Dragonvein (27 page)

With conflict and indecision contorting his face, Birger glanced briefly over to Ethan and the others. No one said a word.

Once again he gazed down at his helpless friend. “Forgive me,” he whispered, moving the blade away from the dwarf’s throat and instead placing it directly over his heart.

“You will doom us all,” said Rumhold. His voice was clear and without a hint of fear.

“I pray you are wrong.”

Birger plunged the dagger hard down. Rumhold gasped and clutched at his sleeves, but after only a few seconds went limp.

For a long moment Birger lay motionless on top of Rumhold’s body. Eventually, he rolled to one side and onto his back.

Ethan started toward him, but Jonas caught his arm.

“Give him a moment.”

The dwarf clambered to his knees and placed his head on Rumhold’s lifeless body. He remained like this for several minutes, his body shaking from a series of great sobs. Finally, he sat up and struggled to his feet. The tears on his face had mingled with blood from the wound to his scalp, creating a grotesque kind of war paint. His pants and boots were completely saturated.

“Are you all right?” asked Ethan, knowing full well what a damn fool question that was.

Birger blinked at him. “I’ve known Rumhold since I was a small child. My father was one of his first teachers. That I was forced to take his life has broken my heart. But he left me with no other choice. I will have to find a way to live with what I have done.”

“Can you continue?” asked Jonas.

He nodded. “My injuries are not as bad as they might seem.” Hobbling over to his pack, he retrieved a small phial of green liquid and poured a few drops of this over each of his wounds. Once finished, he tossed the phial over to Ethan. “You may need this. It will heal minor cuts and scrapes in hours.”

Ethan thanked him and stuffed it inside his pack.

“We should go quickly,” Birger told them. He picked up his axe and attached it to his belt. “The fight may have attracted attention.”

As he stepped toward the entrance to the tunnel, Jonas cleared his throat.

“I don’t want to be indelicate,” he said. “But are you going to leave your dagger behind?”

Birger glanced back at the body of his dead friend. “When they find him, my dagger’s presence will tell them it was I who killed Rumhold…not one of you. If there is to be any hope, it cannot be believed that you have spilled dwarf blood.”

“I understand,” remarked Jonas thoughtfully.

“I’m truly sorry about your friend,” said Ethan.

Birger frowned at him. “I am a murderer of my own kind now. I just hope that my crime is worth it.”

His words struck Ethan to his core. He felt as if a massive burden had been dropped onto his shoulders. It was one thing to talk about fighting evil and self-sacrifice. But Birger had showed him the true meaning of sacrifice. He suddenly longed to disappear completely, and found that he could not bear to look at the dwarf…not even for a moment.

Silently, they walked to the tunnel.

Once through the narrow entrance, the path widened considerably. However, unlike the passages that had brought them to Elyfoss, this one was unlit. Birger produced a silver rod with a round green stone on one end. He held this aloft. Light immediately began emanating from its core, illuminating the way.

“Interesting torch you have there,” said Markus.

“A toy,” remarked Birger. “Nothing more.”

“Useful though,” said Jonas.

“We won’t need it by tomorrow,” he told them. “The tunnels are lit by shantara stone.”

Jonas raised an eyebrow. “Really? How do your people dig through it?”

“Such things are no challenge for us,” he replied. “Our tools are far superior to anything you humans possess.”

“What’s shantara stone?” asked Ethan.

“It’s like a diamond,” answered Markus. “Only it glows. Hardly anything can break it. You won’t see it much in Lumnia, mainly because it doesn’t come in small pieces. You have to cut it from much larger rocks. Most mines can’t even lift them from the ground, let alone cut pieces off. And as for digging tunnels through the stuff…forget it.”

“You have some experience in mining?” asked Birger.

“Some,” Markus affirmed. “A long time ago when I first arrived.”

“I thought most human miners were slaves.”

“They are,” said Markus.

Birger nodded with understanding. “Slavery is a dreadful practice. Dwarves would never do such a thing. Not even to a human.”

“It wasn’t always like that,” Jonas said. “In the time of the mages,
all
people were free. Slavery was outlawed.”

