He’d no sooner spoken than they heard a squeal as of metal, and the square began
descending slowly.
‘We’re in luck!’ Smhee said. ‘Unless they’re sending down men to see what’s
happened to the wheels.’
They retreated through the door at the other end. Here they waited with their
blades ready. Smhee kept the door open a crack.
‘There are only two. Both are carrying bags and one has a haunch of meat.
They’re going to feed the bears and the spiders!’
Masha wondered how the men intended to get past the bears to the arachnids. But
maybe the bears attacked only strangers.
‘One man has a torch,’ he said.
The door swung open, and a Raggah wearing a red-and-black striped robe stepped
through. Smhee drove his dagger into the man’s throat. Masha came out from
behind the door and thrust her sword through the other man’s neck.
After dragging the bodies into the room, they took off the robes and put them
on.
‘It’s too big for me,’ she said. ‘I look ridiculous.’
‘Cut off the bottom,’ he said, but she had already started doing that.
‘What about the blood on the robes?’
‘We could wash it out, but then we’d look strange with dripping robes. We’ll
just have to take a chance.’
They left the bodies lying on the floor and went back to the lift. This was an
open-sided cage built of light (and expensive) imported bamboo. The top was
closed, but it had a” trap door. A rope descended through it.
They looked up but could see no one looking down.
Smhee pulled on the rope, and a bell clanged. No one was summoned by it, though.
‘Whoever pulls this up is gone. No doubt he, or they, are not expecting the two