“You were going to see a wise-woman?” Alto asked. Trina nodded, turning back to him. Her hand slipped off her hip and her shoulders relaxed. “Why?”
“It used to be tradition for every Kelgryn coming of age to learn what their destiny held for them. It was a time for choosing, a time when they would learn what profession they would have. For some, it even foretold who they would marry,” she explained. “Only the nobles continue the tradition anymore.”
“So you’re of age?” Alto had to ask the question even though he knew it wasn’t relevant. He had to know and she’d given him the perfect opportunity to ask.
“Sixteen winters,” she said, nodding. “Young for your Kingdom, but we’re not so sheltered along the coast.”
Alto chuckled. “I’m sixteen,” he admitted.
“In the heart of the Kingdom and in other realms to the south, life is easier. Children are spoiled and soft; they don’t leave the nest until they’re older. Where we live, boys and girls endure hardship and grow up early,” Drefan said between short breaths. “So that means nobody will think twice if you bed the girl when we get out of here, but first we need to find our way out!”
Alto and Trina stood with matching expressions. Namitus wasn’t able to block his chuckle with his hand before it slipped out. Trina punched him in the shoulder for it.
“So,” Alto said, recovering from the shock and ignoring his companion. “Perhaps they did know.”
“Know what—that I’d be coming?”
“Yes,” he reasoned. His eyes darted back and forth as he thought up scenarios and discarded them. “Men in Kingdom uniforms steal you away, and we find evidence of Kelgryn weapons at the sacking of Highpeak.”
“Someone wants to start a war!” Namitus blurted out.
Trina gasped.
“But why?” Alto asked. “Who would gain from it?”
“Talk it over with Kar. I’m sure he could chew your ear off with useless trivia,” Drefan said. He coughed a few times and then managed in a tight voice to say, “It does us no good here.”
Alto nodded. “You’re right. Come, let’s be on our way.”
Alto and Trina bumped into each other as they started down the tunnel. They stopped and stared at each other. Alto nearly gestured for her to go ahead and then remembered danger was almost certainly awaiting them. “I don’t want to have to pull you out of the way again,” he said.
Trina’s eyes narrowed until her lips cracked into a smile. She crossed her arms and shook her head but the ghost of a smile remained. Alto moved past her, drawing his sword as he went. Trina gestured for Namitus to take the lantern before she picked up her sword from where she’d leaned it against the cave wall and followed Alto. Drefan muffled his coughs into his hand as he brought up the rear.
“How long is this tunnel?” Alto hissed over his shoulder after they’d been walking a few minutes.
“We were in a hurry; we didn’t pay attention,” Trina replied.
“There’s light ahead!” Alto warned them. “Shutter the lantern!”
Namitus fumbled with the lantern until he lowered the hood on it and blocked all but the faintest sliver of light. He held it behind his back to further block the light from anyone ahead of them.
They waited in tense silence for several long minutes. Finally, Alto whispered back to them, “It hasn’t moved. I think it’s another lantern on the wall.”
“Then let’s go. Your friend doesn’t sound well,” Trina whispered.
Alto turned to look and nearly jumped at how close Trina was to him. He forced his eyes off her and beyond, but could barely make out Drefan’s outline in the darkness. He nodded to Trina and turned back so he could begin the final approach to the light ahead.
Alto crept as quietly as his large frame could. Once, he caught the reflection of light off his blade so he turned it so the edges were vertical. Proud of himself for noticing the detail, he continued on until he identified {that} the light marked the end of the tunnel. Each step made him feel more confident that a room awaited them.
The sound of the savage goblin language ahead made Alto freeze. He stopped and listened, holding up his hand in silent warning to the others. He strained to hear more, picking out a whinier voice responding in the same tongue. He heard a slap and a yelp, and then more yelling before the sound of feet slapping against rock reached him.
Alto nodded to himself. He had to see what was ahead. They all had to, he supposed, if it meant getting away. Besides, he’d bested several goblins now; they were hardly worth being worried about. The trick was remembering he could beat them when they were thrusting a spear or a sword at him.
