Dwarven Steel

by D. L. Harrison

  I suppressed a sigh, this should be fun…

  Chapter Eleven

  We’d checked five yesterday, which meant there were six left.

  The whole time we were doing it my brain itched as if I was missing something obvious. I didn’t know much, since I couldn’t ask questions, or even talk. I was just Katherine the guard after all. But as we went to the other sites, something was bothering me, and I felt like it was obvious. We were on the fifth one of the six left when I closed my eyes, and tried to think it through. What did I know?

  But all I knew was that the first victim was attacked just over three weeks ago. Three weeks ago, what was I doing three weeks ago? My eyes widened as it hit me. I bit my lip, but I felt like I was going to explode. It was probably stupid, but I slid closer to Holmarra, who looked at me curiously.

  I asked, “This is probably a stupid question, but did anything happen three weeks ago here? A change besides the first death?”

  Holmarra frowned, but she didn’t seem to mind my question. But then, dwarven royalty weren’t narrow minded arrogant entitled asses.

  “No, there’s changes all over the kingdom all the time. But here where the attacks have happened? The last change was sixty years ago, when we opened the southwest mine and it got flooded. The foreman made an… error in judgement, and we had to close the mine.”

  Right, dwarves hated water.

  “You mean the tunnel right next to where the first death was? The one fenced off?”

  Lynn frowned, and Bryce glared and snapped, “Keep your mouth shut, she just said it happened sixty years ago, are you stupid? Just do your job.”

  Damnit, but three weeks ago was when the earthquakes happened. Suppose the shadow castle wasn’t the only thing the earthquakes had freed?

  I cleared my throat, in for a penny and all, “Yes, but those earthquakes three weeks ago, I assume you made sure that didn’t do any damage to the structure in the city?”

  Holmarra nodded, “Of course, we’re very careful of such things, and check all tunnels and city caverns.”

  I looked at Bryce who looked ready to explode, and said, “All of them, even the abandoned mine tunnels? I don’t suppose anyone went into the southwest mine, the one filled with water, to check and see if anything changed?”

  Gerard was frowning at me now, but I was past caring. I wasn’t cut out to be a guard that kept my mouth shut, it wasn’t like the king could fire me, and as long as Lynn was alive everyone could go to hell with their judgments. Especially when I had information no one else did, except maybe Gerard.

  Sanath cursed quite fluently, and then said, “No, as a policy we don’t risk lives to check on abandoned tunnels and mines. In hindsight we should have, mine full of water, water magic, but we were blinded by our traditions, and none of the deaths happened in there.”

  No, just right in front of it, but there was no point in saying that. Whatever it was, it probably caught the first victim right as it came out of the tunnel for the first time.

  Brice sneered, “Perhaps, you could even be right with that bit of supposition, but it doesn’t make a damned difference. The creature is out now, and it’s hunting dwarves and hiding among them. Only our magic will find it, so keep your mouth shut and let us work.”

  That was a big assumption on his part, all the kills were near the western tunnels on this side of the city, there was a very good chance it was using the tunnel as a lair. After all, as a creature of water magic it probably liked the flooded mine. But I knew trying to argue wouldn’t do any good at all, so I kept my mouth shut, again. For now. There was no way I’d be able to talk them into checking it out, and despite my newfound ability to speak I wouldn’t abandon my post with Lynn to check it out myself.

  I also noticed that Gerard looked angry as hell, but not at me. He glared at the noble, and although Bryce didn’t notice, it gave me a warm feeling in my stomach, and helped me swallow any retort. For a moment, I thought he might punch him. Or maybe just hoped.

  I thought about it for the rest of site five, and the final site we checked, but didn’t come up with anything new. I still had lots of questions, but chasing cold leads seemed like a foolish reason to break silence. I’d wait until I knew more, or something came up. I just hoped that something wouldn’t turn out to be another body.

