Dwarven Steel

A Katrina Baker novel 04

Author: D. L. Harrison

Copyright 2018.  This is a work of fiction.  Names, Characters, Places and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously.  Any resemblance to actual events, locales or persons living or dead, is entirely coincidental.  All rights reserved.  No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without permission.

Table of Contents

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Afterword:

About the Author

Other books by D. L. Harrison:

Book Description

Chapter One

The din of emotions and sounds filled the room as I ate dinner that night.  I mostly ignored it, except I was sensitive for anything that didn’t fit.  That was easier said than done, paladins and even the castle staff could have surges of unpredictable emotions, but even those were expected to a certain extent, and fit the expected emotional pattern.  It hadn’t been too long since I’d gotten a dagger in the stomach, and I was keen to avoid repeating the event.  As far as we all knew, the Jendas king still wanted me dead.  Worse, the paranoid ambitious man in charge up in the northern kingdom wanted to reunite the human kingdoms, by the sword.

The final battle in Chilik was just yesterday morning, and I hoped that peace would last for a while.  One day, another strong fugitive would head south, but I had faith that my mother and father could handle it.

The conversation around me was mostly ignored as well, since all they could talk about was the visiting dwarves, and what would come out of it.  There were some rumors, there always were, but right now they were all just wild speculation.

Gerard, my husband, the love of my life, and paladin of Ictia, the goddess of battle, sat next to me.  He had some rough edges, but he was a strong and faithful man, and loved me enough to put up with the craziness of my life.  Like my mom being the goblin queen, and new ruler of Chilik and overlord of the evil races.  Or would it be overlady?  Either way, she had just about every goblin, orc, and ogre implanted with mind control technology, and she had the demons confined to their cave system since electronics wouldn’t survive their inborn chaos magic.

Point was, my husband was a saint, who else would put up with a supervillain mother in law who ran the entire evil kingdom on this continent?  Our week-long honeymoon was over now, almost two days ago, but the king either didn’t have anything for Gerard to do, or was simply so focused on whatever the dwarves were here for, that we might as well still be on vacation.  I was sure that would end soon, but I was enjoying it while it lasted.  It was about time my new life on this world slowed down a bit so I could take a breath.

Across from us sat Gerard’s old friends, and my new ones, Randall and Karen, another married couple.  Randall was a paladin as well, of the goddess of Ictia, while Karen worked in the government as a head tax accountant.  I got good vibes from them both, but I didn’t know them all that well yet.

I caught my left hand touching the symbol of the goddess Arella again, which was around my neck, and lowered it as I continued to shovel in enough food into my mouth to feed four normal people.  It was a comforting habit, touching my holy symbol I mean.  A habit that I’d gotten into without realizing it.  It helped calm me when I stressed over things, like a whole kingdom that wanted me dead.  I was a paladin as well, one of the few female ones to exist.  I’d only met one other so far, and Cynthia was off somewhere on assignment.  It’d been a few days since the last time I’d spoken to my goddess, and I decided I should stop by the temple tonight if I could.  Things always seemed better after I spent time with the goddess, not so overwhelming, and clearer.

“Where do you put it all?” Karen asked.

I did eat a lot, and my body was willowy, and if it wasn’t for my five foot eight height, I’d be petite. 

“My brain,” I replied with a shrug, as I refilled my ale cup with telekinesis to make the point.  The power for my abilities, including my super healing, had to come from somewhere.  Like most other supers, mine came from massive amounts of food intake.  There were exceptions to that of course, some back on my world had absorbed electricity, sunlight, or other energy sources, and hadn’t had to eat as much as the rest of us, but not many.  In a way, it was my major weakness, except as a paladin of Arella I had a neat little spell called create food and water.  Not to mention teleportation, it would be very difficult to imprison me long enough for lack of food to matter.

Karen sighed, and muttered bitch under her breath in a teasing way.  She was trying to be cute about it, and wasn’t truly mad, but I could tell she was jealous as she ate her small portions in an attempt to manage her weight.  Karen was a curvy woman, but far from fat, and I was actually a little a jealous of her fuller figure.  So, I supposed it was fair.

