They searched the room for some way to barricade the door, as if that would do any good. Even if they succeeded in keeping the humanoids out, they would only have accomplished a slower death by starvation. There was no other exit. Thomas tried to drag the table over, but Shaun stopped him. “Better to go quickly, I think,” he said softly. “Go out fighting.”

He glanced over at Diana, a whole world of sorrow and regret in his eyes. “I'm sorry,” he said under his breath, too low for her to hear. “I should have tried harder to keep you safe. Talked you out of this insane holy mission of yours. Tied you to a chair, if that's what it took…”

    "Hey!" said Jerry suddenly. "This is the place where Jherek killed that traitor trog, just in that room over there."

     No-one responded to him at first. They were all too preoccupied with their impending deaths. All except Connery, who stared at him intently. “I said…” repeated Jerry in a louder voice. “This is the place where…”

     “Yes, we heard you,” said Thomas irritably. “Have you got an idea? A way to get out of here?”

     “Well, no. I just thought…”

     Thomas sagged with renewed despair, his hopes momentarily raised, then dashed. “Try focusing your mind on what's out there,” he suggested, more harshly than he'd intended. “Not on what's in here.”

     The tiny nome wilted under the angry tone of his voice. “I just thought it was worth mentioning, that's all.” He glanced around at the others, but they were all lost in their own fears. Lirenna was staring down at the dusty, stone floor and Diana was whispering a prayer to her Goddess while gripping her silver Caroli flower tightly in one hand. Shaun and Matthew were staring at the main door, ignoring him completely.

     Jerry glanced again at the interior door leading into the next room, the room within which Jherek had killed the traitor dwarf. He moved closer, but Connery barred his way. "Leave him alone," he said. “Your friend’s right. Forget what's in there.”

     "What's the matter?" asked Jerry. "I just want to look at him."

     "Don't be so morbid," said the mercenary. "We've got more important things to worry about right now, like how to get out of here alive." He gave Jerry a determined stare, still blocking the door, until the little nome gave up and turned away. This is very odd, he thought. What's he afraid of?

     Bluin opened the door a crack and peered out into the corridor. He shut it again in a hurry as a couple of buglins ran past. What a turn my life has taken, he thought, that I should find myself hiding from those ratty gits! "They're searching every room in the corridor," he said. "They'll be here very soon. We need some ideas right now."

     "Perhaps we can provide a diversion and run for the entrance," suggested Thomas.

     "No good," said Shale. "They're bound to have the guard room heavily occupied. They'll hold us up until the rest of them arrive, and that would be the end of us."

     "Is there any other way out, other than through the guardroom?" asked Lirenna.

     "No, it was decided to have only one entrance, to make this place easier to defend." Shale laughed at the irony of the situation. "There was an emergency exit, but it collapsed in an earth tremor shortly before everyone left. It was never re-opened, and would take several days, if not weeks, to do so."

     "No, wait a minute," said Bluin. "There may be another way. Something ma father told me when I were little, about the mine. He told me that, when they were following the vein of gold down deeper into the mountain, a branch of the vein led upwards, back towards the surface. He said they had to be careful following it, in case they broke out into the open, giving an invader another way into the village."

     "How close did it come to the surface?" asked Matthew excitedly.

     "I don't know, but we trogs are pretty good at judging the depth below ground. They might have come within a foot or two of the surface."

     "A foot or two of solid rock," said Shaun, his newborn hopes sinking again. "Might as well be a mile."

     Shale grinned at him behind his helmet. "Obviously you've never seen a mining trog in action. With the right tools in our hands, Bluin and me'll be through there in five minutes."

     "With the right tools, perhaps," said Shaun. "How good are you at mining with scimitars?"

     "There'll be a couple of picks down there. We always leave a few tools lying around where they might be useful. ‘Ain't that right, Bluin?" The other trog nodded enthusiastically. "Right, that's it then," said Shale. "All we've got to do is get to the mine. You said something about a diversion, young wizard."

     Thomas nodded. "Jerry here's the one for that, aren't you Jerry? Hey, where's he gone?"

