by T. H. Lain
Regdar stepped back and was just about to pull the prisoner into the narrow cave they'd come from when Naull, screaming, came flying through the air. Regdar realized she had been trying to jump on the jailer-goblin just as the prisoner pushed it into the pit.
Naull came to a hard, sliding stop on the step and slid off the edge. Regdar could see the fingers of both of Naull's hands, white and trembling as she held for dear life onto the sharp edge. He grabbed at the prisoner again, but the goblin spun on him and flinched away. The big hobgoblin roared twice in such a way that made Regdar think it was saying something to the two dozen or so goblins that hadn't run away.
In the pit, the krenshar charged the goblin jailer. The creature's razor-sharp claws shrieked across the smooth stone floor as it went. The goblin drew its dagger and screamed what might have been a challenge, a prayer, or just the incoherent cry of a goblin who knew it was about to die. It did step forward, though, and slashed its dagger down at the krenshar's head.
The smaller of the two hobgoblins charged around the perimeter of the krenshar pit, making its way toward Regdar with heavy, stomping feet. It was swinging a morningstar. The brutal weapon's two big steel balls, which were clustered with jagged spikes, whirled at the ends of heavy chains that hung from a leather-wrapped handle. The hobgoblin was almost exactly the same size as Regdar, who was ready for a decent fight. As the hobgoblin came around it sent two goblins tumbling into the krenshar pit and two more scrambling out of its way. It was only then that Regdar noticed the goblins cowering between the cave wall on his left and the edge of the krenshar pit.
The hobgoblin was moving slowly enough that Regdar could take the time to gently slice through the spidersilk holding the prisoner's hands behind its back. Behind the goblin he could see Naull's fingertips still clinging to the edge of the pit—then he turned back to see the hobgoblin coming at him fast and hard.
He had almost come to a snap decision about whether he would save Naull first or meet the hobgoblin's charge head on when a spider slammed into him. Its needlelike legs pinged off his armor, and the horrid sideways jaws clacked at him. It was all he could do to keep his left arm between the spider and his exposed face. The thing seemed to be trying to bite him in the eyes. Regdar could hear another one coming toward him from behind and up on the platform.
The bigger hobgoblin still stood at the other side of the pit, screaming a string of incoherent growls. By the sound of it, Regdar could tell the humanoid was angry—and getting angrier. In the pit there was the screech of claws on stone, then an ugly ripping noise and a pained, desperate wail—a goblin's wail.
The spider was crawling over Regdar's arm. He was twisting at the elbow and shoulder, trying to keep it off his face. Finally, he was able to get his huge greatsword inside and flicked a wedge out of the underside of the spider's brittle body. It quivered, convulsed, and its eight segmented legs curled up under its bleeding body, trapping Regdar's left arm with them. When the other spider leaped off the platform at him, Regdar used the dead spider on his arm like a shield and managed to avoid the thing's bite.
The block drew Regdar half a step sideways, and when he glanced down to make sure he wasn't too close to the edge, he saw the goblin prisoner, crouching low beneath him. The goblin snatched the stone club from the dead jailer.
The spider rolled off the dead one still stuck to Regdar's arm and came to rest on its feet, right next to the now-armed prisoner. There was a loud growl almost in Regdar's face, and he looked up just barely fast enough to see the hobgoblin almost upon him.
Regdar stepped backward and brought the dead spider up. The hobgoblin's morningstar smashed into it hard enough to rip it free of Regdar's arm and send it sailing up onto the stone platform above.
Regdar felt a hand on his ankle. He didn't risk a glance down, but was sure it was Naull. She pulled herself up and over the edge of the pit. Regdar could hear the krenshar's jaws snapping just below her. She whispered a curse and thanked the god of magic for her life.
The hobgoblin growled in Regdar's face and recovered quickly. Regdar ducked a backhand swing and brought his sword up to jab at the hobgoblin's midsection. The humanoid skipped back, letting its morningstar spin behind its head while it changed its grip on the weapon from one hand to the other. Regdar stepped in with a slash across the hobgoblin's chest that cut through its animal hide and bone armor, but not quite deeply enough to draw blood.
