One of the spearmen yelled in pain and fell, two black arrows in his shoulder, another wobbling back and forth in his hardened leather armor.
Eddis glanced at Blorys. “They aren’t trying to run, but they can pick us off from across the chamber,” she said.
“Two can play that game,” Blorys said and drew her across the opening and along the wall, so they had a clear view of the enemy. “Watch out,” he added. “If those are females, they aren’t exactly helpless!”
“Got it!” she replied.
The smaller, unarmored females had put aside their young and were now retrieving bows and spears from the messy pile of things littering the floor around them. She drew down on the nearest, dispatched the creature, and began firing arrows as quickly as she could. Blorys’ bowstring sang non-stop. Seven of the armed kobolds and at least as many of the others fell dead or dying. Four went down squealing and bleeding heavily. The remaining young and females ran wildly for the passage, and many of the armed creatures threw aside their weapons to follow, but others seemed grimly willing to cut their way through the tall invaders blocking the way out.
But the invaders were no longer there. As the kobolds came running, Jerdren drew his men aside and let them pass. The men who’d been left to keep watch at the joining of passageways were ready for that. By the time Eddis and Blorys came to where they could see the corridor, Keep men holding swords blocked the way. The startled kobolds milled in panic and were cut down.
M’Whan came back to illuminate the cavern with one of the lanterns. The chamber had been fetid with body odors, rancid food, and less pleasant things. Now it reeked of blood. Blorys gripped her forearm and gave her a reassuring, if faint, smile. She nodded and drew her sword as she followed him back into the passage. Flerys joined her at once, with M’Whan at her side.
“Nothing in there worth having, I’d say,” Jerdren remarked. “Those entry guards weren’t in here, so we still have to face whatever they’ve gone to warn. Let’s go.”
Mead, who had taken a few steps up the short side passage, came back to say, “We go back the way we came in. There is no way out up there. There are enemies, but I cannot tell how many or exactly where they are.”
“One way to find out,” Eddis replied.
The lanterns were again mostly shuttered, only a dim light from one showing that the way was clear. Just ahead, another hewn corridor crossed this one at right angles. Eddis could make out flickering lantern light on the far wall.
“We might as well yell out, ‘Here we come!’” she murmured crossly.
“Well, but they know we’re here anyway,” Blorys replied. “Why not let ’em see us coming and maybe scare most of ’em into running?”
“Where’ll they run, if there’s no way out up there?” she countered.
He laid warning fingers on her arm as they reached the passage end. Jerdren had somehow got himself ahead of Willow here. He leaned into the open, yelped in surprise, and jerked back. A crossbow quarrel vibrated in the shoulder of his chain mail. He yanked the deadly little bolt free with an effort, then threw it aside.
“Three, I think,” he said softly.
Three guards, but there might be more, and the creatures were either trapped or safe behind some barricade because they weren’t giving up or trying to run.
She heard a sharp ping! as a quarrel missed Jerdren’s head by a finger’s worth, slammed into stone, and bounced off. Her co-captain ducked back out of sight. Two more bolts followed in rapid order, clattering off stone some distance down the side passage to his right, but they came nowhere near him. Jerdren grinned.
“Lousy shots!” he mouthed and crooked a finger for them to join him.
Mead moved to the fore and gestured for the others to stay put as his lips began moving in a spell. Willow was right behind him, and he murmured something in Jerdren’s ear that Eddis couldn’t hear. Jers nodded, and he and the elves suddenly leaped into the corridor, yelling loudly. The irregular volley of quarrels ceased. Jerdren turned to loose several quick arrows, then threw himself after the elves, down the right-hand passage and into darkness.
Mead followed. “Fire spell!” he yelled, and got an answering, distant reply from his brother. A fireball crackled to life between his outspread fingers and launched itself along the west passage. The mage threw himself after it.
“Wait.” Mead had stopped just short of a left bend in the passage a long way on. He had to raise his voice to be heard, when the rest of the company would have surged past him and around the corner. “Only three kobolds there, and my spell has neutralized them, but Jerdren and my brother would doubtless have killed all three by now anyway.”
Eddis flinched aside as the whine of a sword cut the air, ahead in the gloom. Then two kobolds made bulky by chain mail came running up the passage straight toward her, throwing aside their crossbows as they ran. The sight of Eddis, Blorys, and Mead blocking the way stopped them short, and they spun around and ran back the way they’d come. There was another, very brief, clash of metal on metal, and Jers’ triumphant yell. Blorys, sword in one hand and spear in the other, sprinted down the passage, but Jerdren came back into sight, a small cut on his ear bleeding freely. Willow followed, his nose wrinkling in distaste.
Eddis moved warily around the corner and into an alcove, one of the lantern-holders illuminating the way for her. Ahead she could make out a heavy-looking wooden door that was closed tightly, and just short of the door, a sentry area. Two low stools and a table littered with cups and scraps of an old meal had been shoved against the right wall, and on the floor nearby stood a basket stuffed full of quarrels and a wound crossbow shoved in with them. The creatures that had been on guard here were dead.
Jerdren spoke quietly. “Don’t know what’s in there, but we don’t want to leave it there to cut us off from the outside.”
“Don’t even think about that,” Eddis replied.
Willow moved past her to lay his ear against the rough-hewn surface. He nodded and then backed away from the door.
“I can hear voices but cannot say how many. They do not seem to have heard the fighting.”
“Ridiculous,” Eddis began, but the elf shrugged.
“It is a very thick door. Perhaps for privacy?”
“Chief’s room, maybe?” Jerdren asked. He was grinning widely. “There’s where any treasure will be.”
Eddis was aware of Kadymus for the first time since they’d gotten past the pit. The little thief was grinning even more widely than Jerdren. She tapped his shoulder, hard.
“Share alike, remember? If there’s an armed chief in there, do you really want to be the first in to fight him, little man?”
He gave her an indignant look and fell back as Mead again took over.
The mage laid both hands against the portal, then stepped back and spoke under his breath. To her amazement, Eddis heard the mage’s voice from the other side of the door, scarcely muffled by it.
“Fly, all of you!” he ordered, “for you are discovered!”
He retreated just in time. The door slammed into rock, and armed kobolds fled into the passage, engaging the Keep men and the priest. Eddis let Blorys pull her aside to let the creatures go. She sensed a large room beyond that door. M’Baddah came up on her other side, opening his lamp wide with one hand as he drew his curved scimitar with the other.
“That’s no kobold!” Eddis protested as she got her first look at the fellow. He was nearly twice the size of the others, and he seemed unaffected by the sudden flare of light.
“Their chiefs are chosen by size and skill!” Blorys hissed, then set his shoulder against hers as the brute strode through the open doorway and straight for Jerdren.