Weakened by the effort of sustaining the invisibility spell that had carried him past the minotaurs guarding the dead city, the young mage fell to his knees.

Tasslehoff bounded over to him.

The Nightmaster nodded to Dogz, who picked up Kitiara, slung her across his shoulders, and started off across the clearing. Soon the two of them were swallowed up by the darkness.

"Raistlin!" cried Tasslehoff. "I knew you'd come-that is, if you got the magic message bottle. You did get it, didn't you?"

A hand grabbed Tas's shoulder, roughly pushing the kender out of the way. The Nightmaster stepped into his place, leaning close to the young mage, blasting Raistlin with his rancid breath.

"So this is the mighty Raistlin," rumbled the Nightmaster.

Raistlin didn't say anything. Instead, he stared unflinchingly into the Nightmaster's eyes.

"This human is nothing next to you, Nightmaster," said Fesz contemptuously. "He refuses to even fight for his life!"

"Keep him tied!" commanded the Nightmaster. "If he wants food and drink, give it to him. But don't underestimate him. Guard him carefully.

"Now let us decamp quickly! I don't want to take the chance that he wasn't telling the truth when he said he came alone!"

The minotaurs hurried to obey.

Tasslehoff got up slowly from the ground. The Nightmaster's every utterance should be worshipped, he knew, but even so, the evil Tas thought the high shaman could stand to learn some manners. Rubbing his shoulder ruefully, the kender thought of his good old hoopak…

Dogz hadn't gone very far when one of the minotaur soldiers came running to catch up with him.

They were in a different part of the dead city, near the ruins of a portico, the remains of a wall and tumbled masonry.

"From the Nightmaster," said the soldier handing Dogz a message scribed on parchment.

Kill the human female, said the message. It was written in the Nightmaster's unmistakable scrawl.

Dogz hesitated. The human bundle slung over his shoulders tried to scream and kick, without much success. The huge minotaur put Kit down on the ground and rested one of his cleft hooves on her to keep her from rolling away.

"I must speak to the prisoner," said Dogz. "Wait for me."

The soldier backed away into the shadows.

Dogz looked around. Nearby stood a broken column. He dragged Kit over to it, took a length of rope from his side, and wrapped it firmly around her, tying her to the broken column. Then he removed her blindfold.

Her eyes looked at him questioningly.

"I have been ordered to kill you," rumbled the minotaur simply.

Kit’s dark eyes stared, defiant.

The minotaur looked around till he spotted a large stone block, then went over to it slowly and sat down. The order to kill the human female disturbed him-first of all, because the human female had been a friend of the kender Tasslehoff before the kender became evil, and second, because the Nightmaster had given his word that the human female would be allowed to go free.

Both reasons bothered Dogz equally, and the minotaur sat there for a long time, pondering. Finally he got up and approached the human female. "I will not kill you tonight," he said simply.

He moved to put the blindfold back on her. "I am not going to take you back to the Nightmaster," he explained. "I will leave you here until we return. Then I will decide what to do."

Kitiara struggled furiously against her bonds, trying to speak.

Dogz paused, considering. "If you try to scream or shout, I will smash your head in," he said. Then he took off her gag.

"I-I-I don't care about myself," stammered Kitiara in a choking voice.

The minotaur waited.

"It's Raistlin," she said. "He's my brother. Can you do anything to help him?"

The minotaur started to replace the gag.

"Wait!" she cried softly.

There was a pause as the minotaur regarded her with scorn. "Raistlin is to be the victim," said Dogz. "It is Raistlin's honor to bring Sargonnas, the god of the minotaurs, into this world." Again the minotaur started to replace the gag.

"Then never mind Raistlin," Kit said desperately.

Dogz halted.

Kit’s thoughts whirled. She recalled overhearing the conversation between Dogz and Tas about friendship and betrayal. That gave her an idea. It might be Raistlin's only chance.

"You're… you're friends with Tasslehoff, right?"

"Yes," said Dogz warily.

"Then give him something for me."

She told him what it was. His eyes widened.

Dogz backed away from Kit, then turned and kicked at the cold, ash-covered ground. He stood there for several minutes as Kit watched him, knowing that she had struck gold. Strange as it seemed, the minotaur regarded himself as a friend of Tas's.

Slowly Dogz lowered the gag. Kitiara told him where the item was. He searched her body and found it, a tiny thing that nobody had found when searching her before and that no one would notice if Dogz carried it. Dogz tucked the small object into his belt, then brusquely raised the gag and fastened it firmly over Kitiara's mouth.

His eyes stared into hers as he replaced the blindfold.

He found the minotaur soldier and ordered him to stay behind and guard Kit with his life.

Then Dogz sprinted off to catch up with the Nightmaster and his entourage.

By dusk, so many kyrie had arrived at the camp that Tanis lost track of their ever-increasing numbers. Twenty, perhaps two dozen, the half-elf guessed. The winged people flew in and reported in their own tongue to Cloudreaver, then milled around looking at the humans and others. Some flew away again. Others brought out weapons for sharpening.

The odds were getting better, Tanis told Flint. The dwarf, a frown on his face, wasn't entirely convinced. He was impatient for Cloudreaver to share the information gathered from his scouts.

Flint and Caramon went over to talk to the kyrie warrior. "Do we know yet where Kitiara is being held and what we're up against in terms of troops?" Flint asked, speaking in Common out of deference to the kyrie.

The others, including Tanis and Sturm, had drifted over behind them. Cloudreaver stood and addressed the companions intently.

"My scouts flew over the ancient city and saw many dozens of minotaurs camped throughout its ruins, almost all of them soldiers, all of them heavily armed," the kyrie warrior reported. "The high shaman's quarters are near the center of the ruined city, exposed to the open air but well patrolled. A human female is being held in a cage in the Nightmaster's camp. There is a great deal of activity in the camp, obviously preparations for something. My scouts do not dare fly too close for fear of being detected. One of my brothers thought he saw a little person, neither human nor minotaur, scampering about, but he could not be sure."

"That blasted kender," muttered Flint.

"What about my brother?" Caramon looked questioningly at Cloudreaver.

"As yet," Cloudreaver replied grimly, "there is no sign of the mage."

"So we know Kit is imprisoned near the center of the old city," said Tanis. "We also know that she's well guarded. How many are we now… twenty, thirty?"

No one volunteered an immediate reply. Tanis looked around the group. Brave but tense faces stared back at him. Everyone realized the numbers heavily favored the minotaur forces.

Cloudreaver shrugged. "Perhaps Bird-Spirit will know something more about the camp when he returns," Cloudreaver said encouragingly. "He is not only my chief of scouts, but an expert tactician when it comes time for battle."