Tales of Uncle Trapspringer ll-3

by Dixie Lee Mckeone

Trap's hope for escape sank as he saw a rickety shelter blocking the alley, but then he noticed a narrow space between it and the building on the right. Ripple, running ahead of him, had seen it too and wriggled into the space with her brother right behind her.

  They slipped through to the other side and Trap was slowing his pace when he heard shouting behind him. He looked back and through the narrow crack he could see the first of their pursuers trying to stop. The momentum of the crowd behind the leaders of the chase shoved them forward, against the shabby lean-to. The rickety structure collapsed with a crash. As the kender ran on they heard the sound of humans in pain and others swearing in their anger.

  Trap increased his speed again and a few steps further he saw two pair of eyes staring out of the dimness. He had not thought the alley dark enough for anyone to hide in it. As he drew even with them, he recognized two gully dwarves. As if to prove the reputation of their race, these two were so grimy their clothing, hands, and faces had blended with the dark gray stone.

  One of them had been rolling a wagon wheel toward the little lean-to, but with a quick move he sent it careening in the other direction, and chased after it.

  The Aghar rolling the rickety wheel was in the lead. He was taller and had darker hair. The second, smaller, thinner, and with blond hair, ran in his wake. They had turned so quickly Trap had little time to notice their features, but even in the semi darkness he could tell the smaller gully dwarf was younger than the other. Like kender, the Aghar developed facial wrinkles early in life. The smaller gully had no wrinkles.

  The gully dwarves were only two paces in front of Ripple when they reached what Trap thought was a dead end, but they whirled around a corner. The gully dwarf with the wheel gave it a practiced turn to change direction and the kender followed. Behind them they could hear running feet again so they put their trust in the gully dwarves.

  After a series of turns, all into alleys that became increasingly narrow, dark, and dirty, they saw what had to be the end of the chase. The dirty little gully dwarves still had one trick left. They whirled around a huge pile of rubbish and disappeared. Still trusting the gully dwarves' sense of survival-it was said that was the only sense they had, including the sense of smell-Ripple followed them.

  Trap heard Ripple squeal in surprise. Her brother, following, tripped over a low stone that could have been a door step, and fell into darkness. The darkness hid a smooth, descending ramp and he tumbled down a steep, dark chute.

  He rolled to a stop with something moderately soft under his legs and his mouth full of hair-he had at least found Ripple. The soft thing under his legs complained and he discovered by touch and smell that it was a gully dwarf. When he tried to sit up, he found that his left leg was caught up in the spokes of the dwarves' wagon wheel.

  Far above they heard voices that echoed off the walls. The humans had followed them.

  "Don't worry about them," one voice, louder than the others remarked. "They'll never get out of there, they're done for."

  The four at the bottom of the strange shaft remained still until the echoing footsteps faded away. Then, after a few aborted attempts that resulted in feet in faces, elbows in stomachs, and fingers in eyes, the two kender and the two gully dwarves sorted themselves out. They discovered that their landing place had a ceiling high enough so they could stand up.

  "What happen?" asked one of the gully dwarves.

  "We run away," the other said.

  "From what?"

  "Don't know."

  "You want torch?"

  "Why? Got no light."

  "I've got a tinderbox," Trap said.

  "Who that?" one of the gully dwarves exclaimed.

  "Kender, I think," the dwarf's companion offered. "Never seen one before."

  "You've got a torch and I've got a light, so you can see one again," Trap suggested.

  "You can see two," Ripple added. "Though why you've never seen kender before, I can't imagine."

  After a considerable amount of fumbling (during which Ripple had to slap someone) fingers caught the hand Trap was holding tinderbox with and guided it to the torch. More fumbling followed before he lit what turned out to be a musty bundle of already half-burned rags around a broken mop handle. Once the first torch was lit, they were able to find a second, and light it too. The two kender and the two gully dwarves stood quietly, inspecting each other.

