The flurry of activity as the combined 303rd and 125th expeditionary force, a.k.a Operation Recovery, rushed about preparing to descend into the chasm. I stood watching everything for a moment before Captain Rebecca and Colonel Apsten joined me.

  “Mage,” the colonel said, acknowledging me with a word and a nod.

  “Ah, Finn. You have a minute?” Rebecca asked.

  I gave her a strange look at her deferring to me. “Yes,” I said slowly. “What’s up?”

  “Harper told us about the guardian in the mist, and how it was attracted to sound. So we came up with a little distraction,” she said, holding out an arrow with something odd attached to it.

  “I don’t know. We need these to stick into the cliff-side, right? Isn’t that rock?” I asked, unsure.

  Captain Rebecca grinned and held out one of the prepared arrows. “Oh, these will work. The tips are a special material, enchanted to sink into stone.”

  “Really? Can I look at it? I’m in the Enchanter’s Guild and would really like to see how this was done!”

  With her nod, I took the arrow into my hands and cast Identify Item. I got a lot more information that I was expecting.

  Item Name: Stone Piercing Arrow of the Noxious Bell—Single Use

  Item Type: Arrow, Trap, Rare

  Damage: 3-9 HP

  An enchanted Dwarvish Iron-tipped arrow. The tip has been ensorcelled to sink into stone, though the shaft has not. Used primarily by high-dexterity archers to get over castle walls or up cliffs, this arrow type is otherwise useless, even against stone golems and other rock-based monsters. This arrow has a sound trap attached, which emits an annoying ringing on impact. This ringing will continue until the infused mana is expended, or it is destroyed.

  It was interesting to see how much could be done to just the arrows, and it made me wonder about all the possible combinations. I handed it back to Rebecca. “That will work, I think. How many of these do we have?”

  “About sixty,” she replied. “Any more might be too much.”

  “And with the increased manpower, more people will be able to shoot these arrows,” added Colonel Apsten.

  “Okay. How soon can we get started?” I asked.

  “Twenty minutes.”

  It didn’t take long for the soldiers on the edge to finish their setup. There was a lot of rope to uncoil and to lower down. I watched as they began the task and waited for things to be ready to go. I was not in the first group to go down. Nor was I in the second.

  I was a little worried because of the monster in the mist, but I was sure that the arrows would do the job needed. The clamor of the noise would be enough to call the beast when the arrows hit the far wall of the chasm. As long as we could keep enough arrows on the other side of the chasm, the beast would be kept occupied. The problem was, as Harper pointed out, how would we know if it was working if we couldn’t hear it?

  Simply enough, we tested it once everything for the first jog of the journey down was set up. The first arrow was shot into the mist, and we watched as the beast went for it. But before it reached the first one, a second one hit the wall a hundred yards to the west of it. The beast went for the second one and almost reached it when a third was launched.

  It didn’t know what to do at first. It went back and forth like it couldn’t decide which to go after. Finally, it went after the first one before going for the others.

  The first group got ready to go, and four more of the arrows were shot into the far wall, spaced out with several yards between each. The beast went nuts, and the first group went down. They made it down to the first ledge rather quickly, and the second group went.

  Soon it was my group’s turn, and I got to rappel for the first time in years. It took me a few tries to get my bearings, bouncing in small hops at first. My hops grew longer as I felt the old confidence return. The mist was the weirdest fog I had ever been in, and I moved through it as fast as I could.

  Vessa loved it, of course. She held on tight to my shoulders, looking all around as we bounded down the first and second faces of the cliff.

  When we got to the bottom, my eyes had already adjusted to the lower light. And to my surprise, I was met by a kobold.

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  “Dragon Guardian?” she said in a mixture of fear and awe in her voice. “No dragon in many generations!”

  The kobold woman fell to her knees and just looked up at Vessa and me.

  Vessa chirped cheerfully at her and jumped down, approaching the kobold woman. “I don’t know what kind of dragon her ancestors worked with, but it wasn’t Mother,” Vessa said. “Can you tell her she doesn’t kneel to me unless she wants a hug?”

  “This is Vessa. And unless you want hugs, you don’t need to kneel,” I told the kobold.

  “Hugs? Kobolds no hug Great Dragon!” she said in horror.

  Vessa replied by chirping and pressing herself against the horrified kobold woman.

  “Now she wants a hug, and she’s going to nuzzle you until you do. She’s very affectionate,” I said.

  Hesitantly, she put her arms around Vessa, as if she was sure that she was about to be punished. Vessa chirped happily, and the woman relaxed into the hug.

  After the hug was finished, Vessa looked around. The kobold woman got back to her feet.

  “Come,” she said, beckoning. “Take to others.”

