IM AN ORC?

He intended to give them one.

Pik led them into the lower tunnels with a lamp that shook in his hand.

The passage dropped steeply beneath the quarry ridge. Heat gathered as they went down, first as a faint warmth in the stone, then as a dry furnace breath that carried the smell of metal and sulfur. The Ember Warrens were not close yet, but their influence had reached beneath Black Tusk territory. Old volcanic veins ran through this ground, and the Court had found them.

Keth walked beside Pik without speaking.

The young kobold glanced at him more than once, as if waiting for anger. Keth gave him none. The older scaled warrior kept his eyes on the tunnel ahead, his freed wrists held loose at his sides.

"How many guards at the forge?" Nym asked.

Pik swallowed. "Court people? Six, maybe eight. Miners? More. But they do not all carry batons. Some just work."

"And your family?"

"Mother and sister. They sort metal near the hot pits. If we make them think the Court is winning, they will be moved deeper."

Nym nodded once. "Then the Court does not think it is winning."

The tunnel opened onto a ledge above the forge.

Ruk saw the entire operation below.

A natural cavern had been cut wider by tools and heat. Red light rose from cracks in the floor where volcanic warmth pressed through the stone. Wooden platforms crossed the cavern at different heights. Kobolds and scaled workers moved ore carts along narrow rails, loading dark chunks of hollow-metal into small furnaces ringed with black anchor fragments.

At the center stood a cage.

It was larger than the one at Orrin's Ford. Twelve people were inside: kobolds, humans, two orcs, and one woman with goatlike horns and furred ears. Wires ran from the cage through the floor toward the furnaces. Every time a hammer struck metal below, the cage flashed with pale light.

"They are using the forge sound," Zree whispered. "Hammering the false note into the metal."

Ruk felt it too. Each impact sent a wrong vibration through the chamber, shaping the anchor pieces before they cooled.

At the far end of the cavern, a woman in a charcoal coat watched from a raised platform. She was not Halven. Her hair was shaved on one side, her remaining braid threaded with dark metal beads. A long iron staff rested across her shoulders.

Keth's claws scraped the ledge.

"Forge-master Drae," he said. "She used to lead one of the deep clans. The Court gave her power when the old chiefs would not listen."

"Does she have family in the forge?" Ruk asked.

Keth's eyes hardened. "Everyone does."

Ruk studied the platforms. Direct assault would put the cage in danger. The workers were scattered. The furnaces were close to the volatile stone cracks. A wild fight could turn the entire cavern into a tomb.

Nym read the same problem. "We take the staff. It is the control point. Drae commands the batons and the cage."

"Sorn and I take the platform," Ruk said. "Nym, you cut the cage lines when Zree tells you. Zira stays with the prisoners. Grasha and Karg take the left work line, but no heavy strikes near the furnaces. Keth and Pik call to the miners before we hit them. Give them a way out."

Pik looked down at the cavern. His family was somewhere below, small shapes in soot-stained clothes.

"What if they do not listen?"

"Then they will hear the Court fall," Ruk answered.

They moved.

Sorn went first, sliding down a support rope toward Drae's platform. Ruk followed a moment later, dropping to a lower beam and crossing above the furnace smoke. The heat rose around him, sharp enough to burn the back of his throat.

Below, Keth stepped into the light.

"Kobolds of the lower forge!" he shouted.

The hammers stopped one by one.

Drae turned her head.

Keth raised his freed wrists. "The Court chained me. It will chain all of you. Put down the batons. Take your families and move to the east tunnel."

For a breath, no one moved.

Then a black baton struck Keth in the ribs.

A Court overseer had come from behind an ore cart. The pale energy in the weapon sent Keth to one knee. Pik screamed and ran toward him.

The cavern erupted.

Grasha hit the ground near the left work line and swept the overseer's legs from under him with her axe haft. Karg caught the baton as it fell and crushed it beneath her boot. Pale energy flared around the broken pieces, then died.

Workers scattered. Some ran for the east tunnel. Some grabbed tools. Two kobold guards raised batons toward Grasha, but Pik stepped between them.

"My mother is here!" he yelled. "Your families are here! Stop fighting for them!"

The words broke something open.

One guard dropped his baton.

The other did not. He lunged for Pik.

Keth caught him by the shoulder, spun him, and held him against the ore cart without striking. "Look at me," Keth growled. "You think Drae will save your family when she is done with us?"

The guard's weapon fell from his hand.

Above them, Drae slammed the butt of her staff against the platform.

The cage flashed.

Every prisoner inside cried out. The furnace flames turned pale. Black wires rose from the floor and wrapped around the cage bars.

"You are too late," Drae called. Her voice carried over the panic without strain. "The metal is already shaped. The listening engine is nearly complete."

Ruk landed on the platform in front of her.

She smiled as if she had expected him.

"Boundary keeper," she said. "I wondered whether you would be an orc, a king, or a fool. It appears you are all three."

"Open the cage," Ruk replied.

"No."

Sorn appeared behind her. His blade went to her throat.

Drae did not flinch. Instead, she lifted one finger.

A hidden line snapped beneath the platform.

The cage began to descend into the furnace pit.

Nym was already moving across a suspended chain, racing toward the cage. Zira reached the prisoners first from the ground, hands glowing as she tried to hold the black wires away from their throats.

Ruk moved toward Drae.

Her iron staff came down. It struck the platform and sent a false pulse through the metal supports. The beam beneath Ruk's feet split.

He jumped aside as the platform collapsed between them.

Drae used the falling gap to retreat toward the far tunnel.

Ruk could chase her.

Below, the cage was dropping toward the pale furnace fire.

He chose the cage.

He jumped from the breaking platform, caught the cage chain with one hand, and felt the heat rise beneath his boots.

The listening engine was pulling the prisoners downward.

The forge had become another wound.