Ru Emerson - Keep on the Borderlands

“Brother?” Blorys came running.

“Thought… Mead said he used… Enfeeblement… on it,”Jerdren gasped.

“I did.” The mage laid gentle hands on the man’s head, thenhelped him to his feet. “That blow would have killed you otherwise. Can youstand?”

“I’ll take care of him,” Blor said. “You deal with ourwounded so we can get moving.”

“Good… idea,” Jerdren said. “Don’t… need any moreof ’em in here.”

“One man dead, Jers,” Blorys told him. “One of the newfellows got tangled up with someone else, and they both went down. Second man’lllive, though.”

“Which way next?” Eddis asked as Blor helped Jerdren over tojoin the others. “Up or down?”

“There is great evil up those steps,” Panev said. He wasturning one of his short wands in his hands. “Down the passage, I sense pain,but it is too far to tell much else.”

“Masters live up, dungeons are down-usually,” Jerdren said.“If we go after the prisoners right now, we’ll be done fighting for the day, andwe’d be fools to leave any bugbears alive here. Those hobgoblins might not comeafter us, but bugbears would .”

“There can’t be many of them,” Blorys said. “They don’t crowdtogether like kobolds, but a bugbear chief’ll be as hard to kill as that ogre.”

“I know,” Jerdren replied. “All right, we’re going up first.You wounded, stay back, out of the way, keep watch for us. Mage and Panev, if we find a chief’s quarters up there, we’ll need you to hit them first, hard as youcan. Get ’em off balance for us. We’re not going for a fair fight here.”

The steps were very steep, but fortunately there weren’t manyof them. A short corridor with a closed door branched off to the left. Jerdren led the way past that and down a right-branching passage, but it ended almost immediately with a padlocked door.

“Nothing to sneak up behind us there,” Jerdren murmured andstarted for the other door. Panev took up a position near the wooden panel and began to pray. Another of those silence spells, Jerdren hoped. Mead drew a slender wand and pressed past him. At the mage’s gesture, two of the Keep mencaught hold of the latch, ready to pull the door open.

“The rest of you, stay back,” he murmured.

The men yanked hard, and the door slammed into the outer wall. Jerdren was aware of massive clutter and a huge bed. Two bugbears piled out of it, one female, the other a scarred brute with graying fur. The male was reaching for his battle-axe when Mead’s wand spat a gout of flame. Fire roaredthrough the room and as suddenly vanished, but the bedding was smoldering and the female’s fur ablaze. She howled and rolled on the floor. The male caught uphis axe, but now the metal handle glowed dull red, and he dropped it with a shout of surprise. Eddis, M’Baddah, and Blorys crowded the entry then firedarrows at the chief, moving into the room so others could deal with his mate. Hit several times but not badly wounded, the chief began backing slowly away. All at once, he turned and vanished. Part of the wall had turned with him, and now clicked back into place. The bugbear was on the far side.

“Don’t let him escape!” Eddis shouted. “He’ll alert theothers!”

Panev crossed the chamber to lay his hands on the wall.

The female lay still, blood pooling around her singed body. Blorys was fighting to retrieve his sword from the back of her neck. One of the spearmen had found water to pour on the bedding, and black smoke was suddenly everywhere. Furs smoldered, giving off an awful smell.

“Quick look around in here, folks,” Jerdren ordered. “There’sbound to be wealth here, but no sense getting killed by smoke trying to find it. You, by the door-the smoke may bring guards, so you keep a good watch.Impressive, Mead,” he added.

The elf mage smiled. “You said to slow them. It seems to haveworked.”

“I found the mechanism for the secret door,” Panev said. “Thepassage beyond is dark, and I think it is blocked not too far on by another such door.”

“We better check that,” Jerdren said, and he sent Blorys andtwo of the armsmen to guard the priest. They were back in short order.

“Beyond the second door is a very evil place,” the priestsaid. “I sense twisting passages, lost souls, and a reek I only encountered oncebefore. I think there is a minotaur.”

“Minotaur!” Jerdren’s eyes lit.

Eddis hauled him around by the shoulders and gave him a good shake. “I’ve heard about them, Jers. Damned few of us would survive an encounterwith a minotaur, and that’s if we got far enough into the maze to find it! We’renot done with these bugbears and any prisoners they’re holding. Or did youforget?”

Jerdren sighed, shook his head.

“The smoke’s starting to clear out, but we’re still at a deadend passage, because I am not counting that secret door. I say a very quick search here and we’re gone before we’re trapped.”

“What-by half a dozen bugbears?” Jerdren demanded. “We’rebetter than that.”

Eddis scowled, and he turned to shuffle his feet through the things on the floor as he moved toward one of the tables.

“Her’s got gold earrings,” Flerys said, pointing at the deadfemale with her spear. It was the first thing Jerdren had heard her say all day.

“So she has. You take them, girl, and put them somewheresafe,” Jerdren said. He abandoned the table and went over to where Mead wasslowly moving, his eyes searching along a high shelf.

“Thought so,” the mage said. “There-a chest, see it?”

It proved heavy, and Mead insisted they use care getting it down. Kadymus broke the lock, to reveal a heavy, pale statue.

“Worth something,” Jerdren said, “but too heavy to botherwith, leave it. Look-there’s a pile of coins under it. We’ll divide that forcarrying. What’s that leather tube, Mead?”

The mage drew it out and turned it carefully in his hands, then peered down the open end. “Potions for healing. Good! They’ll be needed.”

Jerdren waited while the party divided up the silver, then led the way back out. “Quiet here?” he asked the men on guard, and one of themnodded.

Back down the stairs, and along the main passage. It was quiet here at the moment, and Jerdren could smell smoke from the chief’schambers. Fortunately, it didn’t seem to have alerted anyone else up this way.Where the long passage ended, he could make out low voices off to his right.

The other direction, a natural cave sloped up, heading roughly north and out of sight around a bend. Willow went a ways along the slope and stood listening, then came back.

“There are more bugbears that way, but not close, and Ibelieve there is a closed door between them and us. Sleeping quarters, I would say.”

Blorys came back from the right-hand passage. “Steps headingdown, just up there. I can hear guards down there and someone moaning.”

“That’ll be the dungeons, then,” Jerdren said quietly. “Leavethe barracks for the time being.”

Panev went ahead, hands clasped together and lips moving silently, the rest following. At the base of the stairs, the priest stood aside to let the others pass. Jerdren paused while they were still in shadow. There was no door.

It’s a dungeon, all right, Jerdren thought. You couldn’tmistake the sounds or smells of such a place. He could see guards now: five bugbears sitting at a table right in front of the entry, though they weren’twatching it. Jerdren quietly drew his sword and started forward, the others right on his heels.

Just inside the chamber, he slapped his sword against the wall, and shouted, “Who wants to fight?”

The bugbears leaped to their feet, catching up spears and throwing them in one lightning-fast move. Jerdren dropped to one knee, swearing through his teeth as bruised bone protested.