The Conqueror's Shadow by Ari Marmell

map.
    â€œTsk, tsk, Audriss.” He held the drink up before him in toast, sniffed it once—his expression quickly shifting to one of intense distaste—and placed it back on the table. “Quite careless of you. Besides, it’s not as though this was unexpected. I—”
    At the sound of spasmodic scratching, two pairs of eyes flickered to the chamber door.
    â€œIt appears,” Audriss said, “that I’m destined for interruptions tonight. Enter!”
    Heralded by the creaking door, a misshapen form, garbed in filthy black rags and tatters, shambled into the room.
    Little more than three feet in height, the new arrival was painfully gaunt. Its limbs hung in nominally human ways, although select bulges and twists suggested muscle and bone that were not present in any child born of woman. It jerked constantly as it walked, and in motion it became less human still, for its limbs jutted in directions displeasing to the eye, bent at angles to make staunch men squirm. Two eyes, closer together than they should have been, blazed an irritated pink above a maw full of jagged and broken teeth.
    â€œThe Audriss is busy, yes, busy with other things,” the creature said to the room in general, its voice the sound of broken bone ground against a rock. “He wonders, does it want him to come back later?”
    Though none could possibly see it, Audriss shuddered once inside his armor. Gods, but gnomes gave him the shivers!
    â€œNo,” he commanded, his voice steady enough to belie his unease. “Give your report.”
    The shambling little creature nodded and slid forward a few more steps, pausing to examine the bloodstains Mithraem had left on the ground. Audriss could actually see the thing’s nose twitching.
    â€œI said report!”
    â€œYes.” The gnome looked up from his contemplation. “He comes from the catacombs underneath, yes, below. Much digging, moving of rocks. Did the Audriss know, he wonders, that many of the tunnels were collapsed, yes, full of rocks?”
    â€œI knew. It’s why I’ve given him—you—so long to search the damn place!”
    â€œAh, he sees, understands, yes. All the rocks moved, tunnels are cleared, empty. Some will not stand, no, fall again when he moves braces, supports. But the catacombs are searched, all of them, yes.” The gnome rubbed its hands together, the calluses on one palm grating noisily against the jagged nails of its fingers.
    â€œAnd?” Audriss demanded. “What did you find?”
    â€œFind, yes. Underground room, below, at the end of corridors. Metal door, yes, but melted, opened, burned away. Not natural, no. Magic. He feels it in his bones, yes, when the magic comes.
    â€œBut the Audriss will be unhappy, he thinks, yes it will. He searches the room, yes, all of the room, until there are no more places for hiding, no, not for secret things. Nothing is there, he thinks, no. The Audriss will have to look elsewhere for its treasure, yes, for what it wants. He wonders,” it said abruptly, cocking its head to one side with an audible snap, “where it will go now? He wonders, will he go with it?”
    â€œOf course you’ll go with it—me!” Audriss shouted furiously.
    â€œCan it … pay?” There was a soft slapping sound as a thin tendril of spittle dropped from the gnome’s lips to land on its shoes.
    â€œWe have a bargain, gnome.” Audriss felt his lip curl at the memory of what he’d had to offer. “You hold up your end of it, I’ll hold up mine.”
    â€œHe honors his bargains, yes, agreements. He wonders, then, where it wants him to be, yes, to go.”
    Audriss sighed and turned back to the map. Abtheum or Orthessis, Orthessis or Abtheum. They were both viable, both tactically sound, both defensible if the armies chose that point to make their own stand …
    And both, unfortunately, at least three months away at the speed of