“My father was Cumrost Darn Truvale, an honourable member of the Guild of Master Craftsmen of the city of Grosh Tagroth,” Arroc asserted firmly, as if daring anyone to contradict him, “and my mother was Dareena Hrim Truvale, a respectable woman and a worthy mother. She never dishonoured my father. The tradition of honour in our family is so strong that the idea, if it had ever occurred to her at all, would have horrified her.”

     “What happened to them when the accusations were made?” asked the cleric.

     “The penalty for adultery is stoning.” Diana gasped, and Naomi’s hands flew to her face. “My father should have disowned her, preserving his honour and turning her over for punishment, but he knew in his cords that she could never have betrayed him. They took me, no more than a baby at the time, and fled to live among humans, and I’ve been living among humans ever since.”

     The others, all except Jherek, stared at him in astonishment and embarrassment. His half human parentage was so obvious that they couldn’t understand how he could possibly deny it, even to himself. He obviously was denying it somehow, though. He seemed to genuinely believe himself to be a pureblooded trog. The Claimjumpers glanced at each other, a complex, nonverbal conversation passing between them, and they reached a silent, unanimous agreement not to argue with him on this point. If he wanted to believe himself to be a pureblooded trog, then they’d go along with it. Jherek saw this and nodded to himself gratefully.

     Naomi apparently understood it as well, because she paid Arroc no further attention, turning her gaze on Jherek. “All right,” she said, “so what’s your story? You said you were accused of cowardice.”

     “Aye,” replied the trog. “I was part of a patrol exploring a series of volcanic caverns held by the fell men. They’d been raiding some of our outlying communities, growing bolder with every passing year, and we were afraid that some of our larger cities might be in danger. It’s been centuries since they last attacked us on that scale. Our retributive strikes into their homelands were decisive and we were hoping they’d never dare ter challenge us again, but we’d suffered too much at their hands to take any chances. The Dallak wanted ter know whether they were building up forces preparatory for a full scale invasion, and our patrol was intended to find out.

     “I was no’ but a cordless youth back then, barely out o’ my dippies, and it was my first experience of actual warfare, facing an actual enemy. Because of this, I was placed at the back of the column, with the rearguard. Not that they really thought they might attack us from that direction. The fell men surprised us, though. They’d circled round behind us, hoping ter take us by surprise.

     “I had an older trog as my companion, a trog by the name of Karn Crumrok, may his soul rot in the uttermost depths of the Pit for ever! We were a distance behind the main column, and there were others further behind us, but they were too far back ter see what happened. The main column had just passed a side tunnel, dark, deep and evil looking, and as we were coming up to it we saw movement there. Hundreds of fell men! So many that their body heat shone in the darkness like a giant underground leviathan. They hadn’t seen us yet, and were moving out into the main tunnel ter take our column from behind. I wanted ter call out, ter warn them, but my worthless companion feared that the fell men would turn on us and slay us. He struck me down and carried me off into another side tunnel, down which he fled ter save his worthless hide.

     “I don't know how long I lay there before I recovered my senses, but when I crept out again I found that our column had been massacred. Only a handful had survived, moving among the bodies of the dead looking for other survivors, and among them was that son of a cave beetle Karn Crumrok, who’d crept back when the fighting was over. Before I could say a word he leapt upon me and accused me of the crimes he’d committed, saying that it was I who’d struck him down ter make my escape. May his tongue be consumed by maggots!

     “I tried ter plead my innocence, ter tell them that it was he who was the coward, not I, but I was a mere choddie, never tried in battle, whereas he was a veteran of many campaigns, his exploits renowned among our people. They believed him, of course, and I was charged with cowardice, stripped of all honour and forbidden ter wear trophy cords.”

     His voice began to tremble with emotion as he remembered those times, and his knuckles grew white where they gripped the handle of his war hammer. “I could have stayed among them,” he said with gritted teeth. “They would have endured my presence. I could have worked on the farms, growing food ter be sent down ter the cities, or in waste disposal, feeding sewage ter the jellies, or I could have found work as ambassador ter the glarts. Oh aye, there’s plenty of honest work I could have found. I could have lived out the rest of mah life as a cordless, dishonoured labourer. Instead, I left.”

     “The Gods know the truth of what happened,” said Diana sympathetically. “Nebo will see that justice is done one day, in this life or the next.”

     “We trogs prefer to see for themselves that justice is done rather than entrusting it to some God,” replied Jherek though. “I will see him again one day, and there will be a reckoning. Last I heard, he was a Dallakine, with a seat in the Dallak itself. A position of power and honour. He wears his cords long, they say. I can’t get close to him yet. If I try they'll cut me down as an assassin, but one day fate will intervene and I will have my revenge.”

     Diana frowned at the mention of fate, a heretical concept, and Thomas jumped in before she could say anything that might get their relationship off to a bad start. “And in the meantime you became a pack wolf,” he said.

     “Aye. I spent many years roaming the world, making a living any way I can. A bit of stonemasonry here, a bit of mining there. A bit of soldiering now and then, just to prove ter myself that I’m no coward. I wear trophy cords, since I know myself ter be innocent of the charges brought against me, and whenever I fell an enemy in honest battle or consider myself to have shown courage I hang a new one, and I still wear mah clan badges, although another trog might have hurled them away in disgust years ago. Five years after coming to the surface I met Arroc. We told each other our stories, travelled and adventured together, and although we've parted now and again to go our separate ways we've always found each other again. It's as if we were meant to stand together against all the injustice of the world."

