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“Chetiin’s back,” said Tenquis.

Geth turned his head the other way and found the goblin emerging from a relatively clear path that might once have been a road within the fortress complex. “Tell me something good!” he called to him.

“You’re close,” said Chetiin, falling into step beside them. “You’ve covered more than half the distance from where we stopped.”

A wail from the pursuing construct broke the night, and in its aftermath, Geth thought he could hear the grinding of its movement. “How much ground do you think our friend has made up?”

“I saw it from on top of a wall on the way back. It’s found the spot where we stopped.”

Geth grimaced. Chetiin shook his head. “It’s worse. The varags are back. Marrow caught their scent.”

“Where are they?” asked Geth. “Have they figured out where we’re headed?”

“Marrow says it smells like they’re gathered over by the road where we entered. If we’d come back through the gates, they’d be waiting for us.”

“Grandfather Rat’s naked tail,” Geth muttered. He hadn’t thought much beyond escaping Suud Anshaar and the black construct, but returning to the road and getting out of varag territory had definitely been in his mind.

“Stay downwind of them,” wheezed Tooth. “Varags track by scent.”

His words turned into a ragged gasp. “Save your breath,” said Geth. “It’s going to be a race to get out of here. Ekhaas, can you sing that traveling song again?”

The duur’kala looked at Tooth draped over Geth’s shoulder, and shook her head. “I don’t think Tooth would be able to take the strain.”

Geth cursed under his breath. At his side, Tooth struggled to speak again. Geth could guess what he was trying to say. “No,” he told the bugbear, “we’re not leaving you. You’re staying with us.”

“No,” Tooth managed, but any further words were lost in a gurgle of pain as Tenquis forced himself under the bandaged stump of the bugbear’s arm.

“Sorry, Tooth,” Tenquis said between his teeth. His arm wrapped across Tooth’s broad back, overlapping Geth’s. He looked around the hunter’s body at Geth. “If we’re going to move faster, someone needs to help you.”

“It’s not going to work. Without an arm across your shoulders—”

Tenquis glared at him. “Do you have a better idea?”

He didn’t. Geth shut his mouth and tried to ignore Tooth’s moans of pain as he and Tenquis hurried him along. He caught a whisper of song and glimpsed Ekhaas’s hand reach up from behind to stroke the bugbear’s head. His whimpering eased.

“He still feels it,” she said, “but it’s distant and more manageable. Just be careful with him.”

“We’ll be as careful as we can,” Tenquis said.

The tiefling was already breathing hard and struggling to keep his grip on Tooth’s torso. Geth took a good grip on the arm that was draped across his shoulders, then shifted his hand on Tooth’s back and grabbed Tenquis’s arm. “Hold mine,” he ordered. He couldn’t see Tenquis around Tooth, but he felt his rough, thick-nailed hand clamp around his forearm. He squeezed. Tenquis squeezed back.

Chetiin kept himself a few paces ahead of them, hopping frequently up onto mounds and low walls to look both ahead and behind. Geth didn’t like the way he was starting to look behind more often than ahead. He knew for certain that he could hear the grinding of the construct’s advance. “How are we doing, Chetiin?” he asked.

“It’s going to be close,” Chetiin said tersely.

Ekhaas looked up at him. “Is the construct following our path?”

He nodded—and Geth saw Ekhaas spin around and dart back. “Ekhaas!” he shouted after her. “Don’t!”

His sudden twist threw Tenquis off balance. “Careful!” the tiefling yelped, and for a moment all of Geth’s attention was on keeping himself and Tooth upright.

When he looked up again, he saw the outer wall of Suud Anshaar ahead, a wide gap in its dark length shining like a beacon in the moonlight.

Ekhaas’s song rose up somewhere behind them. A wail from the thing that pursued them rose to greet it.

He ground his teeth together and made for the wall. Chetiin dropped down and ran ahead of them. Ekhaas’s song faded—

—and a moment later,