In a cell opposite he saw faint movement in the shadows. His heart plunged into the depths of despair, for he could see that it was Arin, the Dylvana yet unconscious, she, too, a prisoner of the monster Ordrune.
The worst of his nightmares come true, in wretched desolation Egil stood, and the moment he gained his feet, to the right and in a far cell someone began to hiss and weep.
It was Alos.
"Egil," he wailed. "Egil." But then his voice broke into great howling sobs, and although he tried to speak, his words were lost among the blubberings and yowls and gasps.
In individual cells between Egil and Alos, lay Burel and Delon, those two yet rendered senseless by Ordrune's foul gas, though they were beginning to stir. Aiko and Ferret were caged across the way in cells next to Arin. Ferret was completely stripped, her clothing strewn about the cell. As Egil watched, Aiko rolled onto her back.
Egil stepped to the bars of his cell and looked into the bucket. Water. He kneeled and reached through to take up a handful. As he remembered, it was foul-smelling; even so, he splashed it onto the back of his neck to ease his aching head. It gave no noticeable relief.
Now Aiko was afoot, and she, too, moved to the bars of her cell. Impassively, she glanced across at Egil, then turned her gaze toward Alos, the old man yet howling. Then her sight swept across her environs, a baleful look in her eye.
"Oh, Egil, do not take blame," pled Arin. "If any is at fault, then 'tis I, for I should have scanned the chamber with my ‹sight›. I would have located Ordrune hiding behind his shadow cast."
Aiko touched her own breast. "Dara, it was I who failed, for my tiger yowled that danger was at hand, yet I did nothing."
"Unh," groaned Delon, holding his head. "As I once heard someone say, we must fix the problem and not the blame."
Dressed once again, Ferret reached down and took up the encrusted wooden spoon from her food bowl. After a moment she cast it down, saying, "This is worthless." She looked across at Delon and said, "They took all my lock-picks, even the ones from my hair."
Delon turned up his hands and shrugged. "That's because Ordrune watched as you opened his chest… and this time I have no belt buckle to-"
His words were cut shy by a clank at the door. The warder window opened and a Drokh peered in. With a clatter, a key rattled into the lock to clack it open. The door swung wide and, accompanied by a squad of armed and armored Drokha, inward stepped Ordrune.
The Mage paused at the first occupied cell to peer in. Alos shrieked and scrambled to the back of his cage and cowered down sissing and whimpering, but all the other prisoners stood defiantly. Sneering, Ordrune moved onward to stop before Aiko; she casually dropped her hand to her waistband. Ordrune laughed. "No, my dear, the star you feebly cast at me in my sanctum went astray, and the others are no longer with you."
Aiko did not reply.
Ordrune moved onward, pausing in turn before the remainder of the prisoners. He came to Egil last and glanced at the red eye patch, a slight frown on his face. But then a look of enlightenment crossed his features. "Well, Captain, you surprise me. I did not think you could find this place again." Ordrune smiled. "Perhaps it is pleasant memories which bring you back, eh? Tell me, Captain, have you been sleeping well?"
Egil's hands gripped the bars, his knuckles white.
"Yes now you are back," said Ordrune. "Perhaps it is because you did not learn your lesson fully the last time." Then he gestured toward the other cells. "It is of no moment, for I have here more than enough to add to your pleasant slumbers, the stuff from which dreams are made."
Egil howled a wordless yell and lunged forward, hands and arms plunging outward between the bars in an attempt to grasp Ordrune, but the Mage was beyond reach. And in that same moment-crack!-a Drokh lashed a quirt down across Egil's arms. Ordrune snarled something in Sluk, and the Drokh drew back. "I want this one unharmed," added Ordrune, smiling at Egil.
Now the dark Mage turned and started for the iron-clad door, and again he uttered commands in the Sluk tongue. Alos's cage was flung open, and kicking and shrieking, the old man was wrenched out from his cell.
"Perhaps, Captain," called Ordrune over his shoulder, "perhaps we can sit down to a fine meal once again."
"Ordrune, you bastard!" Egil shouted. "Leave the old man alone!"
The plated door slammed shut and the warder window banged to, cutting off the sounds of Alos's squeals and Ordrune's sinister laughter.
Fallen into despair, Egil slumped to the stone floor and whispered, "Ordrune, come back; take me instead."
Aiko squatted and took up her wooden spoon and began grinding the handle against the stone of the floor.
Egil looked up, desperation in his eye. "We've got to get out, else the fate that befell my crew will…" His words stuttered to a halt, though all knew what he meant.
"Ferai," called Arin, "canst thou open these locks?"
"I can, given a probe of some sort," said Ferret. "Yet at the moment I am stymied."
Burel turned to Egil. "When does the warder bring food?"
"Are you hungry already?" asked Delon. "For Drokken fare?"
But Egil replied, "Late. After sundown, I think. At time of their own mess. Then a warder brings food."
"Perhaps he'll have something which Ferai can use as a pick," said the big man.
"Oh," said Delon, enlightened.
"If we get free- No, rather, when we get free," said Ferret, "we'll need weapons."
Aiko paused in grinding the wooden spoon against the rough stone block. "When they opened the door"-she gestured at the iron-bound panel at the end of the hallway-"I could see what looked to be a guardroom. Surely there will be weapons there."
"Wait now," said Egil, leaping to his feet. "There is an armory just beyond the guardroom… or at least there was when last I was here."
"Then if we get out of these cages and through that door," said Aiko, "we have a chance to secure weaponry and make an escape." She resumed her grinding.
"We still have to get past a fortress filled with Drokha," said Delon.
"And down to the docks where the Brise is now moored," added Egil.
"Unless we abandon the ship and fare through the jungle instead," said Burel.
Egil looked across at Arin. "Is it day or night, love?"
"It is a quarter way 'tween sunrise and noon," she replied.
None questioned her answer, for she was a Dylvana with the inborn Elven talent to know at all times where stand the sun, moon, and stars.
Egil grunted and said, "Then we have, I believe, from now till morning to make our escape, for Ordrune slays but a victim a day. He'll not come for another until tomorrow."
"Art thou saying that Alos…?"
"Yes, love. That is Ordrune's way."
"Oh, chier." Arin buried her face in her hands.
Ferret glanced at Arin, and then at Alos's empty cell. Finally she said, "All right, let's not waste his death. Assuming that I can get my hands on something which will free us, what then? What's our next move?" She looked across at Burel. "What choices lie before us, my fatalistic friend? What predestined path will we take?"
Burel grinned wryly, then turned to Egil. "You have been here before, Egil. What would you advise?"
Egil took a deep breath, then said, "Well, assuming we get free and have weapons in our hands, here is what we can do…"
Near sunset by Arin's reckoning, their deliberations were interrupted by a muffled singing from beyond the iron-clad door. The warder window clanked open and a Drokh peered in, the sound of the boisterous chanty blaring in as well. Then the door was flung wide, and inward came two Drokha bearing up an old man singing at the top of his lungs:
"Old Snorri in a cog