Against the Giants

12

“Wait.” Malowan laid a hand on Vlandar’s arm as the warriorreached for the door wheel. “A moment, my friend. About prisoners the giants areholding down here. If there are humans…” He shook his head. “You know Icannot leave them behind.”

“Are you mad?” Khlened demanded.

“No,” Malowan replied steadily. “Merely a man trying toachieve what purity of heart I can. I cannot neglect my duty any more than Rowan or Maera would ignore an elf or a half-elf if they knew one was here.”

The barbarian sighed heavily. “What then? You’ll crawlthrough all th’ pens down here? Didn’t Nemis just say there’s more’n one? Andthere’ll be guards-d’ye chance us all gettin’ killed by whatever brutes areguarding ’em?”

Nemis cleared his throat. “It will not be necessary to gointo the cells. Either Mal or I can search other ways. But Mal, I trust you do not plan to free everything down here? The orcs and trolls you save may not thank you.”

“A bargain,” Vlandar put in. “Mal won’t put us all in dangerto save one human captive. That would go against your code also, wouldn’t it?”

The paladin didn’t look very happy about it, but he nodded.“In exchange, Khlened, you and everyone else, keep this in mind. Someone who’sbeen a prisoner here may know his way around this level.”

“Huh,” Khlened replied shortly. “Know ’is way from where ’ecame in to ’is cell.”

“Possibly,” Rowan said, “but the giants often use prisonersfor laborers, and prisoners share information when they can. If I were penned down here, I would learn all I could about the place. Wouldn’t you?”

“And think of this,” Vlandar added. “The person we rescuemight be the one who saves your life down here.”

“Now you sound like a paladin,” Khlened grumbled, buthe sighed faintly and shrugged. “Something to that, I s’pose.” He brightenedthen. “Could be ’e’d know where treasure’s hid too.”

“Just so,” Vlandar said, his face expressionless, thenstepped aside so the barbarian could help him raise the door.

The outer chamber was vaster than it had seemed when Lhors had seen it through the spy hole. The roof was vaulted, its upper reaches hidden in gloom.

“No wonder the staircase was so long,” Rowan murmured.

Vlandar gestured for silence, listened intently, then led them along the west wall where there was little or no light from the one dim torch burning between a north passage and a rough door. Agya touched the warrior’s hand, pointed toward the door and signed, Giant. Beast. Thewarrior worked this out and nodded. After a moment’s consideration, he indicatedfirst the dark opening straight across from them, then the ill-lit door just south of that.

Passage? He signed then pointed toward the opening.

Malowan nodded then pointed at the door and signed back, Prison.

The prison door rattled slightly, and someone behind it cursed in a hoarse, thick voice. Vlandar looked around, then stabbed a finger toward the far side of the chamber. Malowan touched Agya’s arm to get herattention, then sprinted across the vast stone floor to vanish in the darkness of the hallway, the girl right on his heels. Vlandar put Lhors in front of him. Khlened came behind and the rangers, and Nemis brought up the rear.

The mages lips and fingers were moving in his personal beneath notice spell as he gained the east passage. The man spun around and knelt just behind the opening, one hand fumbling at his belt as everyone else crowded close behind him. Lhors could see a little box, but before he could study it further, an enormous, shaggy creature stumbled into the open, backlit by torches in the cell area. The sudden light hurt the youth’s eyes, and heshrank against the wall, blinking furiously. Vlandar’s hand closed reassuringlyover his forearm-the warrior had his sword in the other.

“It’s a bugbear,” he whispered against Lhors’ ear. “We’reprotected by Nemis’ spell.”

The brute snarled an oath at someone in the pens and gestured furiously. The door slammed behind him. Nemis seemed half-blinded by the light as well. He worked the lid from the box by feel, then froze as Malowan touched his shoulder.

“It’s only me,” the paladin breathed against his ear, hisvoice prudently low even with the beneath notice spell in place. “What have youthere?”

Nemis held the box out. “Illusionary wall.”