The goblin prisoner had to roll out of the way and hop up onto the space between the pit and the platform. The spider followed it, and Regdar caught just a glimpse of a splash of spider guts as the goblin prisoner broke through the spider's shell. Regdar could hear a third spider clattering up from behind him and hoped the ex-prisoner would take care of that one as quickly as it did the last.
The hobgoblin brought its morningstar down over its head with its left hand, and Regdar could see what it was trying to do. Its right hand was balled into a fist the size of a sledgehammer, and it was hoping Regdar would dodge the morningstar and move directly into the punch. Instead, Regdar dodged to the left and held his sword up over his head. The heavy steel balls wrapped the chain around Regdar's blade, and there was a second where the surprised hobgoblin stood there and watched it happen.
Regdar took that opportunity to look behind it. The goblins along the wall were watching in obviously stunned fascination. Behind the bigger, still ranting hobgoblin on the other side of the pit, a small group of goblins and a few of the spiders were rallying around a single goblin who was growling at them in that ugly language of theirs.
The big hobgoblin turned on them, and Regdar could see the fear in the eyes of all the goblins who had been rallying behind it. The sound of the big hobgoblin's voice was like thunder rolling through the huge cave. The thing was not happy.
The hobgoblin whose morningstar was wrapped around Regdar's sword kicked the human in the side hard enough to push the air out of his right lung. It was an odd, painful sensation, but Regdar didn't have time to stop and consider it. Tensing his right arm and bringing all of his considerable strength to bear, he twisted his greatsword out and to the left, flipping the morningstar from the hobgoblin's grip.
Doing so, though, turned him around, so that he had his back to the hobgoblin. Regdar was facing Naull's back and had to dodge to one side to avoid the young mage's staff. She jammed it back, then sliced it down, and Regdar watched it smash onto the top of a spider that was just about to bite her in the ankle. It was the spider Regdar had hoped the prisoner would kill—it was as if hed forgotten about Naull completely. He drew in a breath, stunned and disappointed by the realization, only to be snapped back into the moment when the hobgoblin punched him in the back hard enough to rattle his teeth.
Regdar blinked and was oddly aware of the crowd of fleeing goblins pouring down the crude stone steps. Yet another spider was making its way toward him, and Regdar tried to ignore the sounds of two more goblins being ripped to pieces by the krenshar.
The hobgoblin wrapped its huge, yellow-skinned arms around Regdar's head, and he knew the humanoid was going to try to break his neck. When the inevitable hard twisting motion came, Regdar rolled with it. His sword was too heavy with the morningstar still wrapped around it. As Regdar rolled to the side, slipping out of the hobgoblin's grip, he twitched his sword, so the chains would begin to unwind.
The hobgoblin must have realized that Regdar wasn't going to sit there and have his neck broken. It let go of Regdar's head and stepped back. The hobgoblin bumped into Regdar's back and growled in frustration, then something brushed past Regdar. It was the goblin prisoner. The little humanoid seemed to be scurrying all over the place, getting in and under Regdar and the hobgoblin as if they weren't even there.
The goblin stood up just as it came by Regdar and reached out to grab at Naull. Regdar barked out a warning, but at the same time he heard the telltale squeak of a dagger being drawn somewhere just behind his head.
The goblin prisoner pushed Naull to the side,
away from the pit, and Regdar could see the spider scurrying toward them. The prisoner brought its club down at the thing, but stopped a foot above it. The spider reacted anyway, hopping to one side. The goblin stomped down with its right foot and cracked three of the spider's legs, so they nearly broke off. The thing tried to jump away but only dragged its useless appendages a few inches before the goblin fell on it and killed it.
Naull took the opportunity to climb up and pass behind Regdar as if unaware of the life-and-death fight he was having with the hobgoblin. As he watched her pass he turned and stood. The morningstar slid off his sword, and Regdar kicked it into the pit at the same time he batted away the hobgoblin's long, serrated dagger.