Birger picked up his pace. “Let us hope that those days will soon return.”

Chapter Nineteen

“
W
ake up, sweetheart.
Time for breakfast.”

Kat smiled at the thought of sausage and eggs. But she wasn’t ready to open her eyes. Not just yet. The bed was too warm and soft.

“Please, mother,” she whined, burying her face in the pillow. “Just a few more minutes.”

“Wake up.”

Kat groaned. “Just a little while longer. I’m still tired.”

“Wake up, Kat.”

Slowly, the dream faded. But another voice was now demanding her attention.

“Wake up, sleepy head.”

Kat forced her eyes open. Lady Thora’s granddaughters, Asta and Maile, were lying on either side of her, grinning and giggling.

Asta was the younger of the two, with a fair complexion and curly red hair. Her frame was nearly as thin as a human girls might be. By contrast, Maile was far stouter, with thick black hair and olive skin. Both girls were still in their nightgowns and caps.

“Come on, Kat,” said Asta. “Breakfast is ready.”

She covered her face with her hands. “I don’t suppose there’s any sausage and eggs, is there?”

Asta mimicked a retching sound. “Yuck!”

“How do you know, until you tried it?”

“No burned animal flesh for me, thanks,” chipped in Maile.

Kat rolled on her side and pulled the blanket over her head.

“Get up,” insisted Asta.

Kat shook her head defiantly.

At once, both girls began poking her sides and tickling her arms. Kat jerked and jostled in a useless attempt to fend them off.

“All right! All right! I’m up!” she said, finally yielding.

The girls slipped out of the bed and skipped across the room to the door.

“We’ll meet you downstairs,” Maile said. “Grandmother’s already left, so she said we could play all day today.”

Kat waited until she heard the door close before peeking her head out from beneath the covers. This had been the first night she had spent away from her friends since they’d left Miltino. She had protested at first, but Lady Thora pleaded with her, saying that her granddaughters had begged her to ask and would be extremely disappointed if she refused.

Her first thought now was to wonder if Ethan had noticed she hadn’t returned to the manor. Getting out of bed, she stood in front of the dresser mirror, straightening her back and placing her hands on her hips.

“He’s never going to notice you,” she hissed angrily. “Not looking like this.”

She ran her hands along her sides, longing to feel the curves of maturity, but experiencing only disappointment. A sudden urge to smash the mirror was only just resisted.

Feeling depressed, she removed a pair of pants and a shirt from the wardrobe. Hanging nearby was a lovely blue dress Lady Thora had made for her. But while she appreciated the gesture, Kat had no intention of wearing something that just hung there loosely off her shoulders. When Thora had first showed it to her she had said that it was a proper way for a young woman to dress. Even so, how women could stand to be in such things was beyond Kat.

She reached in to feel the fabric. It was soft and smooth. Was she perhaps being unreasonable? She tried to picture herself in it, but it had been more than three years since she had worn anything other than clothes fit for a thief.

“I bet Ethan would like it,” Thora had told her.

This had embarrassed Kat to no end.

Her thoughts were broken by Asta calling out from downstairs.

“Come on, Kat. Hurry up.”

She liked Asta and Maile very much, and enjoyed the time she spent with them. Though they acted a bit childish at times – in fact most of the time – they were fun to be around.

Since she had first arrived at the house, Lady Thora had made a point of seeing to it that the girls had plenty of time to play together. It had been a long time since Kat had done anything so frivolous as playing. At first she found it difficult joining in. Soon though, she was laughing and giggling as much as the other two while looking for clever places to hide or running through the halls trying to get away from whoever was ‘
it’
at the time.

All this reminded Kat of her life when she was a little girl; sometimes thinking about it made her quite sad. Asta and Maile would pick up on her mood immediately and do their best to cheer her up. Occasionally they would ask her about things in the human world, or what she had done before coming to Elyfoss. Unwilling to tell them that she had been a thief, Kat refused to answer anything about her past – although she did so as politely as possible. Thankfully, the girls didn’t pressure her, so she was never forced to be openly rude.