“Not a good idea. The creature sees a wall where there shouldnot be one and he’ll raise an alarm. Save your box. I know how long it takes toprepare that powder.”

“What would you use?” Nemis whispered.

The paladin grinned, his teeth ruddy in the faint light. “Fear.”

The mage shook his head. “That takes as long as the wall toprepare!”

Vlandar tapped both hard on the shoulders and drew a meaningful hand across his throat.

Nemis eyed him sidelong and nodded. “Won’t do, Mal. He sensesfear, he’ll raise an alarm or run yelling for help. Wait.” He leaned forward,keeping a close eye on the massive brute. It was mumbling to itself in a nasty-sounding guttural voice. The creature shambled off straight south. A little dim light leaked into the chamber as the south door opened, but it cut off as the door slammed. “Save your spell. We are clear for the moment.”

Vlandar eased around mage and paladin. He froze as the door into the prison slammed open again. Lhors swallowed dryly. Someone in there was wailing in a high, broken voice and two guards were bellowing furiously at each other.

How can Vlandar bear that? he thought. The warrior showed no emotion whatever as he looked a question at Nemis, who nodded. I hope that means his spell is still working, Lhors thought.

Another door-the one set in the south wall perhaps-bangedinto stone, the sound echoing briefly through the chamber before it was swallowed by a blare of arguing, shouting, and fighting. Someone stomped into the open and bellowed what sounded like an order. The prison door slammed shut, and a moment later, the second door cracked into its frame. Utter silence followed.

Vlandar sighed and eased back on his heels. “All right,” hewhispered. “Unless the guard and his ape came out unheard during all that, wehave the space to ourselves. I suggest we make use of it and get ourselves down that long hall before someone else comes.”

“No one else is out there,” Malowan said. “I would know. Getgoing, Vlandar, and I will catch up in a moment. My business is against the north wall. If there are giants close by, I may be able to learn what they plan.”

The mage eyed him. “If-”

“If I can, then we may have useful information. If not, wewill not have lost anything. Either way, I will join you at once. I do not seek a martyr’s death here, my friend.”

Agya stirred.

“No,” he added. “You stay with them. I am safer alone.”

To Lhors’ surprise, the girl nodded and slid back intoshadow while the paladin edged along the east wall, heading north. He gave the doorway around the guards’ room a wide berth, skirted the north opening, thensettled against the middle of the north wall, listening intently.

Vlandar got to his feet and led the party straight across the open, the shortest distance between east passage and south corridor.

There was light in the vast open area, most of it leaking around the door leading to the prison cells. Once they plunged into the corridor, however, the darkness was daunting. There were no openings of any kind along either wall, and it seemed to go on forever.

Halfway down the corridor, Malowan caught up to them.

“Anything?” Vlandar asked softly.

The paladin nodded. “Not now.” He sounded short of breath.

Near the end of the long passage, Vlandar stopped and drew the company around him, then gestured for Lhors and Rowan to check the cross-passage. The youth nodded and moved out along the west wall, glancing now and again at the ranger, who had set her back to the east wall and moved in utter silence. He hoped he didn’t look as afraid as he felt.

Rowan reached the corner and dropped to one knee, then went flat, listening for a long moment before she edged the top of her head into the open. She looked behind her first, then turned her head slowly so she could look over the west tunnel. She made no sudden moves, Lhors realized, and she moved the way his father had taught him when they hunted deer. Silent, slow, steady, cautious moves were unlikely to be noticed by those who called an area home. He suddenly felt more confident than he had in all their journey. This is something I know, something I’m good at, he thought. Sliding down the wall, he slippedquietly into the open to check the east corridor.

There wasn’t much of it. Seven or eight long strides on,enormous boulders blocked the way as if there had been a slide. He could see this clearly, he suddenly realized, because of an opening to his left, halfway between him and the stones, where a torch was burning. The sputtering flame cast an uncertain light on the shaggy bugbear guard who sat bolt upright just inside the doorway, its back against the nearest side of the opening, its attention fixed on that boulder-pile-or possibly something beyond it.

