by Sam Ferguson
Still, the mighty dragon was careful to stay high in the sky. Even he did not want to risk being attacked by the vile monsters that called this part of Terramyr home.
As he approached the magnificent volcano known as Gaia’s Tear, he circled higher into the air and inspected the area around it. Lava flowed out from several places on the mountain, running down in red, hot rivers that meandered out into the gray-brown lands beyond. There were no trees here, but there were strange cacti that reached up to thirty feet tall and formed wicked tines that could pierce through a steel plate of armor.
Other than those cacti, there were no signs of life.
Hiasyntar’Kulai flew over the volcano and looked inside. Chills coursed through his spine as he saw the stairway to hell circling the inner walls inside the volcano. A churning, smoking pool of orange lava sat at the bottom. The dragon knew that the gates to hell were near that pool of lava.
He also knew that any being besides Icadion, who freely entered Gaia’s Tear, was considered a willing prisoner in Hammenfein, and both Khefir and Hatmul, the brother-gods who ruled Hammenfein, would come out with their armies to collect their victim.
The dragon roared down in his mighty voice, “Khefir, Collector of the Damned, come without the gates of Hammenfein and grant me an audience.”
Nothing happened for several minutes. The dragon circled the opening high above the volcano and waited. Then, he heard a great commotion, and deep within the volcano he saw an army march out from the gates. They took up a defensive position near the lava pool and stopped, turning their gazes upward and looking directly at him.
The Father of the Ancients called out again. “Khefir, I come alone, and with no ill intent. I only wish to speak with you.”
A line of blackness rent the sky over the volcano and a pair of skeleton hands reached through and then stretched the line into a hole. Hiasyntar’Kulai could see Khefir standing inside the portal. A dark hood covered most of Khefir’s bony face, but his ghastly, yellow eyes glowed brightly as they watched Hiasyntar’Kulai. As the dragon circled in the air to remain in flight above the volcano, so did the portal spin, allowing the dragon to see the god from any direction.
“You cannot have your son,” Khefir said. “He made a deal with me, and then he broke it. I have proper claim on his soul.”
“I have not come to ask for his soul, mighty Khefir,” Hiasyntar’Kulai said. “I have come only to ask for an audience with him. He has stolen something from me, and I need it back.”
Khefir chuckled softly, his jaw clicking and clacking as it gyrated up and down. “Tu’luh the Red has betrayed many, it would seem.”
Hiasyntar’Kulai said nothing as he soared around in a circle, watching the portal as it kept pace with him.
Khefir nodded and pointed at the golden dragon. “It is not every day that an Ancient needs my help. Surely, this must be worth a favor from you in return if you would venture all this way.”
Hiasyntar’Kulai had expected as much from the collector of evil souls. “What would you demand as payment to speak with my son?”
Khefir pulled his hood back and revealed a yellowed skull. His glowing, yellow eyes were nothing more than a magical manifestation of where his physical orbs had once been. “Not just to speak with him,” the god corrected. “I will also demand he give you the answers you seek. As you have likely heard, I have power over the souls here; they must obey my command.”
“Very well,” the golden dragon said. “What is your price?”
Khefir glanced around and then came close to the portal. He spoke in a soft voice. “Not now, but later I may come to you with a proposal.”
“You wish me to agree to a favor that you will only name after I have sworn? That is not acceptable.”
Khefir flashed a bony arm across the portal. “No, my price is that when I have a proposal for you, you will afford me a fair audience and give my future proposal proper consideration. That is all.”
“What if I hear it and decide it is a favor I want nothing to do with?” the dragon asked.
“Then you shall be bound to hear any proposal I think of after the fact, until you hear one that you will agree to.”
Hiasyntar’Kulai nodded as he flapped his wings and then flattened them out to soar. “Agreed.”
Khefir nodded and left. The next image the gold dragon saw was that of his son.
