“One other thing,” Vor said. “The Labyrinth is treacherous, and it changes often. I know the passages, but I don’t know the location of every chasm plunging into Khyber, every river of lava, every gout of flame that might spew up from this accursed land. We need to watch for rockfalls, and if there’s any sign of rain, for flash floods. The ground might open beneath our feet.”
“Is there anything else?” Zandar said.
Vor’s gaze was hard as steel. “And there are fiends in here that will as soon feast on your soul as devour your flesh.”
“They’ll find my soul scrawny and full of gristle,” the warlock said with a grin.
“That won’t matter.”
For all Vor’s dire warnings, he led them safely through the final hours of the day. Kauth quickly lost any sense of direction, and he was certain he couldn’t retrace his path. There was only one moment of abject terror, when the left side of the canyon crumbled away beneath his feet. Sevren scrambled to catch him before he slid down the rubble into a black chasm, and pulled him up to solid ground.
“Be more careful,” Sevren said, still clasping Kauth’s hand. “You were supposed to warn me.”
“Then I’ll be more careful for you.”
Night fell quickly in the narrow gorge. Sevren and Vor searched for a safe place for their tents, and finally settled on a place where the canyon widened slightly. By pitching their tents in the middle, they figured, they could avoid the risk of rockfalls in the night, and they’d have some warning if anything came up the canyon in either direction or crept down the sides to attack them.
Sevren took the first watch, longer than his fair share. The night was nearly half gone when he woke Kauth.
“See anything?” Kauth asked. He pretended to rub his eyes while checking his face to make sure nothing had changed in his fitful sleep.
“Nothing,” the shifter said. “Somehow that only makes me more nervous.”
“I know what you mean.” The quiet of the night felt like the calm before a storm. “Sleep well.”
“Not likely.” Sevren crawled into his tent and Kauth was alone.
A field of stars and two moons shone in a sliver of sky framed by the darkness of the canyon walls. The silence was oppressive-except for Zandar’s quiet snoring, nothing made a sound. No animals scurried over the canyon walls, no owls called to each other, no frogs or crickets chirped into the darkness. He saw no bats flitting across the stars. The land could not have been more different than the teeming forests of the Eldeen Reaches.
He had to pace to keep himself awake, listening to the soft crunch of gravelly soil beneath his feet. When he heard a quiet tumble of rocks, he first looked down, thinking he’d opened another crack in the earth. Then he realized the sound had come from above him, to his right.
Looking up, he saw a shadow just disappearing behind the lip of the cliff. It looked like a head, probably belonging to a person rather than a predator, which might have pounced rather than taking cover. He scurried to the flap of his tent and whispered Vor’s name.
The orc sat up, his new sword already in his hand. “What is it?” he asked, clambering out of the tent.
Kauth pointed to the place where he’d seen the shadow, where a trickle of pebbles still tumbled down the canyon wall. “Somebody’s up there,” he said.
“Wake the others.” Vor strode to the base of the cliff and looked up. While Kauth rattled the peak of the other tent, the orc growled in his native tongue. “Ghazak kurdun!” The phrase defied translation, but it could be a greeting or a challenge.
The rustle of Zandar crawling out of the tent was the only answer. Sevren emerged in silence.
Weapons in hand, they waited, trying not to move or even breathe too loudly. Kauth strained his ears for any sound, any hint of an ambush. Nothing.
Vor was the first to lower his sword, shaking his head. Kauth relaxed, and Zandar let out a long breath.
“What was that all about?” the warlock asked.
“I’m sorry,” Kauth said. “False alarm.”
“No, it wasn’t.” Vor was still looking up the canyon wall. “Someone was up there.”
“Someone?” Zandar said. “Or something?”
“Ghaash’kala. I’d bet my life. Probably a scout. Probably Maruk.”
Zandar looked puzzled. “Maruk? How do you know?”
“They haven’t attacked yet.”
“Yet,” Kauth said. “When, then? Will they wait until morning?”
“Probably not.” Vor hefted his breastplate from its resting place in front of his tent and slid it over his head. “Best to get ready,” he said, working on the buckles. Kauth and Sevren moved to get the heavier pieces of their armor they removed for sleeping.
Zandar smirked. “I’m ready. What’s taking you so long?”
Vor threw a heavy gauntlet at the warlock.
Once they were ready for battle, Sevren decided they might as well pack up the tents and be ready for travel as well. Kauth was tying the last strap around his bedroll when the challenge came.
“Travelers in the Labyrinth!” a low voice resounded in the canyon.
Three shadows loomed in the night ahead of them, tall and broad like Vor. Starlight gleamed on chain links and polished blades, but their faces were in darkness. Feet crunched on the gravel behind them, and Kauth glanced over his shoulder to see two more dark shapes blocking the way back. Four orcs total, he figured, and one human, probably a convert from the Carrion Tribes.
“You stand on cursed ground.” The speaker was one of the orc trio, standing a little in front of the others. His voice carried a thick accent, but his Common was impeccable, like a well-rehearsed ritual. “You may proceed no farther into this place of evil, and you may not leave to spread its taint. I offer you a choice: Commit your lives to the service of Kalok Shash and the holy calling of the Ghaash’kala, or die where you stand.”
Right to the word, Kauth thought-Vor knew the speech. Did he once lead a band like this one? Was the orc who stood before them now a paladin?
Vor stepped forward. “Durrnak,” he said.
The orc leader’s face clouded, and he answered in the orc tongue. “Voraash? You dare return? And now you lead outsiders to damnation-you compound your sin. You escaped punishment once, Voraash. You will not escape again.”
“You were a friend to me once.”
“May Kalok Shash forgive me.”
“Durrnak-”
“Silence!” The orc leader’s voice was harsh with anger. “You let a demon escape the Labyrinth into the world beyond! There is nothing to discuss.”
“A pregnant woman, Durrnak!”
“Carrying the taint in her womb! In her blood! You knew our holy command, and you spurned it. Your sentence is passed, Voraash. You will die here today.”
So that’s it, Kauth thought-a pregnant woman. He broke the laws of his people, was stripped of his family name and his paladin’s honor and sentenced to death in the Labyrinth, because he spared the life of a woman and her unborn child.
Vor’s sword-the sword they’d found in the serpent’s lair, enshrined among the words of the Prophecy-sang as he slid it from its sheath.
The other orc turned away from him to address the others in his accented Common. “Voraash is doomed,” he said, “but your choice remains. You can join us, or you can die here.”
“You won’t kill Vor while we live,” Sevren said.
“Then you will die with him. I am sorry. Kalok Shash grant you a swift death.”
What a strange prayer for victory, Kauth thought.
Durrnak hefted his shield, raised his sword, and charged. With a chorus of roars, the others joined the charge, closing in from both sides.
“I think this means the talking’s over,” Zandar said. A blast of black fire erupted from his hand and engulfed the orc leader, searing his flesh. “And now the party starts.”
Durrnak howled in rage but didn’t slow his charge. He caught Vor’s swing on his shield and drove his own sword at Vor’s shoulder, but a quick dodge sent the sword’s point sliding off a shoulder plate.