Two hundred feet above the laboratory the old wolf had leaped from his bed of leaves and streaked out into the night. He kept his left hind leg raised, because some creature with claws had reached from a cloud and had torn his flesh.
He raced around the ruins and as he turned the corner, he passed two squirrels who were squabbling over a place to bury some early ripening nuts. Bowled over, the squirrels rolled in the high grass as the wolf went by.
He ran for half a mile before he realized he had begun to use the injured leg. He slowed to a trot and then a walk and stopped. The place seemed safe and he wanted to clean the wound before it began to hurt again. He inspected his fur and found no mark. What was happening to him?
Chapter 32
My Uncle Trapspringer once told me that sometimes the hardest part to unlocking a lock or springing a trap was in locating it. He also told me he learned that particular lesson on his first journey…
"Finding Neidar mine hard," Umpth said. "Tired." He plopped down on the ground, sending the dust flying.
"Bugs and worms! You're as bad as Halmarain. We won't have any trouble," Trap said. "We just have to find the right place."
They had left Halmarain in camp and been searching for nearly the entire day. The dwarves were tired and so were the kender, but the latter were thoroughly enjoying their escape from the little wizard's fears and gripes.
"Hey! Big jiggers! I forgot! I know what we should do," Trap said as he pulled the dwarf necklace from his pouch. He had purloined it from Halmarain's bag. It was the first time he had deliberately taken anything from her, but he thought they might need it. Just before they left camp he remembered there had been tiny drawings around the rim of the disks and many of them were of mountains. If they represented the terrain above the dwarf mines he might find a match. That had been his intention when he took the necklace. Shortly after leaving camp he had become absorbed in the surroundings and had forgotten all about the disks and his need for them.
While Umpth sat on the dusty ground, Grod had announced his intention to search for another dead animal to use for Aghar magic and walked up the mountainside a short distance. He occasionally splashed in a tiny brook before he dropped to sit under a tree.
"Cool here," he called to his brother.
The kender knew the gully dwarves would not be traveling further until they rested, so brother and sister found a boulder and sat close together. Trap took one side of the necklace and Ripple the other, looking for sketches of mountaintops and comparing them with the scene in front of them. They were working their way steadily around the string of disks when Trap looked up, back at the disk he held, and crowed.
"Look! See the double peak?" He pointed first to the mountain and then to the disk. "And right beyond it is that tall rock formation."
"Yes. That's the right disk," Ripple said, but I don't see the mountains in front of it." They stood and looked around, trying to decide from which angle the tiny sketch had been drawn.
Grod had apparently had enough rest; when the kender started walking about, he came down the hill to join them. Each time they had inspected the string of carved disks the smaller gully dwarf had expressed an un-Aghar interest, but this time he ignored it. He walked over to his brother who still sat in the dust.
"Tired, tired, hungry," he said. "Go camp. Sleep."
"Eat, then sleep," Umpth said, getting the priorities in the correct order. He scrambled to his feet.
"No! Not yet, we still have some daylight left," Ripple objected, but this time the gully dwarves were not amenable to persuasion.
"Go now," Umpth said, and kept walking east.
"Stop! Wait! We've found the disk…" Trap had started to object and gave up. He understood how they felt. They had ridden all night and had spent the day wandering in the mountains. He was tired too, but he resented the defection of the dwarves, but even he was too tired to argue very much.
"Thorns and thistles. A plague on gully dwarves. We can't let them go alone," Ripple said. "They'll get lost in all those gullies."
The sun was dipping below the mountains to the west when they reached the camp in the arroyo. They found Halmarain quarreling about carrying water for the stew only to have Beglug pour it out on the ground where he was busily playing with the softened clay. He had plastered himself with the quickly hardening mixture.
"At least he didn't try to eat any more ponies," the little wizard said with a sigh.
