Memnarch held out a fist, which shimmered briefly, then opened his hand palm-upward. A pair of flat, pearly shapes, each no bigger than a goblin’s ear, undulated rhythmically in the Guardian’s open hand. Something about the way they wriggled reminded Slobad of the slagwurm he and Glissa had faced in the Tangle.
“Think I skip dinner, huh?” the goblin rasped. “Slobad ate maggots for breakfast. Roughage.”
In a flash, Memnarch lashed out with the spiny end of one crab-leg and with delicate precision stabbed it into Slobad’s tongue. The goblin squealed like a stuck djeeruk. The Guardian slapped the hand holding the two writhing silver worms over Slobad’s open mouth.
The goblin had to stop screaming-he could no longer draw any air. Slobad started to shake, choking, when the wriggling creatures in his mouth slid down his throat, turned upward to enter his sinuses, and finally settled on either side of his head in his inner ears. Slobad feared the worms were entirely too close to his brains.
He was right.
Glissa and Lyese, their hands bound behind their backs with wiry rope, marched up the long, dusty path that Alderok Vektro promised would soon lead to some answers. He had steadfastly refused to answer any other question Glissa asked, least of all her pointed, specific questions about Dwugget.
They had left the razor fields far behind and climbed the steadily rising trail for over an hour. The path wound round, under, and over bizarre gold and iron mineral formations. At the moment one side of the path was open to the sky, affording a clear view of the shining lands now far below. Most of the moons had set, leaving only the emerald newcomer to cast its ethereal pall over the landscape. Soon, that moon too would set, and they would be in darkness. And when that happened, Glissa hoped to be heading back down the mountain.
The only trick was how. Try as she might, she couldn’t loosen the hard, fibrous bindings, and she had no weapons or even any way to warn Lyese what she had in mind. She wasn’t going to take off and just leave her sister to face Dwugget.
As far as the “Prophet” Dwugget was concerned, Glissa was still baffled. First, the Krark cultists hadn’t been where they were supposed to be. Now Dwugget was this Vulshok’s lord? It didn’t make any sense, and she wished again that she hadn’t lost the seeksphere in the fight. The wise old goblin that Slobad had introduced her to was gentle and intelligent. He’d been a valuable source of information when she had first set out with Slobad to find out if the world really was hollow. These thugs weren’t acting under the auspices of the Dwugget she knew.
But how well did she know the old goblin? Slobad had vouched for him, and Dwugget had even given Glissa a copy of the Book of Krark, an ancient tome that convinced her she was on the right track. But Slobad, cunning and bright as he was, could also be too trusting. It was possible that the wizened elder her friend knew was but one face of a despot. Or worse, Dwugget had taken on the mantle of the shaman that had once cast the Krark out of the mountains.
As she turned back from the razor plains, the elf girl thought she saw movement out of the corner of her eye, but when she looked again there was nothing. Great, she thought, something’s hunting us on top of everything else. Or I’m going crazy.
Or maybe, she thought as she spotted a glimmer of silver and a pair of flashing golden eyes, just maybe, this is going to work out.
As casually as she could, Glissa sidled ahead until she was side by side with her sister. The goblin guards didn’t seem to take notice. They were herding the pair of elves and expected a little movement as the loose formation trudged onward.
“Hey,” Glissa whispered softly, hoping the ringing footsteps of the armored goblins on the hard bronze path would mask her voice. None of the goblins looked up, and Alderok Vektro continued his slow, heavy strides.
Lyese cocked her head slightly.
“Something’s following us,” Glissa continued. “Stalking us.”
“I know,” Lyese replied, “Leonin?”
“I hope so. Get ready to run.”
“Way ahead of you.”
“Silence!” the fat goblin snarled, and smacked Glissa on the back with the flat end of his spear. “No talk!”
“We’ll be good,” the elf girl replied. She glanced sideways at Lyese, who winked. Or blinked. It was hard to tell.
The attack came as they entered a narrow draw between jagged, natural iron walls that rose hundreds of feet on either side. A half dozen furious roars exploded in the dusky night, and six feline shapes descended on the goblin brigade from above. Curved silver blades flashed, cutting down several of Glissa’s captors before the first one had a chance to scream.
“Good timing!” Glissa shouted to the leonin. She let out a battle cry, ducked her head, and charged the fat goblin. She caught the little brute full in the chest with a savage kick, and he flopped onto his back, unmoving. She whirled on one foot and swung the toe of her boot into the groin of another goblin, whose spear clattered to the rocky ground as he doubled over in pain.
The rest of the guard was either engaged by the leonin commandos, or trying to close on Lyese, who had a kick for any goblin that got too close. This was Glissa’s chance to get out of her bonds. She dropped onto the ground and scooted over to the spear the fat guard had dropped and sawed her bindings against the sharp edge of the tip. After a few second, she felt the last fiber of the painful cable snap, and she was free. Glissa grabbed the spear and scrambled back into the fray.
Before she could get her bearings, a fleeing goblin barreled into the elf girl from the side. Glissa snapped the blunt end of the spear into his gut and vaulted the diminutive soldier into the air. She heard the goblin smack into a towering iron ore spire with the clang of a bell clapper.
Scanning the melee, she finally spotted the big Vulshok. Alderok Vektro was standing clear of the fray, furiously summoning magical aide for the goblins. A flash of red from Vektro’s gauntleted hands, and the diminutive warriors were encased in thick bronze armor that fused to their rusty red hides, making them look like miniature golems. The goblins’ weapons burned with unnatural red flames and sparked as they clashed with leonin longkives. None of them had been able to reach the Vulshok priest yet. Glissa noted the leonin were all wearing the helmets and lightweight armor of the Taj Nar Sky Guard, and wondered why they hadn’t attacked from pteronback. Had the pterons been lost? It would explain why they’d been late to the party.
With his footsoldiers holding the leonin at bay-even the leader, who faced three of the magically augmented guards-Vektro had turned on Lyese. Glissa charged into the fight, kicking goblins aside and plowing a path to her sister. She saw a ball of orange-red flame forming in the Vulshok mage’s upturned palms. The glow cast deforming shadows that made Vektro look like a monstrous goblin-human hybrid, and he cackled as power surged into existence at his command.
Lyese didn’t see her peril or Vektro. Glissa’s sister was doing her best to help the leonin fight off the triple-team of goblins with another stolen spear, but was having trouble finding an opening.
“Lyese! Watch out!” Glissa shouted, and launched herself at Vektro.
The next few seconds passed at a crawl. As her sister spun toward Vektro, one of the goblins slammed a fist into the small of Lyese’s back. The human raised the fireball over his head, apparently willing to fry his own troops to get at the others. Glissa heaved her stolen spear.
Lyese arched her back and screamed as the goblin followed his punch with a sweeping kick to the younger elf’s ankles that sent her sprawling backward.
“Guluhr immohl!” Vektro bellowed, and released the fireball just as Glissa’s spear skewered the human’s unprotected shoulder. The priest’s spell went wide and slammed into the canyon wall over the heads of a pair of goblins slugging it out with two leonin commandos, sending the combatants bolting for cover as chunks of slag and white-hot ore rained down.