Trina tapped him on the shoulder, stopping him. “Let Namitus go,” she whispered into his ear. Alto suppressed a shiver before he looked back uncertainly. “Trust me,” she said. Alto nodded.
Namitus crept forward when she motioned for him. “See what’s ahead of us, and try not to get yourself killed.”
Alto grabbed the slim boy by the shoulder. “Don’t do this only because she asks you,” he said.
Namitus smiled and shook his head while Trina’s mouth fell open. “I’m good at this,” he assured Alto. He turned and started forward, his feet finding the softest spots on the ground.
“What was that?” Trina hissed at him.
Alto shook his head. Now wasn’t the time for another discussion.
She grabbed his shoulder and pulled him around to look at her. The set of her jaw and fire in her eyes made it clear she wouldn’t accept silence for an answer.
“He loves you,” Alto said as softly as he could. He had more than just the goblins to worry about; he didn’t want to upset Namitus either.
“Of course he does,” she said. “He’s my brother in all but blood.”
Alto nodded. “That’s the problem.”
Her eyebrows scrunched together in confusion. Alto turned away from her to see Namitus peering around the edge of the tunnel and into the room beyond. He leaned back smoothly and retreated a few steps before turning and approaching them.
“More goblins, but no men,” he reported. “One with a helm with a spike on it. He must fancy himself their master; he watches and orders the others about. I saw seven, including Spike.”
“What are they doing?” Alto asked.
“Sifting through the rocks and dirt in carts.”
Alto frowned. A look to his companions showed they were just as confused as he was about their task. Drefan cleared his throat and spoke up, “They’re looking for something. Ore, gems, treasure, or something else.”
“The way out is to the left,” Trina said. “The first tunnel on our left is the one we ran from. It goes up a ramp to another room with more tunnels. I’m not sure which one is the way out from there, but it’s close.”
“Can we reach it without fighting them?” Alto asked Namitus.
He shrugged. “Perhaps, but then they’d be at our backs.”
“Are there any other tunnels leaving that room?”
“Several,” Namitus said. “Like Trina said, we took the first one on our right when we fled.”
“All right, we’d better deal with them then. I’ll draw their attention; you two stay back unless you have a clear chance at one.”
“You’re a fool,” Trina snapped. “I’ve seen you fight. True, you’re a brute, but you don’t know what you’re doing! Out there, in the open, you’ll be cut to pieces! Namitus and I have sparred for ages. The room’s big enough for the three of us to stand abreast, I remember that much.”
Alto opened his mouth but Trina silenced him with a glare. “Don’t be thinking you can talk me out of this, Alto. When we get out of these caves proper, I’ll show you how the Kelgryn cross swords.”
“What? Why?” Alto stammered.
“So you can see what you’ve gotten yourself into!” Trina’s eyes widened as the words left her mouth. They darted to Namitus, and then away. “If we get out of here. Come, let’s be off,” she amended quickly.
Alto wanted to laugh at his companion but Drefan had sunk to a knee and rested his elbow against his thigh to support himself. His other arm cradled his ribs. The farm boy nodded and turned back to the tunnel entrance. “All right, but let’s be as quick and as quiet as we can. We don’t want to bring any more gobs from the tunnels.”
Alto crept up to the edge, worried about alerting the goblins before it was time. As soon as he looked around the wooden beam supporting the edge of the tunnel, he saw Spike, the goblin taskmaster, grunting and sputtering at the other goblin workers. Between his verbal barrage and the sounds of the workers digging through rocks, Namitus could have played his pipes and they wouldn’t have been heard.
Alto burst out of the mouth of the tunnel, driving legs honed with years of hard labor on the farm. The goblin leader saw him after only a few steps and shouted out a warning. He grabbed the spiked cudgel hanging from his hip but before he could raise it, Alto’s sword smashed into him. His spiked helm went flying in one direction while the rest of his body fell in another.
