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lens he could see a different world entirely, like a window to the Outside. He
saw figures, four of them, three young men and a brown-haired girl, all
dressed oddly. They seemed to be arguing with each other. Strange food and
drinks were scattered around a smooth table with dice and maps.
The Outsiders?
Had he glimpsed them Playing? And survived? He blinked his eyes and
felt a shiver burn through his veins. But before he could shout to the others,
he tilted the lens again and lost the angle. Dismayed, he turned the glass in
the sunlight, squinting and trying to find the window again -- but he had lost
it. Frowning, he placed the lenses in a leather pouch at his side.
"What will you do now?" Paenar finally asked.
Bryl put the Water Stone back in his pocket and tossed pebbles against
the towering, moss-grown wall of the citadel. Delrael took out his sword and
inspected it in the sunlight, then sheathed it with a click against his
scabbard. He straightened the bow on his back, and slapped a hand against his
leather armor. "We may as well go down with an adventure so grand that the
Outsiders will wonder how they ever got bored with Gamearth after all!"
"I am awed by you all. You shame me with my own surrender," Paenar
said. It seemed difficult for him to talk. "May I accompany you at least as
far as Sitnalta? Perhaps I can assist you in some way, to repay you for ...
freeing me. I'll try not to make your journey slower."
"We can't very well leave you here." Vailret looked at the open
expression of shame and helplessness on the blind man's face.
"Before we go, let's do a quick exploration of this place," Delrael
said. "Come on, Vailret -- who knows, there may be other captives in some of
the cells far below."
Vailret stiffened, looking up at the blocky, threatening walls. "What
about the Slac? I don't want any more 'little adventures' to slow us down."
"There aren't any Slac left, so come on." Delrael shrugged, then
grinned at his cousin. "It just rubs me the wrong way to leave a place like
this unexplored."
Bryl stayed with Paenar out in the sunshine where he could rest, but
Vailret remained close by his cousin as they entered the massive fortress.
They hurried through the stifling corridors, taking turns poking their heads
inside open rooms. The hinges groaned when Vailret and Delrael pulled open
heavy doors. "Think we'll find any food?" Delrael asked.
"Would you want to eat what a Slac eats?"
"I see your point."
They went down a broad staircase leading underground. Vailret's
uneasiness grew. "Hello!" Delrael shouted. "Is anybody here?" His words
pounced on the walls and rattled down the twisted corridors.
"Be quiet!" Vailret whispered. "Let's go back -- I don't know if I can
remember my way out anymore."
"Of course you can. We'll go just a little farther." Vailret hung back
and Delrael finally sighed in impatience. "What's the matter with you?"
Vailret felt defensive, but kept his anger in check. "I'm a little
nervous, that's all."
Delrael pursed his lips. "With all we've been through, Vailret, I know
you're not a coward -- what's so frightening about an old empty fortress?"
Vailret looked at him in surprise but saw only puzzlement. "I thought
you would understand. Didn't you do the role-playing training game at the
Stronghold? In the weapons storehouse with your father?"
"Sure -- I had to go rescue a jewel from a tribe of worm-men
underground. Everybody's adventure is different."
Vailret flicked his glance around the confining walls. Sick-looking
green moss crawled up from the corners. "I fought to the death in a Slac
fortress. Just like this one."
It took a moment for Delrael to realize the relevance then he shook his
head. "That was only a game."
"_All_ of this is only a Game. Just different players."
Subdued, they moved forward, entering a drafty dining hall with dozens
of splintered boards on skewed wooden trestles. Dust, cobwebs, and cracked
wooden plates littered the room. They passed through the hollow-sounding hall
and wound their way down another set of steep and chipped stairs. Only a
slight unevenness of Delrael's echoing footsteps gave any hint that one of his
legs was not normal.
The doors on either side of the passageway became noticeably bulkier,
with heavy bolts on the outsides. This looked familiar to Vailret's
imagination. Delrael threw open a door that had sagged on its hinges and found
a fallen bed and some straw that had rotted almost to dust over the passage of
time. The next cell contained a skeleton.
"The Slac have been gone too long," Vailret said. "Even if there were
survivors, Paenar would have found them. Can we go now?"
"Let me just see what's on the other side of the big door at the end of
the hall."
Delrael went down the haphazard flagstones until he reached a tall door
blocking their way. He moved smoothly, ready to jump into action. He seemed to
have forgotten about his _kennok_ leg.
Vailret kept looking from side to side. Something told him he had been
here before; it seemed too familiar. Delrael wrapped his fingers around the
door's studded crossbar and knocked it out of its cradle. He grunted as he
tugged on the door. "Vailret, help me here!"
The two men pulled the door open, and a dry, sour smell flooded out.
Delrael stood peering inside with his hands on his hips. "Would you look at
that!"
Vailret looked over his cousin's shoulder to see a wide gravel-covered
arena. Stone benches ringed the lip of the circular wall around the sunken
pit. Skulls and bones were scattered on the gravel.
"See, there's nothing in here." Delrael stepped into the arena. He
picked up a stone and threw it across the bloodstained gravel. It bounced and
pattered, then every thing fell silent again.
"Del, I think you should come out of there...."
"I wonder what they did here?"
They heard a snorting sound and the scraping of gravel, as if something
with large, clawed feet were charging toward them -- but they could see
nothing. Delrael cocked his head to listen as the angry grunts and snorts came
closer, swifter. He touched his sword hilt, frowning.
Vailret jerked his cousin back out of the doorway and threw his
shoulder at the door. He winced at the shock, but he jammed the crossbar back
onto its supports. Then he panted with relief.
"What do you think you're doing?" Delrael brushed his chest armor,
scowling.
Something smashed against the door. A few tendrils of dust leaked
through the crumbling roof, but the door held firm. They heard a roar and then
another crash. After a moment the creature from the other side gave up and
retreated in silence.
Delrael looked at Vailret, astonished. "What was that? How did you
know?"
"It's an Akkar. They're invisible. And you didn't listen to me."
They left the abandoned Slac fortress behind, crossing a hex-line into
pleasant forest terrain by late afternoon. Though the forest seemed cluttered
and untended after Ledaygen, the air was warm and filled with the scent of
trees and plants.
"It'll be wonderful to sleep in terrain like this!" Delrael said.
Paenar turned his head to listen to the background noises in the
forest, to feel the leaves and the air on his face, to smell the wildflowers
and evergreens. He still carried his useless eye-staff, but the path was clear
and he could follow at a good pace if he kept a hand on someone's shoulder.
"I was such a fool to remain with the Outsiders so long. Why couldn't I
see this before? Now it's my fault Gamearth is doomed."
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