Chain of Bargains dm-5

by Jeff Inlo

  Holli rushed in after with the speed and daring of an elf. Once through the doorway, she eyed stacks of old storage boxes piled off to her left. With one graceful leap, she perched herself at the top of the heap and surveyed the interior of the building.

  Several goblins stared blankly at the commotion, unable to grasp the sudden raid. The warehouse had been theirs for several seasons and the humans never dared to interfere with their activities. They looked to the front entrance bewildered by the rush of movement.

  While they were unable to identify the individual who raced through their ranks, they could not fail to recognize the pointed ears of the female elf who violated their sanctuary. The few that had crossbows readily available took hold of them with angry intent, but as they fumbled through bolt pouches, they never found the opportunity to load their weapons.

  Shifting across a mostly open warehouse floor, Ryson raced about with no apparent pattern. He moved based entirely on instinct and allowed his keen senses to drink in the surroundings. Other than a gaping hole in the center of the warehouse floor, there were only minor obstacles to overcome. The goblins stood before him on open ground without cover, an advantage he used to its fullest. He targeted goblins based on their movements and their degree of threat. He disarmed several by swatting away crossbows with the steel of his swords.

  Utilizing both war blades, the delver managed to eliminate every menace without placing himself in danger and ensuring several prisoners. Rather than skewering them with the point or slicing them into shreds with a sharpened edge, Ryson slapped them on the side of their heads with the flats of the blades. Most dropped into unconsciousness. Those that were only dazed managed to stumble toward the center of the warehouse.

  At the edge of the fracas, Holli appraised the skirmish with an eye toward keeping the delver safe. Preparing to fire arrows in quick succession, she readied her bow but never had to draw the string. The goblins had been caught completely off guard and they were not prepared to deal with the swift movements of a delver. Even the small monsters at the far side of the warehouse were too confused to understand the full measure of their plight before Ryson could reach them. In mere moments, the battle would be over and the delver would never face any true jeopardy.

  Holli found exuberant joy in watching the delver run. It was almost intoxicating. He was not this flash of movement like lightning across a sky. Instead, Holli viewed him as a perfectly controlled breeze, like a blessed wind which rushed across the hills that Ryson loved. It wasn't just speed that defined the delver. It was a combination of speed, quickness, and ideal efficiency of motion. He wasted not a single movement and let instinct direct his path. The fluidity of every shift, turn and twist made the elf believe that the delver was created to be in motion-it was what he was meant to be. The goblins never had a chance.

  Satisfied her arrows were not needed, Holli took the opportunity to gauge the conditions of the warehouse. She could not help but notice several piles of gems and precious metals scattered about the warehouse floor. Additional storage boxes lined the far walls. Goblins had been crating the treasures when she and Ryson entered. She wondered how much wealth rested within crates that had been nailed shut and waited by the locked bay doors.

  She then turned her attention to the hole in the center of the floor. The boards had been ripped away which allowed access to the dirt beneath the building. A large hole formed a tunnel that led below ground and out of her sight. Several ladders poked out of the underground passage. She couldn't believe it, but it almost appeared as if the goblins had been mining.

  While the concept seemed too bizarre to accept as reality, she could not discount certain facts. Everything within the warehouse pointed to accessing and extracting precious minerals. Nothing else could explain the goblins' activities. In fact, she found no other reasonable alternatives.

  The monsters were certainly not ready for a battle. Only a handful wore weapons. A few short swords, crossbows, daggers and short bows rested in corners, but none of the goblins could reach them before Ryson cut them off. Clearly, they were not preparing for a raid, nor were they preparing to go out on any hunt. Most appeared dispatched for manual labor, nothing more. Shovels and picks were plentiful. They were not acting like goblins at all.

  Holli redirected her focus to a few of the stunned goblins that made an effort to reach the center of the warehouse. She watched as some managed to scramble down ladders into the tunnel. Escaping down a mine shaft was usually a plan of last resort, as it often led to a dead end. She believed the fleeing goblins might have hoped to alert others below ground. Perhaps they thought they could regroup and defend themselves within the tunnels. It didn't matter. The warehouse itself, and thus the entrance to the mine, was nearly secure.

  When the last goblin dropped out of sight, and Ryson had the others rendered unconscious, Holli leapt from her perch and moved to assist the delver in tying up close to two dozen unconscious monsters. She would force one awake soon, but first she needed to discuss her peculiar findings with Ryson.

  "Well done," the elf congratulated the delver, "more prisoners than I hoped."

  "Thanks, but this was easy. Most of them weren't even armed."

  "No, they appear to have set themselves up as miners."

  Ryson looked about and could do nothing but concur.

  "Goblins mining. This just keeps getting stranger."

  Holli had longer to contemplate the situation, and while she agreed to the sentiment, she believed she finally began to see some semblance of reason.

  "I admit it bothers me, but goblins taking treasure is not uncommon. It actually fits them more than attempting to grow crops."

  Ryson looked upon the piles of gems and precious metals.

  "At least they seem better suited for mining than farming."

  "Do not be fooled. Goblins do not make farmers or miners. They are thieves, nothing more, but at least part of this begins to make sense."

