Sea of Death

Chapter 16

A sound behind them made them start. After a minute it was clear that a large body of things, whatever they were, was approaching from down the tunnel, and there was no place for Gord or Leda to go. They were in semi-secluded positions about a hundred feet in front of a guarded entranceway, a crude wall and two square towers of stone manned by a group of albino pygmies. They had spent a few minutes standing here, pondering what to do next. Now their choices were much more limited, since they could not retreat.

"I can climb and conceal myself, I think, Leda. First we must think of some way for you to hide."

"Help me up there," she replied, indicating a ledge about nine or ten feet above their heads. "And don't worry — see?" As she said that, Leda disappeared for an instant, then flashed back into Gord's view again.

The ring you took!"

Tes, from that spell-caster you flattened with the door. It fits on my little finger perfectly. Now, boost me up."

Gord made a stirrup with his interlocked fingers, and the dark elf stepped into the proffered palms. The young adventurer then lifted her to where she could grab a jutting bit of stone, placed her feet on his shoulders, and with that Leda was able to get up to the ledge. Gord saw her step into a recess there, and then she was gone from sight.

It was no challenge for him to scale the wall of the passage. The sandstone had so many projections and indentations in it that climbing it was almost as easy for him as walking up a flight of steps. Gord clambered up as far as he could without being upside down, then moved sideways until he found a place where he could squeeze between two slabs of rock. Shielded from even infravisual sight, he could still peek and see what happened, who passed, and what passed when they arrived at the blocking position ahead.

He had hidden himself just in time. A score of the mute, blond-maned baboon-things came loping along the passageway, traveling on all fours most of the time. Now and then one or two would stand upright and peer around, then resume their shambling progress. Behind them came as many of the white, midgetlike men, a half-dozen in front, ten flanking, and four at the rear, behind a double file of humans who were bent and groaning under incredible burdens. These bearers were blind in the darkness and moved with a shuffling gait to avoid stumbling. All were men, and some looked fit and hale still — but only a few. Most looked very bad off in Gord's estimation, and the way they staggered and groaned reinforced his opinion. He figured that more than half of them would never again serve as beasts of burden after this ordeal. Gord wondered if their pygmy masters would simply allow them to die or kill them out of hand. Cannibalism was likely, he suspected, with fiends such as those albino creatures were.

With sharp prodding and cruel titters, the line of pygmies and their enslaved bearers went past, never realizing that they were observed by the dark elf and Gord. When they came near the wall and its pair of towers, the pale little creatures there made hand signals, to which the leader of the train replied in kind.

Then two of the pygmies actually spoke to each other, but even Gord's acute hearing was unable to pick up their conversation. As they spoke, the rest of the albinos kicked and prodded the slaves into motion, and the procession filed through the gap between the blocky towers that guarded whatever lay beyond.

He was almost fifty feet away from where he assumed Leda to be, but it took only a brief time for Gord to slip out of his hiding place and sidestep over and down to the spot where Leda waited. As Gord descended onto the ledge, the dark elf appeared, in the act of coming forth from the niche in which she stood. "Could you see what transpired?" Gord asked her.

"No, the slaves blocked my line of sight. What happened?"

"The chief of the group made some sort of sign-talk with the captain of the guards, and then they spoke together. I don't know what was said, but the whole band marched in while they talked. What are we to do now?"

"Can you scale the wall beside the guard towers and remain unseen?" Leda asked.

"That, dear girl, is a good question. The wall is nothing, but I am not sure about how alert those little white bastards are. If they are on their guard, I doubt they could fail but to notice my activity."

"But if there was a distraction?"

"Then it should be no problem. I can be up and on the other side the moment that the sentries are occupied elsewhere."

Leda smiled at him. "That's what I hoped you'd say. I can move very quietly myself, Gord, and with the ring I can remain unseen, too. I will sneak up to the guards. When I am near or inside the gateway, I'll find something to do to cause a commotion, and that will be your cue. Watch the guards, and when they look elsewhere, or go away, make your move. Get away from the wall quickly, and I'll wait a bowshot along the path for you."