Though not as vast as the king’s manor, Lady Thora’s home was every bit as elegant and well-furnished. The art on the walls, the intricacy of the fixtures, and the polished silver rails along the broad spiral staircase all indicated a person of great wealth and power. Yet in spite of the lavish nature of her surroundings, the warm way that Lady Thora had opened her home made Kat feel comfortable and relaxed. It was all too easy to forget that only days before they had been running for their lives from the agents of the Emperor.

She made her way downstairs to a small parlor where Asta and Maile were sitting at a round breakfast table. A bowl of steaming porridge and a glass of cold juice had been placed in front of an empty chair. The girls had already started eating when she arrived.

“Sorry,” said Asta. “We couldn’t wait.”

Kat smiled and took a seat. “That’s all right. I eat faster than you anyway.”

After breakfast they played a game of hide and seek, then took turns reading stories from one of Maile’s books. Kat didn’t care so much for this particular activity. Dwarf stories were confusing, and she could never quite get the point to most of them.

When it was time for lunch, Kat suggested that they go to the king’s manor. “You can meet my friends,” she said.

Asta and Maile looked at each other, mouths open and eyes wide.

“What’s wrong?” Kat asked. “I’m sure Lady Thora won’t mind.”

“We can’t,” said Asta, wringing her hands. “Grandmother said we should stay inside today.”

“Besides,” added Maile. “It’s much too far. I don’t feel like walking all that way. Let’s just stay here.”

It was obvious that the girls were becoming increasingly uneasy.

“What’s going on?” Kat asked. “You can tell me.”

The pair looked at each other again, then said in unison: “Nothing.”

“Tell me!” Kat repeated, this time more forcefully.

Asta lowered her eyes and kicked her feet. Maile also tried to look away, but Kat stepped forward and bent down to her eye level.

“I…I…,” Maile stammered. “It’s not our fault. We overheard grandmother talking. She made us promise not to tell you.”

A chill shot down Kat’s spine. “Tell me what?”

“Promise that you won’t be angry.” Maile was nearly in tears. “Promise, and I’ll tell you.”

Kat took a deep breath. “I promise.”

“They’re gone,” she said.

Kat’s eyes narrowed. “Who’s gone?”

“Your friends. You know, Ethan, Markus and Jonas. They left Elyfoss last night with Birger. Asta and I heard grandmother talking to my uncle about it right after bed-time when we came back down for a glass of water. She made us swear not to tell you.”

Kat felt like she had been punched in the stomach. She staggered back, her head swimming.

“I’m sorry,” said Asta. “We wanted to tell you. But we swore not to. Please don’t be angry.”

Tears were streaming down both girls’ cheeks.

Something inside Kat snapped. “They had no right!” she screamed. “They had no right to leave me behind!”

Maile reached out to comfort her, but Kat brushed past and set off at a run toward the front door.

“Please wait,” Maile begged. “They’re already gone.”

Kat did not even hear her. She burst through the door and raced as fast as her legs would carry her to the king’s manor.

Normally the guards at the entrance would let her in without question. But this time they barred her way.

“Lady Thora is occupied at the moment,” one of them said. “She left word to say you must wait for her at the house until she returns.”

“I’m not here to see Lady Thora,” said Kat, trying her best to sound calm. “I just need to get something from my room.”

The guard crossed his arms and shook his head. “I’m sorry, but whatever it is will have to wait until Lady Thora is finished in council.”

With fingernails biting into her palms, Kat forced a smile. “Of course. If you see her, please tell her I came by and that I’ll see her later.”

The guard nodded, watching closely as she headed back in the direction of Lady Thora’s house. However, once safely out of sight around the corner of the next block, she stopped and placed her back flat against the building. Her heart was pounding and her breaths came in shallow gasps.

How could he do this to
me
?

It took her a full minute to regain her composure. Then, once she was sure that no one was looking at her, she concentrated hard on a point deep inside her mind. Within seconds Kat could feel a heat and power throbbing to the rhythm of her pulse. When she was badly afraid, this only took a fraction of a second to happen, but now the process was taking quite a bit longer. Only when she was certain that it was completely done did she step out from behind the building and walk back toward the king’s manor.

