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Back to Empire on the HPe3000
... and ...
"Not you too." Harold yelled at Derue. The mercenary left Harold
behind and ran off following his brothers path. "Just great."
The little thief took an empty leather pouch from his belt and
scratched a message into it with the tip of a metal spike. He filled it
with a handful of coins and dropped it down the shaft.
* * *
Derue followed a bloody trail which dwindled out before it turned
the corner of the kitchen. On his left there were shelves, piles of
foodsacks, barrels and at least one large table towering above his head,
but on the right there was a wide alcove that lead to a pair of doors,
the righthand one was ajar.
He had to pause before the doors and slow the beating of his
heart. His chest heaved and his blood pulsed heavy in his veins. The
right, something within him said, he followed the advice always choosing
to listen to his inner voice.
Behind the door he was inside another room, filled like the
corner of the kitchen, a larder well stocked and much used. But at
the back there was a broad set of stairs leading down, and his voice said
to him that Edouard had gone this way.
* * *
"I will be glad to leave this room." Gytha said, her voice
muffled by a scented cloth she'd placed across her nose and mouth.
Telenstil willed himself to ignore the unpleasant smell, but he
found it distracting none the less, if not as nauseating as the others
thought it to be.
"I as well." he replied. "What was that?" Telenstil looked up
the chute, an echo found its way down from above.
"A shout?" Gytha said unsure, but the load roar that followed
left no doubt. There came a banging sound and the rope shook in Gytha's
hands. A large shape appeared as it neared the opening in the roof, she
leapt and pushed Telenstil aside, the pair tumbled across the filthy
ground barely escaping the ogres body that crashed to the floor near to
where they'd just been standing. It slammed into the pile of debris and
sent a shower of rotting goo upon everyone but the sightless priest.
"What the hells?" Harald shouted, he wiped a smearing viscid
glob from off his armored chest.
"Are you okay?" Gytha asked the elf. Telenstil had to think a
moment to make sure.
"I seem to be uninjured." he said. "thanks to your quick action."
"This muck is ten times worse when it is stirred up." complained
Talberth.
Harald and Ivo examined the body, the gnome kept glancing back up
the shaft.
"What is going on up there?" Talberth murmured.
"Its an ogre." said the old ranger.
Talberth bit back a rude reply. His nerves were on edge and his
temper had grown short.
"Someones left a broken dagger in its head." Ivo added.
"Its Harold's. The little thief brought down this monster ten
times his size." the ranger Harald looked up the chute and wondered
silently the question Talberth had voiced aloud, what was going on up
there.
* * *
(To Be Continued)