Keep on the Borderlands

by Ru Emerson - (ebook by Flandrel; Undead)

  “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.<
br />
  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.

  Early morning found them waiting once more just within the clearing while Willow and M’Baddah searched for enemies out in the open. They lay low for a while when Willow signed he could hear things flying overhead, fairly low to the ground.

  “They may be stirges,” he whispered “Small but unpleasant.”

  Unpleasant, he calls the nasty bloodsuckers, Eddis thought, and wrinkled her nose. Each was as long as her arm, and enough of them attacking a woman her size could leave her dead and completely drained of blood in no time. After a while, the elf stole back into the clearing, listened, and motioned them on.

  Furtive noises and rustlings followed them as they worked their way toward the south ledge, where another cave loomed dark and forbidding. Blorys touched Jerdren’s arm to get his attention.

  “I think this might be the cave Zebos described,” he whispered. “All that prickly brush around the entrance and that fallen tree—the forked one—see?”

  Jerdren nodded, then beckoned the others close to pass that on.

  “Keep in mind what he told me,” Blor added quietly. “There are lots of long passages and guards everywhere—even where you might not expect them. Goblins and orcs and possibly hobgoblins.”

  “And remember what we discussed about prisoners,” Eddis added. “Rescuing prisoners here is a high priority, right?”

  Kadymus looked as if he wanted to disagree with her. She quelled him with a hard look.

  Jerdren nodded again. “Sure. Any prisoners would be grateful to us, and that could mean a reward. Or they may know where their captors have hidden treasure.”

  The little thief brightened at that.

  Unlike the previous day’s cavern, this seemed to be a naturally formed cave—at least for the first part of it. Here, it wasn’t entirely dark. Eddis could see faint light far down one corridor, enough that they could walk at a good pace. It was quiet for some distance, but as M’Baddah started into the main passage, he pulled back, gesturing urgently for his companions to get out of sight. Moments later, Eddis heard guttural-voiced beings come clomping and grumbling up the passage from her left. Two burly, shadowy forms passed the entry without slowing. The sound of their footsteps slowly faded. Willow eased into the open briefly to gaze after them, then came back to whisper.

  “Goblins. Taking messages and food to guards on duty up there. The guards are orcs, I think. One of the goblins asked, ‘How’s old Bear-face?’ and a guard cursed him.”

  The elf moved silently into the passage once more, then beckoned. “It is all right. They kept going that direction, away from us.”

  “Then we’ll go the other way,” Jerdren indicated the long passage with faint light at its end.

  It took time, moving quietly down the rough-hewn way and making sure they weren’t seen or heard. They could hear others, though. Harsh, guttural voices echoed along the stone ceiling. Several of them. They could make out moving shadows, cast by the dim light.

  “Guard room,” Eddis murmured, and Willow nodded. The swordswoman checked to make sure Flerys was staying close to M’Baddah and nocked an arrow.

  Light shone on the left-hand wall of the passage, and another step would bring Jerdren into view. He met Eddis’ eyes, indicated the right wall with a jerk of his head as he moved that way. He edged along in shadow for several steps, back to the wall, bow drawn partway. Eddis was right behind him, and M’Baddah came after her.

  Five steps, six. Jerdren threw himself across the passage and into the light, firing three arrows rapidly and seemingly at random into the chamber beyond. Fire flared up in there, casting dark, long shadows in all directions. Startled yells filled the corridor as Jerdren pelted back out of sight, and Eddis took his place. She could make out little because of the light and commotion—creatures running in all directions—but she fired two arrows into the confusion and ran. M’Baddah was already in front of her, shooting with his usual deadly precision. Willow and M’Whan faced a volley of spears and arrows, but none of the weapons came anywhere near them.

  Eddis stiffened as a squat, nasty-looking creature came into sight, sliding along the shadowed wall, spear in one hand, and braced itself to charge.

  “M’Whan, your right!” she shouted and drew back her own string.

  The orc’s head snapped her way, and she could make out an evil gleam of teeth as it grinned, and shifted direction—toward her. Her arrow buried itself deep in the brute’s eye, more by luck than aim, and the orc sagged to the floor.

  There was a sudden silence in the chamber, except for a pained whimper. W
hat are they up to? she wondered. Running feet alerted her, but the sound faded, going away. M’Whan darted into the chamber, bow clutched in one hand, a throwing spear in the other. Eddis threw herself after him.

  She drew her sword as she came into the chamber, but there was no need. The low-burning fire against the far wall showed dead and dying orcs. There was no sign of M’Whan, though. She turned on one heel as the others came up. Flerys had a tight grip on one of her spears, and her eyes went wide as she gazed around the room. Blood ran across the floor and pooled in low places, and now several of the Keep men moved from orc to orc, finishing off the wounded. Aside from the bodies, there wasn’t much in the room: a barrel of water, a table and benches, a barrel full of spears. Eddis could see a passage in the far wall that led into darkness.

  “M’Whan must have gone that way,” she began but stopped, as a breath later M’Whan came into the light.

  “Passage there,” he gasped, out of breath. “Goes down, around a corner. More stairs and a closed door at the top. The one I followed went through it.”

  “And may bring others back here,” M’Baddah said. He, Willow, and two of the Keep men went back the way they’d come to keep watch, and Mead took up a position just inside the lower corridor.

  “Or it might’ve just run,” Jerdren said. He retrieved his arrows, tossing aside one that had snapped against the wall and another that had fallen into the fire pit.

  “These don’t look like rich goblins to me. Ratty clothes, lousy leather bits for armor—nowhere to hide a bag of gems in that, and nowhere in this room, either. I say we go back the way we came and on up where those guards were before we worry about that runner. No sense getting caught between two bunches of goblins, even if they aren’t much to fight. Besides, if the guards are eating, they’ll be as easy as this bunch to catch off guard.”

  “Not much to fight,” Blorys said dryly. “They just sneak up on you and ambush you. No danger of dying from that, is there?”