Half a mile’s walk in the pitch darkness was no laughingmatter. The scrub land seemed full of roots and stumps designed to trip a man over on his face. As the terrain separated the party out from one another, Jus beckoned Escalla over to his side.
“What do you know about drow?”
“Usual stuff.” Escalla sat on Jus’ shoulder, where she couldwhisper in quiet to Jus and Cinders. “Evil, live underground, slave takers,spider obsessed… Females are more powerful than males. Oh, and the femaleshave a dress sense that makes me look like Saint Cuthbert’s maiden aunt!”The girl stroked her chin-a motion unconsciously copied from the Justicar.“They’re poison users, too. Can we handle that?”
“It’s no problem.” Jus mentally counted through the spellsand powers at his command. “I can neutralize it with a spell.”
“Hoopy. So as long as you’re not the one that gets hit, we’reall in clover.” Escalla sighed and rested her chin on her hand. “No one’s tiedthe drow to this before? Why hasn’t there been any sign of elves?”
A bright, mad grin shone in the darkness
Cinders smelled! The hell hound seemed immensely pleasedwith himself. Cinders smelled them-yes! Elfie-pixie-faerie smell. Smelled atSour Patch, first time!
“Yep. Got me there.” Escalla nodded acceptance and patted thedog. “You sure did, pooch. We just forgot to take note.” Escalla gave a sigh.“Sorry. I owe you a tail rub.”
Welcome.
The scrub thinned. Just ahead of Jus, the sergeant stood in the light of Private Henry’s lantern, wearing the triumphant look of someoneabout to share confusion and perplexity.
The trail of crushed and broken bushes ended on a broad, roughly circular patch of grassy ground. At the middle of the huge clearing stood a ring of standing stones.
The stones were massive slabs of granite, moss covered monoliths that seemed to have sprouted from the Flanaess itself. Each pair of stones was topped by a capstone to form a titanic arch. The trail ended at the base of one archway, the footprints once again cut off as though sliced with a knife.
It was a familiar enough sight. Escalla looked the offending archway up and down as she hovered before it in midair.
“Jus? Check the locator thingie.”
The ranger opened his pouch and duly produced the charm. It swiveled, settled, and hung pointing south without making so much as a twitch. Escalla looked at it in interest then paced busily up and down.
“Damn! They’re still miles away!”
“No matter.” Storing away the charm, the Justicar arose andlooked at the stone circle. “The murderer must be linked to these slave raids.It looks like they might be following the same route.”
“Yeah.” Escalla’s frown faded then suddenly was replaced by alook of sly, brilliant joy. “Yeah!”
Sidling past Polk, the girl ended up beside the sergeant.
“Sarge? Saaay, this king of yours…” Escalla tapped thefingers of her hands together, suddenly the heart and soul of avarice. “If wewere to free these poor lost citizens of yours and maybe detonate whoever’sbehind these raids, do you feel the king might express his joy in a physical, maybe fiscal type of way?”
“Huh?”
“You know, in a material fashion.” The girl excitedly wavedher hands. “An openhanded expression of esteem. Royal pleasure demonstratedthough means of treasury assets.”
The sergeant scratched his head, giving a confused look at the little faerie girl. “You mean is there a reward?”
“Yes! If you want to get all uncouth about it!”
“Well, Ma’am, that is, Miss, I believe the reward stands atten thousand gold pieces.”
“Ten!” Goggling, Escalla waved her hands, almost lost for words, then cameracing up to shake the sergeant by the hand. “Kick back, man! Relax! We’ll dealwith it!” The faerie halted suddenly. “Does this king of yours have a name?”
“Umm…”
“Great! Tell King Um that Escalla’s on the job!” The girlturned a back flip, ending up beside Polk, who was sneaking yet another drink from his faerie bottle. “Polk, let’s get busy! Time to show these guys thattheir worries are at an end!”
Always happy to see activity, Polk corked his magic bottle. The man had apparently been sneaking more than just a wee drink or two to sustain him on the march. He wiped his mouth and gave a happy, addled cry.
“That’s great! Well, come on. Time’s a-wastin!” The littleman picked up his feet. “Lezz go!”
Jus wearily uncoiled the magic rope from his belt-ashortened, somewhat scorched souvenir from a battle with an erinyes-and whippedit out to entangle Polk. The Justicar hauled Polk in like a flapping fish, took one sniff at him and gave a huge, threatening growl.
“You’re drunk!”
“Never, son!” Polk seemed far happier than any man on amurder investigation had a right to be. “It’s just high spirits! Glad we’re onthe job!”
Jus growled. There were too many things to occupy him. Looking at the stone circle, the ranger called, “Escalla! Just tell me how we’resupposed to trigger these damned gates! Is there a spell to tell us what the keys might be?”
“Sure there is!”
“So throw the spell.”
“I can’t. I don’t know it.” Escalla waved innocently. “Likewe use it every day! Come on, man, we’re going into battle! I just tanked myselfup with shields and fireballs!”
Jus pried the ever-full liquor bottle away from the complaining Polk and asked, “So how do we find the key?”
“Hey, J-man!” The girl circled, taking possession of theever-full bottle. “You’ve got to think practically! The trick with these gatesis that sometimes you might get here and not be carrying the right key, so you always hide a few spare keys somewhere you can reach ’em. Our murderer came hereabout an hour or two ago, so just look for any place real close that looks like a hiding place!”
Escalla searched the column tops and the crowns of a few nearby trees. The sergeant, Private Henry, and their unnamed companions spread out with lanterns to look beneath toadstools and stones. Jus dragged Polk along by the scruff of his neck as he set about searching for anything out of place. The pure white of his light-stone showed his face grim and seething.
Polk struggled, and the Justicar snarled in dark, dire anger, “Polk, don’t you ever, ever get drunk on the job again!”
“But son, I’m making your chronicles! It’s to help mycreative flow!” Polk waved his hands. “It was the kelp, wasn’t it? All right, Ican change to beer when we’re actually on the job!”
“Polk, you get the bottle back at rest stops. One cup atlunch, one cup at night, and nothing more!”
The hapless teamster wailed like a child deprived of his only toy, but Jus dragged him on.
Ten minutes of fruitless searching yielded no surprises except one edible truffle and a family of voles. Annoyed and still battling with Polk, the Justicar yelled up to Escalla as she flew amongst the monoliths, “Escalla, did you find anything?”
“No.” The girl seemed miffed. “I looked in all the goodplaces! It’s always somewhere close! I mean, what if you were in a hurry?”
“You’re supposed to be an expert!”
The faerie lost her temper. “I am an expert! Youpeople think you can do a better job, then just fly up here and do it yourself!”
Losing patience, Jus stood and bellowed, “Just tell us whatthe damned key’s likely to be!”
“It could be anything!” Equally annoyed, Escalla flewbackward as she spoke. “It could be a herb, a fruit, a rock, a flower, diamonds,silver, a flute, a dead rat… For all we know, it could be the golden hairsfrom a virgins-!”
Escalla passed through the arch above the tracks, and suddenly magic flashed in a sharp, white light that lit the entire hilltop. For a split second, Jus saw a look of astonished embarrassment on Escalla’s face-andthen the girl was gone. The gateway still shimmered with magic.