Temple Hill - Drew Karpyshyn [84]
Corin had suspected as much. The Cult of the Dragon wanted their package back, and the warrior knew the lizard worshipers would consider him very expendable. Likely they wanted him to draw attention away from their own efforts to infiltrate Xiliath's hideout. But he didn't tell any of this to Fendel. There was no point.
"Going down into the smugglers' tunnels is virtually a suicide mission," Fendel continued. "But I may have a solution. Here, Fll show you."
Leaving Corin's map spread out across his workbench, Fendel rummaged around his workshop before returning with several scroll tubes. He proceeded to remove the documents inside and unroll them. "Hmmm… Not this one. Hang on… nope. Ah… here it is."
He laid his own version of the map out on the table, side by side with Azlar's. To Corin's curious glance, they appeared almost identical-a dizzying picture of meandering routes crossing over, under, and through each other.
"How did you get this?" the warrior asked in amazement, staring at what appeared to be two copies of the entire legendary smugglers' system.
"I wasn't always in the service of the Wonderbringer," the gnome answered. "The tunnels were an easy way to move about the city without being seen, and a good place to hide out. I spent enough time down there in my day, I decided I might as well map them out to pass the time."
"You were a thief," Corin said as the realization slowly dawned. "A burglar. Like Lhasha."
"Who do you think got her into the business?" the gnome replied, slightly amused by Corin's reaction. Tm surprised Lhasha never mentioned it, but I guess you aren't one for small talk."
True enough, Corin thought.
"Of course, things were different back then," the gnome continued. "Elversult was a savage, violent city before Yanseldara took over. Didn't have to worry about the Maces, but there was always another thief around the corner looking to slit your throat and take what you worked so hard to steal."
"But you said traveling the tunnels was a suicide mission," Corin pointed out, bringing the gnome back to the topic at hand. "How did you survive them?"
"I didn't go through the tunnels, I went under them."
Seeing Corin's confusion, the gnome clarified. "Everyone knows about the tunnels beneath the city. What most people don't know is that there is another network of passages below the original smugglers' tunnels-the sub-tunnels, if you will."
Corin was skeptical, but the gnome continued his explanation.
"It was only a matter of time, really. The smugglers came to realize that avoiding the Elversult authorities was easy, but avoiding each other was much tougher. The tunnels were full of guards, traps, monsters-you name it. And everyone wanted a piece of everyone else's action.
"So some of the more resourceful smugglers decided they'd build themselves another set of passages they could use to move quickly and safely between important areas, like Xiliath's storage cavern on your map. And of course, they were careful to make sure very few people would ever know of the new passages' existence. You could say they're the smugglers' tunnels of the smugglers' tunnels. But that's quite a mouthful, so I just call them the sub-tunnels."
"You've been in these sub-tunnels?" Corin asked, the excitement obvious in his voice.
Fendel nodded.
"Then you can tell me how to use them to find Lhasha!"
"Tell you? I'll show you. Did you really think I'd just sit here while Lhasha's in trouble?"
"This isn't a quest for an inventor or a thief," Corin said, remembering what had happened with Lhasha and the naga. "Youll just be in my way."
"Don't underestimate me." Fendel's voice was hard as iron. The prospect of a job to be done had brought about a sudden metamorphosis in his usual jovial mood. As Corin had seen with Lhasha, the gnome's disposition became serious and cold when it was time for business.
"I'm much more than just a thief, as you've already guessed from my inventions. I doubt my magic is a match for the young cult wizard, but I know my fair share of incantations.