Bernt activated his thornskin amulet as something rge and furry bowled into him, pinning him to the ground us bulk. They hadn’t made it to the brea time, and now the enemy was iunnels. Kustov shouted something, but Bernt didn’t uand him. He was distracted by the massive creature digging its cws into his chest.

  It didn’t hurt very much, thanks to his protective charm, but he couldn’t move.

  He squirmed, only realizing a sed ter that this was the exact kind of situation that he had an ented belt for. With an effort of will and a little poke of unshaped mana, he activated the infused leather.

  For a moment, he thought that nothing had happened. Something big and smelly was still pinning him down, and his boill creaked uhe pressure. Frustrated, he flexed and pushed up against it as hard as he could. With an odd, low squeak of surprise, the huge creature rose into the air and rolled off to the side, nding awkwardly on its fnk. It didn’t feel any lighter as he lifted it, but when he pushed, it had moved.

  His assaint was a gigantic mole, or something like it, with huge digging cws and a creepy, star-shaped nose. Not a demon as far as Bernt could tell – just a regur animal, if unnaturally rge. Behind it, though, he could hear the familiar sibint and guttural tones of the duergar nguage as someone cursed.

  A shadow fell over Bernt, and he saear sink deep into the creature’s side as it scrabbled at nothing, followed by two more a momehere was a booming noise, followed by shouts and several smaller sounds of impact up ahead.

  Still a bit dazed, he looked up to find Nirlig, oerceptiooday, him a hand up. He took it and got to his feet.

  “Dibs on the hide!” the goblin called with a grin before squeezing past the still-twitg body to join the fight beyond.

  Bernt blinked, shook his head and looked around for his staff. It y several paces back, where it had flown when he was hit. He picked it up and followed.

  By the time he reached the real fight, it was already over. Kustov had dropped the ceiling down on the party of duergar adventurers, killing several and injuring the rest long enough for the other underkeepers to take them out. They hadn’t e away unscathed, though. One of the dwarves had been some kind of marksman with a specialized on that fired small metal bolts at an ie and with incredible force. Two underkeepers were dead, three were seriously injured and Kustov himself had a bolt in his guts that had puraight through his armored robe and skewered him.

  The entire frontation had takehan ten seds, but it was still one of the worst breaches they’d had sihe start of hostilities. And all because they’d thought t a mole. Bernt wasn’t sure how quickly the thing could dig, but it had to be extraordinarily fast if it could get around the army’s lines and past their wards so quickly that they hadn’t mao reach the right spot in time to do something before they broke through.

  Josie, who hadn’t mao tribute anything more tha to the fight, dug out one of her own standard-quality healing potions for Kustov. A minor potion would fix the damage, sure, but it would take at least a day, and it didn’t pletely elimihe risk of iion with a gut wound.

  By the time they got back to headquarters, the stoneweaver was doing much better, though his mood had turned dour. They hadn’t lost anyone sihe first few days of the siege, and never under Kustov's and. He went to give his report while the rest of the team settled down in the break room to lick their wounds. The pce was mostly empty except for Torvald, who sat off to one side with Fiora. The older oi an open page in a book.

  “I think you’re taking this a bit too literally,” she expined as they began to pour into the room. “Ruzinia doesn’t require you to literally enjoy suffering or sacrifig yourself for others – it’s more about yeneral attitude or mi. How do I put it?” She scratched at her graying hair and leaned ba her chair. “I mean, her padins are supposed to be the sort of people who are happy that they made it in time so that someone else didn’t have to. It’s not about the suffering, it’s about saving people.”

  Bernt shook his head at the odd discussion. He hadn’t realized that Fiora knew anything about theology. There was no reason that a mage couldn’t be religious, he just hadn’t really sidered it.

  He looked around the room, trying to collect himself. It seemed wrong to just sit down and wait for the incursion, but that was the assig. He’d barely knowwo guards who died, but it felt wrong to just... go on with his day as usual. Was that really what they were supposed to do?

  Shaking his head to clear it, he headed over to the small kit to heat up some water. Somebody would be along soon to start distributing tea. It was something to do.

  He filled the sto and turo dig around for some of Lin’s herbal tea mixture, only to find Josie holding it out o him and leaning against the ter. She’d followed him. They’d grown a lot more fortable with each other over the past month of w together, but he wouldn’t go so far as to call her a friend.

  “What’s up?” he asked, accepting the tea and casting a quick trip to boil the water.

  “Do you think they’re testing us?” She shook her head, staring over. “I mean, do you think they’re just testing our defeo see what’ll work to get through in a real assault? They’ve been at it for weeks already.”

  Bernt shrugged unfortably. “Yeah. I mean. That party today almost made it, and all because they had a giant mole. If they had a hundred of those, I don’t knoe’d stop them. We don't have enough people to stop ten simultaneous breaches, never mind what that would cause. It would be a disaster.”

  “Right.” Josie nodded. “But how will they know? I mean, if nobody ever survives to tell them what worked, how they know which strategies are the best?”