Lhors brought his head slowly back around. There was a door just beyond the guard on the other side of the hall. There was a door opposite Rowan also, and a dreadful smell came from the hand’s width of space betweenfloor and ill-fitting slab of wood. Possibly a prison, Lhors thought. The door didn’t seem to fit well enough into its stone sill even to latch, but there wasa thick iron bar on the outside, holding it shut.

Somewhere to his right, he could hear the distant but unmistakable rhythmic clang of a hammer on an anvil. There was a smithy down here.

He looked over at Rowan, who was waiting for him. She sent her eyes sideways, back the way they’d come, then slowly began easing away fromthe opening. He did the same, only getting to his feet after she did. With one last look toward the cross-hall, the ranger came over and wrapped an arm around Lhors’ shoulders, briefly hugging him.

“Well done,” she murmured against his ear.

Lhors nodded. His face felt hot, and he was too embarrassed by the unexpected praise to know what to say. Besides, it was hard for him to remember that she was at least as old as his mother would have been. She was warm and sleek-bodied, like a very young woman. Her hair was soft. He forced his mind back to more serious matters-such as how to briefly let Vlandar know whathe’d seen down there.

Vlandar drew him back a little farther up the broad passageway where he squatted near the wall close to Malowan. Agya crouched by his feet, eyes moving constantly. The paladin’s eyes were closed, his handsoutstretched, and his lips moving soundlessly. As soon as the two passed Malowan’s fingertips, Vlandar nodded and spoke in a low voice. “You can talkhere. Malowan has worked a spell to keep sound within the tube of space formed around his arms.” A faint smile turned his lips. “Had he longer arms, everyonecould hear at the same time.”

“I’ll pass on to my sister anything she needs to know,” Rowansaid. She glanced up the hall where Khlened and the Maera stood.

Lhors gave a brief account of what he had seen. Once he was done, Rowan took up the narrative.

“There is a long passage, half the width of this, and achamber at the end with no door. There are two giants asleep on a mat near a fire, and there may be others. I know there are more fires. I could see the light of at least three. It must be a torture chamber. I am sure I saw a rack and a spiked crown of pain hanging from a chain. There is a door straight down from here flanked by matching doors. Both are barred. Farther west, an opening seems to angle southwest. There may also be another passage going north. I could just make out shadow but nothing else.”

Vlandar nodded, then fixed his gaze on the opposite wall as he decided on a course of action.

Lhors studied the rest of the group while he waited for Vlandar’s decision. Maera seemed to be talking to Khlened. As Lhors watched, theranger drew the man into the middle of the corridor away from the wall. What Lhors could see of the barbarian’s face was unnerving. He was dead white andsweating freely. His eyes were screwed shut, and he was chewing on a corner of his moustache.

“He fears caves,” Rowan murmured against his ear, “any darkand enclosed place. He admitted that last night when Maera and I pressed him about it. Do not let him know you know it. It shames him to be afraid of anything, but he cannot control it.”

“Two of the women in my village had such fear,” Lhors said.He eyed Khlened for a long moment. “It must be hard for such a brave man tolearn he can fear something.”

“Yes. He can learn to bear it, if he will listen to Maera.”

Vlandar nodded sharply and dismissed them, beckoning for Nemis, Khlened, and Maera to join him. Lhors watched from nearby. He could see Vlandar’s lips moving, then Maera’s and Khlened’s. Nemis merely folded his armsand listened, but Lhors could hear nothing of what was said.

Several moments passed before Nemis beckoned. Rowan gripped Lhors’ shoulder and drew him back over to the rest of the group. The magecaught hold of Mal’s hand and stretched his own arms as far as they would go.

Making a bigger tube, Lhors realized.

Vlandar gestured for all of them to come close. The air inside the tube felt as if a storm was coming-Nemis’ contribution, perhaps.Lhors swallowed dread and tried not to think about the last time his hair had stood on end.

