. She eased herself to the por-
tal, edged partway into the tunnel, and threw the stone
upshaft, toward the staging room. The stone rang
against rock wall, and the ogre chuckled in the darkness.
Jilian ducked into the cubicle again as it charged past,
heading back up the tunnel. Then the girl darted out into
the tunnel and ran.
She hadn't gained much. Within seconds the ogre was
in pursuit again and closing. She ran and let dwarven in-
stinct guide her flying feet.
Abruptly, she realized that she could see the walls.
There was light ahead, and it was growing. The lower
end of the spiral-shaft was ahead.
Another hundred yards and the tunnel bent slightly to
the left, straightened, and ended. Jilian sprinted between
fallen stones and emerged on a cleared shelf on the side of
a mountain -- a shelf that once had been the terminus of a
path. But there was no path now. It had sheared away in
some long-ago rockfall. It would be a tedious climb, to
get down to better ground, but at least now there was
light.
"So far, so good," Jilian panted, then turned as a thun-
derous growl erupted behind her. Only yards away, the
ogre had emerged from the tunnel. It still held a hand
over one eye.
"I'm warning you," Jilian shouted, "I'm getting very
tired of this. You'd better go away and leave me alone."
The ogre growled again and started for her. Jilian
picked up a rock and flung it, aiming for the thing's other
eye