By daybreak, the Keep men and horses were gone, and most of the party was ready to move out, waiting only for Willow and M’Baddah, who had gone across the road to check the lay of the land and see if they could locate landmarks on what Jerdren called the “madman’s map.” As Eddis checked the last of her arrows and strung her bow, elf and outlander came back, and she could tell by M’Baddah’s normally impassive face that they had found something. A faint smile curved his lips, and his eyes were alight.
She was nervy, all at once. Ready to start moving, to do something. Jerdren caught her eye, and she went to join him and the two scouts.
“We’re somewhere close,” her co-captain said cheerfully. “Just as I said last night.”
She shrugged. “We knew that much. Everything I read mentioned that ravine.”
“Sure, but that madman—”
“Zebos,” Willow corrected him quietly. “Zebos told us his company did not like the look of the road ahead, where it plunged into a ravine. The big deserted camp they had just passed seemed too open. So they set up for the night in the trees just past the camp. M’Baddah and I found traces of such a camp, just down the road. Across the road, we could just see pale stone, rising above the trees. It is… not a good place, I think. Mead will be able to tell more, when we go.”
“I felt nothing,” M’Baddah said, “but it will be hard work, making our way through those woods. There are no paths visible from where we were, and the undergrowth is thick.”
Jerdren grinned. “I’d say luck’s with us, so far.”
“So far,” Eddis replied dryly. She went back over to finish stowing her gear. Flerys sat nearby, listening to M’Whan, one hand clutching her small bow. She looked interested in their surroundings, and if she was afraid, it didn’t show. The swordswoman got to her feet as Mead restored his precious book to its bag and stood. The priest finished his prayers, tugged at his armor, and came over to the firepit. Moments later, the company started across the road and began working their way up a steep bank and into the woods.
It had been gloomy coming up the ravine and shadowy where they’d camped. On this side of the road, it was worse. Half-dead trees clung to each other and thorny vines twisted across the ground, clawing at her boots. Behind her, someone stumbled and nearly fell. Even where the trees were thin and wide-spaced, they managed to keep overhead light from penetrating. It might have been an hour after sunset, for all she could see. The ground was hard, but the air smelled damp and moldy.
She became increasingly aware of the furtive little noises around and above them. There was nothing to see, no hint of a breeze. They could be anything, she told herself. But nothing as big as an orc. Something I could step on, more likely.
The thought was reassuring, though she was grateful when the ground began sloping up and the worst of the brush was behind them. It was very quiet, all at once, and the moldy odor had faded and changed to the least hint of long-dead things.
Finally, she could see far enough to either side to make out pale, rough stone rearing high above them. From the looks of things, they were heading into a broad-mouthed ravine.
Don’t think mouth, she ordered herself. Ominous as the place looked, her heart rose. This bore a strong resemblance to everything she read in the castellan’s scrolls, and it was laid out just like Zebos’ map.
She glanced back as they slowed, so Jerdren could choose a direction. Flerys was right behind her, staying close to her and M’Baddah as the girl had promised. Her dark hair was covered by a leather cap, and like M’Baddah, she carried her bow strung, an arrow fitted to the string.
Jerdren called a brief halt and sent Mead and M’Baddah a short ways ahead. The two were back almost at once.
“We chose right,” the mage said quietly, as the others gathered close. “There are caves on both sides of this foul glade, and evil creatures are there as well, but none are nearby.”
“Good,” Jerdren murmured. “Remember what the madman told you, Mead. The nastiest things were living farther from the road, and higher up. We’ll start low and near.”
The mage nodded.
Jerdren shifted his grip on his sword and led the way once again.
It was mid-morning when they halted again. Rock walls climbed steeply north and south, and a high crag straight ahead. Shadow lay thick everywhere, though Eddis caught occasional glimpses of sunlight on the highest spires of stone. Caves—perhaps some of the darker blots along nearest ledge were caves—but the thin, light-starved trees all around made it difficult to see very far.
