Chapter Forty
Escape
I snapped my head towards the door. I'd heard the name before, and knew they were dangerous creatures that could disguise themselves as objects. "Can you get out?"
Melima appeared in the middle of everyone who had been standing by the door. "Did you get the gold?" Naidaroe asked.
"I got my life, so that's pretty golden." Melima wasn't happy. "If you guys want to go in there go for it!" There was a bang on the door, followed by another bang. The mimic was trying to get to her.
I knew the guards upstairs would hear the banging, especially since I could tell Ari'yasa's cloaking spell had just worn off. Chances were it would wake the guards sleeping in the next room over too.
"There was a set of stairs the other way, there are guards upstairs right here. Let's get out of here right now," I said. Everyone followed as I raced to the other end of the citadel. I was relieved to see that Kima and Kutsool had placed themselves in the middle of the line and now had their own weapons.
The stairs went around twice, two storeys high. At the top the hallway split, the right almost immediately ending with a door, and the left going to a fairly long hallway. I knew the door to the right would probably lead to the main hall I had seen, and I didn't want to go that way.
I moved to the end of the hall, which only had one door. I cautiously approached and listened for any sounds. There were commands being given in Dwarvish, and the sound of chairs being moved quickly on the stone floor. I turned back to the group and frantically pointed back the way we came.
Keothi was at the rear. "I heard footsteps behind us." He went up another set of stairs we had passed, and the party started to follow. I turned my back to the stairs to cover our rear with Gûdtirith. The smell of sulfur told me this stair probably led to the outside.
A thud and a grunt said they had met someone up top. We'd all have to get up there soon. I also heard the crackle of lightning. An unfamiliar yell preceded a thud directly behind me. I turned around and let off an arrow. It went wide as I turned, but my second arrow flew true into the shoulder of the duergar sprawled over the steps.
Kima hit him with her morningstar, a beautiful piece of weaponry, then jumped over him and ran up the stairs. Kutsool made a clean blow to the duergar's neck with his great axe, beheading him. "Good riddance."
I bolted up the stairs to help the others. We were on the wall of the citadel, right next to the secret entrance we'd come in by. A duergar was in front of Keothi and Ari'yasa around the corner, and another one was holding a warpick over Naidaroe, who looked hurt.
I shot at the one looming over Naidaroe before thinking to cast my mark on him. He looked down at the arrow in his shoulder before I landed another one in his chest, this time with my mark on him. Naidaroe stuck him with her glowing rapier, then swung out with a dagger.
Melima hurled a bolt of fire at a guard on the other side of the stairs. He was barely hanging on, and mad.
Sindus came up the stairs behind me and jumped off the wall. Kutsool was right behind him, but looked around before jumping. Kima crushed her morningstar into the face of the guard by Naidaroe. She glanced around. "Yeah, we'd better get out of here."
The rescued prisoners jumped, and Melima followed as well. Two of the guards on the wall got bigger, just like the ones we'd fought on the bridge. Keothi squared up against the one in front of him, blocking his way to the rest of our group. The other guard was on the other side of the stairs, coming towards Naidaroe.
I moved my mark to the one by Keothi, he was in a more threatening position. I looked at Naidaroe, who was looking at the wall nervously. I just about offered to take her down on my broom, but she pulled out a rope and knotted it furiously. I let off two arrows at my marked guard and shot away from the wall on my broom, climbing higher, not towards the ground.
From the air I could see everyone running towards the cave, Sindus was much farther and faster than everyone else. I could also see the lava splitting at the top of the obsidian citadel.
The rest of our party leapt off the wall. Ari'yasa did a flip as she jumped. It was impressive, even if she landed awkwardly. Keothi jumped only once everyone else had, staying between them and the guards.
The big guards jumped after them, swinging at Keothi and Naidaroe. Javelins flew by me. There were three guards left on the wall, and they were mad. One shouted something down the stairs, it sounded like he was reporting our location.
Keothi hit the guard by him square on the head, knocking him out clean. I moved my mark to the other one that was now threatening Naidaroe. I dropped him with an arrow between the eyes. Naidaroe visibly relaxed.
I turned my attention to the guard shouting down the stairs and hit him with an arrow. My friends were running to our cave hideout as fast as they could. The dwarf by the stairs pulled out a curved horn and raised it to his mouth. A huge bolt pierced his shoulder from the cave, Sindus was helping from a distance, but the duergar still sounded the alarm.
I dodged another javelin, but another one grazed my arm. I flew further out, and higher from the wall. I moved my mark to the duergar with a horn and fired an arrow, but my arc was off because of my movement. A second arrow was much better aimed, going through the horn and into the obnoxious guard's face. He wasn't going to alert anyone else of our presence.
I motioned to the last two guards that I was watching them, and pointed Gûdtirith towards them. One grew big and almost jumped at me, but thought better of it when he realized how high I actually was.
He threw his warpick towards me, but threw too low. His face bespoke utter hatred towards me. He said something that I gathered was a curse word.
I moved my mark to him, but seeing my friends were nowhere in sight, safely in the cave, I decided not to continue to attack, more guards were on their way, and these last two hadn't seen where everyone had gone.