     While the others had been talking, Jerry had taken the opportunity to sneak into the next room where the dead trog lay. Connery's attention had been diverted, and it had been a simple matter for the agile nome to slip past him and silently open the door. He gave silent thanks to the excellent workmanship of the trogs as the door opened easily and silently on its hinges and he slipped through, closing it behind him before the big mercenary noticed.

     There, lying in the corner of the room in a puddle of drying blood, lay the body of the trog, exactly as he had last seen it. He took hold of its shoulder, exerted all his strength and rolled him over to lie face up. At the sight of the trog's face he gave a cry of shock and surprise that brought Connery bursting through the door with his sword drawn, a look of fury on his face. The others also heard his cry, and followed to see what had upset him.

     Connery saw the little nome cowering in the corner and raised his sword to cut him in half, but Lirenna caught his arm with her little hands. "Stop, I command you! That's my friend!" Connery swung his arm, knocking her into a heap against the wall, where she lay half stunned, more from surprise than from the impact. Ignoring her, Connery raised his sword again to kill Jerry, but then gave a cry of pain as Shaun's sword chopped into his side. Pink blood spurted from the wound, but Connery hardly seemed to notice it. Whirling around in fury, he swung his sword with all his strength, a murderous attack that would have sliced Shaun from neck to crotch if he hadn't managed to parry it, but even so the impact sent the sword flying from Shaun's hand and knocked him back against Thomas behind him.

     Matthew and the two trogs faced up to him, encircling him from three sides and trying to get between him and Jerry. As they did so, Connery seemed to grow larger, his arms and legs swelling as huge muscles bulged within them, stretching and splitting his clothes. As Shaun retrieved his sword, the four fighters found themselves facing a giant of a man, stooped over under the low ceiling, strong enough to wrestle a bull to the ground and bend inch thick steel bars in his bare hands. The huge man, who no longer bore any resemblance to Connery, lunged at Shale, who jumped back out of reach, and as he did so Matthew and Bluin jumped in behind him, striking with their weapons, which bit deep. The giant man turned, crying out in pain, and swung at Bluin, but he also jumped back and Shale and Shaun took the opportunity to hit him from behind, running him through with a sword and chopping with an axe.

     They kept this up for several minutes. Whenever the giant man went for one of them, the intended target jumped back out of reach while the others hit him from behind. He tried to retreat into a corner but they formed a barrier around him and pressed him back into the middle of the room. After a while he saw that his position was hopeless and made a bid for the door, trying to make such a noise that the buglins would hear and come running. He hoped the mercenaries would be so busy fighting the evil humanoids that he'd be able to slip away, but by now he was growing weak from the loss of so much blood. The fighters kept him surrounded, hitting him again and again with their weapons until he was bleeding pink from a dozen wounds, and in the end it was Shale who struck a critical wound, his scimitar biting deep into the meat of the giant's thigh, severing tendons and making him fall. As the creature hit the ground the trog followed up with a blow intended to sever his neck, but the giant squirmed at the last moment and the scimitar instead took off the top of his head like a soft boiled egg.

     The giant writhed and screamed, contortions running through his body. His features changed from one second to the next, his face and body pulsing as though waves of fluid were rushing around inside him. His skin changed colour in waves from pale to suntanned red to black and back again. The expedition members watched in horrified fascination for several moments, until Shale raised his scimitar again and chopped off the thing's head. The thing shuddered one last time, then lay still.

     Now dead, the thing reverted to its natural form. It was tall and skinny with grey hairless skin, wide staring eyes, a tiny chin and a little pug nose. It was utterly horrible, the most completely repulsive thing any of them had ever seen. "What is it?" asked Diana, shuddering in horror and making a sign of protection from evil.

     "A clay man," said Jerry, staring in horrified fascination. "They dissected one in comparative anatomy once. This one was rather stupid, by their standards. Most of their kind are very intelligent. It might have gone undetected for weeks or months, killing us one by one."

     "How did you know?" asked Shale. "Presumably you somehow found out what it was, and that's why it attacked you. How did you find out?"