  “That’s the point, isn’t it?” Bernt replied, ting in his head to make sure the tea steeped the right amount of time. “As long as we keep killing all of the ones who get through the lihey’ll have to keep trying.”

  “You're not thinking it through.” Josie said. “Did Jori tell you about the party we helped Dayle intercept yesterday? With the other imp?”

  Bernt nodded. He’d heard about it, though Jori had been light oails. She didn’t seem in much of a mood to talk st night.

  “Well, that imp is going to be able to report what it saw when it reforms ba the hells, won’t it? It’ll be able to tell them that they got through, and about Jori, me and Dayle – probably Lin and Rioo.”

  “Right.” Bernt said slowly. “Yeah, that’s not great. But that still only gives them useful information for parties that have demons in them, and only those that live long enough to see anything. We stop most of them before they even breato the tunnels.”

  “I wouldn’t be so sure about that,” she said quietly. “It probably helps, but there are shades in this city, and other incorporeal demons. I’ve seen a few on the surface, and I think it would be very optimistic to assume that they’re not down here, too. They’re almost certainly getting more information than anybody thinks.”

  "Did you tell Ed?" Bernt cursed as he realized the implications of what she'd just said. “That’s not something we just ignore. If that’s what they’re doing, they actually might e tunneling in with a bunch of these mole things. Or some adaptation of everything they've tried so far, most likely. They know far more about us than we do about them.”

  Josie grimaced. “That’s what I was worried about. The solicitors are doing something about the demons, but I don’t think they’re cooperating with the city’s defenders, and we’re not prepared at all to handle a rger attack if they actually had a way to get past General Arice.”

  Bernt picked up the pot, and began p tea into cups. “We’ll take it to Ed at the end of our shift. I doubt he’s going to take this lightly after what happeoday.”

  –-------

  “How many have you seely?” Ed asked, sitting ba his chair. “We know there are spies iy – Radast has been warning about them for some time, as well as the problem with the demons. So far, there haven’t been any indications that they’ve been able to learn very much about what happeo their incursion parties, though. It’s one of the reasons we’re so careful to wipe them out before they get into the tunnels.”

  “Three in the past few days,” Josie said, shrugging. “But that doesn’t mean very much. Jori told me she’s been sensing things out there as well. Incorporeal demons are sneaky. If they see me ing, they just step through a wall or something – my senses don’t gh obstrus. For all I know, they drop down into the street. I imagine dowhey could probably just ceal themselves iunnel walls. We’d never see them.”

  Bernt cleared his throat. “I think it could be a problem. The general is making a mistake, only fighting defensively, right? If he thinks the enemy isn’t getting very mutelligence, he might just be hoping that they run out of low-ranked adventurers dumb enough to try these probing attacks.”

  “Nah, that’s not it,” Ed said. “The general’s been wanting to go on the offensive since all this started. My guess is that he got orders from the king, and he’s been too worried about his reputation at court to take the initiative.”

  Bernt scowled. "That’s crazy! Doesn’t he know he’s risking aire city full of people?”

  Ed rolled his eyes. “Don’t be dramatic. Attag means risking aire army of soldiers as well. And if he lost, the city would fall right afterward. Being a general isn’t a simple job. He has to weigh the risks to everyone involved. The smart py in most sieges is just to hold out until help arrives.”

  “And is help ing?” Josie asked, raising an eyebrow. “I haven’t heard anything. The rumors say that Yetin’s Harbor is being attacked as well, and nobody mentioned any relief forces anywhere.”

  Ed grimaced. “No. There have been raids on all four major Beseri cities from below, though we’re the only ohat have duergar knog on our front gates, too. Teres also lost tact with the garrison at Rimehorn Pass st week, which leaves the kingdom’s northeastern border exposed to invasion by the orcs. We’re not at war with them, but they’re ly famous fn opportunities like that. Worse, none of the diviners saw anything leading up to the attacks, which sounds like they've been actively interfering with their work for quite a while now. They could just be trying to draw forces away from us here, or maybe they're w with the orcs. Or, of course, the orcs just happeo indepely think this year would be a fun time to test our borders. That would make it airely separate disaster – there’s just no way to tell. Whatever the case, nobody is ing to save us any time soon.”

  Bernt blinked, stu just how bad the situation really was. Josie just nodded, as if she’d expected nothing less.

  “I expect you to keep this quiet.” Ed added, eyeing them sternly. “We don’t his getting out to the public. Beseri armies have faced aen more dangerous and more founding oppos than this. I’ll take my s to t Narald and see if we ’t get the general to adopt a mgressive posture.”

  Scowling to himself pensively, he began stuffing his pipe. He heaved himself up and paced for a moment as he lit it and, as the room began to grow hazy, he turned back to them.

  “Check to see if Kustov is still here before you go. I’ve got a project for him to manage, and maybe Janus from the adventurers, if we get a hold of him. A specialized abjurer would go a long way.”