Rhania felt a wave of nausea as the source of foul energy grew behind her. Whoever was wielding it was preparing for a fight. Then, a loud screech echoed down the other end of the tunnel. Moments later, dozens of other voices returned the cry. They had walked headfirst into an ambush. Of course it was an ambush! Could one of the goblins they had fought on the surface come running down to warn the others? There was no way they could have known. Stupid stupid stupid!

“On my signal, we go back the way we came. I will slay the one behind us and then together, we will make a break for the surface,” Ildin whispered. “I am trusting you to watch my back against the others.”

“Understood,” Rhania replied, tasting bile as she unslung her bow.

Her heart began to pound as malicious laughter and foul sounding speech echoed down the tunnel. She extended her senses, and a pit of ice formed in her stomach. Finding a mark in the narrow tunnel would be easy. Indeed, it would be impossible to miss. Her fingers trembled as she reached for an arrow and nocked it in her bow.

“Ergon watch over me,” Ildin muttered in Elvish before adding in Ildruni. “We move.”

Rhania was caught off guard at how quickly the elven swordsman moved as she sent an arrow down the tunnel. A shriek told her that she had found her mark. Foul creatures screeched in rage, and she didn’t need to sense the flow to know that they had begun to charge. She began to run and heard another shriek as her second arrow found its mark, but it was quickly drowned out by the bloodthirsty cries of the others.

Behind her, Rhania sensed Ildin closing on the warlock rapidly. With luck, the elven swordsman would be able to enter striking range before their foe even knew he was there. Then, she remembered something she had read, that warlocks, being servants of the Dark Gods, were able to see perfectly in the dark. She whirled around to see a pair of glowing red eyes appear in the distance. From the Flow, she could sense that Ildin was still at least twenty feet from striking range.

She felt the foul energy emanating from the warlock surge and opened her mouth to warn Ildin. Before she could speak, a commanding voice echoed down the tunnel. “Drop to the ground or burn!”

The warlock’s power grew greater still, and Rhania drew the magical energy flowing in the earth around her into her feet and used it to launch herself at Ildin and tackle him to the ground. As they fell, she felt a searing heat pass over them.

She whirled around as the bloodthirsty cries were replaced by ones of agony and terror. It soon became hard to breathe, and searing heat came from the opposite end of the tunnel. When she read the Flow, it was as though that part of the tunnel was engulfed in flames even though it was still pitch black.

“The black flames of Coronu,” Ildin murmured.

“This way!” the voice from earlier ordered. “More are coming!”

“What do we do?” Rhania whispered as she and Ildin hurriedly untangled themselves from one another. She read the Flow and was dismayed to find that the closest goblins had already surged past the hole from which they entered.

“We follow him for now,” Ildin whispered into her ear in Elvish as more shrieks came from down the tunnel. “And wait for an opening.”

“I couldn’t agree more,” Rhania said. Even though the warlock had helped them, such heretics had pledged themselves to the Dark Gods for their power and couldn’t be trusted.

The warlock set a brisk pace before coming to a halt after several minutes. Rhania saw his glowing red eyes appear briefly as he looked past them down the tunnel. From their height, it appeared that the warlock was a dwarf. The eyes disappeared as he turned to face the wall. There was a faint scraping sound and Rhania sensed the dwarf disappear through a hole that had just appeared in the solid wall.

Ildin followed without hesitating and Rhania was close behind. Once they stepped through the hole, she felt the door close behind them. Moments later, torches blazed into life, blinding her. As she took an involuntary step back from the light, she felt steel against her throat and something sharp against her back.

“Raise your arms, no sudden movements,” a voice warned from behind.

Slowly Rhania obeyed and rough hands began to relieve her of her weapons. When her vision recovered, she saw a dwarf holding the tip of a spear to her throat. She glanced over at Ildin, who was smouldering as another dwarf stripped him of his sword.

“If you damage that, there won’t be a hole deep enough to keep me from wringing your neck,” he growled.

“Sorry about this,” the voice from the tunnel said apologetically.

Rhania looked up to see a barrel chested dwarf wearing a motley collection of rags smiling ruefully at them. His eyes were lined and the colour of dull steel now and Rhania could no longer sense any foul energy in him. She counted six dwarves in all, surrounding them in what appeared to be a naturally occurring cavern. They were dressed identically, wearing overalls and steel hats. The only visible weapons were the spears pointed at their throats.

“I had the feeling the pair of you were about to knife me in the back at the first opportunity,” he said before bowing so low that his thick, black beard swept the cavern’s uneven floor. “Volkith Drokane at your service.”

“You’re a suspicious fellow,” Ildin remarked as the dwarves withdrew their weapons from the elves’ necks.

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The dwarf chuckled. “A hard earned trait, I assure you. I am well aware of how those with my… talents are regarded.”

“You mean warlocks?” Rhania said flatly and eyed the other dwarves in turn. “Are they your flock?”

Several of the dwarves recoiled in open disgust and she then realized that all were giving Volkith a wide berth.

“No, this crew are all good Goldrim fearing dwarves, I assure you,” he chuckled. “We have an understanding that without mutual cooperation, we’d be dead.”

“Do you expect us to believe that the filth outside aren’t under your command?” Ildin demanded.

“I know this will be hard for you to believe, but I am merely a scholar, not a zealot,” Volkith replied and looked pointedly at the other dwarves. “I was down here researching magic until I was disturbed by Amant and his crew who had stirred a nest of goblins and led them to my doorstep.”

“I have many questions,” Ildin said as a dwarf stripped him of his food.

They fell silent when they heard muffled shouts from the other side of the hidden door. Rhania reached out to sense the Flow and was chilled to discover at least half a hundred of the creatures swarming down the tunnel on the other side of the wall. The small blessing was they did not seem to have noticed the door.