Over the hobgoblin's shoulder Regdar saw the bigger humanoid barking more orders. This time, the goblins who had been content to watch started to work up their nerves. The little humanoids had weapons in their hands—javelins mostly, and heavy leg bone or stone clubs—and a strangely pathetic desperation in their eyes.
Regdar dropped his sword back and tensed for a hard slash that could end the hobgoblin when he heard Naull start to shout something that sounded like just the opposite of the goblins' guttural grunting. The words were lyrical and intricate, set in a chanting cadence that gave Regdar pause—just long enough for the hobgoblin to slash him across the hip with the big serrated dagger. It found a place between tassets and cuisse and ripped into his skin. Regdar clenched his teeth tightly together and held back a scream. Hot blood poured from the wound.
Jozan tried not to take satisfaction in the way it felt to crack a goblin's skull with his bloody mace. He wasn't fighting for the thrill of it—he wasn't even fighting to kill—but he had to defend Lidda, the goblin females, and himself.
His eyes had become used to the dim light of Lidda's lantern, and he was thankful that the halfling had stopped bouncing around. The light was steady enough that he wasn't mistaking shadows for goblins and vice versa. He couldn't see the little thief, and she wasn't speaking, but the light was behind him and to his right.
The goblin he'd just hit fell to one knee and put a hand to its head, dropping the sharpened rock it had been using as a weapon. Another of its comrades came up to jab at Jozan with a javelin, but the priest stepped back, and the wounded goblin rolled over on its side at the same time. The wounded goblin rolled onto the javelin-wielder's feet, nearly tripping it. The javelin, instead of stabbing Jozan, tipped upward. The priest took advantage of that and stepped in to swat the weapon out of the goblin's hand. There was a loud snap! and Jozan was pretty sure he'd broken one of the goblin's fingers in the process.
In response, the humanoid growled and gnashed its teeth like a mad dog. It stepped on its unconscious comrade and leaped at Jozan, apparently meaning to take down the priest with its bare hands.
Jozan closed his eyes, steeling himself against the inevitable impact. He'd overextended his mace knocking the javelin away and knew he couldn't get it back in front of him in time to backhand the diving goblin.
The impact never came. Instead, a gurgling whimper sounded in front of him. Jozan opened his eyes to see the goblin, blood dribbling from its slack-jawed mouth, slowly crumple to the floor on top of its fallen friend.
Lidda stood behind the goblin, blood oozing down the blade of her short sword.
There were at least three goblin warriors that Jozan could see behind her. They seemed as surprised to see the halfling as Jozan had been. The priest hadn't seen or heard her slip behind the goblin, though it explained why the lanternlight was so steady. She'd left it on the cave floor and slipped into the darkness.
The goblins turned and ran. Lidda started to turn to follow them, but Jozan managed to grab her shoulder. She stopped, turned her face to him, and winked.
Jozan sighed and said, "I was trying not to kill—"
There was a rapid series of feral grunts behind him, and Jozan turned to see the female goblins approaching them slowly, as if each step was painful for them. They stopped a good ten feet from the priest and the halfling, eyeing them and sniffing the cool, dank air.
Lidda stepped next to him and started growling and grumbling at them in their odd language. The females seemed hesitant to speak with her. Some in the back even picked up stones and tried to look threatening. Jozan, still sore between his legs, backed up a step.
Lidda sheathed her sword and showed her empty palms, grunting the whole time. Jozan followed suit, hanging his mace on his back and keeping both hands visible to the suspicious females. One of them stepped forward another couple steps and let loose a nonsensical stream of growling gibberish that Lidda listened to intently.
"I think they're telling us how to get out of here," Lidda finally whispered to Jozan.
"How?" the priest asked.
"She said we have to climb the water," replied Lidda.
"Climb the water?" Jozan asked. "What does that mean?"
Lidda barked at the goblin, who barked back and pointed into the darkness, roughly in the direction the warriors had fled.