Gerard asked, “What do you think that’s about?” and he nodded his head toward the other end of the table.

I frowned, “Typical paladin posturing, they’re arguing about something.  I’m not sure, except going by the emotions one of them will challenge the other before meal end.”

I could have peeked, but I tried not to do that kind of thing for petty reasons.  If I wasn’t going to cheat to read the dwarves which I was very tempted and curious to do, I wasn’t going to invade minds about a simple argument, that was probably mostly fake anyway.  Paladins loved to argue about who had a better god or goddess, and why, but I thought it was simply just an excuse to hold a test of arms and bragging rights for the winner.  They were paladins, warriors of the gods and goddesses of this world, but in the end, they were still just men who had to measure their sizes against each other.

On my old world, men bonded by watching sports, on this one they did it by hacking at each other with swords and shields, while wearing heavy armor.  At least, the paladins did.  I wasn’t sure what the commoners on the streets did.

Not that I was judging, I’d both done it myself, and cheered on my husband once.  Of course, in the latter case I’d been stabbed by an assassin, only turning my body at the last moment had prevented it from being a killing stroke.  I’d felt the emotions of the assassin that day, and knew they were wrong for the crowd and situation, but had a difficult time pinpointing where they were coming from in the large crowd.

Anyway, on my old world they’d be charged with assault, but here it was just an evening’s entertainment, and something for all the other paladins to bet on and watch.  Not to mention the government functionaries like Karen.  The nobles were the only ones to remain aloof from the contests of strength between the paladins, and it looked like we were going to have another one tonight.

Gerard grunted and sounded slightly regretful as he said, “Maybe we should avoid it, getting into the middle of a crowd with emotions running high seems like a bad idea for you.”

I thought I’d be able to handle it, now that I knew it was coming I could watch even better for it, but why take the chance?  I’d made a promise to myself to join this world fully, and not to remain aloof.  That meant watching and even betting on these events, what better way to bond with other paladins?  But that didn’t mean I should be stupid about it and take foolish chances.

“How about we go down to the temple district after dinner instead, I want to visit Arella.”

Gerard agreed, “Good idea, I should pay my respects to Ictia as well.”

Inevitably, the challenge was cast, and as all the paladins flowed toward the back of the castle to the training courtyard, Gerard and I went the other way, out the front doors, and headed toward the temple district…

Gerard walked me up to the entrance of Arella’s temple, and said, “Wait for me to get back?”

Gerard normally wasn’t this overprotective, and respected my ability to fight, as I did his.  I would have gotten angry at his comment, but he’d asked and hadn’t tried to command, and I knew I’d be insanely protective if his life had a contract out on it so to speak.

So, I just nodded, and gave him a chaste kiss.  Mostly chaste that is, the man curled my toes.

“See you soon,” I said and walked into the temple, through the short entry corridor, and straight into the sanctuary.  Usually, I just found a seat, felt a little dizzy, and found myself somewhere else, in the awe inducing presence of the goddess that I’d chosen, and in turn she’d chosen me.  I wasn’t exactly sure what that place was, if it was just a construct in my mind she visited, or if it was a real place.

Regardless, I didn’t immediately sit down this time, as the High Priestess Danielle, or high cleric, was smiling and waving me up front.  Despite her age, her hair was still a bright blonde, and she was still an attractive woman.  I hoped I’d age as well as she had.  She was up by the altar and in front of the large statue of our goddess.  The statue was of a beautiful woman in a flowing nightgown, with her head bowed and eyes closed.  There was a third eye above on the forehead, open and watching.

Arella didn’t really have three eyes, the third eye was just symbolism for the dreams of the future, and the warnings she’d send her worshippers as the goddess of dreams.  The real Arella had her eyes open each time I’d seen her, and they seemed to glow white with their own light.  Otherwise, the statue was a perfect representation of her form, if not the sense and power of her presence.

“Hi Danielle,” I said as I returned her smile.  I tried to call her by title once, and she’d insisted I never do it again.  She asserted that she wasn’t in charge, the goddess was.  She was just an example, a guide, and would offer advice if asked.  She could also be a bit goofy at times, which I liked.