"Or the stew," Ripple said appreciatively. During their ride the night before, Trap had been lucky enough to kill three rabbits. One had satisfied Beglug's growing appetite for meat. The other two were simmering in a savory stew.
The gully dwarves were trying to help themselves when Halmarain slapped Umpth's hands with her wooden spoon. She hurriedly dished out two large helpings before the Aghar reached in the pot with their dirty hands.
She filled bowls for the kender and they all sat in a circle as they ate. After a good sleep, the little wizard was more hopeful and more cheerful than she had been that morning. She said nothing when the two kender told her about finding a mountain peak that corresponded with the drawing on one of the disks, but her eyes brightened.
Even the kender were too hungry to talk much during their meal. The gully dwarves gobbled down their first helping and finished off another while the kender were still on their first bowl.
"Sleep now," Umpth announced in a tone that brooked no argument. He picked up his bedroll and stumped over to a level area.
"Sleep good," Grod agreed, following his brother. "Door no go 'way. Dwarves no go 'way too."
"What? What door? What dwarves?" Trap put his half filled bowl aside and jumped to his feet, following Grod. "What dwarves? Where were they?"
"Hey, don't glare at me. I didn't see any dwarves," Ripple said when Halmarain turned a questioning eye on her.
"See from hill," Grod said as he curled up in his blanket and closed his eyes.
"From what hill?" Halmarain demanded, but the gully dwarf, with the single-minded pragmatism of his race was already drifting off to sleep. While the two kender and the tiny human traded looks, his greasy long mustache fluttered with his first snore.
"Wretched creatures," Halmarain glared at him before walking back to the campfire. "Do you think he did see the dwarves?"
"Yes," Trap said slowly. "Umpth and Grod don't lie."
"No," the little wizard replied. "They don't have the imagination for it."
Trap didn't agree. He thought the gully dwarves showed a lot of imagination and a good deal of shrewd-ness, but to say so to Halmarain would only cause an argument, and he had other concerns. If Grod said he had seen the dwarves, he had seen them.
"You think the dwarves are the ones who were following us," he said, gazing at the apprentice wizard. "Maybe they're not."
"Of course they are," Halmarain snapped. "They have to be."
"Why?" Ripple demanded. Like her brother she failed to see the little wizard's reasoning.
"We took the necklace-" "We didn't take it," Trap objected.
"Grod took it, but they don't know that," Halmarain sounded exasperated. "To them that string of disks, which appears to be a map of the entrances and traps in their mines is a priceless thing. They'd never believe the gully dwarf just wanted it to give it to Ripple as an ornament."
"So they followed us to get it back, but that still doesn't explain why they're waiting at our destination," Ripple said.
"Yes, it does," the little wizard insisted. "As soon as we got it, we started east as if we made the decision on our destination according to what we found on the necklace. They probably knew nothing about the capture of you and Beglug. Their mines are always in the mountains, particularly in the Garnet Range. When we left Solanthus, they went south towards the Garnet Mountains."
"Oh, I see! They thought we were heading for one of the hidden mines in that range," Ripple said with a gurgle of delighted laughter as she suddenly understood Halmarain's reasoning. "But since we cont
inued east instead…"
"They decided we were heading for Digondamaar," Halmarain continued. "It's probably the only abandoned dwarf delving on our route, or at least the nearest one." She gave a smile of wicked delight. "And since they're waiting for us, they've pointed out the entrance, only how do we get past them?"
Trap yawned, suddenly feeling his fatigue. Ripple found the unplanned suggestion irresistible, and she too yawned.
"You must be exhausted," the little wizard said, for once sympathetic. "Get a few hours' sleep. We'll move into the mountains just before dawn. Then we can think of a plan."
Night shadowed the hills and gullies when Grod awoke. He sat up, stretched, gave himself a good scratch and yawned until his jaws and ears popped. How long had he been asleep, he wondered, and why had he awakened while it was still dark?
