The tunnel air grew hot as they approached the boiling pools once more. The air rumbled with the sound of them. When Hump had been there last it had smelt of the human bodies stewing within, now it smelt only of steam and stone.

They didn’t stop. Hump was glad for it. It was better not to stop. Better not to think of the things he’d seen down here. Though as much as he tried to keep his eyes forward, the bloody butcher’s corner in the next chamber drew his eye. The brutal collection of knives was still there, rusted and brown with blood. Beside them, the deep, black disposal pit—he dreaded to think what might be below. The cages. The sickly yellow light that filled the chamber. It still smelt foul, even now that it was empty.

Don’t look, he told himself. Keep moving. Keep focused.

They hurried out of the chamber and down the opposite tunnel where the kobolds and salamanders that had attacked them before had come from. It veered downward, connecting to a smaller chamber at the bottom, where tables and chairs were still laid out. It wasn’t hard to figure out where Kassius had gone, they simply had to follow the trail of kobold corpses.

“They still have their heartstones,” Celaine said, kneeling beside one as they passed. A wooden spear lay beside it, cleaved in two.

“Leave them,” Vamir said. “They’ll still be here when we get back, and we don’t have the time to waste.”

The tunnels weaved a web, connecting to chamber after chamber. Most were empty, only the bodies of the kobold guards that had been stationed there marking any sort of significance, but as they got deeper, they found living quarters. Straw beds on the ground, shoved together to form large nests where the kobolds now lay dead. Most hadn’t had time to reach their weapons.

At each new tunnel, Hump marked the wall with his chalk; the last thing they needed was to get lost with a horde of kobolds chasing after them. The frontline assault had done its job well, though what remained of their defences had been slaughtered. Hump counted over twenty bodies so far, each cleaved into pieces. Limbs were missing, bloody holes pierced through their chests. Sure there was the occasional arrow or small cut, but Hump’s gut told him this was the black paladin’s work. Only his greatsword could have inflicted such devastation.

There was a distant echo and they stopped.

“Voices?” Bud whispered.

“I don’t think so,” Vamir said. “Sounds more like a stream. They’ve probably built their den around a water source. We must be getting close.”

Vamir crept forward, peering around the corner. The rest of them followed close behind. The light grew brighter, leaking into the tunnel from an opening up ahead. At the end they found a walkway, with a low wall that lined the far side. Stalactites hung down from the roof forming supportive pillars where they connected to the wall. Beyond it, the rest of the cavern spread out. It wasn’t as large as the dungeon grove, there were no plants or other foliage apart from small mushrooms that grew in the stone.

Natural stone bridges criss-cross each other in the air, rising through the cavern and connecting the various levels of the dungeon. The bridges towered over them hundreds of feet into the air, a web of pathways that connected the entire dungeon. And above them, the cavern roof was speckled with blue light, shining like stars. As Hump stared, he swore he saw them moving.

On the ground level, fifty-odd wooden huts spotted the land on either side of a stream that ran through the cavern, stemming from a section of wall on the far side of the cavern. The huts were small, more the size of tents than anything a human might live in, but it was still a settlement. More proof that kobolds were more than simply monsters, they’d built themselves homes. At a glance, Hump could have mistaken it for any old village, barring the fact that it was dead centre of a dungeon.

Throughout the small village, large glowing globes shone with blue light, reflecting in the stream. Two bridges spanned the stream, and while the huts were scattered, the pathway to the bridges had been kept clear. If not for the location, it might have been beautiful. As it was, Hump just dreaded what they might find down there. It didn’t take a wizard to work out that a kobold village was a dangerous place to go.

At the back of the village, built into the cavern wall, a stone shrine protruded like a keep, towering over the village, the rock illuminated by veins of green crystals laced throughout its structure. The great entrance was barred by an iron gate, and surrounding it was a battalion of kobolds.

“That’s more kobolds than I expected,” Hump said.

“Maybe Oswald’s attack was more successful than we thought,” Bud said. “Could they have retreated to the shrine?”

“No,” Vamir said. “They’re not protecting it, they’re surrounding it. I suspect our dear prince got himself trapped.”

“In the shrine,” Hump said. “You’ve got to be kidding. There’s got to be three dozen kobolds down there.”

“More like four,” Celaine said. “We’re not fighting our way through, no matter how much we want to. There’s a bunch of empty cages near the base of it. I think Kassius got the prisoners out at least.”

Hump squinted, unable to make them out in the shadows of the wall. “How many cages?”

She shrugged. “A hundred maybe.”

“So there could be a lot of people trapped in there with him,” Hump said.

