“ ’Twas an honorable fight. The prisoner grabbed an axe and attacked. I had no choice but to defend myself.”

“True,” Ryslind said. “A fair fight, despite the fact that the goblin had been shot twice. Likewise, I expect it was pure chance that my brother flung the prisoner within arm’s reach of a weapon. Most noble indeed.”

Barius whirled. “What about you? Sending magicked arrows after fleeing prisoners?”

“Simply following orders. You are the elder, after all.” His voice was flat, but Jig sensed more menace in those easy words than anything else the wizard had said so far.

Darnak sat down and stared at the ceiling. “Earthmaker, if you wanted penance out of me, why couldn’t it be something simple? Send me to move the Serpent River or chase the orcs out of the northlands. How did I offend you so that you led me here with these two louts?”

That quick prayer finished, he grabbed a leather knapsack and rummaged through the contents. Jig saw rations, clothes, a whetstone, a bedroll, a large hammer . . . the dwarf carried an entire shop on his back. “Aha.” Darnak plunged a hand into the pack and seized a length of rope. He cut off about ten feet or so, which he tossed to Barius.

“Tie that last one up before he runs after his friends.” With that, he began the momentous task of cramming everything back into his pack.

Jig’s hands were jerked behind his back and bound tightly enough to scrape skin from his wrists. When Barius was done, six feet of rope stretched out behind Jig like a leash. The prince grabbed the other end and dragged Jig toward the rest of the adventurers.

In passing, he kicked the body of Captain Porak. “That’s the last goblin who tried to flee from me. Keep that in mind if you’re harboring thoughts of escape.”

Jig noticed that Barius didn’t say anything about how his prisoner had escaped. He still couldn’t believe his luck at the adventurers’ mistake. If they had recognized Jig as the goblin who had escaped before, nothing would have stopped Barius from killing him.

On further thought, their mistake wasn’t as surprising as it appeared. After all, Jig wouldn’t have been able to tell the two humans apart if they weren’t dressed so differently. And to them, goblins were little more than pests. If a bug bit you, you slapped it. You didn’t stop to see whether this was the bug with the torn ear, or if it was bigger than the other bug who had been buzzing around your ear an hour before.

“Easy there,” Darnak said. “He’s a prisoner now, and the gods expect civilized treatment from folks such as us.”

“I doubt very much that they would treat us with the same courtesy,” Barius said.