Keep on the Borderlands

12

It was much colder and very quiet when she was wakened for her share of the watch around middle night. No wind, no insects or frogs down by the water. That means you’ll hear anything coming after the camp, she told herself. Of course, it might mean they were near enough the caves that the creatures there had killed off even the smallest game. Not a good thought, here and now. Jerdren’s right, she thought. Why should you care if something eats your carcass, once you’re dead? A short while later, she went to waken Blorys and sought her blankets once more.

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’Baddah 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 Keep 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, but 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.

“Wait.” Mead had stopped just short of a left bend in the passage a long way on. He had to raise his voice to be heard, when the rest of the company would have surged past him and around the corner. “Only three kobolds there, and my spell has neutralized them, but Jerdren and my brother would doubtless have killed all three by now anyway.”

Eddis flinched aside as the whine of a sword cut the air, ahead in the gloom. Then two kobolds made bulky by chain mail came running up the passage straight toward her, throwing aside their crossbows as they ran. The sight of Eddis, Blorys, and Mead blocking the way stopped them short, and they spun around and ran back the way they’d come. There was another, very brief, clash of metal on metal, and Jers’ triumphant yell. Blorys, sword in one hand and spear in the other, sprinted down the passage, but Jerdren came back into sight, a small cut on his ear bleeding freely. Willow followed, his nose wrinkling in distaste.

Eddis moved warily around the corner and into an alcove, one of the lantern-holders illuminating the way for her. Ahead she could make out a heavy-looking wooden door that was closed tightly, and just short of the door, a sentry area. Two low stools and a table littered with cups and scraps of an old meal had been shoved against the right wall, and on the floor nearby stood a basket stuffed full of quarrels and a wound crossbow shoved in with them. The creatures that had been on guard here were dead.

Jerdren spoke quietly. “Don’t know what’s in there, but we don’t want to leave it there to cut us off from the outside.”

“Don’t even think about that,” Eddis replied.

Willow moved past her to lay his ear against the rough-hewn surface. He nodded and then backed away from the door.

“I can hear voices but cannot say how many. They do not seem to have heard the fighting.”

“Ridiculous,” Eddis began, but the elf shrugged.

“It is a very thick door. Perhaps for privacy?”

“Chief’s room, maybe?” Jerdren asked. He was grinning widely. “There’s where any treasure will be.”

Eddis was aware of Kadymus for the first time since they’d gotten past the pit. The little thief was grinning even more widely than Jerdren. She tapped his shoulder, hard.

“Share alike, remember? If there’s an armed chief in there, do you really want to be the first in to fight him, little man?”

He gave her an indignant look and fell back as Mead again took over.

The mage laid both hands against the portal, then stepped back and spoke under his breath. To her amazement, Eddis heard the mage’s voice from the other side of the door, scarcely muffled by it.

“Fly, all of you!” he ordered, “for you are discovered!”

He retreated just in time. The door slammed into rock, and armed kobolds fled into the passage, engaging the Keep men and the priest. Eddis let Blorys pull her aside to let the creatures go. She sensed a large room beyond that door. M’Baddah came up on her other side, opening his lamp wide with one hand as he drew his curved scimitar with the other.

“That’s no kobold!” Eddis protested as she got her first look at the fellow. He was nearly twice the size of the others, and he seemed unaffected by the sudden flare of light.

“Their chiefs are chosen by size and skill!” Blorys hissed, then set his shoulder against hers as the brute strode through the open doorway and straight for Jerdren.

“Two others in there that I can see, Blor,” Eddis said as the chief brought his two-handed axe down overhand at her co-captain.

Jerdren yelled, “He’s mine!” as he jumped nimbly out of the way and stabbed at the leader, but his blade slammed into the face of the heavy axe and went flying. Off balance, Jers flailed for balance and went down.

M’Baddah slipped between the fallen man and the axe-wielding brute, deflected a wild overhand blow that might have separated the man’s head from his body. The outlander countered the attack with an overhead, slashing blow of his own. His enamel-hilted dagger buried itself to the hilt in the kobold chief’s chest.

At M’Baddah’s warning yell, one of the Keep men ran at the enemy with his spear, but heavy mail turned the point and sent the man reeling back into the wall. The kobold dragged a long-bladed knife from its belt but slipped in its own blood and went down hard. Jerdren, back on his feet, snatched up the battle-axe and brought the weapon down across its owner’s neck.

Eddis stayed where she was for a long moment, then skirted the mess, heading for the last armed kobold, hesitating in the doorway. It wasn’t running—possibly there was no place left to run to—but it wasn’t giving up, either. Female, Eddis thought as she drew near. Possibly protecting its young, and now she could see two such little creatures. They weren’t cowering, either. They were trying to sneak around—possibly trip her or help the female in some attack.

Blorys was a reassuring presence against her left arm. He swung at the monster holding the doorway as Eddis turned sideways to stab at sudden movement on her left.

A sudden, dreadful, high-pitched squealing filled the chamber and hurt her ears. One of the little creatures who’d tried to flank her staggered back, into the open room. Long, pale, bony fingers clutched the hilt of a dagger buried in its belly. The other shrieked and tried to flee, and to Eddis’ horror, Flerys ran past her into the chamber where, one of M’Whan’s spears in hand, she ran the little thing through, pinning the now squirming body to the floor.

“Flerys! Get back!” the swordswoman yelled.

