" It had better be safe. It' s the only way back to Heresler territory without leaving Yerrary and daring the slopes." The gnome shivered with disgust at the idea of braving the elements outside his precious Home once more.
" Behind us is nothing," said Lan. " Shall we go forward?" He glanced from Inyx to Krek. Both nodded, knowing he would not lightly ask this question.
Broit already stormed ahead, swinging his short arms and leaning forward as he walked.
" The moss tickles," complained Krek. The giant spider brushed the top of his body along the tunnel roof as he went. " And it tastes awful." He made a spitting noise.
" Nichi!" cried Broit. " Those are the sweepers and they' re waiting for us!"
" I told you," said Lan. He conjured a small spell to brush the gnomes from their path, then felt the spell snuffed out like a candle in a hurricane. " We are under attack magically," he said.
Inyx and Krek found themselves already occupied with swarming gnomes taking swings at them with brooms and rakes. Broit Heresler shrieked and cavorted about, kicking and gouging and biting. All in all, this part of the battle appeared ineffectual.
Lan Martak felt the magics building around him, powerful magics able to smash cities, to wreck entire worlds. This was the real battle. Lose it and he lost all.
CHAPTER FOUR
Lan Martak sidestepped a broom handle thrust for his mid- section. He hardly noticed the rake that began its descent, aimed squarely for the top of his head. Inyx fielded that one, her steel sword blade deflecting the blow that wouldn' t have greatly injured Lan but would have distracted him from his conjurings.
That break in his concentration might have proven fatal.
Coming toward them, channeled by the walls of the tunnel was something. Lan tried to put words to describing it and failed. The creature writhed and twisted and cavorted- and spewed forth noxious gases that made only those not of the Nichi clan gasp and wheeze.
" Magics," he said.
" Awful," said Krek. " It is starting to cause my fur to bristle and fall out in huge clumps. Absolutely awful."
Lan had to smile. Krek vowed that the human sense of smell was only a wild tale concocted to make him feel inferior. The spider' s sense of taste amounted to little more than differentiating between dry and succulent, but his other senses were acute in the extreme, especially his ability to sense vibration.
" Feel anything moving? Or is this pure illusion?" Lan asked the arachnid.
Krek drove talons into the rock walls and floor and stood for a moment, as if considering a weighty problem. Finally satisfied, he withdrew and said, " Nothing material comes."
Lan nodded and turned his full attention to the inexorably moving monster blocking their path in the tunnel. He ignored the fight between the gnomes and Inyx; her prowess far exceeded theirs. They danced in and out, poking and swinging their brooms, but they feared her flashing sword and quick, deadly lunges.
Lan muttered a small spell, then wove a blazing pattern in the air before him. The pattern shifted, burnt out, then exploded silently, ashes scattering out and over the groping apparition almost atop them.
The ashes lightly fluttered down and brushed the creature' s leather hide. It shivered, then gave voice to a heartrending shriek of the purest agony. With a puff of smoke, it vanished, leaving behind only the telltale fumes it had emitted on its track down the corridor.
" What of them?" asked Krek, pointing to the gnomes still tentatively battling Inyx. " Shall I eat them?"
" No!" cried Broit Heresler. " You can' t do that. It' s against the law."
" These Nichi clansmen want to kill you, don' t they? Haven' t they aligned themselves with the Tefize?" Lan puzzled over the gnome' s insistence on not harming those attacking.
" Of course they have. Dismember them, torture them, do as you will. Kill them by all means. But don' t eat them! There wouldn' t be a fit corpse left to bury!"
Krek snorted in derision and plopped himself down to watch the gnomes and humans come to terms. Some forms of combat he simply did not understand and never would.
Lan almost shared his friend' s opinion this time.
" You have to be able to bury the corpse for religious reasons?" he asked. Inyx still held at bay the entire pack of Nichi clan sweepers. He saw no great need for haste in this matter. The magical creature had been banished back to the limbo from which it had been conjured and the gnomes were ineffectual fighters at best.
" Yerrary take us, no! If you eat the damn bodies, there won' t be any work for the Heresler. We' re gravediggers. Damn fine ones, too. We have to protect our jobs, though. And from the likes of him. Who' d have thought it?" Broit Heresler jerked his thumb in Krek' s direction. The spider impassively watched.
" So you don' t care if I do this?" Lan moved so that he spun in a small circle, his arm waving free. As the tip of his index finger passed the position of each Nichi, they gasped and fell heavily to the floor. The harder they tried to stand, the worse their condition became. " The spell is simple enough. It confuses their limbs, weakens them, and increases the debility the more they struggle."
" Can' t bury ' em ' til they' re dead," complained Broit.
" That' s not our worry," said Lan.
" Well," Broit said, " maybe we can bend the rules. If nobody' s watching, you know?"
Inyx came over and sheathed her sword when she saw what Lan had done to the gnomes.
" How long will they be like that?" she asked.
" Can' t say. This is the first time I' ve ever tried the spell. I don' t believe it' s permanent. It' s too weak a spell."
" Effective. You ought to have tried it sooner. We could have used it any number of times."
" The spell seems to have come along with the tongue. I: I can' t quite explain how or why. There are simply things popping up in my memory that were never there before. Spells, vague remembrances of other places and people."
" We' d best continue on. This little reception party might only be the start. And whoever sent the magical creature intended us real harm." Inyx skirted the edge of the group of kicking, complaining gnomes and entered the corridor beyond. " This is the way, isn' t it, Broit?"
" Yes, of course it is," the diminutive gravedigger said. " Heresler territory is only a ways beyond."
Lan trailed the others, unsure about their safety. The creature he had vanquished had been too easily destroyed. And it had not been sent by Claybore. The " feel" of the dismembered sorcerer was not contained within the structure of the monster.
" Ahead," came Krek' s warning, " lies a tunnel filled with more of the gnomes. They tap their feet and anxiously scrape the sides of the tunnel. I believe this means they will attack when we get near enough."
" Oh, no!" moaned Broit Heresler. " This is the Nichi' s favorite ambush spot. We can' t go back, either. A tunnel curves around. By the time we retreated, they' d be there to cut us off. We' ve got to fight because we can' t run. No way."
" Some guide you are," muttered Inyx. " You lead us right into the middle of the enemy."
" Listen, skyscraper," Broit said, coming up to Inyx, tipping his head back and peering straight up into her face, " this part of Yerrary is pretty simple, but it' s not Heresler territory. We don' t have a lot of different ways we can go."
" Do the Nichi often attack?" asked Krek.
" Not too often," Broit said. " Today they are. Our bad luck. I only hope one of the really good diggers gets my body. Hate to be laid away in a slipshod grave."
" We wouldn' t want that, now would we?" said Inyx with sugary sweetness.
" Don' t need to be sarcastic," Broit muttered, lowering his eyes to the floor and shuffling his feet a little.