After waiting for Darnak to sketch the dark crack and label it HUNDRED-FOOT CHIMNEY TO HOBGOBLIN KITCHENS, they moved on. The tunnels slanted upward here, and Jig instinctively leaned forward to compensate. After a while the muscles in the back of his legs began to complain. He wasn’t used to hiking for so long, and even the slight incline was enough to tire him. Sweat dripped down his face and into his eyes, blurring his already poor vision. He stopped trying to watch where they were going and concentrated on walking. One foot in front of the next, careful not to stumble. He had already fallen once, and with his hands bound, that fall had given him a nasty bruise on the side of his face.

“Halt,” Barius said suddenly. “What manner of statue is this?”

To the right, an archway of dark red stone led down another tunnel, this one narrow and low. The humans would have to duck to keep from scraping their heads.

Barius aimed the lantern beam at the wall of the side tunnel, lighting up a detailed statue of a hobgoblin whose glass head nearly touched the ceiling.

Jig blinked to clear his eyes. He could see a wicked double-headed axe in the hobgoblin’s hand. A pointed helmet covered most of the head. Muscles bulged along the bare arms and legs, and a round, spiked shield hid most of the hobgoblin’s torso.

“Nasty-looking fellow,” Darnak commented.

“We should keep going,” Jig said. “That’s hobgoblin territory. We shouldn’t pass the marker.”

“Hobgoblin, is it?” Darnak squinted at the statue. “Looks like an oversized goblin, to me.”

Jig bit his tongue. Of all the blind, ignorant, stupid things to say. Comparing a hobgoblin to a real goblin. Hobgoblins were big, clumsy, ugly brutes, and goblins were, well, smaller. And weaker. But anyone who had ever tasted hobgoblin cooking knew goblins were the superior species. The differences were endless. If they lingered here for too long, the worst of those differences might quickly become apparent.

Among other things, hobgoblins liked to use nasty traps and ambushes. When they caught a goblin alone in their territory, they had been known to torture it for hours, then send the crippled wretch back to the goblins as a warning.

True, goblins did the same thing if they managed to catch a hobgoblin, but that was simple justice.

“Come,” Jig said. In his nervousness, he actually tugged the rope that tied him to Barius.

Barius pulled him back, but with far more force. Jig stumbled closer to the archway, barely managing not to crash into the human.

“Why so afraid? Have you never explored the depths of this tunnel?”

Jig shook his head. “I’m still alive, aren’t I?”