Yustradil turned out to be a female of Meepo's ilk, who was a little less malodorous than all the other little bastards teeming around in the chambers they seemingly considered their own. Or I was just getting used to the stink.

“We are searching for four heavily armed travellers who came here in the last month. Have you seen them?”

Yustradil leaned back in her throne. It was a really fine chair and a fine hall. Disregarding the smell, of course.

“We have indeed seen them. They offered to help us, too, to clear this place from the accursed goblins, but they never came back. I am afraid they have perished. We will guard their memories forever in our hearts.”

“Do the goblins cause a lot of trouble for you?” asked Jim.

“They do. No matter how many we kill, always new ones come from their subterranean lairs. But when they kill one of our people, we cannot replace the loss. They are raiding us every time they can, they take prisoners, murder us, and steal from us. And now they imprisoned Calcryx, the one who was destined to lead our tribe. The future is dark, indeed.”

“But the great Kobold Nation will rise to the occasion. We are the masters of our own destiny, and have survived much worse turns of fate before! With the help of our great ancestors, and with my skilful leadership, we will overcome every difficulty!”

“What kind of dragon is Calcryx?” asked Beldrak.

“She is from the stock of the great white dragons of old. She is destined to rule this land, while wisely leading and protecting our tribe.”

“Sure”, said Jim. “So why don't we go now, and take her back together?”

“Regrettably, I cannot spare the warriors”, answered Yustradil abandoning her pretentious tone for a moment. “We are few, the goblins are many, so we have to guard ourselves with all of our forces.”

“Well then”, I said. “What do we get if we bring back this Calcryx of yours?”

“We will give you a generous reward.”

“But how generous exactly?”

“We will give you the Key, That Opens The Doors”, she gestured theatrically towards a sizeable key hanging on the wall behind her. What a surprisingly original function for a key.

“This Key has been the sacred possession of our tribe and Opens Doors that were sealed from us by customs and the forewarnings of our ancestors. If you bring us back Calcryx The Great, we are willing to pay this price, and let you into The Rooms That Were Sealed.”

“Fair enough”, said Jim. “Let's get going then.”

To my indescribable pleasure, the stinky little nubbin called Meepo took into its tiny head that it would help us find its pet dragon. In truth, we needed a guide, but if we were already to suffer through the smell, I would have preferred one of the heavily armed kobolds who were guarding Yustradil's hall. I was determined to try parleying with the goblins first, but if it came to blows nonetheless, one of those guards might have been of use.

In a quarter-hour or so, Meepo led us around in the kobolds' chambers, showing us everything of interest and import. It was a harrowing experience, to say the least, but mercifully short.

In the end, we had two options to intrude into goblin territory. There was a door on the northern wall of Yustradil's hall, or we could go eastwards from the room where Meepo, and formerly the dragon resided. We chose the latter option.

We found a peculiar well with a sculpted dragonhead, and a door that was guarded by an eldritch mechanism, which attacked everyone who stepped before the door with a scythe. We elected not to force this entry.

There was some inscription on the door, which Beldrak claimed to be able to read with a spell, but its contents (“Reprove the Dead!”) did not help us. I was already sceptical of the claim that the instructions for opening a magical door would be inscribed on said door. Still, both Beldrak and Jim assured me that this was a time-honoured custom of constructing enchanted entrances. I thought this defeated the purpose of having doors in the first place, but did not force the point.

Leaving some other chambers behind, we arrived at a door, that according to Meepo, was marking the end of no man's land, and the border of goblin territory. The traps I have seen before convinced me that the door would be guarded in some way, so I opened it slowly and carefully.

A bell was hanging from the wall, and had I just opened the door regularly, it undoubtedly would have alerted some guards. I took the clapper out of the contraption and put it into a pouch.

The room was empty. We assumed that the guards were in the next chamber, so opened that door with utmost precaution as well. It opened onto a corridor that was closed by a barricade at the end. The hall itself was littered with caltrops. I went ahead.

