The Northern Approach by Jim Galford

army.”
    Raeln nodded in understanding and advanced more slowly, his ears snapping back as he heard the clattering farther back in the tunnel. They had gained some distance on their pursuer, but it had not given up. This time, he swore it sounded like claws—similar to how his would sound if he were less careful about walking on the stone floor. It might just be an animal, but he had no way to be certain without letting it catch up.
    The area past the barricade did not look like any trap Raeln had ever seen. At first he thought they were entering a cavern, the walls widening to well beyond the reach of their feeble torch. His eyes searched the dark for several seconds before he realized he could faintly make out walls somewhere ahead and above them. A dim light illuminated the walls—not much brighter than candlelight, but even and unflickering like moonlight. From what he could see, the lights were coming from small recessed sections of the walls about twenty feet over their heads.
    The walls stretched off to either side, curving away from their position and giving him the impression of walking into a hollow stone cylinder. He had to pass the torch back to Yoska to allow his eyes to further adjust before he made out a thin staircase on the far side of the round room that went up the walls, zigzagging until it reached an open gate set high into the cavern wall. Off to his left, a ramp went up to another gate, allowing access for carts and other creatures that might not handle the stairs so well.
    “The king, he has people carve the fortress from the solid stone of the mountain,” explained Yoska, passing the torch to On’esquin. “It takes many generations to finish and I think they never call it done. Is impressive for such a large tomb, no? Out here, dwarves can drop huge stones on enemy and clean up mess later. Is very secure when one is planning to fight off living army.”
    Raeln looked straight up and saw three large slabs of stone that seemed to hover at the edge of the light, a similar dim glow as that on the walls somewhere above them. They were suspended in some fashion, telling him a single dwarf with an axe could probably have sent them crashing down on anything that came through the open area. There were few things in the world that would survive a fifty-foot-wide stone slab coming down on them. For whatever reason, those had not saved the dwarven city from whatever happened.
    “They were attacked from another entrance or from within,” Raeln noted, shaking his head and trying not to look at the stones. He wondered if they had ever fallen by accident, killing visitors to the fortress. “How many ways are there into this place?”
    “Four. Two if you are not dwarf and you ask a dwarf. The other two are hidden inside their surface cities to let their people come down here in a hurry.”
    “How do you know that?” Raeln asked as they walked.
    Yoska shrugged. “One I find by looking. Other a friend told me of and I think is way he came back here to visit without king finding out he is around. Might be more ways in. Friend was very sneaky.”
    The faint clattering on the stone floor behind them reminded Raeln that standing still allowed their pursuer to get closer. Not wanting to say anything that might tip off whoever was coming, he pointed at the stairs. Whatever was behind them sounded as though it had gotten closer. He began walking, with the others following close behind.
    The stairs were clearly not built for anything larger than a dwarf, and Raeln realized it would be a difficult climb with his stride, though his paws were smaller than most humanoids’ boots. Yoska nimbly began up the steps, with On’esquin lumbering up them, his boots barely fitting halfway onto each step.
    With one more glance toward the tunnel they had come through, Raeln started climbing. He kept one hand against the wall to steady himself. Several steps into the long climb, he thought he saw white eyes gleaming near the