I darted to the right, away from the cave, and higher into the air. There were about eight duergar coming out the front entrance of the fortress, with more coming from the city. I flew almost to the ceiling and pulled around the lava falling from it, going all the way around the fortress. I had seen that there was a gap between the lava and the back wall, and I intended to use it to escape from view.
The gap was not very big, only about two of my wingspans, and the lava was hot. I was going fast enough though that I wasn't too worried about the heat. I could feel the hair on my arm singe as I bolted through, but nothing too bad.
I stayed close to the ceiling until I was farther from the citadel. I had to keep some distance, there were multiple types of creatures in the stalactites. There might have been some of the buglike creatures, but also large batlike ones.
I could see more guards on the corner where we had been fighting, there were now around eight, but none of them seemed to notice me. As I dived towards our hideout, I saw one tall duergar pressed up against the wall about a stone's throw to the left. It saw me as I came down to the cave and darted in.
Everyone looked relieved to see me. I had taken considerably longer to get there than the rest of them. "They seem to be piling out of the citadel, and a bunch of people are coming from the city, but they don't seem to know where we're at. There were a bunch on the corner where we jumped off, but I think all the ones who knew where we went are dead.
"There was also a tall duergar on that side." I turned to keep watch in case it tried anything. A higher-pitched horn went off at the citadel.
A head peered into our cave, one of a female duergar. Sindus and I shot at it at the same time. She ducked out of the way just in time, but it looked like my arrow should have hit her. "Don't worry," the duergar said, "I was sent here by Allura Visoren. She sent me here to help you get out without being seen."
We all paused, Naidaroe drew her glowing rapier. I looked to Kima. "Did you say anything about Allura when you were being tortured?"
She shook her head. "No, I never mentioned anything about Allura." I looked curiously at this unexpected visitor. I wasn't sure what to think, but I was regretting my decision to shoot first. What had the sphinx tried to teach me?
Kima walked up to the duergar, brandishing her morningstar. "You know Allura?"
"Yes, I know Allura," the duergar said.
The gnome stepped closer. "Prove it."
The duergar held out her hand and showed something to Kima. Kima picked up a crystal from the outstretched hand, looking at it curiously. She looked back at the intruder, confusedly. "What was Allura wearing in her hair, if you met her?"
"A very beautiful tiara with this symbol on it." The duergar traced a symbol in the dirt.
Kima stepped back. "I trust her. Nobody else would know that, having that object. They are unique to Allura." She looked back towards us. "Those stones are Allura's creation. She created those, nobody else has them. If she knows Allura, and she has one of those, she can be trusted. I trust her."
Kima put her morningstar down and walked calmly to the back of the cave. Melima shook her head. "How are you who you are if you are a duergar?"
"I can change my form. This is my ring, and it can help me transform into characters. I've been helping you along the way of your travels," The duergar said.
Naidaroe eyed her narrowly. "Can you give an example? How come we haven't noticed you? Who have you been?"
"Why are you coming just now?" Melima exclaimed.
The duergar smiled. "I was the duergar that jumped off the cliff."
"Liar!" Melima shouted. We were all stunned. To our further amazement, the intruder rehearsed nearly word for word the conversation that was had by the chasm. She also told us she was other people I knew we had passed by on our way to Thornwall, and even Greenwall.
I finally broke the stunned silence we were in. "Kima trusts this duergar— whatever she is. What are we going to do? Because they are going to start searching."
"I would like to find a way out," Keothi said. "I do not feel our chances are good without better information." He looked to the duergar. "What information do you have about how to get out of here?"
Naidaroe crossed her arms. "I still want to know why you show yourself now."
"We can talk about it later!" Ari'yasa said.
"I have this truth-telling orb I need you to touch," Sindus said.
I knew exactly what orb he had in mind, and that if anyone needed to touch a truth-telling orb, it was him. I laughed despite myself. "Sindus, no."
Kima and Kutsool were talking at the back of the cave while the duergar told us of a spell she could use, casting everything around her into darkness, allowing only her to see through it. Kutsool turned abruptly towards us. "If they know we're out here somewhere, they're going to cover the natural exits of this place. Which means however you got in is not the way you're going to get out."
Kima hoisted her morningstar. "If that's the case, then we're just going to have to move forward, down."
"Do you know where you're going?" I asked with some concern. I was ready to help, but I didn't want to try to find our way deeper while being hunted without some bearing of where we needed to go.
"I think so, but I don't know for sure. If what I remember correctly from a week ago when I was brought in through the city, there was a large portal to the right of the Emberhold. Almost mirror to this cave is a large cavern tunnel that goes down, it continues down.
"And that's similar to what I saw in my vision, this dark tunnel that went down and down, and further down. And if she has this object from Allura, then there's a good chance we could actually either find our way out of here, or finish what I started, and end this."
Kima explained that the crystal the duergar had from Allura could be used to focus on a target, and it would either show how to get to it, or where it went.
The duergar explained that was how she was able to follow us through the mirrors, was by using one of these crystals. She also continued explaining how she had helped us. "There's been times when you guys were caught by duergar that I distracted them, and I let you get away without battling anyone."
"Much appreciated," Naidaroe said cynically.
I turned back to the most urgent matter at hand. "So, how do we get to the other side of the citadel? Because that's the most guarded place right now."
