Grosha shook his head, eyes squeezed shut against the pain, body shaking. “Nothing, nothing!”

The ragpicker reached down and tilted the Troll’s chin upward. “Look at me. What are you doing here? Where is the master of this keep?”

“Dead. Last night. Blew himself up with explosives and killed seven Drouj…” He trailed off, shaking his head. “Seven of us dead. He stole…something. Something that was ours!”

“Something you stole from someone else, maybe? Something he’s hidden in his lair?”

“Yes, yes! That’s right!”

“Gold coins, maybe? Silver?”

“Yes, yes! Gold and silver!”

“And then, once he had it safely hidden, he blew himself up?”

“Yes! He blew himself…” Grosha trailed off, realizing that he had been tricked. “No, I don’t mean…”

The ragpicker shook his head. “You really are worthless. A liar, and a bad one at that. A coward. A piece of…” He looked over suddenly at the other Drouj, clustered together on the edges of his vision. Hopeless, as well. He reached down and seized Grosha’s injured hand anew, squeezing. “This is your last chance, Grosha, son of Taureq, Maturen of the Drouj. What are you looking for? And don’t lie to me!”

“A girl,” the other answered quickly, gasping in agony. “A hostage from the valley beyond the mountains. There!” He pointed east, his arm jerking spasmodically. “But she escaped! Let me go!”

The ragpicker experienced a sudden rush of adrenaline. “A girl. From where? A valley, you say? Does she carry a black staff?” He squeezed the wrist savagely. “Does she wield magic?”

Grosha screamed and shook his head, fighting to free himself. “Stop, please! My chest! Exploding! Listen to me! She’s just a girl, but the boy thinks…Arik says…Please! I can’t…”

The ragpicker squeezed harder. Useless. Nothing more to be learned from this one. He fastened the fingers of his other hand about the Troll’s thick neck and added more pressure, an intense and killing tightness.

Grosha screamed. His neck snapped, his body sagged, and his eyes rolled back in his head. The ragpicker released his lifeless weight and let him drop to the ground.

“A girl,” he whispered to himself, wondering if it meant anything, if it could help him in his search.

He shifted his gaze to the walls of the complex, searching high up where the buildings were stacked like blocks, one on top of the other, and caught a sudden, momentary whiff of the magic he had been tracking.