“Where in the flare is everybody?” asked Glissa
“I think I know,” said Slobad, “and it not good. Not good at all. Very bad, in fact.”
“What do you mean?”
“Look at this, huh?” said the goblin.
Glissa followed the walls around the room until she bumped into Slobad, then bent and looked through the hole. The corridor outside looked much like the others. Scorch marks on the walls and some blood on the floor. “What am I looking at?” she asked.
“See symbol?” asked Slobad.
“No. What symbol?”
“Look at black mark on wall, huh?” said Slobad. “Something drawn there. Symbol. See? Huh?”
Glissa looked at the scorch mark again. Sure enough, there was an odd symbol scratched into the wall. The black soot from the lighting bolt almost obscured it. Even after Slobad pointed it out to her she could barely make out the image. It looked like an eye above a mountain.
“What does that mean?”
“It means goblin shaman here again,” said Slobad. “Come and clean out lair. That Eye of Doom mark. Shaman carve to mark unclean lairs.”
“That can’t be a coincidence, Slobad,” said Glissa. “You said the cult had stayed hidden for fifty cycles. There’s no way those vedalken beasts and the goblin shaman found this place at the same time. The shaman must have sold out to the vedalken just like Geth and Strang. But why did the goblin shaman take the dead bodies?”
“Take everyone to Great Furnace. All metal must be returned to clan.”
“They’re going to burn them in the furnace?” asked Glissa, a note of panic in her voice as the realization sunk in. “Oh, flare! Bosh!”
“We hurry,” said Slobad. “No time for sneaky elf.” The goblin lit his fire tube and ran back to the hole in the middle of the floor. He dropped into the tunnel before Glissa could even move. The sudden light had blinded her. Through the dots floating in her vision, Glissa stumbled to the hole, which glowed with the light of the torch below.
She followed Slobad back into the ductwork tunnels but could barely keep up with the little goblin. She might be able to outrun him on land, but her long legs were not made for this environment. They traveled for over an hour through the twisting tunnels. With the fire tube lit, Glissa could tell that even the straight passages weren’t all that straight or smooth. It looked as if the rusty metal had been banged into shape by hammers.
The two passed many openings. Most of the time, Glissa could see nothing in them but darkness. Sometimes a fire tube beyond the duct would illuminate an open cavern or a small room filled with metal and tools. She saw goblins hard at work heating and banging metal or cutting away walls and floors of caverns. It looked as if they were mining metal from the mountains, then fashioning it into whatever they needed.
After more than two hours, Glissa had to stop. A cramp shot up her calf into the knee, and she dropped to the floor of the tunnel. Hearing her groan, Slobad stopped several feet on. Glissa straightened out her leg, but in the small tunnel she could not reach down to massage the muscle. Worse, the passage was getting warmer.
“Not much farther,” said Slobad. He came back and sat in front of her. His head was jammed up against the top of the tunnel, and he looked at her from an odd angle.
At least he can turn around and sit, thought Glissa. “I’ll just be a moment,” she said. “Why is it getting so hot?”
We close to furnace, huh?” replied Slobad. “Ducts take hot air to goblins. Cool furnace and heat homes. Smart. Goblins good with machines.”
“Will the ducts take us all the way to the furnace?”
“No,” said Slobad. “We can’t get to furnace by duct. Air too hot at Furnace, huh? Goblins replace ducts above furnace every cycle. Melt away. Furnace very hot.”
“Then where are we headed?”
“Holding pens,” said Slobad. “We find Dwugget, maybe. Cultists. Pens close to furnace. If not there, we too late.”
Glissa’s leg was still sore, but she could move. “Lead on,” she said.
Soon after, Slobad stopped at an opening on the floor of the tunnel. He pushed the cover out, then pulled it through the opening, placed it in front of him, and shut off the fire tube. Glissa could just see the silhouette of his head as he leaned over and stuck it through the opening.
“Nobody here,” he said. “Safe. Come on, huh? Hurry.”
Glissa followed him through and landed in a corridor lined with rusty cages. Fire tubes at the end of the corridor provided dim light. Most of the cages were empty, but one held about a dozen goblins cramped together. The companions crept to the packed cell.
“Dwugget,” called Slobad. “You in there, Dwugget?”
“Here,” came a hoarse reply. “All here, my son. Is that you, Slobad?”
“It me,” said the goblin. “Come to get you out, huh? Set you free.”
“How did you get away, little Slobad?” asked the cult shaman. He pushed his way out to the rusty bars. Dwugget wore what Glissa assumed must be shaman robes. For goblins that amounted to a leather jerkin that hung to his knees instead of a simple loincloth.
“Why did you come back? It’s very dangerous here for you, huh?”
“I tell you,” said Slobad. “We come to get you. Me and Glissa. My friend. Golem help us get away. Now we set you free, huh? This all that lived?”
“Yes,” said Dwugget, “The dead were already taken to the Great Furnace, may Krark lead them to the Mother’s Heart.”
“What about Bosh?” asked Glissa. “The golem-where is he?”
Dwugget looked over at Glissa. “I am glad to see you awake,” he said. “Slobad was worried about you, huh? You were in a dark place. Now you have returned to the light. It is the Mother’s will that you live.”
Does everyone know more about my life than I do? wondered Glissa. She smiled and nodded at the shaman. “The golem?” she asked again.
“Of course,” said Dwugget. “Sorry. Your metal man was taken with the dead to the Furnace. We are next for the fire.”
Slobad turned and started toward the other end of the hall.
“Slobad!” called Glissa. “Where are you going?”
“Save Bosh,” said Slobad. “Be back, huh?”
Glissa ran after Slobad and grabbed him by the shoulder. “We can’t leave them here,” she said. “They’ll be killed.”
“Won’t let them melt him down, huh?” cried Slobad. “They not make boiler or ductwork from Bosh!”
Glissa released him and patted him on the back. “Go find Bosh,” she said. “I’ll get Dwugget’s people into the duct, then come find you.”
Slobad opened the metal door, which creaked horribly as it moved. He peered out the doorway for a moment then slipped through. Glissa turned back toward the cell, pulled out her sword, and moved forward.
“Stand back,” she said.
The mass of goblins inched away from the bars as best as they could. They huddled against the wall, whimpering. Glissa stepped back and gauged the distance. She swung her sword hard toward the iron bars. It sliced through four bars, coming to rest just inches from Dwugget’s head. Glissa swung the sword again, aiming low. The iron bars clattered to the floor, leaving an opening large enough for the goblins.
“Quickly,” she said. “This way.”
The remaining Krark cultists scurried to the opening in the duct. Glissa lifted Dwugget into the hole and held him there as he scrambled through. One by one, she aided the rest of the cultists.
“Replace the cover and move down the tunnel,” she said to Dwugget. “Wait for us to return-and for flare’s sake stay quiet.”
The elf ran down the hall, grabbed the fire tube, and opened the door a crack to look out. The heat from the next chamber slammed her in the face like a stiff wind. She fought for breath in the stifling heat as she slipped through the door. Glissa scanned the chamber beyond the cells. All the lair areas she had seen so far had been goblin-made. They were small, square rooms made of hammered metal fused together.