The Sceptre of Samnos

Dermakarak Part 7

     They searched the room for some way to barricade the door, as if that would do any good. Even if they succeeded in keeping the humanoids out, they would only have accomplished a slower death by starvation. There was no other exit. Thomas tried to drag the table over, but Shaun stopped him. “Better to go quickly, I think,” he said softly. “Go out fighting.”

He glanced over at Diana, a whole world of sorrow and regret in his eyes. “I'm sorry,” he said under his breath, too low for her to hear. “I should have tried harder to keep you safe. Talked you out of this insane holy mission of yours. Tied you to a chair, if that's what it took…”

    "Hey!" said Jerry suddenly. "This is the place where Jherek killed that traitor trog, just in that room over there."

     No-one responded to him at first. They were all too preoccupied with their impending deaths. All except Connery, who stared at him intently. “I said…” repeated Jerry in a louder voice. “This is the place where…”

     “Yes, we heard you,” said Thomas irritably. “Have you got an idea? A way to get out of here?”

     “Well, no. I just thought…”

     Thomas sagged with renewed despair, his hopes momentarily raised, then dashed. “Try focusing your mind on what's out there,” he suggested, more harshly than he'd intended. “Not on what's in here.”

     The tiny nome wilted under the angry tone of his voice. “I just thought it was worth mentioning, that's all.” He glanced around at the others, but they were all lost in their own fears. Lirenna was staring down at the dusty, stone floor and Diana was whispering a prayer to her Goddess while gripping her silver Caroli flower tightly in one hand. Shaun and Matthew were staring at the main door, ignoring him completely.

     Jerry glanced again at the interior door leading into the next room, the room within which Jherek had killed the traitor dwarf. He moved closer, but Connery barred his way. "Leave him alone," he said. “Your friend’s right. Forget what's in there.”

     "What's the matter?" asked Jerry. "I just want to look at him."

     "Don't be so morbid," said the mercenary. "We've got more important things to worry about right now, like how to get out of here alive." He gave Jerry a determined stare, still blocking the door, until the little nome gave up and turned away. This is very odd, he thought. What's he afraid of?

     Bluin opened the door a crack and peered out into the corridor. He shut it again in a hurry as a couple of buglins ran past. What a turn my life has taken, he thought, that I should find myself hiding from those ratty gits! "They're searching every room in the corridor," he said. "They'll be here very soon. We need some ideas right now."

     "Perhaps we can provide a diversion and run for the entrance," suggested Thomas.

     "No good," said Shale. "They're bound to have the guard room heavily occupied. They'll hold us up until the rest of them arrive, and that would be the end of us."

     "Is there any other way out, other than through the guardroom?" asked Lirenna.

     "No, it was decided to have only one entrance, to make this place easier to defend." Shale laughed at the irony of the situation. "There was an emergency exit, but it collapsed in an earth tremor shortly before everyone left. It was never re-opened, and would take several days, if not weeks, to do so."

     "No, wait a minute," said Bluin. "There may be another way. Something ma father told me when I were little, about the mine. He told me that, when they were following the vein of gold down deeper into the mountain, a branch of the vein led upwards, back towards the surface. He said they had to be careful following it, in case they broke out into the open, giving an invader another way into the village."