Jig thought he heard the girl snort, but he wasn’t sure. Still Barius was right. If the situation had been reversed, there would have been none of this tying of the wrists or honorable combat. Goblins didn’t waste time on that nonsense. Especially when they were hungry.

“Your friend spoke Human, goblin,” said Darnak. “Do you?”

Jig nodded.

“Excellent. I’m called Brother Darnak Stone-splitter, tutor and scribe to their majesties Barius and Ryslind Wendelson, seventh and eighth sons of King Wendel and Queen Jeneve of Adenkar.” With a nod at the girl, he said, “That’s Riana.

“You try to betray us, we’ll kill you. Same holds true if you try to escape. I don’t like it, but we can’t have you running loose, telling everyone we’re here. But if you cooperate, I’ll do my best to see you’re still breathing at the end of the day.”

“Enough of this,” Barius said. “We should get moving. The rod would be in our hands already if you hadn’t been so determined to map out every inch of this underground tomb.”

“Never underestimate the usefulness of a good map,” Darnak snapped. “Try walking through the iron mines of the northern peninsula and you’ll quickly come to appreciate my quill. If you ever find your way back out, that is.”

Very tentatively, Jig asked, “Will you let me go when you find whatever it is you want?”

“Of course.”

Jig nodded as if he believed it. If it were just Darnak, he might have taken the dwarf’s word. He seemed to take this honor stuff seriously, and so far, he had argued for keeping Jig alive. Of the four adventurers, that made him Jig’s favorite. But the others clearly didn’t want a goblin around. Not that Jig blamed them. Were he in charge, his first move after the battle would have been to kill the prisoners. Much simpler that way.

Still, how hard would it be to wait until the dwarf went off on another errand? Then it was a matter of letting Jig “accidentally” get his hands on a weapon, just like Porak.

“So what is it you’re looking for?” He hoped they would say gold and treasure, but he didn’t expect anything that simple. Treasure would be so much easier to find. Jig knew where at least one goblin hid his collected coins, and there had to be more tucked throughout the tunnels. Of all the adventuring parties who came into the mountain, most were satisfied with stealing the treasure their fallen predecessors had left behind. He could lead them to a few stashes and maybe they would let him go.

But there were a few groups for whom treasure wasn’t enough. Barius had said something about a rod. Jig had a very bad feeling that he knew what they wanted.