Gord helped Leda down to the floor of the tunnel, whereupon she became invisible again and went off to do her work. He crept up along the side of the tunnel until reaching the juncture where wall met cavern side. The matter was almost laughable, for the stones that were piled up to ward the passage were so badly fitted that a child could have scaled the twenty feet to the top without danger of falling. There was an ample number of sentries in the area, though, and most of them bore small arbalests of odd design. Recalling what happened to the former owner of the invisibility ring when he was struck by one of the envenomed bolts these crossbows shot, the young man was especially glad that the attention of the guards would be elsewhere when he topped their barrier.

Without making his presence known, Gord kept careful watch on the sentries. Several minutes went by, and still the guards seemed undistracted. Then the one nearest Gord, some thirty feet away on top of the wall, started to gesture violently, evidently replying to some fellow of his located closer to the towers. The first albino then let his weapon drop to his side and jogged toward the towers himself.

Now that there was no one within at least forty or fifty feet, Gord took the opportunity to climb up and over the barrier, which he accomplished in a matter of a few heartbeats. Once atop the parapet, the young thief simply crept across to the far edge, hung from the dropoff by his fingertips, and lightly dropped the fifteen feet to the rock floor beyond, collapsing into a ball and rolling away from the wall as he landed.

The passage on this side of the wall was much the same as on the other side. Why then, Gord wondered, the outpost and guards? But then he noticed the slant of the corridor. It climbed fairly steeply, rising about one foot for every forty or fifty of its length. He assumed that the higher they got, the greater their chances of encountering some sort of actual civilization. From that reasoning, something certainly lay close ahead.

"Pssst! Gord!"

Leda blinked into view at his side as she said that, and despite himself Gord jumped. He had a vague feeling that she was nearby even before she took off the ring, but her sudden materialization disconcerted the young man still. "Don't do that!" he said reflexively.

"Do what?" she responded coyly.

"Never mind… How did you manage to distract the guards?"

"Simple, really. I stole up close to the opening between the towers and started tossing small rocks up in the air so that they would hit on top of the structures. No one could see where they were coming from, of course, so the guards all assumed that a small landslide or cave-in was taking place. As the word went down the line, they all ran for safety inside the towers. They probably cower there still, waiting for a rain of rocks that will not come. As for me, I simply strolled through the opening while they were all babbling at each other, and here I am," she finished with a smug smile.

Gord was silently amused at the mental picture she had given him, but still piqued at the way she had startled him, so he maintained a businesslike air. "Did the guards say anything useful? Do you have any idea where we are?" he asked.

"No," Leda replied. "But from the appearance of things, we must be near the City Out of Mind — or whatever these little runts call it nowadays. That, and the fact that we have to be really careful now, is about the sum of my knowledge."

Gord grunted noncommittally. He pointed up the passage. "Let's get going and see what we can see. I do take heed of your cautionary words, though, girl. Be prepared to act swiftly.*

"I have the ring, love, but what will you do?"

"Whatever the situation demands. I can be rather resourceful myself, you know," he replied with a grin as they set forth at a brisk pace.

No more than a quarter of a mile farther on, they discovered the reason for the guard post. They reached a place where the already large riverbed-tunnel they were in abruptly widened and gave onto an enormous chamber. They looked up and out at a sight that was truly amazing. If this was not the City Out of Mind, thought Gord, then there must be a second place beneath the dust that was even more deeply hidden — because this certainly was a city.

The broad way on the lowest level directly ahead of them was spotted with foot traffic — albino pygmies in small groups, some of them herding even smaller groups of human slaves. On either side of the roadway, stairs and ramps led off and headed up to another level containing an even busier thoroughfare fifty feet above their heads. On the topmost level, Gord could see low buildings of strange, ancient design, their upper storeys serving to support a solid roof of stone that spanned the whole complex as far as he could see.