  Once the mages had all the readings available, we headed for the tavern for a late lunch…

  The tavern was packed again, I didn’t really recognize anyone from the last couple of days, outside of the tavern staff that is. Maybe they were from other towns, here to do business, drop things off, or pick things up. Heck, maybe they were just here to get drunk. I was curious, but after my little outburst earlier it was easier to keep my silence.

  Bryce and Lynn had their heads locked together as they ate, and tried to figure out what was wrong with their spell, while Gerard and I checked out everything else in the room. I was also paying attention to my mind scans, I didn’t even have to think about it anymore. If nothing else, this stint as a guard had elevated my skill there from a bare effort to an almost automatic subconscious response.

  Holmarra and Sanath were there at the table with us as well, waiting for the mages to decide if they could come up with an adjustment quickly, or would need the rest of the day. I could also tell they were rather disturbed by my and Bryce’s butting of heads, though I wasn’t sure what about it had thrown them, the fact that I spoke at all, or the fact that Bryce was such a male organ about it in return.

  Honestly, I was a little surprised they hadn’t gone to check the tunnel already themselves. Maybe it would happen anyway, after they reported to the king. After all, they had a job too, and I was certain part of that was to ensure we didn’t wander about in the wrong places. The dwarves needed our help, but we were in the heart of their civilization, and needing our help didn’t mean they trusted us not to spy or try and figure out their secrets.

  Not that I cared about that.

  I scanned the room again with my eyes, I liked to watch what the dwarves got up to and how it matched their feelings, so different from humans that way. I noticed a young female dwarf, about four foot three, with light brown hair in a simple ponytail, and brown eyes. She’d just come in the door and was walking across the floor, and my eyes followed her as she sat down and ordered some food and drink.

  I kept staring, shocked, because she wasn’t there. I mean, to my empathy and telepathy, she wasn’t there. It wasn’t a mage shield either, because my telekinesis scan felt a flesh and blood person there, instead of a blank spot, so I wasn’t being blocked in the way of a mage. I had no idea how she was blocking me, but I couldn’t look away.

  Dwarves didn’t have the ability to keep me out, none of them did.

  “I don’t know if I found the creature or not, but I think it might be in here eating lunch. Oh, I also know how it hides, it looks exactly like a dwarf.”

  Gerard looked at me, “Are you sure?”

  I… wasn’t. Normally that wouldn’t be an issue, but if I spoke up again and was wrong, it wouldn’t be worth the fallout. I watched her eat, from the corner of my eye, and she gazed at our table a few times. Maybe she was here to check out the people sent after her?

  I focused my telepathy and empathy into a point, and pushed it at her. That accomplished two things. One, I discovered her shield was very similar to my own shields, they were telepathic in nature. Two, she felt my attempt to get into her mind, and stared right at me with narrowed eyes.

  I muttered under my breath, “Oh shit, I think the creature found us.”

  Bryce flashed me a nasty look, and opened his mouth. What he was going to say I’m not sure, since the creature apparently had good enough hearing to hear my muttering from across a loud packed tavern room. Something I knew the dwarves weren’t capable of.

  She jumped up as I stood, Gerard a heartbeat behind me, and fired a lance of ice at me. I caught it with the air, which I realized a split second later wasn’t necessary, her magic was
n’t holding it together anymore, it had just been used to create and launch it.

  I sent it right back at her, and she cursed and dove to the side, came up in a roll, and ran for the wall. I guided the spear at her, intending to pin her down and get answers, but when it got close it simply melted and splashed her back as she ran into the stone wall in the back of the tavern.

  She won, and the wall lost, and the tavern was absolute pandemonium as a bar fight started.

  I bounced on my toes, clearly torn, I wasn’t allowed to leave Lynn, “Well, are we going after it?”

  Holmarra said, “Yes! Move!” and took off after it.

  Gerard said, “Follow her, I’ll take behind the nobles.”

  I ran for the hole in the tavern wall, and twisted and ducked through it. It was a strange and frustrating chase, since I could have teleported ahead in ambush, but at the same time couldn’t leave the group. I could see Holmarra just a dozen feet ahead, and I could feel Lynn and Bryce behind me lagging behind a bit as we chased the young dwarf female that was no dwarf.

