Hill glanced at Liszt and decided to play it safe.
"They might be the remnants of the Zhentarim—the necromancers who scattered and fled." He shook his head. "That's only a guess. Tell Laira and the others not to put too much faith in it."
"Yes, sir."
Liszt went straight to inform Ruth. Hill gazed east in silence. Necromancers... Was their target Luskan, or Mirabar, with its gem mine and two iron mines?
Luskan's mines would be more useful to them.
But they hadn't been able to defeat the Undead even at the height of their power. Now that they could barely cast spells and had to rely on undead creatures under their control, they stood even less chance, didn't they?
Hill pondered for a while... then slowly remembered something.
The mine beneath Snow Palace did have more than one exit at the top. There were also two winding escape passages.
One led to the Spine of the World; the other, to a cliff on the coast.
Hill tugged at the ends of his hair, feeling a little helpless. Ruth's safety was at stake. He had sealed not only those two passages, but every tiny crack he could find.
It had hardly taken him any effort. The earth answered his wishes on its own.
What he had truly changed was the soil around the mine's outermost perimeter. He had turned the ground above, below, and all around it into hard Iluking Stone. Originally from the Water Elemental Plane, this stone was no less hard than Obsidian, but its magical conductivity was different. It had an affinity only for water and could help Water Law or Ice Law mineral veins grow.
It was perfect for Luskan. Anyone trying to dig in with earth-element magic would have a hard time of it.
Beyond