Dwarven Steel

by D. L. Harrison

  “It looks like this might be connected to the flooded mine.”

  Holmarra frowned, “Why would she come this way? It must be far more difficult.”

  To Bryce’s annoyance, I explained how good her hearing was, and that she probably knew the tunnel was trapped. Either way, she was somewhere in the large city right now, unless she retreated back to her lair after killing the old dwarf, but that scenario didn’t seem as likely. I felt an itch to fly around the city cavern, and scan for her, but again I was constrained by my need to stay at Lynn’s side. Besides, if their spell worked this time, I wouldn’t need to.

  Once again, they were set up, this time around victim twelve, and Bryce cast his spell, while Lynn wrote furiously into her ledger while examining the results on the devices. When they were finished, Lynn was grumbling to herself.

  Sanath asked, “What’s the problem?”

  Lynn shook her head, “I don’t know, but I don’t believe these readings will help. It might be the crystals, they have magic don’t they? The readings are a bit… off. They don’t make sense.”

  Sanath asked, “In what way?”

  Lynn replied, “They’re far too strong, they don’t fit the curve the way the rest of the sites have. If I didn’t think the idea crazy, I’d say the crystals were enhancing the water magic somehow.”

  Sanath grunted, “That’s possible. The enchantments our rune-wrights lay down on items are always stronger when done in dwarven steel.”

  I couldn’t help it, bad Katrina and all.

  “Where did the crystal come from?”

  Holmarra shrugged, “We don’t know. We didn’t build this cavern, or the large city one. It’s natural, or was built and abandoned long ago. The crystal was just here, and we built the vault and city around it, and learned how to use it.”

  Sanath grunted, “My sister is correct. Whatever this is, it exists nowhere else in the mountain chain, and although we suspect the demons might have been involved in its creation, we have no proof, and can hardly ask them after we drove them south thousands of years ago.”

  Bryce interjected in an annoyed voice, “Would you like us to put down another spell trap in the back of the cavern, before we test the new tracking spell?”

  I thought it likely where there were two exits, there could be three, but it certainly wouldn’t hurt to block them off as we found them.

  Holmarra and Sanath looked suspicious. It was apparent they were wary of anything we might do in their vault, in a very real way this was the center of their civilization.

  Holmarra finally said grudgingly, “We will allow it.”

  Lynn and Bryce got to work, and the dwarves watched them closely, no doubt comparing their efforts to what was done outside of the water cave. They must have been suspicious the mages would try something, although I don’t know what.

  I sure as hell wasn’t going to tell them that now that I was in here, I could not only teleport here at will from anywhere on the planet, at any time, but that I could probably steal all the gold and magical crystal dust in it, simply by summoning it to me a bit at a time. Yeah, some things are better left unsaid, and are just not wise to speak of.

  Good thing I wasn’t a supervillain, or I’d be an absolute nightmare. A perfect thief. I could even wait a few years, and then do it. The dwarves would never figure out the connection. Of course, I’d never do it, but now that my mind had went there, I could see how my powers would be terrible in the wrong type of person.

  When Lynn and Bryce finished the second trap spell, the dwarves relaxed. I guess their spell looked and felt the same to the dwarves, at least the fire magic part of it, and the writing scribed into the stone floor.

  Then Bryce pulled out the tracker device, and he and Lynn cast the tracking spell together. The same green colored ring, surrounded by a bright red ring. The spell failed again?

  Bryce cursed, and then said, “This is not possible.”

  Lynn’s forehead creased, and she stared at the mountain of crystal sand.

  “Could we run a test on the crystal’s magic?”

  Bryce stared at her a moment, and then his eyes narrowed in thought.

  Sanath said rather suspiciously, “No. I will not let you attempt to learn our secrets.”

  Holmarra looked equally suspicious, but she asked, “Why? To what purpose?”