  I couldn’t leave them behind, and I also felt protective toward Holmarra. If she caught the imposter without us to assist I knew it wouldn’t end well at all. The situation seemed totally absurd, as we chased the creature west.

  I kept trying to grab her with telekinesis, and just hold her still. It wasn’t working for some reason, though I wasn’t sure if it was her water magic that made my mental grip slide off of her, or if it was her own telekinesis. She had telepathy at the very least, I wasn’t sure if she had the rest of my powers. I doubted it, it seemed wrong, and it didn’t feel like telekinesis that was fighting me off.

  She was just too slippery to get a hold of. Like trying to stand up in a fast-moving river, perhaps she had a natural magic water shield which flowed around her body. I had no proof of that, but that’s what it felt like. Whatever it was, she wasn’t using it in the tavern until the fight started.

  As we got close to the warehouses Holmarra screamed, “Guards, stop her!”

  The guards came out, ran to intercept her, and pulled their swords. The first one yelled halt, but the young dwarven lookalike didn’t even slow down. The guard lunged with his sword leading, but the creature swung its arm which was suddenly sheathed in ice, knocked the sword to the side, and then shouldered into the guard, sending him flying back into another guard. They fell together in a tangle of arms and legs as she kept running.

  I winced. Well if I couldn’t grip her, perhaps I could smash her? I hit the creature hard in the back of the legs with telekinesis, a stabbing strike. It was blunted by that water shield I was assuming was there, but not as effectively as my grabs slipped off. There was a loud crack of bone, followed by more cracks that made me wince. The creature fell forward into a roll, and when she finished the roll back up to her feet, her legs looked whole and she kept running.

  What the hell was this thing, her healing made super healing look like a joke. I’d literally crushed part of her bones with that strike, and she’d healed in the time it took her to forward roll back up to her feet. She looked over her shoulder at us, a look of fear and anger on her face.

  Then she’d reached her destination and dove over the fence, and ran into the closed flooded mine. I stopped running as Holmarra did, and kept a wary eye on the tunnel entrance as the others caught up. I wondered if Bryce would think it a good idea to check it out, or was even this not enough proof of where the creature’s lair was?

  Lynn asked, “Should we go in?”

  Bryce shook his head, “That wouldn’t be wise, she’s a creature of water magic surrounded by her element in her own lair. Let’s set up a trap instead. One that should trap her when she ventures out again.”

  I sighed, she probably heard that. If she could hear a whisper across a room of rowdy dwarves, she probably definitely heard it. Still, I had to admit it wasn’t a good plan to race in there, he was right about that. The dwarves were worthless in water, and I couldn’t sense her telepathically, or kill her quickly with telekinesis. I wasn’t too thrilled with the idea of going diving when she could probably turn the whole place into a frozen wasteland, even if I could teleport out. Maybe at some point it would come to that, but things weren’t that desperate yet.

  Bryce and Lynn set up, this time carving symbols on the ground outside the fence. It looked complicated and it took them a while. Once they were set up, Bryce and Lynn spoke the language of magic in unison. I supposed it would be cooler if I could actually feel the magic, but when they finished I couldn’t tell anything had changed.

  Holmarra said, “That feels warm.”

  Bryce nodded to her, “You can probably feel the fire magic. We used fire and air magic, it should contain her when she tries to leave, and will warn us when the trap has been sprung. In the meantime, I’d like to finish trying to update the spell again, just in case this doesn’t work we’ll be able to find her and see when she comes back into the city.”

  Lynn asked me, “How did you know it was her?”

  I replied, “Her emotions were shielded, mentally shielded. I couldn’t feel her presence in the room. At least we know how she was luring off her victims to a secluded spot.”

  Sanath grunted, “Good point, I will make sure her description and method are distributed to our youth, they’ll be wary of making new friends until the creature is caught. Let’s get you back to the tavern.”

