“Two others in there that I can see, Blor,” Eddis said as the chief brought his two-handed axe down overhand at her co-captain.
Jerdren yelled, “He’s mine!” as he jumped nimbly out of the way and stabbed at the leader, but his blade slammed into the face of the heavy axe and went flying. Off balance, Jers flailed for balance and went down.
M’Baddah slipped between the fallen man and the axe-wielding brute, deflected a wild overhand blow that might have separated the man’s head from his body. The outlander countered the attack with an overhead, slashing blow of his own. His enamel-hilted dagger buried itself to the hilt in the kobold chief’s chest.
At M’Baddah’s warning yell, one of the Keep men ran at the enemy with his spear, but heavy mail turned the point and sent the man reeling back into the wall. The kobold dragged a long-bladed knife from its belt but slipped in its own blood and went down hard. Jerdren, back on his feet, snatched up the battle-axe and brought the weapon down across its owner’s neck.
Eddis stayed where she was for a long moment, then skirted the mess, heading for the last armed kobold, hesitating in the doorway. It wasn’t running—possibly there was no place left to run to—but it wasn’t giving up, either. Female, Eddis thought as she drew near. Possibly protecting its young, and now she could see two such little creatures. They weren’t cowering, either. They were trying to sneak around—possibly trip her or help the female in some attack.
Blorys was a reassuring presence against her left arm. He swung at the monster holding the doorway as Eddis turned sideways to stab at sudden movement on her left.
A sudden, dreadful, high-pitched squealing filled the chamber and hurt her ears. One of the little creatures who’d tried to flank her staggered back, into the open room. Long, pale, bony fingers clutched the hilt of a dagger buried in its belly. The other shrieked and tried to flee, and to Eddis’ horror, Flerys ran past her into the chamber where, one of M’Whan’s spears in hand, she ran the little thing through, pinning the now squirming body to the floor.
“Flerys! Get back!” the swordswoman yelled.
“They’d hurt you!” the girl protested, but at M’Baddah’s command, she edged back out of sight.
The kobold Eddis fought was distracted by the injured and frightened youngling and went down a moment later, impaled on the woman’s sword. Blorys left the one he’d fought gravely wounded and leaped beyond it—or her—to the next of them. The fight had gone out of the last of the creatures. It dropped its weapons and huddled on the floor. The remaining two young ran to it and dung.
Blorys shook his head and swore softly. “Gods. I can’t kill that!” he protested.
“I can.” Jerdren pushed past him and swung his sword hard, several times. Finally he turned away to finish off the wounded creature Flerys had attacked, retrieved the spear, and wiped it on one of the room’s rough hangings. He met his brother’s eyes.
“Any of those might have killed you, female or not. And the little ones grow up, remember?”
He stepped back into the passage. “All of you out here! Keep watch. We don’t know what’s left in this cave that needs fighting. I think this is the chief’s room, and I believe whatever treasure we find will be here. Mead, you should help us look, in case there are potions or charms. Otherwise—Eddis, I say that you, me, the child and Kadymus have the best chance of quickly finding whatever’s here.”
“Keep in mind,” Eddis said, “that we came up the right-hand end of this passage. We don’t know what’s down the other way. So far, I haven’t seen anything resembling those two guards from the entry. Maybe there’s another horde of creatures behind us that they went to warn?”
“Let the guards worry about that,” Jerdren told her. “Work fast. Check anything that might hold coin or other trove, and remember, anything locked probably holds something of great value. If this is the chief’s chamber, he wouldn’t have locked everything of value away—not with that door and guards to keep him feeling safe.”
Kadymus was already rummaging through a pile of dirty bed clothes. He sat back on his heels suddenly and gave a sharp little whistle.
“Don’t do that!” Eddis turned from the small chest she’d found.
“Got something,” the youth said and scooted backward across the floor, dragging something into the open: a small wooden chest, with dulled metal banding. He chuckled softly. “Hidden pretty well. Heavy, too.” He peered at it. “And locked.”
“That’s yours to open, then,” Eddis ordered. “Open, not keep to yourself. Got it?”
Kadymus gave her a sour look but sat down cross-legged to fish out his special lock-wire.
Blorys came across the room, a blood-soaked chain dangling from his fingers. “Found a key around the chief’s neck.”
Jerdren’s eyebrows went up as he fingered the links.
“That’s gold! I don’t know what the gem is, but it’s big. I’ll take the key. Blor, you hold the rest.”
“Lookit this!” A jubilant Kadymus sat back on his heels. “It’s all coins—hundreds of ’em!” He pawed through the top layer, sighed. “No gold I can see, but plenty of silver.”
“Some of that’s platinum, unless my eyes deceive me,” Jerdren told him. “Good work, lad!” He looked around as his brother suddenly laughed.
Blor had torn one of the moldy-looking hangings from the wall and was slicing it to shreds. A pile of gold coins glittered in the lamplight, spilling over his fingers.
“Funny,” he said. “I remembered one of our aunts sewing her egg-coins into the hems of her curtains and blankets.”
“I’d forgotten that. Bundle ’em up, Brother,” Jerdren said, “and be quick about it. M’Whan, you and Kadymus divide up that chestful, so we can spread out the weight among us. Once we’re back in camp, we can make a fair count and sort out what to do with it all.”
“We’re going back to camp already?” Kadymus asked.
“Why go looking for another fight with what we’ve got?” Jerdren replied. “We’ve killed plenty of ’em, and whatever’s left down that last passage—well, we can come back and finish ’em off another day, if we want. All the same…” He thought a moment. “Let’s have a look at that key and see if we can figure out what it’s for.”
Eddis was wiping her blade on one of the hangings when Flerys came up beside her. The girl looked nervous for the first time since they’d left the Keep.
“Eddis? You mad at me?”
It took the woman a moment to remember yelling at the child to get out of the way.
“No, I’m not mad at you, Flerys. I just didn’t want you to get hurt. You mustn’t ever get in front of anyone swinging a sword the way I was.”
“Oh.” The child puzzled at this. “But I was afraid for you, Eddis.”
Eddis managed a smile, though the girl’s words worried her. Flerys had already lost her friend back in that bandit camp. I can’t be sure the child won’t lose me either, Eddis thought. I can’t afford to let her care that much.
“Just… stay close to M’Baddah for now, will you? Or me, if I tell you to. You’ve got good aim with that bow, but I don’t know that you’re ready for close fighting, and you aren’t big enough to bully things bigger than these kobolds, all right? There is a lot of training you’ll want, so you know how to hurt only your enemies in close fighting. Blorys and I are trained, so it’s safe for us to fight together.”
“Yes, Eddis.”
The company moved back along the passage toward the outside world, but at Jerdren’s insistence, made a quick check at its far end. There was a locked door, just to the left of the short tunnel, and the key the chief had worn fit the lock.
“Treasure,” the man breathed as he turned the key and the door swung open.
Eddis caught her breath in a gasp and thrust Flerys behind her. The elves backed hastily away as a foul odor assaulted them. Jerdren, undeterred, took one of the lamps and stepped into the chamber to look around. The swordswoman closed her eyes. It’s a larder. The chief’s larder. That was a human head I saw on the shelf there—and next to it, a human skull.