The Dragons of Ash and Smoke (Tales from the New Earth Book 5) (5 page)

Well, I'll just have to
smile less, I suppose, he told himself.

“
It's
different, I have to admit. Um, why do I look so angry when I smile?”

Opheilla squeezed his arm
gently.

“
It
is the scarring, I'm afraid. The damage was quite severe. I managed
to save your eyes and regrow your skin, but some things are beyond
even the powers of the gods. Or perhaps they simply chose not to
erase the scars. Forgive me, but this is the best that I could do.”

Simon hastened to reassure
her.

“
Please
don't apologize. You've given me back my life.” He moved his
legs under the quilt. “I can walk, talk, see. It is more than I
could have hoped for and you have my eternal gratitude. Really.”

Stanis, who had been
glowering a bit as the cleric apologized, now smiled widely.

“
Now
that is the wizard that I remember,” he exclaimed. “Think
of the positives, lad, and get on with it, I say. And who doesn't
like to show off a few battle scars, hmm? Why, I've got this lovely
one that I show off to the ladies on my...”

“
That
will do, Stanis,” Opheilla interrupted him primly. “We
don't need any of your intimate war stories, thank you.”

Simon grinned in spite of
himself and the dwarf winked at him over the cleric's shoulder.
Apparently neither of them was bothered in the least by his twisted
smile and that cheered him up a bit.

“
Now,
do you feel strong enough to walk a short distance today?” the
cleric asked him. “I know that you just woke up, but we've been
turning you to avoid bedsores for a long time now, and it would do
you a world of good to get up and stretch your muscles.”

“
Absolutely,”
Simon said gamely. “I'd actually like to look around. I've
never toured a dwarven city before.”

Stanis laughed and crossed
the room to a pair of stone doors that were built into the wall. He
opened them and Simon could see many colorful clothes hanging in
there. The dwarf stood looking at them and stroking his beard.

“
What's
your favorite color, lad?” he asked over his shoulder.

“
Um,
blue?”

“
Ah.
In that case, I have just the robe for you.”

Stanis reached into the
closet and pulled out a long robe the color of an early morning sky.
He carried it back and laid in at the end of the bed.

“
We've
had some light shoes made to your size along with the clothing,”
Opheilla told him and looked at Stanis.

He grumbled a bit but
returned to the closet and fished out a pair of leather shoes.

In the meantime, Simon
carefully pulled back the quilt and twisted around until he sat on
the edge of the bed. The cleric stood up and moved back to give him
some room.

“
Don't
rush it, young wizard,” she cautioned. “If you feel any
dizziness when you stand up, take a moment and let it pass.”

“
Yes
ma'am,” Simon said with a grin and Opheilla laughed lightly.

As the dwarves watched him
closely, the wizard pushed himself slowly to his feet. His legs felt
a bit rubbery but his head was clear and he stood still for a few
seconds to get used to his own weight.

His body looked even more
shocking now that he was standing in the light. His network of scars
was intricate, almost an artist's rendering of a web that covered his
skin. Simon touched his face and looked at the cleric.

“
Will
the scars ever fade?”

She narrowed her eyes and
tilted her head slightly as she looked up at him. Then she nodded
slowly.

“
I
would say yes. Time is the great modifier, young man. All scars fade
in time, some more than others. The marks on your body are quite fine
and will probably remain unchanged, for the most part. But the
thicker scars on your face will smooth out in the months to come.”

When Simon smiled a bit,
she held up a hand quickly.

“
Do
not expect too much though. Hope for the best but try to accept that
the way you look now may well be permanent. I'm sorry, but I simply
cannot predict how much they will fade.”

“
I
understand. Thank you, Opheilla. I much prefer it when people don't
sugarcoat bad news.”

He carefully turned and
picked up the robe. After pulling it on over his head, Simon smoothed
it out, slipped on the shoes and sighed in relief.

“
Well,
so far so good,” he told the dwarves. “Now what?”

“
Now,
lad, I think we'll take you for a short walk,” Stanis said
jovially. “Not too far or our revered cleric will have my head.
But let's give you a quick tour of the area, shall we?”

“
Yes
please,” Simon replied eagerly. “I'm really curious about
this place.”

“
Since
we dwarves love to show off our accomplishments,” Opheilla told
him with a laugh, “then we will happily show you as much as we
can. But at the first sign of weakness, we'll bring you back here.
Walking before running, young wizard.”

Simon nodded meekly and
then followed her slowly out of the room. Stanis walked behind him
and the wizard had a feeling that the dwarf was just waiting for him
to collapse so that he could catch him.

No damned way, he thought
a bit stiffly. I'm not a child, even if I look like one to these
people.

The hallway outside of the
bedroom was very dark and narrow. The walls were brown stone and
towered up over Simon's head, but the hall was only about six feet
wide. Torches flickered and spluttered in brackets every twenty feet
or so, making it hard to see the floor.

The cleric turned to the
right and began to lead the way, walking steadily but not too quickly
so that her patient could keep up.

“
This
part of the city is mostly residential,” Opheilla told Simon
over her shoulder. “However, this corridor is reserved for
those who are recuperating from battle wounds or accidents, as well
as warriors and others who simply need some quiet, contemplative
time.”

Simon nodded as they
passed several closed doors. It certainly was quiet, he thought.
Something else occurred to him.

