Malowan beckoned everyone close. “The two giants in that
chamber won’t waken now unless someone shakes or kicks them. But remember there
are other guards about. We must go quickly and quietly, but Bleryn has just told
me something.” He eyed the rangers.
“It’s the ears,” the dwarf rumbled. “When giants first took
me, they brung me down some stairs and into th’ cells ’cross the main room
yonder. They kept us separate, but I could see others when they was took out.
Your ears reminded me there’s an elf down here.”
Maera shook her head. “An elf? Malowan, we can’t—”
“I know we cannot ignore such a prisoner,” the paladin broke
in, “but there are barracks near the cells. We must be quick and quiet.”
“Fine,” Maera said evenly. “Get us there, and we will.”
Malowan merely nodded, gestured for Khlened to bring up the
rear, and took the dwarf with him as he led the way into the east-west hall.
They eased into the long passage and waited against the south wall while Agya
flitted across to listen at the end of the north passage. Vlandar and Lhors
watched that way. Malowan and the others kept a close eye on the east passage.
The girl shook her head and gestured,
None close,
then glanced into the
torture chamber and quickly away. But as she looked down the hall the way they
were about to go, she clapped both hands over her mouth and froze. Lhors heard
Rowan draw a startled breath. The hair on his neck stood up, and it was an
effort to turn and see what frightened them so.
A hideous hill giant and a long-armed hairy brute shambling
on all fours came out of the north passage to the main chamber. The keeper and
his ape.
The keeper was a crook-backed creature. When he turned to
glare through the open barracks door, Lhors could see that one of the giant’s
eye sockets was empty and a portion of his nose was missing. A thinning shock of
filthy hair stuck straight up from his head like rotting corn stalks in a winter
field. The one ear Lhors could see was torn and bleeding. Light glinted on a
grubby rag of a jerkin that exposed more than it hid of a chain-mail shirt. He
snarled something, baring a few misshapen teeth, perhaps calling for the guards
who should be in that chamber.
Lhors glanced back. Agya hadn’t moved. The giant seemed
preoccupied with the missing bugbear guard, but the ape rose to its hind feet,
head moving as if testing the air. Maybe it smelled fresh blood, Lhors thought.
The party hadn’t been seen yet, but they soon would be, Lhors
knew. If they moved, that ape would be aware of them. Possibly it could smell
them from where it was; the distance wasn’t that great, but enough light poured
into the passage from the torture chamber that the guard and his ape would see
them as soon as they turned this way.
The ape tugged at its chain.
It
knew where those
guards were. Lhors was certain of it. The guard snarled what might have been a
name or a curse, then dragged the ape back and cuffed it. The creature fell
back, but still sniffed the air suspiciously.
The giant turned to look down the long end of the passage. At
first, he stared at them blankly. When his one eye took in what it saw, he
hauled a two-edged battle-axe from his belt and yanked hard on the ape’s chain,
dragging the creature off its feet and sending it sprawling. The beast opened
its mouth to scream, but he yanked on the chain again.
Agya shrieked—a faint little cry that Lhors barely heard—but
the ape was suddenly aware of them as well. It rolled onto all fours and bared
its teeth, snarling.
“That’s done it,” Rowan muttered. She ran across the hall to
grab the girl and haul her back to the relative safety of the company. Nemis
began mumbling under his breath as Rowan drew the girl close and began talking
to her in a low voice. “It won’t get you, child. We will keep it away from you.”
Agya nodded and drew a steadying breath as Malowan, Khlened, and the dwarf
pelted down the hall straight at the two monsters. The keeper stared at them,
then smiled unpleasantly and freed the ape.
The beast shambled toward them on all fours. It looked
awkward but moved at astonishing speed. Malowan brought up his sword to slash at
it. Khlened and Bleryn braced, back to back, the barbarian with his morning star
and the dwarf with a massive axe in one hand and a thick-shafted pike in the
other.
Lhors drew a spear, but both enemies were out of range. He’d
never get enough arc to his throw.
“Clear the center!” Rowan shouted. “Arrow, mid-hall!”