Danielle said, “Katrina, you need to be careful.”

I nodded, “I know, I am already.  Why?  Did Arella say something?”

Danielle shook her head, “She stays out of human politics, and we try to as well, but it was my counterpart in Jendas.  Things are going to break very soon, unless something drastic changes there will be war.”

I frowned, “Is that something we get involved in?”

She answered, “That’s a personal choice, what do you think?”

I hesitantly replied, “I think that I’m a part of Trelin, and I’m also personally at odds with Jendas.”

“But?”

I sighed, “I don’t think I could fight, if I ran into a paladin of Arella from the other side.  I’m guessing the followers of Ictia wouldn’t care all that much but…”

The thought was too much, how could I do that?  The followers of the goddess of battle would be different, this world was far more black and white in regard to good and evil that it made the gray areas stand out that much more, and it seemed like every time I turned around there was an impossible choice.

War was different, it wouldn’t just be a fear of fighting other paladins that were my brothers and sisters, but the men.  They weren’t evil races, or even evil bandits and murders, they would just be normal men, farmers and other upstanding men that were conscripted and ordered to fight for the glory of their kingdom by selfish power-hungry nobles.  They didn’t get a choice.

Danielle said, “The king can’t conscript you, and you don’t work for him.  You could choose to heal instead, or completely stay out of it.”

I sighed, “Except Gerard will fight.  If I don’t go and he dies…”

If that happened my high-minded ideals would wind up destroying me, but that still wouldn’t make them wrong.  Of course, if I didn’t fight, how many men on Trelin’s side would die without my help?  Sure, I wouldn’t be doing any of the killing, but would that really leave my hands clean, or would those I would have killed simply die anyway, with a larger death toll on both sides?  That was assuming we won of course.

Danielle surprised me and pulled me into a hug, and I hugged her back.

“There are no easy answers, but don’t forget to embrace and enjoy life.”

I grinned, “Don’t worry about that, Gerard and I are doing a lot of embracing and enjoying of life, on multiples levels.  I’ll try not to worry so much.  I think in the end, I’ll fight to protect those I love, that’s the only reason that makes sense to me anyway.  I’ll have to, I just worry in the end killing those conscripted farmers will destroy me.”

Danielle nodded, “Then don’t, let the regular soldiers handle the regular soldiers.  Go after the mages, nobles, and officers who are the ones driving the war.  Arella waits, and I’ve kept you long enough.”

“Alright, but I’ve been wondering, is the goddess in our heads like a dream construct, or is that place real?”

Danielle grinned, “Yes.  Have a good evening Katrina.”

Yes?  So both were right?  I sat down on the bench, and a wave of dizziness hit me.  The strong aura of gentle power, love, and regard as always awed me.  It still felt a little weird to be having casual conversations with a goddess, but for some reason that’s what she wanted with her chosen followers.

As always, that awe and her aura were also calming, I felt loved, protected, and safe.  I could truly let my guard down in this place.

“Hello Arella.”

It felt a little weird calling her by name, but in a goddess’s case, her name was a formal mode of address.  She’d also made it clear she didn’t want empty obeisance, bowing, or scraping.  The way I lived my life and dreamed of improving things was the way I worshipped her.  That, and praying for my magic.

“Katrina.  I’m happy to see you.  Heed Danielle’s warning, and follow your heart over the next week.  Actually, do that all the time, but it’s rather important in the coming days ahead.”

Danielle warned me to be careful, because things were about to get messy.  I would be careful, but they weren’t helping me to avoid paranoia.  But what did the second part mean?  Follow my heart?

Arella chuckled, “Paranoia in small doses can be healthy, especially when people really are after you.  The second part will become clear in time.  I’d have sent you a dream, but you’re already caught up in events.”

“A dream would show me what I should do though, wouldn’t it?”

Arella grinned, “Yes, but so should me telling you to follow your heart.  Sometimes even small glimpses of the future can just make things worse.”

I gave up trying to figure it out, I must’ve been missing a lot of pieces in this puzzle.  I tucked the advice into the back of my mind. I was sure it would make sense sooner or later.

