Ariakas fixed the front row of councilors with a bel shy;ligerent glare. He didn't really believe that the shadow-people would kill Tale Splintersteel-he had seen enough of them to decide that they weren't violent or vengeful- but he didn't want his own conclusion to reach them. Could they hear his thoughts as well as speak directly into his mind? He wished he knew. Angrily he tried to direct his thoughts through rambling, unfocused path shy;ways.
Surprisingly, the shadowpeople seemed a trifle set back by his bluff. The councilors exchanged glances that might have been hesitation or confusion. Abruptly Val-lenswade stood up. He faced Ariakas directly.
"I have told you that the dwarf lives-now, the coun shy;cilors have told you the same thing. Why do you not believe us?"
"Where I come from, captors have been known to lie to their captives-and enemies lie to each other as a mat shy;ter of course," he replied bluntly.
"We are not your enemies!" insisted Vallenswade, his simian muzzle barking out the words with force.
"Then give me proof!" demanded Ariakas fiercely. "Produce the dwarf! Show me that he lives!"
Vallenswade slumped back in resignation. The faces of the councilors reflected their confusion, but then the message came.
Very well. We will bring in the dwarf.
"Come with me," announced Vallenswade with the first trace of ill manner Ariakas had seen in the Shilo-Thahn warrior. The lanky creature led Lyrelee and Aria shy;kas to a clump of the tall, mushroom-shaped fungus. The stems of the plants had grown together so thickly that they created a solid wall of tough, spongy tissue. Val shy;lenswade removed a bar that ran through a pair of sup shy;ports on the solid barrier of woodlike plants. Pushing forward, he propelled a large, wedge-shaped plug into the enclosure Ariakas saw within.
The Shilo-Thahn warrior preceded the two prisoners through the hole, then turned and gestured for Ariakas and Lyrelee. The warriors behind the pair pressed closer, emphasizing the fact-though the one who held Aria-kas's sword maintained a careful distance. With no choice, the two followed Vallenswade into the hole.
The ring of mushrooms surrounded a small, circular corral, no more than twenty feet across. The top of the wall was at least that high above their heads, however, and the caps of the mushrooms overhung the trunks by a good distance, making climbing out an apparent impos shy;sibility. The only access to the outer cavern came through the thick, wedged gate-plug.
"You will remain here until we get the dwarf," Val-lenswade explained.
"Why? How far away is he?" demanded Ariakas.
The Shilo-Thahn sighed. "He was taken to a different part of the warrens … until we could determine whether or not it was safe to bring him here."
"Safe? For him-or for you?" pressed the human.
"I wish you would answer half as many questions as you ask," replied Vallenswade resignedly. "Safe for us, of course. Because of his condition, we took great care so as to not risk introducing a contagion into our colony." With that, the tall creature bent low to exit the lower door, turn shy;ing to pull the gate into its socket behind him. Ariakas heard the bar drop into place on the outer wall, and though he tugged furiously, the thing wouldn't budge. Because of the plug's wedge shape, he knew that pushing on it would only jam it more tightly into its socket.
"Damn!" He couldn't stifle the frustration. It galled him to feel so completely at the mercy of his captors.
Lyrelee regarded him silently. When he settled himself on the floor, his back against the mushroom wall, she sat beside him. Only then did she speak, and she held her voice to a mere breathy whisper.
"They know what we think," she said.
"What do you mean?" Ariakas whispered, though he was too irritated to hold his voice down to her barely audible level. "I told them what we think!"
"No, I mean about our actions … our intents."
Now the warrior fell silent, giving her his full atten shy;tion.
"I observed the two warriors who followed me," Lyre-lee explained. "If I decided to move over to the right while I walked, one of them sidled over to that direc shy;tion-before I did anything! Merely the thought, the intent, was enough to cause him to take action!"
"Could it be a coincidence?" Ariakas questioned skep shy;tically. Nevertheless, the memory of that eerie question shy;ing, of the words entering his mind with no audible sound, nagged at him, and he feared that Lyrelee was right.
"I don't think so. Do you remember the one who held the big hook-he was the central rear guard?"
Ariakas nodded. The distinctive-looking weapon, which consisted of a steel head and a carved wooden shaft, had been slung from a strap over the Shilo-Thahn's shoulder.
"Well, as an experiment, I began to think about turn shy;ing around and snatching it from him. When I looked, he'd placed both hands on the shaft-it's the only time he touched it during the whole time he guarded us."
"Any ideas what we can do about it?" he asked.
"I think we have to act on the spur of the moment," she suggested. "If we don't know what we're going to do until we do it, then they can't know either."
"So far that hasn't been a problem," Ariakas chafed. 'They've kept too close a watch for us to do anything]"
"I know-but consider," Lyrelee replied. "Does it seem to you that these are natural warriors? Or are they simply folk who've been cast into weapon-bearing roles?"
"I think the latter," Ariakas confirmed. "They don't seem to have the killer instinct."
"No. It's almost like they're innately gentle. It might be that our own battle sense, at the moment of truth, will be stronger than theirs."
"It's a hope," Ariakas admitted, none too encouraged. "I guess it's as good as we've got. I don't feel like waiting around here until they let us go."
"When they take us out of here, I'll watch you," the priestess said. "Give no warning-but if you see a chance to escape, take it! I'll be ready."
"That's our best shot, I guess," Ariakas conceded. But how was he to look for a chance to escape without think shy;ing about escaping? Indeed, perhaps the range of Shilo-Thahn senses was enough that the creatures already knew about these plans! They lapsed into silence. The warrior felt an acute vulnerability, unlike anything he had known before. He tried not to think about escape or combat.
"Do you think they can 'hear' us through these walls?" he asked, after a few minutes of fruitlessly attempting to stifle his mind.
Lyrelee shrugged. "I'm guessing that there are some real limits to their power. After all, they're not the mas shy;ters of Krynn-which they could be if they were able to read everybody's thoughts."
"Maybe they don't want to be conquerors," noted Ari shy;akas. The prospect of a creature having access to incred shy;ible power, yet choosing not to exercise that power, was a strange one to the warrior. Yet Lyrelee was right-there was something inherently nonaggressive in the apelike humanoids.
Shortly thereafter the light spell that had been steadily illuminating the gem on Ariakas's helm faded into black shy;ness. The full cloaking of subterranean dark closed around them, and the warrior shifted his position uneasily. Still, when Lyrelee-who also possessed the clerical power of light creation-asked if he wanted her to re-illuminate the gem he told her no.
"If they come to get us, then we'll want some light," he suggested. "For all we know, they'll keep us here for six or eight more hours-it won't do any good to have your spell used up before then."
Although the warrior knew that diligent prayer to the Dark Queen would grant him a return of the light spell he had expended, he couldn't bring himself to make such a prayer in this place. Perhaps it was the ignominy of being a prisoner, or, more likely, simple discomfort at the fear that even his prayer might not remain private. In any event, he wanted to escape this predicament on his own, without having to beseech his goddess for help.