Ingold's side with a birdlike gait, tiny and incredibly fragile-looking, like some worn macram6 made of rags.

"You have to admit you're too old for active fieldwork. I've permitted you to come this far, but you will not go down with us into the Nest."

The older man straightened his back as much as was possible and peered up at Ingold with bright little black eyes. "I will be unseen," he replied in his piping voice.

"I'm only concerned for your safety, Kta," Ingold insisted. "You know-"

The tiny creature rounded upon him, almost tripping him with the quickness of his movement, and jabbed a skinny pink forefinger up at him. "Always this concern for others' safety," he accused shrilly, "whether they wish to hold safe or not."

"You know you couldn't fight your way out of a trap," Ingold told him gently.

"Neither could you, for all your skill with that fearsome meatchopper you carry."

Ingold looked miffed, and Kta turned and hobbled ahead, toward the vast, broken doorway that opened into the darkness of the vaults. As he clambered up the weed-choked rubble of stone and shattered bronze, he half-turned and flung smugly over his shoulder, "And it is not me whom the Dark Ones pursue from one end of the world to the other."

Ingold opened his mouth to retort, but Kta was gone, hopping calmly into the terrible shadows below. Rudy and Kara fell into step beside Ingold as he hurried to catch up with Kta, where he waited in that anteroom of Hell. Rudy said softly as they passed into the clustered shadows of the vault doors, "He's got you there." It was the first time he'd ever seen Ingold lose an argument with anyone.

The wizard glanced over at him sharply. "Nonsense," he snapped. "He's too old to undertake the exploration of the Nest with us and too stubborn to admit it."

And you love him too much , Rudy thought, to want to see him killed trying . But he wisely refrained from tackling the issue of stubbornness with Ingold and walked after him in silence through the wan, dappled gray ness of the broken upper levels.