Tu’luh had a large, golden spike placed through his snout. The spike was attached to fiery reins made of golden chains which were held by a powerful orc spirit. Hiasyntar’Kulai could not help but feel shame and sorrow for his son’s current situation. Though the golden dragon knew that Tu’luh had done many reproachable things, the love he held for his son was still there, pulling at his soul.
“Speak,” the orc riding Tu’luh told Hiasyntar’Kulai.
The golden dragon looked to his son’s sad, broken eyes and then asked his question directly. “Where is the addorite you stole from me?”
Tu’luh grunted, but didn’t answer.
The orc riding him lifted a mighty, golden whip and cracked it down on Tu’luh’s brow. He then yanked upon the chains and Tu’luh groaned in pain. “Khefir has ordered you to answer the Father of the Ancient’s questions fully and honestly. Now answer him!”
Tu’luh complied. “The addorite was taken to a cave to the west of Roegudok Hall, but it is no longer there.”
“What do you mean?” Hiasyntar’Kulai asked.
“I used some of it. Gorensikdar, my brother, was the one who told me how to create the spell that later became known as Nagar’s Blight. Its creation required a great amount of addorite.”
Hiasyntar’Kulai growled angrily. “And where is the rest?”
“Taken,” Tu’luh replied. “A band of goblins stole the rest. I tracked them farther west, into a small network of tunnels and caves, but I never found it. Go west from Roegudok Hall for two hundred miles, then turn south from the dark forest where the funnel spiders live. In a pine forest you will find three small mountains. The entrance to the network of caves is in the middle mountain, but I do not think the addorite still remains."
"Why not?” the golden dragon pressed.
“The goblins who took it used its power to augment their magic. They had no understanding of its toxicity. It warped them into something different. Now they are a strange, vile tribe that hardly resemble goblins at all. Unless I am mistaken, they died from their use of addorite, and the addorite has been entirely consumed.”
“Any more questions?” the orc shouted out to Hiasyntar’Kulai.
The golden dragon replied, “No, that is all.”
The orc yanked on the chains and Tu’luh walked away. Khefir returned for a moment and reminded the golden dragon of their deal, then the portal vanished. Hiasyntar’Kulai stopped circling and flew away, making a direct line for the Middle Kingdom, which was many thousand miles away.
CHAPTER 5
Year 3,403 King’s Era.
203rd year of the reign of Sylus Magdinium, 5th King of Roegudok Hall.
Dvek stepped into the miner’s hall as they were finishing their supper. Normally the hall would have been filled with tobacco smoke and flowing with ale, but that was not the case now. The miners sat around wooden tables playing cards and betting with toothpicks instead of anything that had real value. A few of the miners looked up at him, but none of them said anything. They knew well enough that he hadn’t come to speak with them.
The Minister of Commerce made his way to the left side of the hall and pushed through a swinging door to find thirty dwarves standing around and talking with each other in hushed voices. When he stepped inside the room, they all turned and fanned out to face him.
“I have the orders from the king,” Dvek said. “We are in a tight spot, so I won’t mince words, and I am not going to make this a long, drawn out meeting. You are some of the best team leaders Roegudok Hall has ever known.”
“Tell me something I don’t know,” said Brugg, a brown hai
red dwarf with a burgeoning belly and thick, scarred arms.
A couple of the others laughed.
Dvek arched a brow and continued. “I have a list for each of you. It details how many crews will be assigned to you, as well as who is on each crew. We are changing tactics so we can spread out to explore as many mines as possible. Each of you is going to have a team that consists of seven crews. Each crew is going to have four miners and one explosives expert. The senior-most miner on each crew will be the crew leader. In order to keep the mines working around the clock, we have given each team three shafts as assignments. That means your teams will have two crews per mine. One crew will take a shift of several days, and then the second crew will take their place and work a shift of three days also. The seventh crew will work in wherever you like. Use the extra crew to relieve injured miners, or to add extra hands if you find a promising mine.”
Dvek looked around the room. “Any questions?”