“
Battle
wounds? Are you people at war?”

She only snorted in
response and Stanis spoke up from behind him.

“
Our
dear cleric is unimpressed with battle, my friend,” he said
jovially. The iron soles of his boots ran against the stone floor and
echoed down the hallway.

“
She
feels that wounds caused by fighting are totally avoidable if only we
hard-headed warriors would simply not engage in battle. An odd
perspective for a dwarf, I must say.”

“
Stanis,”
the cleric growled as she walked ahead. “I exist to heal and to
give comfort. It is insulting to the gods I serve to be wounded for
no better reason than to prove how strong and aggressive you are.”

“
What
did I tell you?” the dwarf said to Simon and winked as the
wizard glanced back at him.

“
But
even if you don't approve of fighting, Opheilla, you must admit that
our recent battles have been necessary.”

She snorted again and kept
walking.

“
Who
are you fighting?” Simon asked as he focused on keeping up with
the cleric. Even as slow as they were walking, his legs were already
beginning to tire and he gritted his teeth, determined to get some
much-needed exercise.

“
Many
of our old enemies have returned,” Stanis told him. “I
suppose that it was only a matter of time, what with magic being back
in the world and all. A few months ago, our most distant patrols
started getting ambushed for the first time in millennia. We took
some casualties before we adjusted our strategies. Now patrols are
larger and better armed and we have squads of hunters searching
remote galleries and ancient dens for the creatures.”

“
But
who or what is attacking you?”

Stanis held up a heavy
hand and ticked off his fingers.

“
Trolls,
ogres, goblins, dark faeries, are some of them. Oh and the blasted
red dragons keep clawing their way down to our tunnels, trying to
reach this city. Not that they have even gotten close,” he
added proudly.

Simon's mind was roiling.
Trolls? Ogres? He felt like he had suddenly been transported into
some sort of bizarre fairy tale.

“
Are
there a lot of them?” he asked curiously.

“
More
of them all the time,” Stanis answered seriously. “We
bring down one and seemingly two more take its place. It's those
damned gods of Chaos that are doing it, of course.”

“
No
argument there,” Opheilla said from up ahead. “They want
all mortal races dead, including our people.”

They emerged from the
hallway into a large cavern and Simon gasped. What met his eyes
brought him to a stumbling halt and he just stared as the two dwarves
stood nearby and watched with mutual amusement.

They were standing in a
very large square. The walls stretched up into darkness far above
their heads and the cavern itself was at least a hundred feet across.
Dwarves. Hundreds and hundreds of dwarves were moving throughout the
area.

The first thing Simon
noticed was the uniform height of all of the people that he could
see. Males, females, it didn't matter. All were about four feet tall.
The women were as bulky and muscular as the men and many were wearing
armor.

The male dwarves were
bearded. Some facial hair was elaborately braided and beaded like
Stanis', while others were simply neatly combed and hanging freely.
Hair color was as varied as it was for humans; black, brown, red and
blond and every shade in between.

Not all of the dwarves
were wearing armor, but the majority seemed to be. The metalwork was
beautiful; most of it intricately formed and some very elaborate.
There were even some dwarves wearing epaulets shaped like the heads
of fantastic beasts, including dragons and other monsters. Most armor
seemed to be made of steel, some of which was inlaid with gold or
other precious metals, but Simon saw dwarves that he guessed were
quite high ranking who were wearing armor made of silver, some with
golden chest plates. It was very impressive.

There were others in the
constantly moving crowd wearing regular clothing, mostly cloth dyed
in bright, cheerful colors. Some wore leather aprons and, when Simon
asked, Stanis told him that these were tradespeople.

“
Some
are smiths or weavers,” the dwarf told him in a low voice. “A
few are brewers; quite a respectable trade among my people.”

“
Aye,
the boys do love their beer,” Opheilla said in a disapproving
tone.

Stanis gaped at her.

“
Gods,
cleric, don't let anyone else hear you speak of beer like that! It is
what has kept our civilization together all these years.”

Opheilla narrowed her eyes
and gave him a hard look and then turned away.

Stanis grinned at Simon
and began pointing out several shops that were built into the walls
of the large cavern.

“
That
there is a tailor's shop,” he began and indicated the sign
chiseled in the stone over the entrance.

“
Beside
it is a market. We grow all of our own food, of course, but we were
happy to trade with your old friends in Nottinghill because, to be
honest, mushrooms and other plants that we can grow without sunlight
do become a bit boring after a while. Greens from the surface were a
nice change. We do grow fruits using magical lanterns that imitate
sunlight, but only a few varieties. The lanterns were created ages
ago and we don't have that many of them. Unfortunately, the secret to
their construction was lost. We're hoping that the new settlement
will produce enough crops to begin trading with us again.”

Simon nodded as he
listened in fascination.

“
What's
that one?” he asked and pointed at a cheerful sign that was
painted red, blue and yellow.

“
A
book store. A place in which you will never find our friend here,”
Opheilla answered and looked significantly at Stanis, who barked out
his harsh laugh.

“
Aye,
that's true enough. What I need to learn from books, I already know,”
he said with a shrug.

“
We
are always learning,” the cleric told him. “Those who
cannot learn new things have closed their minds to new ideas.”

“
Just
out of curiosity,” Simon interjected, before they began
arguing. “I haven't seen any children anywhere. Are they not
allowed into this part of the city?”