Chapter Ten
“WELL, THIS IS A RAMMING UP THE ARSE without the benefit of oil,” Asdren grumbled.
We stood before a wall of rock that effectively blocked our path.
We’d slept twice more after our intimate moment in the small tunnel.
During that time, we had walked, climbed, rappelled, scaled mighty carvings that had fallen over, killed two dozen or so crawlers, and stumbled into a troll’s bedding area.
Thank the goddess the troll was not bedded down when we arrived.
Throughout all of that, the steady pulse grew stronger.
We were growing closer to the trapped beast. What kind of animal it was, I still had no clue.
The pattern of its whispers was a mystery to me.
Still, it was alive yet. I would find it and help it out of these dismal tunnels.
If we could find our own way out that was.
“So this ain’t supposed to be here?” Narub enquired around a mouthful of dried jerky.
“No.” Asdren returned to his pony to remove the yellowed maps we’d seen just briefly over the past two days.
Nights. Whichever. He guarded them as if they were his sister’s maidenhead.
None of us asked about them, and he did not offer up any explanations.
Kneeling down in the dankness of yet another mine shaft with the light from a lantern, we stared at the webs of lines scrawled with delicate precision on the vellum.
“This was one of the older drifts for volcanic sulfide.” He glanced at us.
“They used it a lot in the old days for explosives, but it’s too unstable.
Blew up half a mining outpost a few hundred seasons ago.
If we can’t move through here, we’ll have to backtrack to the gods’ cavern to pick up the northwest veins, which will take us out near Winterbrecht.
I’d rather not dip into that village. They got some odd fucking ducks floating in their pond if you know what I mean. ”
I did not.
“Is that what the smell is? Sulfide?” I asked as I made my way west to touch a bitterly cold wall formed by a cave-in long, long ago. The pulsations were richer now, steady as always but louder. “These rocks are cold.”
“That’s odd.” He curled the maps tightly, tucked them into his belt, and made his way to me. The others followed. The ponies were content to relax in the corner. “Should be hotter than a whore’s doorknob on a copper night.”
I waved at the rubble. Everyone placed a hand on the boulders. “Yep, it’s cold,” Smuta stated then tipped her yellow head back to look at the top of the cave-in, her hands on her hips. “Up there’s a gap. Not much of one but a gap.”
We all stepped back to inspect the mountain of debris. “Don’t look big enough to wiggle through,” Asdren replied while stroking his beard.
“I can fit,” I said, eyeing the gap with excitement.
When no one said anything, I glanced at my companions.
They were all staring at me as if I had grown two extra ears.
“I can fit. It looks narrow enough for someone who is not as…” Smuta crossed her arms under her breasts. “So substantially bosomed.”
She snorted and slapped my arm. Hard. “You and your fancy elf words. Okay, my knockers won’t fit, nor will Asdren’s fat arse. But how do you figure you’ll get back to us if the other side is straight down?”
“Easily enough. We have ropes in our packs that we have used countless times. Once I’m at the top, I will toss aside enough rubble to get a dwarf through.”
The mysterious hum pulled at me strongly.
“And the ponies?” Asdren asked, his stout arms folded over his leather chest plate.
Oh. Oh shite. “I had not thought of them. Let me look first.”
The four Sable Legion members all spoke to each other in Dwarvish.
I picked up the words “climber,” “skinny,” and “smart,” which made me feel proud.
Asdren looked me over top to bottom and then exhaled so hard his mustache hairs shook.
It was rather cute, but I would never say so to him.
Not in front of the other dwarves, at least.
“Fine, you go up, you look around, and then you haul your scrawny arse back down here. Don’t get any fancy ideas of going off alone. I know you got this lost beast stuck in your head, but this is not the time to be wandering around by yourself,” Asdren told me, his blue eyes deadly serious.
“I will only look,” I vowed. He passed me a piton, a small hammer, and a length of rope.
“When you get to the top, you drive that spike into the top of the arch that we can see. Then tie the rope to the piton. Make a tight knot like I showed you. When it’s secure, you toss the rope down to us so we can tie it off for a safer repel.
Hey, I mean it, Chirp. No ferreting off into whatever lies on the other side.
