"Get up," she said. "Wake your men, and leave. If we meet you or any of your men again in these catacombs, or hear of you attacking anyone else, you'll have us to reckon with and we won't be merciful. Do you understand me?"
Jeelsen rose unsteadily to his feet and said, "I understand."
Still holding his cocked crossbow, Brek Gorunn added, "Fear makes you agreeable now. When we've gone, remember that we showed you mercy when you deserved none. Seek a new path, or your reward will be ashes in your mouth. Even Moradin may be merciful to the repentant."
Hennet wondered at the dwarf's sudden sermonizing. It was a tack he hadn't used before. Then again, he'd never fought human foes with the dwarf before.
Jeelsen, not quite sure what to make of the dwarf's speech, murmured, "You are so right. Of course, I'll repent."
Without a glance at his men who lay sleeping from Nebin's spell, he turned and trotted down the stone corridor after the others, grabbing his lamp as he passed. The bobbing light dwindled into the distance.
"I don't know why I waste Moradin's teaching on one such as him," Brek Gorunn said. "Incompetence is its own reward-that's another of the Dwarffather's teachings, my friends."
The dwarf laughed, uncocking his crossbow.
Ember rejoined them before the door, stepping carefully over the sleeping forms, and said, "A swift fight-a good omen, I think. Let's continue. These louts can take their chances here after sleeping off their poor decision."
"Should we interrogate one of the sleepers," asked Hennet, "to see if they know anything about the temple?"
Ember paused, her brow creased. She shook her head. "No, I'd rather they continue to think we're tomb raiders like themselves. We can't kill them in cold blood, and I'd hate to let them know our purpose in case they get ahead of us and give warning."
He nodded. She was right. He didn't kid himself-at this point, he'd find it hard to disagree with her, no matter what she said.
"We just scared off a roving band of brigands without taking a bruise!" exulted Nebin.
Hennet grinned and said, "We do make a good team, don't you think, Ember?" He glanced at Ember, smiling. She winked back. Then they readjusted their gear and moved on.
Ember felt they were close. Brek Gorunn confirmed it. His dwarven instincts concerning stone and the earth seemed supernatural, they were so finely tuned. Even some of her own abilities, and certainly those of her teachers, verged on and sometimes crossed the line from ordinary to extraordinary, Ember reflected.
But the passage Brek led them down was blocked by water. She watched Brek, wondering which way he'd point them next. The dwarf was baffled.
"The map indicates clearly that this is the fastest way," he said. "If we have to backtrack, we'll lose hours!"
The stone walls of the tunnel opened up on either side into what seemed a natural cavern that was far larger than the lamp's small circle of illumination. The floor descended to the edge of a subterranean lake. Its water was so perfectly still and so inky black that it looked almost like a gigantic mirror laid on the floor. The sound of splashing, however, indicated that somewhere in the distance, the water was moving. Of more immediate concern was a glimmer of green light twinkling out on the lake. In the gloom, it was impossible to judge the distance from the shore to the unidentified light.
Ember edged down to the pool. Something caught her eye on the left side of the cavern.
"Brek, please bring the lamp down here."
The dwarf obliged. With the light, Ember spied a slender stone ledge running around the side of the cavern. It was close to the water and difficult to see. At the near end the ledge was only about two feet across, and the edges were partly crumbled. Whether it continued on that way for its whole length was anyone's guess. It was the only way forward. The dwarf had not steered them wrong, and Ember clapped him on the back.
"This way," she said. "I'll go first, then Brek with the light. Hennet and Nebin bring up the rear-Nebin, watch behind. We don't want to be surprised out on this catwalk."
The gnome gulped, nodding.
Silently, clutching at the rocky wall to the left, they went in single file along the ledge. Indeed, there were many places where the path was crumbled nearly to nothing. Luckily, the gaps were small enough that a single step was sufficient to get past, even for the gnome. Ember wasn't worried about herself here. It was Brek Gorunn, with his broad shoulders and heavy armor, that caused her concern.
Splashes echoed again across the lake. A quick check behind confirmed that all her friends were accounted for.
From the rear, Nebin whispered, "Now don't tell me you all didn't hear that?"
Ember cocked her head and heard another series of splashes. A sad melody sounding like a flute wafted out from the cold darkness behind them.
"Oh, shards!" yelled Nebin. "It's been following us. Go, go, go!"
So saying, the gnome tried to worm his way around Hennet and nearly knocked both of them into the still water.
"Nebin, if you push me in so help me…," began Hennet.
"Quickly!" hissed Ember from the lead.
Following her own command, she turned and redoubled her earlier pace, praying the dwarf suffered no misstep. If he fell, he'd be lost. Now was not the time to mount a water rescue. She didn't want to meet that hideous, tentacled thing again, and especially not while trapped on a ledge.
They all followed her, and so, too, did the fluting. Ripples, as of something moving out on the lake, began washing against the foot of the ledge. The fear she remembered so clearly from the nightmare at the crevice clawed anew at the edges of her mind.
The path opened into a larger space, and Ember rushed forward from the ledge, gasping, looking for any avenue of escape. The others were close on her heels and had the same thoughts in mind. But the space seemed only a cubbyhole, a room-sized niche in the side of the cavern.
Somehow they all spied the alcove at the back of the landing at the same time and rushed forward. To their horror, it was not a pathway but only a small, dead-end hollow space. The only way out was to continue around the lake on the ledge, and that meant more of the horrid fluting.
Besides the horror of the tentacled thing, Ember had been keeping one eye on the green light. They were noticeably closer to it now. In fact, it was close enough that she could see its glow reflected off the damp stone walls of the cavern.
Suddenly the light dimmed to nothing. Ember realized that something must have blocked the entrance to the niche, trapping them inside.
Tentacles wavered toward them in the small chamber, twitching in time to that hideous, unnatural fluting. The sound was utterly devoid of life, like the voice of death calling in the night. It seemed to come from a void, and it beckoned them to its realm beyond terror.
Ember believed her last, desperate hour had arrived. She moved forward, uncertain what she could do against such a creature, but preferring death to torment. Beside her, Brek Gorunn held forth his warhammer, praying aloud to Moradin for the strength to prevail against such unholy might. Nebin pointed his trusty wand at the blot of evil, his face set and grim. Hennet drew the Golden Wand, his eyes steely.
Ember inched forward.
Interlaced with the ghastly music, she suddenly heard a voice.
It was an inhuman sound created by the lilting tones, and it said, "Give back what you have stolen." Ember hesitated, confused.
Nebin squeaked out, "We haven't stolen anything! Leave us be!"
The mass filled all the opening and bulged inward. The music swelled, and with it the voice.
It said again, "Give back. Give back what you have stolen. The Door of Midnight swings wide, unless the thief returns the key."