  Lynn said, “Because the crystal not only enhanced the magic of the creature, but didn’t change the signature at all. I’m starting to believe our tracking spell is actually working perfectly, and worked perfectly yesterday as well.”

  Holmarra grunted, “How could it be working, look at it. There’s just one creature, and the whole ring is lit up.”

  Lynn sighed, “Yes, one creature. I think it’s working, because the creature’s magic and the crystal’s magic are the same. I think the spell is sensing and tracking every single object of dwarven steel in the city, that’s why it’s lit up in every direction. Of course, that’s just an educated guess right now, to prove it we have to run our tests on the crystal dust to isolate its magical signature without any other magic in the mix to throw off the readings.”

  Bryce said, “It’s just a magical signature test, and we won’t learn anything more than what we already suspect is true anyway.”

  Holmarra frowned, “What if you ran the test on a piece of dwarven steel unenhanced by further enchantment, would that work? I am hesitant to allow you to test the crystal directly, but seeing as you’ll have a lot of dwarven steel soon, and out of our hands, I don’t see any harm in that approach.”

  At Bryce’s nod, we left the vault, and walked back out to the main city cavern, where one of the dwarven guards was persuaded to give up his dagger for the duration of the test. He placed it carefully on the cavern’s floor, and everyone watched Bryce and Lynn take out their devices to circle the dagger, and run their magical detection spell for the thirteenth time in three days.

  Lynn shook her head, “It’s a perfect match.”

  Sanath frowned, “So you won’t be able to track the creature?”

  Ugh, that’s what he thought of first? My mind went in another direction. She’d looked at us as if we were the monsters yesterday as she ran from us. Whatever that crystal dust was, it had belonged to her people first. Something about the flooded mine sixty years ago woke her up, and the earthquake let her out. She wasn’t an evil murderous being, she was wreaking revenge against the dwarves for something they’d done in innocence, or even something they hadn’t done at all, but were guilty by association for using the crystal.

  I had no proof of most of that, but it felt right.

  But why one dwarf at a time? She must be vulnerable and scared, but determined, intelligent, and powerful at the same time. This was all speculation, but it shed a whole new light on things. But did that matter? I was the curious one, I wanted to get to the bottom of it and learn the truth. We only had one half of the story, and even the dwarves were missing a big piece of the puzzle. Specifically, what the hell was the origin of that crystal? How could it have any intrinsic magic left after several thousand years?

  But… the dwarves just wanted her dead, and Bryce and Lynn just wanted to kill her so they could claim the dwarven steel. I couldn’t blame them really, she was killing dwarven young after all, and Jendas was about to invade and dwarven steel would make a huge difference in the war. They both had good reasons for just wanting her dead.

  Still. I wanted the truth, I had a feeling the creature wasn’t evil or capricious. But my hands were tied, weren’t they?

  On the other hand, Arella had told me to trust and go with my feelings, was she talking about this situation? She almost had to have been, right? I was supposed to be a guard, and I felt reluctant to rock the boat on this mission. At the very least it would earn the enmity of one of the most powerful nobles in the kingdom. I’d been pushing down my instincts on everything else for this mission the whole time. My attraction and need to touch my husband, my habit of asking questions an
d searching for the truth. It would have been easy to just let it go. But the goddess had said to trust my feelings, and that was all she needed to do to nudge things so they’d turn out the way we both would want them to.

  That meant eventually, I’d be sticking my neck out. But I wasn’t going to just start arguing with everyone either, I didn’t want to make enemies if there was a better way. For now, I’d continue to watch and wait. Of course, the creature got a vote too, and I didn’t see her just sitting down with me and explaining her motivations. But there was a mystery here and I was going to solve it.

  Bryce replied, “No, the spell won’t help, not unless you can remove all dwarven steel from the city. Then there should be two dots, one for the crystal in the vault, and one for the creature.”

  Holmarra snorted, “Not possible, it’s a part of the buildings and forges, and we won’t disarm our guards.”

