"Have they given you a post yet?" Wulden asked. He was leaning with one big arm against the mouth of the cave, a light snowfall had covered his thick red mane like a silken shawl. They'd been on the brow for half the morning already, digging and blasting in the cave his men had seen the goblin spy emerging from, while Wulden periodically pressed Buri for answers to prying questions. Neri answered a few of them, but that seemed to annoy the big man even more than being asked them in the first place. The cave was in the steep rise of the summit, far from Magni, the cracks overlooking the Sholai glacier, or any other place of note on the Brow. They were still unsure what the goblin spy had been doing there, and it seemed he'd simply been hiding, but Neri had a feeling he couldn't shake. He'd seen the goblins operate in the Coldwood. They were furtive and cunning, and singularly focused, yet they showed clear signs that they thought in a way completely alien to other kins. He was sure the goblin meant to help, but learning how would not be easy.

"Seems either Ganly or Vor would have snatched you up by now," Wulden said. Buri continued to ignore him.

"He's on retainer for special assignments," Neri answered for him, if only to put an end to Wulden's inquiry. Wulden was a brutal and efficient warrior during combat, but with the absence of arrows flying passed his head he lacked focus.

"Hand me another tunneler," Neri said. One of the Red Spears came into the mouth of the cave and handed him a bundled trio of exploding rods. He wedged the device firmly against the back of the cave and struck the fuse with his flint. They left the cave and stood a dozen yards away. A cloud of smoke, rock and snow blew like sea spray out of the cave. When they went back in the cave was deeper, but they still found nothing but more stone.

"Prince Halfur said he smelt burning metal," said Neri.

"Yes," Wulden replied, "and I examined the drill you and Prince Ror found. It had clearly been used to bore through low carbon steel with adamantine carbides. Only the structural walls of the citadel use that alloy. That drow was boring into the citadel, and this goblin was trying to lead us to or away from where?"

"We're going about this wrong," Neri said.

"How do you figure?" Wulden asked. "The goblin was found right here, by your men."

"Yes, but if the drow was blasting his way to the walls then we'd have seen signs of blasting. This is a natural cave, or was rather, before we opened it deeper."

"Then what was that green man doing up here?"

Neri thought for a moment, then went back to the exact spot his Owls had been when they spotted the spy. He stood where Vraki, Jem's cousin, had shown him, and from there looked at the cave. He began to regret the blasting they had done, as the walls of the cave were shattered and scarred by the explosions. If the spy had left any token or sign of his activity it had been destroyed by now.

"You're certain he wasn't simply hiding, Captain?" asked Thrar, one of Wulden's lieutenants.

Neri shook his head. "This is too high up, and too likely a place to be caught."

"I agree," said Wulden. "He climbed hard to rise this high so quick. I'm honestly impressed."

"They're hardy people," Neri observed.

"Buri!" said a girl's voice from behind.

Neri turned to see who it was. The six soldiers Wulden brought were moving in a circle toward her, but Buri had stayed them with a raised hand. The girl was small but solidly built, with the lines of her strong shoulders and thighs showing through her thick, fur lined leathers. Her dark hair was bound in a tight bun, giving her head the look of an eclipsed moon as the sun shone down on her. Neri's heart quickened for a few beats when she stepped under the shade of the summit. Her face was prettier than any he'd seen, and she held her climbing stick with the same deft familiarity as a veteran soldier holding a pike. It was a long trek from Magni to where they stood, and with the recent snowfall their tracks had been covered, yet she found them all the same, and was not the least bit fatigued from a long walk through deep snow.

"Is he the Owl Captain?" she asked, pointing at him. "He sure stares like an owl. My dad says 'Hullo', Buri, and your uncle says 'Do what the Owl Captain says'. You want me to hoot at something, Owl Captain?"

Wulden laughed. "You're Ladhu's daughter then? I'm Wulden Aldnari. This is Neri Heimlad, and you clearly know Buri Yormun. These six fools are unimportant."

Wulden's men all chuckled. "That's why he brought us along," said Thrar, "to make him look clever with all our bumbling about."

"And he gave you a bag of grenades," Nava said. "I'm seeing it all clear now. We can't have three Ladhu's running around Thrond, so now that my dad's back they've got to get rid of one of the other two, and they dare not get rid of a skilled smith, so they sent up the useless explorer girl to play toss the grenade with a pack of bumbling fools. Is that the shape of things?"

"Not quite," said Thrar, "our orders were to stuff you in the bag and toss you into this cave."

Nava went to the bag and made like she was trying to step inside, then stepped back and shrugged. "I'm sorry fellas. I tried to make it easy for you, but your bag's too small for my big ole' bum. We'll have to play toss the grenade after all. Best no one play on my team, doom seems to follow me. Can't say why, except to gape at the size of my big ole' bum."

"Come now sweet child," said Wulden, "you should be grateful that doom follows you. It brought your dad back."

"Well then, how about I take this bag and carry it into that cave to see what doom has in store for me next? maybe I'll find a husband in there. One who likes big ole' bums."

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One of the Red Spears stepped behind her and looked at her buttocks. "It's as small as the rest of you," he said while laughing.

"Oy!" Nava whirled around. "Buri, roll him up in a ball and put him in that bag, he's taking my place in the cave. I'm proud of my big bum, I'll have you know. It's the only distinguishable feature I've got."