None of the team leaders said anything.
Dvek nodded, pulled a leather satchel up and opened it. He pulled out one rolled parchment at a time, calling out the names written on the outside. As each team leader was called, they would walk forward, take their assignment, and then exit the room.
When Dvek had finished, a young, green-eyed female dwarf stood alone in the room. Her eyes were fixed on the satchel.
“What about my assignment?” she asked. “I am as good as any other team leader that was here.”
Dvek patted the air and smiled. “Easy now, Akmei, the king has an assignment for you, but it isn’t to run a team this time.”
“Why not?” she asked as she stamped a foot on the floor and folded her arms.
Dvek laughed. “You still do the foot stomp when you’re angry,” he said.
“Father, I won’t stand for any of your meddling. I am a miner, and that’s what I love—”
Dvek cut her off. “This is out of my hands,” he said. “The king has asked me to appoint you as the Mining Advisor.”
Akmei took a few steps forward and shook a finger at Dvek. “Well, you can tell the king that I…” Akmei stopped and the anger vanished from her face. “What did you say?” she asked.
“I said, the king would like you to accept the position of Mining Advisor.”
“He wants me to sit on the council?”
Dvek nodded.
Akmei smiled and started to turn around, but then she stopped and turned back to her father. “Wait, what did you do to get me the position?”
Dvek shook his head. “I did nothing. The king went through the list of qualified candidates and he decided to offer the position to you. He didn’t even ask what I thought about it.”
Akmei smiled. “I’ll be the best Mining Advisor Roegudok Hall has ever had.”
*****
“You sure this is the tunnel we are supposed to work in today?” Trynt asked as he shifted his pickaxe on his shoulder.
The lantern Haggart held swayed with each step he took down the newly formed mine. “Yep,” he answered for the hundredth time. “King Sylus said that Tu’luh told him we would find the addorite in the shaft that has bloodgrass growing in it.” Haggart stopped and held the lantern close to the wall on the left as he turned a sour look over his shoulder. “See, bloodgrass.”
Trynt looked at the bony stems of the strange plant and grimaced. The round, flat leaves hung vertically from small branches shooting off the main stem of the bush-like plant. True to its name, the plant was bright red.
“Still, you have heard the rumors about these lower tunnels, right boss?” Jasper asked.
Haggart growled and turned around to point an accusing finger in Jasper’s face. The younger dwarf backed away instinctively as the crew leader laid into him. “You will keep such talk to yourself, you hear? The king wants us to open up the lower mines and that is what we are going to do. We are dwarves, hewn and formed from the very rock this mountain is made of. There ain’t nothin’ down here that can best the five of us. We are going to find the addorite, and we are going to fill the coffers with more gems than has ever been seen, you hear?”
Trynt nodded, but his mouth opened, letting his doubts tumble out. “If the addorite is so important to Tu’luh, then why doesn’t he come into the mountain and dig it out for himself?”
A swift back-hand shut Trynt’s mouth.
The others stiffened and shared a glance, but none of them moved to intervene.
“You don’t bad mouth the Ancients,” Haggart warned. He looked up from Trynt and eyed the other dwarves in the group with his piercing, blue eyes. “If not for them, we wouldn’t exist. I shouldn’t have to tell you that. If they want us to dig to the bottom of Terramyr, then we’ll do it.”
“Haggart,” one of the other dwarves began in a gruff, yet pleasant voice. Trynt looked up to see Rikker, the explosives engineer, stepping forward. “Trynt is only an apprentice. He hasn’t the same experience the rest of us do. He is on loan to our unit due to his strength, since Finorik is down with a broken arm from the cave in yesterday.”
