"At least it's getting bright enough so you can see what you're doing," Trap said as he watched the dwarf flip through the disks, looking for the one that told the secret of Digondamaar.
"Of course, if I had light enough, I could probably have opened the door myself," he sniffed. Even as a small child he had showed promise with traps; it was the reason he had been given his name. It seemed unjust that he had so little chance to use his talents on his first adventure.
By the time Tolem had found the disk he had no time to study it. The goblins and bugbears were advancing up the mountainside to the foot of the cliff. Since the entrance was narrow and its configuration too eccentric to allow more than two dwarves to see out at one time, the goblins had little fear of a truly concentrated attack from within.
Halmarain doused the light, though the humanoids had obviously seen it glowing through the wafer-thin rock. The bugbears hammered against the curtain wall with their spears, but with no light to indicate the thin sections, they missed the more vulnerable areas.
The dwarves used their crossbows. Two at a time they stepped out of the entrance to shoot and darted back in again to give others with ready bows a chance, the kender stood by, dancing with impatience, wanting to get into the fight. Halmarain held the arm of the little fiend and stayed as far away from the entrance as possible. She did not have to urge the gully dwarves, who would much rather hide than fight.
The bugbears continued to hammer against the stone curtain wall.
The little wizard squealed as from behind her came the sound of sliding stone and a door opened, not where the cut lines indicated, but at the far end, where the roughest of the stone seemed to have been left untouched.
"Who invades my privacy?" the voice boomed.
The gigantic sound came from a human who stood only slightly taller than the dwarves. He was surrounded with light which showed him to have a bright pink complexion, at least partially accounted for by the anger that snapped in his bright blue eyes. His beard and hair were snow white and long. He kept it out of his way by dividing both hair and beard on each side of his head and plaiting it in two long braids that hung to his knees.
He wore a dirty white robe trimmed with runes.
He was only a moment understanding that the dozen beings sheltering in the antechamber were being attacked by humanoids on the outside.
"Inside," he ordered. Pointing to the door behind him, he muttered an incantation.
Trap felt as if he were being whisked along in a strong wind. He looked down at his feet, which were moving rapidly across the floor, but they acted according to a will other than his own.
In front of him, Halmarain, the gully dwarves, and Beglug were traveling just as rapidly. Trap couldn't stop himself but he could turn his head and look over his shoulder. Ripple, right behind him, and the dwarves further back, were moving at the same speed. The dwarves were staring down at their feet with eyes wide.
Chapter 35
As Trap was whisked through the hidden door and into the outlying passage of Digondamaar, he smiled up at the wizard.
"Hello, my name is Trapspringer Fargo," he held out his hand but he was moving too fast for the wizard to take it. "I appreciate being saved from the goblins, but did you have to move us so fast? I would have liked to take a look at the secret door." He had to turn his head to look back at the wizard. Behind him the last of the dwarves rushed through the doorway. The grinding began again as the door closed.
The involuntary movement of his feet stopped and he nearly fell over. Ahead of him Halmarain and the gully dwarves staggered. Beglug danced sideways on his tiny hoofed feet and fell against the wall, scraping his hand. He whined and licked at the abrasion.
The kender could see the others in the light that emanated from the wizard. He seemed to be enveloped in a glow that lit the entire passage.
He strode past the dwarves, who were alternately looking at the walls of the passage and giving wary attention to their glowing and magical host. The wizard was more interesting than the walls, the kender thought. The floor, ceiling and walls were as smooth and even as if they had been cut with a knife, but one spot looked just like any other. The name of the delving in the dwarvish tongue meant golden halls, but there was no evidence of gold.
Chalmis Rosterig attempted to pass Ripple. She stepped into his path, and like her brother, she held out her hand.
"I'm Ripple Fargo, and I'm pleased to meet you," she thrust her hand into his, so he could not ignore her. "Are all wizards so small?" she asked him, oblivious to the frown her remark brought out. "If it's a requirement for the art, maybe I could become a wizard. I'd love to study books and learn spells and do magic. Can you make fireworks?"
"Kender!" The word burst out of Chalmis in an explosion of sound. "That's all I need-kender."
"Oh yes, we can be really helpful if you give us a chance," Trap agreed, padng the rapid steps of the wizard on the right while Ripple walked on his left. "We tried to help Orander, but he went through a portal and we weren't able to do much, but if you'll bring him back- though he may not want to return if he likes it over there-and that would be a shame, because Halmarain said he would do magic for us. Is that pendant magic? It certainly is beautiful. Can I touch it?" He reached toward the jewel that hung from a chain and laid on the wizard's chest.
Chalmis pushed the kender's hand away as he turned to look back over his shoulder.
"Come along!" he shouted at the dwarves. "If not you'll be left in the dark. You don't want to meet what crawls through these tunnels when the lights are out."
While the dwarves hurried to catch up, Halmarain caught Beglug's arm and rushed him down the passage just ahead of the white wizard. Umpth and Grod, Umpth still rolling the wheel, trotted along just behind Halmarain and the little fiend.
Behind them they could hear a faint thudding as the humanoids apparently tried to open the secret door. Ahead they could see torchlight. The glow that surrounded the wizard died away as they reached a chamber that was lit with torches set in wall sconces.
"Wow, this is more like it," Trap said as he looked around. In the light of the torches he could see what appeared to be golden drawings on the wall. Even to his limited knowledge of metal working, it was apparent that refined gold had been used to fill grooves in the stone. The drawings were hardly more than sketches, yet finely detailed. Several colors of gold had been used, and in the light of the torches, the tints of green, red and yellow gave a hint of color to the drawings.
The chamber had obviously been created as a dining hall. More than fifty tables and benches, also of stone, sat in long rows. Several had been broken; the slabs that had been seats and tabletops leaned askew, but most were still intact.
When they were all in the room, Chalmis stopped and glared at them, his glance lingering longest on Beglug.
"Why have you come here, bringing those foul creatures in your wake and disturbing my solitude?" The wizard thundered. He pointed his finger back in the direction they had come when he spoke of foul creatures, obviously meaning the goblins. The gully dwarves, who still clutched their blankets around their shoulders, thought it safest to take shelter behind the kender. Beglug snarled and swiped at the wizard with a clawed hand.
Chalmis Rosterig pointed a finger at the merchesti and muttered under his breath. Beglug was frozen on the spot.
"Now answer my question!" Chalmis ordered.
The wizard's question brought out a deluge of explanations and excuses, questions and comments. Everyone seemed to be pointing at Trap as Halmarain rattled off a full account of Orander's attempt to travel between planes and the result of the kender's drastic intervention. The dwarves had not accepted the idea that a mere gully dwarf could have picked their pockets. They were loudly blaming the kender for the theft of the Map of Secret Lore, as they called the necklace.