Telltale Tongue looked around the murky chamber, suppressing the urge to secrete the musk of fear. He had to make a tremendous effort, because he did not remember that in all his life he had been faced with three ratfolks as frightening as those.
She bit back a cough and fought not to sneeze in case any of those things were drawn to her; but she was of no use. Those three pairs of malevolent eyes fixed on him like pieces of iron drawn to a magnet. Felbroth Crippled, Izak Grottle, and Heskit One-Eyed all stared at him as if he were a tasty morsel; in particular, Izak Grottle.
Telltale Tongue he wanted his body to stop aching, that his paws wouldn't sweat, that the headache that threatened to split his skull would go away, even though he knew that wasn't going to happen. He knew he had the plague and was going to die-unless Felcaldovil kept his promise and interceded for him with the Great Rat God.
Truly, thought Tell-Tongue. "I find myself stuck with my tail between the cleaver and the cutting board."
The only way for him to save his life was by doing as the terrifying Scourge Pontiff had told him. Unfortunately, Felbroth wanted him to betray his lord, The Black Magician Dhalthar. Tell-Tongue shuddered at the consequences of this formidable sorcerer discovering what he had done. Dhalthar's anger was not a thing he wished to deal with any ratfolk in his right mind.
The three ratfolks put their heads together again and began to whisper. Telltale Tongue would have given anything to know what they were talking about, but on second thought and considering that they were probably discussing his end, he opined that he could live without that knowledge.
He cursed his own weakness. He knew he was in trouble when he saw who was waiting in the chamber Caldovil led him to. So he knew that the weeks of negotiations to which the pontiff had alluded had paid off, and that two of the most powerful factions in the ratfolk world had allied with Clan Morbus.
In that secret chamber, isolated from prying eyes and protected by the potent sorcery of Felbroth, Heskit One-Eyed and Izak Grottle had been waiting, and as soon as he saw them, Tell-Tongue knew the game was up.
Encouraged by Caldovil, he had told them everything he knew. He explained that Dhalthar had somehow found out about his plans, although he ignored his own role in the discovery, and he also told them of the messages Dhalthar had sent to his enemies, the armored warrior Frey and his female. escort Elysia. As he expected, these haughty ratfolk were outraged by what they considered a despicable betrayal by the Black Magician.
He had felt the murderous rage that hung in the air and had done everything in his power not to become the focus of attention. He had heard, in gruesome detail, of the Clan Marchin torture machines, and had often shuddered at the tale of how Grottle liked to eat the entrails of his enemies before their very eyes while they were still dead. with life.
In order to avoid that fate, he had racked his brains for the smallest detail he could remember; he wanted to convince them that he was cooperating to the fullest. The prospect of immediate and painful death overcame any reluctance caused by the thought of what The Black Magician Dhalthar might do to him in the future. Also, in a small, cunning, and deeply hidden part of his mind, it occurred to him that if he could enrage these three enough for them to take revenge on the Black Magician, Dhalthar would be too dead to take revenge on him in turn. .
At that point he felt pretty sure he'd made it. One-Eyed Heskit had bitten his own tail in rage when Tell-Tongue explained how the Black Magician had sent his enemies explicit details regarding the Marchin Clan's plan to invade the College of Alchemists. He had even concocted some convincing details that the Black Magician had delighted and laughed at the thought that his enemies would soon fall into the trap he had set for them.
"In any case." thought Tell-Tongue. "It is very likely that Dhalthar would have done it."
Izak Grottle had been so outraged that he had even spat out a mouthful of food when Giveaway Tongue explained that Dhalthar had told him that the fat idiot would never suspect that his stupid plan to smuggle a secret weapon into the city using a covert barge would be discovered. due to the cunning of the Black Magician.
Feldvil used the Great Rat God's worst curses against his rival when Telltongue told him how Dhalthar, jealous of the favor his god had shown the pontiff, decided to wipe out a dangerous rival by revealing the whereabouts of the lair to them. located in the human graveyard to the two most trusted agents he had on the surface, Frey and Elysia.
"Are you sure that the Black Magician is in cahoots with those two?" asked Grottle demandingly. "Absolutely and definitely sure?"
"Of course, oh mightiest of beast lords! He forced me, under pain of the most atrocious death, to give them the notes, and they always obeyed his orders, didn't they? I can only conclude that they are working for the Black Magician Dhalthar, or…
"Or what?" Caldovil inquired in a gurgling voice.
"Nope; the idea is too monstrous. No true ratfolk would bow to…"
"Before what?"
"Or that he's working for those two!" said Tell-Tongue, amazed at his own inventiveness, which caused another burst of angry squeals.
"Nope! Nope! It is impossible!" Heskit One-Eyed protested. "Dhalthar is a Black Magician. He would never stoop to taking orders from anyone but another ratfolk. The very idea is ridiculous."
"And yet..." Caldovil intervened.
"And yet what? And yet what? Izak Grottle asked.
"And yet it is beyond dispute that the Black Magician Dhalthar has been in contact with the surface dwellers and has revealed our plans to them!" Caldovil continued. "How else could they have found out? How else could such magnificently cunning plans have failed?
"Are you seriously suggesting that Black Magician Dhalthar is a traitor to the ratfolk cause?" asked Izak Grottle as he bared terrifyingly large fangs in a grin.
"It's possible," he dared to say Tell-Tongue.
"Too possible, I'm afraid," Heskit One-Eyed chimed in. "It's the only thing that would explain why the Black Magician interfered with our magnificent machinations, when all we were trying to do was cooperate with the ratfolk cause."
"And despite all that, the big male and his accompanying female are also his enemies. According to what everyone says, they were about to kill him in the lair of the human Fritz Helstaff.
