Dash it all, what a string of rotten luck!

Of all the bad situations Jasp Diamond had found

himself in, this one might be the worst. Yes, even worse than the perils he encountered in Jasp

Diamond and the Man-Eating Matriarchy! Then, he had faced off against sorcerers and

cannibals, but what he would give to face off against sorcerers and cannibals now!

Presently, he found himself besieged on three sides. To his left, a band of angry dwarves

clanked axes together. To his right, a trio of orcs was closing in. And behind him, worst of all—

the tax collector was hot on his heels!

Jasp Diamond raced on forward, unwilling to let any of these nefarious foes get the best

of him. He tore through the underbrush, unheeding of the scratches that branches raked in his

arms. Yet he still leapt nimbly over the patches of poisonous manchi that snaked across the

ground, tealish fronds that grew in flattened lumps. Jasp thought of the painful rash that manchi

left on skin and smiled to himself. The tax collector would not be so agile.

Alas, but then Jasp’s breath caught in his throat, for he saw what was up ahead—the

abrupt end of the forest, and the teetering edge of a cliff!

Jasp didn’t yet slow. He could stop on a dime if he had to, and perhaps he could trick at

least the Orcs into running off the edge. But no self-respecting dwarf or taxman would make the

same mistake, and then he would be hemmed in against the precipice.

Nearing the edge, Jasp cast a glance back at the dwarves—those axes looked awfully

sharp—and the tax collector—that greed looked awfully palpable—and made his decision. There

was only one way out of this.

Jasp Diamond reached the edge—and jumped!

 Most readers must shudder to think of the sensation of air whipping past their own

plummeting body, wind tearing the pressure out of their ears. For Jasp, of course, this particular

sensation was nothing new. He had made another gallant leap of faith when fleeing …the Deadly

Derros, and even jumped off the tallest building in Gaindaich while unravelling …the Criminal

Chimera Conspiracy. No, not even a fall such as this one could shake Jasp.

What shook him was the sight of deadly spikes down below!

Jasp had little time to think, but he could quickly register that the spikes were metal,

manmade, and each at least twenty feet tall, starting very wide at their bases and tapering to

points. He could guess at its purpose—a hunting trap for running herds off of the cliff, perhaps,

or a religious site used for sacraments or sacrifices—but no, he didn’t have time for guessing,

either. He had only time to act!

Jasp whipped his swords out from his belt and crossed them, shifting his body with

precision to alter the angle of his descent. Facing forward and plummeting like the lead at the

end of a sounding line, he stretched the crossed swords laterally in front of him.

Jasp was upon the spikes in an instant, but his shift had prevented his body from striking

a tip. Instead, he caught it in the cross of his swords, and metal grated on metal as the nook of the

blades slid down the apex of the spike. Jasp strained his tautly muscular arms to maintain the

cross of the swords as the pressure of the widening spike threatened to rip them from each other.

He dug them in instead, and his descent slowed. He alighted gracefully on the ground as only

Jasp Diamond could.

 Jasp looked back up to the cliff. The orcs had fallen over, alright, and they had stood no

chance of avoiding the spikes like he had. Atop the bluff stood the small figures of the tax

collector and the dwarves, thoroughly hornswoggled each.

Jasp grinned and doffed his cap to the tax collector. “Have fun with the angry dwarves!”

he shouted up. That was that taken care of. He turned his attention back to the spikes. They

stretched away radially in every direction.

Just what was this place, and what new dangers would Jasp Diamond find here?