A sound came from somewhere in the surrounding greenery, and several of the cons turned towards it in alarm, picking up long human thighbones to use as clubs. Lirenna’s heart leapt in hope. More renegades! she thought in excitement. Come to rescue Richard and Henry. Or maybe moon trogs. Then a cloud of doubt dulled her excitement. Or maybe Konnens, she thought. Maybe we’re going to be rescued from the cons only to be killed by the Konnens. She strained with her infravision, trying to make out the body heat of the newcomers amongst the concealing cold vegetation.

     The sound came again, and most of the cons moved stealthily towards it, spreading out to cut it off on either side while three remained by the cage to guard the prisoners. I could kill two of them with firebolts, she thought, and then it might take five minutes or so to fight our way out of this cage. More of the cons would have to come back to guard us, and that would give our rescuers, whoever they are, a better chance. She’d made up her mind to do this, and was actually pointing her finger at the first con, when two of the advancing cons gave shrieks of pain and convulsed, floating limply in the undergrowth.

     The remaining cons shrieked in alarm, and a second later a third fell, and a fourth. And then a pair of brilliant, shining darts flew out of the darkness, swerving to avoid thick branches and clumps of greenery. They aimed themselves unerringly at a fifth con and struck it squarely in the chest, making it howl in agony as it died in a shower of sparks.

     “By the Gods!” exclaimed Richard. “What in the name of all that’s holy was that?”

     Lirenna just stared in slack jawed amazement as another pair of firebolts shot out of the darkness, hitting another con, while the rest milled around in horror and shock, hooting and howling their dismay and not knowing which way to run.

     “Lenny!” called out a familiar voice. “Are you all right?”

     The demi shae was frozen in bewilderment, not daring to let herself believe what was happening in case it was just a cruel mistake. I’m asleep and dreaming, she told herself. In a minute I’ll wake up and they’ll still be dead and the grief will be a thousand times worse than it was before and I won’t be able to take it. I’ll go crazy!

     “Go away,” she muttered, beginning to cry again. “Go away and leave me alone.”

     “Lenny!” called out Thomas again, more anxiously this time. “Lenny!”

     “Tom?” said Lirenna, beginning to believe it at last. “Tom, is that you?”

     “Lenny!” replied Thomas from somewhere in the darkness. “Thank the Gods you’re safe!”

     “Tom!” screamed Lirenna in astonished jubilation. “Tom! Tom! Tom! Tom! Tom! Tom!”

     “Your friends?” asked Henry, grinning with relief as the last of the cons scattered and ran in panic.

     “Yes!” cried Lirenna, tears of joy breaking away from her face to fly off into the darkness. “Yes! Oh yes!”

     Her friends arrived a moment later, keeping a wary eye out in case any of the cons were still around, and Shaun slashed the cage open with a few swipes of his sword. Lirenna flew into Thomas’s arms, almost bowling him over, and hugged him so hard that he almost couldn’t breathe. “Oh! Oh Tom!”

     The others discreetly averted their eyes as they made their reunion, and the two renegades stared in wonder at their rescuers. They were familiar with moon trogs and their poisoned blowdarts, but the others were just weird. Two humans, a man and a woman, dressed in what had recently been fine clothes as if they were members of a noble family. Two human men dressed only in silken bathrobes, one of which was tied around its owner's waist, leaving his chest bare, and… And someone else. They stared at Jerry, totally at a loss as to what to make of him. Was it a child? But he had a generally adult looking face complete with a bushy, silvery beard. A midget, perhaps? Some kind of birth defect? The renegades averted their eyes in case he was self conscious at being stared at.

     “This is Richard and Henry,” said Lirenna when Thomas finally let go of her. “They took care of me. There were three of them…” She directed their attention to the bones, all that was left of Daniel. Diana swam across to pray over the remains.

     “Thanks for looking after her,” said Thomas to the renegades. “I, I mean we, owe you a debt I can never repay.”

     “It’s we who owe you,” said Richard, though. “If you hadn't come…” He glanced sadly across at where Diana was starting to pray in a soft, sad voice.

     “It’s our friends here you should be thanking,” said Shaun, indicating the moon trogs behind them. “They rescued us as well. We’d be stiffening in a tunnel back there if it hadn’t been for them.”

     “The cons are the enemies of all civilized people,” said the leader of the moon trogs, whose name was Ban-Chin. “We could not leave you in their hands. And now we must go. The cons left all their water behind, so you should have no difficulty getting safely back to your city. Goodbye.”

     “No, wait,” said Shaun however. “We came out here looking for you! We had to leave the city or die there, and we’ve got no idea how to survive out here.”

     “The renegades have discovered how to survive in the caverns,” pointed out Ban-Chin. “Perhaps they will help you. There is no place for humans in Athian society. You cannot come with us.” The moon trogs turned to go.

     “He’s right,” agreed Henry. “You’re welcome to stay with us. Your friend told us that you’re from Tharia. You can tell us all about what it’s like there.”

     “What?” exclaimed Ban-Chin, grabbing a branch to swing himself back. “You’re from Tharia?”

