'What do you suggest?'
'You ain't going to like it. I sure don't, but it's the only way.'
'Out with it, sapper.'
'Leave me behind. Get going. Now.'
'Hedge-'
'No, listen, it makes sense. I'm already dead – I can find my own way out.'
'Maybe you can find your own way out, Hedge. More likely what's left of you will get torn to pieces, if not by the Deragoth, then any of a host of other local nightmares.'
'Captain, I don't need this body – it's just for show, so's you got a face to look at. Trust me, it's the only way you and the others are going to get out of this alive.'
'Let's try a compromise,' Paran said. 'We wait as long as we can.'
Hedge shrugged. 'As you like, just don't wait too long, Captain.'
'Get on your way, then, Hedge. And… thank you.'
'Always an even trade, Captain.'
The ghost headed off. Paran turned to Karpolan Demesand. 'How confident are you,' he asked, 'about getting us out of here fast?'
'This part should be relatively simple,' the Trygalle sorceror replied. 'Once a path is found into a warren, its relationship to others becomes known. The Trygalle Trade Guild's success is dependent entirely upon its Surveyants – its maps, Ganoes Paran. With each mission, those maps become more complete.'
'Those are valuable documents,' Paran observed. 'I trust you keep them well protected.'
Karpolan Demesand smiled, and said nothing.
'Prepare the way, then,' Paran said.
Hedge was already out of sight, lost somewhere in the gloom beyond the nearest statues. Mists had settled in the depressions, but the mercurial sky overhead seemed as remote as ever. For all that, Paran noticed, the light was failing. Had their sojourn here encompassed but a single day? That seemed… unlikely.
The bark of a munition reached him – a sharper. 'That's the signal,'
Paran said, striding over to his horse. 'The farthest statue will go first.' He swung himself into the saddle, guided his horse closer to the carriage, into which Karpolan and Ganath had already disappeared.
The shutter on the window slid to one side as he arrived.
'Captain-'
A thunderous detonation interrupted him, and Paran turned to see a column of smoke and dust rising.
'Captain, it seems – much to my surprise-'
A second explosion, closer this time, and another statue seemed to simply vanish.
'As I was saying, it appears my options are far more limited than I first-'
From the distance came a deep, bestial roar.
The first Deragoth'Ganoes Paran! As I was saying-'
The third statue detonated, its base disappearing within an expanding, billowing wave of smoke, stone and dust. Front legs shorn through, the huge edifice pitched forward, jagged cracks sweeping through the rock, and began its descent. Then struck.
The carriage jumped, then bounced back down on its ribbed stanchions.
Glass broke somewhere inside.
The reverberations of the concussion rippled through the ground.
Horses screamed and fought their bits, eyes rolling.
A second howl shook the air.
Paran squinted through the dust and smoke, seeking Hedge somewhere between the last statue to fall and the ones yet to be destroyed. But in the gathering darkness he saw no movement. All at once, the fourth statue erupted. Some vagary of sequence tilted the monument to one side, and as it toppled, it struck the fifth.
'We must leave!'
The shriek was Karpolan Demesand's.
'Hold on-'
'Ganoes Paran, I am no longer confident-'
'Just hold it-'
A third howl, echoed by the Deragoth that had already arrived – and those last two roars were… close.
'Shit.' He could not see Hedge – the last statue, already riven with impact fissures, suddenly pitched downward as the munitions at its base exploded.
'Paran!'
'All right – open the damned gate!' The train of horses reared, then surged forward, slewing the carriage round as they began a wild descent on the slope. Swearing, Paran kicked his horse into motion, risking a final glance back-to see a huge, hump-shouldered beast emerge from the clouds of dust, its eyes lambent as they fixed on Paran and the retreating carriage.
The Deragoth's massive, broad head lowered, and it began a savagely fast sprint.
'Karpolan!'
The portal opened like a popped blister – watery blood or some other fluid spraying from its edges – directly in front of them. A charnel wind battered them. 'Karpolan? Where-'
