Suddenly a mob of fifteen of them came charging down towards us, weapons out.
I was in the lead. They were coming so fast I figured I could hurdle the first line of them and sow confusion in the middle, so I jumped just as they got to me.
I damn near cracked my head open on the cavern roof, which wasn’t less than twenty feet up. I was so completely stunned that I landed like a sack of potatoes. I had to be helped up by Jodi, who had followed my example but kept her head a bit more.
I looked back; we had leapt completely over the entire troop, which was continuing on its headlong charge. Whatever they were after, it wasn’t us. “Son of a . . . How the hell did we do that?!”
“Well, isn’t it obvious, genius? That H’adamant stuff works! How else do you think I could have hauled that bloody great stone. What? Do I look like a lady weightlifter?”
The look of chagrin combined with outrage on Jodi’s face was comical, even under the circumstances. With her elegant, fine-boned features, she looks about as far removed from “lady weightlifter” as possible.
But I didn’t dare even crack a smile. “This could take some getting used to,” I said gruffly. “We’d better be careful about really pushing ourselves.”
“Wonder where those guys were going?”
I thought about it. “Only one real possibility, I’d guess: Rokhaset’s kept his word and followed our timing. They’re drawing off the Lisharithada’s forces. Who else could be down here that they’d be chasing with armed men?”
“Point. Unless they have really tough mice.”
The hallway curved around a bit farther to the right. As we rounded the corner, we could see our luck had just run out.
The next room—a pretty darn large one, decorated with flowstone and helictites in one corner—was filled with Lisharithada, all armed, ready for the Nomes to try their assault. There was no way we could cross that room without fighting. Even with the superhuman strength the H’adamant elixir seemed to have conferred on us, we couldn’t even jump halfway across, and we’d get way too close to a lot of them on the way for them to ignore it.
“This is it, Jodi.”
She took a firm grip on the handle of her weapon. “You know, we don’t actually have any proof that these are the bad guys.”
“What?”
“Rokhaset seems nice and all, but he could still be handing us a line. Or even just turning things around. His people could be the ones making the quakes, and these guys the poor schmucks he’s setting up for the fall.”
I stared at her with my mouth open for a moment. “Well, goddamn it, girl, y’all chose a hell of a time t’ come up with that theory!”
She shook her head. “I don’t really believe it myself, Clint . . . but, oy vey, we’re here about to declare war on a bunch of people we’ve never met, all on the say-so of someone we just met day before yesterday.”
I guess I wouldn’t have been so aggravated if I didn’t share her worry, somewhere deep down. We really didn’t have any proof of what Rokhaset said, and with the makatdireskovi’s demonstrated ability to interpret and help Rokhaset express our language like a native-born actor . . .
“So what th’ hell do y’all want to do? Sorry, Jodi, but—damnation! Ain’t we kind of committed now?”
We dodged a couple runners coming from the other direction. Jodi bit her lip. “I guess we are. I just . . . it hit me, when we were about to walk in and start beating up these poor schlemiels who can’t even see us.”
We’d been so focused on our dilemma that we’d only subconsciously noted the increase in the gabbling language around us. Now it reached a crescendo that broke through our indecision as, suddenly, another detachment of Lisharithada burst out of the room in front of us.
There was no chance to dodge or jump. They plowed straight into Jodi and me, knocking us down before they tumbled to the ground themselves in blinded consternation. Scrambling to my feet, I swung my steel at the next Lisharithada soldier with all my strength.