"Didn't think it was likely."
    "The dragons are following Gretchen because they are half-daemon, and therefore her kin and under her control."
    "Like that half-daemon wolf-thing that's up above?"
    "Very much like, yes."
    "That's how we figured she got those. In that case, what we're planning on doing is just wrecking dragons' days."
    "And then you will... do what?"
    "Leave?" he offered after a considering moment.
    "Hm. So you followed one of my friends here... just because they were in the area? You said there were some of Gretchen's gnoll troops out there. They are hunting for me."
    "Certainly seems like it," Thunderbolt shrugged.
    "When you leave, if you could... make them think that they were hunting you, that would be helpful to me. I recently suffered a fall. It will take me a little while to properly heal from it. I have no desire to encounter any more of her forces right now." After a moment he added, "I notice you're still here. When you leave," he repeated meaningfully.
    The monkey jumped onto his shoulder and said, "I think they're waiting for you to give them something in return."
    "Why would I?"
    "Among other reasons, because we don't work for you," Scott pointed out. "Frankly, it would be much more advantageous for us to bleed off large numbers of wolf troops dealing with you. Which keeps them out of our way and distracts them from us. So we need some sort of incentive."
    "If I tell you what the dragons' lair is, how to get into it, and the best way to get into it, and return your companion who suffered an unfortunate mishap?"
    Scott looked at Thunderbolt. "You didn't let her get kidnapped by giant gorillas, did you?"
    "Shut up."
    "Not kidnapped. Protective custody," Traveler corrected. "Bad things might happen if she and I were to meet."
    "Bad things like...? She'd light your bone marrow on fire?"
    "She might try, and then I'd be forced to take certain steps I'd rather not."
    Scott mentally filled in, Writhing in pain, I hate doing that. "I'd say that would be acceptable."
    Traveler sighed faintly. "I fell from my castle. Well—I was pushed. I've had it for some time now, it floats. I'll give you the correct way of locating it. Once you're up there, at the top of the tower with no windows there are the controls for manipulating it. If those controls were to be broken, the castle as a whole would plummet. If the dragons were inside a fireproof, plummeting castle...."
    "That could sting significantly," Scott agreed.
    "I thought so. Besides, I would rather see it destroyed than see her have it. It's simply too effective a location for her. Rue, would you...?"
    "Yes!" The monkey scurried across the room and fetched a scroll case. "Here's your map!"
    "Okay. And our companion?" Scott prodded.
    "Once you have dealt with the creatures up above, convinced them that they were attacking you, that there's no reason for them to stay in this area, she will find her way back to the surface safely." They stared at him dubiously. "I give you my word," he added in a slightly nettled tone.
    Scott gave the map to Thunderbolt. "Very well."
    
    * * *
    
    Meanwhile, after an interminable jerking journey I was abruptly tossed and landed in something that did soften my landing but was squishier than I liked to think about. I was left in a mine shaft in the dark, with no other sound than the gorilla's rapid retreat.
    Well, this is just great. I made a light and looked around, hoping I wouldn't regret doing so.
    I could see what I had landed against now. Way back when this mine had been active, they had probably closed off this part when they ran into ground that wasn't ground. It was organic, with toothy maws opening and closing in it. It was trying to slowly squelch around me, and I felt it trying to grow another mouth somewhere behind me.
    Fortunately it wasn't very quick; I made a little sound of revulsion and yanked myself away from it with a convulsive shudder. Small bones crunched under my feet.
    There were three tunnels in front of me. I know perfectly well that when you're lost it's best to stay put, but these were peculiar circumstances. One tunnel seemed to angle down, one was level, and one went up. I was disoriented, but I knew we'd come down quite a ways in our leaping journey, so I went for the upward-leading one, leaving behind me the mouths in the wall and the too-loud sound of dripping saliva. Then there was only rock and silence, winding back and forth in a way that struck me as disturbingly worm-like.
    After going up for a while, the tunnel dipped rapidly downward in a slow spiral. The air was damp and chilly. I should have seen this coming, I thought. And there were dripping noises that I was pretty sure weren't my imagination and really hoped wasn't saliva. Maybe there was more of the mouth-stuff? I studied the wall to make sure it didn't look like, oh, something's intestine, but it was just crumbly earth. When I touched it the grains flowed slightly; they had been packed but not very firmly. Something had passed this way... I kept walking and hoped I wouldn't meet it.
    Soon I had another problem. My light spell only lasted two hours, and I was pretty sure I had been walking for about an hour, though it was terribly hard to tell. I could keep going and risk getting entirely stuck without light, or go back and probably get back to where I'd started from, still without light but maybe with more chance of being found.
    Something moved on the wall. Just a bit, as if something was moving through the dirt but had not quite broken through. Something long and thin. Very large earthworm?
    I hated to do it, but I turned around. It didn't take nearly as long as it felt like it should before the tunnel flattened out. Was I going back the same way I had come? There hadn't been any branches—no visible ones, at least. I kept walking, increasingly nervous and ever more certain that something was not right about this. Had I been trapped in some kind of illusory labyrinth?
    I stopped, composed myself, closed my eyes and recited a brief prayer for True Seeing. When I opened them, the passageway looked... different. It seemed to flicker, and then the dirt disappeared. I was still standing in a tube of something, but beyond it was formless void. In the distance were floating pockets of flame. One of the flames approached, extending wings and floating in my direction. I could clearly see the tunnel ahead of me, vaguely translucent, and some distance ahead two branches. One of them led to a solid black wall, the other circled down once again.
    I had passed through a hole in the Daemongrid. I was not supposed to be here. I walked faster. The flaming thing turned around and flew away again. I kept an eye out for it and tried to stay calm and move carefully; panicking would be bad, might draw the things that lived here.
    The flaming thing was returning, followed by something that slithered through the non-substance: The maralith. Oh, fuck. I moved faster, reached the fork and took the one leading to the black wall.
    Frequent glances behind me showed that the flaming thing had led the maralith to the tunnel. She wrapped herself around the tube and cut a hole into it; the entire tunnel undulated gently as she began to follow me along it. I broke into a sprint as the wall came visible.
    YOU.
    I dove for it with her furious hiss echoing in my ears.
    
    * * *
    
    The other three members of the Revolution made their way back up toward the surface, and had nearly reached the sinkhole-entrance when they spotted two gnolls with crossbows.
    "Have you found anything yet?" someone barked down from above.
    "No sign yet! Why did we get stuck doing this?" the soldier complained more quietly to his comrade.
    Phoenix Talon snuck up toward them, kicked a rock. (Having rolled a 1, giving him only a... 31 on his Hide check.)
    The gnolls froze. "There's something here!"
    
    

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