The grimlings in the caves west of Somber Tune glared at Sai and Cuatete as they stumbled through the rough corridors, but the Shadowed Voice kept them at bay. They knew as well as any other child of Syn that the Harbinger wasn't to be disturbed. Not that it mattered. The caves here could not be more different from the long, broad river channels of Sand River Cave. Here the passages were tight and twisty. Sai had trouble keeping track of which way they'd been or even which way they were headed.

  So when he led them out into a blind canyon back above ground that he'd never seen before, it did not come as much of a surprise. The draconic ruins that covered the canyon floor, however, did surprise him. Even more of a surprise was the roar of a large fire and the clanging of metal on metal that he heard coming from within one of the ruined, roofless buildings.

  Sai crept around the corner of the wall, Cuatete close on his heels, to see what was making the noise. There, toiling over a low anvil, was a grimling. Like most grimlings, it was shorter even than Sai, though this one wore a thick leather apron over its coarse, gray fur. A leather blindfold was wrapped around its head where its eyes would have been if grimlings had eyes. Its long whiskers twitched as it pounded on the greatsword it was shaping. Behind it roared the flames of a massive forge.

  The grimling did not look up from its work as Sai entered the room. "…Hello?" Sai said.

  "Hello," said the grimling, still pounding on the sword.

  "Why aren't you trying to kill me?" Sai asked.

  "Grrr…" said Cuatete.

  "Too busy," said the grimling. "Somebody has to make gear for the raiders."

  "You're a smith?" Sai asked. The words were out before he really thought through them.

  The grimling dunked the sword into the water trough beside him, set his hammer on the anvil, and wiped his thin, hairless snout. "Best smith north of Slaughter Canyon," he said. The grimling did not face Sai when he spoke.

  Sai nodded. "Will you make gear for me too?" he asked.

  The grimling twitched his whiskers. "Did 'too busy' confuse you?" he asked. "No. I have too much to do as it is."

  Sai watched as the grimling grabbed a pair of tongs without looking at them and pulled another unformed sword out of the fire. "Can I help?" Sai asked.

  "Can you shape a flambard?" asked the grimling smith, picking up his hammer.

  "No," Sai admitted.

  "Then no," said the smith.

  "Wait," Sai said, pulling off his pack. "What if I gave you a present?" He rummaged through the mess inside his pack.

  The grimling let out an irritated squeak and put the sword back into the fire. Still without looking, he took the gift Sai had proffered and felt it over with his broad paws. "Is this my hammer?" he asked.

  "Yours?" Sai asked.

  "Yeah," the smith said, still running his paws over the battered hammer. "This was my favorite hammer. I had to throw it out when it got too beat up to shape metal." He handed it back to Sai. "I still miss the old thing. Where'd you even find it?"

  "Down in the caves," Sai said. "By a huge pile of garbage, now that you mention it. But why didn't you fix it? You're a smith aren't you?"

  "It's dragonforged," said the grimling, pulling the sword back out of the fire.

  "Ah," said Sai. "So you can't shape it without dragonfire."

  "You got it," said the smith, and he began pounding again.

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  Sai watched him work for several seconds. "What if I told you I know a dragon who could fix it?" Sai asked.

  The smith laughed while he worked. "You fix my hammer, I'll make you gear," he said. "Deal?"

  "Deal," said Sai. "First I have to figure out how to find the silent shadows."

  The smith's whiskers twitched. "You have fun with that, big guy," he said.

  The trip back through the caves was slow, and the Sai could feel the grimlings watching them from just out of sight. Eventually, he and Cuatete found their way to a large cavern cluttered with stalagmites. Beyond the stalagmites though, almost hidden from sight, were a series of barricades blocking a crude stairwell that led deeper down into the caves. "Finally," Sai sighed.

  At the bottom of the stairs the caves opened even wider. Squat stone buildings, devoid of any ornamentation save the occasional bloody handprint, filled almost all the available space, turning the caves into a maze of a different sort. There were grimlings everywhere here, and they no longer tried to hide from Sai and Cuatete. Cuatete growled at any that got too close, which was the loudest sound in the entire village. None of the grimlings spoke louder than a whisper, and their footsteps were nearly silent. Sai picked his way through narrow alleys and cramped courtyards until he finally managed to find another stairwell on the far side of the village, leading deeper yet.