“You’re the boss.”

She replied, “Am I?  I don’t recall ever telling you do anything.”

“What about the visions?”

She shrugged, “Simple information, not orders.  What you did with it was done with your will, drive, and morality.  That it aligned with my aims is because of who we both are.  Our relationship is more complicated than master and servant, and you already know that.”

That was true.  I resisted thinking about this new conundrum, I had enough in my life right now.  I’d work it out later.  For a long while I just relaxed and basked in her presence, until it was time to face the world again.

She said, “Your husband is outside waiting, until next time Katrina Baker.”

Chapter Two

Gerard squeezed me tightly and grunted in his sleep when I jerked awake.  I was warm and spooned with my husband beneath the blankets, his arms wrapped around me, but something had woken me up.  I picked up the emotions of anxiety and anticipation from near the suite’s outer hallway door.

When Danielle and Arella told me to be careful, I had no idea something would happen this soon.  He had no magical shield as far as I could tell, and I bit my lip and dove into his mind.  He had a dagger coated with a deadly poison, and was planning on using it, on me while I slept, but he was terrified I’d wake up which accounted for the anxiety.

Two walls and a locked door that the idiot was trying to pick between us, or not, I had no trouble with my telekinesis scan of identifying and then grasping the bastards own dagger, and then I buried it in his chest.  I wasn’t sure if it was the poison or pierced heart that killed him first, but either way he was dead.  Assassins don’t get fair fights in my opinion.

I was debating going back to sleep, but decided that leaving a dead body in the corridor all night wasn’t the best idea I’d ever had.  But I was so comfortable and warm I didn’t want to move.  I was about to wake up Gerard, when I got a surprise.  That wasn’t the only Jendas assassin in the castle tonight, and I wasn’t the only target.

I felt a mind scream out in fear and horror, and it took me a minute to identify the person as Queen Caroline.  She was usually shielded, and although she was a mage I knew it was Andrew the mage advisor that kept the king and queen shielded, which meant Andrew was probably already dead and time for explanations were impossible.

I pulled myself out of Gerard’s arms, and reached for my outfit, I knew I had to put it on fast, I couldn’t save the day naked after all, and I was in my birthday suit.  To my surprise, my newer power interpreted that need as me willing it done, and I saw the riding outfit my mom gave me disappear, and then it was on me.  I’d just teleported clothes on myself, and not only that, when I checked it was all buttoned up.

That was new, and quite handy.

I felt the queen and traced her emotions, they weren’t in their private wing and suite, which was good because I’d never been there.  They were still up working and with the dwarves, and I found the king’s mind as well, which was in a lot of pain.

Gerard said, “What’s going on?”

I replied, “Assassins, king and queen, hurry,” and then teleported straight to them, I’d been in the meeting room they were in more than once, so it was easy enough.

I took in the scene in a split second, the king was dying, Andrew was dead, and the queen was hysterical.  The dwarves looked alarmed, and were even more alarmed at my sudden arrival.  The two guards behind me against the wall brought up their pikes to attack me.  I didn’t have time for explanations, so I pinned both royal guards against the wall and stepped forward.

I muttered a prayer under my breath, and the king’s, Andrew’s, and the queen’s goblets lit up with a greenish light.  The spell I’d cast was detect poison.  It was also apparent the queen hadn’t drunk from hers yet, Andrew’s was mostly empty, and the king had only taken a sip or two, which is probably why he was still alive.

The dwarves looked at me warily from the other side of the table, but thankfully didn’t intervene as I reached out and touched the king, and cast remove poison.  I was thankful to my good memory, I’d never used those spells before, but I’d memorized them perfectly.  I felt calm and at peace for a moment, as the goddess’s power raced through my body and out through my hand.  I immediately cast a healing spell, to heal the damage the poison did before I neutralized it, and once again felt the goddess’s presence as her power ran through my body.

The queen looked up at me with wide eyes, and I nodded once, “He’ll be fine when he wakes up, I’m afraid it’s too late for Andrew.  It was the wine, all three cups are poisoned.  Looks like they went after the royal family when they went after me.  First strike in the coming war?”