Vlandar cleared his throat. “We can’t stay like this for long. Anyone oranything down here sensitive to magic will sense the tube and surely know we aren’t their kind. If you must say something, it better be important.” Thewarrior quickly laid out his plan. “We won’t go east. Nemis says the regionbeyond the rockslide leads to the caverns he sensed earlier-with the way outthrough water and the other through dread creatures. Besides, there is one bugbear just visible, and it seems to have orders to keep constant watch on the ruined passage. There are others inside the chamber, and they are ready to fight.”

“Why?” Lhors asked. “What enemy could they have back there?”

“Mal thinks they are orcs-a good many of them. From what wesaw of the way these giants treat their servants and slaves, I believe there may have been rebellion down here. The bugbear on guard down there feels anxious, Mal said, and his companions are very alert.”

“Bugbear guards… afraid of orcs?” Khleneddemanded.

“Orcs are as big and as bloodthirsty as bugbears. If theywere enslaved and are now armed and spoiling for revenge… well, they wouldbe a dangerous enemy even if there were only a few of them.”

Several of them nodded agreement, then Vlandar continued, “Sothat is no way for us, even if we chose to face the pool or chance the other portal. Nosnra is also our enemy, but that would not make the orcs our allies. The three chambers across that hall are orc housing, but Mal does not think they are prisoners-servants or trusted slaves perhaps.”

“Trusted?” Rowan protested. “They are barred from theoutside!”

“A loyal slave is still a slave,” Vlandar reminded her, “butthey are not our business. Now, down the right-hand corridor where Lhors heard what could be a smithy, Nemis sensed… you tell them, Nemis.”

“I was aware of several sources of strong emotion: fear andhate mixed, and in some a sense of hopelessness-also extreme heat and at leasttwo giants. Besides the giants, there are slaves-possibly human, perhaps elf ordwarf-I cannot be sure, but they are not orcs or the like. That I can tell.”

Malowan’s eyes fixed on Vlandar, but he said nothing.

Vlandar looked at the paladin and nodded. “Yes, Mal, we willgo there. Nemis, have you another of your beneath notice spells?”

“Better to save those for special need,” the mage replied. “Ican create invisibility, though we will need to be as quiet as possible to pass unnoticed by the two giants in that torture chamber. You do not want to attack the bugbear?”

“No,” the warrior said, “not unless we are seen or heard bythat guard. Their hearing is not keen, and he is concentrating on his task anyway. I’ve fought them before. The noise would alert every giant in thevicinity. No, we deal with those in the torture chamber and the smithy, and then take on the bugbears if we must. We aren’t enough to battle enemy fromboth sides. So, the west passage.”

Nemis nodded. “And move with care around here.”

“I plan on it,” Maera said flatly.

“More than usual,” the mage replied. “These walls-all thisdown here-it was not built by giants, you know.” He smiled, but it wasn’t apleasant expression. “Something older and darker…”

“Set me at it with m’ sword, and I’ll gut it!” Khlenedsnarled, but he’d gone very pale again.

“The gods grant you the opportunity and the strength shouldsuch a chance come,” Nemis replied.

“My arms are growing tired,” Malowan added, “and we havestayed here long enough.”

“Agreed,” Vlandar said.

Vlandar led the way, waiting at the end of the north-south corridor while Nemis cast his spell of invisibility. He then divided his company, placing himself at the fore with Lhors and Maera, then Nemis who wanted to be central should he need to reinforce his spell or create a new one. Khlened came next, then Agya and Malowan with Rowan moving silently behind, a drawn bow in her hands and her eyes fixed on the bugbear guard.

Things went well for some moments. They could hear a faint noise from down the east passage, as if someone were dragging stones away from the other side of the barrier. The guard was halfway off his stool, a morning star clutched in one hand and his whole attention fixed on the boulder wall and beyond.

Suddenly he yelled what might have been an order, his voice a hellish roar that echoed in the relatively narrow space.

Vlandar gestured furiously for everyone to back up against the north wall and stay still. Before they could obey, half a dozen bugbears, all heavily armed, poured into the hall, most of them pelting straight for the boulder wall. Unfortunately, the last of the lot stumbled on loose rock, caught the guards stool to right himself, and wound up on his knees, staring straight into Rowan’s eyes. His jaw dropped and he sucked in a loud breath to yell.