“No wonder he took so long,” Bud said.

“Yeah,” Hump said. “He’s going to need a damn sight more than just us for back up. We should go back and wait for the rest of the dungeoneers.”

“That could be hours,” Celaine said. “And that’s if Meera convinces Oswald to send them at all.”

“They’ll come,” Bud said. “He’s a prince. Oswald can’t just leave him.”

“That gate isn’t going to keep them out long enough for them to get here,” Vamir said.

“Maybe not,” Hump said. “But honestly, what are we supposed to do against numbers like this? And more will be on the way back from the frontlines now that Oswald has stopped his attack. The bridge could be swarming with kobolds in minutes.”

“It could be,” Vamir said. “But it will certainly be swarming with them if we wait a few hours for reinforcements.” He stared down over the village. “I have an idea that might work. We don’t need to kill them; we just need to scare them off. And we need to do it before reinforcements arrive.”

Hump narrowed his eyes. “Do tell.”

He did.

“That’s insane,” Celaine said. “Even for you.”

Vamir shrugged. “Kassius and his party are inside the shrine, the odds aren’t too bad. And kobolds are cowards. Hump, do you think you can do it?”

Hump frowned. “I’ll need to be close.”

Vamir nodded. “We’ll have to move fast, but we can get close.”

“Shh,” Celaine hissed suddenly. She pointed to the right. In the shadows, Hump saw shapes moving along the walkway nearby. Hump heard voices too, quiet chitters and squeaks. Kobolds.

“How many?” Hump whispered.

“Three,” Celaine said.

“Four,” Vamir corrected, looking over her shoulder. “Another is just beyond the corner.”

“We need a decision,” Vamir said. “Hump, Bud, you in?”

“What about me?” Celaine whispered. “Don’t I get a say in this.”

“You’re my student,” Vamir said, smiling. “You do as I say. These two don’t have to.”

She scowled at him.

Bud glanced at Hump. “What do you think? Can you pull it off?”

Hump nodded. “I can do it.”

“Okay then,” Bud said. “If Hump says he can do it, then I trust him. What next?” He peeked over the ledge of the wall and stared down. “Think we can climb down and sneak past?”

Vamir peeked his head over the wall and searched the cavern below for another route, then crouched back by the wall. “Celaine and I could make it.” He shook his bow from his shoulder. "You two would probably break a few too many legs.”

“I say we go with plan b,” Bud said.

“Which is?” Vamir asked.

He shrugged. “Anything that doesn’t involve breaking our legs.”

“We’ll have to take them out,” Celaine said. “These four aren’t leaving.”

“If they make a sound this whole plan goes out the window,” Hump said. “Your whole plan relies on surprise.”

“They won’t,” Vamir assured him, making a sweeping motion with his hand, shooing Hump back. “Shut your mouths and give us some room to work. Celaine, think you can handle two?”

She shrugged off her bow and took two arrows from her quiver, holding them both in her right hand. “No problem.”

The two archers levelled their bows and nocked an arrow each. They drew back as one, their stances identical. Their bodies as taut as the bowstrings themselves.

“Now,” Vamir breathed.

The bowstrings twanged. The arrows shot down the walkway. A second arrow on the strings before the first had even landed. Vamir chanted something under his breath, and then they shot again. Hump stared down the hallway in time to see the first shadows drop. A half second later, another followed.

Hump frowned. He waited, half expecting the fourth around the corner to let out a shriek, but only silence came. “What about the fourth?”

“Dead,” Vamir said.

“Corners don’t matter for Vamir,” Celaine said.

Hump blinked. “Well, that’s terrifying.” He’d have never known the arrow was coming. Hell, even if he knew it, getting around his shield would have been easier than a corner. He stared at Vamir, once again remembering the danger he’d felt that first day, and the illusion veil he had seen over him.

“Best not to think about it,” Celaine said. “At the end of the day, if you’re his target, you won’t even know you got shot.”

Hump felt the blood drain from his face. “Great. Thanks for that. I feel much better.”

Vamir smiled easily, as if he hadn’t just assassinated two kobolds.

Vamir shouldered his bow and led the way along the walkway, past the four dead kobolds. Hump paused as he saw them, dark blood pooling on the stone beneath them. Up close, he could see where the arrows had found the creatures. Even at that distance, with targets hidden in shadows, the two archers had managed to land four arrows through four heads.

Never get on the wrong side of a Chosen archer, Hump thought. Then he thought of Bud fighting toe-to-toe with the scaled brute. Gods, never get on the wrong side of any Chosen.

This was a dog-eat-dog world, and Hump was barely a pup.