  Bryce nodded, “Then we’ll have to set traps, and find her another way.”

  Lynn asked, “Are you sure there’s no record of where the crystal came from, or what it is? Without a spell to simply track it down and destroy it, the more we know about the creature the better. Even old lore might help, anything about creatures with water magic.”

  Sanath said, “I don’t think so, but Master Rune-Wright Donack might know of something. He is the keeper of our records and books. But we will not share the secret of how we forge dwarven steel.”

  Lynn replied, “I’m not asking that, and that knowledge wouldn’t help us against the creature anyway.”

  Well, at least someone else was asking questions.

  Sanath nodded grimly after a moment, “Follow me, and we will see him.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  Donack peered at us all with a skeptical look in his eyes when Holmarra finished explaining the situation.

  “What do you suspect?”

  Lynn said, “We’re not sure, but I think any lore related to the crystal’s origin, if there is any, will give us a clue what the creature truly is. All we really know is she’s some kind of shape changer if she can look like a dwarf.”

  I’d speculated a lot more than that, but kept my mouth shut. I had no idea what to do honestly, I needed to somehow talk with the creature, but how could I do that while guarding Lynn, and while everyone else was trying to kill it? I wasn’t convinced it didn’t need to die either, but I was convinced it needed to be the last resort until I learned the truth.

  Donack shook his head, “That is a highly contestable subject. It’s been investigated and researched multiple times since we claimed this area from the demons that inhabited it. Some have even suggested the crystals are demonic in origin, some just believed the demons destroyed something else that caused the crystalline sand. Others believe that the demons like us, found it there and settled here for the same reason we did.

  “The fact is we just don’t know, there is no hidden or lost lore for us to reference. For all we know the killer is a remnant of a water demon race, instead of one of fire and chaos, that was killed off long ago and made extinct. We could guess all day, but there’s no point to it. I suggest if you wish to know, capture the creature and ask her.”

  Bryce scowled, “So there’s nothing?”

  Donack snorted, “There are lots of theories by several of my predecessors, as I said. But it’s all guesswork and none of the theories can be proven or disproven. I decided long ago I wouldn’t waste my time on it, but feel free to read them over if you like, but it won’t help.”

  Brynn and Bryce shared a look, and then shook their heads.

  Brynn said, “We’ll have to figure it out without then,” she turned to Holmarra and said, “We can power maybe six more traps, any idea the best places to set them?”

  Holmarra asked, “Will it work on anyone?”

  Bryce shook his head, “No, just her magic. So, anyone wearing dwarven steel should avoid them, not sure how easy that will be.”

  Holmarra grunted, “Alright, follow me and I’ll show you where to set them. You should also be ready to move, we’ve circulated a description of the young dwarf female, we may get called if anyone sees her.”

  Yeah, assuming she can’t look like a different dwarf.

  We followed Holmarra out, and spent the rest of the morning and early afternoon setting traps at various major intersections in the city. Though, it seemed almost pointless to me, because they had to brief everyone with dwarven steel not to use those intersections, and I was sure word would get back to the creature, if she wasn’t already watching us from out of my detection range. Even if both of those things weren’t true she was a creature of magic, which meant she could probably feel the trap in the first place…

  It was late that evening and we were in the tavern enjoying a drink after a hard day’s work. Well, hard for the mages, for Gerard and I, we’d just been on a long boring walk. Holmarra and Sanath had long past returned home for the day. Regardless, I’d thought of another possible issue with my own plans that I knew no one else would appreciate.

  “Gerard, have you seen the deal they agreed to? The wording I mean?”

  He thought back, “No, why?”

  I explained my thoughts, guesses, and my feelings about the creature, and ended with, “So I’m worried about the deal. If it says all we have to do is investigate and stop the murders, then we might be able to do this without killing her. But if it says our end of the deal is to find and destroy the creature…”

  Obviously if that was so, and I found a way to speak with and reason with the creature, and it stopped killing, the dwarves could technically default the deal and say we didn’t honor our end of the contract. No swords and shields for our war with Jendas, no nice big siege engines filled with dwarven fire and earth magic.

