Rosemary Jones: Crypt of the Moaning Diamond

Still, Sanval was right. So close to the walls, the Siegebreakers should not be lazing about in the shade like they were taking a break on the farm. There was a siege going on only half a field away-even though, like most sieges, it was more often than not an exercise in yelling insults at your opponents from a safe distance, out of range of their weapons and spells.

Stripped down to her shirt sleeves and leather waistcoat, sitting on a rock with her legs dangling before her, Zuzzara appeared to have no cares at all. At her feet, the wizard Gunderal was lying on her back, watching the clouds float by, weaving strands of water between her pale fingertips. She was lazily nodding along to Zuzzara's reading of a letter that had arrived yesterday with the latest shipment of supplies from Procampur.

Ivy stared at the two women, hoping they would see her wink her right eye toward the Procampur officer standing politely and silently beside her. Gunderal gave her a languid little wave.

Zuzzara was squinting too closely at the parchment to notice Ivy's approach. "Mimeri says that the sundial and the water clock no longer agree."

"Then Mimeri needs to shift the sundial," said the dwarf Mumchance. At least he was wearing his helmet and chain mail vest. But, Ivy knew, that was only half-armored for the old dwarf-his big war axe, his full plate, and other more vicious weapons were currently buried under a pile of panting dogs back at the camp. "I told Mimeri to adjust the clock as soon as the solstice had passed. What about the shingles for the barn roof?"

"I think we have more pressing concerns right now," said Ivy, sidestepping around Zuzzara's shovel, carelessly propped against a large rock. Sanval sidestepped right with her, saying nothing. She smiled, a friendly showing of teeth directly at the others, in the hope that they would get the message.

With a vague smile back at Ivy, Zuzzara continued to puzzle over Mimeri's cramped scrawl. "She says that the carpenter will bring the shingles when we have the payment," Zuzzara said.

"You'd think that man would give us credit by now," Mumchance grumbled. Ivy tried a gentle cough to attract his attention, but the dwarf ignored her and Sanval. "We have replaced that roof often enough."

"Only twice," murmured Gunderal. "And this time was not my fault." The wizard rolled over on her stomach with a swish of silken skirts and caused a tiny rain cloud to shower on a nearby weed with a waggle of her right hand.

"Never said that it was your fault," Mumchance stated. "But it is a good thing that we have got this payment coming."

"Not if the walls of Tsurlagol are still standing," interrupted Ivy very loudly. Enough of winks, smiles, and discreet coughs. Subtlety around her friends rarely worked. Very aware of Sanval watching the whole group over her shoulder, Ivy continued, "Are we not supposed to be digging a tunnel today? Mumchance, I'm surprised at you. Where's that fabled dwarf work ethic?"

"Ground is too soft," replied the one-eyed dwarf, squinting up at Ivy. The shadows dappling the little glade barely softened the heavy scars on his face. "Told you yesterday that we needed to shift the entrance."

"We don't have enough time to move it if we want to earn our fee," said Ivy, with a quick glance at Sanval and a frown at Mumchance. She did not want the silver-roof noble from Procampur legging it back to the Thultyrl's tent with the message, "Send these foolish farmers home and let us charge the walls like true warriors." Of course he would probably be more elegant in his wording as he lost them their payment.

When they had first broken ground, the Siegebreakers had been lucky enough to hook into an older passageway that ran under the ruined remains of a former city's wall, probably dug hastily and long ago for the same reason that the Siegebreakers were digging their tunnel. That older siege tunnel had led into a city that had long since vanished. Tsurlagol had been invaded, burned to the ground, and then shifted to a new location so many times that one jester suggested the city's best defense would be to build all the houses as boats on wheels and run them into the sea every time a new invasion force came into view.

"We need to slow down, not dig faster," argued Mumchance. "We're moving away from the first tunnel, and the ground doesn't feel right."

"Did the roof collapse again?" asked Ivy.

"No," said Zuzzara. "Just the usual bits of dirt down the back of my neck. But Mumchance pulled me out and sent Kid in."

"He's smaller than Zuzzara and lighter too," explained the dwarf. "And he has a good feel for the dirt under those hard little hooves of his. It is the ground below, Ivy, not above, that I don't like. Nothing feels right. I wanted Kid's opinion. I left Wiggles with him. She'll bark if anything starts to go wrong."

"Wiggles to the rescue," drawled Ivy, who did not have nearly the same faith in Mumchance's favorite mutt. He had picked up the yippy little horror two years ago when they had been in the south. Mumchance always claimed Wiggles had a dwarflike nose for trouble underground.

"You have never appreciated Wiggles's talents, not even when she saved us under that sorcerer's tower," muttered the dwarf.

"I gave her a bone afterwards," said Ivy. "A lovely bit of ham hock." In Ivy's opinion, it was just luck that Wiggles had sounded the warning in time. Wiggles barked almost continuously, so the dog was bound to yap at a strategic moment some day.

"Which you picked out of the rubble," Mumchance reminded her in a sour tone. As if a little dust on a bone had ever stopped Wiggles's enjoyment. The dog loved bones, with meat on them, or without. It did not matter to Wiggles as long she got something to chew.

Zuzzara ignored the argument about Wiggles, as the dog never woke her at dawn with her insane barking (Zuzzara snored too loudly to hear it). Instead, she was busy telling Sanval that she always did most of the digging for the Siegebreakers, and even a half-orc of her size could only dig so fast and so far in a day.

"I could bring more men from the camp," offered Sanval. "And some guards. We must not let this position be overrun."

Ivy gestured at the scraggly trees surrounding them. "We have enough cover to hide us from Fottergrim. They are not paying much attention to this side of the wall-that's why we picked this spot!"

"Just what we need, more humans!" huffed Mumchance. "Doesn't matter how many dig, or how fast. The ground is rotten, Ivy. I know it is."

Ivy stared at the dwarf. He gave her that one-eyed stare back that said most clearly that he was a dwarf and she was a human, and everyone knew who knew the most about soil conditions and digging. But if the tower did not fall, then there would be no gold for their purses, and that meant a long winter with no roof over the animals sheltering in the barn. Which, Ivy knew, meant every single dog, cat, goat, chicken, pig, mule, and stray bear cub currently sleeping in the barn would end up in the farmhouse's kitchen or, much worse, her room.

"We have two days or we don't receive a clipped coin from the Thultyrl," Ivy explained more bluntly than she had intended, her voice rising to a bellow. Her crew knew that voice. Zuzzara stood up and grabbed her shovel, swinging it up to her shoulder. She reached a hand down to Gunderal. The wizard floated daintily to her feet, fluffing her skirts around her. After a couple of quick twists with her fingers, Gunderal's hair obligingly arranged itself into long blue-black ringlets, perfectly framing her pale oval face.

"Oh, Ivy," said Gunderal, her violet eyes widening in disapproval. "You are wearing that cap again."

Ivy put up her bare hand and tugged the brim of her leather cap lower on her brow. Just because she had plucked it off that dead man's head-and he certainly did not need it at the time or since-Gunderal had taken the most unreasonable dislike to her current cap. Well, Gunderal said that it was the stains and the reek of the leather when the cap got wet in the rain that she disliked. When Ivy had responded that it did not smell any different from the rest of her gear, Gunderal had given one of her huge sighs and said, "That is part of the problem."