Cunning Devil

by Chris Underwood

  Another thought stuck in my head. This could all be some goblin trick. Lure us out here. Maybe lead us right into an ambush. Maybe we’d never even make it inside the Mines.

  I studied Rodetk’s hunched back as he crept through the forest ahead of us. His motives were hard to fathom. Goblins were crafty, and they had long memories. And Rodetk was more cunning than most.

  He’d only been a lieutenant in the Lord’s Guard when he’d hunted me through the twisting caverns of the Mines, but it had soon become clear he was the brains of the operation. The only time I’d nearly been caught by the Guard was when I’d fallen into a trap Rodetk had laid.

  Was this another trap?

  Early trusts him , I thought. But Early was only a man. He could make mistakes.

  Rodetk threw up a hand. We all stopped. We stood rock solid for a few seconds, the only sounds the rustling of trees and the beat of my heart. I watched the goblin as he scanned the terrain, and I let my hand drop to touch the revolver in my coat pocket.

  If he betrayed us, he wouldn’t live to enjoy it.

  Finally, he turned and jerked his head at us. Lilian and I exchanged a glance and crept forward to where he was standing.

  We were on the outskirts of what had once been a small village. Dilapidated wooden buildings that were little more than shacks were clustered around what had once been a single main road. The remains of an abandoned horse-drawn cart sat in the middle of the road, overgrown with grass and moss. One of the buildings had a sign hanging loose over the entrance, but the sun had long since bleached it clean. I caught a glimpse of the river through a gap in the trees. There’d once been a jetty here, but all that was left were a few rotten posts sticking out of the water.

  This was an old mining village. The hills were dotted with small abandoned settlements like this. A few of them were now home to opportunistic others: imps and fiends and even the odd troll.

  This place looked uninhabited though, and probably with good reason: most Strangers wouldn’t settle this close to the Mines, for fear of being hunted by any goblins that ventured aboveground.

  Rodetk crooked a finger at us. We huddled together, our heads nearly butting.

  “This road leads to the mine shaft entrance,” he breathed, pointing. Calling it a road seemed a little generous to me. Ten yards out from the village, the forest swallowed the trail completely.

  “We can follow it up,” the goblin said, “but we’ll stay off the road itself. We don’t want to run into any smugglers.”

  “Or Khataz’s men,” I said, and Rodetk nodded.

  “Lead on,” Lilian said.

  The goblin circled back into the forest, the two of us a few steps behind. Lilian and I had to fight through the underbrush, getting snagged on every branch and thorn bush, but Rodetk moved as swiftly and easily as if he were taking a stroll down Main Street. I blamed my size. If I were a skinny runt like him, I wouldn’t have a problem either.

  It didn’t get any easier to see the road once we were back in the forest, but the goblin seemed to know where he was going. Soon the land began to rise and we found ourselves trudging uphill, which only added to the misery of wet shoes and a forest that seemed intent on swallowing us whole.

  We were silent as we walked—or as silent as we could be, panting and fighting through the forest as we were. If there was anyone else on the mountain, I didn’t hear or see them.

  Every now and then Rodetk would gesture for us to stop while he looked around warily. I took the opportunity to catch my breath and have a drink. Maybe it was unkind of me, but I would have been a lot happier if Lilian was struggling a little more. I mean, she hadn’t slept all night. Where did she get her energy?

  As we climbed higher, the forest started to thin out a little. I guess it had grown tired scaling the mountain as well. With our path clearer now, Rodetk picked up the pace.

  Until finally the goblin came to a stop once more. At first I thought it was just another momentary pause, but then Rodetk hissed and pointed at the hillside in front of us.

  It took me a moment to make out the mine shaft’s entrance. It was well camouflaged with thick overgrowth. Instead of wooden beams, the entrance was formed by the exposed root structure of a tree further up the steep hillside.

  Lilian crouched beside me and scanned the forest. “No sentries.”

  “Khataz doesn’t know this hole exists,” Rodetk whispered. “He trusts his sorcerer’s wards to control comings and goings in the Mines.” He glanced around once more, then gestured for us to follow. “Come.”

