"What were they?" asked Vadania.
"The gods," replied Tordek and Devis in unison. Tordek gave the half-elf a sour look, but Devis grinned and winked back at him.
"You want to tell it?" he asked. His tone of voice made it plain that he hoped Tordek did not.
"Go ahead," said Tordek sourly.
"Many dwarven strongholds set the images of their gods looking out at the surrounding lands as a way of calling on their protection. Usually it's just one god, or perhaps two. Moradin is always the first one. That's probably him, there, right above us. On the other side is Berronar Truesilver, his wife and the Mother of Safety. They usually appear beside each other."
"Who are the others?" asked Lidda. "I know Clangeddin Silverbeard, Father of Battle."
"I don't know," said Devis. "It's hard to tell from the shapes that are left."
"He's on the other side," said Tordek. "Protecting Berronar and Sharindlar the Shining Dancer. Probably keeping an eye on Abbathor, too." Tordek licked his thumb and rubbed it against two fingers as if feeling a coin. "Trove Lord, he's called. Wyrm of Avarice. He left his shadow on this delve, to be sure."
"Who's on this side?" prompted Vadania.
Tordek looked up and considered. "Dugmaren Brightmantle, Dumathoin the Keeper of Secrets Under the Mountain, and Vergadain the Merchant King, probably."
"Are you sure?" said Devis. "What about Haela Brightaxe or Gorm Gulthyn? There are others, too. Deep Duerra and Ladaguer, for instance."
"Haela is a demigod, lauded as a hero in some delves, as a goddess in others. Gorm you will never find on the surface, for he watches for those who devour from beneath the hearth." Tordek fixed his eye on the bard. "The others are not to be spoken of."
Devis looked disappointed, but he nodded. Despite the warning, there was no keeping his tongue still for long, and Tordek sighed as Devis put his hands on his hips and leaned back to look at the places where the gods had been. "Dumathoin you said. Which one is he?"
"Can't be sure," said Tordek. He pointed at one of the smooth planes. They could see the truncated edges of ears, jaws, and rippling hair. "Maybe that one, with the thin neck."
"I've heard another name for him," said Devis. " 'The Silent Keeper.'"
"That's because he never speaks," said Tordek. "Dumathoin is mute."
"Ah," said the bard, "but remember what's on the door. 'Come silently through the secret under the mountain.' That's two hints about Dumathoin."
"He's right!" said Lidda. "That's got to be important. Maybe the real secret door is under the face of Dumathoin."
"Perhaps," said Tordek, "but there's a slag drain there, and it's working. That's no secret entrance."
"Maybe the passage was through the face of Dumathoin," suggested Vadania.
"Yeah," said Devis. "In his ear or up his nose, maybe."
"Still your profane tongue, half-breed!" snapped Tordek, raising his voice enough to cause an echo. He saw his companions look around nervously and lowered his volume. "Just speak of the gods with respect, is all I am saying."
"I'll climb up and have a look," volunteered Lidda.
"Up his nose indeed," muttered Tordek, glowering at Devis. The half-elf grimaced an apology.
Lidda clambered up the cliff face as nimbly as a monkey. Tordek had seen her perform similar feats a dozen times, but he still marveled at her skill. He would need a stout rope to get up there, and to be careful he would need to haul up his armor separately. He watched as Lidda braced herself and began feeling the bare stone face for secrets. Her slender fingers probed the cliff for only a few minutes before she called down to them.
"There's something here! It's small, but I think I can open it!" Lidda grinned down at them, a fierce grin on her face. It vanished when her gaze fell upon Gulo. Big, huge, gigantic Gulo.
Vadania caught the meaning of the look and put her slim hand on the dire wolverine's massive shoulder. "I am sorry, my friend. You can surely make the climb, but the passage is too meager for so great a warrior to pass."
Tordek knew that the dire wolverine could not understand Common, but he was sure he took the elf's meaning nonetheless. With a deep whimper that was anything but ferocious, he slunk slowly away along the shore, sniffing for a spot upstream where he could cross without entering the tainted water.
Vadania looked after her animal friend with a sad expression in her almond-shaped eyes. Tordek stood beside her. "Where will he go?"
"We have walked many trails together," she said. "He will remain nearby until I call for him."
"Come on," urged Devis. He held a knotted rope and had one foot on the cliff face. Thirty feet above, Lidda sat in the mouth of a narrow opening with the other end tied around her waist and played through her gloved hands.
Devis started climbing. He reached the halfway point when Vadania hissed a warning. Devis froze, crouching low to the wall while craning his neck to look down over his shoulder.
The druid was listening intently, so Tordek did the same. He heard nothing but the gurgling of the stream behind them.
"Something's coming!" hissed Vadania. "Something that buzzes." She flapped her hands at Devis, urging him to climb faster as she grasped the rope below. "Hurry!"
Tordek hesitated only a second before snatching up his bow and setting an arrow to the string. By the time he had the weapon ready, he heard the buzzing that had alerted Vadania. A moment later, he spied the first of them.
The thing was like a hornet the size of a boar, with four dangling red meat hooks for legs. The creature's body was a suit of lacquered yellow armor with black splotches, its wings a dark leathery blur. Its eight multifaceted eyes reflected a hundred tiny images of the sky, the cliff, and the ground beneath. A crude harness encircled its fat abdomen, securing a saddle between its wings. There perched a lean goblin resting a short bow across its knees.
The rider spotted Devis crawling into the hole where Dumathoin's eye once lay just as Tordek raised his bow. As the goblin lifted an arm to point at the climber and opened his mouth to shout, Tordek's arrow shot through its chest and slammed it out of the saddle. The goblin tumbled backward over its gigantic mount and dangled, already dead, from one leg still trapped in its stirrup.
Even without its rider to goad it on, the spider-eater flew toward the secret entrance. Devis was already inside the shelter of the stone, but Vadania still climbed frantically toward it. Even while Tordek reached for another arrow, he knew she would never make it in time. As he fired at the monstrous insect, two more of the things buzzed around the promontory.
On one of them rode another goblin, already rising in its saddle to shoot at Vadania. On the other, Tordek caught a brief glimpse of a creature even smaller than a goblin, knotty and twisted like an old piece of moldy wood. Before he could identify the wretch, it vanished. When he heard weird, piping laughter from atop the flying insect, he realized its rider had turned invisible.
He cried a warning to those above, but they were already too busy to heed him.
With its hanging rider forgotten, the first spider-eater descended on the druid. Devis reached down to help her up into the secret passage, but just before their hands met, the gigantic insect bumped Vadania and glided gently away to hover over the poisoned river.
From Tordek's perspective, it seemed like such a gentle blow that he didn't realize the peril until he heard Vadania's painful cry. She clutched at her thigh and lost her grip on the rope. Before she could fall to the ground, Devis lunged down and grabbed her with both hands. Behind him, Lidda held onto his ankles and jammed her feet and shoulders against the walls of the tiny passage for support.