Haggart scratched his bald head and shrugged. “You have a point,” he said. “Trynt, listen up, cause I am only saying this once. The Ancients need us to dig for the addorite because it is formed deep within the mountain, where geological and magical pressures combine to create a very rare, very powerful, crystal. Think of it like a diamond. You know how they form deep within the ground where pressures and heat are optimal for their creation, it’s like that, only throw in the magical nexus that exists below Roegudok Hall and you have an extremely rare crystal. Tu’luh told King Sylus he needs it, however, Tu’luh can’t mine it himself because the same magical pressures that create the addorite are harmful and toxic to dragons. It would be like me throwing a gold coin into a lake that is a hundred feet deep and asking you to go swim after it. We aren’t built for the water. Sure, you might be able to dive down a few feet, but you’ll struggle to reach the surface again. Go down a hundred feet and you can forget about ever seeing your home again.”
Haggart drew a line across his neck with his finger. “Doesn’t matter how strong you are, the water would swallow you up. Same thing for the Ancients. They are mighty strong creatures, but they can’t survive the magical pressures below this mountain.”
The crew leader turned and waved his arm for the others to keep up as he stormed off.
Rikker moved in next to Trynt. “Don’t worry, he is grumpy with everyone. In fact, he has a fuse shorter than any of my explosives,” Rikker smiled widely.
Trynt returned the smile and moved to keep up with the others, but Rikker held him back just long enough for Del and Jasper to move ahead.
“You aren’t wrong about the rumors, though,” Rikker said. “Haggart would never admit it, but there are dangers down here that we should be wary of.”
“Have you seen them before?” Trynt asked.
Rikker shook his head of black hair and frowned. “No, but you can feel it, that sensation like something is watching you.”
Trynt went silent.
“Don’t worry,” Rikker said. “I have been working with Haggart for decades. He is as tough as he is cranky. I’m sure he can handle anything that comes our way. More than that, I will watch over you until Finorik is healed up.”
Trynt nodded, unsure if he believed Rikker’s statement about Haggart. He looked back to the black haired dwarf and noticed something in the explosive engineer’s eyes. The words had sounded confident, but the cloud of fear was visible in Rikker’s eyes. Trynt reached into his pocket and felt for the silver charm his wife had given him several weeks before upon graduating from the mining guild university. His thumb rubbed over the flat shape of a dragon as Trynt whispered a prayer in his mind.
He followed the other four miners for hours as they walked down the freshly carved tunnel. Trynt studied the grooves and holes in the wall. There were veins of gold and silver left nearly untouched in this shaft. He wondered how much addorite might be worth by comparison if H
aggart was ignoring the gold and silver entirely.
After a while, he found himself wishing that they had mining carts to speed the journey along. He wasn’t sure why there were no tracks set in this shaft. It was certainly long enough to warrant them. Pushing handcarts was much more difficult than mining carts on tracks. He quick-stepped up to Rikker and elbowed him to get his attention.
“Why are there no tracks down here?” Trynt asked.
“Dvek said we don’t have enough metal to build them,” Rikker replied.
“Can’t we take old tracks from other mine shafts?”
Rikker shook his head. “All the other shafts are being expanded as well. So, other teams will be using the old tracks as much as they can.”
“Shut up back there,” Haggart called out. “I am tired of listening to your questions, Trynt.”
Trynt blushed and moved away from Rikker.
The deeper the tunnel went, the warmer the air became. The bloodgrass plants grew larger and thicker also. Trynt couldn’t be sure if it was just his imagination, but he thought he heard a low humming noise from the walls of the black tunnel. Perhaps this was the effect of the magical pressure Haggart had spoken of. He stopped and bent over to touch one of the leaves protruding out from the wall. The leaf was stiff and brittle. He barely pinched it between his thumb and forefinger before it crumbled and fell from the stem.
The light dimmed in the cavern and Trynt jerked his head up. He could see light dancing upon the wall in front of him. The others had followed the cavern around a downward sloping curve to the left.
Trynt brushed off his hand and started to jog to catch up.
A rumbling sound rolled through the tunnel, and a cool breeze flew up from around the curve. The hairs on the back of Trynt’s neck and arms rose to stand on end. He couldn’t explain it, but something felt very wrong.