“Hey!” he called to his companions, his voice filled with excitement again. “I think I found another hidden portal.”
“That figures,” Draga said as the companions all gathered around. “Shall we push?”
“Let Ahleage do his thing, first,” Govin advised, stepping aside to make room.
Rolling his eyes, Ahleage stepped to the wall and went over it carefully, looking, as usual, for any signs of danger. “Looks clean to me,” he said, stepping away again.
Together, Elmo, Govin, and Draga placed their shoulders against the wall and pushed. Nothing happened. The three men redoubled their efforts, but to no avail. The wall did not swing open.
“Gah!” Draga said at last, easing up from his exertions. “Must have just looked like a secret door, Shanhaevel. That’s nothing but solid wall.”
“Maybe,” Shanhaevel said thoughtfully. He frowned. “Maybe not. There might be some other way of opening it—a trigger of some kind. Look around and see if you can spot a switch, a lever, or something disguised as one of those things anywhere in the room.”
Somewhat reluctantly, the group spread out, checking every item of furniture, every square foot of wall, every last item in the room carefully. This went on for a number of minutes, until Ahleage sighed and knuckled his back.
“This is getting us nowhere,” Ahleage complained.
“I hate to admit it, but he’s right,” Shirral added. “I think we’ve found everything we’re going to find.”
“Just a few more minutes,” Shanhaevel pleaded. “If we leave, Falrinth could come back and clean the place out.”
“Besides,” Elmo said, “we may not have many other options. That thing that crawled out of Lareth might be waiting on the surface.”
“It’s possible that Falrinth is still around here somewhere,” Govin added. “We hurt him today. If we can catch up to him before he has a chance to seek healing and regain his strength and spells, so much the better.”
“Hey!” Draga said, standing next to a wall and holding a torch cresset in his hand. “Look at this!”
The bowman pulled the cresset free of the wall, but where a normal hole should have been, a tiny lever projected instead.
“How does that work?” Ahleage asked, puzzled, as everyone crowded around Draga’s discovery. Carefully, he reached out and touched the metal protrusion.
“Try to turn it,” Elmo suggested.
Ahleage twisted, pushed, pulled, and generally fussed with the metal rod for half a minute or so before giving up.
“If it’s supposed to do anything, it’s too hard for me to move.”
“Wait!” Shirral exclaimed. “Use the cresset!”
“Ah!” Shanhaevel said, nodding eagerly in agreement with the druid. “Put the cresset back on and then try it.”
Draga handed the cresset to Ahleage, who slipped the thing back on the rod. There was a tiny click, and then Ahleage twisted the device. It rotated easily this time, and behind them, the section of wall that had held fast before swung free.
“That did it,” Ahleage said.
“You were right, after all,” Draga told Shanhaevel as he drew his sword.
The space beyond the hidden portal turned out to be exactly what Shanhaevel had been hoping: a second laboratory. This one looked far more lived in, and there was an amazing amount of clutter everywhere. However, the thing that drew everyone’s attention was a small iron box sitting in the middle of the table. It made all the companions uneasy, and Govin refused to touch the thing. Carefully, Ahleage examined it from the outside, and when he found nothing to indicate mundane traps, Shanhaevel took a turn. Satisfied that nothing untoward would happen, the elf flipped the lid open.
Inside was a small golden skull with no jaw. It had four empty sockets at the compass points of the crown line that appeared to be designed to hold gems.
“Boccob!” Shanhaevel breathed. “The key. We have the key!”
“Don’t touch it!” Govin hissed, jerking the elf away from the box. “I can feel its wickedness from here.”
Shanhaevel nodded, carefully shutting the lid once more and picking up the box.
“Let’s get out of here,” Govin pleaded. “I am suddenly overwhelmed with dread at the thought of staying.”
“The knight is right,” Ahleage added as the group began to depart. “We have what we came for. It’s long past time to go.”
The Alliance made its way out of the wizard’s chambers and back into the T-shaped intersection. Just as they were about to head back out through the tunnel that led to the tower and well, a forlorn keening faintly drifted down from that direction.
Shanhaevel shivered at the sound.
“It’s Lareth,” Ahleage breathed, “or the thing he has become.”
19
Hedrack paced back and forth, his steps hammering on the stone floor of the meeting chamber. The high priest was angry, truly angry. And, he had to admit, more than a little afraid. Every careful plan he had made of late had gone awry. Underlings had failed in their duties, and those damned meddlers had caused him untold amounts of trouble.
He was seething, ready to have Falrinth cast into one of the elemental nodes for this latest disappointment. To have lost the key—the very golden key that would free Zuggtmoy!—was unforgivable. And to those interlopers … !
Hedrack wondered just how much longer Iuz would be willing to put up with such blunders. The high priest knew that, regardless of whose fault it was that these mishaps continued to occur, Hedrack himself would be held responsible.
Lord Iuz will not tolerate such incompetence, he thought, just as I do not. It is the way of the world.
Falrinth shifted in his uncomfortable position, kneeling as he was with his hands and feet manacled behind his back. He remained silent, however, dutifully waiting for his superior to speak again.
Good, thought Hedrack. He must fear for his very life, now, for I will not be a patient man any longer.
“So, you are certain this will free her? Even without the key?” He hotly emphasized the last word, making it clear that Falrinth’s new proposal for freeing the demoness would not alleviate his extreme displeasure at the wizard’s foolishness.
“Yes, my lord. I had been studying this for a while, even before we knew of the existence of the key. The wards on the doors will be of no consequence to my servants. They can place the items and ignite them at the proper moment while we watch from a safe distance. I am certain it will work.”
“Never mind that. What I want to know is, are you certain this will free her? There is no danger to her well being?”
Falrinth attempted to shrug, but having very little mobility due to his bindings, it was barely more than a flinch. “I cannot say without any doubt at all, my—”
“That is not the answer I want!” screamed Hedrack, crossing the distance between them in a single step and slapping the wizard across the mouth.
Falrinth grunted in pain as his head whipped to the side, the fierceness of the blow causing him to lose his balance and topple over onto his side.
The two attendants—tall, mangy bugbears with matted fur and sour-smelling leather armor—immediately reached down and righted Falrinth once more. The wizard stared at the floor, a trickle of blood running down his chin. He worked his jaw slowly before speaking.
“I am convinced that it will free her unharmed, my lord,” the wizard said at last, forcing the words through clenched teeth.
Hedrack smiled, bending slightly at the waist to stare straight into Falrinth’s eyes. “That’s much more satisfying to hear.” His visage sobered again. “For your sake, you had better be right. If even the slightest harm comes to her as a result of this, I will not be tossing you into one of our private little sanctuaries below. Instead, I will offer you directly to Iuz, as a toy, a plaything, and I will make mention that you have been secretly consorting with the spider bitch behind my back.”