Alto slowed and looked around. The other goblins started to run toward him and then stopped when they saw their leader so easily dispatched. Trina rushed past him, lunging with her sword and piercing a goblin’s chest before it could do more than open its eyes wide at her charge. She jerked her sword free without slowing, turning the movement into a killing stroke at the next goblin in her path that stood near the first.
Namitus ran after her, staying on her flank and fending off the goblins that were beginning to react and come after her. He parried a thrust but his counterstrike sailed over the head of the short humanoid.
Alto had three goblins of his own to deal with. They’d recovered from their shock at seeing their taskmaster and friends killed faster than Alto had managed to react to Trina’s brutality. He jumped back from the swinging pick of one of them, and then smacked a shovel aside that a second goblin thrust at him. He stepped toward them, moving to keep the pick-wielding creature between himself and the third goblin. His sword rose and fell twice, smashing shovel and goblin into the ground.
The pick smashed into the rock, the metal point missing his leg but the shaft catching his calf and making him stumbled forward. He took two steps but couldn’t recover his balance before he fell to one knee and one hand. His broadsword was held against the ground in his right hand. The third goblin rushed at him with a dagger that looked like a short sword in his hands.
A sword flew through the air and smacked the goblin in the side, knocking it off course and making it yelp. Alto planted his feet and lunged up, the point of his blade catching the goblin under his arm and skewering along the bones until it exited near his backbone.
The weight of the dying creature pulled the blade free of Alto’s tenuous grip, leaving him unarmed and exposed. He pulled his dagger free and tried to get as much distance between himself and the goblin with the pick as he could. He finished turning and stared, ready to leap any direction to escape the inevitable attack. He saw Patrina wiping the blood off her sword on a dead goblin’s clothing. He turned and saw the other goblin was dead. She saluted him with her sword and then lowered it, a crooked smile on her face the entire time.
Alto picked up his blade and cleaned it, and then returned it to his scabbard. He felt his face burning for no reason he could figure. He turned to Namitus and saw the boy picking up the thrown blade. “Thanks,” he muttered.
Namitus grinned. “It’s bad form where I come from to let new friends die the same day you meet them.”
Alto chuckled. “I admire your culture.”
“Let’s go. We’ve rattled their teeth but the rest are sure to have heard us!”
Alto nodded in deference to Trina’s wisdom. He jogged past her to the tunnel and motioned for Drefan to join them. Drefan limped out, moving slowly, and paused to admire the carnage. “Should have been recruiting babes all along,” he said with great effort. He coughed, the effort to speak costing him. When his hand came away, Alto saw the dark stains on it.
“We’ve got to hurry,” Alto said.
Drefan offered a weak smile and a nod.
“That way!” Trina pointed to the tunnel she and Namitus had run from originally.
Alto nodded and hurried to it, pausing at the entrance for the others to join him. The tunnel rose as Trina had claimed, though the angle wasn’t steep enough to be of concern even for Drefan. Alto started up the sloping tunnel and noticed a thick chain that lay in the middle of the floor.
He paused and stared at the chain, and then turned to the others. They shook their heads and shrugged their shoulders, at a loss to explain it. Fearing the unknown, Alto gave it a wide berth and continued his ascent up the tunnel.
After only a few hundred feet, the tunnel began to level off. Ahead, he could see the light from another room brightening the tunnel. Alto turned back at the thought of the light giving them away. He saw that Namitus had abandoned the lantern. They walked in the gloom of the tunnel using the light at both ends. Alto almost chuckled; he’d grown accustomed to the dark tunnels.
Alto stopped when he heard a man speaking in the room ahead. “Get reinforcements! Summon the runts from the tunnels. They can dig for silver later!”
Someone else responded but Alto couldn’t make out their words. He heard enough to know it was another man and not a goblin.
“I don’t care!” the first man roared. “You go. They won’t argue with you like they will one of these gobs! And find out where that Kelgryn princess is! If she finds a way out, the plan’s no good.”