Jerdren beckoned everyone close. “All ready?” he asked quietly. “Our cave is just over there. See it? Dark opening, right at ground level. You three, get those oil lamps lit and shuttered. Luck, people.” He turned away to check his weapons one last time.
Eddis gave Flerys what she hoped was a confident smile, sheathed her sword, and knelt to rest her feet a moment and set an arrow to her string.
The ground was littered with small stones, bits of bark, and other hard things. She brushed them aside, froze briefly as something small and white rolled away. Finger bones, she thought. She pushed them under a drift of leaves and got back to her feet. They moved on a moment later. Jerdren was back in the lead with M’Baddan and three of the Keep men. Eddis dropped back behind Flerys, and Blorys gave her a faint smile as he moved up next to her.
Sudden movement ahead and up caught her eye.
“Something there!” she whispered.
As Jerdren passed under a black-trunked tree, doglike creatures half her size and armed with blades threw themselves from the branches. Jerdren, startled, went down under two of them, his sword swinging, but he rolled and was on his feet almost at once. Keep men closed in from both sides, spears ready. Eddis set her shoulder against Blorys’ and drew back her bowstring. Mead pushed his way forward and, raising his hands, brought his palms together silently. Something flew from between them, something that scared the little brutes. With shrill cries, they turned and pelted uphill, past the cave entrances she could see, and vanished into the woods—leaving behind one dead comrade, a wounded one, and half a dozen roughly edged small swords.
“Kobolds,” Blorys breathed against her ear. “Nasty little things.”
Eddis nodded and eased the pressure on her string. Jerdren dispatched the wounded kobold with a swift stab, straightened his mail shirt, and looked at Mead, who signed, “Gone.”
Jerdren jerked his head toward the nearest dark opening and set out once again, Mead at his side, but when the man would have gone on in, Mead touched his arm and shook his head.
Willow entered the cave, then quickly came back out and gestured for them to join him.
“There are guards, back in a ways, but there is a deep pit just inside, where you humans will not be able to see it. Stay as close to the walls on either side as you can. It is perhaps four paces inside, and it will take four paces for you to pass it. I will lead,” he added.
“Good,” Jerdren said. “You with the lanterns next, archers after.”
Eddis clutched her bow and the arrow in her left hand and felt her way along the wall with the other. Once inside the cave, darkness was complete. Four steps, five. Her foot tilted out and down as the ground fell sharply away. She pressed against the wall and moved past as quickly as possible and kept going to make room for those behind, until someone’s still form brought her to a halt.
Guards, Willow had said, but wherever they were, they weren’t making any noise. Maybe they’d run when so many large, well-armed people came into the cave. Surely they had seen their visitors? Something off to her left was producing a stomach-turning stench, and she wondered if she was going to be able to deal with all this.
“Light!” Jerdren’s voice was painfully loud in the enclosed area, and a way ahead, something yelped. Three oil lamps were unshuttered. Eddis could make out armed kobolds frozen against the far wall, their eyes screwed shut tight. Before they could recover to fight or run, Jerdren charged forward, with a K
eep spearman at his side. Two of the small guards went down in that sudden attack, and two others fled into darkness to the right, yelling shrilly. Eddis stayed back out of the way as Jerdren and the Keep man cut down the other two guards.
“They’re warning the others,” Jerdren said as he wiped his blade on one of his fallen enemy. “Leave the lanterns open. Wager they all know we’re here now.”
By that light, Eddis could make out rough-hewn walls that were wide enough for two grown men to walk abreast and higher than she could reach. The corridor the kobolds had taken ran fairly straight at a right angle to the entry and was very dimly lit, but she thought the far end might be blocked by a curtain. The other way, a heavy, dark cloth blocked the passage just across from the pit they’d come around. The pit, she could see, was at least as deep as she was tall, and it was spiked.
“We’re in luck,” Jerdren murmured. “It’s cowardly little kobolds, all right, and I don’t think they dug this cave. Ceilings would be lower.”