  Trap decided his first estimate was correct. The tallest, with the beginning of facial wrinkles, was the eldest. The wrinkles were easy to see, being filled with grime. His hair was dark, probably dark brown, but overlaid with dirt that lightened it slightly. The smaller dwarf had no wrinkles, but was no less dirty. Their hair was approximately the same color, but the subtle difference of dark hair lightened by dirt and light hair darkened by dirt, led Trap and Ripple to believe that the younger dwarf was originally blond.

  The gully dwarves were dressed in ragged cast-offs that had once been human clothing. Their trouser legs and sleeves had been carelessly rolled into bulky cuffs. During the run the smaller dwarf's right pants leg had unrolled and fallen down over his boot so he was walking on the bottom portion of the trouser leg.

  Finished with his inspection of the Aghar, Trap considered their surroundings. They were in a passage, rock lined and arched. A few feet from where Trap stood, an empty sconce showed where one of the dwarves had found the torch.

  Ripple blinked against the light and walked to the bottom of the steeply canted chute that had dumped them more than a hundred feet below street level. She tried three times to climb it, but the bottom was slick. It was marginally too wide and high for a kender or a gully dwarf to reach the sides or ceiling. They could not brace themselves to climb.

  "Beans!" she said as she slid back a third time. "We'll have to find another way out."

  "Could have told them," the first dwarf said.

  "Me too," said the second.

  "Hello," Trap was already growing tired of the dwarves conversation that excluded the kender. "I'm Trapspringer Fargo. This is my sister Ripple."

  "His name Trapspringer," the taller dwarf said.

  "She Ripple. She pretty," the other replied.

  "Thank you. That's very nice. What's your name?" Ripple asked. The compliment had made her forget her irritation.

  The larger of the two seemed to draw himself up. "Me Umpth Aglest. Me leader mighty Aglest clan."

  "You have a clan?" Ripple asked. "Can they help us? Maybe they could drop a rope down the chute."

  "That's a good idea," Trap nodded.

  "No. Clan here," Umpth pointed at his companion. "Grod Aglest, brother. Him clan."

  Trap looked around, peering up and down the passage as far as he could see in the light of the sputtering torch.

  "Which way?" he asked of no one in particular. Umpth immediately pointed to the right and Grod to the left. They exchanged glances and both pointed in opposite directions. Since Ripple had not expressed an opinion, Trap set off to the left, with his sister close to his side. Behind him came the dwarves. Umpth rolled the wagon wheel. "Kender smart," Umpth observed. "Me point this way."

  "Me too," Grod said.

  "What is this place?" Ripple asked.

  "This no This Place," Umpth answered. "No live here."

  "I know you don't live here, I just thought you might know about this place."

  "No This Place," Umpth said again. "Not know what place this is."

  "Kender don't talk good," Grod said.

  "Don't know This Place from any place," came the reply.

  "Do they make any sense to you?" Ripple asked Trap. She spoke softly, not wanting to hurt the feelings of the gully dwarves.

  "It's hard to tell," Trap replied. "I hear words I think I know, but they're not strung together right."

  "Kender have big words, no sense," Umpth observed.

  "Keep eye on him," Grod suggested. "Me watch her. She pretty." He reached out to touch the single long golden curl that had fallen over Ripple's left shoulder, b
ut she stepped back, away from his grimy hands.

  As they walked along the passage, they occasionally saw old torches in the wall sconces. Ripple inspected them, taking the first three that were at all usable. When she found more she gave Grod three to carry. They had been walking for half an hour when they found a set of steps going up about thirty feet. At the top was a door with a heavy lock.

  The dwarves ascended the stairway behind them, but were having a hard time rolling the wagon wheel up the steps.

  "Why did you bring that wheel?" Ripple asked, looking back at the struggling dwarves. "It's no good. Half the spokes are gone. The rim is loose too."

  "Wheel magic," Umpth said. "Aglest clan magic."

  "Wow! Really? Big jiggies!" Trap asked, suddenly interested. "How can a wheel be magic?"

  "Belong to ancestor. All left of wagon bring Aglest clan to This Place. Ancestor magic strong."

  "I've never heard of a magic wheel," Trap said, not sure he believed it, but at the first opportunity he wanted to see what the wheel would do.