I swear on my mother’s hairy chin if you do, I will haul your breeches down and spank you like the bratty kid you swear not to be. ”
I felt a warmth settle deep in my groin at the thought of his hand on my bare backside.
“Okay, you two stop staring at each other like you’re going to fuck and get your arse up there before we all die from old age,” Smuta barked from our right.
I nodded. Asdren seemed less than willing to let me go up, but within moments, I was scaling the rocks.
It was slow work. Much of the slide was unstable, so things would shift about and then roll down to the others, sending them scurrying and cussing.
The closer I scaled to the gap, the cooler the air wafting down over my sweaty face.
“Doing good, Chirp. Watch that gravel. Nice move. You’re turning into a fine boulderer!” Asdren shouted as I moved slowly to the top. Once there, I took a moment to catch my breath as icy cold air blew over me.
“The air is very cold on the other side,” I called down, braced precariously on a craggy rock that seemed secure but could be a death trap.
That was a lesson the dwarves had pounded into my head as we had moved through the mines, tunnels, and caverns.
Going up was dicey but coming down a rockslide was more dangerous.
“I’m guessing that the shifting stones have opened up a wider crevasse from the top down. The glaciers move around with a slide, opening up pits and cracks that go down right to the lava pits. Get that piton into the archway,” Asdren yelled.
Settling down atop the rock, I pulled the metal spike from my belt, found the small hammer, and started driving the piton into the stone.
Dust flew, caught in the icy winds, making me cough lightly.
The spike went in easier than I imagined it would.
I sat back, smiling at my work, and picked up the hum.
It was much stronger now. The steady rolling waves suddenly spiked.
I felt the surge as an alarm response of some sort.
I hurried to tie off the rope to the piton and then secured it around my middle before tossing what remained down the slide. The twins gathered it up and tied it to Newt’s saddle. The surge of mental awareness from the beast settled back into a torpid hum.
“Chirp, shake that look from your face and focus. Look inside and tell me if you can see. If not, we’ll try to get a lantern up to you somehow,” Asdren called out, his booming voice tugging from the call of whatever lay wounded and or dying nearby.
“Yes, I will,” I replied as I moved up, stone digging into my knees and hands, as I lay down atop the rubble and began wiggling like a snake.
The cold wind made my eyes water. There was no smell of ore or the stink of sulfur wafting over my face.
Just bitter, cold air. Fresh air. Cold, yes, so cold it made my head ache, but fresh.
Eyes closed for a moment, I let the wash of clean air cleanse my sinuses.
The head pain from being so high up had eased as had the soreness in my shoulder.
Mostly. Using my knees and elbows, gut flat on the heap of rock and rubble, I stuck my head into the gap.
The hum grew in intensity. The cavern on the other side was bathed in muted light, rays of it, slim glimmers through clear ice overhead.
I drew in an icy breath then let it out in a small cloud of steam.
Down below in a cave that dwarfed the ones we had traveled through so far was a scene of death and carnage.
Skeletons of smallish people, dwarves I was sure, lay thrown asunder amid the massive bony framework of a dragon.
“By Danubia,” I murmured as I gaped at the huge creature’s wings spanning the width of the great bridge of Ballybar, a large iron spear lodged in its skull. The murmur was now so loud it made me grimace. I slid back out, breathing hard, and rubbed at my temples.
“There is…a dragon. Dead.” I shouted down as I massaged my throbbing head. “Something else is down there…the hum is…I cannot shake it. Something lives in there.”
“Quiet!” Asdren bellowed at his fellow sellswords.
The announcement of dragon bones had sent them into a froth.
Bones from a dragon were exceptionally valuable as they were beyond rare.
“Chirp, you need to verify what you seen. Look for a doorway in there that we can use. We’ll worry about the dragon after we gain access. Beiro, you feeling okay up there?”
“Yes, fine. I am fine. Let me look.” I dashed at the tears and wiggled my shoulders back into the gap.
The ice light glinted off old weaponry and armor, the helms holding skulls with gaping eyeholes.
The dragon had torn the dwarves asunder, tossing them about like straw dolls, until one had managed to fell the mighty beast. Bards would have sung songs of his bravery if he or she had managed to escape the cave.