“Good,” Eddis said quietly. “I don’t fight well on my hands and knees. We’d better get after them, don’t you think? Keep in mind this place might hold a lot of them—enough they’ll be willing to turn and fight. Or they might have bigger allies back there.”
“Allies, huh,” Jerdren said.
“What’s that way?” Kadymus whispered. He was gazing at the curtained-off passage across the pit.
“Worry about it on the way out,” Jerdren replied. “Guards went that way.”
“Nothing there but very dead things,” Mead said, and his face twisted in disgust. “Dead things—and rats.”
Jerdren looked at him, astonished. “You wasted a spell for that?”
“I used my nose,” Mead replied shortly.
“Dead things,” Eddis said, as shortly. “He’s right, trust me. Let’s get moving, before they get a chance to plan something.”
They hurried down the long corridor after the kobolds. It was very quiet that way at the moment. When they reached the curtain, another gloomy passage branched to their left—a fairly short one. Eddis and the others waited while Willow and Kadymus slipped past the filthy cloth. They were back at once.
“Nothing in sight,” Willow said quietly. “We’ve come about halfway down this passage. There’s a chamber down there. I could see light, and there are kobolds down there. I don’t think the guards went that way. It’s too calm.”
“We don’t go on and leave anything behind to set an ambush for us when we’re going back out,” Eddis said.
“Let’s go,” Jerdren said shortly and slipped past the curtain. The others followed.
The passage itself was gloomy, but Eddis could make out what seemed to be a large chamber. The air was still and smelled of damp dirt, sweat, poorly cooked food, and something long dead. The last fortunately could not have been close by. Willow took back the lead, and the men carrying lanterns had them shuttered once more.
Eddis glanced at the priest, who now walked next to her. The man carried a mace, and his face was grim. Odd, she thought. He’d been so quiet and placid all the way to the Keep, shed once thought him half-witted.
Flerys was right at M’Baddah’s side, bow slung over her shoulder and a long knife in her hand.
Gods, I must have been half-witted myself, bringing a child here, the swordswoman thought. At least the child didn’t seem to think it odd. Eddis made sure her own bow was secure and drew her sword.
Panev suddenly eased to the fore and pointed.
“Evil is there, hiding,” the priest whispered, then yelled a warning as a dozen or more kobolds erupted from the chamber beyond. Most were armed with dagger-sized swords and long, slender metal pikes. A few wore bits of armor, but many—likely females—wore only ragged tunics and clung to even smaller creatures. Perhaps they were merely seeking a way of escape, but most of those with young held knives or daggers. Eddis blocked a long, wild swing and countered with a pivot and stab. The kobold howled in pain and tore itself from her blade, but staggered into the wall and fell. She brought the blade down across the back of its neck and swung at the next. Four long steps—and two more dead—brought her into the chamber itself, her back against the wall, bloody sword in one hand, long-bladed dagger in the other.
This chamber was wide and deep, the ceiling vaulted, and only a few tallow candles burned here, the smoke thick and cloying. Eddis was grateful when one of the Keep men opened his lantern, illuminating the place in all its dreadful fouled state. A few kobolds—smaller and half-naked—knelt mid-chamber, clinging to each other, and these were guarded by females.
Many of the fighters were still trying to cut their way through the company—seeking simply to flee or perhaps hoping to escape with the females and young. Several of the Keep men, like M’Baddah, were using bows to bring the creatures down from a distance. Eddis decided to stay where she was, in the doorway, sword ready to bring down any who made it past the archers. As she freed up a throwing knife, Blorys came over to set himself at her left shoulder. Three of the Keep men ran into the chamber, boar spears ready to throw.
“Arrow!” M’Baddah’s voice rose above the noise, and the spearmen ducked, staying low as the outlander, his son, and Flerys shot together. One arrow buried itself to the fletchings in the nearest kobold, and the other two wounded their targets, though not badly. The other kobolds abandoned their fallen comrades and retreated toward the far wall.
