As she leaned against the wall, arms crossed, Liet came up behind her. She noticed that his boots gave a little squeak when he walked.
"Trying to surprise me again," she said without looking at him.
"I didn't try the first time-just looking for the pleasure of your company."
"My company." Twilight looked at him with her eyes slit. "Is that all?"
"Rule four," said Liet.
Twilight couldn't help but roll her eyes at that.
"So what's the matter, 'Light?" asked Liet. "Worried about Davoren and Taslin? You handled them quite well, I think-I didn't think either of them could avoid biting each other for more than five breaths."
"Maybe something's watching us," Twilight said.
Liet's brow furrowed. "Watching?" He wiggled his fingers. "By magic, aye?"
Twilight shook her head. She twirled her amulet on its chain. "Not through this," she said. The sapphire on its silver chain glittered in the torchlight. "With this trinket, I don't exist. Not here, not in the Realms, not anywhere."
"Fascinating," Liet whispered.
Something in his tone made the hairs perk up along Twilight's spine. There was more to this boy than met the eye. Once again, she wondered how he had frightened that wight. Did Liet have an untapped aptitude for the Weave, or something more?
"Regardless, it seems possible we're being watched," said Twilight. "Something or someone has set us up, as though we're being tested."
"Set us up?" Liet scrunched his face in confusion.
"Our weapons and equipment, kept in stockpile, behind a simple lock," said Twilight. "A perfectly balanced group-Davoren and Asson to sling spells, Gargan and you to swing steel, Taslin and Slip to mend wounds, and Slip and myself to scout and open locks. None of us alike, all of us necessary. We overcame the troll without difficulty. Even our escape was too easy. We're being set up."
"Aye," said Liet. "And I suppose the wights were waiting for us as well?"
Twilight nodded and traced her fingers through the dust on the wall. "I am no stranger to running a maze set by someone greater than myself."
Without realizing it, she had drawn a star on the wall. When she noticed it, she brushed it away.
"And this feels the same. Except." She touched the amulet again. "Except no wizard can be tracking us."
"So there must be-" Liet said.
Twilight laid a finger across his lips, silencing him. Her pale eyes flicked back and forth, making sure none of the others were watching or listening.
"Maybe," said Twilight, "maybe."
The elf needn't have worried about the others. The warlock's muttering and the priestess's conjured food kept them more than occupied.
Rather, creatures not at all akin to the adventurers were listening, though they were not watching, exactly.
Had the pair looked up, elf and man might have been lucky enough to spot a pair of gray-skinned creatures pressed against the stone. They hung upside down, ears turned to listen to the conversation. Though they couldn't understand the words, they carefully memorized the sounds-a simple matter, since even their whispers sounded like obnoxious shouts. They recorded inflections of voice, scent, patterns of breathing, even the shape and texture of clothing from the movement of air, all from high above.
The creatures didn't note faces, not having eyes with which to do so.
The scouts memorized the characteristics of the things until the intruders continued into another series of sewer chambers. The seven had not yet invaded the sacred tunnels, but they had come close.
The sentries waited until the sounds stopped, then scurried back to report.
The Voice of the Great Slitherer would want to hear about this.
The discussion yielded three resolutions. First, they would avoid the rough-hewn tunnels diligently. Second, Gargan would take Twilight's place at point-the goliath seemed to have a sharp eye. Twilight was not happy about giving up the lead, but she could stomach it if need be. And third, they would search the sewers again. Perhaps they had missed something.
As they marched through the sewers, following Gargan's lead, Twilight hung back. Eyes closed, torch shadows dancing about her like amorous flames, she padded along in silence and distraction. Had Taslin or one of the wiser adventurers looked upon her, they might have thought Twilight was praying reverently to a dark deity.
And they would have been wrong.
Damn you, Uncle Nemesis, she thought to him. What is your game this time?
As always, her patron did not answer. She figured he didn't care even to listen.
I do not know how you found me, or how you have managed all this, she continued mentally. But I tire of it. Can you not give me a moment's peace, that I might live on my own without you watching over my shoulder? Did we part on terms that were the least bit ambiguous?
Twilight thought she heard, somewhere in the back of her mind, a snicker.
Very well, you bastard, thought Twilight. Have it your way.
A sound came-a scoff-but this one turned out to be real.
Davoren scowled and gestured at the empty air. The others avoided his hideously scarred face. "Time passes, and we find nothing. Why don't we go down the corridor?"
"If you wish it so, go first," Taslin snapped. "We shall follow at a safe distance."
Weakly, Asson coughed and retched. It seemed he had not yet recovered from the wight's attack. Twilight felt a twinge of sympathy, which surprised her.
"What corridor?" Twilight asked.
In one of the sewer tunnels, they had stopped near a section of wall that had partly collapsed, revealing a tunnel that must have been added to the sewers after their creation. It was small, just too short for Gargan's twenty-three hands of height. The yawning darkness looked none too inviting.
Twilight froze. They were in a section of the tunnels she had searched, and she had no memory of this corridor. It wasn't hidden-how had she overlooked it?
The others seemed oblivious to her pause.
"My reasoning," Davoren said, "says that the one who built this passage wouldn't have wanted to wander through these wretched sewers, so there must be a way out nearby." He sniffed. "And we've found nothing on this side, so we should search the other end. Besides"-he plucked the edge of his cloak from the ground-"I cannot abide another moment in this filth."
Twilight shrugged. "Sounds reasonable," she said. "Why the argument?"
"More traps than I could disarm at my best," said Slip. Her fingers shook. "And even more I couldn't find without my magic. Mostly pressure plates and trip wires, but wards, too. Traps within traps, meant to spring when you try to disarm one or the other. Resetting traps, as well-spring them once and they aren't done."
"So try harder," Davoren said, his voice dripping.
Slip shivered and hid behind Gargan, who looked from her to Davoren. The warlock fell silent. "Besides," Slip continued. "I… I don't think we're supposed to go that way. Maybe someone or other's meant to be kept in. On the other side, aye?"
"Whoever built that tunnel really, really didn't want us going down it," said Liet.
"All the more reason to go," Twilight said. When the others balked, she flashed a sly smile. "I've never been fond of doing another's will."
The irony in her voice caused more than one of the others to eye her suspiciously, Taslin in particular. "Your decision then," the priestess said. "Slip's skills are insufficient. I hope you know a few things about traps yourself."
Twilight's lips twitched up at the left side and she drew her blade. She knelt and studied the darkness for a hundred heartbeats.
"Come now," growled the warlock. "Are we going to wait in this stinking sewer all the day while you think about it? Just disarm them like a good sneakthief."