Free Dwarven Ruby by Richard S. Tuttle Page B

the necklace. Goodness it is good to see you. How is Arik?”
    “There will be time for that later,” Master Khatama said impatiently. “To the garden, now.”
    Lara nodded and pointed to the other adjacent room. Tedi gripped his staff and dashed through the doorway. Boris followed Tedi and moved towards a door on the outside wall of the palace. He eased it open a crack and stood there watching. The rest of the party gathered around him.
    “What are we waiting for?” Tedi asked. “We do not have much time.”
    “Patience,” smiled Boris. “The Lanoirians have yet another surprise heading their way. It will give us the confusion that we so sorely need right now.”
    Boris leaned out of the door and gazed towards the front entrance of the palace grounds. He smiled when he saw a rat scurry through a hole in the wall. Within seconds rats began pouring through small holes and cracks in the wall. He could hear shouts of alarm from the front of the palace and screams echoing through some of the windows. Boris nodded and flicked his wrist. A dense cloud of mist appeared at the bottom of the stairs before him. As he held his arm out, the mist grew swiftly into a huge fogbank. When he could no longer see anything, including the stairs before him, Boris stepped through the door.
    “There are twenty-six steps before you,” Boris called to the others. “Take them slowly so that you do not go lame on me. As you get to the bottom, take the hand of the person before you. Tedi, come first. Bin-lu, you will be last. Let’s go.”
    “How can you see in this fog?” asked Tedi as he reached out took Master Khatama’s hand at the bottom of the stairs.
    “I cannot,” answered Boris. “I memorized the path to the outer wall while I waited for the rats to arrive.”
    “Rats?” asked Tedi. “What rats?”
    “Niki has sent thousands and thousands of rats to invade the palace,” chuckled Boris. “It will create so much confusion that we shall be lost in the turmoil. I suspect that the Emperor will demand immediate action to clear the rats out of his palace. The only soldiers we should have to worry about will be the ones already trying to get into the room we just left. I wonder if they have memorized the path through this garden?”
    “We are all here,” called Bin-lu from the back of the line.
    “Good,” smiled Boris. “Walk slowly and quietly. I shall lead us to the wall. Keep holding hands.”
    Within minutes Boris had reached the outside wall of the palace grounds. He heard the shouts of soldiers who had entered the garden, but they sounded distant in the dense fog. He gathered the group around him.
    “Now what?” asked Tedi. “I can hear the soldiers following us and we are up against the wall. They may not have memorized the garden paths, but they will find us soon.”
    “No, Tedi,” chuckled Boris. “What they will eventually find is a large hole in their wall. Use your staff, lad. Make it a good whack.”
    Tedi nodded unseen by the others and separated from the group. He set his feet apart and swung his staff at the wall with all of his might. He heard a loud resounding crack and then the stones of the wall collapsed. Tedi leaped back as the wall tumbled down.
    “Watch you step,” Boris warned as he led the small group towards the hole in the wall. “Tedi, you go through first. There may be soldiers on the other side. Bin-lu, you watch our rear. This is going to be the dangerous part. Getting to the wagon was the only part I could not plan well for.”
    Tedi leaped through the hole in the wall and scanned the street. The only figures visible were distant, and they were running away from the palace. He shook his head as he saw a black wave flow across the street in the distance. As he focused more keenly, he realized that the wave was a massive group of rats heading for the palace.
    “We are all through,” Bin-lu called softly as the fog began to seep out through the hole in the wall.
    “Let us move along