One passenger had gone over to the corner of the cage. This young, muscular Hylar leaned far over the rail to get a look at the support mechanism above them. Despite his youth, he had an air of competence that Baker found somehow heartening.

"Let's all shift our weight over here," suggested the young dwarf. He had a small hammer, and he chinked it against the girder of the lift track. "We might be able to rock it free."

"Do you know anything about how the lift functions?" demanded another Hylar skeptically. "How do we know you won't break us loose and send the whole thing falling down there?"

The young Hylar spoke to Baker instead of replying to the questioner. "I'm an engineer, my lord thane. I was a journeyman of some years and was being trained in lift repairs before…" He couldn't finish the sentence, but Baker could see the skill and determination shining in his eyes.

"Good man, let's follow your idea. Everyone, obey him!"

Smiling thankfully, the young Hylar began giving instructions. "Everyone get into this corner. Now jump, on my count… now."

The passengers did as the Hylar engineer suggested, jumping up and down in a coordinated effort to break the cage free. The lift lurched slightly with a shriek of protesting metal.

"Now again. And again!" urged the young mechanic, as the passengers continued their efforts.

A heavy rumble shook the cage and girders violently. From somewhere down below Baker heard crashing noises accompanied by screams of pain.

"Look!" cried the engineer, his voice rising with fear.

All of them saw the crack, a deep, horizontal gouge in the rock wall of the transport shaft. Before Baker's horrified eyes it spread, growing wider and wider. He saw the metal rails that guided the lift bend and twist from the force of great weight, and it seemed clear to him that the cage was now firmly wedged in a vise of steel.

"Trouble down below!" grunted Capper Whetstone in sudden alarm.

A few of the passengers moaned as they looked down through the screen mesh of the cage floor. Baker's own blood froze in his veins as he saw a dozen or more of the ink-black shadows creeping stealthily up the walls of the shaft, drawing steadily closer to the cage of the lift.

"We're trapped!" screamed one battered dwarf.

"By Reorx, at least we can die fighting!" Axel declared bravely, but his eyes were hollows of grief.

"No!" Baker's voice cut through the panic like a sharp blade. "We're not finished yet. If we're going to die fighting, it won't be here!"

He paused, aware of all the blurred faces staring at him expectantly, and realized that his voice, his words, could give these people hope. And with hope, one or more of them might survive to carry on the fight.

"I am the thane of the Hylar!" he barked. "And I say we must escape and survive. Our hope is to climb higher. Keep climbing!"

"Quick! Out the top!" Axel cried, pointing to the trapdoor on the upper side of the cage. He pushed it open with the tip of his broadsword and pointed to the ladder that led to that point of egress. He addressed the two dozen terrified Hylar in the lift, pulling one matron bodily toward the hole. "Climb! Climb for all you're worth!"

One by one the passengers scrambled up the ladder and through the trapdoor. Some climbed with ease, while others, wounded or paralyzed with fear, needed to be helped.

"My thane, it's your turn. You must escape!" Capper urged, taking Baker by the arm.

"No! Not yet!" insisted the leader of the Hylar. Baker clutched his small sword, determined to set an example. He was sick and tired of flight, of running here and there and everywhere else in a frantic effort to stay alive.

He had work to do right here.

He gestured to his enchanted weapon, to the blades borne by the guards, and to Axel's ancient broadsword. "Our weapons have the best chance against these things. Let's stay back until all the others are safe and give these weapons a try!"

"But you can't even see very well!" stammered Axel, lending his voice in support of Capper Whetstone.

"I can see well enough when they're right in front of me!" retorted the thane. "Incidentally, how close are they?"

Axel growled in exasperation, but gave up on trying to get Baker to climb to safety. "Twoscore feet, closing fast."

The last of the Hylar scooted up to the trapdoor as the two old dwarves stood with drawn blades beside Capper Whetstone and a few volunteers from the royal bodyguard as they waited for the onslaught. The dark shapes shifted, and Baker found himself looking at sharply focused images from his own nightmares. Indeed, one of the shades resembled his former wife, wickedly grinning at him, taunting and jeering.

But this image was tightly focused, unblurred, and in a flash of insight Baker understood that without his glasses he couldn't really see such a thing. It was entirely in his mind! He laughed out loud as he stabbed at the nightmare that no longer had the power to frighten him. He felt the silver blade cut through the shadows, and he heard a howling maelstrom somewhere in the distance.

And the shadow went away. Another stretched forward a tendril of darkness, and that too vanished after a quick jab of his sword. Again and again he stabbed with the blade, shouted curses at the unfeeling shadows, dispatched them one after another. He heard cheers and knew that the other Hylar had escaped, that his leadership had saved them.

Another rumble shook the mountain, jarring the lift so harshly that Baker thought for a moment perhaps the chain had broken and they were falling. Instead, the latest tremor merely released a shower of pebbles and boulders. Then a bigger quake shook the mountain, and even to the thane's blurred vision the crack in the shaft wall grew wider. With a splitting, grinding noise, the lower part of the transport shaft fell away, leaving the lift cage dangling freely in the air. Massive slabs of rock collapsed, breaking away from the bulk of the Life-Tree to tumble below onto the remains of the waterfront.

Baker looked up, seeing the lowest rungs of the ladder still secured to the side of the upper transport shaft.

"This cage isn't going anywhere," said the young engineer who had stayed behind. "That last rockfall pinched it in here like cement."

"Come, my thane," urged Capper Whetstone. "It's time for us to get out of here."

And Baker Whitegranite climbed with strength, knowing that the hopes of the Hylar climbed with him.

Chaos Falling

For long minutes Tarn lay on the smooth rock of the shore, struggling to draw air through the raw, constricted passage of his throat. He knew he was in dangerous surroundings. But even if a company of dark dwarves had come along screaming for his blood, the half-breed would have been unable to so much as look for a hiding place. The lingering horror of his immersion in water-the nearness of death-had drained him. The fight to survive had utterly exhausted him. And even when he found the strength to lift his head, there was nothing within his range of sight to encourage him.

Around him the gully dwarves chattered and explored, though there was an uncharacteristic hush to their voices. Regal sniffed something, then called some of his comrades to help him move a large boulder. The industrious Aghar toppled the large rock to the side, but after several minutes of rooting around in the muddy crater they trudged glumly back to Tarn.

"Nuthin!" groused one.

"No food, not a bite," said another.

"No beer," Regal added mournfully.

Finally able to sit up and look around, Tarn tried to get a fix on their surroundings. He was startled to realize he was totally lost. Though he knew the Hybardin waterfront like he knew the hilt of his sword, he was now unable to recognize a single landmark. A pile of broken rock rose like a mountain before him, and to either side he saw a splintered wreckage of slabs, beams, fabric, and other debris. Looking straight up, he could see the bottom of the great stalactite that was the Life-Tree suspended overhead, though whether they could reach it or not was another question entirely. And even so, could they somehow work their way into higher regions of the city? It was inconceivable that the lift still functioned.