     Jerry pointed to the dead trog, still lying in the corner. Shale went over to examine him, and gave a cry of surprise and rage as he recognised him. "Jherek!" he cried. "but that's impossible! He killed the traitor trog!" Sudden comprehension came over him. "Oh, I see. The clay man killed him, then changed to look like him and passed Jherek's body off as that of a traitor. Then, in the temple, he managed to get himself alone with Connery and replaced him the same way."

     "Yes," said Jerry. "Both killings were clumsy and almost got him given away at once. A more intelligent one could have done the same thing much more efficiently and without arousing any suspicion. There are still two things bothering me, though. Firstly, why did it attack us? They normally take the places of rich, comfortably well off people, so they can live in comfort and luxury. It had nothing at all to gain from killing us."

     "If I remember correctly," said Lirenna, "they sometimes hire themselves out as spies and assassins, for the right price."

     "Sharnhelm!" cried Shale. "Manir of a family of the Stonedelver clan! Before we set out to come here he offered to buy the claim to this place for a ridiculously low price. When I refused, he said I was making a big mistake. He's just the kind of rat to hire an assassin to do his dirty work for him, and miserly enough to save a few clannets by hiring a cheap one. When I get back, I'll make him pay for Jherek's death!"

     "And Connery's," added Lirenna, but he ignored her.

     "You don't know it was him," said Diana. "You could be making a terrible mistake."

     "When I see him, I'll know," said Shale, his eyes burning with a murderous glare. "I'll know when I look the treacherous weasel in the eye." He turned back to Jerry. "You said there were two things bothering you. What was the other one?"

     "Well, it's just that clay men rarely occur singly. There are usually at least three in a group."

     A sudden silence fell over them all. Everyone glanced nervously at their neighbour, wondering if he or she was another of the shape changing monsters. "We can't worry about that now," said Shale, though. "As long as we all stay together, any other clay man will just have to stay in character and fight with us. Nobody goes off alone. Understood?" They all nodded unhappily. "Good. Now to get back to our original problem. We have to figure out some way of getting to the mine without being seen. Thomas, you said Geremy might be able to help."

     "Yes, I think so," said Thomas, turning to the tiny nome "You can arrange a little diversion, can't you?"

     "Leave it to me," said Jerry. He went to the door to the corridor, opened it a crack and peered out. The buglins were searching the room right next door. "When I give the word, run like mad," he whispered. "Understood?" The others nodded. Jerry looked out again, fished around in an inner pocket to find a bit of wool and, holding it above his head, spoke the words of a spell, his eyes squeezed closed as he concentrated hard. From down the corridor in the direction of the temple came the sound of something heavy being dropped, a muffled curse, and several sets of running footsteps. The buglins yapped in excitement, dropped everything they were doing and dashed off in pursuit.

     Jerry waited until they were out of sight, then flung the door open. "Now!" he cried. "This way, quick!" They all rushed out into the corridor and ran to the mine as quickly as they could. They reached the large double doors without incident but found that they were stuck fast. "Are they locked?" asked Shaun, desperately looking both ways down the corridor for any sign of the enemy.

     "No, just stuck," said Shale. "They haven't been opened for over a century, remember. Come on, help me push." The two trogs and all the humans put their weight against the left hand door and pushed with all their strength. The door responded by opening a crack and then jamming again. "Again!" said Shale. Suddenly Lirenna gave a cry and pointed. A buglin had emerged from a door a few yards away, seen them, and sprinted away to get the others. "Get him, quick!" shouted Shale. Bluin scrambled for his bow, but there was no way he could have fitted an arrow and let off a shot in time so Thomas pointed a finger and said a magic word. A bolt of magical energy sprang from his fingertip, flew towards the buglin with unerring accuracy and struck him in the middle of the back. He fell with a yelp and lay still.

     "Come on now," said Shale as the wizard stared in mute horror at the life he'd taken. Only a Buglin, not really a person at all, but even so... "Get this door open before any more turn up." They shoved again and again until it was just wide enough for them to slip through. It closed a lot more easily than it had opened, however, and Shaun was able to push it all by himself. Only when he had done so did he notice that there was no way to open it from the inside. "Oops," he muttered.