"And the Black Magician took charge of sending the ninjas against them" added Caldovil. "That was an authentic order. Chang still spits when he thinks of his failure."
"What if Black Magician Dhalthar were cunning enough to use his enemies against us?" Heskit One-Eyed said excitedly. "If he turns them against us, he can't lose anything! Either they thwart the plans of Dhalthar's rivals, or we kill his fiercest enemies."
There was a moment of silence in the chamber, and Telltongue knew that whatever else they thought of their enemy, the Black Magician, the three of them suddenly had enormous respect for Dhalthar's cunning. If he thought about it, he had to admit that the same thing happened to him. Flawed as he was, it was hard to argue that Black Magician Dhalthar possessed all the qualities of a truly great ratfolk.
"Even so, even if we grant that Black Magician Dhalthar has devilish cunning, the fact remains that he betrayed us to the enemy! That is indisputable. He has revealed our secret plans to the enemies, and the secret plans of our great clans" said Izak Grottle. "The Black Magician Dhalthar is a traitor and an enemy of all our people."
"I agree," Heskit agreed. "He is a traitor without a doubt, and he is something else: our personal enemy. He has once acted against each of us and almost caused our death. Maybe if he tried again, he would be more successful."
The trio shuddered at the thought of the demonic, sharp intelligence working against them. Telltale Tongue could see the fear on his face and the nervous twitching of his whiskers.
"My humble suggestion," said Tell-Tongue, "is that it might be the wish of the Great Rat God that we remove Black Magician Dhalthar from command of the army and send him to explain himself to the Council."
"I very sincerely share your sentiments. Most sincerely!" replied Izak Grottle. "But how are we going to achieve that? The traitor retains command of nearly five thousand warriors, while our forces are but a shadow of what they were."
"No doubt, as the traitor planned," Heskit said.
"Definitely" agreed the other two simultaneously.
"We always have murder," Heskit suggested.
"Possibly! Possibly!" Grottle commented. "But who would want to take the chance that a member of Clan Furtim might be duped enough to inform the traitor himself if such a request is made?"
"We could assassinate him ourselves," Caldovil said.
"The Black Magician Dhalthar, despite being a known traitor, is a powerful sorcerer." Heskit One-Eyed specified. "We could fail and die!"
The trio shuddered, and then, as one ratfolk, all three sets of eyes turned to Telltongue, who trembled to the soles of her feet because she knew what they were thinking.
"Nope! Nope!" she said.
"Nope?" One-Eyed Heskit asked menacingly as he reached for the pistol on his belt.
"Nope?" Izak Grottle barked angrily, licking his lips as he touched his stomach.
"Nope?" Brothvil said as he coughed up a huge phlegm and spat it onto the floor, where it fell next to Tell-Tongue's feet and bubbled up repulsively.
"Nope! Nope! Oh, the most merciful of lords! I am but a lowly ratfolk. I do not possess your mighty intellects or awesome powers. Any of you could possibly outmatch Black Magician Dhalthar in combat or cunning, but not me."
"Then why should we respect your life?" Izak Grottle asked silkily. "Why? Speech! hurry up hurry up I'm hungry."
"Because..., because..." Tell-Tongue frantically searched for a way out of the maze she had found herself in, and she cursed the day she met the Black Magician Dhalthar, and also the day she carried the first message. One moment! Maybe that was the answer. Perhaps in the example of the great Black Magician Dhalthar was the solution to her problem. "Because…because there is a better way to do things!"
"Oh yeah?"
"Yes Yes! One that carries fewer risks and is more accurate!"
"That interests me, Tell-Tongue." Izak Grottle said. "What is it that you can see and we can't?"
"You can use the Black Magician Dhalthar's own methods against him!"
"What?"
"He has used Elysia and Frey against you. Why don't you use them against him?"
There was another silent pause as the three big ratfolks exchanged glances.
"There is no doubt that they are formidable." Caldofil mused. "To not be ratfolks."
"Perhaps! Maybe they can do it!" Heskit One-Eyed screeched.
"Do you really think so? They are not ratfolk and Dhalthar is a Black Magician. A Black Magician!" declared Izak Grottle, who slammed his fist on the table to reinforce his argument.
"With the most humble respects" Caldovil contradicted him. "You have not met that pair; Heskit and I, yes. It's hard to imagine a more evil and dangerous pair of opponents. Even I, with my magical powers, barely managed to elude them."
"They killed well over half my company." Heskit said, without mentioning his own role in the massacre.
"I bow to your greater experience." grottle agreed. "But there remains the question of what we are going to do to make them go in search of the Black Magician Dhalthar."
"A letter!" he suggested Tell-Tongue, getting carried away by the sheer pleasure of conspiring.
"Yes Yes! A letter!" Caldofil agreed.
"It is very appropriate that the Black Magician Dhalthar should be doomed by the same method he used in order to lose us."
"But where and how will our assassins have a chance to reach him?"
"We must wait for the occasion to arise," Caldovil declared.
"And how are we going to write the letter?" Grottle asked. "At least I don't have the slightest knowledge of those primitive human runes."
"I have some knowledge of human writing." Heskit One-Eyed chimed in apologetically. "I need them to read the mechanical blueprints of the humans."
"We must use the same scroll and quill that the Black Magician used." Grottle said.
"Our friend Tell-Tongue can acquire those things." Caldovil assured him, who smiled horribly, exposing his rotten teeth.
"And he can also deliver the message just like the others," Heskit added smugly.
"Apparently I'm not going to eat you today, Telltale Tongue," Izak Grottle commented. "We need you alive. Of course, in case you try to betray us…"
"That will change," Heskit concluded.
Telltale Tongue didn't know whether to be glad or sorry. Apparently, he had just extended his life, but only at the risk of incurring the wrath of the Black Magician Dhalthar. How did he get into trouble like that?