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not have to have, and the penalty had to be severe and permanent for that
reason alone. He almost never went down there himself, except to check that
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none had indeed been successful and to reinforce the spells and traps.
The thief's name was Jurgash, and he considered him-
self, as did all good thieves, the finest at his craft in the world. Also like
all great thieves, he was very rich and also knowledgeable in the magical
arts. Unlike most, he was also a powerful practitioner of those arts, although
he used that power, other than for gratification and amuse-
ment, only to combat such power in his objectives.
Like almost all the great thieves, too, he was a small, wiry, slightly built
man, in the peak of physical condition.
He had entered Terindell through the front gate, in the guise of a man who had
been set upon and robbed on the road and who needed help. He was a convincing
liar, so much so that he often believed his own lies while he was telling
them.
Ruddygore, as he well knew, was not at home, nor was his adept and very
dangerous companion, Poquah the
Imir. This had left mostly the staff, which were a few humans, some elves, and
various and sundry other crea-
tures even one ogre, Gorodo, the trainer of the wizard's small but powerful
private army. Jurgash dealt mostly
JACK L. CHALKER 2.
with the elves though, as he expected, and they hac believed every word of his
story, fed him a fine meal, anc put him up for the night in a luxurious guest
suite. In fact he had the virtual run of the place for the night, which was
even better than he had hoped, although it showed just how dangerous the
vaults might be. If the old and powerful wizard could in fact leave his castle
in such gullible hands, then all that was truly worthwhile was so well guarded
he believed none could get to it.
The door down to those vaults looked deceivingly sim-
ple, with a huge basic key lock that any amateur could pick. Of course, that
was how it should be. The first traps would not be on the outside of such an
entry, but just inside. The only advantage he had as a thief was the knowledge
that Ruddygore himself had to go down there once in a while, so there was a
way around every trick and trap, every spell and danger, if he could spot them
all in the proper order and solve their riddles.
An experienced hand with a probe revealed the first one right away. The big
wooden door, in fact, was not
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ods%203%20-%20Vengeance%20of%20the%20Danc.txt locked at all, and any attempt
to fiddle with the lock mechanism meant instant activation of alarms.
Examining the door carefully, he saw that it was, in fact, not a normal door
at all. The hinges, for example, were false. The door, in point of fact,
appeared hinged in some way from the bottom. Try and pick that lock and the
entire door, built of heavy wood and probably reinforced with iron or lead,
would suddenly and quickly fall outward, crushing the would-be thief like a
rat in a trap.
He had his kit with him; from it he took a small handle that was actually a
magnet. He placed the handle as far up on the door as he could and then,
holding his breath, he pulled gently. The door, which was clearly iron-cored,
gave, coming forward as he pulled. He stopped as soon as he dared and examined
the small, dark area he had revealed. As he had suspected, there were two
alarms, one mechanical and one magical. The mechanical one, nothing more than
a pull-string, proved easy to bypass, 22
VENGEANCE OF THE DANCING GODS
but the spell was enormously complex and took some time to understand and
build onto enough to bypass its trigger.
Removing his door block, he continued to pull down until he was satisfied that
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there were no more traps, at least on the door. No alarms that he could sense
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