I made it to the half of the corridor before the arrows started flying. Two projectiles were shot at me, one stuck into my shield, the other missed me, and hit the wall instead.

“We have come to parley!” I shouted. “We want to exchange prisoners!”

Two other arrows came as an answer. This time, one of them hit my body, and while my chainmail protected me from the worst, the projectile knocked the wind out of me, and I almost fell.

“Not very friendly folks”, said Jim behind me. Meepo was letting out a scared whimper while hiding behind the tiefling's shield. Beldrak, on the other hand, was muttering something.

I was weighing our options. The diplomatic approach failed, or at least seemed to. Delaying would have meant giving time to the guards to alert and rally their comrades. I had to cross the room full of caltrops, and had to kill the archers. There were probably two of them, but I could do it. My chainmail and my shield were protecting me well, and if these were anything like those corpses we had seen when we entered this maze, I was much bigger and stronger than them. And Jim was coming up fast behind me. Maybe if we killed one, the other would yield, and we could use it to convey our will to parley to its comrades. We could use it as a prisoner to exchange.

It only took a moment for all this to flash through my mind, but Beldrak was faster still. When I decided, and started to dash forward, I heard the little man shouting a word loudly, satisfaction in his voice. Then I heard two thumps as the archers slumped to the ground.

I didn't stop to contemplate this. I got over the barricade and listened for the inevitable shouts and footsteps of reinforcements. They didn't come. Jim got over the barrier, it had a rope in its hand. It started to bind one of the goblins.

The beastly creatures weren't dead, just sleeping. I took the other end of the rope, and tied up the goblin nearer to me as well as I could. Then we bundled up the two sleeping beasts, and left as silently as we could, watching our every step.

When we were back in the no man's land, through the door that was protected by the bell I silenced, I let out a sigh, and started walking faster.

“How did you do that?” I blurted out, then continued before the little man could say anything. “I know you are a wizard. But how did you do that?!”

Beldrak laughed. “Years of learning, meditation and practice. Wizardry is like any other profession.”

“Could I learn to do that?” I asked maybe a little too eagerly.

“You could. If you had a few years to learn, meditate and practice, that is. You seem sharp enough. But let's concentrate on the important matters now. Where are we taking the prisoners?”

“Back to Yustradil”, I said. “We will ask her to guard them. Then we come back. We got their guards before they could alert their comrades. We can catch the goblins unawares and take more prisoners. This trick of yours is handy. If we took enough prisoners, we could exchange them for the dragon, and for the two Hucreles. Maybe we could even get an apple you fancy so much.”

“Meepo, my boy!” said Beldrak instead of answering. “Go ahead, and tell Yustradil what happened. We will be behind you.”

“Meepo does that, so he is”, babbled the wretched critter, then ran ahead. When it disappeared at the other end of the corridor, Beldrak stopped, and looked earnestly at me. My prisoner was awake now, straining its bounds. But we did a good job, and the creature was weak. It tried to scream, but I already stuffed a wad into its mouth.

“Do you know what a dragon is?” Beldrak asked.

“It's a large serpent I heard”, I answered “An oversized snake. Though I have never seen any in the flesh.” Jim laughed silently.

“No, not really. First of all, dragons are not just dumb critters. They are smart. Smarter than most people. They can cast spells even. Second they are not serpents at all. They are more like... flying lizards that can spout flame.”

“Or ice. Or acid. Or lightning”, took back the word Beldrak. “Point is, they are not exactly harmless. White dragons are not the strongest, but they are the most vicious. They are feral and evil. They only care about plunder and killing. And kobolds worship dragons like gods. If you bring back that dragon to them, they will help her grow, and amass a hoard. Then one day, when she will feel strong enough, Calcryx will start to hunt outside of these corridors. Oakhurst is the nearest, so it will be the first to go, but it won't be the last one. Villages or cities, no-one can be really safe from a grown chromatic dragon.”

I contemplated that for a minute.

“Are you suggesting, a regrettable incident should befall the poor beast while we free it from the goblins?”