     The Claimjumpers then told their stories. First Thomas told of his education in Lexandria University and the events that had brought himself, Jerry and Lirenna to Clarrin’s Claim, and then Diana told of her ordination into the faith of Caroli and how she and her brothers had come to the same small mining town. Shaun and Matthew then took turns to tell of their adventures since then, although they said nothing of their time in Kronos, saying instead that they’d spent those weeks searching for a way to escape from the Underworld and return to Ilandia. The warnings they’d received against revealing the existence of the Kronos observatory had left a deep impression on them. They had no doubt that they really would be tried for treason if they spoke so much as a single word about it.

     Six pairs of eyes then turned to Naomi, who fidgeted nervously and adjusted her shoulder strap. “I suppose you want me to tell you all my secrets now,” she said in undisguised hostility.

     “Not if you don’t want to,” said Diana, smiling kindly. “No-one can make you reveal things about yourself that you don’t want to reveal.”

     The black girl looked back at her, a thoughtful expression on her face. “What the hell,” she said at last, tossing her head to throw her hair back over her shoulder. “I’m going to have to tell you sooner or later, I suppose. I’m a cleric of Abixis.”

     “Who?” said Matthew. “Never heard of him.”

     “Her,” corrected Naomi with a sharp look at the young soldier. “Abixis is the Goddess of Cats.”

     Diana frowned, searching her memory. “I’ve never heard of Abixis,” she said at last. “Father Bryon, my mentor, taught me all about the most common and most unusual of the world’s faiths, but he never mentioned any God of Cats. Come to that, I’ve never heard of any God that was concerned with just one type of animal.”

     “There aren’t that many of us around,” replied the black girl. “Tharia has no intelligent feline races, so She has no reason to maintain much of a presence on this world. Tharia has cats, though, and She feels obliged to watch over them, which is why She keeps a few priests here. People like me who, for one reason or another, have reason to revere Her.”

     They waited for her to elaborate, but she remained silent. Fair enough, thought Thomas. She might be obliged to reveal her faith to her new companions, but that didn’t entitle them to intimate and highly personal details of her life story. Maybe she’d tell them the story one day, when she knew them better and trusted them more.

     “So, er, can you heal people?” asked Shaun, wanting to break the uncomfortable silence.

     “No,” replied Naomi. “Abixis has very little power in this world. Not enough to channel any to Her followers.”

     “But you are granted a number of special abilities, in return for your dedication,” said Diana. “All true clerics and priests are.”

     The girl nodded, but they sensed a deep reluctance from her. "My abilities work best the less people knew of them," she said. She pulled the strap up her shoulder again and looked Diana in the face. “What the hell. I've got to tell you, I suppose. I can turn myself into a cat.”

     “What?” exclaimed Matthew in astonishment.

     “I can turn myself into a cat,” repeated Naomi angrily. “Either a big cat like a leopard or a small house cat. One is good for fighting, the other for spying. I can also climb as well as a cat, even when in human form, and can see in the dark like a cat.”

     “Infravision?” asked Jherek curiously.

     “No. I can’t see shades of temperature. It’s not heat vision, like you’ve got. It’s just the ability to see in very little light.”

     “Fascinating!” said Thomas in wonder. “When you turn into a cat, how long does the transformation take?”

     “Just a few seconds,” replied Naomi. “It’s very fast.”

     “There’s a wizard spell that does the same thing,” the wizard added, “but it takes a little longer than that. Do your clothes fuse into your cat form, so that you’re still wearing them when you return to human form?”

     “No,” she replied. “Only my body changes. Cats don’t really understand clothes, not even Abixis herself. That’s why I wear this tiger skin and nothing else. If I were wearing normal clothes, my cat form would get tangled up in them, but this tiger skin drops to my ankles in just a second.”

     Shaun’s eyes gleamed. “So you’re really not wearing anything under it?”

     Diana glared at him. “What my brother means,” she said, still staring at him, “is that we would obviously look the other way if you had to transform suddenly. Wouldn’t we?” She intensified her glare, daring either of her brothers to contradict her.

     “Yes, of course,” agreed Shaun earnestly. “I’m sorry if I gave the impression that I, er...” He struggled to find the right words.

     Naomi shrugged indifferently, however. “Doesn’t really bother me that much, to be honest. If I were the shy sort, I wouldn’t dare step outside in an outfit like this. The fact is, you’re bound to see me naked now and again if we’re to spend any time together. Just try not to drool all over me. Okay?”

     “Agreed,” replied Shaun in relief, but a moment later Thomas saw him and Matthew grinning at each other. Diana saw it as well. She glared at them again and the two brothers hung their heads guiltily.

     When Thomas looked at Naomi again, though, he was surprised to see a smile of pleasure on her face. A smile that vanished as soon as she realised he'd seen it. Maybe she's just amused by their immaturity, he thought. After all, she must know the effect her body has on men by now.

     The seven of them talked together for a little while longer, getting to know each other and relating some more of their adventures with their previous teams. Naomi told the story that Shaun and Matthew had heard part of in the garden the day before; the tale of how Lorgill’s team had rescued a Sidonian General whose soul had been imprisoned in a gemstone that was being taken back to the Shadow by an enemy assault squad for interrogation.

     The two trogs (best to think of them as two trogs, even in the privacy of my own head, Thomas hought. It’s probably the best way to avoid making an embarrassing verbal slip) then related an adventure they’d had in the Ice Continent in the far north, when they’d almost been captured by the snow shae and turned into ice zombies. By this time, though, all seven of them had dry mouths from all the talking and Thomas suggested they pop off to the canteen for something to drink and perhaps a bite to eat.

     The others quickly agreed, the trogs being particularly eager to sample the local beer, and so they left the room and set off down the corridor, continuing to exchange life histories as they went.