Not that this technique had ever made much difference for Jig. True, no goblin had taken Jig’s possessions while he slept. They woke him up first. Being awakened and kicked out of the way by larger goblins wasn’t much of an improvement, but it did mean he knew who to get back at later.

At least they were back on good, solid rock. Far easier to run away when the ground didn’t shift beneath your feet and the roots weren’t reaching out to catch your toes.

Jig’s ears twitched. He heard something up ahead, too faint to identify. A whispery sort of sound. Too smooth and rhythmic to be voices. It was familiar, though. He fingered a fang nervously as he walked.

“I see something,” Darnak said. He raised the lantern and aimed the beam forward.

Soon Jig could see it too, a faint blue glow from farther up the tunnel. At a nod from Barius, Darnak shuttered the lantern.

Jig’s eyes were slow to adjust, but his ears made up for that. Over the past few days, he had learned to recognize every sound the group made. From the clop of Barius’s boots to the quiet flap of Riana’s soles to the ring of Darnak’s studded boots against the stone, Jig knew them all. He knew exactly where Barius was simply by listening for the prince’s nasal breath, whereas Darnak tended to grunt with every third or fourth exhalation. As they neared the source of the light, his vision improved as well.

A wide portcullis blocked the end of the tunnel. Black bars as thick as his wrist extended from the ceiling into holes in the floor. Flat iron bands ran across the bars, riveted to hold each bar in place. The bars ended in nasty-looking points, like oversize spearheads lodged several inches in the rock. Jig could envision being trapped beneath those points as the portcullis came crashing down. He winced.

“Behold,” whispered Barius. “The very resting place of the beast.”

Jig moved closer to peer through the bars. Beyond the portcullis, the tunnel opened into a large cavern, and he could see the source of the whispering noise he had heard. A glassy lake filled the far half of the cavern, and the water moved just enough to make small waves on the shore. The lake was small, more of a pond, especially compared to the lake of the lizard-fish. The waves were likewise softer, which was why Jig hadn’t recognized the sound at first.

The shore itself was black sand that stretched almost to the tunnel. The sand sparkled like the night sky, illuminated by blue flames around the edge of the cavern, similar to the fire that had bordered the flower mosaic. Turning his attention to the cavern walls, Jig felt his mouth open in awe.