Out of the dark shaft in the adjoining chamber, six gray shapes suddenly dropped, with great leathery wings snapping out to break their plunge. They were about the size and shape of a man, but so heavy and powerful that the flagstones at the bottom of the shaft cracked under the impact of their descent. With roars of battle rage, the creatures surged out of the bottom of the well and assaulted the Hawk Knights and their soldiers.
Blades flashed and steel rang as the knight slashed out at his attackers. One recoiled, cradling a mangled arm and hissing in pain, but two others pummeled Marcus to the ground with blows powerful enough to powder stone. Ashwillow barked out a magical word and sent a jet of scorching blue flame into the middle of the pack. The creatures-some kind of gargoyles, Jack guessed-were driven back for a moment. Two soldiers seized Marcus by the arms and dragged him up, retreating from their assailants.
"That's enough," Jelan snarled. "Come on. We'll leave these fools to their fate."
Jack cringed. Marcus and Ashwillow certainly wished him no good and it might solve some problems later if they met their doom in Sarbreen today. Still he begrudged no one a chance to escape a grisly death at the claws of a flight of gargoyles.
Jack took one more look at the fight across the great room. The creatures had already recovered from Ashwillow's fiery attack, ignoring the patches of black, cracked hide that smoked across their broad backs and massive wings. With cries of rage, they took to the air, streaking across the vast space of the dwarven greathall like catapult stones in flight. The rogue ducked into the open passage and found a long tunnel lined with cool, smooth stone that gleamed in the reflected light. Yu Wei, Illyth, and the others waited thirty yards down the tunnel.
A moment later, Jelan darted into the passage behind Jack. "Move quickly," she called ahead. "We are pursued."
Three of the powerful gargoyles appeared in the darkness behind them, screeching with rage. They hurled themselves forward, crowding the small passageway and scrabbling past each other to reach Jelan first. The Warlord cast one cool glance over her shoulder and picked up her pace, keeping safely ahead of the flight. Jack decided to do the same. The passageway behind the sphere ran for almost a hundred yards, as straight as an arrow, before opening up on a tall, narrow cavern cleft by a great crevasse. The Warlord's party was trapped on a wide ledge, unable to flee any farther. Wind howled up from below, a roaring blast of air that rumbled and echoed in the cavern like the thunder of a nearby waterfall.
Illyth plucked at Jack's sleeve and pointed. "Look!" A round stone platform floated in midair in the center of the crevasse, level with the floor on which they stood. A wooden dock or landing extended out over the abyss to meet the edge of the stone platform.
Jack moved over to peer over the edge. As far as he could see, the crevasse plummeted down into the dark. He raised an arm to shield his eyes and blinked in astonishment.
"What is this place?" he shouted.
"The road to our goal," Jelan replied. She turned and drew her blade, preparing to defend the mouth of the passageway against the pursuing monsters. Tenghar and Hathmar joined her, forming a hedge of steel to seal the tunnel's exit. The gargoyles were almost upon them. "Yu Wei! Bar their passage!"
The Shou sorcerer inclined his head and raised his hands, muttering words and weaving his fingers. Golden flames suddenly exploded from the stone floor to fill the tunnel behind them, creating a sheet of leaping death that sealed the tunnel mouth completely. Jack could feel a small warmth on his face and hands, no stronger than sunlight on a clear day, but the heat must have been far more intense on the opposite side of the fire barrier; the gargoyles bayed in misery and retreated, shielding their faces with their great dark wings.
"The wall will hold them for a quarter hour!" Yu Wei cried. "After that, the monsters will be free to pass!"
"Well done," the Warlord said. "That will do for now. Turn your attention to the platform and determine how it operates. We will keep watch."
They waited a few minutes, buffeted by the winds, the scorching heat of the wizard's shield defending them from the gargoyles in the tunnel. Yu Wei muttered and mumbled, inspecting the floating platform.
At length he stepped back and said, "I believe I understand the device, Warlord, but it may be prudent to test it first in order to make sure that I have mastered the enchantment."
"I trust you implicitly, and we do not have much time," Jelan replied. She brushed by the sorcerer and jumped across to the stone platform as if she had absolute confidence in the precarious engine. It bobbed a little under her weight but remained stable. "Come on, then, everybody aboard. Jack, you stay close by me," she said. "I want you where I can keep an eye on you."
"I am completely trustworthy," Jack protested.
He followed Jelan and tried not to think about just how much of a drop might wait under his feet. He gave his hand to Illyth and helped her onto the platform, then moved aside to make room for the rest of Jelan's picked warriors.
"Nevertheless," Jelan said. "Trouble follows you like gulls following a fisherman's dory." She turned to face the rest of the party. "Keep your eyes open, friends. I am very concerned about what might or might not come up behind us in the dark."
Yu Wei stepped aboard last and carefully touched the heel of his staff to the old dwarven stone, speaking a word that Jack did not recognize. After a moment, the platform began to sink, dropping quickly and smoothly down the crevasse as the walls seemed to climb away from them.
The wind screamed like something flayed alive as they dropped into the darkness.
"Dungeon delving," mused Jack, "is an occupation for those unfortunate souls who have demonstrated that they are too stupid, ill-tempered, or incompetently noble to hold down any honest job."
He gazed out into the great vast darkness around him and shivered. For several minutes the stone platform had descended through empty air, as the crevasse had widened drastically hundreds (or perhaps thousands) of feet below its upper entrance. The walls were now well out of sight, and still they dropped. At least the platform hadn't yet taken them into any life-threatening peril, but that, of course, was no guarantee that it wouldn't at any moment. A cold, damp stream of air raked the open platform, hinting of vast subterranean spaces stretching away around them. The platform was a bubble of golden light, sinking into darkness like a coin dropped into a bottomless well.
"Surely recovering treasures long forgotten is better than outright theft and burglary?'' Illyth replied. "It's dangerous, but it's honest."
Jack stood close by her, holding her closely to keep her warm. Jelan had not provided Illyth with garb particularly suited for marching around in the frigid depths, and the noblewoman shivered constantly.
Jack shrugged and threw his cloak over her shoulders. "I'll trade risk for guilt any time," he said with a laugh.
Illyth's disapproving look stung him, and he fell silent. They gazed into the limitless dark, wondering when the descent would come to an end.
"Hathmar, what do you know of the depths beneath Sarbreen?" Jelan asked the drow swordsman. The Warlord did not take her eyes away from the wall of darkness around them, watching vigilantly for any sign of trouble. "Are there any monsters common to this region we should watch for? Hazardous conditions that might cause injury or death?"
"I have never walked these ways, Warlord," the drow said. "In Sarbreen's day, the region beneath the city was vigorously patrolled by the dwarven city above. If drow had lived here when Sarbreen was great, there would have been war. My people lived in the deep Underdark near this region, but they must have been long gone by the time of Sarbreen's founding. Certainly the Sarbreenaar never had any truck with them."