by A. Giannetti
“How long have you been a captive of the Goblins?” he whispered.
An amused look crossed Ascilius’s bearded face. “You were taken long after I arrived here,” he said softly. “Can you tell me how long you have been a prisoner?”
“I cannot say,” said Elerian honestly, after a moment’s thought. “There is no night or day here below ground and no way to mark the passage of time. I suspect it has been months since I was first captured.”
“Say years, not months,” said Ascilius grimly, “and you will shoot closer to the mark. Look closely at Beliac the next time you see him. You will see that he is much older than when you first met him.”
A doubtful look crossed Elerian’s face at the Dwarf’s words. “Surely he is mistaken,” thought Elerian to himself. “I cannot have been here as long as that.”
Ascilius looked for the guard and found him occupied with another slave. “How were you captured?” he asked Elerian curiously.
“I was trying to rescue the daughter of someone I knew from a party of raiders,” replied Elerian. “They set a trap for me, and I walked into it like a fool.”
“We all make mistakes in our youth,” said Ascilius indifferently. “If we are lucky, we live through them and grow wiser.” The guard returned then and Ascilius fell silent.
During their next sleep period, Elerian started out of his half sleep when Ascilius suddenly whispered. “Tell me who you really are. If I wished to betray you, I could have done it at any time since we were first chained together.”
What Ascilius said was true. Elerian decided to trust him with at least some of the truth about himself. “I cannot say, for certain, who I really am,” he whispered. “I am a foundling and my past is full of questions but no answers. My true shape, however, is different from what you see.”
“A shape changer,” said Ascilius, with the satisfaction of one who has been proved right in a guess. “You have acted wisely in concealing your gift. The guardians can sense when magic is used in the mine. Any who are discovered to have mage powers are taken away and do not return.”
Upon hearing Ascilius’s words, Elerian was thankful that he had refrained from using his powers all this time. The return of the guard cut off further talk, but later, they continued the conversation. “How were you captured,” asked Elerian, as he lay next to Ascilius in the dark pretending to be asleep.
“I was returning home with a dozen of my companions from a trading expedition to Tarsius,” said Ascilius in a whisper. “Halfway home, we were suddenly attacked by a large party of Mordi. There was a fierce battle during which I was taken captive, along with three of my companions. The rest of my company were killed. We were then brought here to the mines. My companions and I were given the choice of working as smiths, or working in the mines. I chose to remain here, but my companions became smiths, for the smiths receive better food, and they are seldom beaten as long as they work hard. The Goblins, as you have seen, torment me in hopes that one day they will break my spirit and set me to work with the other smiths.”
“Why do you continue to defy them?” asked Elerian curiously, “when all the others chose to give in?”
“Any weapons I made would be used against my people,” said Ascilius simply. “It is not something I am willing to do, even to make my life easier.”
“Why would they care so much about one more smith?” asked Elerian. “They seem to have more than enough already.”
“I am no ordinary smith,” said Ascilius proudly. “I have skills far beyond those of most of the Dwarves held captive by the Goblins.
“Can you use magic to make things out of metal?” asked Elerian eagerly. “I cannot work metal at all by magic.”
“Many Dwarves lack that power also,” replied Ascilius evasively. “Only our most powerful mages have that ability, and they guard their secrets carefully.”
It seemed to Elerian that Ascilius wished to avoid answering his question, so he asked about something else that he had often wondered about. “How did you manage to endure the mines all this time?” he asked. “I have already felt at times that death would be preferable to the life I now lead.”
“My people can endure great hardships when they must,” said Ascilius proudly. “I also entertained the hope of escape, but now my hope and my patience are coming to an end. Before they fastened you to my chain, I had already resolved to jump into the pit in the main cavern after seizing Beliac, so that I could take him with me when I died.”
“I am sorry I spoiled your plan,” said Elerian dryly.
Ascilius turned his head and saw the slight smile on Elerian’s lips. “You are forgiven,” he said smiling in return. “Perhaps we can jump in together and take two Goblins with us instead of one.”