  “Wait,” I said, reaching into one of my inner coat pockets. It’d been a long time since I’d worn the coat, but it was like a second skin to me. I could still remember where everything was kept. I pulled out a small stick talisman shaped like a person and tied with kikimora hair. A glass marble hung in the center of the stick man’s chest.

  Rodetk drew back a little, eying the talisman warily. “What is that?”

  “It reacts to wards. Witch bottles, charms, curse traps, anything that restricts passage. I want to be sure.”

  I glanced around once more, then crept out of the cover of the underbrush, holding the talisman out. As I moved toward the mine shaft, I moved the talisman in a wide semi-circle in front of me. The marble in the center remained still.

  I edged right up to the mine shaft entrance and peered inside. It sloped down a few feet, but beyond that was pitch blackness. A faint smell wafted out, stale air and something else, something living. It brought me back, back four years, back to the dark of the tunnels and the thrill of the hunt and the fear and rage and desperation that had once powered me.

  I wished it didn’t feel so enticing.

  I cast a glance over my shoulder and saw Rodetk and Lilian a few steps back, watching me. Holding my breath, I moved the talisman slowly through the entrance, ready to pull back at any moment. The marble didn’t move. I reached in further. Nothing.

  I exhaled. Rodetk was right after all. Tucking the talisman back into my pocket, I looked back at the others.

  “It’s clear,” I whispered. Lilian looked relieved, but Rodetk just nodded. He joined me by the entrance.

  “Stay close,” he said as he entered. “You never know—”

  A flame sparked to life inside the mine shaft, pushing back the dark. The orange light of a match flickered across a trio of weathered goblin faces. They grinned in unison, baring sharp teeth.

  “Guests,” the biggest of the three said. He raised a rifle and pointed it at Rodetk. “How lovely.”

  23

  I thought about running.

  The big goblin must’ve read my mind. He swung his rifle around and stuck it in my face. “Where d’ya think you’re going, huh?”

  I kept my mouth shut. Behind me, Lilian swore softly.

  “Well, don’t just stand there,” the leader of the goblins said. “Come on in. Let’s take a look at ya.”

  He backed off a few steps, his two cronies hunched and grinning beside him. Rodetk shot me a glance, then the three of us followed the flickering match light into the dark of the tunnel.

  The ground was soft beneath my feet. Dirt and leaves and moss made the mine shaft entrance seem organic, some natural indentation in the land, but as we shuffled down the shaft I caught sight of rotting wooden beams supporting the ceiling. Rusted old lanterns sat about, dormant. The shaft was just wide enough for Rodetk and I to stand side-by-side, with Lilian behind us.

  I studied the three goblins as best I could in the flickering light. They all wore a mix of human clothes and items either made from scratch or recycled from other garments. The leader, in particular, was looking pretty fancy. Once it had been through a spin cycle, the shirt he was wearing wouldn’t be out of place at any office building in town.

  All three had bare feet. I knew from experience that wouldn’t be a disadvantage for them. Goblins were quick-footed little bastards.

  I had no way of knowing if the rifle was actually loaded. It was a bolt-actio
n, so if we rushed him he’d probably only be able to kill one of us.

  I figured maybe there were better ways out of this predicament.

  A few yards back, an alcove widened off the side of the mine shaft. A curtain made of a bed sheet was strung across the opening, and when one of the goblins swept it aside, I caught a glimpse of a little living area scattered with crates and boxes and lit with a series of candles. The goblins’ match had almost burnt down to nothing, so he shook it out and gestured for us to follow into the candlelight.

  “Listen—” I said, but the big goblin hissed at me to be silent. Wielding the rifle one-handed, he grabbed a candle holder and held the light up to Rodetk’s face. He frowned.

  “Don’t I know you?” he said.

  “Maybe,” Rodetk said. “I used to work in the Lower Pits.”

  “Pit boy, huh? What ya doing’ here, then? This place isn’t for the likes of you.” He jerked the rifle at me and Lilian. “And why you bringing humans here?”

  “They’re my trading partners.”

  “Yeah?” The big goblin eyed me up. “What’re ya trading, then?”

  “What’s it look like?”

