A thump behind Thorolf told him that Gak had also dropped into the room. The troll roared: "You crazy? Back!"
A glance showed Thorolf that Gak was rushing upon him with clutching hands. In quick succession, the three raced through the door and down the corridor beyond. Simultaneously, the scarlet-robed Orlandus and Parthenius appeared at the far end. Both gaped at the sight of Yvette, Thorolf, and Gak rushing toward them in single file, each trying to seize his predecessor.
"Who be you?" Parthenius shouted at Thorolf.
"He's no diaphane!" cried Orlandus. "He's a mundane disguised! That's a stolen robe!"
Yvette dodged past the leaders of Sophonomy. Thorolf, thinking that here was a chance to behead this evil cult at a blow, swept out his sword. The unarmed cultists should be easy prey.
Parthenius shouted: "Guards! To us!" Orlandus hurled something to the floor and shouted words. Instantly there appeared, between Thorolf and the Sophonomists, the fearsome figure of an ogre. It was half again as tall as a man, with a thick, warty hide. Webbed fingers and toes ended in talons, and a pair of horns surmounted pointed ears. From beneath its blob of a nose, like a weird mustache, sprang a pair of yard-long tendrils, which writhed like serpents. Looking sharply, Thorolf perceived that the ogre was slightly transparent. Bardi's anti-illusion spell was evidently still working.
Thorolf heard a yelp of dismay from Gak, who hurled his spear, turned, and ran back the way he had come. The spear went through the ogre and clattered on the floor beyond.
The ogre spread its taloned hands as if to seize Thorolf, who instinctively struck forehand with his sword. The blade passed through the torose body without resistance, so that the force of Thorolf's blow spun him round and almost felled him. Seeing Gak rushing through the door to the audience chamber, he shouted:
"Come back! 'Tis mere illusion!"
Gak continued his flight. Hearing the clatter of approaching guards, Thorolf ran after the troll.
When Thorolf reentered the Chamber of Audience, Gak was disappearing into the passage behind the painting. Thorolf slammed the door behind him, shot the bolt, and pushed the divan in front of the door. Leaning toward the door, he shouted in Rhaetian:
"Out the other door, Gak! It leads to the main gate!"
Then he, too, pulled the painting out from the wall and hoisted himself into the dark aperture. From the blocked door came shouts and hammering.
Gak had picked up the two rushlights, which he had left leaning against the wall. He handed one to Thorolf, growling: "Quick, fool!"
The troll's big, hairy feet slapped the floor of the tunnel as he led the way with reckless haste. When they reached the junction with the main tunnel, they paused to catch their breath. Thorolf listened but heard nothing save his and Gak's heavy breathing. When their chests had ceased to heave, Gak said:
"You mad? Evil spirit have you?"
"My first mate," Thorolf gasped.
After a long pause, Gak said: "Ah! Understand. Come."
Back at the troll village, Thorolf told Wok of his adventure. Wok said: "Ye are lucky to escape the results of your folly at the cost of one spear. I will not let Gak or any other of my folk take part in another such foray. Too risky."
"It behooved me to do something," said Thorolf defensively.
"Wherefore? One lowland female more or less, what matter? I know not what ye see in lowland females anyway. Hideous, hairless, starved-looking creatures."
"Tastes differ," said Thorolf. "Anyway, Gak and I have found how you and your warriors can invade the Sophonomist stronghold and destroy this menace once and for all."
"Eh? Ye mean for us to trail through the tunnels and pop out of the hole behind that picture? Never! Those magicians would blast us with their spells. If those failed, their armored guards would fall upon us. We should be lucky if any got away alive. Besides, they probably know about the tunnel now and will have blocked it, or at least placed guards at the entrance."
"I doubt that. I called out a misdirection ere they broke into the Chamber of Audience, to send them out the other door as if we had fled by the main gate. Gak and I heard no pursuit in the tunnel."
"Ah! But Orlandus is clever. When the gate guards said none had passed them, he would know ye had left some other way and command a search, if indeed he have not already discovered the tunnel by his magical arts."
Thorolf argued some more, trying to arouse in the Chief an eagerness to raid the Sophonomist headquarters and slaughter the lot—except Yvette, of course. But Wok remained adamant.
"Too much risk," he said. "We can fight you feeble, hairless lowlanders on even terms; but we have no magic like unto yours. At the bruit of the battle, your soldiers might come to investigate. When they saw the Sophonomists fighting us whom they deem beasts, they would join in against us. We are a small people and cannot afford to lose men.
"Besides, your lowland female might be slain. Even if I told my warriors to spare her, in the confusion they would strike at every yellow robe. Ye lowlanders all look alike to us."
Thorolf sighed and gave up; but during the following days his resolution crystallized to make his next demarche against Sophonomy alone. The last time, he had impulsively plunged in without proper precautions and had accomplished nothing save to alert the cultists against intrusion. He was lucky to have escaped intact, and Gak had been right to call him a fool.
Since Thorolf was not normally impulsive, he wondered at his own rashness. It must, he thought, be a case of the power of love. Doctor Vipsanio at Genuvia had spoken of the crazy deeds into which love can lead one. Thorolf resolved that next time, he would leave nothing more to chance than he could help. He began by sending another letter to his father.
On the appointed day, when the light powdering of an early snow was melting off the ground, he found the consul seated on a folding chair beside their special pool and fishing. But Zigram was not alone. With him on another stool sat Chief Constable Lodar.
Thorolf hesitated, wondering if they meant to arrest him. To reassure himself, he scouted stealthily around, using all the skills that his soldierly experience and his sojourn among the trolls had taught him. He discovered five guards, sitting in a hollow near their tethered horses and casting dice.
Well, he thought, if they should try to spring a surprise, he could probably outrun the lot, since he was younger than either Zigram or Lodar and not laden with mail like the guards. Taking a deep breath, he stepped out from behind the same spruce sapling that had concealed Yvette on their first meeting.
"Hail!" he said.
"Kernun's toenails!" cried Zigram, dropping his fishing rod. "Startle me not so, son! Wherefore have ye dragged us elders up here now?"
"Information," said Thorolf. "Am I wanted for Bar-di's death?"
"Only as a witness; and Gunthram hath posted your name as absent without leave. When the Carinthian rascals found some hedge-wizard to open Bardi's chest, one got drunk on his share of the loot and boasted he'd buy a dukedom. He was heard in a tavern; so he's in durance awaiting the rope; whilst his mates, we presume, have fled back to Carinthia.
"The constables scoured the countryside, seeking a hunchback who, calling himself Bardi's apprentice, was thought to have been either Bardi's slayer or your confederate in the deed; but the Carinthian's boast disproved that surmise.
"When come ye back to answer the justicers' questions and resume your post? We are not fain to hang the rascal until we have your tale to complete the puzzle with the final piece. I've told Colonel Gunthram ye fled at my command, to look into a plot against the Commonwealth and that, therefore, ye be liable to no penalties. Methinks he believed me not, but he durst not call me liar to my face."