“I will consider it,” said Elerian gravely. Now that he had an ally, he was in no great hurry to end his life. “I thought I saw a creature come out of that pit when we were carrying ore,” said Elerian. “Do you know what it was? The Goblins seemed to take little notice of it.”
“I know very little about it,” said Ascilius. “The guards refer to it as one of the old ones. It does not attack them, and they seem to tolerate it, even though it occasionally takes a pair of prisoners. Sometimes, as a punishment, the guards will lower a slave into the pit on ropes, and the thing takes them. It always kills them slowly.”
“Would we not suffer the same fate if we jumped into the shaft?” asked Elerian.
“If we are lucky, we will fall to the bottom first and die,” said Ascilius gravely.
“If we could find another exit to this cavern that was not warded,” said Elerian hopefully, “I could use my mage powers to help us both escape.”
“There is no other exit,” said Ascilius flatly. “Everyone and everything comes in and leaves by the one entrance in the main cavern. If you are a prisoner, the guardians at the entrance will let you in, but they will prevent you from leaving by throwing up a barrier across the entrance. Even if we somehow won past the guardians, they would sound an alarm. There are hundreds of Goblins and mutare between here and the entrance, and then, there is a second barrier to pass. No matter how hard we fought, we would not escape. Even worse, they would capture us alive. After that, our deaths would be very slow and unpleasant.”
He fell silent and Elerian remained silent too, his newfound optimism fading away. They both fell asleep after that, Ascilius into the deep sleep of exhaustion, and Elerian into the light slumber where his mind remained active, walking the paths of memory while his body rested. The harsh blare of the guards’ horns roused them abruptly from sleep, and after their scant breakfast, they were set to carrying ore from the mines to the ore crusher. Beliac was their guard today, and he was in a foul mood, for this duty required him to do a great deal of walking, as he followed the slaves assigned to his care in and out of the tunnel. Elerian examined the Wood Goblin out of the corners of his eyes. He noticed for the first time that the Goblin’s dark hair was peppered with gray. His face, too, looked older.
“Ascilius is right,” thought Elerian to himself in surprise. “Years must have passed since I first entered this mine.”
Beliac wasted no time in venting his displeasure at his assignment on Ascilius. After heating up his spear point in a brazier, he began to torment Ascilius with it, burning him on the sensitive skin under his arms and the insides of his legs.
“The king grows impatient with you Ascilius,” he mocked the Dwarf, as he thrust his spear tip particularly deep into Ascilius’s thigh so that the hot metal hissed, and the smell of burnt flesh was added to the other foul odors that filled the air of the cavern. “Soon, he will give you to me to make an example of in front of the other prisoners.” Beliac licked his lips in anticipation at the thought of the torments he would inflict on the Dwarf. “Your death will be long,” he said, “for I have given it much consideration.”
He got no farther than that in describing his plans. Ascilius suddenly threw down his yoke, and rushed to seize Beliac. The
Goblin stepped back with a brutal smile on his thin lips, and his eyes gleamed with anticipation at the thought that he had finally driven the Dwarf into a rash act that would doom him to be tortured to death. His look of pleasure soon turned into one of dismay, however. Beliac had expected Ascilius to be stopped by his chain, but Elerian had also thrown down his yoke and followed the Dwarf so as not to bring him up short of Beliac. A look of pure joy crossed Ascilius’s face as he batted away Beliac’ spear point with his right hand. Oblivious to the horns sounding the alarm all around him, Ascilius wrapped his powerful fingers around Beliac’s throat. A look of horror crossed the Goblin’s face as Ascilius slowly squeezed his windpipe, cutting off his air. The squirming Mordi tore at Ascilius’s hands and face with clawed fingers, but Ascilius continued his relentless pressure on the Goblin’s throat, watching with pleasure as Beliac’s eyes bulged and his face began to darken. He appeared not to hear Elerian at all when Elerian shouted in his ear.
“There is no time to waste, Ascilius! The guards are coming. Kill him and be done with it.”
