The men were quickly stripped of their armor and bound. Govin and Elmo led them off one at a time to question them before deciding what to do with them. While this was going on, Ahleage and Shanhaevel moved off to converse in private, leaving Shirral to stand watch over the men.
“We can’t keep prisoners,” the wizard said. “We want to be able to move fast and at a moment’s notice. They’ll slow us down and make us vulnerable.”
“Then let’s just kill them and be done with it,” Ahleage suggested.
“No. Killing them is not an option.”
“Why? We killed the men at the tower today.”
“I’m not a murderer, Ahleage. This isn’t like at the tower today. Those thugs had a chance to surrender and wouldn’t.” Shanhaevel felt as if he were trying to convince himself as much as the man standing next to him.
“It was the right move. They would have killed us if they’d had the chance. This is a war, Shanhaevel. It’s kill or be killed. But if you won’t let me kill them, I have another idea. Perhaps you have some magic up your sleeve that we could use to convince them to leave for good and never come back.”
“Hmm,” Shanhaevel mused. “Illusions aren’t my specialty. Give me some time to think about it.”
“All right. We’ll see what Govin and Elmo find out and go from there.”
After the other two men were done interrogating the prisoners, everyone gathered to discuss the situation.
“None of them want to talk,” Govin began, “which isn’t surprising. They seem frightened. Something has them shook up, something other than us capturing them.”
“They did admit that they had instructions to watch for us in town and attack us with the intent to capture us,” Elmo added. “They’ve been expecting us. How, I don’t know, but it was wise of us to slip around town without them seeing us.”
“So, what’s beyond that door down in the well?” Shirral asked.
“They wouldn’t say. Their lair, I suspect.”
“So, in your estimation,” Ahleage said, “what are our chances of convincing them that they can find greener pastures somewhere else?”
Govin and Elmo looked at one another and thought for a moment. “I suppose,” Govin finally answered, “that if we could convince their leader, the rest of them would follow along.”
“Their leader?” Shanhaevel asked. “You mean someone beyond the door? How many more men do you think we would find there?”
“Hard to say,” Govin said. “I suspect they’re hoping we’d go try to find out and get the bad end of it. But I meant the leader of these six. That fellow over there with the beard is their sergeant,” the knight added, gesturing subtly. “If we can talk him into running and never looking back, he’d probably convince the others.”
“That’s easy enough to take care of,” Shirral said. “Bring him off by himself and let me have a few minutes alone with him.”
Shanhaevel turned and looked at the druid with surprise and dismay on his face.
When she saw his expression, she rolled her eyes and said, “No, stupid! I meant I could use a little of my magic on him, convince him that he’d be helping me out if he and his men could go far away.”
Shanhaevel gave the druid a sheepish grin and nodded. “I hadn’t thought of that,” he said.
“It figures,” Shirral replied, grimacing.
Shanhaevel, Elmo, and Shirral led the sergeant off by himself while the rest stayed behind, continuing to watch the prisoners.
Shirral squatted down in front of the man, who was still bound, and looked him in the eye. Then she chanted softly, invoking a spell. When she reached the end of her magical phrases, she flicked her fingers softly in front of the fellows face, and Shanhaevel observed his expression change from sullen defiance to eagerness.
“Now,” Shirral said, “I want you to tell me all about yourself.” Her voice was soft and sweet, and she held a big smile, which the prisoner returned. Shanhaevel nodded in satisfaction and returned to the others.
After several more minutes, Elmo returned, leaving Shirral alone with the man.
“Any luck?” the wizard asked.
“Boy, did Shirral ever get him to talk,” Elmo replied. “She’s convincing him right now that it’s best if he and his men ride on and never turn back. The tunnel leads all the way to the tower. There’s a secret trap door up through the bedroom where Ahleage got poisoned. They’re frightened because of all their dead companions.”
“Ah,” Shanhaevel said, nodding. “That would do it, I suppose. That would also explain how the troops came and went.”
“They don’t know much about the temple itself,” Elmo continued. “They just raid and gather information. Their captain, somebody named Grozdan, would take off every once in a while, through the tunnel, to visit the temple itself and get marching orders. That’s where they got their instructions to watch for us in Nulb and capture us.”
“There’s our way in,” Shanhaevel said.
“Any traps along this tunnel?” Ahleage asked.
“No,” Govin replied. “Shirral specifically asked him how safe the tunnel was, and he said it was fine.”
“After we were way past due to ride into town and didn’t, they rode back to report,” Elmo added. “When they discovered everyone at the tower dead, they hightailed it back here and were discussing what they should do next when we caught them.”
“Should we expect anyone else to come through there tonight?” the wizard asked.
“I don’t know,” Elmo answered. “It doesn’t sound like anyone but them uses this tunnel. They certainly don’t know how Grozdan got into the temple itself from the passage, and they don’t mention ever seeing anyone else coming or going.”
“Just to be safe, I want to block that door from this side,” Ahleage said. “I’ll get Draga to help me.”
“Sounds good,” Govin said. “We’ll get the men on their way.”
The six bandits were given their armor and horses, but not their weapons. Based on the harrowing sight they had discovered in the tower, it must not have taken too much convincing from the leader, and they all fell in line, riding off in the middle of the night.
“I suggested that they could find better—and safer—work in Dyvers, and he completely agreed with me,” Shirral said, a slight smile on her face. “He was convinced that he and his men were going to strike it rich there. I don’t think we’ll have any more trouble from them.”
Ahleage and Draga had returned from blocking the passage by this time, and Ahleage sat, going through the goods they had pulled out of the tower earlier in the day. As Shanhaevel yawned and considered readying himself for sleep, Ahleage whistled softly in surprise.
“Hello! What’s this?” he muttered, half to himself, as he pulled a blank sheet of parchment out from a small gap in the slats of the lid of a small chest.
“What have you got there?” Elmo asked, moving over beside Ahleage to look at the page.
“There’s nothing on it,” Ahleage murmured as he turned the sheet this way and that.
“Hey, look!” Shirral exclaimed, moving beside Ahleage and grabbing his wrist. She lifted the man’s hand up into the air. “When you hold it up to the lantern light, there’s a map here.”
The rest of the companions gathered around the druid and looked at the faint traces of the map.
“The other end of the tunnel goes right to the tower, like they said,” she noted, pointing.
“There’s a second tunnel that goes underneath the temple,” Govin said, pointing to a spot where the subterranean passage branched off in two directions. “Just as we suspected it might.”
“The way it’s marked on the map, it might be concealed,” Shirral replied, “which also confirms what we thought: Those six didn’t know it existed.”