Council of War (11 page)

"Any sign of the dwarves?" asked Garth.

"Not living," answered Button, "but the captain found a bottomless chasm that he thinks they used to commit suicide. Hundreds of piles of clothes were left alongside the chasm and words were chiseled into the wall."

"What words?" asked Garth.

"The vein is played out," reported the fairy. "There is no more gold to fulfill the quota, but you will have no need for punishment. While life may be precious to some, we can no longer abide under such misery. Let this be the end of it all. It was signed King Drak, and there were some funny carvings underneath it."

"What kind of funny carvings?" asked Natia.

"I will show you," replied Button as she leaped off of Tedi's hand and started using her feet to draw the symbols in the dirt.

"I have seen symbols like that before," mused Garth.

"So have I," nodded Kalina, "but little good that will do us. We saw those symbols in the mines of the dwarves in both Lanto and Dorgun. They use them to specify directions to other miners when they are digging a new tunnel, but I have no idea how to interpret them."

"Nor are we likely to find anyone in Zara who can interpret them," sighed Garth. "It is of little concern anyway. The symbols were probably already on the wall when King Drak wrote his farewell address. At least we finally know what became of the dwarves. It seems that they took the opposite approach from the elves and refused to remain as slaves."

"Karl Gree has also accepted the challenge of leaving Aranak," continued the fairy. "He wants to know where to go and when to leave."

"They should head towards Tyronia," answered Garth. "They are to seek out Sidney Mercado. I am sure that he will aid them. As to when, the sooner the better."

"Should I return there immediately then?" frowned Button.

"No," smiled Garth. "You have done fine and deserve a rest. I will send Bitsy later tonight."

"It might not be bad to make an early night of this anyway," interjected Kalina. "I am still a bit tired from my use of magic in the city."

"The strain of being captive in an enemy city didn't help either," nodded Garth. "We are in no hurry tomorrow. Let's get some sleep and plan our journey in the morning."

The group finished off the stew and cleaned up the campsite before retiring for the night.

It was still dark when Kalina woke up, but the birds were already chirping, and dawn was not far away. She heard no movement in the camp, but her eyes were drawn towards the narrow trail leading to the road anyway. She blinked as she saw the old man silently leading his mule out of the clearing. She wanted to call after him and offer him some food, but she didn't want to wake the whole camp. In that moment of hesitation, Garth began mumbling and tossing about in his sleep. She let the old man go without food.

The chamber was dimly lit, and a dwarf stood with his arms crossed as he stared at the black, gaping rent in the floor. The chasm was almost as long as the huge chamber, and it was too wide to leap across in the center. The dwarf was young, but there was an air of authority about him. That air of authority was certainly not created by his clothing, for the dwarf was dressed in rags comprised of mismatched colors and weaves. On the floor beside the dwarf was a pile of clothes that, while not fit for royalty, were more suitable for a miner. The dwarf unfolded his arms and removed a silver ring from his finger. He bent over and placed the ring on top of the pile of clothes and then rose and crossed his arms again. As the dwarf leader gazed into the maw of the bottomless pit, singing infiltrated the chamber. It was a solemn song, and the words spoke of an ending, not just any ending, but a crucial climax of a way of life.

The singing grew in volume as hundreds of voices echoed through the tunnels of the mine. The leader dwarf felt a shiver race up his spine as the beginning of the column of dwarves appeared at the entrance to the great chamber. The dwarves in the procession were as poorly dressed as the lone dwarf, and each of them carried a pile of clothes. As the singing dwarves entered the chamber, they lined up along the edges of the bottomless chasm and placed their finest clothes at their feet. Those with jewelry removed the rings and necklaces and placed them atop the piles of clothes. Others, who wore no jewelry, placed a well-cleaned tool on the pile in lieu of the silver adornments.

When both sides of the gaping maw were lined with singing dwarves, the leader left his place and walked to a portion of the wall that had been cleaned for the occasion. He bent down and picked up a hammer and chisel and stared at the smooth face of the rock. The only blemishes on the wall were some strange symbols that he had chiseled there a while ago. Stretching up as far as he could reach, the leader started chiseling a farewell message as the rest of the dwarves continued their solemn song. The message was short, and the leader was proficient with his tools. In mere moments the farewell message was set for eternity in the face of the rock. The leader neatly placed the hammer and chisel on the floor and returned to his place alongside the chasm.