The guards were talking quietly about how they wished the council would hurry up and decide what to do so they could get back to their regular duties. They had no idea that Kat was walking silently in front of them.

The doors were shut. If she tried to open them the guards would notice and the spell would be broken. She’d be caught for sure then. She moved along the building a short way and tugged at one of the first story windows, but it was locked on the inside. There was an open window on the second floor, but the walls were too smooth to climb.

It was hard to stop herself from crying out with frustration. Normally she did this sort of thing under the cover of darkness. But it was never dark in Elyfoss. She looked left and right. The manor was massive. It would take way too long to search the entire ground floor for an unlocked window.

The front door opened and three dwarf women walked out. The guards snapped to attention as they passed, then relaxed again the moment they were on the avenue. Slowly the door shut with a muffled thud.

That’s it
, Kat said to herself.

Creeping close to the guards, she crouched down between the pair of them. She knew this was risky. If someone looked directly at her with too much curiosity or intensity, it might cause the spell to break. It was how that oaf Durst had caught her.

“What was that?” asked the guard on the left. He glanced briefly down in her general direction.

The other guard looked across at him, but his eyes were passing over her head.

Don’t look down. Don’t look down. Don’t look down,
she repeated over and over in a silent prayer.

“I don’t see anything,” he said.

“I could have sworn…” His companion shrugged. “I guess it was nothing.”

The door opened again. This time a young male dwarf and an older woman stepped out. Once again the guards snapped to attention. Kat waited just long enough for the way to be clear, then scuttled through. It began to close just as she was safely inside.

She gave a brief smile of satisfaction. Jeb would have been proud.

After hurrying up the stairs, she headed straight to Ethan’s room, still clinging to the vain hope that the girls might have been wrong. But they weren’t. His room was empty. So was Markus’.

The hollow ache in the pit of her stomach turned into a sharp pain. She fell to her knees, weeping uncontrollably.

A stern female voice sounded. “What are you doing here?”

Kat glanced up to see a dark haired dwarf woman with a broom in her hand standing in the doorway. She was looking very displeased.

“Answer me,” the woman snapped.

The sorrow tearing away at Kat’s insides suddenly boiled up into a blind rage. Jumping to her feet, she shoved the woman aside and stormed her way directly to the council chamber. By the time she reached it, her tears were completely dry. Flinging the door open, she walked boldly inside.

The council was in the middle of what looked to be a highly heated argument. King Halvar was pounding his fist on the table and shouting at the top of his voice - something about liars and traitors.

A sudden hush fell over the room as Kat appeared.

Halvar then found his voice again. “What the bloody hell is she doing here?” His face was bright red and his knuckles scraped and bruised from pounding them on the stone table.

Lady Thora sprang up and was at Kat’s side in an instant. “Come with me, child.”

“Why did you do it?” Kat shouted at her, ignoring all else.

Thora leaned close to whisper in her ear. “Not here. Please. I’ll explain everything later, I swear I will.”

“Will someone answer me?” demanded Halvar. “Why is this child here?”

“She’s upset, my king,” explained Thora. “And for good reason, as you well know. I’ll take her back to my home and return as soon as I am able.” She gave the assembly a slight bow. “I’m sure you can all shout and yell at each other perfectly well without me for a while.”

Before the king could say another word, she ushered Kat from the chamber and closed the door. “You shouldn’t have come here,” she said.

Kat’s eyes were still blazing. “Don’t you dare tell me what I should or shouldn’t do. You lied to me.”

“Yes,” she admitted. “And if you will just come back to my house, I’ll explain why.”

“Explain to me now.” Kat crossed her arms defiantly.

Thora sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. “My dear, if you don’t come with me right away, we will both end up in a whole world of trouble.”

“Fine. But I want answers as soon as we get there.”

As they exited the manor, the guards gazed at Kat in shock and alarm.

“How did you get in here?” one of them demanded.