The whole place was. practically devoid of the sort of illumination that Gord considered natural. A sprinkling of oval globes gave off a dim, unwavering, luminescent red light. These bulbous shapes were spaced at great distances, each held several feet above floor level by a stone receptacle. Their glow did not affect Gord's night-vision; despite the illumination they provided, he could use his special eyesight to see a considerable distance into the near-darkness that pervaded virtually every corner within this odd, subterranean city.

"I believe that the roof overhead is domed," Leda said as she took in the sight of the place. That would be the way we drow would handle things, were we setting about preserving a city from something raining down from above."

Gord observed the space above where they stood at the moment. The ceiling of stone slabs was at least a hundred feet above their heads. "Do you think they created a dome of rock over the whole city?" he asked her.

Leda shook her head. "No, not over the whole place. My guess is that there is a hemisphere which encompasses the heart of the place only, and that we have arrived by a seldom-used side passage at a place near the perimeter of that dome."

A distinct problem faced the two. They had to get around, but the City Out of Mind was a place where only the albino pygmies could come and go freely. Humans were there, but they were slaves and were overseen by their pale little masters at all times. Activity seemed to be slowing, however, and the number of folk on the streets was thinning.

Gord made a suggestion, and Leda was quick to agree. The thief slipped into the deepest shadows at the place where the riverbed splayed out into the chamber; then he moved ahead with Leda following him invisibly.

Gord crept along slowly, allowing time for the cessation of activity on the level above them to match that which had taken place in the lower thoroughfare. Selecting a narrow stair, Gord ascended deliberately, his boots making no sound. The dark elf followed just as noiselessly.

There were a few of the little men still abroad when Gord and Leda reached the next higher level, but they were moving purposefully toward various places. Within another couple of minutes, they had all entered one building or another, and none of the pygmies were coming out. Then Leda became visible and whispered, "I hear a faint, high-pitched note. I think it calls those small ones in."

"I can hear naught," Gord replied, "but whatever the cause, we must take advantage of the situation while it lasts." He looked around hastily, noted what appeared to be a disused structure, and then pointed toward the arched roof overhead. "Let us go into that place and climb to its upper storey. See those flying bridges?"

"I had thought them supports for the roof, Gord. Perhaps they are, but I now see that there are piercings in the stone too — windows! They must be upper walkways."

The young adventurer nodded. This place was once thronged with people, I'd say, especially if all the citizens of the City Out of Mind dwelled here at first."

They and more," Leda suggested as they entered the building Gord had selected.

It had no door, and the entrance was sized for humans. Whatever it had been before, the place was now a warehouse — perhaps abandoned even, for the crates and bales piled inside appeared very old and as though they had been untouched for years. They briefly scanned the contents of the room, but took nothing away except for a couple of lengths of rope that Gord thought might come in handy. After a search, they found a hatch in the ceiling leading to the next floor, and from there another one to the floor above. Because the building had high ceilings, the third storey of the place gave access to the roof-hugging walkways. Both looked out of the unglazed windows to see what was going on below. A few of the little white denizens of the strange community prowled about now, but most of the streets and alleys were empty.

"I hope you are right, Leda."

"How so, love?"

"You said before that we were likely to be within the central portion of the city — or what the ancient ones had managed to save of their capital. We must search this subterranean metropolis for the hiding place of the Final Key. It will be near the heart of it all."

The dark elf looked at him searchingly. "What makes you think that, Gord?"

The one who instructed me told me that. I have no reason to doubt his wisdom or knowledge."

"I thought only we drow had such intelligence about the location of the last part," she added by way of explanation when she saw Gord looking at her with a strange expression.

"We drow? I thought you disclaimed the race, but you use that word more and more of late."

"What Eclavdra knew, I too know, though I like not to examine such memories," Leda told him seriously. "At any rate, tell more of what you know. Does the Final Key lie in plain sight?"

Gord nodded. "I am told it is plainly visible, the central object of worship in the great temple here. I am also informed that despite being in plain view, the Theorpart can neither be touched nor moved."

"Yes, so too my knowledge. In addition, I believe that it is set within the center of a huge sphere of some unbreakable stuff which is as transparent as water, yet hard as diamond."

