“We did make a bargain with Straum,” Barius said thoughtfully. “For the sake of our family’s honor, we should fulfill that agreement and set him free.”

Jig and Riana exchanged tired glances. She looked ready to strangle Barius, and Jig wanted to sit down and cry. Home was only a hundred feet away. He was so close. If only they had left, he could have returned to the cavern and joined the others for evening meal. He imagined the laughter as he told them all how he had driven the halfwitted adventurers out of goblin territory. Would he ever be able to go home?

An angry shout echoed down the tunnel. “I’ll have your head on my cutting board, you runt,” Golaka yelled.

Jig hopped to his feet. “Right. Let’s go free Straum then.”

Ryslind led them back to the lake, walking like a man in a trance. Several times he had asked to carry the rod. “As a wizard, I know more of its powers than anyone.”

Barius had refused, insisting that this was his quest, and he would not let the rod out of his hands until he was back at the palace. For once Jig agreed completely. Bad as Barius was, the idea of Ryslind carrying that kind of power was even worse.

But Barius had his own reasons. Jig had to strain his ears to hear the prince’s whispered conversation with Darnak.

“He is not my brother,” Barius was saying. “Straum controls him.”

“If Straum truly controlled him, we’d all be dead, and he’d be taking the rod down himself. He’s still struggling, though there’s little enough he can do against the dragon. He surrendered to Straum’s control all by himself. It was his own greed that did him in.” In an angrier tone, Darnak went on. “It’s greed that will be your end, too. You don’t want to be turning a dragon loose on the country-side, lad, no matter how much treasure you carry away as a reward. You’re too young to remember, but I was around the last time one of those beasts came around this way. That was a small one, and he gutted half the kingdom.”

“I do not plan to release him,” Barius said. “The dragon enslaved my brother, Darnak. Any deal they made is worthless. I will not let this go unavenged.”

“You’ll be the death of me yet.” Darnak stopped for a moment to check his map. “Take the left tunnel up ahead,” he said in a normal voice. Handing the lantern to Barius, he grabbed for his wineskin.

“So you’re planning to use the rod, I take it?”

Jig thought he heard approval in the dwarf’s question.

Barius nodded. “Dragons came from the Rod of Creation, all those years ago. Is it not fitting that the same rod be used to end Straum’s existence?”