  Rodetk reached over and jammed his hand in my pocket. All three goblins snarled and took a step back. But Rodetk just pulled out one of my vials, a concoction of heart’s bane. He held it up to the light.

  “This here’s a sleeping draught,” Rodetk said. “Powerful stuff. Couple of drops would put a river troll to sleep for a week. And this”—he put the heart’s bane back and reached into one of my inner pockets, pulling out a silver flask—“well, you take a sip of this and you’ll be able to go for days, if you know what I mean.” He jerked his head toward the crotch of the smallest goblin. “Bet you could use some, huh?”

  The other crony snickered at his friend, but the leader growled at them and they fell silent again. He narrowed his eyes, studying me.

  “You sorcerers?” he said.

  I went along with Rodetk’s story. “Just a humble potion maker.” I jerked my head at Lilian. “She handles the business end of things. I work my art.”

  “We got enough problems with sorcerers here already,” the big goblin said.

  “We’re not here to cause trouble,” Rodetk said. “All we want to do is help out the little guy. Make a little money on the side. And we want to do it quietly.”

  One of the cronies whispered something in the ear of the big goblin, but he just hissed and waved him back. For a few seconds he looked from Rodetk to me to Lilian and back.

  I was doing my best to keep my face neutral, but inside my heart was hammering. He wasn’t buying it. Swallowing, I slowly moved my hand toward the pocket that held my revolver.

  “This ain’t a bloody highway. We don’t let just anyone haul their shit through here,” the goblin said. “How’d you find our tunnel?”

  “Big Nang told me about it,” Rodetk said.

  “Big Nang’s dead.”

  “Wasn’t always. Just like this wasn’t always your tunnel.”

  “Well, it is now. And anyone wants to smuggle potions through our tunnel has to pay the tariff.”

  Rodetk scowled. “What’s the point in smuggling if you still get taxed?”

  “Because unlike Khataz, we won’t just take all your shit for ourselves and throw you in the dungeons.”

  “For Christ’s sake,” Lilian said. “Let’s just pay him and get going. We have an appointment to keep.”

  “Lady’s got some sense,” the big goblin said. He lowered his rifle. “We only take human cash.”

  “How’s this?” A small wad of cash appeared in Lilian’s hand. I didn’t see where she pulled it from.

  The eyes of the cronies widened. Even the leader hesitated, rubbing the point of his chin.

  “Yeah, all right. That’ll do, I guess.”

  Before she could change her mind, he reached out and snatched the money away. He glanced at it for a moment, then made it disappear as deftly as Lilian had made it appear.

  “Tun,” the goblin said to the smallest of the trio. He waved his hand. “Show them the way down. Make sure they don’t get spotted by the Lord’s people.” He smiled at us, showing his pointed teeth. “Your meeting goes well, maybe we can do business again.”

  The little goblin snapped to attention, near beaming with pride. I hadn’t noticed it at first, mainly because I’d been somewhat distracted by the rifle pointed at me, but the small goblin wasn’t much more than a boy. He crooked his finger at us.

  “This way, this way. Watch your step. Gets tricky down here.”

  He grabbed a rusted miner’s lantern off a nail driven into a support beam, lit it with one of the candles, and bounded off into the dark. We hurried after him, leaving the other two goblins behind to count their cash and pat themselves on the back.

  I let out a breath I hadn’t realized I’d been holding. As we followed the glow of the lantern, I shot Rodetk a look.

  “You didn’t say anything about mobsters trying to hold us up,” I hissed.

  “They’re not mobsters,” he whispered. “And I didn’t know they’d taken hold here.”

  “That was quick thinking,” Lilian said to him. “You did good.”

  “Thanks.”

  I grunted. We were damn lucky, that was all. I snatched the silver flask out of Rodetk’s hand and waved it at him. “You shouldn’t go touching things you don’t understand. What if one of them had wanted a swig of magic Viagra?”

  “Why, what is it really?” he asked.

  I tucked it back into my pocket. “Witch’s fire.”

  “Oh.”

  “Yeah. Oh.”

