The words that I’d seen within my mind upon our arrival weighed on me. When I’d last gone through this floor it had been a mine that the warlocks used to gain gems, but they hadn’t used slaves. If they had slaves it’d mean they’d somehow procured them and the only source of bodies were the gnomes.

Unless if the warlocks had managed to kidnap the adventurers pushing through their territory? I mused on the question, but it was when Lisa poked me in the side that I came back to my senses. I’d failed miserably to pay attention to my surroundings, and they were clearly hostile.

Around us were walls made of stone with no easy way to get out of the pit we’d arrived in. What looked like hooks at the very top of one of the walls probably served as a spot to put ladders or ropes, but I had an easier way out. I knelt down and laced my fingers together to create a makeshift foothold.

“Kuzu!” I called out to her.

She turned to look at me and responded a second later, as she put her foot right on my hands. I flung her up into the air and she easily cleared the top of the wall. Her two-handed sword came off of the holder on her back as she descended, and then we heard the sound of gnomes crying out in fear a moment later.

It wasn’t long after when we climbed over the walls and got out of the pit that the gnomes had made. Around us was a large cavern, one with a seemingly infinite width and a height double that of the pit we’d appeared in. I knew from personal experience that the entry point was always somewhere inside this cavern, and so I surmised that the gnomes would move their makeshift pit whenever the arrival spot changed.

A single makeshift hallway lead out of the cavern and to the rest of the mines. It’d been a natural tunnel at one point, but the gnomes had labored to smooth it out. The Wolfe brothers took the lead as they crept quietly along the passageway, their actions telling the rest of us that stealth was important.

When we reached the end of the hall Adam came to a stop and motioned at me. “Once we get outside we’ll need to keep to the shadows near the cliff walls,” Adam whispered, “if we set off an alarm there’s a good chance they’ll have another army charging at us. A larger one.”

We crept out of the hallway and began to move, with Adam in the lead and Lance right behind him. Lisa stuck close to me, and Kuzu chose to be our rearguard. If we did get attacked from behind she could make a barrier to hold off any gnomes for a short while.

The mine itself was in a gorge, one with sharp walls that stretched upward for almost a hundred feet. Wooden and metal walkways had been installed onto the sides of the gorge, and holes had been burrowed in various places. Random piles of rocks had been cast down onto the ground from above, making for some potential cover.

Even from the bottom of the gorge it was easy to hear the cries of pain from an innumerable amount of people. We flattened ourselves against the cliff wall, bathed in shadows, and crept along in silence. Lisa could tell that stealth was important, so gone was her childish behavior and instead she clung to me in silence.

For it being a major place of gnome activity the overall security was lax. From our spot at the bottom of the gorge there were no patrols. When we attempted to peek upward at the walkways there were almost no gnomes, and the bridges that ran between the two sides of the gorge were left unguarded. Instead large buildings at the top of the gorge looked to hold the main bulk of their forces.

While we crept along the noises from above continued to filter down to us. For the most part we could hear the sound of mining, but every so often conversations would manage to make it to us. Most of the people who spoke used the language of the gnomes, but here and there I could make out snatches of human.

However it wasn’t until a barely audible song reached our ears that Adam froze in his tracks, head lifting up toward the cliffside of the gorge. There was only a look of intense anger that was on his face, one that Lance mirrored when he grabbed Adam by the shoulder tightly.

“We can’t,” Adam muttered with a shake of his head, “it’ll be suicide.”

“What’s the matter?” Kuzu worriedly asked.

“Ain’t your problem,” Lance replied.

“Lance,” Adam said, “don’t be like that.”

“Well it ain’t,” Lance muttered darkly.

“Adam, what’s going on?” I finally asked.

Adam let out a long sigh and then pointed upward with one thumb. “That singing sounded like Row’s mother.”

“I suppose I owe you for letting me make a detour for Lisa,” I told Adam, “Kuzu, scout ahead to the portal and secure it. Eliminate any guards.”

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“What about you?” Kuzu turned to look at me, concern obvious in her gaze.

I gave her a look that spoke volumes of how stupid her question was. “If you have any problems let Lisa know via the glasses,” I told her before I gave a gentle push, “now get going. We don’t have all day.”

Kuzu started to walk away, but she had a moment of hesitation as she looked back at me. I gave a wave of my hand and it was enough to encourage her to keep moving on, and she vanished as she slipped into the darkest shadows in the gorge. I smiled at the thought of how she was actually worried about me, yet I pushed that to the side and focused on the task at hand.

“How are we going to get up?” Adam asked as he looked up at the walkways. There were no easily accessed ladders nearby, and we lacked any proper climbing gear.

I grinned at Adam as I pointed at Lisa. “She’ll take us up there.”

During the conversation Lisa had burrowed herself against me. When I pointed at her and made that statement she gave a wide smile. “Sure thing, daddy!” she exclaimed.

“Uh...what?” Lance tilted his head a little to the side.

The confusion was solved a few seconds later when Lisa shoved me into the Wolfe brothers, and then with her little arms she hugged all three of us and leapt up. We landed on the lowest walkway with a slight bang, the metal frame swaying slightly from the impact. Adam and Lance seemed phased by what had just happened, perhaps still not accustomed to a little girl being as strong as she was.

“Are you alright?” I asked Lisa as I rubbed her on the head, “you didn’t need to take all of us up, you could’ve jumped up and dropped a rope.”