"It is done," the leader stated as the singing abruptly stopped.

"Hail, King Drak!" shouted the dwarves.

"We have finished our work here on the Isle of Despair," the king said, "and we will never toil here again. Today we are to take the fateful step from which there is no return. Who among you are ready to follow me?"

To a dwarf they shouted, "Hail, King Drak!"

The king stared into the black void and spit into it. Every dwarf along the edge of the chasm followed the leader's example.

"There will be no noise," declared the king. "No shouting, no talking, no songs. Absolute silence is required. Is that understood?"

The dwarves nodded silently, and King Drak smiled with pride at his people. With one last look into the gaping hole, King Drak turned and walked out of the chamber. The dwarves along the edge of the chasm turned towards the exit from the chamber and began to walk single file behind the king. King Drak led the silent procession through a series of intersections in a climb to a higher level. The king halted as the tunnel ended in a small rectangular room. He stared at the wall in front of him and waved for two dwarves in the procession to come forward. The face of the wall was smooth except for a long horizontal crack near the top, giving the appearance of a large flat, vertical stone with a smaller rectangular one on top of it like a lintel. Two of the male dwarves moved quickly forward to the wall and slid the long rectangular stone to the left. A faint noise echoed through the room, and the king smiled broadly. The two men then put their strength to the large flat surface and pushed. Slowly, the wall slid to the side revealing a recently built tunnel.

Inside the tunnel was a pile of unlit torches. With a nod of the king's head, the column of dwarves walked forward into the new tunnel. The first dwarf picked up a torch and lit it. He handed it to the next dwarf who then became the head of the line. The torch giver lit another torch and counted as dwarves passed by him. He gave a lit torch to each twentieth dwarf until the entire line had passed into the new tunnel. He held the last lit torch while the king entered the tunnel and then the two strong dwarves slid the wall closed. The king reached into an alcove in the tunnel and extracted a square keystone that had been made in preparation for this moment. He stepped onto a low shelf and knelt with the keystone in his hands as the two strong dwarves forced the lintel to the left. When he heard the faint click, he quickly shoved the keystone into the recess vacated by the lintel. He jumped to the floor of the tunnel, and the two strong dwarves released the lintel. The lintel slipped back to the right a bit, but it could no longer go far enough to the right to release the door mechanism, at least not without someone removing the keystone. The king smiled broadly and nodded his appreciation to the two strong dwarves.

The king, the torchbearer, and the two strong dwarves receded into the darkness of the tunnel, the flickering flame of the torch getting dimmer and dimmer until finally everything was black. The blackness seemed to swirl and slowly the symbols on the wall in the chamber with the chasm began to form. The symbols seemed to mutate and pair off in strange ways and then a bell sounded. It was a tiny sound, but it meant danger, and Garth leaped to his feet and grabbed for his sword, but the sword wasn't there.

"Easy," Kalina said with concern. "It's on the other side of you."

Garth looked at his wife uncomprehendingly for a moment and then turned and saw the sword. "Get the others up," he said quietly, but urgently.

Kalina nodded and roused Tedi and Natia, as Garth moved swiftly to the edge of the woods. Tedi woke Morro and pointed to the trees. The elven thief nodded and tapped Natia's shoulder. Natia and Morro dashed to the trees they had hid in once before, while Tedi raced to the side of the clearing opposite Garth. Kalina stood casually in the clearing waiting to see what would happen. Garth saw Kalina standing alone, and he motioned for her to take cover. Instead, the mage walked calmly to the narrow trail leading to the road. Garth grumbled under his breath as he broke cover and raced after his wife. He caught up to her when she stopped to pick up a tiny bell.

"What are you doing?" he scowled softly.

"I was trying to tell you," explained Kalina. "Fakir Aziz just left the camp with his mule. I doubt that he knew that you had booby-trapped the camp last night. He was the one who set off the alarm."

