All that was clear. After that, there was only the dream of the wolves.
Hweilan looked up and saw that Maaqua held her staff in one hand and leaned on a much larger figure next to her. The hilt of a massive sword peeked over his shoulder. That would be Rhan. With them were more hobgoblins, wearing helmets and holding spears. Guards. Which told Hweilan two things: they were prisoners, but Maaqua still felt the need for guards. That was good.
Maaqua called down, “For the Chosen of Nendawen and the granddaughter of the High Warden, you have quite a tongue on you. Dear pious Vandalar would be most ashamed.”
Hweilan glared up through the bars. “You’re making a grave mistake holding me here.”
“Is that so?”
“What day is it, Maaqua?”
“Eh?”
“More to the point, what night will it be? How long until the moon is full?”
Maaqua said nothing, and Hweilan let the question hang a while.
“You know who I am,” said Hweilan. “And you know what I am. The next full moon, do you really think my master will look kindly on anyone keeping me in a hole?”
Maaqua hunched her shoulders, almost as if she were hugging herself, and trembled. Hweilan thought she might be laughing, though she could hear nothing beyond the breathing of her companions, made eerily loud by the confines of the rock walls.
“I like you, girl,” said Maaqua. “You have teeth. I’m sorry we never met before things went bad.”
Hweilan gave the old crone her best glare and hoped there was enough light for it to be seen. “Things can always get worse,” she said.
Maaqua did laugh then, throwing back her head back and baying, almost like a hound. It ended in a wheeze that broke into a cough, and she said, “That’s why I’m here. You and I, we must speak.”
“Come down and we’ll have quite a conversation.”
“Don’t let my liking for you lead you to think that gives you leave to threaten me, girl,” said Maaqua. “You listen to old Maaqua. We can talk now. No more demons apparating on my doorstep. While you were sleeping down in that hole, I raised such a forbiddance around the fortress that Ao himself might have trouble peeking. I’m going to get you-and only you-out. The others will stay put for now. Any foolishness from you-anything at all!-and my guards will pull a lever up here. That lever will open a little floodgate. Once it’s opened, this hole will fill up with water. Not to the rim. No, I designed it too well. It’ll stop less than a foot over those bars. Your friends will be able to reach their hands into the air and see the sky even as they drown.”
Maaqua let that sink in.
Darric, Valsun, and Jaden all exchanged a worried glance.
“Do we understand each other?” said Maaqua.
Hweilan called up, “We do.”
The hobgoblins’ silhouettes backed out of sight.
“Is it me,” said Jaden, “or did that sound less than sincere?”
“Be silent, Jaden!” said Darric.
There was a wrenching sound, metal grinding on stone, and then the bars over their heads moved slowly into one side of the wall. A rope appeared overhead, hanging in the air a moment before falling down the length of the shaft to land on the ground between Hweilan and Jaden. It was thick and hairy, and sported a knotted loop on one end.
“Put the loop under your arms,” Maaqua called down. “Then walk up the wall, and we’ll pull from up here.”
Hweilan fitted her arms through the loop and grabbed the thick knot with one hand. She ran the other over the front of her shirt, just below her breasts. It was still there. Something stiff and unyielding, ending in a point. Good.
“Ready!” she called, then looked sidelong at Darric and whispered, “Be ready.”
The slack in the rope pulled taut, and Hweilan began her ascent up the stone wall.
“You heard what she said, Hweilan!” said Darric.
Hweilan said nothing, but kept looking up.
“Told you,” said Jaden. “Drowning … Could be worse, I suppose. Maybe the water’ll be warm.”
Valsun said, “Be silent, Jaden.”
The rope dug into Hweilan’s sides and back, scraping her skin even through her thick clothing, and the unnatural position of walking up the wall made her sore muscles scream for relief. She ground her jaw and took measured breaths through her nose to get through the pain. One of Ashiin’s lessons learned welclass="underline" pain couldn’t be banished, but it could be focused, so use it. Hweilan knew she’d have one chance at this. The bars were still open below her. Good. This might just work.
Looking up, she saw that no one was watching. One hand still grasping the rope, she reached into her shirt with her other, found the braided leather thong, and pulled. She felt the point scrape against her skin, perhaps even drawing fresh blood as she drew it out, but it was no worse than the pain she was already feeling.
She thanked her gods and ancestors that the goblins hadn’t taken the kishkoman from her. If they’d found it, they’d probably thought it no more than a trinket or piece of jewelry, much like the bits of bone and stone they themselves wore. There was certainly no magic in it. Quickly, she pulled off the necklace, wound the leather around her free wrist, and palmed the sharpened antler tip. Below, she heard a sharp whisper from Darric that sounded much like a curse.
Another four steps and she could see over the edge of the pit. Rhan stood only a couple of paces beyond the edge, pulling the rope hand over hand, his breath making a great cloud around him. Despite the cold, he was bare to the waist, except for the belt of his scabbard that rode his back, and his own breath had coated his skin in a thin sheen of frost.
Maaqua was pacing beyond her champion, and half a dozen guards watched the proceedings. Some leaned on their spears. No problem there. Another hobgoblin, whose scars and facepaint marked him as a soldier of rank, had a sword belted at his waist and a wicked-looking axe dangling from one hand. No real problem there, either. Not for what she had planned. But two others, standing on the lowest bit of the rise that led up a small escarpment to the heights overhead, were holding bows. The weapons lay lax in their hands, but each hobgoblin had an arrow nocked to the string and was watching Hweilan carefully. She’d have to make this quick.
Hweilan came out of the hole with a final pull from Rhan. She feigned overbalancing, let out a small gasp of pain-genuine but exaggerated-and stumbled toward the massive hobgoblin. He cast down the lank of rope and reached for her.
She twisted under his hands and brought her leg around in a hard kick, planting the top of her foot in the side of Rhan’s knee. He tensed at the last moment, and she didn’t hear the hoped-for crunch of bone, but the leg buckled and he fell forward. Her other foot came up as he came down, and her heel came up straight into his belly. It felt like kicking a tree, but his breath shot out of him in a great cloud of steam. She used his own massive weight and momentum against him, using her leg as a lever and sending him arse over head into the pit. The Damarans screamed, Jaden loudest of them all.
But the brute had proved even heavier than he looked, and whatever Maaqua had done to Hweilan must’ve taken more of a toll than she’d first thought. She’d hoped to be on her feet and moving again before the two archers managed to pull feathers to cheek, but when she tried to push herself up, her right leg gave out and she stumbled.
Maaqua screamed, “Stop this, idiot girl!”
The hobgoblin of rank rushed forward, raising his axe and reaching for his sword. The others lowered their spears and charged. Behind her, the Damarans were still screaming down in the hole.