Aegwyn saw Tarmand and Galion fall into the cell door as the little green creatures pushed them in from behind. The tiny beasts giggled with an insane edge in their tone and closed the bars with a loud clang.
“Blasted goblins,” Tarmand muttered beneath his breath. He stood up and grabbed the bars. He began to shake them so hard that some of the rock crumbled down from the ceiling and fell to the floor, sending dust clouds into the cell. Tarmand grumbled and turn away from the bars.
Galion sat up and rubbed his head. He looked at Aegwyn and then rushed to her side. “Milady! Are you all right? You’re pale.”
Aegwyn looked at Galion and then Tarmand and back at Galion again. “I...I...I talked...to...a...Death Knight.”
Galion looked back at her, furrowing his brows together. “A what knight?”
“A Death Knight, that useless bag of bones.”
Galion and Aegwyn turned to Tarmand, who was looking at them with slight amusement in his face. “Bag of bones, undead idiot, lord of the pigs.” He let out a loud bitter laugh. “I don’t think he’ll be bothering us anytime soon.”
Galion looked like he was getting more confused by the moment. Aegwyn got to her feet and looked at Tarmand. “How can you be so sure?” The pain of her burning soul still stung her senses, brought back a fear she had never felt since the Daemonlord Sargeras.
Tarmand had the faintest of smiles on his face. He held up his hand towards her, palm outward. His fingers seemed to gleam a soft blue. Tiny twinkling stars floated gently towards her and touched her skin, warming her and driving away the taint of darkness she had felt before. The blue glow in his hand faded and Aegwyn looked back amazed. What were mortal men learning these days?
“The Death Knights really hate that.” He let out a bitter laugh before he turned to the cell door. Tarmand shook the bars angrily, causing more dust bits to fall from the ceiling. He growled beneath his breath and turned back towards them. “A big fat load of shit that’ll do us.”
“Would you mind moving?”
Tarmand looked at Galion, the elven ranger, who pushed the Paladin aside. “I didn’t have time to do this before, but now is the perfect opportunity to try.”
“What are you talking about, pointy ears?”
Galion pulled out a long wiry piece of metal. He smiled at the both of them and then knelt down. He inserted a long piece of wire into the key hole. He fiddled around with the lock, pulling, pushing, and twisting his wire until they heard a soft click. Galion pulled the bar doors open and then turned towards them. “I picked that up in Kul Tiras.”
Tarmand grunted and folded his arms. “Not bad, pointy ears. But how do you propose to get out without the goblin guards seeing us?”
Goblins. So that’s what those little things were!
Galion suddenly paused. He looked at Aegwyn and then Tarmand. He shrugged his shoulders. “I’m open to suggestions.”
Tarmand grunted at Galion before he walked cautiously out into the corridor. He looked left and then right, and then turned towards them. “We might as well try, nothing to lose, everything to gain. I just wish they hadn’t taken my sword.”
Galion and Aegwyn looked at each other. The Paladin had already started heading leftwards down the tunnel. Aegwyn was the next to follow him and then the elven ranger last
.
The tunnel sloped downwards, deeper into the heart of the mountain. The passages twisted and turned, forks and well used highways were all the options they encountered. Tarmand kept avoiding the places where the stone was worn away by the walking of feet. Their footsteps were quiet as they continued to go down, down, down.
The dripping of water surrounded her as she went down into the depths. She could hear a loud trickle and sometimes the water came so slowly that she only heard a single drop fall to the cavern floor.
Her ears twitched as she heard the sound of bells in the distance. The clanging was startled her, she was used to the quietness of the tunnels.
“Well, now they know we’ve escaped,” Tarmand said beneath his breath. He motioned for them to continue. The Paladin’s pace was noticeably quicker.
Behind them she could hear the chatter of the goblins. Tarmand started running and soon all of them were heading downwards, trying to keep their balance as the pathway grew steeper. The clanging and clinking of spears and chain mail behind her filled her with a dread she had felt only moments before.
Darkness pervaded her abruptly, filling her senses before she could even try to defend herself. Aegwyn lost her step and tumbled down the tunnel floor. She came to a stop as the stone hallway leveled off, right at the feet of a Death Knight.
Aegwyn gasped and stood upwards. She looked back to see Tarmand and Galion, their shadows cast long across the hallway. The light of torches behind the two could be seen. The noise of the goblins was louder than before.
The Death Knight looked at all three of them. Its glowing eyes looked at Aegwyn from feet to head and back again. It almost seemed to hiss beneath its breath.
Galion and Tarmand stopped suddenly when they saw the Death Knight in front of them. Tarmand reached at his hip for a sword that wasn’t there and Galion put his hand behind his back, as if he were trying to find his bow.
The Death Knight looked at all three of them. The sound of goblins seemed to get louder and louder behind them. Trapped between a rock and a hard place! What was she going to do?
The undead creature seemed to let out a heavy sigh. It gestured for them to follow it and then turned with a swirl of its worn cloak. The Death Knight fled down the left side of the fork.
Galion and Aegwyn looked at Tarmand, unsure how to proceed. The Paladin looked over his shoulder towards the approaching goblins. “Out of the frying pan...” he muttered, and then he went chasing after the Death Knight.
Aegwyn, Galion, and Tarmand tried to catch up to the foul beast. But every corner they turned, they were only able to catch the very corner of its sun bleached cloak. The Death Knight seemed a step ahead of them, yet they never seemed to lose him in the maze of the tunnels.
“Let’s go lads! I feel goblins!”
Aegwyn stopped, only to be pulled forward by Galion, who grabbed her wrist. She could hear the faint accent of dwarves ahead! She had conversed with one of their kings a long time back. She suddenly remembered the grand banquet she had with the King of Khaz Modan. Was he still alive? She wasn’t sure.
The Death Knight’s cloak fringes kept leading them onward through the tunnels. The sound of the dwarves ahead grew louder at the same pace as the goblins behind them. The corner of the Death Knight’s mantle turned leftward, towards torch-light. The dwarves were going to have quite a surprise to find a skeleton standing before them!
When Aegwyn, Galion, and Tarmand turned the corner, they came to a large group of waist high men. Their long beards reached down to their knobby knees. Their faces were worn through the many days and nights of tunneling through the mountain heart.
“Aaach! What ‘ave we ‘ere?”
“No time! There are goblins behind us!”
“Goblin’s!” they all said at once. The dwarves seemed to pull knives, swords, and hammers out of no where. “I’ll deal with the strangers, the rest of you prepare for battle!”
The dwarves raised their weapons and let out a war cry. The loud chanting continued as the dwarves swarmed past the three and collided with the goblins, who were surprised by the sudden army of dwarven kind.
A strangely large dwarf with a deep iron gray beard waved his hand towards them. “This way, hurry up!” He pointed his torch down the passageway and then fled, his short legs carrying him forward.
Aegwyn, Galion, and Tarmand followed the dwarf, deeper into the depths of the Red Ridge Mountains as the clashing sounds of battle and pain grew fainter and fainter behind them.
