Darnak stood there, club still raised, mouth still open, as if he didn’t know what to do now that his opponent had been taken away. After a few seconds, he lowered his club and glanced back at Riana. “I guess that’ll work too.”

Riana had thrown a piece of the bread she kept hidden in her shirt. Hard as stone, the bread had been more than enough to activate the magic of the alcove. She smiled sweetly. “But it cost me the remains of my lunch.”

Wordlessly, Darnak dug through his pack and handed her a small loaf. Jig grinned, happy to know that bread did indeed serve some useful purpose.

They stopped to rest in a small chamber, empty save for a black crystal fountain in the center. A wide pillar rose to Jig’s waist. Atop the pillar sat a wide bowl, guarded by four carved dragons perched on the rim. Each one looked almost lifelike, every scale glistening in the light. Their eyes were smooth blue jewels, and their teeth clear glass.

“Interesting,” Darnak said. Riana smirked.

He referred not to the carvings, but to the actual plumbing of the fountain. For each of the dragons stood with a leg cocked, and the water arced from between their legs into the pool at the center.

Jig knelt beneath it, staring through the black crystal to learn if it was pure enough to see light from the other side. He could, though the light was faint and diffused. He had never encountered anything like this. The bowl itself was ridged on the underside, cut so perfectly that Jig sliced his finger on the crystal. The wide rim formed the impression of a dirt trail with rocks and roots and even small plants. “It’s beautiful,” he whispered.

Barius sniffed. “Created, no doubt, by goblin artisans.”

Jig ignored him. The water in the bowl moved in a gentle swirl, propelled by the four streams. But how did the water get from there up into the dragons? It must drain through the pillar, then flow up through the sides of the fountain. He knelt again, trying to find where the water went.

What wonderful magic, to be able to move water about so easily. But why was it wasted here, where nobody could appreciate it? If Jig could build something like this, he would move water from the few pools around the goblin lair into the kitchens, so nobody would have to toil back and forth with the buckets. He could create fountains where goblins could go for drinking water, fountains that constantly replenished themselves. And washing down the privies would become at least a little less disgusting.

“Don’t be drinking that, mind you.” Darnak sighed. “A strange day, when I find myself warning a goblin not to drink dragon piss.”

“It’s only water,” Jig said.