To General Zen, however, the throne was a symbol of degeneration. He looked upon it with disgust, seeing his Grand Master slouching there like some filthy hobgoblin king, his mind filled with greed and petty desires.
"So, our little friend still won't talk, eh?" Iulus said. "We shall have to do something about that."
"My lord, I believe we are wasting our time with the miserable creature. It is obvious that he has told us everything. We should kill him and be done with it, as Lady Alya suggests," Zen said.
"Your job is not to think," Iulus purred dangerously, "nor to listen to the councils of humans, no matter how pretty. This gully dwarf knows more than he is telling."
"But he is only a gully dwarf," Zen protested.
Iulus rose from his throne. "Do you dare disagree with me?" he snarled. His twisted, malformed draconian face grew livid, the exposed veins and muscles pulsed, almost seeming to glow. "Who do you think you are? I am the master here. I trained you in the arts of assassination. I trained all of you. Without me, you'd still be a mercenary licking the boots of every hobgoblin chieftain with two more pennies than his rival."
The sivak general growled but held his tongue. "Forgive me, my lord," he said, bowing.
"Bring the gully dwarf here, and bring that self-proclaimed Highbulp, Mommamose. Perhaps young Uhoh would respond better if his dear old mother were under the lash," Iulus directed.
"Yes, my master," Zen said. He bowed and prepared to leave.
"Oh, and inform Lady Alya. I think she might enjoy this," Iulus laughed. "Tell her that if Uhoh refuses to talk this time, we'll kill him, but first we'll let him watch Mommamose die. That should pique her interest."
General Zen bowed once more, turned, and stalked from the chamber.
After he had gone, Iulus stared thoughtfully at the door.
He whispered to himself, "And I think, once this is done, that I shall teach you the final lesson of assassination, my old friend."
"It all comes of trusting a gully dwarf," Ellinghad snarled as he plucked a draconian arrow from his chain mail and tossed it aside. Pausing a moment to gauge the time between the blows that rained against the door, he threw back the bolt and jerked it open, slashing out with his sword and felling a draconian raising a mallet. Ellinghad then slammed the door shut and dropped the bolt back in place just as a dozen or so arrows struck the other side, sending splinters flying.
Beside him, Valian ground his teeth and nodded in agreement as he bound his wrist. He'd been pinked by a draconian sword, and he only hoped the blade wasn't poisoned. Lady Michelle hadn't been so lucky. She lay a few feet away, her eyes glazing, a poisoned arrow still lodged in her shoulder.
"This way is no good," Meredith shouted. She and Jessica pressed their bodies against another door. It shook under a storm of blows.
There was a third exit from the kitchen, but in their urgency to hold the first two against the draconians, no one had yet had the opportunity to investigate it. In any case, it seemed their mission was near failure. They'd already lost Lady Gabrielle in the initial encounter, and now Lady Michelle was dying as well. With draconians attacking from two quarters, they could not hold out for long.
It all came from trusting a gully dwarf. They'd wandered in the dark for hours, it seemed, taking one wrong route after another in the endless caverns that honeycombed the mountain. They'd not seen one door or stair indicating habitation of any sort, and they would have doubted the existence of the castle entirely had they not seen it with their own eyes, perched atop the mountain two thousand feet above the sea. Occasionally they stumbled across the bones of a long-dead fish or the bleached white shell of a crab, in some of the darker, wetter caverns, where the air was stale as though it had indeed been there since the Cataclysm. Strands of glowing algae still clung to the walls, giving off a weird phosphorescence. Once, they stumbled into a rank and fetid pool of sea water, though by their best guess they were by then many hundreds of feet above the sea. The pool stretched away into echoing darkness, bespeaking great size and depth, and the Knights shuddered to think what ancient monsters of the sea might still be lurking in its depths.
Despite Glabella's misdirections, they nonetheless climbed steadily upward. The sounds of the crashing sea had steadily diminished, and at the far end of one cavern, they came upon narrow stairs delved into the wall. The stairs followed a fault in the stone, past narrow outcroppings of rock that forced the Knights to squeeze by. At one of these places, Valian found a bronze-colored draconian scale wedged in a crack in the wall. He showed it to the others, proof-positive that they were on the right track.
The stair eventually led to an iron door. The Knights had climbed to it, exhausted and out of breath, finding it curiously unguarded. Lady Meredith called a rest, while Sir Valian cautiously opened the door and peered inside. He reported an empty torchlit corridor beyond.
Glabella, now confident of where she was, led them through a maze of dark and twisting corridors. They passed doors and passages all along the way, but she strode forward with such assurance, they'd trusted they were being guided to the dungeons where Uhoh was sure to be kept, if he was still alive.
At last, she brought them to another iron door, lit by only a single smoky torch. It looked exactly like the entrance to a dungeon should look, huge and forbidding, with its ironwork rusted and hanging with dank growths of moss. Upon opening it, they found themselves thrust into the middle of a draconian barracks, with several dozen of the evil creatures caught by surprise, staring back at them. From then on, it was a fighting retreat, and with each moment that slipped by, the hope of rescuing Uhoh dwindled. They began to doubt their own chances for survival.
Valian had been stabbed, causing him to drop his weapon, and Lady Gabrielle sacrificed herself to pull him to safety. She was cut down from behind by draconian swords. As they reached the kitchen, the draconians brought up archers. The Knights had managed to shut the doors, but not quickly enough to save Lady Michelle.
Meredith shouted to Glabella, "We need a way out! Check out that other door."
The gully dwarf was paralyzed with fear. She cowered on the floor under a table, unable to move.
"I can't abide the thought that I am going to die here, for nothing," Ellinghad shouted. "This was a fool's mission."
"Look out!" Valian shouted as the third door swung open. Jessica prepared for the worst, while Glabella screamed.
A gully dwarf wearing a tall white hat entered the room carrying a pottery bowl nearly as big as himself, white gruel caked in his beard. At sight of the Knights spinning round with swords drawn, faces set to meet their death, the gully dwarf dropped the bowl of porridge, turned, and fled the way he'd come.
"Follow him!" Meredith shouted triumphantly. "Go, all of you. Run. I'll hold this door. The rest of you go. Jessica, don't forget Glabella."
"I'll not leave you," Ellinghad said. Valian sprinted through the open door. Jessica followed him, the gully dwarf tucked under her arm.
"You will," Meredith answered. "I'll hold them at this door for a moment, then follow you."
With a final look of mute protest, Ellinghad Beauseant, Knight of the Sword, dashed after his companions.
Meredith stepped away from the door, drawing her sword. In moments, the wooden planks cracked. The door burst inward, and draconians poured into the room. Lady Meredith backed into the door. The draconians licked their swords and advanced.
A shout from the corridor brought them up short. They backed away angrily, making way for the entrance of a huge silver draconian. He was heavily armored and stood a good foot taller than his fellows. He strode into the kitchen, a long, wickedly curved blade in his clawed fist. Seeing only Lady Meredith before him, he laughed.