“I certainly wouldn't shed any tears”, Beldrak shrugged.

“I would”, Jim said suddenly. “Leave Calcryx to me. The god I serve is mighty. I will make the dragon submit to him.”

Beldrak laughed incredulously. “I will believe that when I see it. But who am I to talk you out of suicide?”

We got back and gave our prisoners to the kobolds. They already had six goblin prisoners, so now we had eight chips altogether in our negotiations. Yustradil first bristled at the thought that all those prisoners might be needed to get the dragon back, but in the end it relented.

“You are a fool to think that the goblins will release Calcryx for some of their own. A dragon is worth more than any number of goblins. They don't care for their own like we do, they barely exchange their kobold prisoners with us. But if you want to try, then try.”

“Is there a goblin who speaks Common? Or are you speaking their language when you parley with them?”

“I do not speak their filthy language. One of their leaders, a woman called Glen speaks Common. You have to negotiate with her.”

“We will certainly do so”, said Beldrak. “But there is another thing too. We are worried for Meepo. In a fight, he can barely help us, and as a guide, he has already shown us everything he could. His life is precious to us, but it is not certain we could protect him.”

“That is so”, I continued gravely. “We wouldn't want to risk the life of the Keeper of the Dragon anymore. The help it, I mean he provided us was invaluable. But now, he should stay put and be ready for the moment when we return with Calcryx.”

“Be it so!” declared Yustradil. And thus, we were rid of the annoying little whimp.

 

Soon after that, we were on our way again. The disappearance of the guards was not discovered yet, and we could cross the caltrop-littered corridor without difficulty. Taking the opportunity, we cleared a path so that we could withdraw speedily if needed, and Beldrak also put away some pouches worth of caltrops for our own use.

As we slowly advanced, we heard goblins chattering behind the corner of the next corridor. They were practising with bows, and if we pressed forward, we would have entered their shooting range right at the targets. We withdrew a little to discuss our strategy.

“You should put them to sleep like those two”, I suggested.

“Sadly, I have to have a clear line of sight of the place where I cast the spell, and I am not keen on getting myself stuffed with arrows.”

“I can protect you”, I offered. “My shield is big enough. For me, my mail will be enough protection.”

“There is no need to waste magic like that”, Jim interjected. “We should just rush them, and take them prisoner. They are small and weak, and we are both in armour. I doubt they could wound us.”

“Truth to be told, I am rather tired”, admitted Beldrak “My lesser spells I can cast many times, but the stronger ones take a toll on me. If I put these three to sleep, I might not be able to use that trick anymore, not today at least. I will just use my firebolt, it will hopefully not kill my goblin, just wound him.”

So magic has its limits too. Disappointing, but also somewhat reassuring. Even the eldritch powers of this world have their constraints.

“So we do what Jim says. If we snatch these three, we will have eleven prisoners altogether.”

Jim was the first to step on the shooting range, and I was close behind it. The three goblins practising with bows were protected yet again by a barricade, but they seemed thoroughly surprised. The tiefling charged at them with an inarticulate shout, and jumped over their makeshift wall, sweeping one of the goblins from its legs, and pinning it to the ground.

I tried to do the same, but my jump was too short, and instead of bringing down a goblin, I merely shoved it. At the same time, a mote of fire hit the third goblin, and set it aflame, almost instantly burning the creature to death. Taking prisoners was going less well this time.

The enemy I failed to grapple, took a step back, tore a door open, and sprinted away, before I recovered my balance after the jump. I considered pursuing it, but just then Jim yelled in pain as the teeth of the goblin plunged into its hand, so I elected to help the tiefling instead. I kicked the beast in the head twice, then it went still.

“Let's bind up the bastard, and get the hell out of here!” wheezed Jim, its breath still unsteady from the exertion.

“One moment, my boy!” Beldrak was over the barricade too, and started to gather the bows and arrows that lay scattered on the ground.

