Heath was first to notice. "Does it grow hotter?"

Everyone stopped. Jedit sniffed, "Fire ahead."

"Wood fires," said Adira. "For whatever our murderous sorceress cooks."

Farther on the tunnel fractured into four or five paths. Adira asked the way and Jedit pointed unerringly. Abruptly a questing pixie swooped over some boulders, chattering and pointing. Instinct primitive as a kitten's made Jedit pounce before he even recognized prey. Arching twelve feet in the red-lit tunnel, he landed with a slam behind the boulders. Something squeaked and bleated like mice. Jedit leaped, swiped, nabbed, stamped and came up holding by the ankles three creatures who punched and shrilled.

Jabbering, kicking, whining, shrieking captives the size of half-grown children had gray-purple skin, big noses, bald heads, and short-fangs. They wore rags and squabbled incessantly. The tiger bounced them on the boulders. Half-stunned, they subsided.

Magfire and her foresters gawked. "What are those?"

"Paint me pink!" snorted Sergeant Murdoch. "Kobolds!"

"Yes, kobolds!" blared a toothy shrimp. "We rule these caves, lords of all life, terrors to any who venture into our domain! We're the most feared of the fiercest tribes that range from the Blue Mountains to the Sukurvia!"

"So," added another kobold, "seeing as how we're feared and all, could you hold us heads up? My nose is stuffing up!"

"Do you have any food?" asked the third.

"Hush, you boobies." Adira pulled a dagger and tapped a bony head. "How many kobolds live under this hill?"

"Um…" Still upside-down, one held up eight fingers, all he had. "This many."

"He's lying," said Murdoch.

"How do you know?" asked the pirate queen.

"He's a kobold," replied the ex-sergeant. "I once tried to drill some. An insane plan of some shah. We finally prodded the beggars over to the enemy. You can't get a straight answer without a threat. Cut one's ear off to start."

"Waak!" All three kobolds waggled fingers in the air. "This many! No, this many! No, he's a liar!"

"How live you under this hill?" put in Magfire. "My tribe lived in this region for generations, and we never saw any kobolds."

"We don't like the sun!" gabbled one. They looked much alike, skin so muddy gray-purple they seemed bruised from head to toe. In firelight they squinted with deep piggy eyes past huge warty noses.

"What are your names?" asked Taurion.

"Dog Ears!"

"Pink Eye!"

"Biscuit Tooth!"

"You're not Biscuit Tooth!" carped the first kobold.

"Am so!"

With a long arm, Jedit swung the kobolds in a screaming circle to get their attention. He growled, "Answer truthfully or else."

"Or else what?" squawked the most fidgety one.

The tiger grabbed a scrawny neck, opened a mouth full of fearsome fangs, and shoved the unfortunate's head in.

Voice muffled, the captive shrieked, "All right, all right! We'll answer!" Jedit spat out the troublemaker's head.

"If we do," asked a second captive, "will you let us go?"

"Do I look like a fool?" growled the tiger. "We owe you no mercy. You inhabit the domain of our enemy. Answer right, or I'll gnaw a leg off each of you."

"Hang on," said Magfire. "They didn't answer my question. How came you to these caves?"

"We were fetched here," said the middle quibbler. "By magic."

"We didn't want to come," said the third. "We're peaceable. We love our enemies! All of them!"

"If you live here," asked Taurion, "what do you eat?"

"Pig!"

"Cattle!"

"Rats! I mean, pumpkins," they chorused.

"Who fetched you here?" insisted Magfire. "And why?"

"Mistress," answered the first.

"Who's that?" asked the second.

'Tellow Lady, you stupid picknose!" One kobold slapped another and sparked a flurry of smacks and curses. It ended as Jedit spun them in another sweeping circle.

"Lady Shauku?" asked Magfire. "Why call her the Yellow Lady?"

"She's yellow."

Silence.

Taurion rubbed his beard. "You, what's your name?"

"Prince."

That hadn't been one of the original names, but Taurion" let it go. "You never leave the caves. So what do you eat?"

More silence. Hanging inverted, kobolds stared at the walls and floor like naughty children.

Magfire raged, "Kill them!"

"What?" asked Adira. "Why?"

"They eat our dead!"

"How do you know? Wait!"

The warchief swung her iron spike in a vicious arc. Kobolds screamed and covered their heads. Jedit swung them aside as Adira blocked Magfire and Taurion snagged his sister's arm. Vainly he tried to shush her.

"Our scouts and warriors disappear into the castle!" shouted Magfire. In flickering torchlight her face was strained and ugly. "They never return, none of them! Their corpses are never found! So these little wretches-"

"Belay!" Adira Strongheart still blocked Magfire. "We're not finished asking questions!"

"All you'll get is lies!" Magfire's bosom heaved under her long wool shirt, seething with anger. "We should stave in their skulls and throw their carcasses into Shauku's courtyard."

"Fine idea!" retorted Adira. "Tell the enemy we've penetrated under her castle! Would you pipe down and think? It's bally lucky your tribesmen have survived this long, if you go bulling headlong into every fracas."

Abruptly Magfire rammed her palm against Adira's breastbone, nearly toppling the pirate. Only Taurion, trapping her arm, kept Adira from being smitten with lethal iron.

Magfire rasped, "You criticize my leadership? I'll kill you in single combat!"

"You pigheaded pelican!" retorted Adira. "Save it for Shauku."

Pirates and woodsfolk stirred, some hands drifting to weapons. Still clutching the kobolds, Jedit Ojanen wedged his bulk between the two women. Silence crackled and spat like the finicky birch-bark torches.

"Sister." Taurion was surprisingly mild. "Before we proceed, may I ask a few more questions of our prisoners? Any knowledge we gain aids our quest to oust Shauku."

Miraculously, the fiery Magfire backed off before her brother. Huffing and glaring, she stuffed her iron-headed spike in her belt and plunked on a boulder. Adira's mercenaries marveled at Taurion's diplomacy. The trailblazer only scratched his chest above his wolf-mask and concentrated on interrogating the enemy.

Calm and persistent, listening intently with a dash of sympathy, Taurion actually elicited some useful answers. The kobolds had lived in these caves for several of their generations, though they were short-lived and couldn't express the time in years. Lady Shauku, an archmage, had magically summoned the kobolds to tend fires. Sometimes, the trio said, when they behaved, kobolds were shifted home and exchanged for brethren. They had no idea where lay the Blue Mountains, had no concept of being near the western coast of Jamuraa. That these caves were warm and offered food contented them. Taurion gently steered around their ghoulish cannibalism. The kobolds told the truth because it was easier, and they weren't punished. They were simple as untutored children but capable of viciousness if let off the leash.

Taurion asked, "Why do you maintain the fires?"

"We're guards," piped all three.

"Talk about pitiful defenses," muttered Murdoch.

"What do you guard?" asked Taurion patiently.

"The crying horror."

The adventurers pricked their ears.

"It's big and ugly and chopped up," said a prisoner.

"It fell from the sky."

"It cries all the time. Not out loud. In your head."

Pirates and pinefolk goggled. Taurion asked for details, but the kobolds couldn't explain.

"I'm more confused than ever," said Murdoch. "What kind of a thing falls from the sky?"

"I don't know," said Adira, "but we'll find out. You three. Show us."