Still, I couldn't waste precious moments brooding about Brother Monk: it was high time to get off my back, and face whatever new ugliness was heading our direction. The mud put up sticky opposition to my plan, but it wasn't deep enough to hold me securely; in three or four seconds, I had ripped myself free and regained my feet.

We stood on a small rise in the middle of a bog that stretched as far as the eye could see. Stunted trees grew wherever the ground was solid enough to support them, but much of the landscape was covered with water: stale and brackish water, lying in stagnant black pools. As I continued to examine my surroundings, the surface of the closest pool broke into rings of dark ripples. Something white and shapeless rose from the depths, sucked briefly at the air, then disappeared once more into the lower darkness.

«What are they?» Hezekiah whispered.

Was he asking about the white thing in the water? No, his head was turned in a different direction. I followed his gaze out over the swamplands… and there, coming toward us with silent speed, were ten slices of blackness. For brief instants, as one or another of them glided over a patch of ground that was clear of tree-shadow, I could make out a gaunt humanoid shape, like a walking skeleton – a skeleton equipped with small bat-shaped wings ending in fearsome claws. Then the figure would move into the shade of another tree and virtually disappear, blending so completely with the shadows that even my Sensate's eyes could scarcely discern them.

«Does anyone know what they are?» I whispered.

«Umbrals,» Kiripao replied. «Close cousins to shadow fiends. Umbrals steal souls and sell them to the highest bidder.»

«If they want to steal our souls,» Hezekiah said, «they'll have to use magic, right?» He lifted the white grinder and tapped it meaningfully against his palm.

«Use the dust sparingly, honored Clueless,» Wheezle warned him. «Umbrals are only found on the Lower Planes; and if we have landed on a Lower Plane, we do not want to attract the attention of any powers who dwell here. They may decide to seize the grinder for their own.»

«Back in the Spider,» I reminded him, «you said that gods would leave this grinder alone… that they'd be afraid of every other god ganging up on them.»

«That would be the attitude of any sensible god,» the gnome nodded. «However, the Lower Planes are a patchwork of divine fiefdoms, each ruled by its own distinct deity. Every significant god is shrewd enough to exercise caution; but there are numerous small gods too, many of whom are gibberingly insane. If this land belongs to one of the mad powers, we must try to remain beneath its notice.»

«Get ready to fire anyway,» Yasmin muttered to Hezekiah. «Those things are getting too close for comfort.»

The umbrals were now only fifty paces away, close enough for me to catch the occasional glimpse of mouths filled with bristling teeth. Those teeth could tear through throat-flesh like a rip saw; and I didn't want them any nearer my jugular than they already were.

«That's close enough!» I shouted. «Stop and we'll talk.»

The creatures didn't slow down. They knew they outnumbered us; they carried no weapons, but those teeth and claws could shred us just as efficiently as a butcher's axe. I drew my sword and waited. For the last twenty paces of their approach, the umbrals would have to climb the rise where we stood. Holding this higher ground was our group's one advantage, and I intended to exploit it to the fullest.

At the bottom of the rise, the shadow things halted… possibly because they realized a mad rush would be risky, possibly because they had something else in mind. One of their number slipped back into the thickest darkness under a tree and drew something from a black pouch at its waist. I could barely see the umbral, let alone the small object it was holding; but whenever a foe acts furtively, it's time for preemptive action.

«Down there by that tree,» I said to Hezekiah. «Blast the berk.»

Hezekiah cranked the grinder and let loose a stream of dust with all the pressure of the main jet in the Great Fountain of Sigil. The whiteness of the dust showered down over the fiend's head, clearly outlining the creature's form – we could see that it was bent over some sort of black-glinting orb and chanting an invocation. The spray of dust didn't interrupt the creature's attempt at casting a spell… but the subsequent fire did. The umbral's body flared with the fierce white brightness of a sun, sending its fellow fiends shrieking to cover their eyes. In a split second, the umbral dissipated into ash; and the orb it had been holding fell to the muddy ground with a dull thud.

«Now can we talk?» I called down to them.

«Talk, yesssssssss,» one of the other umbrals replied in a whisper. It rubbed its eyes furiously, trying to recover from the blinding burst of their comrade's incineration. «We like talking. Very friendly umbrals, yessssssss.»

Yasmin gave a snort of disgust. «The first step in diplomacy,» she muttered, «is always getting their attention.»

As far as I could tell, only one of the creatures was capable of speech; the rest simply stared at us with huge hollow eyes, their hands constantly flexing as if they longed to imbed their claws into our flesh. I noticed Kiripao's hands were doing much the same thing, eager to break a few umbral heads… but he restrained himself while I spoke with the fiend leader.

«We don't want any trouble,» I told the chief shadow, «we just want to get back home.»

«Where isssssss home?»

«Sigil. Are there any portals nearby?»

«Portalsss. Portalssssssss.» The umbral tucked a claw under its chin and made a show of pondering the question with great seriousness. «No portalsssssss here.»

Kiripao growled. «He's lying – every umbral village has a portal in the center.»

«No, no,» the speaker said. «Our people very poor. No portalssssss.»

«There must be other villages nearby,» Miriam suggested.

«Not friendly villagesss. Wicked, greedy sssshadowsss. Sssteal your sssoulsssss.»

«Like you tried to do,» Yasmin muttered.

«Sssss'sssop very young,» the umbral shrugged. «Impulsssive. Not friendly like ussss.» It smiled an unconvincing smile and took a step up the hill. Hezekiah gestured with the grinder, and the speaker backed up quickly.

«If you don't know where to find a portal,» I said, «we have nothing else to say to you. Push off.»

«Oh, oh, oh,» the chief fiend replied. «Jussst remembered. A portal, yessss. A portal to Ssssigil.»

«What a remarkable coincidence,» Yasmin murmured.

«Yessssss, lovely portal,» the umbral continued. «Not far away.»

«A portal to Sigil?» Hezekiah repeatedly eagerly.

«Lovely clean portal, jussst your sssizzze. Lead you to it.»

«It's a trap,» Kiripao whispered.

«I never would have guessed,» Yasmin replied.

«Even if it is a trap,» Wheezle said softly, «perhaps we should accept their offer.»

«Are you barmy?» Miriam snapped.

«I know something of umbrals,» Wheezle replied. «They are greedy creatures… greedy to trap our souls in those orbs they carry. If we try to force them away, they will almost certainly attack.»

«And we would fight back,» Kiripao answered.

«They outnumber us. If they won the battle, all of our souls would be trapped in gems forever, cut off from rightful death.» Wheezle shuddered for a moment, then continued. «Even if we managed to kill them all, we would surely have our own casualties… and I do not think any of us wishes to die on a Lower Plane. Souls seldom escape from these planes, even in death – we would be reborn as mindless things of evil.»

Kiripao gazed at Wheezle with narrowed eyes. «You want to go along with these creatures because you are afraid to fight.»

«Honored brother,» Wheezle replied, «why not go along with them until we see a clear chance for escape? We are too exposed here. We have nowhere to run.»