  Holmarra said, “I’ll lead them, you should go tell father. I’m sure he’ll want to place more guards closer to the tunnel.”

  She looked thoughtful for a second, and added in a firm tone, “And perhaps a siege engine or two.”

  Sanath replied, “Good idea.”

  We headed back to the tavern at that point, at a brisk walk.

  Chapter Twelve

  I tossed and turned that night, there was something bothering me about the whole fight earlier in the day. I had no doubt it had been the creature that had killed the young dwarves, but as I thought about the fight, and replayed it in my mind, she’d been scared, and angry. Not calculating at all, or uncaring.

  I had no doubt if she stood and fought in the tavern, many of the dwarves would have died, and perhaps one of us humans as well. She was magically and mentally strong, smart, and cautious. She just hadn’t expected me to pick her out so easily. So, her isolating her victims seemed to me to be more out of fear, than anything else. She didn’t seem to know her own strength, or she was wary for some reason no one else knew about but her. Things didn’t fit, and I wished I could have read her mind and emotions so I could pin down the reason for whatever was bothering me.

  It was the way she looked back at us with fear and anger close to the tunnel that finally solidified it in my mind. Whatever she was, it wasn’t a mindless creature or monster hunting dwarves.

  She’d looked back at us as if we were the monsters. Which made no sense at all, but I was finally able to relax my mind, and fall asleep. Still, whatever the reason, she had to be stopped…

  We were walking back to the oldest murder site again the next morning after breakfast. I was sending out my three tier scans, careful to make sure things matched up between the three powers. She’d be invisible to my mind, but my telekinesis would pick her out. She may not shield the same as mages, but a new twist on the same technique would ensure she couldn’t evade me if she was within range. I’d feel a body, but no ping back on my empathy or telekinesis, which would make it obvious.

  If she had her water shield on, it would be even more obvious as my telekinesis was ablated and blunted. The mages hadn’t said anything, so hopefully she was still in her lair. Still, I didn’t want to assume, I had a feeling she’d heard what Bryce said, and I didn’t want to depend on the idea that her lair only had the one exit.

  I had no idea how prophetic that thought would be, until one of the guards ran over and intercepted our group.

  He said, “There’s been another murder, in the vault itself. Donack just reported it moments ago, I was ab
out to report to the king.”

  Holmarra said, “We’ll check it out right now, continue to my father and report.”

  He nodded, and jogged off.

  Sanath asked, “Is that a good idea?”

  Holmarra measured us, and turned back to her brother and said, “Do we have a choice?”

  Sanath sighed, “I suppose not,” he turned to us, “The vault holds our most precious commodity, the crystal dust we use to forge dwarven steel. Do not attempt to take any, follow me.”

  That was blunt enough, and Bryce looked like he’d swallowed something sour. The dwarves could be blunt at times. Okay, they were blunt all the time, but accusing us of being possible thieves was a step further than usual.

  Holmarra asked, “Is you’re spell still working?”

  Lynn replied, “Yes, no one has disturbed it.”

  Silence reigned as we walked down the middle western tunnel, and through the first iron door. We passed the library rooms, and then walked into a fairly large cavern through that second iron door. I guess I got my wish to see what was beyond it.

  The cavern was about fifty by twenty yards, in an oval shape. It was filled with piles of gold, gems, and other precious metals. What really stood out however, was a hill of multicolored crystals that looked to be ground down into the size of sand granules. It was strangely beautiful, like a glimmering rainbow mountain.

  So, that was what the dwarves added to their steel during forging to make the legendary dwarven steel.

  At the end of the cavern, there were a handful of small crevices and cracks. Last but certainly not least, there was a soaking wet dwarven corpse, of an older dwarf right in the middle of the cavern. His face was frozen in horror, and it was obvious he’d been drowned.

  Looks like the creature found another way out.

  While the mages set up their silver plates and other devices around the dwarf, I walked over to the crevices and sent my telekinesis down into them. It went deep, and seemed to connect to a larger natural cave tunnel that went south, which was filled with water.