There were two doors, one to the north, another to the west, and behind both of them came shouts, cries, and the alarming sound of nearing footsteps. I climbed back to the other side to the barricade, and Jim was already halfway back towards the corridor whence we came, but the little man was still occupied by gathering the weapons and missiles.

“Beldrak!” I shouted, but it was already too late. The doors swung open, and goblins started pouring in. I killed one with a javelin, but the others trampled over it. There was no way I could protect the little man. Beldrak was going to die before I could climb back over the barricade. The wizard would be surrounded by half a dozen goblins at least, and stabbed to death as I watched.

But the little man had nerves of steel. Instead of backing down, instead of trying to run away, he turned towards his assailants, shouted one word, while spreading out his arms. Suddenly, the confined space was filled with flames, screams and death, and the surviving goblins were running again in terror, leaving behind the charred corpses of their comrades.

“It will take some time to work up their courage again”, Beldrak said to me with perfect calmness. “So would you be so kind as to help me investigate these corpses? They might have silver on them.”

I was stunned, but I was also getting used to such surprises at last. It only took a few deep breaths for me to recover, then I climbed over the barricade again, and started to search the dead critters for coins and other valuables.

Jim meanwhile put down his prisoner, and was guarding a door that was on the western wall of the shooting range, and now ominous cries were coming from behind it.

“Someone begs us to free them!” it shouted us.

“Is the door locked?” I asked.

It tried the door handle then nodded, so I threw it a key I found on one of the goblins. It turned out to be the right one.

Inside the room, there were three prisoners, two kobolds in chains and a man in a cage. The human was even shorter than Beldrak, but lacked his thickness and muscularity.

“I am Erky Timbers, the priest of Adaron”, he said tearfully as Jim and I were dismantling the cage around him. “And I am indebted to you with my life.”

The little man couldn't walk yet, so I carried him. The two kobolds were thankfully strong enough to keep up with us as we were hurrying back. It would have made sense to press our attack right after Beldrak's fire has thrown the goblins into disarray, but by now they have surely recovered and regrouped, so the proper choice was to leave with our prisoners before a new batch of enemies showed up.

Back in the room the kobolds put at our disposal, we made ourselves comfortable and shared a meal. It was already late, two hours after sundown if my sense of time was working well.

“We did good work today”, mused Beldrak after dinner, while he stuffed and lit his horrid tobacco.

“We started to tilt the balance towards the kobolds”, I agreed, trying my best not to cough. “If we can keep up the pressure, sooner or later they will have to negotiate with us, or they will become too weak.”

“There are a lot of goblins”, said Erky gloomily.

“Were there other prisoners with you? Other humans?” I asked.

“There were some.”

“A man and a woman maybe? Two siblings called Talgen and Sharvin Hucrele?”

“They were with me, but I am afraid they are dead now. The goblins kept them in the same room where I was, and tortured them just like they tortured me”, he shivered.

“Did you see them die?”

“No. The goblins took them someplace else. I heard them chattering among themselves, they took the prisoners to someone called Belak.”

“A hobgoblin maybe”, interjected Beldrak. “Goblin tribes are usually lead by a smaller group of hobgoblins.”

“And have you heard about a dragon kept in captivity?”

“Yes! The goblins were very afraid of it, always arguing who should feed it.”

“Well, it is alive then”, sighed Beldrak.

“What do you want with the dragon?”

“We were contracted by the kobolds to free the beast and take it back to them”, I answered, leaving out minor details like that Beldrak intended to dispatch said dragon, and Jim was planning to enslave it. “But we came here for other reasons. We were looking for apples that could heal any illness, and that were rumoured to come from this place. And we are also searching for the two Hucreles I have asked about.”

“You want to free the Hucreles?” he asked.

“We will free them. As long as we don't know for sure that they are dead, I will not give up hope that we can still save them.”

The little man was pale, but determined.

“You saved me from the tortures of the goblins... and you didn't even know me like I know those I was imprisoned with. If you are going to fight the goblins tomorrow, I will go with you. I think the Hucreles are dead, but even so, I can help to avenge them.”

***

Author's note