“I’m fine,” Lisa said with a smile.

Adam pulled out his pistol as he shook off the surprise, his eyes focused on the walkways above and across from us. It proved to be too late as a gnome dozens of feet up, perhaps interested by the shaking of the walkway, managed to notice us from his vantage point.

“Let’s move! Lance, find her!” Adam yelled as he fired a round into the gnome’s head as it began to scream.

The dead sentry fell from the bridge, a quiet thud from below letting us know when he hit the ground, while Lance sniffed at the air. Numerous yells of surprise came from the various alcoves and caves along the cliff, while more and more gnomes that were armed started to emerge onto the walkways.

“This way!” Lance barked as he took off running, his long daggers pulled out in preparation of combat.

Ahead of us a few guards stepped into view in time to be assaulted by Lance, his weapons cutting their heads off. With no visible concern that he was running recklessly through enemy territory he plunged further on. It was only when he reached a ladder that we had a chance to catch up, the awkward ascent due to the design of the ladder slowing him.

I decided to put some pressure on the more distant gnomes while we took turns climbing the ladder. Adam joined in with his rifle, demonstrating once again an accuracy with his favored weapon that even put my own shooting to shame. Meanwhile Lisa began to climb up the ladder after Lance, who had started to clear away gnomes on the upper walkway.

Adam waved me up after she had finished her climb, though I discovered that the ladder had been designed for gnomes. The awkward climb was only made more aggravating when arrows started to fly down from above. After I’d reached the top Adam began his ascent while I tried my best to cover him.

Once we were all up the ladder Lance took off once more, but instead of heading along the walkway he instead turned and went into one of the caves. When we followed him in he had already gotten caught up in a fight. His kicks were hard enough that we could hear the bones crack, and at the slightest opening he finished off any gnome with a stab to the face.

He ignored the open wounds that he’d gained on his body from the gnomes who’d hit him. With a flick of his one long dagger he threw a gnome off of it, and then he turned and strode further into the caves. From behind Adam pushed me lightly on the back.

“Keep going, we can’t dawdle now,” he told me, “I’ll keep an eye out here.”

I put away my pistol and pulled out my sword, and with cane in one hand and weapon in the other I followed after Lance. I walked past corpse after corpse as we went further into the dark tunnel that had been burrowed into the cliff. I caught up once more with Lance as he was in the process of crushing the skull of a gnome beneath his boot.

“Be more careful!” I chastised him. I didn’t want to deal with him dying and then his brother probably following soon after.

He didn’t respond and instead turned to start looking at the cages built into the walls of the cave. A single lantern hung in the center of the room from the ceiling, and so most of the cages were cast in a darkness that proved difficult to see past. Even so I could make out the small figures of gnomes in most of them, including children.

“When did this happen?” I whispered to myself. A thousand years ago the gnomes had been loyal servants to the warlocks, and they had maintained an almost symbiotic relationship.

Lance drew my attention once more as he started to punch one of the metal doors of a cell. The bars shuddered with each impact, but the door refused to yield to his attack. Meanwhile from within I could hear voices speaking in a language I hadn’t heard in a thousand years.

“Lisa, can you help him?” I nudged her in the direction of Lance.

She skipped over to Lance and brushed past him, his punching pausing momentarily as he stared down at her in confusion. With a smile on her face she reached out to the bars of the cage and easily bent them. After she’d made it easy for anyone to enter or leave the cell she stepped back, but swayed unsteadily on her feet.

Adam came up from behind us, muttering a few choice words beneath his breath. From further back I could make out the sound of an innumerable amount of gnomes on the metal walkways, as well as a few that had started to enter into the cave. “We need to hurry up,” he said as he loaded another bullet into his rifle, “they started to sound the alarm at the barracks.”

Two adult avians emerged from the cage that the gnomes had shoved them into, shackled at the wrists with thick steel rings. A few gnomes followed them, beaten and tired from a long time in the mines. I lacked a key to free them from their current chains, but once we were clear of the mines it wouldn’t be hard for me to use my sword to carefully sever them.

“I’ll assume these are Row’s parents,” I commented to Adam, “that should be everything we need to do right?”

Adam started to nod his head when Lisa pushed forward and tugged at my clothing. “Daddy,” she said in a pleading tone, “are we going to leave all these other people behind?”

A little part of me felt pride in that question, but I also knew that it was a request that would cause only problems. There were probably dozens, if not hundreds, of people locked away in all of the cells. We’d already passed by many on our way to this one, and all those people would be a weight that could drag us down.

Yet it was a plea from my daughter. Luticia had been so proud of when she’d made our daughters. Years of hard work to create children for us, ones that would have the ability to grow and change as they met new situations. Those expectant eyes looked at me with the hope I’d not turn my back on the slaves.

“Do you know what you’re asking me to do here, Lisa?” I finally asked her while I knelt down. Outside of the cave more gnomes armed and furious gathered, “what type of skill I’ll need to use to even hope to do it?”

Lisa lowered her gaze toward the ground, as though ashamed by what she’d asked. Still she clung to my clothes while her brain worked away, she could already guess at what I meant with my questions. Nearby her Adam and Lance watched on alongside the people we’d already freed.

“Please,” Lisa finally said as she looked back up at me.

“Fine, help them open the cells,” I told her while I started to walk away, “Lance! I’m going to need you to carry me soon.”

“What? What’s happening?” Adam cried out from behind me.

“Stay here and wait until the screaming stops.”