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DUN OPENED THE DOOR to the passage they’d been hiding in. It swung inward noiselessly. Dun couldn’t help but wonder how the carvers had achieved that. Chaos still reigned outside, but seemingly much farther down the corridor from them.
Once the door was open, Amber squeezed past.
“Quick! This way,” she said and led them firmly in the direction of the noise.
“Shouldn’t we be heading away from everyone else?” Padg said.
“Not if you want your things back,” Amber said over her shoulder. “They are in a storeroom, down here.”
She led them, single file, down the passage to a room that smelled of old cloth. She shifted inside and called for them all to follow.
“Check it’s all here quickly, then let’s go,” Tali said.
“I’ll listen out,” Amber said, moving back toward the door and pulling it over.
Tali led them to a series of shelves carved into the rock, along the wall farthest from the door. Sure enough, Dun smelled his familiar travel pack before he even touched it, and some fumbling around on the shelves discovered Padg’s pack and the remaining sword-spears. Padg started back toward the door.
“Hey you, not so fast,” Tali said. “There’s the small matter of those quern-stones to deal with. I’ve waited til here because I don’t want to be leaving odd smells in that secret corridor. We might not have finished using it yet. Right. Stand still. I need to be quick.”
Tali was right about the smell. Dun heard the hissing noise at the same time the astringent, ferrous stink reached his nose. Then there was a dull metal plink, and the two halves of the quern-stone fell away. He limped around in a circle trying to restore his circulation and quickly discovered that was only going to pose slightly less of a problem than his balance. He heard the fizz, then plink, of Padg being freed. Dun was still rubbing his calves.
“The quickest way back is toward the Council Chamber,” Amber said.
“That takes us past some quite busy places,” Padg said.
“I’ve still got a few tricks in my pouch,” Tali said.
“You’re definitely enjoying this,” Padg cut back.
“Wait.” Dun’s slightly urgent voice stopped them. “The map. It’s not in my pack.”
“Bones and ashes!” Padg cursed. “Skarn will have that for sure.”
“His chamber is back the other way,” Amber said. “Going back for it would double our chances of being caught.”
Dun sighed. “Going on without it would do that for us too, at least when we get out of here. We’ve got to find it and take it back. Or destroy it. We can’t let it fall into the wrong hands.” Then when he thought about what he’d said, and how Amber might interpret it, he added, “You know what I mean.”
“I know,” she said quietly. Then said, “So, we must go back for it.”
As they hurried along the passage, Dun fell in alongside Tali. “How much hunter’s balm have we got left?”
“To make it effective? Maybe two doses each for us,” she replied.
“I think we need to use one now,” Dun said. “It’s the quickest way of getting in and out.”
“It’s still a big risk,” Padg said.
“The map is one of the reasons we’re here,” Dun said.
“Okay,” Tali spoke quickly to Amber and they pulled into the mouth of another adjoining passage.
She applied the ointment. Dun had always been impressed at how quickly it worked. He could instantly feel the cold tingle of the salve on his skin where she’d briskly rubbed it on. He had always wondered how it worked quite so well. Although she didn’t apply it to any of the things he was carrying or his loose clothes, the vapor permeated everything so quickly that within sixty clicks he couldn’t even smell himself. He shivered. It was an experience he found extremely disquieting.
“Quickly,” Amber said, breaking his thoughts. “He is two doors farther along from here. We will wait. Go now. You must go alone; any more than one of us and we’ll be caught for sure.”
Dun rounded the corner into the passage, running his hand along the wall, ears spiked high listening. He could hear no one, but a still cloud of scent in the air told him that Skarn had been there recently. Dun slowed his breathing and crept toward the door. The scent was stronger, although he could hear nothing in the room. His other ear was picking up fainter sounds from the corridor, of urgent shouting and running. The search was on for them, just not here. He inched himself around the doorway. The scent was dense in here. But still, nothing to hear. Dun crept along the wall nearest the door, away from where he knew Skarn’s desk to be, checking gently for shelves.
“GUARDS!”
Skarn’s voice was so loud and so close, it was everything Dun could do not to jump. He knew that if he did, disturbing the air would give him away to Skarn’s air-sense. If that was as good as the Guard Captain’s ability for stillness, then Dun was caught for sure. Frozen, he waited, listening hard. Now he could hear the slightly raised breath sounds after Skarn’s shout and, outside the room, running feet coming closer. He hoped they didn’t find the others on their way.