Alto spun and looked down the tunnel. There was no way they could retreat in time. “What did they say?” Trina hissed at him.
Rather than answer, Alto stared at her. He had to attack; it was his only way. Defending would leave them overrun. He couldn’t risk that with Drefan injured, nor would he risk the lives of his new friends. He hesitated, looking into Trina’s eyes. These were men he faced, not goblins. Men with strength and skill and real weapons, not mining tools.
“What are you thinking?” Trina hissed.
Alto turned and charged, bursting out of the tunnel with every bit of strength and speed he could muster on short notice. He yelled, gaining the attention of half a dozen men and a full dozen goblins. The closest enemy to him was a goblin. Alto caught it across the chest with a two-handed swing. The goblin’s ribs and flesh broke and parted, leaving blood behind even as its body went sliding across the floor.
Taking a lesson from watching Trina earlier, Alto kept both his feet and his sword moving. He broke the rusty blade of a goblin and hacked off the arm of the screaming creature. His element of surprise was lost by the time he reached the next three goblins that were gathered in his way. They’d turned to face him, weapons poised. The humans, collected together near a tunnel with a turned-over cart between the tunnel and them, began to move toward him.
“You stupid farm boy!” Trina shouted as she burst from the tunnel entrance behind him.
Alto ignored her and swatted aside the axe of one of the goblins. Another sword poked at him, bruising his thigh but failing to pierce his leather. A club from the third goblin narrowly missed his hip. More goblins rushed toward him, eager to flank and surround him.
“That’s her!” The voice Alto recognized as the angry man spoke. He pointed at Patrina. “Kill the others—we only need her.”
Alto swung his sword around him, buying himself some time from the goblins pressing him. He was surrounded by five goblins; escape seemed impossible.
Chapter 9
“You sure there’s more of them?” William asked. They’d been waiting outside the mine entrance but other than a few distant echoing sounds, they heard nothing.
“At least one of them got away. We’d have seen him running down the trail and unless Gerald blew him a kiss, he probably didn’t get scared and jump off the edge of the cliff,” Tri
stam said.
“Hey!” Gerald muttered from where he leaned against a rock. He’d woken up only a few minutes before when William and Karthor had pulled him off his horse and laid him on the ground.
“Might just be the one man left,” Kar offered. He stood at the entrance and stared into the tunnel. It went straight into the hillside for half a dozen feet to the first doorway. Originally constructed to keep out invaders, the door had been broken apart and the scraps lay pushed against the side of the tunnel, out of the way. Beyond the open gateway, they could see the tunnel opened into a larger room but details were impossible to make out due to the refuse piled in the doorway in place of the original doors. “Might be a horde of goblins and worse.”
“Where’s Drefan and Alto?” Karthor wondered aloud what they were all thinking.
Gerald grimaced and then belched. He sighed at the relief and then saw everyone staring at him. His response to their disapproval was a grin.
“Can Gerald fight?” Tristam asked the priest.
“Another bout of indigestion like that might do him in,” Karthor said with a frown. “A sudden movement might reopen an injury and I’ve used all of Leander’s blessing I have until I’ve had a chance to earn more.”
“So you’re saying if we get hurt, we’re on our own.”
“I can still perform last rites,” the priest offered.
Kar snickered at his son’s dark joke.
“Well, wizard, would you be of more use staying with Gerald or coming into the mines with us?”
“Leave me your crossbow,” Gerald grunted. “There’s naught for miles around us. I’ll be fine!”
Tristam nodded. William removed his quiver of bolts and handed it to Gerald, and then offered him his crossbow. Gerald winced as he tried to crank it back. “Milking this a bit, aren’t you?” William said. He grabbed the crossbow and pulled it back so he could load a bolt in it. Then he handed it to his gap-toothed companion.
“Let’s go,” Tristam said. Without ceremony, he turned and headed into the mine entrance. William and Karthor glanced at one another and then jumped when Kar gave them a gentle shove from behind to get them going.
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