Dennis McKiernan - The Brega path

After a moment, Perry unsheathed Bane. The blue light coldly flamed from the jewel and down the blade, but as the Seven watched, it grew dimmer. "Let's go now," urged Perry, "before any more maggot-folk come to this way station."

A glance around the great room revealed only utter blackness; no light of torch could be seen flickering through any portal. The Seven eased open the hoods of their Dwarf-lanterns a bit, to let narrow shafts of radiance illuminate the way. Swiftly the companions crossed to the north tunnel and entered the passage.

The way became narrow in places, and at times chasms bore off to the right or left, and the company would walk along the shelved precipices. Fissures opened to either side, and Perry continued to make the choices dictated by Brega's instructions. The Warrow had fou,nd no surprises in the path, for the Brega Scroll was accurate and detailed. Yet though he had not been surprised, he was astounded by the sizes of the chambers they had passed through: the East Hall at Dawn-Gate had been two hundred yards in length, two hundred in width; the Mustering Hall at the Deep was a mile long and half that wide-according to Brega, who had seen its extent by the light of raging flames as the drawbridge over the Great Deep burned by Elf-set fire; the Great Chamber was a half-mile long and a quarter-mile wide. Enormous, the rooms were enormous. And the number of halls, tunnels, fissures, cracks, and additional passages leading away to other reaches of Drimmen-deeve indicated that the delvings of Kraggen-cor were intricate beyond imagination, for what the comrades had seen was incredibly complex and colossal-and they had seen but a minuscule portion oHhe whole.

Again,the way sloped downward, and wide cracks appeared in the floor. Now Perry had to leap over three- and four-foot-wide crevices; considerable jumps for one who was only three and a half feet tall. The Squad came to a narrow shelf on the face of a precipice; a chasm yawned bottomless to their right. They edged for scores of paces along the wall above the rift before coming again to a wide ledge. The chasm narrowed as they walked onward, and soon they were once again striding through an arched tunnel.

They had walked, leapt, scrambled, and sidled for three hours since leaving the Round Chamber, covering some six miles. At last they came to the Grate Room, a small round chamber to the north side of the main passage. Behind them the cavern split four ways: the left-hand way was wide and led down; the two middle ways were narrow and twisting- one up, one down; and the right-hand way was the one whence they had just come down. Before them the passage ran on downward, heading for the still-distant Dusk-Door.

"We are yet one and twenty miles from our goal," announced Perry, "but! think we must rest and eat before going on. Let us tarry in the Grate Room for a while."

Lord Kian and the others agreed; they were indeed weary, for hiding in a crevice from squabbling Rucks had been nearly as tiresome as would running from a pursuing Spaunen Swarm. "Take care not to step onto the old grillework," cautioned Perry as they stepped through the door, "for it is corroded and may crumble, and you would fall into the shaft it covers, said by The Raven Book to be in the center of the chamber floor."

The room they entered was perhaps twenty feet square with a low ceiling-certainly the smallest chamber they had seen in Kraggen-cor. Centered in the room, a huge rust-stained chain dangled down from a narrow, grate-covered square shaft set in the ceiling, and passed through a like grate placed in the floor, the mighty links appearing out of the constricting blackness above and disappearing into the darkness of the, strait shaft below. Avoiding the rust-worn grille covering the ebon hole, Perry, along with the others, flung his pack down to be rid of the burden. He took some crue, and leaned back against his soft bedroll and sighed. After a bit he asked, "What is the hour, Shannon?"

"It is nearly the middle of the night," answered the Elf. "We have just eight and forty hours before Durek tries the Door."

"Two full days," stated Kian. "One to get there, and one to work on the Door. It is well that at Durek's Council we put aside a day in our plan to account for delay, for we have used it, and used it all. Now let us hope we meet with.no further mischance, else we will not arrive in time to aid Durek."

Borin snorted in exasperation, "Had we come to the Roupd Chamber just a quarter hour sooner we would not have been forced to sit in that dark crack for seven hours listening to stupid Okhs bicker. May such mishaps elude us in the future."

"Ah, but there is the rub," smiled Shannon. "Perhaps all mishaps, accidents, or calamities could be avoided if only we knew when, where, or how they were to come about. Then we simply could be at a place a moment earlier or later or not at all; or we could change the how of things by moving, rtie rock that otherwise would be stumbled over; or we could tarn the blade a different way so that a finger would not be nicked; or we could do a multitude of other things to avoid all problems. But alas! it is not ours to know the morrow, and so only reasonable steps can be taken to turn aside misfortune. Of course, if we did know the future, life would be safe-but unspeakably dull."

"Mayhap the next time there will not be so many Grg," growled Delk, running his thumb along the blade of his'axe, "and we can solve the problem with a few quick strokes, disposing of the evidence in nearby cracks and crevices." Anval and Borin grunted in agreement.

"Let us rest an hour or so," suggested Lord Kian, whose thoughts were focused on their mission, "then press on westerly toward Dusk-Door. While we tarry, we will again use Bane as an early beacon of danger.''

At the mention of Bane, Perry sat up, startled: he had unconsciously sheathed the sword when he had taken off his pack. Quickly he pulled the blade free-and its jewel was silently shrieking, Spawn! the cobalt blaze blasting throughout the room as all the company started up. At that same moment the stone door of the chamber swung wide, and a torch-bearing Ruck poked his head through the opening and looked in upon the Squad. ' 'Waugh!'' he squalled and jumped backwards anrffled down the western passageway.

Lord Kian sprang to the portal and looked along the corridor. "The foe is upon us!" he barked, swiftly stepping to his pack. "We musf fly from here!"

The Seven scooped up their weapons and packs and bolted through the door. They could hear the Ruck skreeking and see the bobbing firebrand as he ran to meet the distant torchlight coming up the west way. Kian quickly turned and scanned the four eastern passages. "There! See! Torchlight also comes down the corridor from the Round Chamber!"

Once again they were caught between Rucken forces; this time, though, the Seven had been detected. There were three ways left to flee.

"Swift!" barked Kian, "is there any reason why we should not take the left-hand way? It is wider and we can go faster." He looked at each of the companions, and they said nothing. "So be it! Delk, you lead, for again we must leave the Brega Path. Let us fly!"

They sprang into the left-hand tunnel and fled downward along the sloping floor; deeper they went under the mountain. The way was broad, but there were no side passages, and so they had no choice but to flee onward.

They had run but a short way when from behind they heard a raucous homcail, its blat echoed down the passage after them. There was an answering call, as if one Rupt force were signalling the other. Perry felt like a hunted fox, with braying horns and snarling dogs driving after him.

As they ran, Perry became aware of an unwholesome odor hanging faintly on the air. "Lord Kian," he panted, "I just remembered. The Raven Book, Gildor. When the Deevewalkers came through Kraggen-cor, Gildor said he did not like this left-hand way, for it had the smell of a great viper pit, and so they turned back and instead took the other of his two choices. Now I smell something, something unpleasant-as if we are running toward a foul place.."