  Still, the goddess said to go with my feelings, and the longer I thought on it the more I felt that killing the creature wasn’t the best way to stop it. If this was somehow a misunderstanding and an accord between the creature and the dwarves could be reached, I wasn’t going to commit murder and go against my morality just to uphold a deal, which would have a lot of people mad at me. Hopefully that wasn’t the case, and the deal didn’t require her death, but I was hesitant to ask Bryce or Lynn that question.

  Maybe I was wrong, and I’d built it all up in my head, but what if I wasn’t?

  I ran another mental scan, and felt the fear and horror of a dwarf about ten blocks west, out of reach of my telekinesis so I couldn’t confirm it was the creature, but I had very little doubt. There was also no other dwarves near the one in trouble, which was more evidence she’d just shown herself.

  “I think I found her again, ten blocks west. A dwarf is being killed right now.”

  I wanted to teleport, but I couldn’t leave Lynn, and I was suddenly really pissed off about that. I’d been on non-stop duty for days, and even slept in the same room with her, I needed a break. But right now, I was far more worried about the dwarf dying.

  Thankfully, Lynn got up and said, “Go.”

  Screw running, we didn’t have time, the dwarf teen didn’t have time. I teleported the four of us around the block from the dwarf, pointed and ran around the corner, they could join me or not.

  Maybe she couldn’t change into another dwarven shape, because she looked exactly the same as she had yesterday in the tavern. She stood over the dwarf who was choking on water, but otherwise couldn’t seem to move, and I recoiled inside at what she was doing.

  It was one of my secrets, that I’d never shared with anyone, not even my parents. Something I never did, but had the power to do. The creature was controlling the dwarf’s body and suppressing his mind with her telepathy. Mind control, while the victim was able to watch helplessly in horror, locked in their mind. No wonder none of her victims hadn’t ever been able to escape, and she’d easily led them to an out of the way spot. They’d no chance to deny her.

  Despite that, perhaps she wasn’t evil, just no one had taught her right or wrong. I wished I could read he
r, all I had to go on was her facial expressions and body language.

  I struck out with telekinesis as hard as I could right into her chest. Her body was crushed by tons of force as it flew back into a brick building wall. I flinched as I heard her rib cage start to crackle and rebuild. I wasn’t idle though, I ripped the water out of the young dwarf’s lungs, and teleported him straight to the tavern. Hopefully someone there would take care of the kid.

  I shook my head, that kid was probably much older than I was.

  “Who are you, what are you, and why are you doing this?”

  She sneered at me in hatred as she stood up completely healed. I didn’t find out if she was going to answer me, as a moment later a fireball flew past me and slammed into her shield, which ablated the fire and sent it off to the side. Then she ran.

  I sent out another telekinetic punch to her front, and sent her flying back toward us. I couldn’t grab her, her water magic was too strong, so I pummeled her along the street.

  She somehow managed to concentrate enough through the pain of rebuilding her body, to send a hail of ice shards at me, and at the same time I felt water building up in my lungs and started to cough.

  Two more fireballs hit her, to no effect, while I ripped the water out of my own lungs and tried to catch my breath. Gerard charged her with his sword, but she built an ice sheath on her arm and sent him flying away with a swift sweep of her arm.

  I slammed her again with telekinesis sending her flying down the street, and before she even landed I hit her again with several tons of force to send her flying away at a right angle.

  Lynn asked, “What did you do that for!”

  I smiled, “Because there’s a trap around that corner, at the next intersection.”

  We ran that way, and turned the corner. She was banging her arm against the air itself, which seemed to spark and cause her pain.

  I asked again, “What are you, and why are you doing this. The dwarves have not harmed you.”