     “Yes,” replied Shaun. “We came up about two weeks ago, but we were held captive in the city and only just managed to escape.”

     “That’s impossible! The only way up is via the teleportation chamber in the old observatory, but it’s locked and the key has been lost. You must be lying.”

     “Oh yeah?” exclaimed the soldier. “Well look at...” He hesitated. He’d been about to suggest that the moon trogs take a close look at Lirenna, who was back in Thomas’s arms, the two of them talking softly and intimately and punctuating their conversation with the occasional lingering, passionate kiss. Some clans of trogs had a deep seated enmity with the shae folk, though, caused by the shae folk wanting to protect areas of woodland that the trogs wanted to farm for firewood, and this had broken out into open warfare on some occasions. If the moon trogs were descended from a clan that had had trouble with the shae folk back on Tharia, then it was possible that they still remembered the shae folk as enemies, and until they found out for certain one way or the other, he thought it might be prudent not to mention that one of them was shayen. He turned to Jerry, therefore, and pulled him forward by the shoulders, presenting him to the moon trog. “Here, look at Jerry here. He’s a nome. A race of people found only on Tharia.”

     The moon trogs stared at him curiously. “He’s just a freak, a bearded midget,” said Ban-Chin after a moment. “He’s just a deformed human.”

     “Who are you calling a freak?” demanded Jerry furiously. “You hang there with four hands, no legs and loose wrinkly skin and you call me a freak? Why I ought to...”

     Shaun pulled him back before he got violent. “If he were human, he wouldn’t have infravision,” he said patiently. “Test his ability to see in the dark.”

     “All right,” said the moon trog. “How many of my men are there over there?” He pointed in a direction in which Shaun could see only darkness.

     “Two,” replied Jerry smugly. “And there’s another one of you hanging back over there, keeping us covered with his blowdart.”

     The moon trog’s eyes widened in amazement. “That doesn’t necessarily prove anything,” he said though. “It’s not impossible that the occasional human may be gifted with infravision.”

     “All right then,” said the tiny nome impatiently. “Explain this!”

     He pulled his last bit of wool from a pocket, spoke the words of a magic spell, and the cavern was suddenly filled with the howling, roaring sounds of a massive airleak.

     The moon trogs and the two renegades jumped in alarm, looking around in near panic, trying to see where the leak was so they could run in the opposite direction. Ban-Chin pulled some leaves from a bush and let go of them in the air, watching them intently to see in which direction the escaping air carried them, but to his surprise they just hung there, slowly sinking to the ground, completely undisturbed by any air current. And yet the whole cavern was filled with the sound of storm force escaping air! He looked suspiciously at the tiny nome, who was almost splitting his sides with laughter. “What is this?” he demanded.

     “Magic,” replied Jerry with great satisfaction. He allowed the spell to lapse, and their ears were filled by sudden ringing silence. “An auditory illusion. Now tell me, mister know it all. How many people up here on Kronos know how to use magic?”

     The moon trog turned to Thomas. “Those darts of fire you shot at the cons. Was that magic as well?”

     “Of course it was. What did you think it was?”

     “Humans have an unparalleled talent for creating weapons. I thought… Never mind.” He turned back to his companions and they spoke rapidly in their own language for a few moments. Then he turned back to the Tharians. “You must come with us. The Dallak must know of this.”

     “The Dallak?” asked Matthew curiously.

     “Our ruling council. If we are about to be invaded by hordes of Tharians coming to resume their mining operations, then they must be told so they can decide what to do.”

     “I don’t think there’s any immediate danger of that,” said Shaun. “The danger comes from a much closer source. We believe the Konnens are close to conquering the rest of the city, and that once they've done that they'll come to attack you. They want to conquer all of Kronos and everyone in it.”

     “Drass!” swore Richard. “Then they’ll be after us as well! They’ve sworn an oath of vengeance against all who’ve fled the city.”

     “Go back to your families and warn them of the danger,” said Shaun. “Find somewhere to hide until this is all over. I doubt they’ll actively search for you until the moon trogs’re dealt with, though. Until then, you should be fairly safe so long as you keep your heads down.”

     “We’ll do that,” agreed Richard. “And thank you once again for rescuing us.”

     The two renegades shook hands with the Tharians and the moon trogs, and then went over to Thomas and Lirenna. “Look after yourself, girl,” said Richard, putting a hand on her shoulder and giving it a squeeze.

     “Right!” agreed Henry, who then spoke to Thomas. “That’s a fine girl you’ve got there, young man. Look after her, or you’ll have me to answer to.”

     “I certainly will,” replied Thomas earnestly. “You needn’t worry about that.”

     Henry nodded in satisfaction. The two renegades then took turns to shake Thomas’s hand and kiss Lirenna on the cheek before saying goodbye once more to the others, and then they disappeared silently into the undergrowth.

     “We must also leave,” said Ban-Chin. “Pick up what you need.”

     The Tharians picked up the cons’ water skins, and then they followed the moon trogs as they left through another of the cavern’s exits.