  The tunnels beyond twisted nearly as much as the tunnels above, but there were no longer side passages or branches. The path led only forward and down, deeper and deeper into the earth. Soon, even the hushed whispers of the grimling village above seemed thunderous in comparison to the oppressive silence of the caverns beneath. The only sounds were of Sai's footsteps, Cuatete's claws scraping across the stone of the cavern floor, and both of their breathing. Soon, Sai thought he could even hear their heartbeats in the dead air.

  And then, down one final flight of uneven stairs, the passage ended in a high-ceilinged chamber. Far above, a hole in the roof looked out to the starry void above. Below was a large, ornate chest, similar to the ones Sai had seen in the Shadowed Citadel. Sai reached out to open it, but hesitated. Then he shrugged. "They were never traps before," he said and opened the box.

  Within was a lyre. It was much plainer than Sai had expected. But its strings were intact, and the curved wood of its arms still held their shape. He lifted it from the chest. "This must be the lyre Kunago wanted," he said. He almost dropped it when it began to play on its own. "Whoa! How is it playing itself?" The song was up-tempo and driving, very much unlike the song Kunago normally played. But Sai frowned. "That song sounds really familiar for some reason."

  With a sudden, piercing neigh, a shadowy nightmare with hooves and mane of flame coalesced at the far end of the room and charged. Cuatete managed to leap out of the way with her keening shriek, but the equine monster tackled and nearly trampled Sai. The orc watched from the ground as the nightmare got stuck trying to turn around in the narrow passage that led to the stairs. The lyre continued to play its song of broken paths and interrupted journeys from the floor where it had fallen.

  "SKREEEE!" shrieked Cuatete, and she leapt onto the nightmare's back, digging her claws deep into its flank as she ripped its back apart with her fangs. The nightmare bellowed and, craning its neck around, snorted embers into Cuatete's eyes, causing the raptor to release it and stagger away.

  By the time the nightmare had turned around, Sai had gotten back onto his feet and set his tepoztopilli to catch its next charge. He used Cuatete's psychic shackles to guide the blinded raptor behind him just in time. With another echoing neigh, the nightmare charged. Sai braced against the floor, and the nightmare, oblivious to the threat, impaled itself upon the orc's spear. The creature was too big for Sai to stop its charge, though, and all three of them were slammed into the back wall by the force of the nightmare's momentum. The air rushed from Sai's lungs, and the impaled nightmare bellowed and snorted smoke, trying to regain its feet. Sai again directed Cuatete to the beast's flank; he did not, however, need to direct her to begin biting. The nightmare screamed, and Sai grabbed its head with his golden claw, digging his talons into its shadowy flesh. "Melt," he commanded in Draconic, choosing to crush the creature's thoughts directly rather than rely upon Syn's Shadowed Voice. He felt the psychic flames tear through the thing's shadowy mind, and with one final whinny, it fell still. Cuatete did not stop biting until its shadows had faded away entirely.

  And through it all the lyre still played. "Oh, fantastic," Sai said, picking it up from the floor. "It summons monsters." He shook his head and stuck the lyre in his pack. The leather did nothing to block the strains of the song. "Kunago had better appreciate this."

  Shades and nightmares hounded them through the passages back to the grimling village. None of them responded to Sai's shadowed commands to leave them alone or to run away. He and Cuatete were both exhausted by the time the climbed the steps to the back end of the village. But when they arrived, the grimlings were waiting. "Let us pass," Sai commanded in Syn's voice.

  But the grimlings ignored him. The barbarians among them drew their greatswords and began a slow advance.

  Sai took a step back. "They can't hear me over the lyre," he said.

  "Grrr…" said Cuatete. Her eyes had already regenerated, and she was ready to bite more nightmares.

  Sai nodded. "You're right," he said. He gripped his tepoztopilli and fell into a combat stance. "This isn't one of my nightmares," said the Harbinger of Nightmare. He grinned. "But it might yet be theirs."