"Why didn't you say something?" growled Garth.

"No one can speak as fast as you can move when you think trouble is brewing," chuckled Kalina. "Speaking of brewing, I was just putting some tea on. Would you like some?"

Garth took a playful swat at Kalina, but she laughed and ducked. She turned and ran back to the clearing with Garth on her heels, and the others expected a marauding gang of bandits to be following them.

"You can all relax now," Garth called to the others. "Kalina's little morning joke is over."

Slowly the warriors came out of their hiding spots, but they were still wary until Kalina explained what had happened. There was a bit of laughter at Garth's expense, but he took it well. While Kalina made the morning meal, Garth stared at the strange symbols that the fairy had drawn in the dirt the previous night. He was so mesmerized by them that he did not hear Kalina asking him to take his plate. Natia finally nudged him to bring him back to reality.

"What is wrong, Garth?" asked Kalina. "You had another dream, didn't you?"

"What makes you say that?" Garth asked defensively.

"You were mumbling in your sleep and tossing about," answered Kalina. "What was it about?"

"Dwarves," shrugged Garth. "Why did you move my sword?" he asked to change the subject. "You know that I depend upon it being where I can reach it."

"I never touched it," replied Kalina.

"Well, someone did," frowned Garth.

"What about the dwarves?" pressed Kalina.

"It was just a dream," snapped Garth. "Let it go."

"Humor us," urged Kalina. "We can use some levity before we start talking about our plans."

"Yeah," agreed Tedi. "I like dwarf stories."

"I think dreams are important," added Natia. "I think it is nature's way of helping us solve problems."

Garth glanced at Natia and shook his head. "It is just your imagination having fun while you sleep," he said.

"So tell us what you imagined," pushed Kalina.

Garth sighed and shook his head in defeat.

"I think it had to do with what Button told us last night," Garth began. "I probably had that on my mind when I went to sleep. Anyway, I saw a huge chamber with a bottomless chasm in it. Hundreds of dwarves came into the chamber singing a song of sorrow and lined up along the edge of the chasm and then the king chiseled that message into the wall. I thought they were all going to jump into the chasm, but they didn't. King Drak led them in a silent procession to another chamber where a secret door was installed to hide a new tunnel. The dwarves had designed some type of blocking mechanism to make it impossible to open the door again from the mine side. The last thing I saw of them was the king and the others receding into the darkness of the tunnel."

"So the dwarves didn't die after all?" Tedi asked with hope.

"It was a dream," scowled Garth. "Don't try to make something out of nothing."

"What does that have to do with the symbols?" asked Kalina. "You were just in a world of your own a moment ago staring at them."

"They were the last thing I saw when the bell woke me up," said Garth. "In the dream they were changing."

"How were they changing?" asked Kalina.

"Like this," Garth said as he picked up a stick.

Garth redrew the symbols, but he altered some and paired some together. There was no logic to his changes, but Kalina's eyes grew wide as she watched her husband draw the new symbols.

"Now those are some dwarfish symbols that I do know," she said in awe. "The first grouping means two score and five. The third grouping is directional and points to the south. The fourth grouping is five score, and the sixth is directional meaning up."

"That leaves two to be deciphered," stated Tedi. "One looks like a pyramid and the other a foot."

"Forty-five pyramid south and one hundred feet up," frowned Natia. "What is that supposed to mean?"

"The dwarves walked up a path when they left the chamber with the chasm," Garth said sheepishly.

"Were there forty-five dwarves maybe?" asked Tedi.

"No," Garth shook his head. "There were hundreds of them."

"Could the pyramid mean some kind of angle?" asked Kalina. "As if the entrance was not directly above the message, but in a different quadrant of the mine?"

Garth stuck his finger into his pocket to discover that Bitsy was gone. He had forgotten that he had sent her to Aranak the night before.

"Rouse Button for me, Tedi," ordered Garth.

"What are you thinking, Garth?" Kalina asked.

"There is a mountain in the Southern mountains," explained Garth. "It is clearly not the largest of the peaks, but it is used as a navigation aid because of its unique shape. It is shaped like a perfect pyramid."