  Vessa and I followed her through the forest to the edge of a town where the rest of the combined force waited. A mixed group of locals approached. One of which was the gnome that Harper had told me about. They stopped before me and Vessa before bowing.

  “Welcome,” said the gnome in front of the group. “We are the ruling council of this settlement. I am First Judge Gullvant. We of the council ask that you complete a task for us, Mage.”

  I sat in the First Judge’s office and sipped the provided tea. He and the rest of the council stood or sat with their own mugs of tea, waiting for my answer. I looked at each of them in turn, mulling over what they had told me.

  “So all you want me to do is go to a cave at the western end of the chasm, move some crystals around on a stone table, and then say a prayer?” I asked.

  “Yes,” the gnome man replied hopefully.

  “Through the territory of the monsters.”

  “With great haste.”

  “Without killing any of them?”

  “Please.”

  I sat there for a moment in thought, trying to wrap my head around it.

  “There are only a couple of things I don’t understand,” I said finally. “What does this little quest do? I mean, I can understand not killing the monsters out of respect for the long peace you’ve kept with them, but the moving the crystals around on the stone table? Do you have written instructions for that?”

  “Not exactly. What we have is a set of instructions on what we are supposed to ask of you. And a list of things to try to get you to accept. From what was written, you’ll be able to figure out the new placement of the crystals without being told.”

  “That doesn’t sound weird or ominous,” I muttered. “What else do I need to do? Dance on the head of a pin?”

  “You can do that?” a short, bearded man asked.

  “What? No! Why would you think that?”

  The man mumbled something about Mages and unknown powers.

  Then the gnome looked at the other man with some annoyance. “The last thing you must do is go alone. None of your friends, and not even your familiar. Just you. Do you accept?”

  I was about to answer when the voice piped up.

  ‘And so Finn the Mage must make yet another detour, again increasing the likelihood of his failure. This side quest is an odd one, in that it was handed out centuries ago! And now, it’s finally being accepted by Finn. Oh, Finn didn’t actually accept it? Too bad. I really need this one off the books. And it can only be completed by a Mage. So you will be accepting this quest, whether you like it or not. The quest name is unimportant, so we’re just going to move on. Fair? Good. Finn the Mage will have to cross the entirety of the monster-controlled lands to the west of this fine settlement, enter the Cave of Promise, and rearrange some crystals on a stone table. No killing, no companions. If Finn dies, he fails the quest, and I feel justified. If Finn brings anyone with him, and I mean anyone—looking at you, Vessa the baby dragon—then the quest fails. If a monster spots Finn and stubs a toe… you get the picture. Ahem. Quest Rewards: you get one of the neat crystals! Color random. Twenty-six gold and five copper. Plus an enchanted ring of unknown properties. Good luck!’

  I sighed. The Voice wasn’t going to give me a choice. “I guess I have to do it. Do I get a map, at least?”

  The entire council was all grins. “There is a path that will take you all the way to the Cave of Promises! Thank you, Finn, you have no idea how much this means to us!” the First Judge said happily.

  “Well, don’t thank me yet. I may not survive this or might make some monster nervous and fail the quest,” I set the mug of tea down. “Guess I better get started.”

  I left the building and headed west out of town alone. It was the last thing I wanted to do. I had let the council explain I had to go alone, and let Vessa know she needed to stay with Harper. It didn’t take long for me to leave the stone road behind as it turned into gravel, then dirt, narrowing as I went.

  I wasn’t sure when exactly I would enter the territory controlled by the monsters, and that kept my senses heightened. I didn’t know if I could speak with them or not, and I really didn’t want to hurt them. There was something about the council’s reaction that made me think the whole thing was more important than they were telling me. Either that, or this was their way of disposing of Mages.

  I really hoped not.

  The light didn’t change perceptibly, and not being able to see the sun made it hard to judge how much time I had left before nightfall. I estimated I had maybe five hours of light left, and I didn’t know if I would be able to get there and back without it getting dark. Not that I was afraid of the dark, but I would have preferred to see the monsters and avoid stepping on any tails.

  I did not see one monster, though, in the next five hours it took before I noticed a dimming. Why did I not wait until the next day to start out? It would have made sense. I had a magic lamp in my pack, but I was loath to pull out something that would pinpoint my location for any hungry nighttime monsters. I kept walking along the path, still visible in the failing light.

  It occurred to me then that with the mist blocking the sky; it was going to be pitch black sooner rather than later. So I would have no choice but to pull out the magic lamp. I wonder if there is a night-vision spell, I thought wistfully. Though I could cast light on myself, that wouldn’t change the fact that I would be visible. And even if I used my stealth spell, it would only make me and my movements less noticeable.

  Just then there was the sound of something large moving parallel to me in the trees to my left.

  Its growl sounded hungry.