  "How so?"

  "I know enough of human corruption to understand how powerful such wealth can be. There is enough here to buy off several town leaders. It explains, at least to some extent, why the captain of the guard here in Huntston and the council members at Ashlan agreed to allow goblins to enter their towns."

  "They're being paid off," Ryson acknowledged.

  "At least some of them are."

  "Do you think the goblins are paying off Prilgrat?"

  "In all honesty, no. As a regional steward, he has the power to obtain riches well beyond what we see here. He remains a mystery to me."

  "So what do we do now?"

  "We explore this mine shaft."

  Ryson grimaced as he looked into the wide expanse that broke through the ground before them.

  "You know there's quite a few goblins down there."

  "I do, but it is worth the risk."

  "Can I ask why?"

  "As I said before, goblins are not miners, they are thieves. Though some of this makes sense, it also creates other questions. Why would goblins mine precious minerals just to give them away? Why wouldn't they keep the treasure for themselves?"

  "Maybe they are. Maybe we're wrong about the payoffs."

  "We are not. Look at how the treasures are being divided and crated. This matches human organization, not goblin desire."

  Ryson couldn't disagree.

  "So we need to know what's really going on down there," Ryson allowed. "Should we wake up some of these other goblins first… question them as to what they're doing?"

  "I would rather obtain more information first."

  "Okay, but I'm not too thrilled about going into a dark shaft where they could ambush us from any point."

  "I agree, so we will take a precaution. I'm going to cast a sleep spell into the mine." Holli saw Ryson's enthusiasm with the idea and tempered his expectations. "It is not a spell I like to use. It takes a great deal of energy and only works under certain conditions. Outside, it is almost pointless, unless of course you have Enin's
level of energy and his control. I do not come close to that, but it can be effective in enclosed places with little air flow. Anyone touched by the mist will drift off into sleep, but they are not unconscious. They can wake if we are careless. The spell is a mix of water, air, and light; none of which are my natural power. The spell can be offset easily, but for our purposes, it should keep us out of harm's way."

  Holli bent her head and stared down into the gloomy shaft. She could see the ladders anchored to a flat platform directly below. A tunnel formed that led off toward the west and angled downward out of sight.

  Focusing her magical powers on the sleep spell, she phrased an incantation from the powers of light, air and water. A green octagon formed around her wrists as she pressed her palms together in front of her chest. While lowering her arms slightly and pulling her palms apart to press them down over the hole, the magic turned to a light green mist that sunk deeply and quickly into the shaft. Within moments, all of the green energy separated itself from Holli's wrists and traveled into the depths of the mine.

  Realizing the spell was complete, Ryson wondered aloud as to how long they would have to wait.

  "How fast does it work?"

  "Upon contact. The water portion of the spell will force the mist to sink to the lowest point of the shaft, but eventually it will dissipate." Holli watched the green fog float further down the tunnel, leaving the platform below clear. "It should be safe for us to descend now."

  Ryson moved to a ladder, but then focused on a new concern.

  "What if there's another spell caster down there… one that can counteract the spell?"

  "Goblins are not normally efficient with magic."

  "What if there's something else down there that is efficient?"

  "Then we would be in trouble regardless."

  "I guess that's true."

  "Remain quiet and careful," Holli advised.

  Ryson almost laughed. He appreciated the concern, but he certainly wasn't going to be loud and careless, not while descending into a deep cavern filled with goblins. He checked his emotions as he moved as silently as a shadow down one of the ladders. He did not, however, allow himself to become a target. He slid down using the rails as opposed to stepping upon the rungs. He hit the ground as silently as a feather but with much greater speed. Once on solid footing, he twirled about and used his keen delver vision to peer down the mine shaft. He spotted several goblins upon the ground, apparently sleeping. He motioned to Holli that the area was secure.

  The elf guard moved with less speed as she inspected the edges of the break in the ground that led down to the tunnel platform. Upon completing her descent, she moved quickly to the stone walls of the shaft and placed her hands upon the rock. She rubbed her palm across the stone gently at first, then with greater force.

  Stepping up beside the elf, Ryson turned his curiosity upon the rock as well. The break in the ground that allowed access to the deeper tunnel was defintely of different construction then the mine shaft itself. The walls of the lower tunnel were almost smooth. The quality of the work was beyond anything a human could have completed, let alone a goblin. Ryson didn't wish to speak, but he felt compelled to whisper his observation.

  "Dwarf mine."

  "I know," the elf replied. "It's not very old, but the access hole is newer and that was dug out by goblins."

  Holli frowned but said nothing further. She motioned for Ryson to follow her as she stepped lightly down the shaft deeper into the mine. As she passed several sleeping goblins, she checked on them carefully to ensure the sleep was deep. Satisfied with the spell, she knew the goblins could be wakened, but it would take an effort.

  Continuing to stalk down the tunnel in dim light, Holli examined many areas of the shaft. She inspected the ground they walked upon and the shaft ceiling overhead. She noted the support beams and the tunnel offshoots that led to mineral deposits of silver and even some diamonds. None of the deposits were vast, but the mine itself continued on for untold lengths. The digging around the veins of silver were inefficient and not the work of skilled dwarf miners. Holli believed that the dwarves might have started the mine, but had abandoned it, which allowed the goblins to take control.

