After going some way away, Malcolm and Tintinel put all the invisibility spells on us that they knew and we followed the old miner, whose name was Korf, into the wooded hills. Korf told us as we walked that he was taking us to a place where we could best look into the cave and have as much cover as possible.

We had a ridge to go over, but at least there was not much underbrush. Tintinel crept slowly and carefully up to a rocky place on the top of the ridge. As he very slowly inched his head up to look down the slope ahead he saw the first sentry bug on top of the rocks, not three feet in front of his face. Thankfully at least one of the invisibility spells must have worked on the bug for it didn't seem to see him.

Being very careful, nonetheless, Tintinel looked carefully in both directions, feeling the next sentries must be in sight of this one, until he was able to see their positions.

When he came back down to us he asked Korf which side would be best to get to the place he was taking us. He said the left side would be best so we crept to a point about half way between the two bugs and one by one slipped over the ridge and down into a dense grove of trees.

When we were all together again, Korf led us to the spot he said was the best place to view the shallow cave. It certainly was - quite close, with good cover and a great view. Unfortunately, all we could see was a daubed wall of mud covering the whole entrance except for a small opening and two bugs that seemed to be on guard.

Just then two more bugs arrived dragging a sheep and disappeared into the entrance. "Food for whatever's in there." Tintinel observed. "I wonder if it's a super-bug like a queen bee or if it's something else that has enslaved these bugs with some kind of mental control."

"Even if it's the latter," said Malcolm, "there would have to have been a very long relationship for the controller to be able to use so many of the bugs so effectively at once. I think we'll find it to be a super bug - obviously not native to this island or the people would have know about them. They're probably from one of the nearest dangerous islands marked in red on the maps. One that has been off limits so long the reason has been long forgotten."

"That's most of them." said captain Jar, "Even if someone foolishly goes to one of those islands they almost never come back to tell the tale."

"Is there something we can do to break down that mud wall?" Aril asked.

"Magic doesn't do thing's like that very well, if at all," Malcolm replied, "and a good thing too or Bolgar would not have needed to build up large armies or infiltrators or spies and take ages to do it. What magic can do in the hands of the evil is bad enough."

"What would be great would be an angry tree spirit like the first one Justin met, but all the experience we've had with them shows that that was a very unusual circumstance and not at all likely to be repeated. No, we'll just have to find some physical way to proceed."

"Look," I said, "it's obvious we're invisible to the bugs as well as to people. Could we just find a log around here and use it as a battering ram? That mud looks awfully dry and may just crumble to dust like a mud-dauber wasp nest."

"I do believe it's worth the risk." said Malcolm, "Let's scout around and see if we can find such a log."

We went in pairs in different directions and before too long Tintinel and Aril called out that they'd found a fallen tree they thought would do. Malcolm and Tintinel made it invisible to all but us. This also made it inaudible when pulled out of the entangling brush and when breaking off many of the limbs that were too long. After an hour of hard work we finally had it manageable and carried it over to the mud wall as far from the entrance and the sentries as we could manage and still have room to operate.

"Three on each side." directed Malcolm, "We'll make a run at the wall and as soon as we hit it we'll back off as quickly as possible; we don't want to be buried. If it doesn't collapse we'll try it again. If a third run doesn't do it we'll have to stop and rethink our dilemma. On the count of three - one, two, three!

We rushed against the mud wall and hit it as hard as we could and quickly backed off. There was a satisfying cracking sound but the wall didn't crumble. However, a crack appeared from top to bottom and Malcolm said, "Hit the crack again! One, two, three!"

This time, as we backed off, the wall collapsed in a great roar and a billowing cloud of dust. We dropped the log and retreated, coughing and gagging, while the outer ring of sentry bugs ran about trying to see what had happened.

We carefully moved back to Korf's viewing place to wait for the air to clear. Part Twenty-Six 

Stories about dragons, centaurs, and wizards, enhanced with electronic media, for fantasy lovers; new postings monthly by Antelope E-Books.

2178