Not wishing to be outdone by the dark elf, Gord added the rest of what he had been told. The folk here hold it as their sole remaining treasure, their link to their lost greatness and empire. Their evil teachings state that one day the artifact will restore them to their former condition, and the Empire of Suel will rise to dominate all Oerik. Thus, the thing is a holy relic in their eyes, and any who profane their temple, let alone approach too near the Final Key, are subject to death."

"This seems a likely place to store our unneeded gear," Leda said, having nothing further to add to the other subject. "What do you think?"

"It will be easy enough to find this place again. I agree with you, girl. No sense in carrying unnecessary burdens on such a perilous mission as we now face. Speaking of which, I still need some good blade with which to arm myself. As puissant as this dagger is, it is no substitute for a sword when enemies must be fought."

By utilizing the long-deserted walkways high over the floor of the place, the two began a systematic exploration of the nearest buildings. Gord insisted on this, for he wanted to be sure of their base before plunging outward to search for the temple that housed the last portion of the Artifact of All Evil. It turned out that not one of the three buildings connected to the warehouse was inhabited. Once this fact was established, Gord and Leda oriented themselves and headed toward the buildings the albinos had gone into when the dark elf had detected the high-pitched sound.

None of the upper floors they traversed were occupied, although exploration discovered that the lowest levels were in use. The deep channel of the long-vanished river turned to their left far beneath where they traveled. No upper bridgeway spanned its great width, so they had to parallel the path of the deep stone bed.

There was virtually no activity in the city now, and this encouraged Gord. "I am going to venture below," he told Leda. "If the pygmies sleep now, it is the best time to discover what lies down there."

"If we can find a lone albino, Gord, we can force him to tell us all we need to know," the dark elf said. "My power will enable me to know if a lie is told, and a known falsehood is almost as good as an unknown truth."

"All right. Use that ring again, and let us see what can be found down there. These runts should be easy enough to take."

This ancient building, or more correctly remainder of a building, was four stories tall. When the two crept down the stairway to the third floor, they immediately encountered pygmies. A pair of the pale little men dozed on a landing of the very stairway they were descending, their backs to Gord and the invisible drow. Gord located her by touch, pointed, and made punching motions, his fist balled and hammering downward. Leda became visible, nodded, and drew her Yoli sword and held it over her head, blade curved away from her target. Its heavy pommel was a splendid addition to her small fist. Gord held his dagger the same way, and seconds later both of the pale pygmies were unconscious. Gord disarmed them and slipped their little swords into his belt for possible use later.

Their mates below were not alerted, I think," Leda whispered. "I made too much noise when I struck, but you were absolutely silent, love. I wish I could operate as well as you do."

"You are no thief, Leda, that is certain. Nonetheless, don't worry. The rap of your blow and the thud of the little bastard's fall were not loud enough to alert anyone who was not nearby and concentrating on listening. These albinos are careless and sure of themselves. I don't suppose there have been intruders in this place for years — if ever."

"I hope you're right. Let's bind up both of them, then put a gag on one and toss him in an empty room somewhere nearby. Then we'll bring the other one around and begin our interrogation. Being alone and not knowing the fate of his comrade will frighten each of them and make them both more tractable."

They did as Leda suggested, and then prepared to start the questioning. These pygmy folk looked so much alike that Gord couldn't tell one from the other, but the one they selected to begin with appeared the more important of the pair; he had bits of silver set into his belt, while the other gray-garbed one had no such ornamentation. When the albino's big eyes finally came open from Leda's gentle slapping of his face, they nearly started from his head. Gord put on his most fearsome expression, showed the pygmy his blade, and then held the dagger over the little fellow's heart. That didn't seem to scare him as much as the sight of the girl did.

"A drow here!" the albino squeaked in a scratchy, disused-sounding voice.

"Make no other sound as loud as you just did, minimus," Gord warned, "else this blade will dine on your heart's blood in that same instant."