  "See, no sense," Grod said. "Not know This Place, not know magic, no sense."

  "Don't be rude!" Trap said with a dark look over his shoulder. In his irritation he forgot his interest in the wheel.

  While Ripple held the torch, Trap pulled out the set of lock picks his father had given him as a traveling present. After a few pokes and twists the lock clicked. Trap pushed the door open to the squeal of rusty hinges and a shower of crusted dirt and small stones fell way. Obviously it had not been opened for many years.

  They found themselves in another passage. This one was already lit with torches, dry and swept clean, though a few cobwebs decorated the arched ceiling. The air was reasonably fresh, kept so by the burning torches, and from a distance they heard voices. Ripple put out the light she carried by the simple expedient of rolling it on the floor until the flames died. The four wanderers crept down the hall as quietly as the rolling wagon wheel would allow.

  The voices became louder as the foursome reached a doorway at the end of the passage. The thick heavy door stood ajar, and Trap looked in to see a huge chamber, one unlike anything in his experience. Shelves of books in red bindings lined the wall on the far side of the chamber. At the end of the room more shelves held hundreds of glass jars containing strange and wonderful objects. Old but still colorful rugs overlapped each other on the stone floor. In the center of the room, a litter of books, scrolls, and strange paraphernalia covered four tables.

  A human in red robes stood on one side of the room. He pressed his elbows tight to his sides and bent his arms so his hands, palms up, were close to his shoulders. From each palm came a pale, glowing light. He was humming a soft, even tone. The glow from his hand rose to form an arc of light above the man's head. Behind him stood what Trap thought was a child in a red robe. The girl played a lute, stroking the same note the man hummed. Their tune could get boring very quickly, so Trap thought the two humans might enjoy learning more about music.

  "That's very boring," he called across the room. "If you like, I'll show you how to make-" He intended to offer his help, but he had startled the small one, who jumped and struck a sudden loud, discordant note. The man's voice rose in the same discordant note and suddenly the arc of light changed, disappeared, and a blackness deeper than velvet opened around the red-robed human. He stepped back with a cry as a hot wind, strong as a gale, blew through the hole.

  The torches blew out and a variety of objects, impossible to see in the sudden darkness, were hurled about by the gale. A piece of cloth hit Trap in the face and as he jerked it away an unknown object struck him sharply on the shoulder.

  "Orander!" a voice called out in fear.

  "Halmarain," a man's voice called back. "Stay away from the portal!"

  "A portal? What is a portal?" Trap asked the room at large. "Is it a magic door, does it lead to some interesting place?"

  No one answered him, but he heard what he thought was a cry and a whimper, though he could not positively identify the sound. Suddenly the chamber filled with a roar that had nothing to do with the hot wind. Dimly, over the roar, he heard a thin scream that could have been human or kender, and he wondered if Ripple had entered the chamber.

  He heard the sound of splitting wood and the thud of heavy furniture hitting the wall. Suddenly Trap was grabbed by a huge, clawed hand. His feet dragged against an opening as he was pulled through some unseen door. It seemed to be the meeting place of the gale, where the winds were blowing in both directions.

  Chapter 4

  When the giant clawed hand pulled Trap through the portal to the other plane, the kender found himself in deep twilight. The air was so hot he could hardly breathe. He saw two huge eyes looking at him out of a giant, bestial face.

  "Hello," he said softly. "I don't know if you know about kender, but we're really very friendly. We enjoy adventures and seeing new places-Oh! You have a very large mouth!"

  A maw opened, wider than Trap was tall, and roared until the rest of the kender's speech was smothered under the noise. The monster thrust the helpless kender back into the darkness. Trap's feet were dragged across the stone floor, then the monster released him and the kender fell on his back. In the darkness, Trap sensed rather than saw the arm reach past him. It swung about as if searching, then gave another roar of frustration and withdrew.

  As suddenly as the gale had started, it stopped. Trap breathed the cool, moist air of the stone chamber again. He waited a moment, sat up, and examined himself, gingerly moving his arms and legs. Nothing seemed broken, but he could feel his bruises.