With his air-sense, he felt Skarn moving, possibly toward the door, certainly away from his desk. Dun slid himself slowly, back against the wall. He could feel stone edges against his back now. At last, a shelf. He edged his fingers behind him and started feeling along the stone-work for anything that might prove interesting. Some flattened scrolls: an odd spiky stone and another stone, abrasive and light. Then he smelled something. The familiar scent of the fabric straps of the map case they’d been carrying the scroll in. Dun went to reach farther into the shelf, and then heard a brief scrape behind him. His pulse leaped to clicker-beetle speed, as he realized Skarn was aiming for the same shelf. Dun knew that if he moved his feet Skarn would hear him. All he could do was lean in place, slowly away from the hands as they reached toward him. Too quick and the eddies in the air would give him away. Too slow, and... He didn’t dare think about too slow. Heart hammering, Dun felt like every muscle in his body was clenched. The air brushed past and a scraping noise across the stone and parchment on the shelf told Dun that Skarn had found one of the things he was seeking. All Dun could do was hope he wouldn’t find one of the others. As the scraping stopped and the object was lifted into the air, a waft of its scent followed; it was the map case. Dun had no time to process that. Skarn had paused. If he lifted his hand back to the shelf, Dun was easily within reach. Skarn gave a characteristic searching sniff.
“Are you here, little Bridge-pup?” Skarn’s voice was low and menacing, but becoming clearer as his head turned. Dun could hear the voice getting closer still, the air from the words starting to brush his face. “Would you dare be here? Is this why we can’t find you, hmm?”
Dun’s mouth was dry. The urge to swallow rose in his throat. He somehow felt his body was conspiring against him. He focussed what attention he could to try to suppress the reflex. If he let it run its course, it would be the death of him.
“Come on out, little Bridge-pup...”
The air on Dun’s face was warm and stale and if Skarn’s air-sense was sharp, surely he would be able to feel the resistance in the air that Dun’s own face was providing.
“Come on out...”
Dun felt a shape, possibly a hand, closing toward him. He leaned as far as he could, he was as far as he could stretch. Any farther and he’d overbalance. The hand still got closer.
“Captain Skarn!” a loud voice shouted from the doorway.
As Skarn whirled to answer it, Dun took his chance. He followed in Skarn’s wake, latching onto the scent of the map case. From the wake, the case was probably on Skarn’s left-hand side.
“Reporting as ordered, Captain.”
“Why are you not bringing me the hides of the prisoners?” Skarn barked.
“We are still searching, sir.”
“Not good enough. Bring a guard cohort back here now and search the detention level.”
“We have searched it, sir.”
“Then... search... it... again. Now!”
As Skarn finished berating the guard, he swung his body away from the door, and Dun felt a bump against him. He grabbed. It was the map case. This was his one chance. Knowing where Skarn was standing, Dun kicked out hard and connected with a knee. Skarn yelped—as much out of shock as anything else—and as he flinched, Dun yanked the map case, ducked low, and ran for the door. Skarn was quick though, and Dun was already flying through the air before he had a chance to process the information that Skarn had stuck his uninjured leg out in the doorway for Dun to trip over. Dun hit the ground and grazed the edge of the doorway at the same time. He used the momentum to roll to the wall of the passage and stand.
“Now I have you!” Skarn shouted triumphantly.
“Afraid not!” Padg’s voice came loud from the passage beside them, as did the butt of a sword-spear, which crunched as it connected with Skarn’s jaw.
“Time to go, lovely though it's been,” Padg said as he grabbed Dun’s arm. “Any time you like, Tali!”
In response to this, Dun heard two swift fizzes overhead, and then a bizarre whistling, whooping noise followed by a curious acrid, charcoal smell. The noise and smell seemed to be reaching some kind of a crescendo, even as they were running away, in the opposite direction.
“That should keep them occupied for a little while,” Tali said.
“Nice trick,” Padg said.
“Howl-bombs,” she replied. “Glad you like them.”
“Where now, Amber?” Dun said, breathless.
“You have the map?” she asked.
“Yes.”
“Then up.”