The albino glared defiantly at Gord with his pinkish, pupil-less eyes. Then Leda bent low and fixed him with her own glare. "Listen to what he tells you, runt, or worse than that will befall you. I know a hungry demon who would find a morsel such as you an exciting little plaything — and tasty afterward, too."

"I… I… can not speak as quietly as you seem to wish," he said in a near-whine, addressing himself to the dark elf. "Have your servant untie my hands, and we will converse in silent speech."

Leda nodded, and Gord undid the binding that lashed the pygmy's wrists as he admonished their victim further. "At the least sign of treachery, runt, I'll skewer you. We can always put others of your sort to the question."

The little man began to move his arms, hands, and fingers in a complex series of signs and gestures. He appeared very desirous of supplying information, almost too much so. Leda signaled back more simply and briefly, and a series of such exchanges took place over the next three or four minutes. Then the dark elf spoke. "Now, little one, use your voice in answer to this question. Have you said nothing but truth to me?"

"Yes, drow. I have not lied," the pygmy answered in his squeaky tone.

"Bring in the second one," Leda said imperiously to Gord.

The young adventurer complied meekly. For this purpose, he was willing to be commanded. If these little bastards feared drow, he would not do or say anything to discourage their terror. The second fellow was conscious and struggling against his bonds as Gord entered the chamber where he had been sequestered. For a second the little man actually redoubled his efforts, boldly attempting to free himself even with the human intruder looking on. When it became obvious to him that he would not succeed soon enough, the pygmy stopped his struggling and glared balefully at Gord.

Without a word, effortlessly, Gord picked up the captive, held him contemptuously under one arm, and strode back to the stairway where Leda stood over the other pygmy. In Gord's absence, she had tied him up again and shoved a gag in his mouth. After disdainfully dropping the second pygmy down upon the landing, the young thief stepped back and looked quizzically at the dark elf.

Leda did not give her full attention to the second captive right away. Instead, after making certain the other one was watching, she stepped up next to where the first pygmy was prone on the landing. She then made some gestures in the air, chanted softly for a few seconds, and reached down and grabbed the pygmy's head between her hands. The small body convulsed for a second as if a terrible force had shot through him, and then he was still. "He dared lie to a drow high priestess," she said, looking squarely at the second captive. The albino's eyes were about to pop from his head, and he quivered visibly in abject terror.

"Unbind his hands and remove his gag," Leda said to Gord. As he began to do this, she addressed the pitiful little figure again. "Now I am going to ask you questions too, and this time I will hear no lies."

The pale little man had grown paler still — or so it seemed to Gord, who had watched the whole episode with a mixture of fascination and horror. Never had he seen an execution performed in such cold-blooded fashion.

However, as he observed in the next few minutes, the tactic seemed to have the intended effect upon the second pygmy. The little man signed and gestured freely and frantically once his hands were unbound, occasionally using his voice if commanded by Leda to do so, and when the interrogation session was over the dark elf appeared satisfied.

"Bind and gag him again, Gord," she commanded. When that was done, she spoke again. This one is far wiser than his dead comrade," she said with a small smile of triumph, "but he is still a comrade nonetheless." With that, she made the same gestures and sounds as before, then reached out and gripped his skull with one hand. The second pygmy died as the first one had, quickly but awfully.

Leda turned back to Gord, who made no attempt to hide the revulsion on his face. He thought he detected an evil gleam in her eyes, but perhaps it was just the way the reddish light struck them. Tuck this one away in the same chamber he was before and meet me back here," she said coldly. He hoisted up the body and set off, somewhat in shock over what he had just witnessed. By the time he met Leda back on the stairway, the dark elf had disposed of the other corpse somewhere else.

"How could you murder those captives like that, girl? That was a very wicked thing you did," Gord accused.

Leda was anything but remorseful. "Really?" she said caustically. "Do you think so? Better, I suppose, to let them live and eventually escape their bonds. Then they and their lot could harry and hunt us through the city, capture us, enslave me in one of their filthy brothels, and use you as a beast of burden. Of course, sooner or later we would win release — by being butchered and served for supper when we were no longer useful other than as food. You soft fool!