  "Trap?" Ripple called.

  "I'm here," he answered. "Wherever 'here' is…"

  A moment later a light gleamed brightly from the tip of a short staff held by the tiny red-robed figure, and he could see again. He was in the chamber lined with shelves, but they were the only furnishings still in place. Books in red covers littered the floor along with broken glass, jars, and furniture.

  In its search, the monster had overturned two of the big work tables and shoved them against a wall. The third lay in splinters. In the center of the room stood the small figure in red robes. She was glaring at Trap.

  "A kender!" She spat out the words as if she found them distasteful. "I might have known it would be a kender!"

  In spite of its high pitch, her voice proved she was not a child. Trap thought she might be a small dwarf, though from what he had heard about dwarves she certainly was a pretty one.

  "Hello, I'm Trapspringer Fargo," he said courteously. "What's your name? Are you Halmarain, the one the wizard was talking to?"

  The kender stood and bowed.

  "How did you get in here?" she demanded.

  "Through a door in the passage," he said, pointing in the direction they had come. "By the condition of the lock and the hinges, you haven't used it in years, probably because you'd lost the key. It's easy to lose keys, people do it all the time-"

  "Trust a kender to find a door even a pair of magicians had overlooked," the little wizard muttered. She gazed around the chamber and pushed several books out of the way as she picked up a short stool and sat on it.

  "Poor Orander," she said, shaking her head and hunching her shoulders. "I just hope he's still alive."

  "Why shouldn't he be?" Trap asked. He didn't understand this at all. "Where did he go? One minute he was here and the next he was gone. What an interesting way to travel. When he comes back, do you think he might take us with him?"

  "I wish you had gone instead of him," the little wizard grumbled.

  "I don't understand why you're so angry. I don't even know what happened," Trap pressed.

  "Just leave me alone and let me think." She made pushing motions as if trying to get rid of him.

  "I just want to know why you're so mad at me," he said, following her as she stepped over the fallen books. "I didn't do anything wrong, I just wanted to help. I don't understand what happened."

  "And you're not going to stop
pestering me until I tell you," she said, glaring at him. "Master Orander, with the use of some magic stones was trying to open a portal into another plane."

  "I've heard of planes! A little anyway," Trap said thoughtfully. "I'm trying to remember…"

  "What you remember is unimportant. What happened is that while he was holding the stones and we were creating a vibrating tone in a pitch that would take him into one world, you-you startled us and we opened a portal to an unknown destination. Now he's some place that could be dangerous-even deadly-and it's your fault."

  From the doorway Ripple, Umpth, and Grod stepped into the chamber. Umpth was still rolling the wagon wheel. The three silently stared at the mess. Ripple was the first to overcome her surprise.

  "Was that magic?" she asked the little wizard. "I thought magic was pretty. Still, it was different," she added, as if she were considering Halmarain's feelings. "But how can you see what you're doing in the dark? How do you know you're making the right magic? Can you see in the dark?"

  "No, I can't see in the dark," Halmarain snapped. "That was magic gone awry, thanks to your friend here."

  "That's not fair! He was just trying to help," Ripple defended her brother. "Your song was pretty boring."

  "I'm sure she didn't intend to be rude," Trap said. "She sounds as if she was frightened by the dark-you remember how it was when we were little…"

  Ripple, with ready sympathy, smiled at the little wizard and said, "You don't have to be afraid anymore. We're here and we'll help you light all the torches again." The kender girl looked around dubiously. "Though this place is really a mess. How do you find anything? I hate to mention it, but you don't seem to be a very good house-keeper. Maybe you can cook, which would be very nice since I'm a little hungry. Do you mind if I explore this room? You have such interesting stuff."

  Halmarain stared at Ripple as if she could not find words. She shook her head and sat staring at the floor. The others walked about the room, inspecting the havoc wrought on the chamber. Ripple stopped and picked up something from the floor while Umpth pushed at one of the overturned tables that had been knocked against the wall. The gully dwarf jumped back with a cry. From behind the table came a wail.