Then he knew. He had been sleeping in fits and starts, waking for days. The two kender and even Grod's brother, the wise leader of the Aglest clan, paid little attention to the warnings of the little wizard, but Grod believed her. The merchesti was evil. Even though he wanted to keep an eye on Lava Belly, he had been asleep when the fiend killed one of the ponies. Grod was determined to keep Beglug from killing any more.
The smallest of the Aghar cared nothing for the animals, and would as soon walk as ride, but Pretty Kender would cry again, and he didn't want her to be unhappy.
He looked around the camp, dimly lit by the dying campfire and suddenly he understood the reason he had awakened so suddenly. The little wizard was supposed to be on watch, but she was sitting with her back to a boulder, sleeping soundly. She made little wheezes like whispers when she slept.
And over on the other side of the camp, Lava Belly was creeping toward Pretty Kender. His eyes were shining red like they did when he was ready to attack something.
"Wizard!" Grod gulped, so terrified on Ripple's behalf that his voice was hardly more than a croak. He launched himself in Beglug's direction, charging across the camp, butting the fiend with his head and they both went over in a heap.
Beglug was the first to gain his feet. He growled deeply, softly, his voice low, throaty, full of menace. He extended his claws and bent his knees, ready to pounce on the still rolling gully dwarf.
Grod, realizing his danger, was attempting to flee when behind him he heard the little wizard chanting. Her spell took effect after the merchesti launched himself at Grod, and even as he landed by the gully dwarf his eyes had lost their bloodlust.
"Beglug, go back to sleep," Halmarain snapped as she trotted over. "Did he hurt you?" she asked Grod in the gentlest voice she had yet used when addressing the Aghar.
"Him no hurt me. Go hurt Pretty Kender," he told the wizard.
"It's a good thing you woke up, you saved her life," Halmarain said.
"Me tell me wake. Lava Belly evil. Do bad things," Grod insisted, glowing with the idea that he had saved the kender girl's life. "Find big wizard soon. Beglug go his This Place. No hurt ponies and Pretty Kender," he suggested, speaking more at one time than he usually did in a week. Still, it puzzled him that the wizard was giving him such a hard, speculating look as if she could see into his brain.
"You're a lot smarter than you pretend, aren't you?" she said, making her remark a question that he did not know how to answer. Then a pelter of raindrops drove Halmarain's question from his mind.
"Wake the others. We should get out of this gully," she warned as she scurried around to gather up their belongings. "If the rain is heavy this ditch might flood."
Trap did not need Grod's help to wake up. The cold rain, falling on his face brought him to full consciousness. Ripple, Umpth, and Beglug were already struggling in their blankets. The merchesti whined and shivered.
Halmarain repeated her warning about flash floods and in a short time they had saddled the ponies and slung the packs across the saddles. Beglug and Umpth complained about being awakened in the night but they followed the two kender who led their mounts. They crossed the stream at the foot of the gully and traveled up the little watercourse. By the time the worst of the storm hit they had found another depression that led into the mountains and used it until it began to fill with water.
"That way," Ripple shouted to her brother. She had remembered a small, blind valley they had discovered that morning. They could not subject the ponies to the fear of the darkness and the echoes of a mine, and the valley seemed the perfect place to leave them.
The entrance was narrow, and could be easily blocked with cut brush. It was a perfect place to leave the ponies. Near the entrance, the hillside was dotted with large thorn bushes, some of which they cut. It made an excellent fence.
"Now, would be the best time to approach the dwarf camp," Halmarain said, gazing at Grod. "Do you remember the way?"
"Dark," the dwarf objected. "No see where go."
"I can," Trap said. "I know where he was when he spotted the dwarves."
"Why go now?" Umpth complained. "Dark, cold, wet."
"And the dwarves will be huddled in their blankets around the fire," Halmarain answered him. "They won't be expecting us."
