“Great master, please don't kill Brud,” he whispered.
“I won't hurt you if you behave,” Riverwind said severely. “Will you answer our questions?” The gully dwarf nodded. “Where are we?”
“In cave.”
“But where!”
“Under city.”
Riverwind's grip tightened on the knife. He wouldn't really hurt the little man, but he was sorely tempted to scare him into giving straight replies. He would try once more. “What city?” he asked.
“Zak S'roth,” Brud said, as if this was the most obvious thing in the world.
Xak Tsaroth! Now Riverwind knew why the place seemed familiar. His father had told him stories of the ruined city that had collapsed into the ground during the Cataclysm. Great gods! He was only about eighteen miles east of Que-Shu. But the city was supposed to be surrounded by dangerous, fever-infested swamps.
“We saw a lizard man,” Catchflea said. “Who is he?”
Brud made a horrible face. “New masters. Make Aghar work hard.”
“How many of them live here?”
“Too many.”
Riverwind shook his head. “Where did they come from?”
“From sea. They march to city, take over, bring in goblin soldiers, make Aghar build houses, dig for rocks.”
Riverwind, Catchflea, and Di An exchanged knowing looks. “What sort of rocks do they make you dig for?” asked Riverwind.
“Red rocks, brown rocks, black rocks.” Di An gave a short sigh of frustration. “Brud is expert at finding rocks. Find more than anybody,” he said proudly.
“What happens to the rocks?” Riverwind continued the questioning.
Brud shrugged. “Go to big house and be burned.”
“Smelted,” Di An said knowingly.
Riverwind peeked over the rocks toward the hole in the roof. The cut rope had been withdrawn. By now the goblins and their lizard masters would be convinced a monster had carried off poor Brud Stonesifter. What would their next step be? Send down armed warriors?
“Listen,” Riverwind said. “We need food and water. If we let you go, can you arrange them for us?”
“Yes, wonderful master! I bring you good things to eat!”
“I don't trust him,” Di An remarked.
Riverwind didn't either, so he said to Catchflea, “As wizard of the group, I think you ought to put a hex on our friend here, so he will obey.”
“Hex?” Catchflea said vaguely. “Oh! A hex, yes. Let me see, what is my most powerful spell…?” He took out his gourd and rattled the acorns over Brud's head. He waved the gourd all around the gully dwarf and uttered long, nonsensical words. Brud's eyes got wider and wider.
“Now,” said Catchflea, pointing a bony finger at Brud, “if you do not return in two hours, or if you tell anyone who or where we are, your nose will grow to be five feet long, and your ears will grow as big as a warrior's shield. You understand, yes?”
Brud swallowed with an audible gulp. “Brud understand.”
“Off with you then,” Riverwind said. The dwarf hopped to his thick bare feet, then froze.
“Rope gone,” he said. “Okay if Brud use mouse hole?”
“Mouse hole?” Catchflea repeated.
“Sure, got one.” Brud leaned forward as if to go. “Brud show you?”
“By all means, yes.”
“But watch your step,” Di An said icily.
Brud looked her up and down and gave the elf girl a broad wink. “You pretty skinny,” he said, “but I like.” Di An sniffed contemptuously.
They skirted the cone of light showing through the hole. Brud led them to the far end of the cave, where the roof and floor gradually slanted down to meet each other. The plainsmen had to crouch low to save their heads. Then Di An had to crouch, as she was half a foot taller than Brud.
The gully dwarf rooted among some small loose stones, uncovering a very narrow tunnel.
“Mouse hole,” he said proudly.
“The mice grow big here,” Riverwind remarked.
“Not for mice. For Aghar,” Brud explained. “Good for hiding. Mouse holes all over. I go now?”
“You go,” said Catchflea. “But remember the hex!” Brud fingered his stub of a nose and nodded solemnly. He wriggled into the tiny opening and soon was gone.
Di An examined the aperture. “I could probably fit in there,” she said.
“Why would you want to?” asked the old man.
“In case the gully doesn't return. I could go out and search for food.”
“Let's give Brud a chance. He might do as we wish,” River-wind said. “If not, we'll have to slip out at night again.”
Di An rubbed her sharp chin. “Goblins will be on guard above.”
“I know, but it's better than starving down here.”
They waited by the mouse hole for at least two hours. No one was paying much attention when a cloth-wrapped bundle finally popped out of the hole and rolled to a stop at Riverwind's feet. A second bundle dribbled out after the first, then a heavy stoneware jug. Finally, Brud emerged, head-first, grinning from ear to ear.
“Brud is back!” he declared. “Nose and ears do not grow?”
“The hex is lifted,” Catchflea said, his mouth watering. With trembling fingers he untied the first bundle. Out tumbled five potatoes, still warm from their boiling. The second bundle held four more boiled potatoes. Riverwind pulled the wooden plug from the jug and sniffed.
“Wah! Whatever this is, it's gone bad!” he said.
“It's milk,” Brud said. “Tall human like milk.”
“Only when it's fresh!”
Di An bit gingerly into a potato. It was still mostly raw, but never having had a potato before, she didn't know. She ate it quickly, licking her fingers when she had dispatched it.
“Raw potatoes and sour milk. Is that all you brought?” asked Catchflea. Brud fingered his earlobes.
“You no like?” he said weakly.
The old soothsayer picked up a potato, brushing off some dirt. He bit it.
“Better than nothing,” he mumbled through his food.
They ate all the potatoes quickly, and Catchflea commented that he wished he at least had some salt to season them with. Brud's eyes got wide, and he said, “Oh!” He dug a hand into one pocket and came out with a fat pinch of salt, well mixed with dirt and lint. He offered this to Catchflea quite seriously. The old man graciously declined.
“Did anyone notice you had come back?” Riverwind said.
“Only wife, Guma.”
“What did she do?”
Brud grinned. It was not a handsome sight. “She hear monster eat me in cave, gulp. Same day I pop out mouse hole, ha! She scream loud, call me ghost.”
Riverwind couldn't help but smile. “What did you do?”
“I say 'Give me fooood.' “ He drew out the last word in true ghostly fashion. “Then Guma say what she always say, 'Get it yourself!' “
Catchflea cackled with laughter. Riverwind chuckled and even Di An cracked a smile.
Their merriment was short-lived. A soft and heavy thud elsewhere in the cave was followed by a spreading cloud of noxious yellow smoke. The stinking cloud oozed through the cave. “Brimstone!” Di An gasped.
“They're trying to smoke us out,” Riverwind said.
“Looks like they'll succeed, yes!”
Forgetting Brud, they tried to get back to the entrance to the lower tunnel. But that part of the cave was on the other side of the hole, and the sulfur fumes were worse there. Another burlap bag, soaked in oil and blazing, was dumped into the cave. Weeping and choking, the elf girl and the plainsmen retreated to Brud's escape tunnel.
“Go, Di An!” Riverwind said. “Save yourself!”
“I won't leave you!” she said.
“We'll all choke to death,” Catchflea said.
“Go, Di An. Go on!”
She protested bitterly, but Riverwind pushed her into the mouse hole. She slipped her shoulders into the narrow opening. Catchflea crouched on the floor, holding his beard over his nose and mouth. Riverwind spotted Brud.