  At least one of the mysteries was now coming into focus. It was true goblins were not miners, and they hated to toil, but digging through dark corridors to obtain easy riches was something within their character. They didn't have to excavate the shaft-that work had already been performed for them. They simply had to steal what was there for the taking. Goblins were not patient creatures, but if a number of them spent a full cycle of the seasons exploiting the mine, they could have extracted substantial wealth.

  Believing she understood the purpose of the goblins in Huntston, Holli was left with the chore of linking the mining operation to the other issues within the Great Valleys. She did not believe in luck or coincidence. The goblins were directed to the mine, perhaps by Prilgrat. She couldn't conceive why, but there were many inconsistencies about the regional steward.

  Still, if she could link Prilgrat to the Huntston mine, she might finally have leverage over him. It was during these considerations that Ryson took hold of her arm.

  "We have to get out of here now!" He kept his voice as low as possible, but in truth, he was no longer worried about waking up any of the goblins around them. They would all be awake in a matter of moments.

  It wasn't fear that Holli saw in Ryson's expression, but there was clearly a desire to run. The elf didn't wish to ignore the delver's alarm, but she needed to understand the severity of the danger.

  "What is it?"

  "Goblins… hundreds… maybe thousands, coming at us very fast."

  That was all she needed to hear. She took the lead as she raced back up the shaft toward the platform under the warehouse. They moved faster than any goblin ever could, but she soon understood Ryson's overwhelming need to escape the cramped tunnels. When she reached the ladder, she couldn't see the goblin horde, but she could feel them. The tunnel shook and dust began to fall from the walls. She climbed the ladder as if it were on fire and the flames licked her heels.

  Ryson followed her. He continued to glance down the angled decline of the shaft, but thankfully the mass of dark creatures he knew was coming remained out of sight. He had seen legions of monsters before. It was never a heartening sight. How there could be so many always left him questioning his sanity.

  Upon reaching the top of the access hole in the warehouse floor, both he and Holli pulled violently at the ladders. They had to break them from anchors but they managed to release them and pull them all up out of reach of the coming horde. They threw them against the far walls of the building, hoping to keep them as far out of reach as possible.

  "That will only slow them temporarily." Holli advised. "They will climb upon each other to reach the top. We have to get out of here."

  Before she left, however, she grabbed one of the bound and unconscious goblins they had left topside and threw it over her shoulder. She quickly raced to the door and broke out into the open. Once outside, she scanned the area for guards. She saw them in the distance, still at the bridge. She could not locate the guard captain, but she imagined he was near or on his way.

  Ryson nodded to the guards as well.

  "Do we warn them?" he asked.

  "By the time we explain what happened, the horde will be within their sight. I do not wish to lose this prisoner, so we head to the trees to the south."

  Ryson didn't like leaving the soldiers without any warning, but he knew Holli was right. The guards weren't going to act with any efficiency. He knew that from their past encounter. They'd ask questions and the delay would waste any good intentions. Better for them to see the horde and act accordingly rather than dispute what might have happened within the warehouse.

  Ryson and Holli raced over mostly open ground between the buildings that covered the southwestern section of Huntston. They moved with haste, but they continued to peer over their shoulders to w
atch the warehouse behind them. They both waited for the inevitable rush of the horde through every door and window of the warehouse, but such an eruption never occurred.

  "They're not coming out," Ryson noted.

  Holli allowed a few more moments to pass, but even she had to agree. The monsters had ample time to extract themselves from the mine and exit the warehouse, but they remained out of sight. It didn't make sense, but not much had.

  "Perhaps they are satisfied with securing the warehouse," Holli offered. She couldn't explain why, but she certainly wasn't going to go back to find out. Rather than agonize any further over the issue, she focused on her newest objective. "Let us get to the trees."

  Chapter 18

  The horde never exited the warehouse. Even as Holli and Ryson made their way across the southern clearing that separated Huntston from the trees, they kept watch on the area by the western bridge. They listened for conflict with the guards, as well as for unrest among the townspeople. No commotion erupted. Not a scream of fear, not a shriek of hysteria, not even a curse of anger. The town remained as it had been when they entered… under control.

  Ryson couldn't believe what happened. He knew the horde had barreled up out of the depths of the mine. While running from the building, he could hear them climbing up into the warehouse and filling the very rafters. He wondered if the walls could hold them all, but not a single goblin exited the building.

  "What do you make of that?" he called to Holli.

  "They were willing to protect their sanctuary, but not willing to invade the town. It seems as if certain areas remain off limits to them, as do certain behaviors."

  Holli offered no other explanation as they crossed into the trees and she turned her attention toward finding a secure spot to question her prisoner. The goblin over her shoulder began thrashing before they made it into the Twin Rivers Forest and it was struggling against its bonds. Disregarding the frantic movements, Holli selected a tall white elm and hoisted her prisoner high up into a tree. With near disregard to the goblin's safety, she flung it onto a thin branch.