Elerian’s repeated shouts slowly penetrated Ascilius’s ears, and he came back to himself, but he was not of a mind to make Beliac’s end a swift one. The Mordi was only a little taller than the Dwarf. Ascilius lifted him easily into the air by the neck and carried him to the lip of the pit, which was nearby. He dangled Beliac over the edge, and the terrified Goblin squirmed even harder at the thought of the unknown depths beneath his dangling feet.
“Goodbye Beliac,” said Ascilius. “Give my regards to the guardian of the pit.” He opened his hands, and the terrified Goblin dropped like a stone into the darkness of the shaft, unable to make a sound because of his crushed windpipe.
“It might be better for us to jump in after him,” said Ascilius resignedly to Elerian. “The guards will bring nets in a moment to capture us for the torture.” Already, they could both hear the pounding of running feet as the Goblins converged on them. The other prisoners who had witnessed the attack on Beliac had already drawn away as far from them as they could.
Elerian did not reply for, for when he leaned over the shaft, a cold draft of fresh air played briefly over his face before being replaced by the stale air of the cavern.
“Ascilius,” he said excitedly, “there is fresh air blowing out of the pit. There may be a way out down there.”
“Let us go then. We have already overstayed our welcome here,” said the Dwarf, pointing to the guards who were running toward them. Goblin horns filled the air with their harsh blasts, summoning even more guards.
Ascilius reached up and grasped the iron collar around his neck. With a wrench of his powerful hands, he tore the ends of the collar away from the rivet that held them closed. Before Ascilius’s collar rang empty on the stone floor of the cavern, Elerian had also reached up and torn apart his own collar. He dropped it onto the ground at his feet, and a wild sense a freedom suddenly ran through him. He would have preferred to climb into the pit at once, but the nearest guards were already too close. Along with Ascilius, he turned to face them.
“I will dispatch at least some of these guards before we go,” Ascilius said grimly to Elerian. “I must have some payment for the sufferings I have endured at their hands.”
Two Goblins carrying spears were slightly in advance of the others behind them. Because they were intent on capturing the two prisoners alive, the two Mordi ran up to Ascilius and tried to strike him in the head with the steel shod butts of their spears. Ascilius seized a spear butt in each of his strong hands. The two Mordi tried vainly to wrench their spears free, but with irresistible strength, Ascilius swung both of his arms together, and the Goblins were slammed violently against each other. Before they could recover their wits, Ascilius grasped one of them in each hand by the shirtfront and flung them into the pit with a casual strength that was frightening to behold.
A third Goblin jabbed at Elerian’s head with the butt of his spear, with the intention of knocking him unconscious. Elerian seized the shaft in his left hand and pulled sharply, drawing the Mordi toward him. Swiftly, he seized the Goblin’ broad leather belt with his right hand, and with a powerful heave, lifted him bodily off the ground, pitching him over his shoulder. The Mordi flew through the air, past the lip of the pit and plummeted into its depths. Elerian turned to face the remaining guards, the screams of the falling Mordi ringing pleasantly in his ears
There were three guards remaining, but they were in no hurry to close with Elerian and Ascilius, who had destroyed three of their number in a matter of seconds. Ascilius suddenly pounced on them, like a great cat springing on its prey and bore two of them to the ground. Elerian leaped on the third, seizing him by the head with both hands. He gave a powerful wrench with his arms. There was a dry snap, and the Mordi dropped lifeless to the ground when Elerian released him. Meanwhile, springing to his feet with a wonderful agility, Ascilius grasped each of the fallen Goblins by an ankle and dragged them to the lip of the pit, their clawed hands scrabbling uselessly on the stony floor of the cavern in a futile attempt to hold back the Dwarf. With a merciless look on his face, Ascilius cast them screaming into the pit, one at a time. Elerian saw a red gleam appear in the Dwarf’s eyes. Forgetting about the need to escape, Ascilius turned from the pit to search out new victims to appease his wrath.