"Not climb," Lidda said, more to herself than to Jozan. "Descend? Mpktm bkn...descend foreigner. Mpktm gdv...descend water. I think it's more like: 'You should descend the water'...or 'climb down the water'...right?"
"You're asking me?"
It was her most potent spell, though as spells go it was a simple one. Still, she had to concentrate hard to cast it. The intonation change from the second to the third quatrain was tricky and had to be accompanied by a Chienji Style left ring finger up-twist into the Awaiting Position while holding a pinch of red-colored sand between the thumb and little finger of her right hand, a pinch of yellow sand between the thumb and little finger of her left hand, and a pinch of blue sand between her right and left pointing fingers.
When the goblin they'd come to rescue brushed past her, Naull almost blew the spell. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw it scurry up the spidersilk ladder. It was obviously heading back up to the platform and the narrow tunnel beyond.
The big hobgoblin continued to bark orders at its cowardly charges. The humanoid turned, grabbing a goblin from behind and shouting into its face. Naull remained focused on her spell, though part of her mind wondered how bad the hobgoblin's breath must smell at that range.
She spoke the last syllable of the incantation and flipped both hands out and open, ejecting the sand into the air in front of her. The goblins who had been cowering along the wall were moving toward them, some with obvious evil intent glimmering in their otherwise dull eyes.
The burst of colored light that sprayed out from her fingertips made Naull blink. She was happy to see that she'd aimed the effect properly, missing Regdar. The blaze of flashing colored light swept over the approaching goblins, who had made the mistake of clustering together. The hobgoblin that was close to killing Regdar stood in the whirling cone of magic as well.
Naull felt like whooping with delight when every one of the goblins who'd been enmeshed in the light crumpled to the cave floor in twitching heaps. When the hobgoblin, serrated dagger raised for its killing blow, tumbled off the edge and into the pit, she almost burst into tears.
"Yes!" she exclaimed, forgetting herself.
The colored lights had already faded. The echoes of her single word bounced through the huge cavern, hissing through a sudden, complete, stunned silence.
Regdar watched the hobgoblin fall into the pit with a mixture of disappointment, relief, embarrassment, and envy. He would have liked to have killed the son of a bitch himself but wasn't sure he'd have been able to, though the goblins would only think him weaker for having been saved by a woman. He couldn't help wishing he could drop that many foes at once.
He moved half a step from the edge of the pit and scanned the cave. The hobgoblin hadn't so much fallen into the pit as slid. The big humanoid was leaned up against the smooth rock wall, propped up on the bloody corpse of one of the goblins that had already fallen victim to the krenshar.
And there was the monster. It put one front claw t
entatively on the fallen hobgoblin, who Regdar realized was still breathing. When the precariously hanging hobgoblin didn't slide off the wall, the krenshar started to climb.
"Female saved you good, Man," the hobgoblin on the other side of the pit called.
Startled by the fact that the brute spoke Common, Regdar looked up, though he was still keenly aware of the approaching krenshar.
"Ksr..." the hobgoblin called, "... krenshar you call, yes? Krenshar not hide by wall, Man. Krenshar bite face off!"
The hobgoblin was still holding a goblin by its tattered tunic. It didn't seem to care that most of its warriors had run away, a whole phalanx of them had been dropped into what might have been a coma for all Regdar knew, and one of his own kind was acting as a ladder for a wild, vicious predator.
The krenshar was almost on him, so Regdar turned his attention away from the foolish hobgoblin. Movement up and to his left caught his eye, though, and he glanced up in time to see the former prisoner dashing across the rock platform obviously on its way to the tunnel.
Naull, who was still radiating well-deserved self-satisfaction looked up at the fleeing goblin as well.
Regdar, gluing his eyes to the krenshar, said, "Follow him. He might know the way out."
She glanced at him, then back up at the platform. Regdar could hear the prisoner's footsteps receding.
"Go," he said, and she started for the web ladder.
The krenshar got one foot over the edge of the pit, but Regdar wanted to wait until he could get a clear hack at the monster's head.
He spared a quick glance at Naull and was happy to see her on her way up the spidersilk ladder—then he saw the goblin.
