely.” The mage smiled. “In all likelihood, we willemerge some distance from the frost giants’ hold, well out of any ‘danger zone’.”
“True enough,” the paladin conceded, “but Lhors does have apoint. Wherever we emerge, it will likely be watched. You don’t leave a magicdoor to your stronghold and not guard it.”
Vlandar sighed. “All you say is true, but the point remains: we have no choice. We can’t swim out of here on the river. One set of stairs iscollapsed and being cleared by who knows how many giants, and the other exits are surely heavily guarded. It’s this way or no way, but I advise everyone to gowith weapons at the ready.”
Everyone nodded reluctantly. Not one of them seemed pleased.
Lhors watched as the mage felt the links, then picked three in a row and drew the outer two together, touching the new join with his fingers. When he let it go, the two stayed together and the third locked between them. He twisted the chain into a double loop, then squatted to hold the upper off the lower.
“Half of you stand in one loop, half in the other,” Nemisinstructed.
Vlandar divided them into two groups. Khlened, Bleryn, the rangers, and their injured comrade composed one. Nemis, Malowan, Agya, Lhors, and Gerikh made up the other. Everyone who had a weapon held it ready. Nemis looked them over, then glanced behind him.
Lhors could suddenly hear giants-many of them. The mage gotto his feet and dropped the chain. It hit the floor with a muted clank.
The treasure room flared a brilliant blue-white and vanished. Lhors clutched Vlandar’s arm, scared and dizzy both, but the sensation of beingnowhere was gone as quickly as it had come. In its place came snow, ice, and a hellish wind that cut through every layer they wore.
Khlened spat. His moustache was already stiff with ice.
“Frost giants,” he snarled. “I hate frost giants.”
15
Icy wind shrilled, blowing snow and ice crystals around them.The sky seemed to be night-dark, but it was hard to tell with so much wind and snow. Agya huddled in on herself, teeth chattering. Lhors, who had enjoyed snowfalls in his village as a boy, stared in horror at the blizzard. His face felt frozen in just the few moments they’d been here. He dragged the thickwoolen scarf up over his nose and mouth and peered at a tree maybe four paces away-the only thing he could see besides blowing white. The branches were soladen that he could barely make out that it was a tree.
Khlened tapped his shoulder. “Stay clear of trees!” heshouted in order to be heard over the gale. “Tree like that hides pockets underth’ branches. Means you step in the wrong place, you could fall far enough tobreak your neck!”
The barbarian turned to Vlandar. “We can’t stay out in this!Even a Fist won’t stay in th’ open, and the rest of ye-you’ll freeze in notime!” He peered around, then walked past the warrior and eased down between twoice-coated boulders. He was back in moments. “’Tis no true shelter, but there’snext to no wind back there. Get close t’each other. Me’n Bleryn’ll find someplace better.”
“If not, we can dig snow tunnel,” the dwarf said. Agya stared at him inhorror and Bleryn chuckled. “Surprising, how warm it is in a snow tunnel. Nowind.”
“Go,” Vlandar ordered tersely.
“Do not go down,” Nemis said. “The giants’ hold is down. Andbe careful.”
“Careful, huh?” Khlened snorted. “Man can’t spend treasure if’e’s dead, eh?”
With that, he was gone, following Bleryn. They were lost to sight before they’d gone ten paces, and their footprints were already fillingin.
Vlandar led the way down between the boulders and back as far as he could. Lhors sighed faintly. The wind dropped away almost entirely in this rough shelter, and while the snow beyond the stones was deep, it only came to his ankles here.
Rowan left her sister to keep their wounded companion close under her cloak, while she and Lhors helped Malowan compact a high ridge of snow on three sides to block what little wind still came at them.
“Everyone, get as close together as you can,” the paladinordered. “Watch each other. None of us must fall asleep here.” He settled downnext to Agya, and the girl gratefully burrowed into his fur-lined cloak.