The men laughed, even Buri. Neri liked this girl. "And your sad humor," he said. "I name you the Daughter of Doom."

The other men laughed and snickered, but Nava looked him directly in the eye and smiled. "I'll take that name," she said, "I'll take it gladly. So before you issue me my orders, I have a question for the Golden Owl."

"Ask it," Neri said.

"There's a honeycomb of tunnels drilled into the mountain up north a ways. They don't look official. Is that something I should be reporting?"

"Yes. Yes it is."

"Well, it's a good thing I just did."

Wulden stepped close to Neri and leaned his elbow on his shoulder. "How did you find these tunnels?" he asked Nava.

"Well," Nava seemed suddenly nervous, "they were covered up, but sloppy like. I think you lot missed them because you do things clean and neat. I've learned how to pack up and cover tracks quickly in the Explorer's Guild, and no insult meant to the guild, but we're a bit sloppy, and so I suppose I saw it because sloppy's what I'm accustomed to."

Wulden was a big, kind and affable man, and when he smiled you could feel it. He smiled at Nava, and wrapped his gigantic hand around the back of Neri's neck and shook him. "Here's your next Owl, lad. She saw something we didn't, how about that?"

The girl blushed, a thing Neri was used to seeing. "I don't imagine I'm fit for soldiering, Dread Captains. I can handle a sword, but I'm as like to cut off my own head as an enemy's. I'll be happy to demonstrate. Just promise you'll lie to my dad when you send him the sad but predictable news. Tell him I found the hidden door after thwarting the goblin attack, not aiding it."

Nava lead them to the tunnels she'd mentioned, and sure enough there were heaps of loose rock thrown in hurried piles that stuck out from the recent snow fall. A strong wind blew down from the summit and cleared one pile almost completely off.

“There’s a camp nearby as well,” Nava said. “It looks like a camp some climbers might make, but the holes where they pounded their pegs are too far apart, unless they were some extra tall dwarves, even taller than this big fella. Kind of you to wear your hair like that, by the by. Makes us wee folk feel even smaller.”

Buri allowed half a smile.

"This doesn't help us much, unfortunately," said Thrar. "We know where they drilled now, but not what their purpose was. There's nothing but air vents under this patch of mountain . The vents are too narrow for a grown goblin to slide down, and air comes out these channels, so there's no way to use them to spread any poison or fumes."

Neri thought hard. Thrar had spoken true. The air shafts ended in a chamber where metal turbines were spun by large, ohr powered magnets, expelling stale air through chutes placed on the summit. The shafts were too small for grown men or women of any kin to slide down. Neri felt his stomach tighten suddenly. Children could slide down them. There was that drow boy at the wedding feast...

"They may plan to invade the citadel with an army of children," Wulden said with a smirk, as if he heard Neri's thoughts and was mocking them.

"Then we'd best arm all our mothers," said Nava. "Now don't be lookin' at me. Your chief fool there just pointed out what a small bum I have. Well, a small bum means small hips. How am I supposed to plop out a litter of babes with small hips?"

"You can have small children," said Thrar, "you just need to find a small man to be their father."

"Well that rules you lot out, you pack of lummoxes." She sighed.

Neri laughed quietly to himself. But as much as he enjoyed this girl's humor, they were on an urgent errand. "There was a drow child at Prince Balvor's wedding feast. He had a suspicious look, and seemed out of place... "

"So that's what the drow you and Buri found was up to!" Wulden bellowed. "Well, we'd best search the summit for his mistress. They could have sired a whole legion by now."

Neri waited a moment for the laughter to die down. "Is there any way a small enough person could repel down one of these shafts and land safely? Humor me Wulden."

"Looking to take in an orphan?" Nava was smiling broadly.

"You offering to help raise him?" Thrar gave her shoulder a swat. She blushed again and the soldiers laughed.

"Gentlemen," Neri said, "is it possible?"

"A very agile child might," Wulden said. "The little fiend would then have to know the speed of each fan, and be able to leap and tumble his way past them before being diced like an onion."

"And all that work to accomplish what end?" asked Buri.

Neri looked to Wulden. He'd spent very little time in the Citadel, being stationed with his men under the trembling path. Wulden shrugged and shook his big, happy head. "He may open a window or two, and let some cold air in. There's no doors to the mountain that anyone could access without a military escort, and the whole Citadel is watched by the Stone Guard. I doubt even a shadow could slip past them."

"Speaking of shadows," said Nava, "I'll turn into one if I don't eat soon. Buri's uncle didn't say much about what I'd be doing up here, or ask what I'd been doing before I came to him. Sadly, breaking fast was not something I'd done."

"We have what we were looking for," Wulden said. "Neri, why don't you go back down and get the girl some scoff? We'll have these tunnels opened up by midday, and hunt down this army of children."

"Everyone be sure to check under your beds tonight for shadow babes," Nava said as she and Neri departed. She was walking backwards and waving to the Red Spears. "There could be an army of them crawling through your windows as we speak."

Neri smiled. "You're welcome to eat with us, Buri," he said. The big man looked at the piles of loose boulders, then up the steep rockwall that lead to the summit. "I think I'll stay with the troops," he said. Neri nodded, then turned to lead Nava to the mess hall.