“They’d hurt you!” the girl protested, but at M’Baddah’s command, she edged back out of sight.

The kobold Eddis fought was distracted by the injured and frightened youngling and went down a moment later, impaled on the woman’s sword. Blorys left the one he’d fought gravely wounded and leaped beyond it—or her—to the next of them. The fight had gone out of the last of the creatures. It dropped its weapons and huddled on the floor. The remaining two young ran to it and dung.

Blorys shook his head and swore softly. “Gods. I can’t kill that!” he protested.

“I can.” Jerdren pushed past him and swung his sword hard, several times. Finally he turned away to finish off the wounded creature Flerys had attacked, retrieved the spear, and wiped it on one of the room’s rough hangings. He met his brother’s eyes.

“Any of those might have killed you, female or not. And the little ones grow up, remember?”

He stepped back into the passage. “All of you out here! Keep watch. We don’t know what’s left in this cave that needs fighting. I think this is the chief’s room, and I believe whatever treasure we find will be here. Mead, you should help us look, in case there are potions or charms. Otherwise—Eddis, I say that you, me, the child and Kadymus have the best chance of quickly finding whatever’s here.”

“Keep in mind,” Eddis said, “that we came up the right-hand end of this passage. We don’t know what’s down the other way. So far, I haven’t seen anything resembling those two guards from the entry. Maybe there’s another horde of creatures behind us that they went to warn?”

“Let the guards worry about that,” Jerdren told her. “Work fast. Check anything that might hold coin or other trove, and remember, anything locked probably holds something of great value. If this is the chief’s chamber, he wouldn’t have locked everything of value away—not with that door and guards to keep him feeling safe.”

Kadymus was already rummaging through a pile of dirty bed clothes. He sat back on his heels suddenly and gave a sharp little whistle.

“Don’t do that!” Eddis turned from the small chest she’d found.

“Got something,” the youth said and scooted backward across the floor, dragging something into the open: a small wooden chest, with dulled metal banding. He chuckled softly. “Hidden pretty well. Heavy, too.” He peered at it. “And locked.”

“That’s yours to open, then,” Eddis ordered. “Open, not keep to yourself. Got it?”

Kadymus gave her a sour look but sat down cross-legged to fish out his special lock-wire.

Blorys came across the room, a blood-soaked chain dangling from his fingers. “Found a key around the chief’s neck.”

Jerdren’s eyebrows went up as he fingered the links.

“That’s gold! I don’t know what the gem is, but it’s big. I’ll take the key. Blor, you hold the rest.”

“Lookit this!” A jubilant Kadymus sat back on his heels. “It’s all coins—hundreds of ’em!” He pawed through the top layer, sighed. “No gold I can see, but plenty of silver.”

“Some of that’s platinum, unless my eyes deceive me,” Jerdren told him. “Good work, lad!” He looked around as his brother suddenly laughed.

Blor had torn one of the moldy-looking hangings from the wall and was slicing it to shreds. A pile of gold coins glittered in the lamplight, spilling over his fingers.

“Funny,” he said. “I remembered one of our aunts sewing her egg-coins into the hems of her curtains and blankets.”

“I’d forgotten that. Bundle ’em up, Brother,” Jerdren said, “and be quick about it. M’Whan, you and Kadymus divide up that chestful, so we can spread out the weight among us. Once we’re back in camp, we can make a fair count and sort out what to do with it all.”

“We’re going back to camp already?” Kadymus asked.

“Why go looking for another fight with what we’ve got?” Jerdren replied. “We’ve killed plenty of ’em, and whatever’s left down that last passage—well, we can come back and finish ’em off another day, if we want. All the same…” He thought a moment. “Let’s have a look at that key and see if we can figure out what it’s for.”

Eddis was wiping her blade on one of the hangings when Flerys came up beside her. The girl looked nervous for the first time since they’d left the Keep.

“Eddis? You mad at me?”

It took the woman a moment to remember yelling at the child to get out of the way.

“No, I’m not mad at you, Flerys. I just didn’t want you to get hurt. You mustn’t ever get in front of anyone swinging a sword the way I was.”

“Oh.” The child puzzled at this. “But I was afraid for you, Eddis.”

Eddis managed a smile, though the girl’s words worried her. Flerys had already lost her friend back in that bandit camp. I can’t be sure the child won’t lose me either, Eddis thought. I can’t afford to let her care that much.

“Just… stay close to M’Baddah for now, will you? Or me, if I tell you to. You’ve got good aim with that bow, but I don’t know that you’re ready for close fighting, and you aren’t big enough to bully things bigger than these kobolds, all right? There is a lot of training you’ll want, so you know how to hurt only your enemies in close fighting. Blorys and I are trained, so it’s safe for us to fight together.”

“Yes, Eddis.”

The company moved back along the passage toward the outside world, but at Jerdren’s insistence, made a quick check at its far end. There was a locked door, just to the left of the short tunnel, and the key the chief had worn fit the lock.

“Treasure,” the man breathed as he turned the key and the door swung open.

Eddis caught her breath in a gasp and thrust Flerys behind her. The elves backed hastily away as a foul odor assaulted them. Jerdren, undeterred, took one of the lamps and stepped into the chamber to look around. The swordswoman closed her eyes. It’s a larder. The chief’s larder. That was a human head I saw on the shelf there—and next to it, a human skull.