“I’m sure you do,” Volkith beamed. “However, those ghastly creatures have keen ears. Let’s take this somewhere more comfortable, shall we?”

Before Ildin could reply, Volkith turned around and began walking deeper into the cavern. The other dwarves waited a moment before following him.

“Come on then, knife ears, let’s get going,” the dwarf behind Rhania said as he walked past.

Rhania felt a surge of bemusement when she saw that he had been holding the point of a pick axe against her back.

“So, are we prisoners?” Ildin asked bluntly as they were led deeper into the cavern. The lights from the two torch bearers seemed small. It was as though the light they emitted was being swallowed by the darkness around them.

“Not at all,” Volkith’s laughter echoed through the cavern, causing Rhania to wince. “I regard you as honoured guests. I’m sure my companions do as well.”

Volkith turned to one of the torch bearers. His clothes were loose around his frame, indicating that he had recently lost a considerable amount of weight. “Isn’t that right, Amant?”

The dwarf blinked at Volkith and grunted absently.

“If we are honoured guests, could we have our weapons back?” Ildin ventured.

The warlock turned around, and his eyes twinkled mischievously. “Only if you swear the most solemn of oaths to Ergon that you will not use them to harm me.”

“I will do no such thing,” Ildin said bluntly, causing Rhania to wince. To her surprise, the other dwarves didn’t seem troubled by the threat.

“Fair enough,” Volkith laughed. “Then swear you will not knife me until you’ve heard me out.”

“That I can do,” Ildin replied reluctantly.

They paused to allow the elves to swear an oath in Ildruni. When they were done, Volkith nodded at the dwarves who reluctantly returned their weapons, but not their food.

“Why is a dwarf warlock wandering around beneath our lands?” Ildin demanded once his weapons had been returned to his belt. The dwarves eyed the elven pair warily, clearly uncomfortable with the fact that they were armed.

“Chins up, lads,” Amant said as they approached one of the cavern’s walls. “We should be glad to have some proper soldiers protecting us. Then perhaps we will be able to survive without this filth.”

“I thought you’d be more curious about why the tunnel was running through your lands,” Volkith remarked as he led them along the wall.

“That can wait,” Ildin said. “First, explain yourself. Then, explain the tunnel, and then I will run my blade through your blasphemous throat.”

“Fair enough. Perhaps we could chat in private,” Volkith grinned as he turned into a fissure in the wall that was just wide enough for one person to pass at a time. “Amant, you and your boys will have to wait outside whilst I entertain our guests.”

Rhania and Ildin stared at one another as they looked at the fissure hesitantly.

“I’d wager that if he wanted to suck our souls out through our eye sockets, he would have done so already,” Rhania pointed out.

“Our running theory is that he’s waiting for us to get him out of this hole before doing that,” Amant offered.

“Then why are you throwing your lot in with that thing?” Ildin spat with distaste.

Amant shrugged and jerked his thumb over his shoulder. “He saved us from being torn to shreds by that lot out there. By the time we figured out what he was, he’d brought us back here.”

“Then why haven’t you burned him alive?” Rhania asked. “Goldrim is no lover of heretics.”

“You’ve seen what he can do,” Amant replied. “Besides, we wouldn’t survive a minute out there without him. We’re miners, not fighters.”

“There are things worse than death in this world,” Ildrim said darkly.

“I take it you dwarves made that tunnel out there?” Rhania ventured.

Amant shook his head. “Our people did, but it wasn’t us. That tunnel has existed for centuries.”

He turned pale when he saw the fury on Ildrim’s face and quickly added. “The tunnel was ordered by our previous king to facilitate trade with the humans in case your people ever revoked access to the Green Road.”

“Our chieftain would never do such a thing,” Ildrim’s voice shook with fury. “And this alternate road still goes through our lands!”

“O… our current king knows that the elves honour their words and brought the project to an end at the beginning of his reign,” Amant stammered. “The tunnel was sealed on the day of his coronation.”

“So what were you doing down here?” Rhania asked.

“Ukh Darnin is under siege,” Amant replied. “We were sent to resume work on the tunnel so that we could make contact with your people and ask for aid.”

“Your people know where our village is,” Ildin said thinly. “I find it hard to believe your team couldn’t come up in the middle of the Fountain of Life if you had the mind.”

“The tunnel was never meant to pass anywhere close to your village,” Amant said. “That would be an act of war instead of a simple act of trespassing. We came up at the closest point to your village and were met with those infernal mists.”

“And the greenskins?” Rhania asked. “How did they get in?”

The blood drained from Amant’s face. “Ukh Darnin is under siege from above ground and below. The greenskins are swarming through the caverns underneath the mountains. They must have heard us moving down the tunnels and broke in through one of the walls. We can only hope the end at our city was sealed before they were able to breach it.”

“Why wasn’t a call for aid sent?” Ildin asked, his tone softer. “The gates of Ukh Darnin were shut months ago.”

Amant opened his mouth to answer, but after a moment’s hesitation, instead replied. “That was our king’s decision. It would be inappropriate for me to make any assumptions on his behalf.”

“If you’re quite done plotting,” came Volkith’s voice from beyond the fissure. “I’d quite like a chat. I think it would be to our mutual benefit.”

Rhania and Ildin exchanged looks.

“Well, we promised to hear him out before giving him the death he richly deserves,” Ildin whispered.

Amant, who was in earshot nodded in silent agreement.

Rhania nodded. “Be warned, though. Servants of the Dark Ones can speak with honeyed tongues. We cannot trust a word out of his mouth.”

“You don’t have to tell me that,” Ildin snapped irritably.

“Are you coming?” Volkith asked.

“Yes, yes we are,” Rhania replied.

Amant held out a hand and offered the elves his torch. “You’ll need this.”