Dozens of Goblins were approaching now, and the cavern was a bedlam of shouts and brazen horn notes. Many of the Goblins carried heavy nets of knotted rope, and Elerian knew they had only a few moments left to make their escape. As Ascilius made to rush toward the approaching guards, Elerian seized him by the shoulders and was shocked by the strength of the Dwarf, feeling as if he had seized some creature made of stone instead of flesh and blood. Ascilius dragged him a step forward before he turned his fiery-eyed gaze on Elerian. His face was so grim that Elerian was afraid the Dwarf might turn on him, as he would on an enemy.
“Enough of revenge, we must go!” shouted Elerian urgently into Ascilius’s face. “They are bringing nets. If we delay, we will be captured again.”
Out of the corner of his right eye, Elerian could see the Goblins preparing to cast their nets as soon as they were in range. Ascilius still gave no sign of abandoning his quest for revenge. All of Elerian’s instincts screamed at him to abandon the Dwarf and save himself. Ignoring the impulse to leave Ascilius behind, Elerian instead struck the Dwarf with his closed right fist on the point of his chin. As Ascilius sagged toward the ground, knocked unconscious by the powerful blow, Elerian lifted his heavy body onto his shoulders. Holding onto Ascilius with his left hand, Elerian ran to the edge of the opening in the cavern floor. When he turned and lowered himself over the edge, he saw that the first net was already in the air. There was no time to feel for footholds. Elerian let go of the lip of the pit, feeling the net brush his right hand as he dropped into the darkness below his feet.
THE PIT
After Elerian dropped below the rim of the pit, he tried to grip the side of the shaft with his right hand as he and Ascilius fell through the darkness. The rough stone tore at his hand, but he could find no openings into which he might thrust his fingers. He had just resigned himself to the thought that he and Ascilius were likely falling to their death when he felt a tremendous impact that traveled up from his feet into his legs. For a long heartbeat, not daring to move a muscle, he balanced on the lip of the narrow outcrop of stone that had stopped his fall. Ascilius’s weight slowly began to drag him backwards into nothingness. Then, just as he was about to tip off the ledge, his right hand, which still rested against the face of the shaft, found a tiny crevice into which he buried his fingers.
“Let me fall,” said Ascilius calmly as Elerian balanced precariously on the lip of the ledge, held only by his fingertips. “Save yourself,” urged the Dwarf.
Ignoring Ascilius, Elerian slowly pulled himself forward, expecting his fingers to slip from their uncertain hold at any moment. Not daring to move a muscle, Ascilius remained balanced on Elerian’s shoulders, han
ging head down over the abyss below. When Elerian stood erect once more, with solid rock beneath him, he realized that he had been holding his breath the whole time and breathed a deep sigh of relief. The red mage lights that illuminated the cavern above gave him enough light to see by, and he took stock of his situation. They had fallen a little more than a dozen feet. Elerian could see a number of Goblins glaring down at him over the side of the shaft when he looked up. Although Elerian and Ascilius were out of reach of their nets, they were easy marks for a spear, but the Goblins held back using their weapons.
“They still want us alive,” thought Elerian to himself. Turning to his left, he saw that ledge he was standing on ended abruptly. To his right, it widened. Keeping his right hand locked onto different handholds, Elerian sidestepped in that direction until there was enough room to lower Ascilius off his shoulder. When Ascilius stood on his own two feet once more, Elerian saw that his face was pale under its coating of dirt and there were beads of sweat on the Dwarf’s brow.
“I don’t think I ever mentioned that Dwarves do not like heights when there is no solid stone beneath our feet,” said Ascilius weakly.
“That can’t be helped now,” replied Elerian dryly. He looked toward the rim of the shaft again, then, determined to put more distance between himself and the guards, climbed over the lip of the ledge that had stopped their fall. Hanging by the fingers of his left hand, he explored the shaft wall in front of him with his right hand. He was relieved to find that it was rough surfaced, with bulges and crevices that offered plenty of handholds. Climbing further down, he encouraged Ascilius to follow him. Once Ascilius reluctantly left the ledge, he and Elerian descended, side by side, deeper into the shaft, putting precious distance between themselves and the noisy group of Goblins clustered around the rim of the pit.