The queen’s eyes went wide, I’d never seen her so shaken, “Darren!”

I checked quickly, I knew the little boy’s mind well enough to find him fast, and then shook my head, “There’s no one near him, he’s asleep.”

The queen gazed at the wall by the door, “Can you let the guards down?” 

One guard felt mostly concerned to me, and a little anger about being held.  The other one however felt terrified.  I decided he should scared, as I fished out the information.  This was no time to be shy or hold back because I didn’t want to see another’s memories.  He’d poisoned the drinks earlier during his inspection of the drinks brought in from the kitchen.  Bastard.  He wasn’t even from Jendas, just sold the king out for a bag of gold.

I finally said, “I can let one of them down your highness,” and I did, “But the other one was paid to poison you.”

The guard I freed asked, “Are you sure about that?”

I nodded, “The empty vial is in his boot, but should still have traces of the poison in it.”

The queen asked, “How… how did you know?”

I nodded at Andrew, “When he died you lost your mage shields, and I felt your panic and grief right after I killed my assassin.  You’re mind called out, and I heard you.”

She nodded, still shaken, and after checking on the king again, her face turned back into the mask I usually saw.  I almost felt sorry for the guard as the good one tied him up.  It would have been more merciful to just kill him.  That’s when I felt Gerard coming.  I used telepathy to catch him up on all of it from the deaths, to the poisoned wine, and exactly what meeting room we were all in.  He was in the room a few moments later with two more royal guards.  One to drag the traitor away, the second to replace his post.

The king woke up just a few seconds later and looked groggy.  Just in case, I moved the poisoned wine to the other end of the table.  It took a while to go through it all again, but once I finished the king’s face was granite.  He looked at Andrew’s corpse, and cursed.

Alexander ordered, “Clean house now.  I want all enemy spies dead within the hour.  The first strike of the war has been made, and we have a lot to do to prepare.  Also, send out runners to the noble quarter, Katrina and I might not have been the only targets.”

The royal guard saluted, and ran to get all that started.

The king shook his head, and said to the dwarves, “My apologies for the interruption, just another moment please.”

Interruption?  That’s what he calls it?  I tried not to giggle, and mostly succeeded.  The king let it pass, I supposed I gained a little latitude saving his life.  I felt bad about Andrew, but there was nothing I could do.

He turned back to us and said, “Thank you Katrina for your efforts, you’ve saved my life.  Andrew’s loss will be felt, he was the best mage I had at spying on the enemy forces through the elements, not all mages can scry with equal facility.  Just a few hours ago, he reported several units in Jendas’s army were on the move.  It will take time, a week, maybe two at the most to get their soldiers into position and supplied, but within that time Jendas’s forces will be coming through the pass.  No doubt the assassinations were meant to throw things in turmoil, and perhaps delay Trelin’s response so they wouldn’t have to face a reinforced Ironcastle keep at the mouth of the mountain pass.  I need to work out some details with the ambassadors here, but I want you both in this room directly after breakfast tomorrow morning.”

I could have argued I didn’t work for him, but there was no point.  Both he and I knew nothing would take me from Gerard’s side except different marching orders from my goddess. I’d be here in the morning and ready to help Gerard help Trelin, and the king knew that well.  So, I didn’t bother, and Gerard and I spoke in unison as we bowed, “Yes your majesty.”

We were also sure we were dismissed, so turned and left the room.  I wasn’t sure what the king had in mind for us, but I was sure it would be critical in the coming effort against Jendas.

Chapter Three

The room was almost filled to capacity, when we returned the next morning after breakfast.  Including us there were eleven others in the room.  The atmosphere was reserved, but not tense.  Even the dwarves seemed more relaxed based on their emotions, so I guessed they’d come to an agreement which we were about to hear about, and participate in.  I was assuming, but I couldn’t think of another reason we would be there.

Not after Danielle’s warning, and Arella saying I was already caught up in events, whatever this was it would be serious.

King Alexander and Queen Caroline sat at the head of the table.  They both looked tired, and had obviously worked through the night.  No doubt to both make that agreement, and start sending orders out to our own army.  To the King’s right along the length of the table sat two mages I’d never seen before, both dressed in elaborate mage robes, and James the royal historian was there as well.  Gerard and I sat on that side of the table as well at the king’s prompting.

