I felt the bundle tied securely at my waist and mentally sorted its contents. The Riders had their weapons and I had mine: bandages, salves, poultices, soothing oil, all the tools of a healer’s craft, the glass vials carefully wrapped in cotton and tucked in their individual pockets. I only prayed I wouldn’t need any of them. The heartstones I’d secured in a leather pouch in my innermost pocket.
“How many more of his people are we expecting?” Julienna asked. She adjusted the weight of the crossbow across her back and surveyed the row of garden-folk ranged along the top of the opposite wall. Nearly fifty at my last count, all of them bristling with miniature weapons.
“Some folk from the Stone Hill District had to dig fresh tunnels to get out. Part of the Underburrow was crushed.” Tobble’s voice fell. “Big-folk were running panicked, they said. Trampling everything. Those not running were setting fire to anything that would burn.”
“I’m sorry,” Julienna said.
A motion from the unguarded end of the alley drew my eye. The garden-folk farthest from Brysney shuffled restlessly, and in the diluted moonlight I saw one or two of them pointing at something in the darkness behind them. I stiffened when I saw what it was. “Look out!” I said hoarsely, and nodded to the hooded figure running toward us.
Julienna leapt out into the alley. There was the hiss of a blade leaving its sheath and the dark figure skidded to a halt, her sword poised an inch from its neck. “Identify yourself!”
“Friend! I’m a friend!” a familiar voice said. He held up his hands. “Lady Julienna, Lady Aliza, I’ve come to help!” The figure threw back his hood with a vigorous nod.
“Master Teo?”
“Aye, milady. Here and ready to fight.”
It was all I could do not to throw my arms around the young man. “I thought you . . . but how did you escape from the townhouse?” I asked.
His throat moved up and down. “Father and Master Caldero told me to get the maids out when we saw the first Tekari coming. They—held them off while we ran.”
He didn’t ask whether his father had made it out. I saw in his face that he knew the answer.
“How did you find us?” Julienna asked.
“Master Brysney’s wyvern,” Teo said. “I spotted him flying over the Second Circle. Me and a few of the chambermaids were hunkered down in the shops near the townhouse when I saw him going toward the Park, and I said—well, I followed him. Caught up with him at the edge of the Park, him and the garden-folk. He told us what’s happening.”
“Were the dragons with him?” Brysney asked.
“No, but he said he found them, told them your plan,” Teo said. “He’s gone off now to round up more allies: Riders, Rangers, soldiers, the like. Told me to get to you and tell you that. Are you really going back to the palace, Lady Aliza?” he said as Julienna sheathed her swords.
“We’re going to try,” I said.
“I want to help.”
Julienna looked over him with a critical eye. “Do you have any weapons?”
Teo reached beneath his cloak and drew out a pair of short knives. With a flick of his wrists the blades sliced through the air and buried themselves in the door across the alley. They’d hardly made a sound. He managed a sad smile at her surprise. “I’m better with a spear, but that was too big to carry.”
He drew back his cloak to show a number of knives of various sizes and another short sword strapped to his thigh. Julienna sniffed and turned away as Anjey plucked the knives from the door and handed them back to him. “I think these better stay with you, Master Teo.”
“They’re here! They’re coming!” a high voice said from the mouth of the alley.
More than one hand went to a sword or dagger hilt, then relaxed when we saw the little gnome jumping and pointing excitedly to a gap in the wall. A chipped and broken stone gryphon head poured rainwater onto the street where he pointed, or it would have. It was moving now, its head twisting in little jerks as if being hammered at from behind, until at last with a crack the whole thing came free and the final inconvenience dropped out.
Chief Grimmelgund jumped down from the lintel where he was perched. “Where are the rest?” he demanded of the first hobgoblin.
“We’re all that made it, sir,” she said, and shuddered. “There are direwolves in the Royal Park! Dunno how they got into the city,” the hobgoblin said. “There weren’t many, but they were fast. They got Nibble first, and they scooped up old Quibble, and then . . . then . . .” Her chin trembled as she trailed off.
“There, there.” Grimmelgund clapped her gruffly on the shoulder. “Earth to earth, little one, and Hgenna hold them close.”
She sniffed and nodded before her companions led her to the main body of garden-folk.
“You heard her!” the chief said louder in Low Gnomic. “We fight tonight for our friends!”
A cheer went up, instantly smothered as they remembered themselves, replaced by a wave of whispered agreement. Brysney scanned the adjoining street one more time before crouching down to look Grimmelgund in the eye. “Chief, you say your people know a way into the palace. How far is it from here?”
Grimmelgund pointed with the lead-weighted staff in his hand. “Just over the harbor wall. There’s a tunnel that empties out onto the break-rocks. It leads into the old sewers that run through the heart of the city. The big-folk don’t use those pipes anymore, but my people have seen to it that they stay open.”
“And it’ll take us under the palace?” I asked.
“As close as you could ask.”
Julienna crouched next to Brysney. “Will you show us the way?”
“Show you, my lady?” Grimmelgund bowed. “I’ll lead you there myself.”
A boulder shielded the tunnel from the sea spray, but the stones were still slick with algae and waterweed. I bent and looked into the mouth of the tunnel, yawning black and ominous before us. The moon fought with the clouds for supremacy of the night, leaving us with a little milky light, just enough to see that this looked like a very bad idea.
“You’ll have to crouch at first. It widens in a bit. Stay close to me and keep together,” Grimmelgund said before he disappeared into the mouth of the tunnel.
“You’re sure this is the only way?” I whispered to Tobble in Low Gnomic.
He nodded and moved around to a more secure position on my back, arms wrapped loosely around my neck. “I ran some of these tunnels while Gregory was working. There’s nowhere they don’t go.”
Somewhere beyond the dark, beyond the death and fire that had taken the city, my husband was waiting for me. I bent double and followed Grimmelgund into the tunnel.
“Oh, blast,” Anjey murmured behind me. “Come on, love.”
Brysney groaned something in Vernish but went after her, followed by Julienna and Teo. In moments I could no longer see them or Grimmelgund or even my own hands. The tunnel sloped gently upward underfoot. The roof scraped my forehead and forced me lower until I was nearly crawling. The pattering footsteps in front of me fell suddenly silent.
“Ho there!” Grimmelgund called out. “Half-goblins, the lights!”
There was a scramble and the sound of splashing from the back of the column before a faint orange glow started up the walls. It grew brighter as the splashing grew louder until the dark shapes of four or five half-goblins stopped in front of us, their leashed newt-creatures wallowing happily in the trickle of water running along the bottom of the tunnel. The orange glow came from the creatures.