"The lake," called Blademark from the front, softly.

A moment later they all reached the shore. The water was oily and blacker than night, a great dark expanse whose farther shores might have been a hundred yards away or a hundred miles. Here, at least, the shore seemed to indicate a sizable body of water. Small waves lapped at the gravel strand, and a band of damp stones above the waterline hinted at a small tidal range. Left and right the shore was bare, marked only by boulder falls and rare pinnaclelike stalagmites rising up into the darkness.

"Are we supposed to swim from this point forward?" Jack asked.

"If necessary, I can arrange it," Yu Wei retorted. "We will do what must be done."

"Quiet," said Jelan. "Look." She pointed toward the center of the black lake. Out over the water, hundreds of yards beyond the limit of their vision, a green aurora danced. Emerald energy twisted in an ever-changing spiral, weird and ethereal. Jack felt each undulation as a tremor in his bones. "The wild mythal. That must be where it lies." She smiled and started forward-

– only to be abruptly lassoed by a slimy, brown tendril from the darkness to their right. Two more shot out, tangling her arms and wrapping several times around the Warlord's torso.

"Look out!" she cried. "Ropers!"

In the murk and shadows of a large fallen boulder, three dark, pulsing things shifted and gaped. Each looked like a stalagmite that had suddenly sprouted six long, thin tentacles. Jack caught a quick glimpse of bright teeth in their huge maws, and then more tentacles shot out, looping around Yu Wei, Amarana, and Jelan again.

Tenghar shouted a battle cry and leaped forward to hew at the tendrils binding the Warlord, only to be caught in turn by four more tendrils. He had the curious misfortune of being lassoed by two of the creatures at the same time, and between them the monsters were far stronger than him. The Tuigan was hauled off his feet and dragged toward the waiting fangs.

"Get off me!" he shrieked, flailing ineffectually with his tulwar.

His cries rose to a fevered pitch as he was dragged within reach of the ropers' maws. Something crunched in the darkness, and Tenghar abruptly stopped screaming.

"Merciful Oghma!" Illyth choked. "Those monsters-"

"I know," said Jack.

He looked around quickly. Jelan's warriors rushed forward to hack at the monsters. Yu Wei burned away one tendril, but two more seized him. Amarana fought to invoke her dark powers, but whipping tendrils spoiled her magic. The Warlord fought silently to keep from being dragged closer. She suddenly dropped flat and braced her feet against a ridge of rock, wedging herself in place. Calmly she released her sword and drew a dagger to begin sawing at the tendrils binding her.

"Kel Kelek! Hathmar! Aid Yu Wei and Amarana! The rest of you, slay those things!"

Jack saw his opportunity. Every one of the Warlord's followers was engaged by the ropers. He took Illyth's hand and quickly worked the spell of shadow-jumping, moving several hundred yards into the darkness and broken rock of the cavern floor. One moment they stood in a circle of yellow light, caught in the middle of a furious battle against monstrous predators; the next, he and Illyth stood alone in the darkness, listening to the sounds of a far-off battle.

Illyth recoiled in panic and cried out. Jack quickly caught her hand again.

"Shhhh," he said quietly. "We're safe. I took the opportunity of the ropers' attack to abandon the Warlord's expedition."

The girl panted in the darkness nearby. Her breathing slowed after a dozen heartbeats, and her hand stopped shaking. "I understand," she whispered back. "Jack, they'll come for us as soon as they finish with those-things."

"They might," he admitted, "but we will be hard to find. And it may be that Jelan has no further use for us and does not wish to spend the time tracking us down."

Illyth fell silent for a moment. Her hand gripped his tightly. "Jack," she said, "Could you please make some light? I don't like this."

"It's not wise, Illyth. Even a glimmer might be seen from a long way, and remaining inconspicuous is our best defense at the moment."

"I know, but… what if something like those ropers, or worse, is waiting out here in the darkness?"

Jack shivered despite himself. "Very unlikely," he lied. He looked around, and noted a faint glow of green in the distance. "Look, over there. I suspect that the mythal lies in that direction, and the lakeshore as well. We will head in that direction and then backtrack toward the stone platform from there. I'll have you out of here in an hour or two, and you'll have an adventure of your very own to write about in your journals."

"Are we going to abandon the wild mythal to the Warlord?"

"Illyth, what else are we supposed to do? She's leading a dozen extremely skillful and ruthless mercenaries, including a very powerful mage and a couple of top rank swordsmen. And Jelan herself is quite competent, too. There's only the two of us. Our best move is to get out of the way and hope that she doesn't find what she's looking for down here."

"Still, I feel that we ought to be doing something," Illyth protested.

"We'll notify the proper authorities the moment we get out of Sarbreen," Jack promised. "Now take my hand, and try to be quiet. We should keep moving."

Jack and Illyth spent the better part of an hour picking their way carefully through the darkness, listening for any signs of pursuit by the Warlord's party-or the telltale sounds of some abominable monstrosity native to the Underdark preparing to make them its next meal.

Although he knew it might be dangerous, Jack relented and created just a tiny glimmer of light, no brighter than candle flame, and used his magic to send it dancing ahead of them, illuminating dimly their path. Fortunately, they encountered nothing more dangerous than strange-looking lichens and odd, spikelike fungi sprouting from beneath heavy round boulders, and even then Jack gave the subterranean growths a wide berth.

The sounds of battle from the Warlord's encounter with the ropers had long since died away, but not before a pair of thunderclaps and a blast of searing white flame had blasted through the darkness hundreds of feet away. Jack decided that the wizardry probably meant that Jelan's party had eventually bested their attackers, since ropers weren't known to use lightning bolts to finish off their prey. The question was, what had the Warlord decided next? Had she ordered a search for Jack and Illyth, or had she continued on toward her goal?

"Jack, look. I think that stalagmite looks familiar." Illyth broke his train of thought, tugging on his sleeve and pointing. A towering peak the size of a castle turret rose above them, vanishing into the darkness. "The stone platform came to rest nearby."

"Illyth, we've passed a dozen just like in the last hour," Jack said. "How do you know?"

"I have a good sense of direction," the noblewoman replied. "I think we're near the platform."

Jack was inclined to argue the point, since he had been unsuccessfully trying to find that very spot for most of the last hour by navigating across the dark, featureless cavern floor, but he decided to indulge her. "All right, but let's be careful. Jelan may be lying in wait for us here, since she knows that this is our route back to the surface. I'll render us invisible as a precaution; keep hold of my cloak, or we'll never find each other again!"

Illyth agreed with a nod, and Jack worked the spells. The magic came swiftly and easily to him, another sign that the wild mythal was nearby. In the darkness, it was hard to tell if anything had changed or not, but Illyth clung tightly to the hem of his cloak.