"Unbind his hands and remove his gag," Leda said to Gord. As he began to do this, she addressed the pitiful little figure again. "Now I am going to ask you questions too, and this time I will hear no lies."
The pale little man had grown paler still – or so it seemed to Gord, who had watched the whole episode with a mixture of fascination and horror. Never had he seen an execution performed in such cold-blooded fashion.
However, as he observed in the next few minutes, the tactic seemed to have the intended effect upon the second pygmy. The little man signed and gestured freely and frantically once his hands were unbound, occasionally using his voice if commanded by Leda to do so, and when the interrogation session was over the dark elf appeared satisfied.
"Bind and gag him again, Gord," she commanded. When that was done, she spoke again. This one is far wiser than his dead comrade," she said with a small smile of triumph, "but he is still a comrade nonetheless." With that, she made the same gestures and sounds as before, then reached out and gripped his skull with one hand. The second pygmy died as the first one had, quickly but awfully.
Leda turned back to Gord, who made no attempt to hide the revulsion on his face. He thought he detected an evil gleam in her eyes, but perhaps it was just the way the reddish light struck them. Tuck this one away in the same chamber he was before and meet me back here," she said coldly. He hoisted up the body and set off, somewhat in shock over what he had just witnessed. By the time he met Leda back on the stairway, the dark elf had disposed of the other corpse somewhere else.
"How could you murder those captives like that, girl? That was a very wicked thing you did," Gord accused.
Leda was anything but remorseful. "Really?" she said caustically. "Do you think so? Better, I suppose, to let them live and eventually escape their bonds. Then they and their lot could harry and hunt us through the city, capture us, enslave me in one of their filthy brothels, and use you as a beast of burden. Of course, sooner or later we would win release – by being butchered and served for supper when we were no longer useful other than as food. You soft fool!
"And besides all that, it is quite possible that these midges would learn or guess why we were here and take their precious relic elsewhere. Bad enough that it should fall into Eclavdra's clutches, and worse still if the pile of dung, Obmi, should gain the Final Key – but something even more awful could occur."
Even though her entire rebuttal was delivered in a voice just above a whisper, Gord was thoroughly humbled by the acidity of her words and the soundness of her logic. He felt that he had been stupid and judgmental, and was ashamed of what he had thought of her. As he finished turning all of this over in his mind, he realized that she had paused for a reaction or response from him. "What worse could occur, Leda?" he ventured softly.
The pygmies could realize what they really possess in their temple," she explained, calmer now, and speaking as if to a naughty pupil. These degenerate little ones are the kin of men above. If they understood the nature of the Final Key, and what they could gain, our little pygmy friends would carry it off to give to their own."
"Who are their kin?"
The masters of the Scarlet Brotherhood, of course. Those devil-lovers disdain these degenerates, but they would grant them much in return for what the albino scum possess, for then those red-clad plotters would surely be able to unite all portions of the artifact, and… he… would awaken."
"I am sorry, Leda, for what I said to you – and more sorry still for what I thought."
"No matter, Gord. Time enough later for such talk, if we succeed. I learned much from that second minimus. Held on the floor below are many slaves. If we slip down and free them, these men will run amok and cause great trouble for their masters. Then, in the confusion, we will be free to seek out the temple."
Before they crept down the stairs to the slave barracks, Leda explained more of what she had discovered and formulated a plan of action for them. There were several other buildings used as slave quarters nearby. They would assist the captives on the floor beneath them, and then tell them how to go to release their fellows. The slaves were nearly all human and had little vision in the dim red light here, but they could be effective in numbers, and the few with elven blood among them could see in the darkness and serve as the leaders.
"On the other side of the riverbed is a museum," she said, "almost a holy place in itself to these lost degenerates. If the freed slaves can gain that place, they can arm themselves with man-sized weapons left from ancient times. That will encourage the men and enrage the albinos. In the chaos which follows, you and I will cross the riverbed farther up and find the temple of the albinos. It is made of snowy marble and gold, the only structure of its sort. We cannot miss it, I am sure."
"What about a weapon for me? I think I'll be needing a good sword before long, Leda. These toothpicks are better than nothing," he said, indicating the pygmy weapons he had claimed, "but they will not serve me well against the likes of Eclavdra or Obmi."
She nodded in vigorous agreement to that. "The old stuff which the slaves will gain – if luck is with us and them – will never suit your needs, Gord. But the second little lout told me something else of interest. These pale ones trade with others in the Sunless Realm. Over the years they have accumulated a storehouse of materials which are useless to them, for it is sized to large men, not runts such as these grubs are. You will surely find a good blade there, and with it an even better one can be gained."
"How so?"
"In their temple there are other objects of veneration. The arms and armor of their long-dead sovereigns are enshrined there, as well as who can guess what other things from the glory days of their empire. Could their ancestors but see these puny descendants now," the dark elf spat, "they would squash them in disgust like so many bugs!"
That ended Leda's briefing of Gord, so now the two proceeded cautiously down the stairs. A pair of drowsy guards flanking an open doorway proved no opposition at all, and once they were inside the slave quarters Gord used his enchanted, metal-slicing dagger to quickly and quietly cleave through the locks that held the two dozen humans, half-elves, and elves in chains. Despite the poor physical condition of most of them, the slaves were alert and smart. They had enough sense to make no outcry at their deliverance, realizing they were far from safe yet, and they got rid of their chains quickly and silently when they were cut free.
After he freed them, Gord wordlessly offered the slaves the four weapons that were immediately available – the two swords from the dead guards and the pair of little blades that Gord decided they could use better than he.
Gord and Leda led the way to the lower floor, finding a roomful of about a dozen sleeping pygmies. They entered the chamber, accompanied by four members of those few among the slaves who could see in the dark and move soundlessly as well. Dividing up the quarry to two pygmies apiece, this group slaughtered all the albinos without waking a single one.
Where they had been grateful but still grim moments earlier, the slaves were now ebullient and determined. They had gleaned nearly twenty more pygmy-sized weapons from the assault just completed on the sleeping quarters, enough to virtually arm every man in the band.
After allowing them a couple of minutes for a subdued celebration of their freedom, Leda spoke to the ex-slaves solemnly, pointing out that they had much work to do if they hoped to survive and return to the world above. The dark elf told the others that they must arrange themselves to be led by those who could see in the dark and gave them all information on where the other slave barracks were nearby, how to use the upper walkways to gain these places, and where an arsenal was located across the dry river course. Then Gord and Leda bade them all good luck.