me so that I could just about make out the light of his eyes in the gloom.
“Not yet,” I replied a little frostily.
He was unaffected by my tone and, in truth, I didn’t know why I had taken it. He just shrugged and turned back to the descending passage, pulling me slightly toward him as he stepped down. There was a hole, no more than a yard across and almost invisible in the long grass, and in it was a tightly spiraling stairway. I fumbled for a rail, grabbed an outcrop of bare and polished rock, and lowered myself in. Feeling for the edge of each step with my foot, I descended slowly into the darkness, until I could smell smoke and candle wax. Then, quite suddenly, a yellowish light played over my feet. I took two more steps and then bent down to peer into the chamber below.
A broad cave spread out around me and firelight flickered on the walls. Voices raised in song and laughter rose from below and, if my ears did not deceive me, I thought I caught the familiar clink of pewter mugs. Things were looking up.
Briefly. The moment I made my appearance on the stairs, a strange hush fell on the chamber. Faces turned toward me and the last patterings of speech trickled into nothing but the roar of the fire. Their gazes fell on me and held me, their eyes burning quietly and their mouths closed. Somewhere one of their immense bears growled.
I faltered, and then, seeing Mithos turn back toward me, continued my descent, slowly, watchfully.
“Come on, Will,” said Mithos, with a deliberation which refused to acknowledge the change in the assembly’s demeanor. “Let’s get you a drink.”
I looked at him expressionlessly and stepped down, half expecting the two of us to be overwhelmed in a rush of hostile goblins overturning tables and chairs, shrieking and raising heavy, cruel weapons.
Instead, the swell of conversation grew again, gradually at first, returning to normal in a matter of seconds. The goblins turned back to their food and to each other and soon after that there was singing and the sound of a small harp.
I gave Mithos a hard stare as soon as the last face was turned from us. “What the hell was that? Are you so sure these are the good guys? They look like the only reason they haven’t slit my throat yet is because they’re saving me for dessert.”
“Cut it out, Will,” said Mithos, stern now.
“They aren’t exactly rolling out the red carpet . . .” I began.
“Do you know how many of them you killed when you came with Renthrette to the Falcon’s Nest?” said Mithos, his eyes glittering hard and black.
“We came to rescue you!”
“And did it never occur to you that we might not need rescuing?”
“No!” I said loudly. “No, it bloody didn’t. And you know why? Because these half-animal degenerates attacked us in the mountains and did their best to kill us all. You have a pretty damn funny way of picking friends. Is it part of your bloody adventurer’s code? Do I have to hack one of your legs off before you’ll consider me a buddy, too? With friends like this, who needs . . .”
He stepped up close enough that I could feel his breath on my face when he whispered, “Do you remember how that fight started, Will?”
I said nothing.
“It started,” he said in the same scarily hushed tone, “when you assumed that the beasts that had come into the cave had come to attack us, and you threw a stone.”
“A pack of wolves and some grizzlies marched into the place we were bedding down! What did you expect me to do? Offer them tea?”
“I’m just saying that you started it, and it might have gone differently. If we hadn’t given Sorrail an excuse to ‘rescue’ us, we might have all gotten a clearer perspective on this thing. . . .”
“Oh, of course!” I shouted suddenly. “It’s my fault! How very surprising. When in doubt, blame Hawthorne. Thanks for the encouragement, Mithos. I’ll tell you what; I’ll just go and drown myself in the swamp, save everyone the trouble.”
“Fine.”
“What?”
“Fine. Go and drown yourself. You know where the stairs are.”
“What,” I stuttered, “now?”
“Don’t say things you don’t mean, Will,” said Mithos, walking away.
I had a good mind to go right back up, but it was damn cold outside and wandering around the swamp at night—or, more likely, sitting sulking just out of sight of the