One of the spearmen yelled in pain and fell, two black arrows in his shoulder, another wobbling back and forth in his hardened leather armor.
Eddis glanced at Blorys. “They aren’t trying to run, but they can pick us off from across the chamber,” she said.
“Two can play that game,” Blorys said and drew her across the opening and along the wall, so they had a clear view of the enemy. “Watch out,” he added. “If those are females, they aren’t exactly helpless!”
“Got it!” she replied.
The smaller, unarmored females had put aside their young and were now retrieving bows and spears from the messy pile of things littering the floor around them. She drew down on the nearest, dispatched the creature, and began firing arrows as quickly as she could. Blorys’ bowstring sang non-stop. Seven of the armed kobolds and at least as many of the others fell dead or dying. Four went down squealing and bleeding heavily. The remaining young and females ran wildly for the passage, and many of the armed creatures threw aside their weapons to follow, but others seemed grimly willing to cut their way through the tall invaders blocking the way out.
But the invaders were no longer there. As the kobolds came running, Jerdren drew his men aside and let them pass. The men who’d been left to keep watch at the joining of passageways were ready for that. By the time Eddis and Blorys came to where they could see the corridor, Keep men holding swords blocked the way. The startled kobolds milled in panic and were cut down.
M’Whan came back to illuminate the cavern with one of the lanterns. The chamber had been fetid with body odors, rancid food, and less pleasant things. Now it reeked of blood. Blorys gripped her forearm and gave her a reassuring, if faint, smile. She nodded and drew her sword as she followed him back into the passage. Flerys joined her at once, with M’Whan at her side.
“Nothing in there worth having, I’d say,” Jerdren remarked. “Those entry guards weren’t in here, so we still have to face whatever they’ve gone to warn. Let’s go.”
Mead, who had taken a few steps up the short side passage, came back to say, “We go back the way we came in. There is no way out up there. There are enemies, but I cannot tell how many or exactly where they are.”
“One way to find out,” Eddis replied.
The lanterns were again mostly shuttered, only a dim light from one showing that the way was clear. Just ahead, another hewn corridor crossed this one at right angles. Eddis could make out flickering lantern light on the far wall.
“We might as well yell out, ‘Here we come!’” she murmured crossly.
“Well, b
ut they know we’re here anyway,” Blorys replied. “Why not let ’em see us coming and maybe scare most of ’em into running?”
“Where’ll they run, if there’s no way out up there?” she countered.
He laid warning fingers on her arm as they reached the passage end. Jerdren had somehow got himself ahead of Willow here. He leaned into the open, yelped in surprise, and jerked back. A crossbow quarrel vibrated in the shoulder of his chain mail. He yanked the deadly little bolt free with an effort, then threw it aside.
“Three, I think,” he said softly.
Three guards, but there might be more, and the creatures were either trapped or safe behind some barricade because they weren’t giving up or trying to run.
She heard a sharp ping! as a quarrel missed Jerdren’s head by a finger’s worth, slammed into stone, and bounced off. Her co-captain ducked back out of sight. Two more bolts followed in rapid order, clattering off stone some distance down the side passage to his right, but they came nowhere near him. Jerdren grinned.
“Lousy shots!” he mouthed and crooked a finger for them to join him.
Mead moved to the fore and gestured for the others to stay put as his lips began moving in a spell. Willow was right behind him, and he murmured something in Jerdren’s ear that Eddis couldn’t hear. Jers nodded, and he and the elves suddenly leaped into the corridor, yelling loudly. The irregular volley of quarrels ceased. Jerdren turned to loose several quick arrows, then threw himself after the elves, down the right-hand passage and into darkness.
Mead followed. “Fire spell!” he yelled, and got an answering, distant reply from his brother. A fireball crackled to life between his outspread fingers and launched itself along the west passage. The mage threw himself after it.
Keep on the Borderlands Page 18