"No believe we so dumb," Grod muttered as he fumbled with his bedroll and pulled out his blanket to use for a cloak. Over it he draped the waterproof ground sheet. He followed Trap, huddled inside his blanket as he trudged along, dragging the ends in the mud of the hard summer rain. Umpth had followed his brother's example, and Beglug had whined until he was similarly protected. Umpth had a problem as he tried to hold his blanket and roll the wheel at the same time.
"I'm beginning to think they've got more sense than I gave them credit for having," Halmarain said after they had been walking for an hour. She was soaked to the skin and shivering.
"Wizard learn," Grod said in a smug voice that angered the little human. She clamped her jaws shut and tramped silently behind the two kender.
Trap grinned. Halmarain could not have used her blanket and ground sheet even if she had wanted to. In the darkness they had overlooked her bedroll and left it in the gully. She wasn't too happy about it, but believing they would soon reach the wizard, she had not complained too loudly.
Chapter 33
A single candle illuminated the historical tome as Astinus inscribed…
Down in the foothills, on the ten foot promontory that jutted up above the intersection of the gully and the stream, a rabbit, taking advantage of the higher, dryer ground, was startled as a dark shape suddenly appeared within five feet of him.
The rabbit dashed away, too frightened to notice the shape was one made by a human in a long black robe and cowled hood. Even if the creature had recognized clothing he would not have understood the runes that trimmed the robe, or that he was looking at a wizard.
Draaddis Vulter staggered with fatigue. He had been searching for the kender and the merchesti without pause for two days.
Draaddis had mentally traced the party on its travels. Since they crossed the southern Vingaard Mountains after turning east, they had skirted around the northern ends of the Garnet Mountains and around the north end of the little range that stopped only a few miles from Pey.
When he had left his laboratory Draaddis had tele-ported into the mountains where he knew another band of goblins made their home. Takhisis said he was not to depend on humanoids again and he would not, but he needed them to search. The foothills and the deep gullies hid the travelers, and depending on their direction of travel they could have been anywhere within an area that covered nearly three hundred square miles.
He had sent most of his goblins northwest, beyond the Castle Kurst, thinking the kender and their party would continue to avoid mountain travel if they could.
Most of the goblins were out of reach when he discovered a set of pony tracks traveling due east from Pey. He followed them but to his disgust, he found a group of six dwarves at the end of the trail and had to start again. Just before the rain started he discovered a second set of tracks that had disappeared into the gully at his feet. The runoff from
the surrounding hills had half filled the little arroyo.
Several charred pieces of wood had been washed against a small outcrop of rock and gave evidence of an abandoned campsite. Had they left it by choice or had the torrent of water, now washing down the gully, carried the campers and their gear away?
Draaddis spoke a word of command and a tiny ball of light appeared just above the rushing torrent. He sent it downstream until he saw a deeper shadow, and hurried down the bank. The light bobbed above a blanket that had been caught on a thorn bush at the stream's edge.
His quarry had been caught in a flash flood, he decided, and hurried downstream, along the bank of the rushing water. He wondered how far he would have to follow the watercourse before he found the bodies of two kender and the merchesti.
My Uncle Trapspringer has a saying: As much as he likes meeting people, sometimes, some people can make life hard. This was the trouble with those pesky dwarves-not that I have anything against dwarves, you understand…
"If we find the dwarves, we still can't drive them away from the entrance," Halmarain said. She was tired of the rain, of slipping and sliding on the sloping ground at the feet of the mountains, and her earlier cheerfulness had washed away with the storm. "We don't know the dwarves are camped in front of the entrance," she continued. "Maybe they just picked that place because they were tired too."
"Can't, don't, won't, because," Trap chanted, irritated with Halmarain's negativity. "We can find out," Trap said. "I can use my invisibility ring-"
"Orander's invisibility ring," Halmarain reminded him.
"… Orander's invisibility ring to slip around them and look for the entrance," the kender finished. "If it's not there we can start a new search."
Halmarain nodded. "Just remember, the spell won't last too long. You don't want them to catch you."
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