He turned and bounded back down into the street.
“Looking for something?” Boreas asked.
“A place where we can hole up and rest if we have to. These places are all death-traps, though. Too easy to bottle us up in one of them. And we can’t hide if the wolves are tracking our scent.”
The warrior nodded his understanding.
“What are we going to do then?” Sasha asked. “Keep walking until we drop.”
“Can you think of a better plan,” Kormak said. “You’re supposed to be our guide.”
“No,” she said. There was a grim set to her jaw. “Our best bet is to push on until we hit the ramps and drop down a few levels. We might be able to lose them that way.”
She did not sound hopeful. Howling sounded in the distance reverberating through the Underhalls.
“I think they found another way across,” she said. “Not that they needed to. We’re not holding the bridge anymore.”
“Have you ever seen so many goblins in Khazduroth before?” Karnea asked. “If I had known it would be like this, I would not have come here.”
Sasha shook her head. “Never seen more than a dozen at any one time until recently.”
Karnea frowned. “Where have they all come from? And why now?”
“Graghur is an Old One,” said Kormak. “And the Great Comet is in the sky. Perhaps he has a plan. Perhaps he wishes to make Khazduroth his citadel and is gathering his people here.”
“We can talk about this while we run,” said Boreas. “I am keen to put some distance between us and those wolves while we still can.”
Desperately they raced on. The howling came from every direction of the compass now. “Looks like they are throwing a net around us,” said Sasha. “They are making sure we cannot escape. The only direction we can go is down.”
“Let’s hope they are not waiting for us at these ramps of yours,” said Kormak.
“You’re not cheering me up,” Sasha said.
Ahead of them a monstrous flight of stairs descended into the darkness. There were two sets of steps, one on each side of a ramp wide enough to drive two chariots abreast on. Each step was marked with dwarf runes. Every twelve steps was a short landing. In every landing was a statue, uncannily realistic. All of them depicted either an Old One or a dwarf.
Kormak took the opportunity to study the Khazduri. They were shorter than men to judge by how their statues scaled against those of the Old Ones. The dwarves’ most conspicuous feature was their beards. They were long and often depicted in oddest positions, curving upwards in a serpent-like fashion as if caught by a gust of wind, or defying gravity. The hair of the females flowed in a similar way. The dwarves’ eyes were bigger than humans and their ears were pointed. Their mouths too were larger, thick-lipped beneath small snub noses in the case of women, and giant mole-like snouts in the case of men. There was something about the dwarves that reminded Kormak of the Ghul of Tanyth. Perhaps they came from the same stock, modified in a different way by the sorcery of the Old Ones.
The women were mostly robed, the males were mostly armoured, save for a few who held scrolls and appeared to be on the verge of making speeches.
The stairs ran down a long way, and the path was perfectly straight. They had barely reached the bottom when a chorus of howls broke out from the top. Glancing back Kormak saw a pack of wolves and riders massing at the top of the stairs. There were scores of them, too many to fight, and they were getting ready to charge.
Kormak considered making a stand but it seemed hopeless. Sasha had already broken into a run and was heading out of sight. Boreas and Karnea were following her. The goblin leader was addressing his troops. Kormak left him to it and raced after the rest.
Bones were scattered around the place. They crunched under his boots or skittered away at the passage of his flying feet. Most were goblin-sized but there were skeletons of wolves and larger creatures that were definitely not goblins. The bones were crushed and splintered. There were fewer skulls than he would have expected.
The howling behind him drove him on. He risked a glance over his shoulder. The wolves and their riders had stopped at the foot of the stairs. The wolves bayed with hunger and wrath, the goblins brandished their weapons and chittered threats. None of them made any move further.
Up ahead, Sasha and the others had halted. A few goblins lobbed futile missiles in their direction but none of them made any attempt to come any further.
“They’ve stopped,” said Karnea. A frown furrowed her brow.
“They almost had us,” said Sasha. “Why did they quit now?”
“Maybe they are afraid of something,” said Boreas.