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"My thanks to you," the soldier whispered to Cadderly, all the while eyeing the charredupon the floor, as Cadderly’s strange enchant priest dehten into thin lines,
Cadderly leaped past Danica, grabbed the ainst the wall "You are still a prisoner!" he growled in the surprised man’s face "You can be an asset to us, and ill repay you accordingly
"Or you can be a detririmly He looked back to the pile as he spoke, and the unvoiced threat drained the blood from the captured man’s face
"Lead on to the wizard," Cadderly instructed "Along the lanced at Danica, as if pleading for some support, but the esture did not reveal the turainst the prisoner, a person he had just declared was not an evil man, had surprised her She had never seen Cadderly so calculatingly cold, and while she could understand his determined actions, she could not deny her fears
The prisoner took theh a door to the side, halfway around the circular roorabbed the hly stripping off every piece of his noisy ar the man’s hard-soled boots
"Quietly," he whispered to the ainst Aballister"
The rowled and pushed Cadderly away, and found Danica’s silver-hiked dagger at his throat in the blink of an eye
"The wizard is powerful," the prisoner warned, wisely keeping his voice soft
Cadderly nodded "And you fear the consequences of your actions should Aballister win out against us," he reasoned
The ain, and he ain put his face close to the"Then choose," the young priest said, his voice low and threatening "Do you take the chance that Aballister will not win out?"
The
"Aballister is not here," Cadderly reminded him "None of your allies are here It is just you and I, and you knohat/can do"
Thelittle noise as he padded along the corridor with appropriate caution They crossed several side corridors, often hearing the sounds of other soldiers rushing about, probably in search of theroup was about, Danica looked nervously to Cadderly, as if to say that this man, who could betray them with a simple call, was his responsibility
But thewith all stealth as they worked their way past one guard position or patrol group after another
When they entered one long corridor, though, a group of goblins entered it simultaneously from the other end, and they found that they had nowhere to run The goblins, six of the beasts, advanced cautiously, weapons drawn
The prisoner addressed thee, and Cadderly understood well enough to know that theon ato Aballister with sooblins eyed Cadderly and Danica dangerously, exchanging a few quiet rest themselves
Even the cooperative prisoner looked back, his expression showing sincere worry
Danica didn’t wait for events to take their obvious course She leaped out suddenly, punching the nearest goblin in the throat, circling about her leg flying high to connect on the next one’s chest, and whipped a dagger into the face of yet another She ducked low under a sword swipe and sprang up high fro the sielder in the face and chest
Two goblins rushed by her, ainst Cadderly and the soldier, but Cadderly got one with his walking stick, shattering its knee, and the soldier tackled the other
Danica spun about and again kicked, sending one goblin flying into the wall The creature sainst the stone and bounced back, and Danica, tiain it bounced out again it was launched backward by a perfectly tioblin was allowed to fall to the floor, for Danica sprang away, leaping over the prone prisoner at the back of the goblin that had slipped his grasp One hand reached around to cup the goblin’s chin while the other grabbed the hair on the back of its head
The goblin squealed and tried to stop and turn, but Danica rushed right beside it, twisting her ar’s neck
"Down!" Danica called, co priest fell to the floor and the goblin facing hi with a heavy punch into its ugly face It flew backward several feet, hit the stone with a groan, and Danica ran past
The goblin she had hit in the throat was up to its knees again, trying to find its footing Danica leaped high into the air, coainst the skinny creature’s back, slaer frorabbed a cluoblin’s head back, cutting a neat line across its throat
She did likewise to the helpless goblin that had her other dagger sticking fro its misery And then she turned back, to see Cadderly and the prisoner staring at her incredulously
"I do not parley with goblins," Danica said gri her blades on the nearest monster’s dirty tunic
"You could not outrun her," Cadderly re priest an incredulous look
"I just thought I would mention that," Cadderly said
They set out at once, Cadderly and Danica anxious to put sohter The prisoner said nothing, just continued to lead them at a swift pace, and soon the tunnels beca soldiers
Cadderly sensed that the walls in this region were not natural, though they were lined by uncut stone The young priest could feel the residual energies of the h some powerful dweomer had pulled the natural stone from between these walls
The sensations sent a lad that the captured soldier was apparently not leading theht soon come to its end But Cadderly orried, too, for if Aballister had created these tunnels, had ically torn the stone frolow only hinted at his powers
Sohts then, a fleeting, distant call, as if so him He paused and closed his eyes
Cadderly
He heard it clearly, though distantly He felt for the ao and hich he could co that Druzil was nowhere about
Cadderly
It was not Druzil, and Cadderly did not believe that it was Dorigen, either Who then? the young priest wondered Who was so attuned to hie or consent?
He opened his eyes, deter," he instructed his co his place beside the and distant, and what bothered Cadderlyelse was that it somehow sounded so very familiar
Dwarven Stealth
We h pointedly instructed her dwarven companions, what seeh soon ca quietly" was apparently very different from Ivan and Pikel’s The clomp of Ivan’s boots echoed loudly off the stone walls, and Pikel’s sandals double-slapped - once against the floor and once against his foot - with every pu, dark corridors, the only light co in iron sconces Around a bend and through an archway, the three companions found the walls lined by fonts, filled with a clear, watery substance