"And besides all that, it is quite possible that these midges would learn or guess why we were here and take their precious relic elsewhere. Bad enough that it should fall into Eclavdra's clutches, and worse still if the pile of dung, Obmi, should gain the Final Key — but something even more awful could occur."

Even though her entire rebuttal was delivered in a voice just above a whisper, Gord was thoroughly humbled by the acidity of her words and the soundness of her logic. He felt that he had been stupid and judgmental, and was ashamed of what he had thought of her. As he finished turning all of this over in his mind, he realized that she had paused for a reaction or response from him. "What worse could occur, Leda?" he ventured softly.

The pygmies could realize what they really possess in their temple," she explained, calmer now, and speaking as if to a naughty pupil. These degenerate little ones are the kin of men above. If they understood the nature of the Final Key, and what they could gain, our little pygmy friends would carry it off to give to their own."

"Who are their kin?"

The masters of the Scarlet Brotherhood, of course. Those devil-lovers disdain these degenerates, but they would grant them much in return for what the albino scum possess, for then those red-clad plotters would surely be able to unite all portions of the artifact, and… he… would awaken."

"I am sorry, Leda, for what I said to you — and more sorry still for what I thought."

"No matter, Gord. Time enough later for such talk, if we succeed. I learned much from that second minimus. Held on the floor below are many slaves. If we slip down and free them, these men will run amok and cause great trouble for their masters. Then, in the confusion, we will be free to seek out the temple."

Before they crept down the stairs to the slave barracks, Leda explained more of what she had discovered and formulated a plan of action for them. There were several other buildings used as slave quarters nearby. They would assist the captives on the floor beneath them, and then tell them how to go to release their fellows. The slaves were nearly all human and had little vision in the dim red light here, but they could be effective in numbers, and the few with elven blood among them could see in the darkness and serve as the leaders.

"On the other side of the riverbed is a museum," she said, "almost a holy place in itself to these lost degenerates. If the freed slaves can gain that place, they can arm themselves with man-sized weapons left from ancient times. That will encourage the men and enrage the albinos. In the chaos which follows, you and I will cross the riverbed farther up and find the temple of the albinos. It is made of snowy marble and gold, the only structure of its sort. We cannot miss it, I am sure."

"What about a weapon for me? I think I'll be needing a good sword before long, Leda. These toothpicks are better than nothing," he said, indicating the pygmy weapons he had claimed, "but they will not serve me well against the likes of Eclavdra or Obmi."

She nodded in vigorous agreement to that. "The old stuff which the slaves will gain — if luck is with us and them — will never suit your needs, Gord. But the second little lout told me something else of interest. These pale ones trade with others in the Sunless Realm. Over the years they have accumulated a storehouse of materials which are useless to them, for it is sized to large men, not runts such as these grubs are. You will surely find a good blade there, and with it an even better one can be gained."

"How so?"

"In their temple there are other objects of veneration. The arms and armor of their long-dead sovereigns are enshrined there, as well as who can guess what other things from the glory days of their empire. Could their ancestors but see these puny descendants now," the dark elf spat, "they would squash them in disgust like so many bugs!"

That ended Leda's briefing of Gord, so now the two proceeded cautiously down the stairs. A pair of drowsy guards flanking an open doorway proved no opposition at all, and once they were inside the slave quarters Gord used his enchanted, metal-slicing dagger to quickly and quietly cleave through the locks that held the two dozen humans, half-elves, and elves in chains. Despite the poor physical condition of most of them, the slaves were alert and smart. They had enough sense to make no outcry at their deliverance, realizing they were far from safe yet, and they got rid of their chains quickly and silently when they were cut free.

After he freed them, Gord wordlessly offered the slaves the four weapons that were immediately available — the two swords from the dead guards and the pair of little blades that Gord decided they could use better than he.

Gord and Leda led the way to the lower floor, finding a roomful of about a dozen sleeping pygmies. They entered the chamber, accompanied by four members of those few among the slaves who could see in the dark and move soundlessly as well. Dividing up the quarry to two pygmies apiece, this group slaughtered all the albinos without waking a single one.

