Quote:The walls were soft and moist with moss. It felt unpleasantly like crawling down an unseen throat. Nevertheless he was advancing steadily, his knees and elbows raw and sore from crawling.
What if the tunnel grew too narrow for him to draw his sword? Cursing aloud, he brought the sword before him, probing the impenetrable darkness. He was underwater without warning. The floor of the tunnel had descended and so had the roof. There was no air at all.
He couldn't drag himself backward; the tunnel was too slippery. And as he struggled on, a thick harsh fluid that had flooded his brain and lungs began to choke him. His chest was jammed between two ridged slabs of rock and his arm was flailing, about to drop his sword, when he saw the lights. But they were the torches of the searchers, the men who were after him-and his only escape was the weapon he alone possessed, the

SWORDS AGAINST DARKNESS

✔Foreword to the Fifth Volume of Swords Against Darkness • essay by Andrew J. Offutt
✔The Mouths of Light • [Ryre] • short story by Ramsey Campbell
✔Perfidious Amber • [Cyrion] • short story by Tanith Lee
✔Awake, Awake, Ye Northern Winds • novelette by Simon R. Green [as by Simon Green]
✔Rats • short story by Robert Fester
✔The Forging • novelette by Robin Kincaid
✔Hungry Grass • short story by Keith Taylor
✔The Tale of the Cat, the Mouse, the Sorcerer, and the Children • [Myrd Cherf] • novelette by Edward DeGeorge
✔Golden Vanity • short story by James Arthur Anderson [as by James Anderson]
✔The Castle of Kites and Crows • [Julian • 9] • short story by Darrell Schweitzer
✔The Scream of the Rose • novelette by Paul McGuire [as by Paul McGuire, III]
✔Joni • novelette by Gordon Linzner
✔Druin's Heritage • novelette by Richard K. Lyon