  Up ahead, Tun had paused with the lantern, waiting for us. “Careful,” he said as we approached. “Two ways down, but I only recommend the one.”

  He held out the lantern, and I caught his meaning. We were at the top of a steep, narrow staircase carved out of the mountain itself. There was a wall of stone to the left. And on the right, nothing but a sheer drop down.

  I didn’t know how far down it went—the lantern’s light didn’t reach the bottom. I decided I wasn’t in a hurry to find out.

  Without waiting for a response, Tun started down the stone stairs. Swallowing, I followed.

  “So you said you make potions, right?” Tun said over his shoulder.

  “Uh-huh. Among other things.” I kept my eyes on my feet and my hand on the left wall. The stone steps were smooth and a little damp, which wasn’t making me any more confident.

  “You…uh…you have anything to keep monsters away?”

  “Depends. What kind of monster?”

  “The Blind Beast.”

  “What?”

  “You haven’t heard?” he said. “You’re lucky it didn’t attack you on your way up. It’s been haunting this here slope of the mountain for days now. One of the smugglers I know, she saw it herself two nights ago. Out there, on the mountain. A big black beast, like a shadow, she said, only it was the scariest shadow she’d ever seen. Teeth as long as your arm, but no eyes. That’s what they say. She was near shitting herself when she came running in, screaming and wailing.”

  A black beast with no eyes . I didn’t dare glance back at Lilian, but somehow I felt her stiffen behind me. The roggenwolf. It was still out there somewhere.

  “Khataz put a bounty on the beast’s head after it savaged one of his sentries,” Tun continued. “They’re sending out hunting parties. But I have to go out on the mountain tonight, and if they don’t catch it…I could really use something to scare it away. If you’ve got anything like that.”

  He glanced back at me with wide pleading eyes. Sighing, I dug through my pockets until I found a round glass vial.

  “If you see the beast,” I said, handing him the vial, “throw this at its feet. And then run like hell.”

  He grinned with excitement. “How does it work?” He reached for the cork.

  “Don’t,” I said, grabbing his hand before he could uncork the vial. “The fume
s won’t kill you, but you open that here and you’ll be out cold in seconds. Along with the rest of us.”

  He glanced at me again, then gingerly tucked the vial into the folds of his shirt.

  We were far enough down the staircase now that I couldn’t see where it started, and I still had no idea where the bottom was. This couldn’t be part of the original mine complex, but that wasn’t surprising. The goblins had spent a century expanding the Mines far beyond the original shafts. I doubted any one person—human, goblin, or Stranger—knew all the paths that ran through the mountain.

  “Who’s this sorcerer your boss was talking about?” I asked after a few more minutes descending into the darkness. “A human?”

  Tun shook his head. “A goblin sorcerer. I’ve never seen him, but everyone knows he’s more Lord than Khataz is now. Everyone hates him, but there’s nothing we can do.”

  “Your boss called him a foreigner,” I said.

  “Yeah. I don’t know where he’s from, but it’s nowhere around here. Got some foreign name. We just call him Likho. He’s brought nothing but bad luck since he arrived.” He looked at me, then shrugged, smiling sheepishly. “That’s what everyone says, anyway.”

  Despite the minor terror of descending a staircase in the dark, excitement bubbled in my gut. It had to be the same sorcerer Rodetk had mentioned. The one Khataz had brought in to defend the mountain against witches like me.

  If this sorcerer really did have Khataz in his thrall, he was skilled. Powerful. Powerful enough to work a curse like the one we were investigating?

  I knew it’d been the right call to come to the Mines. Now all we had to do was find this sorcerer, figure out what he was doing, and put a stop to it.

  I thought about turning around right then, going back to town, and gathering the troops. But I immediately scrapped the idea. I didn’t have time for that. And anyway, we’d been lucky enough to get into the Mines once without drawing attention to ourselves. Getting in again, especially with more of us in tow, would be a lot more difficult.

  And besides, who could I call on to help? Early, certainly, but if it came to a serious fight there wasn’t a whole lot he could offer. Alcaraz would be less use than a wet rag. The vampires would almost certainly refuse to fight unless they were threatened directly, and the ghouls wouldn’t be any different.