war bureau templars, both dwarves, took the other two. The sergeant opened the grated door and uttered a word in front of the bright blue-green warding, and it disappeared long enough for everyone to march through in a single file. With another word, she brought it back to life.
She sent two elves and a half-elf down the tunnel first, not to take advantage of their night vision, but to chant a barrage of minor spells meant to give them safe passage. Privately, Pavek was dismayed by the sergeant’s tactics. He told himself it was only civil bureau prejudice against the war bureau’s reliance on magic—a prejudice born in envy because the civil bureau had to justify every spell it cast and the war bureau didn’t.
Still, he was relieved when one of the spell-chanters worked his way to the rear where the dull-eyed humans gathered, and reported that they’d gone too deep to pull anything through their medallions without creating an ethereal disturbance that could be easily detected by any Codeshite with a nose for magic.
The sergeant didn’t hide her preferences. “If there’s anyone at all in the damned cavern.”
But the chanter saw things differently. “It will not matter where they are, Sergeant. The deeper we go, the harder we must pull, and the bigger the ethereal disturbance, which radiates like a sphere and will reach Codesh long before we do. It is also true, sergeant, that the harder we pull, the less we are receiving. I believe it will not be long before we receive nothing useful at all no matter how hard we pull. The Mighty Lord Hamanu’s power does not seem to penetrate the rock beneath his city.”
They conferred with the red-headed priest in templar’s clothing. He couldn’t account for the problems the chanters were having. In Urik, he and other earth-dedicated priests worked very quietly because Hamanu’s power reached into their sanctuaries quite easily.
“The rock here must be different, Ediyua,” he addressed the sergeant not by her rank, but by her name, confirming Pavek’s suspicion that they were kin. “I could investigate, but it would take time, perhaps as much as a day.”
Ediyua muttered a few oaths. In her opinion, they should return to the palace; the war bureau didn’t like to fight without Hamanu backing them up, but Pavek was the great commander for this foray, and the final decision was his.
Hearing that the Lion-King’s power wouldn’t reach the reservoir cavern had shaken Pavek’s confidence. He’d been so certain Hamanu was toying with them. Now it seemed the great king truly needed the help and skill of a ragtag handful of ordinary folk to thwart Kakzim’s plan to poison the city’s water. Pavek still considered himself and all of his companions to be pawns in a great game between Hamanu and the mad halfling, but the stakes had been raised to dizzying heights.
“The bowls,” he said finally. “Destroying the bowls—that’s the most important thing. If we go back to the palace without doing that, we’ll be grease and cinders. The Lion’s given orders that the bowls are to be burnt before we link up with the other maniple in Codesh at midday. And we’re going to burn them, or die trying, because if we fail, the dying will be worse.”
There was a grumble of agreement from the nearest templars. Even the sergeant nodded her head.
Pavek continued. “I was seen and recognized yesterday on the Codesh killing ground. Our enemy knows I’ll be coming back, one way or another. He’ll have guards in the cavern-workmen, too—but no magic except mind-bending. He’s a mind-bender, I think. Tell everyone to be alert for thoughts that aren’t their own. It’s dark as a tomb in there. Keep your elves up front. Let them use their eyes. Forget spellcraft. There’re twenty of you, Sergeant. If you can’t defeat three times your number without pulling magic, Hamanu’s infinitesimal mercy won’t be enough to save you.”
A globe of flickering witch-light magnified the sergeant’s vexation at listening to a civil bureau regulator tell her how to prepare for a fight. But she gave the orders Pavek wanted to hear. All magic was stifled, and they finished their journey as Pavek recommended, keeping themselves low to the ground. He got a moment’s satisfaction when another report filtered back to them stating that there were at least a score of Codeshites in the cavern, some working atop shining platforms, while the rest were both armed and armored.
Leaving the balsam oil with the two dwarves, Pavek followed