Eldren, Ink, and Baltran turned and crashed back through the brush toward their camp.

How could we have been so stupid, to all wander out from camp at once? he thought.

The arrow that had struck Baltran had been to distract them and it had worked. They had plunged into the brush back down the pass after the archer while the rest of the monikath raiding party had circled to their camp.

The clearing was empty except for their bedrolls and the roaring campfire when they arrived back. But a glance around told Eldren that his backpack—containing Ardos and his crystal ball— was missing. Still wearing the eyepiece of the strategist, he saw an explosion of thick, wriggling green movement lines.

“Over there! Left!” he shouted to his companions just in time. A wicked, hooked blade slashed out from the shadows just as Ink spun to look. She ducked just in time and reflexively threw up one of her long knives to intercept the blow.

More creatures emerged from the shadows; Eldren could count at least ten but had no way of knowing if more were prowling behind this first wave of raiders.

The monikaths were horrendously ugly. They resembled upright Komodo dragons, with dark-scaled lizard snouts and serpentine necks with lighter underbellies. Their eyes were yellow slits and several had long fangs protruding as they flicked forked tongues, hissing in their own language. Most wore some kind of armor—disjointed scraps of leather and chain mail pieced together to protect their torsos. All of them wielded jagged short swords or knives in clawed hands.

Baltran fired a round from Twister, striking a monikath in the arm but missing with the other shots as he was taken surprise at short range. Ink flipped her second knife out and engaged three of the monsters at once.

Eldren backed toward the fire and realized he didn’t have a weapon— the Staff of the Novice was stored in the inventory in his crystal ball. His stomach sank further as it also dawned on him that he didn’t have his crystal ball to track his mana and health.

“I don’t have my staff!” he shouted over the clang of metal, hissing, and black powder explosions. Ink looked up and nodded and worked her way a few more feet toward the fire to provide him cover, ducking and parrying strikes from the lizard men.

He thought about trying the same trick against the monikaths as he had against the zombies in the cemetery with Baltran’s bullet. They had had more distance with their opponents in the cemetery and the zombies had moved more slowly giving him more time to focus and time his thoughtlift spell. The monikaths moved much quicker, their movement lines hardly providing much warning to him as they twitched and darted to make short strikes with their weapons. Plus, in the darkness, he might easily drain his mana and not kill all of the creatures.

Baltran roared in pain as a monikath blade sliced into his bicep. The monikaths worked as a group, striking in succession, relentlessly harrying Ink and Baltran. Ink groaned as a knife nicked her in the side, between the pieces of her leathers. The creatures seemed to be able to see easily in the darkness of night and Eldren noticed that they selectively targeted his companions’ exposed areas.

Wait. Where was Kelian? They had run back up the pass with the druid but now he was nowhere to be seen.

Just as Eldren wondered about the elf, he began to feel the ground vibrate beneath his feet. The rumbling and vibrations grew stronger and he turned just in time to see a giant rhinoceros burst into the camp clearing and catch one of the monikaths through the stomach with its giant horn. The creature’s body flew through the air as the rhino tossed it up and crashed with a thud on the ground near Eldren.

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The other monsters turned, startled by the newcomer, and Eldren took advantage. He eyed a large section of fallen tree trunk at the edge of the clearing.

Thoughtlift.

He could feel the tingling of his mana draining and the log elevated into the air. He pushed it with his mind across the clearing, gaining momentum and speed as it flew through the air. The log caught three monikaths in the back at full speed, shoving them forward toward the rhino. Two others jumped from the path of the log. Unfortunately, they jumped directly into Baltran’s line of sight and the dwarf pulled the triggers of Twister and Fang, simultaneously burying a lead sphere into the chest of each monikath.

Kelian in rhinoceros form wreaked havoc on the group of raiders herded toward him by Eldren’s telekinetic log. He charged forward and gutted two more of the lizards, who desperately hacked at the tough leathery skin on his shoulder with their blades to no avail. Ink continued to weave and slice, felling two more monikaths. Soon, only one of the lizard men remained but as it turned to flee, Baltran took aim and loosed a final bullet across the clearing. The monikath crumpled in a heap.

“Any sign of the turtle?” Ink asked.

Eldren rolled over several of the nearest monikath corpses while Baltran and Ink examined the others. Kelian had morphed back into himself and was leaning against a tree, rubbing the shoulder the monikaths had attacked

“Nothin’ here,” Baltran said, kicking over the final corpse from the raiding party.

“There must have been more,” Kelian said. “We were further down the pass, so they’ve probably fled up the chasm toward the ledge where their lair is.”

Eldren turned, ready to sprint into the darkness.

“Hold on,” Ink said. “We can’t go plunging again into the brush, that’s what got us in this mess. They know we’re here now and they can see in the dark while we’re blindly flailing around out there.”

He paused and turned back. Ink was right, of course, but his heart raced thinking about the monikaths with Ardos helpless and captive. It was a strange feeling. The tortoise had tried to possess him and was often annoyingly cryptic but Eldren felt himself suddenly responsible for Ardos and suddenly protective.

Almost like I felt when Gran was sick, he thought.

“We’ve got to get him back,” Eldren said. “They’ll kill him. And Oswald.” He wanted to add if they hadn’t already but thought better of it as Kelian joined them standing around the fire.

Ink nodded and he could tell that she was trying to think of a plan. After a few moments of silence, she looked up and sighed. Nothing.

Eldren stood, looking into the fire, deep in thought. His ambush plan had backfired and the monikaths were clever, working as a pack. He didn’t know how much mana he had left and he had foolishly forgotten to take his weapon out of his inventory.

“I’ve got an idea.”

He looked up, surprised. Baltran was running his bearded chin and staring into the flames as well.

“Granted, I’m not ter sure it’ll work, but might be worth tryin’. When I was a lad back home, we used a trick whenever we hit an open cave down in the mines. Yer never know what’s lurking in the caves, so its best ter flush ‘em out.”

“Flush them out?” Ink asked.

“Aye,” Baltran said. “Either scare out or stun whatever’s inside, so yer can clear ‘em easier. I was thinking we might do the same ter this lizard lair.”

“How?” Eldren asked, curious. Anything was worth a try.

The dwarf stalked over to his satchel and rummaged for a moment before pulling out a small wooden box, about the length of his forearm. He walked back to the group standing by the fire and held it up, grinning.

“We can use this,” he said, opening the box. Eldren peered inside. The box, like the salt cellar in his kitchen back home, was full of the fine, black powder that Baltran used to make his bullets. Explosive powder. Suddenly, he understood.

“We’re going ter make ourselves a bomb,” Baltran said.

They were quiet for a moment before Ink spoke.

“What if we blow the turtle and otter up alongside all the lizards?” She frowned, looking at the box of powder.

“Aye,” Baltran said. “That’s a risk, ter be sure.”

“We can’t do anything that might harm Oswald,” Kelian said firmly. “We might also cause a cave-in, which wouldn’t do us any good.”

Eldren thought about the idea. Kelian and Ink were right — a large explosion risked collapsing the cliff side and sealing Oswald and Ardos inside with the monikaths, or worse, killing them outright in the explosion.

An idea struck him as he stared at the black powder in Baltran’s box. Maybe they just need a smaller explosion. He turned toward Ink.

“Ink, how much sleeping powder do you still have in your crossbow darts?”