Where they had been grateful but still grim moments earlier, the slaves were now ebullient and determined. They had gleaned nearly twenty more pygmy-sized weapons from the assault just completed on the sleeping quarters, enough to virtually arm every man in the band.

After allowing them a couple of minutes for a subdued celebration of their freedom, Leda spoke to the ex-slaves solemnly, pointing out that they had much work to do if they hoped to survive and return to the world above. The dark elf told the others that they must arrange themselves to be led by those who could see in the dark and gave them all information on where the other slave barracks were nearby, how to use the upper walkways to gain these places, and where an arsenal was located across the dry river course. Then Gord and Leda bade them all good luck.

Thanks to you, man, and you too, even if you are a drow!" a lean, worn half-elf muttered as the band began to move out. "We have no sure course to escape this place, but dying free and in battle is preferable to slavery and consumption by these cursed ones. May we succeed, and may you gain success in whatever purpose you had in entering this miserable hole," he said over his shoulder. Then all of the ex-slaves were away, climbing into the floors overhead.

Gord and Leda waited a few minutes, watching outside all the while lest a wandering pygmy stumble upon the carnage of the slave barracks and sound an alarm prematurely. When they supposed the freed slaves were well on their way, the two dashed back upstairs themselves.

After they had passed through the interiors of three buildings and as many of the walkways, Leda thought it best to descend and find a place where they could gain the old riverbed, make a run across the wide way, and then get up to the other side of the city where the temple lay. The structure they were in was poised on the verge of the rocky channel, and Gord located a narrow flight of stairs that ended about twenty feet above the bottom of the old riverbed.

This is the place where we disembark, Leda. Can you manage to climb down the rest of the distance after the stairs end?"

The dark elf examined the old stone carefully. "I think so — there are places to hang on and put my feet — but what if I slip and fall?"

"I'll catch you — no fear of that," he said hastily. Then the young man was over the edge of the little landing and down. It seemed to Leda that he almost slid rather than climbed, but the descent was not quite fast enough to be a fall. Then Gord was standing on the riverbed below, looking up at her, and motioning to the girl to follow. After she got about halfway down, Leda could not find her next foothold, and she panicked briefly. The quickest way is to let go, my dear," he said. "I am right beneath you." She did as he suggested, and he had no trouble breaking her fall with his strong, outstretched arms.

"Right across the way is a ramp going up the far side of the riverbed. Let's run for it," Gord urged just after putting her down.

Leda suddenly froze. "Listen! I hear the piping note again, only this time there are quavers in it, and it is more intense. The little white things must have discovered there are slaves armed and in revolt."

Then the air was filled with a dim throbbing, a sound that even seemed to permeate the ancient stones of the place. Some monstrous iron gong was being beaten a long distance away, struck with repeated force every few seconds, so that the reverberations went in deep swells through not only the air but through the fabric of the rock beneath the city, causing the surface on which they were standing to vibrate beneath their feet.

"I think more than a slave revolt would be needed to make the pygmies resort to that sort of alarm," Gord said between tremors. That sound makes my very bones shake."

Leda was about to reply when yet another sound joined the chorus of nearly inaudible horns and iron gong. This was a brassy shrieking, a wailing series of notes blown on some larger horn than that which made the thin piping.

"That sound I have heard — or, I should say, Eclavdra has heard," said Leda. "Her memories tell me it is the rallying horn of the pygmies. I don't know the significance, but it seems to come from up the river channel."

"Yes, I think so, Leda. And the gong sounds from that way," he added, pointing the opposite way. "The pygmies are under attack from two directions, I'll wager, and their slaves are in armed revolt even as their enemies come upon them. I hope those miserable little cannibals are about to get their just deserts!"

"Never mind justice right now, Gord. Let's find that temple while the pale ones are really busy." Chuckling grimly, Gord loped along beside her as Leda took off at a brisk run for the opposite side of the depression.