“You two, hug that wall!” Malowan gestured with his sword for
the pair of fighters to go south. He leaped for the north wall just as the
ranger’s arrows zinged between them. Two hit the ape. It yammered in pain, then
swiped the shafts free. An instant later, Maera ran forward and threw a javelin
deep into the creature’s shoulder.
The ape charged once more, eyes red with hate and pain, its
mouth wide and foamy slaver dripping from horrid fangs.
“Lhors, you and Agya behind me!” Rowan said as she steadied
another arrow on her string.
“Watch that giant!” Malowan ordered Khlened as he turned
back.
“We’ve got it!” Vlandar said. “Stay there!” He drew Lhors
with him, putting Rowan and Maera behind a second line of defense. Agya came
behind them close to Nemis.
Lhors clutched a boar spear with two hands. He could hear the
brute panting, slowing now and looking surprised at the number of them—or
deciding which of them to kill first. He could hear Nemis behind him, talking in
chant that meant a spell. The stones seemed to shift slightly beneath his feet.
Khlened shouted a wordless warning as the giant came toward them, swinging his
axe. Lhors saw Bleryn and Khlened jump back as the weapon bit into the stone
floor, then brought his attention back to the ape.
“Bleryn!” the paladin shouted. “Does the creature speak
Common?”
“Not as I know, why?” the dwarf responded.
“Good!” Malowan shouted back. “You two get as far along his
blind side as you can. He can’t judge distance with only one eye!”
“He’s got enough reach, ’e don’t
need
to see so good!”
the barbarian gritted.
Rowan shot another arrow, and Maera threw one of her spears.
The ape yelled and plucked both free, then backed away from them—perhaps to flee
or in response to whatever his keeper was shouting.
Lhors glanced at Malowan, who had his back against the wall
so he could keep an eye on both giant and ape.
Khlened was now mid-passage, swinging the morning star
furiously over his head. He suddenly released it, staggering back into the south
wall as the spiked ball slammed into the giant’s chest and stuck there. The
monster wailed much like the ape had and pawed at the weapon to no effect. Blood
stained the mail—but not enough of it to cause him lasting damage.
“Damn all! Most of it was took by ’is mail!” Khlened shook
out his numbed arm.
The dwarf snarled and ran forward, pike back and ready to
strike.
“Get his other eye!” Khlened called out. The giant left off
trying to pull the morning star free and swatted at the pike. More by luck or
skill than good vision, he succeeded. The point bounced off the wall, and Bleryn
went down. Khlened ran to help him up, and Malowan came after. The ape snarled
low in its throat, then to Lhors’ astonishment, seemed to freeze in place.
“He will not come after us now.” Nemis’ voice reached Lhors.
A moment later, the mage came around him, his hands moving. “Mal, Khlened! Down
flat, all three of you! I’ve spelled the brute! The jailer is now his monster!”
“Are ye mad?” Khlened demanded. He’d hauled Bleryn out of the
giant’s reach and had drawn another blade.
Malowan slashed at the giant, who was trying to free the
morning star with one hand and swiping at the paladin with the other. The man’s
blade slammed into the giant’s leg, bounced off bone or hidden armor, and flew
behind him to hit the north wall. The creature clamped his teeth together and
gripped the spiked ball with both hands.
Malowan backed away to scoop up his blade. “I know what he’s
done, Khlened! Both of you, over here, now!”
The barbarian swore but grabbed Bleryn and hauled him over as
the paladin threw himself flat. Lhors stared as the ape suddenly came to life
and shook itself. Khlened dragged the dwarf down under him moments before the
ape thundered past them. The giant stared dumbfounded as the ape threw itself on
him. Both went down.
Before Malowan could get back to his feet, the rangers darted
past him, weapons ready to take on the survivor. When Lhors would have followed,
Vlandar held him back.
“There may be guards back that way,” he said. “Watch for
them.”
“There are, but they heard nothing,” Nemis said. “I blocked
the corridor on all ends with a spell of silence before I bespelled that ape.”
“Watch anyway,” Vlandar ordered the youth. “The rangers and
Mal have matters in hand up there.”