Hump hurried onward, keeping low against the wall as he rounded the corner and followed the walkway until they reached a bridge that descended to the ground. Stepping out into the open made Hump nervous. He was ready with his shield for the moment he heard anything. He just prayed that the first thing he heard wasn’t the arrow piercing his chest.

Once they reached the cavern floor, Vamir and Celaine left them in the shadows of a small crevice just outside the village while they went to scout the walkways above. Hump looked too, though what he did wasn’t so much scouting as it was squinting at shadows and seeing nothing. When they returned, Celaine’s face was grim.

“I don’t like the look of all these hidey-holes,” Celaine said.

“I don’t like that I can’t see a damned thing,” Bud asked. “Do kobolds have good dark vision?”

“They live in caverns under the ground,” Hump said. “What do you think?”

Bud sighed. “That’s exactly what I think, I was just hoping you knew better.”

“Less talking,” Vamir said quietly. “Stay close. If they start shooting, pray they’re bad shots.”

Hump groaned. His heart was pounding. Wizards and arrows really didn’t go well together.

“Just don’t stand still,” Celaine said. “You’re harder to hit if you’re moving, especially at ranges like this.”

They found bodies outside the first huts. The kobolds had been unarmed and disorganised. Kassius and his party must have caught them by surprise.

It was an eerie feeling stepping amongst the village. There was something all too human about this place. Curtains made from some sort of silk covered the entryways to the wooden buildings, but a few of them hung open now. Hump glimpsed nests inside. There were eggs, various trinkets made of bone and wood. He spotted a couple of spears resting up against the walls. Buckets, rope, tools. It wasn’t that much unlike a human village. Hell, from the stories left to him in his book, he imagined many places in the world just like it.

They didn’t stop until they reached the bridge across the stream, where they crouched down between two huts. Hump’s eyes followed a flowing trail of blood to the body of a kobold lying dead beneath one of the glowing globes he’d seen from above.

The globe was moving.

Hump’s eyes widened as he realised what it was. “Glowworms,” he said. “They’re using glowworms for light.”

“What?” Celaine asked.

Hump pointed toward the globe. “Look at it. It’s moving. There must be thousands of them.” He looked up at the ceiling, saw the moving stars. “Millions of them. They’re all over the place. That must be where the kobolds get their silk too.”

“Fascinating as that is,” Vamir said, “perhaps now isn’t the time to get distracted. We get spotted crossing this bridge, and we’re as good as dead.”

Hump gulped. “Right. Sorry. I’m focused.”

“Good,” Vamir said. “Now then. Bud, Celaine, I want you both to veer left on the other side of the stream. Don’t stray too far from the bridge. We need a retreat plan if worst comes to worst. Hump and I will take the right.”

They nodded.

“Let’s move.”

They dashed across the narrow bridge in single file. Between the huts ahead of them, Hump glimpsed kobolds. They’d formed a perimeter of spearmen around the shrine, but for now they weren’t attacking.

There were more dead across the bridge. Dozens of them slaughtered. Their bodies sprawled out on the grey stone ground, blood trailing toward the stream they’d just crossed. Hump’s stomach heaved. He looked away. Friend or foe, the remains left behind after a battle were never a happy sight. It stank of blood. The air tasted of blood; it clung to the back of Hump’s throat as if he’d swallowed a copper penny.

Focus on the facts. Don’t get distracted. The kobolds must have made their stand here. These ones died fighting. Each was armed, and they were too close together for it to have been anything but a full on brawl.

They whispered their good lucks to each other on the other side, then split up according to Vamir’s plan, going to their positions.

Hump trailed after Vamir, moving as quietly as he could. He heard the kobolds talking to each other nearby and glimpsed their figures through the gaps in the huts as they passed. They hurried through the darkness, weaving between the huts, never out in the open longer than they had to be. The ever-looming risk of getting shot from the shadows or spotted by a scout made Hump’s heart race.

And then they were in position, crouched up against the wall of a small hut, no taller than Vamir. Close enough for Hump to make out the clear chitterlings of the kobolds. The tap of spears on the stone floor. One of them yawned.

For a long two minutes they waited in silence, listening to the sound of the kobolds. Occasionally, Hump thought he heard other voices in the mix. Dull murmurs through the stone, but unmistakably human.

When Vamir clapped him on the shoulder, Hump almost jumped out of cover. He smiled at him. “Give us something flashy.”

Hump nodded, and watched the man go further along the line of huts, finding his own spot.

That was it then. Hump was on his own, and it was up to him to start the attack. Something flashy.

He had just the thing.