The stealth was considered necessary because of the presence of the Baron of Sland. He had already protested the existence of secret meetings of wizards in the High King's castle and tried to force Karag to tell him what was under discussion. Only the presence of the other wizards had kept him from resorting to violence.
Two of his six soldiers had vanished since their arrival, and Karag suspected that the Baron was keeping his own secrets. His men did not desert; they did not dare.
Therefore, the four wizards had begun their journey an hour before dawn, while the Baron and his men slept. A simple spell of drowsiness kept the gatekeeper from noticing their departure.
Once out of the castle, they rode night and day, using invigorating spells to keep their horses alive and moving. Such travel was hard on the older two, Shandiph and Deriam, but did not seem to bother Karag at all-and Thetheru concealed his own fatigue rather than admit that Karag was more fit. Ordinarily, each would have avoided the use of so much magic so quickly, but with such a threat hanging over them and such a promise of greater power before them, it seemed foolish to worry about conserving relatively trivial resources.
They were slowed by the necessity of crossing the Great River, which they reached early in the second day, but they nevertheless managed to arrive at the gates of Ur-Dormulk by the sunset following their ferry ride.
It then became necessary to conceal their haste, and they struggled to appear as if nothing unusual were taking place-as if the four of them had decided on a casual visit to Deriam's home. They received curious glances from pedestrians as they made their way through the streets, while Karag and Thetheru displayed their own curiosity in studying the city around them. Shandiph and Deriam were both natives of Ur-Dormulk, though Shandiph had left it as a child to become a wanderer, and they were accustomed to its peculiarities; but the other two had never before seen it.
The entire city was built of stone and was so ancient that the stone had been worn and weathered on even the newest buildings. The older structures did not have a single sharp corner remaining, and some resembled mounds or natural rock formations as much as they resembled anything man-made. The streets were all paved with great slabs of stone, yet there were grooves worn in them where countless cart wheels had passed, and wider, shallower depressions where the majority of the foot traffic had gone.
Deriam's home was a tall, narrow house on a busy avenue, of no special distinction save that there were gaps in its ancient granite walls where softer stones used as trim had been weathered away completely.
"We'll have to hide the horses," Deriam said as he dismounted at his door.
"Why?" Karag asked.
"There are no horses in Ur-Dormulk," Shandiph replied. "It was probably a mistake even riding them past the gate."
"What will happen if we just leave them here?" Thetheru asked.
"I don't know," Shandiph said.
"They'll probably be stolen," Deriam said.
"Then put a warding spell on them," Karag suggested. "Shandiph, you're good at that."
"I'm tired, Karag."
"It's a good thought," Deriam said.
"Then you do it," Shandiph replied.
Thetheru objected. "I think we should just hide them."
"We're wasting time," Deriam said. "Shandiph, put a ward on them and let's get on with it. You're outvoted, Thetheru."
Wearily, Shandiph assented, and cast a simple ward on the horses. The four then left them tied to the door handle while they entered the house.
"If we're in such a hurry," Thetheru asked, "why are we here instead of going directly to the crypts?"
"We are going directly to the crypts," Deriam said. "They can be reached through my cellars. There are easily a hundred entrances, and this is the one I know best. The crypts of Ur-Dormulk are a true marvel, you see; they extend…"
"Shut up, Deriam, we haven't got time for that," Shandiph said, made irritable by fatigue.
Offended, Deriam made no reply, but instead pulled a bell rope and called for his servants.
"You do well for yourself," Karag remarked. "I have no servants to wait on me."
"Ur-Dormulk is a rich city," Deriam replied. "And besides, I was not so foolish as to become a servant myself. I do not work for the Overlord here, but on my own behalf."
"I doubt that you suffer from your lack, Karag," Shandiph remarked. "After all, you have the run of the Baron of Sland's castle and staff, don't you?"
"More or less," Karag admitted. "I can command the household workers, but have no authority over the guards."
The conversation was cut off by the arrival of Deriams retainers. He sent one to fetch food and drink, another to bring the keys to the cellars, and the third and last to take a polite greeting to the Overlord and tell him that his faithful Deriam had returned but was resting from the journey and not to be disturbed.
The three vanished without comment on their various errands, and the four wizards settled down to await the promised meal. "We shouldn't take the time;" Shandiph said, "but I'm hungry."
"Yes, and cold and thirsty as well," Thetheru added.
While waiting, the newcomers looked over Deriam's parlor. It was lush to the point of ostentation, with thick patterned carpets overlapping to cover every inch of floor, rich tapestries covering every wall, and ornate carved frames around every door and window. The furnishings included a myriad of cushions of silk and velvet and an assortment of tables, chairs, pedestals, statuettes, display shelves, bric-a-brac, and general clutter, every item made of costly materials and showing elaborate workmanship. A few of the cushions had old stains on them, and one carving of a handsome young couple was chipped through the woman's arm.
When the servant he had sent for the keys delivered them, Deriam sent the youth after as many lanterns and torches as could be found-in the house. "We'll need light in the crypts," he explained, "and there's no sense in wasting magic."
The food, when it arrived, consisted of a plate of fruit, nuts, and cakes; the drink was a decanter of yellow wine and a steaming pitcher of a brownish liquid Karag and Thetheru did not recognize.
"A discovery of my own," Deriam explained with an air of patently false modesty. "It's an infusion of herbs and spices in boiling water and it's really quite invigorating. Try it."
Karag refused the unfamiliar brew and confined himself to cakes and wine; Thetheru took a cup of the steaming concoction and an assortment of fruit and pronounced both to be good.
Both wine and herbal brew were warming and felt so good to the weary travelers that they made no effort to silence Deriam when he began a long description of the history of the crypts.
"They aren't exactly crypts in the usual sense of burial vaults or areas for underground storage," he said. "They're actually another city that used to stand on this same site. Ur-Dormulk, you see, is the most ancient city in all the world and has stood here for longer than any records have existed. It was once called Stur-dar-Malik, which means `City of the Old Ones' in the language of the time. Even then it was old. The most learned scholars in the city, who are of course the wisest and most learned in the world, say that there must once have been a great catastrophe that destroyed much of the city, and the survivors built the new city upon the ruins without bothering to excavate them. The old cellars and passages were forgotten for centuries, until finally someone broke into them while digging a new wine cellar. That was, I have heard, in the Eleventh Age, about four thousand years ago. Since then they have been explored and extended and elaborated, until now they are so complex that no man living knows them all-and I personally doubt that anyone ever did. They reach under every corner of the city and extend out beyond the walls for miles in every direction, as well as continuing quite deeply down into the earth. There are said to be many strange and wondrous things in them, and there are tales of men and women who have become lost down there only to be preserved by the unnatural powers that lurk in the darkness, to wander about forever."