Rowan loosed her arrow, which slammed into his throat. The cry became a shrill howl of pain. The other bugbears stopped dead and turned.

“That’s torn it,” Rowan said grimly, and went to one knee,hauling the arrow case over her shoulder and bracing it against her thigh where she could rapidly draw shafts. Maera came up to take a place behind her, loosing a javelin as the other bugbears came pelting toward them, swords, morning stars, and axes ready to strike.

Vlandar edged around the rangers, bringing Malowan and Nemis with him. The three ran straight for the bugbears, holding to the south wall of the passage to give the rangers and Lhors, who found himself between the two, a clear line on their targets.

“Save your javelins until they’re nearer!” Maera told him.

Lhors merely nodded. His mouth was very dry.

Malowan and Vlandar engaged the first of the hairy creatures, Vlandar blocking the morning star on his sword. Malowan dodged the swing of a bugbear’s axe, then swung around reversing his sword and digging in his heels ashe thrust the blade back through thick fur. The bugbear staggered back, clutching its belly and squalling in agony. Vlandar swung his own weapon in a full circle before bringing it crashing down on the back of the brutes head. The creature fell with a crash.

Another set on them at once, and then more. Khlened came running up, snarling. He brandished a sword in each hand, and he clenched a thick, nasty-looking dagger between his teeth.

Out of the corner of his eye, Lhors could see the rangers firing into the crowd of monsters.

The startled bugbears fell back a few paces, a few falling to the rangers’ arrows and javelins. Lhors saved his own spears in case any of thecreatures managed to break past the three warriors. Rowan finally let Maera drag her and Lhors back out of the way. Nemis came running up, stopping just behind the three men who were barely keeping the creatures at bay.

“Vlandar!” he yelled. “Help me! Get them in a line!”

“What kind of a-? Are you mad?” the warrior yelled back as heswung his sword at the nearest bugbear. Blood splurted from a deep gash on the brute’s forearm, and its morning star fell from its hand. “Will you set themdancing?”

“Get them in a clutch then! I have a spell readied, but itwon’t work on them all otherwise!”

“We’ll get them bunched for you!” Vlandar said as he parrieda strike. “Khlened, to that side! Mal, ease back this way with me!”

The three men formed an arc with Vlandar at the center. The bugbears ignored Nemis-the mage wasn’t wielding a blade like the other three,Lhors realized-and threw themselves forward. The air crackled, and a thick,bluish fog wrapped around the shaggy creatures. When it faded, the bugbears were simply gone.

Nemis heaved a sigh. “Apparently they weren’t fluent inanything but their own nasty language-if that. Stupid brutes.”

“Giants might be,” Vlandar said evenly. “Keep that in mind ifwe need to make plans on the spot, will you? Mal, you and Khlened-”

But the paladin had already moved in the direction they’dbeen heading and stood motionless in the corridor. He came back, shaking his head.

“There is at least one enormous blaze going in that chamber.The two giants I sense may be lying in wait to catch us by surprise, but I believe they are asleep or unconscious.”

Maera smiled grimly. She was coming back with all the javelins she could salvage, running the shafts between her hands to test them before stuffing them back into the case. Rowan was doing the same with her arrows. “Better if we know for certain. That would be work for rangers, I think.Come, sister.”

Lhors stared at the spear he held. He hadn’t even thrown one,he realized. The creatures hadn’t come close enough for him to have been of use.He hoped no one else had seen the panic he’d felt when those monsters camecharging.

Rowan touched his shoulder. “We’re going to make certain thegiants up there”-she gestured toward the doorless chamber and the glow offire-“somehow did not hear all that just now. Come help, will you?”

“I… help? Me?” He blinked then nodded. “If I can.”

“You’ll do, lad,” Maera allowed. She melted into deepershadow along the north wall, edging sideways toward the distant firelight. As the rest of the party sought a hiding place away from the scene of battle, Lhors and Rowan went after Maera.