Lhors glanced that way briefly as the giant grappled with his
ape. The creature was much smaller, but it seemed far stronger. With a final,
hellish shriek, the giant went limp and blood poured over the stone floor. The
ape rose high on his legs, beating his lest, hissing and grinning before he
crouched to feed. The youth turned away again and bit his lower lip.
“He won’t notice us,” Nemis reassured them. “That spell will
hold him as long as—”
Maera snorted. “What? Until he runs out of meat? I’m not
leaving that thing alive, mage.”
“Nor I,” Rowan said grimly.
“Kill it now,” Vlandar ordered.
Lhors stole a glance at him, then down the hall—carefully not
looking at the ape. Rowan approached the creature cautiously, bow fully drawn.
She took careful aim and launched an arrow deep into the creature’s back, then
backed quickly away, dragging Maera with her. The creature spun to search for
the source of the arrow, and Khlened brought his sword down across the ape’s
neck.
“Good,” Vlandar said.
Lhors looked, but all he could see now was the motionless ape
sprawled across the body of its master.
Malowan stole down the hall to peer up into the north passage
that led back to the destroyed stairs. Agya came up behind Lhors and swore under
her breath as the paladin vanished that way, but he was back almost at once,
signing that the passage and the vast chamber beyond were quiet.
In a few heartbeats, the party was moving again. Fires still
burned high in the torture chamber. Lhors thought he could hear snoring but
nothing else. He wondered if the dwarves had made it beyond the rock wall.
No one emerged from the prison hallway. If there were
prisoners and guards that way, they wouldn’t come out unless it was time for a
change of guard or if a prisoner was being moved.
“No one outside this corridor can hear anything,” Nemis said.
“But someone might come out and see us,” said Vlandar. “We
need to go. The giants were digging down through that stairwell when we left,
and that was some time ago.”
He sent Agya ahead to join Malowan and Bleryn, put Khlened
and Nemis at the rear, and stayed in the middle between the rangers and Lhors.
“Sir,” Lhors asked as they skirted the dead giant and his
fallen ape, “are we just leaving them? Is that wise?”
“Rowan took her arrows, and Khlened has that oversized
morning star back. We shouldn’t waste the time moving them, even though this
seems to be an hour when not much moves around down here. We don’t need another
fight just now. But look at them, lad. Wouldn’t it seem to you that the two
fought, the ape killed his master, then died of his own wounds? Keep things
simple, when you can.”
* * *
They made it up the broad passage and into the open room
without seeing or hearing anything. Once up against the south wall of the
chamber, Lhors could hear someone quarreling on the other side—but at a
distance, as if another closed door or another wall was between him and the
fighters.
Malowan laid his hands lightly on the wall, then whispered,
“Bugbears. None near. Many asleep.”
The door to the cells was slightly ajar. Light leaked around
it and through a narrow peephole. None of the party were tall enough to see
anything but the ceiling through it. Maera whispered something to Khlened, who
knelt and made a cup of his hands for her foot then hoisted her up. She gazed
through the slit for some moments, then leaped lightly down.
One guard,
she signed.
Four, maybe five cells. Some
prisoners, one human for certain.
Guard where?
Malowan signed.
Close,
the ranger replied, then gestured for silence.
Lhors suddenly heard the bugbear stomping toward the outer
door, muttering under his breath. Malowan signed for the rangers to move to the
hinge-side of the door and for Khlened and Bleryn to take up position on the
other side. He braced himself directly in front of it, sword in one hand and a
long poniard in the other.
Silence again, broken this time by someone inside giggling in
a pain-thinned voice. The guard had begun to draw the door open, and Lhors could
make out a bugbear’s shadow on the wall. The creature turned away to snarl
something. Malowan nodded once sharply, then ran forward, half-turned, and
slammed his foot into the heavy door. The splintered wood swung into the
bugbear, sending him flailing for balance down a short passage. He caught
himself on the thick bars of a cell, swung back and felt for his morning star.
Too late. Malowan was on him, sword point under his hairy chin. The rangers
stood between the guard and his weapon, and Khlened and Bleryn now held the
north wall. The dwarf snapped something that sounded like an order, but Lhors
couldn’t understand a word of it. It sounded more like the bugbear’s language,
all spitting and snarling. Whatever he said, it took the fight out of the guard.