Across from us were the two dwarven ambassadors, and the two dwarven guardians.  I sensed curiosity from them, but they looked serious.  The ambassadors both had their reddish brown robes we’d been seeing them in for a few days now, the male’s was darker.  The warriors looked fierce in steel armor and with their ugly one-handed axes on both their hips.

The ambassadors, Tursac and Hanathra Goldborn, were married.  Tursac had brown eyes, and red hair and beard.  His wife Hanathra also had brown eyes, but her hair was a beautiful shade of honey brown, and was done up in an elaborately decorative ponytail with jewels and short chains of gold.

The king said, “Most of you know each other, but introductions are in order.  To my right is my royal historian James.”

James was an older man with gray beard and mustache, balding, and usually rather cheerful, but in this setting he looked as serious as anyone else.  I couldn’t blame him, the king encouraged formality.

He continued, “Next to James is Mage Baron Bryce Timmons, and Mage Marchioness Lynn Darish.  The two just joining us, are Gerard, paladin of Ictia, and Katrina, paladin of Arella.”

Mage Baron Bryce Timmons exuded arrogance, I disliked him immediately as I read his emotions.  His face was neutral, but his feelings were arrogant and dismissive of those around him, even the king to a certain extent.  I decided then to avoid the man if possible, but I feared it may not be.  He was in his late thirties, had brown hair, and hazel eyes.  His robes were a dark blue, almost royal purple, and they might have been if he’d dared wear that color before the king.

Mage Marchioness Lynn Darish looked closed off, but she was far more curious, open-minded, and I immediately liked her, even if she did look like she had her nose up in the air right now.  She was rather like the queen that way, who I think would have been a good friend if she could politically afford to make a connection to me.  Lynn was in her late twenties, had raven black hair which flowed over her shoulders, and she had light blue eyes.  I hoped we would be friends in the future, but I wondered if she dared show her true self to the man next to her.

I wasn’t sure what was going on, but whatever it was, Bryce was sure to make it not fun.

Gerard of course, my gorgeous husband was in his armor, with a sword on his side.  I was wearing the riding outfit that looked like a normal thin light brown leather pants with a matching vest.  Under the vest was a creamy white shirt, and I had on my comfy black boots that I’d been holding onto ever since I’d been banished from my old world.  Gerard’s armor looked much more effective, but the truth was my suit was many times stronger being made from special materials, and was in essence a super suit in disguise.

Luckily, my husband had something similar under his armor as padding, so he was protected as well as I was.

The king finished up the introductions, by naming his four dwarven guests.  Tursac and Hanathra Goldborn, and the guardians Norrig and Nolebera Lightfeet.

The king explained, “After much effort last night, we were able to come to an agreement.  The dwarves have requested our help, and in return they offer much.  Three hundred swords and shields made of dwarven steel, which I don’t have to tell most of you will really help against the coming invasion from Jendas.  They’ve also agreed to give us four defensive siege engines created by one of their master rune-wrights.”

He said, “For those who don’t know, dwarven forged steel is as good as the best of our enchanted weapons, and those fighting with normal weapons and swords will be at a distinct disadvantage.  Though they aren’t enchanted they are magical in nature.”

Hanathra grumbled, “It’s something our master smiths add while folding the steel, an element that is magical in nature but doesn’t apply effects other than that it makes the edge sharp and almost impossible to dull or chip, they’ll break a normal sword if enough pressure is applied.  They truly aren’t enchanted though, it takes our rune-wrights to enchant our weapons.”

The king nodded, “Quite so, they’ll start making our items as soon as you four get there and the agreement is shared with the dwarven king of Belirith.  The catch is, we have to deliver on our end before they’ll allow us to take them.”

Gerard asked, “Us four?”

The king nodded, “The problem is apparently only something a mage can discern and unravel, you will be going along as a guard for Baron Bryce Timmons, while Katrina will be guarding Marchioness Lynn Darish.  The investigative spells they’ll use will make them rather defenseless while casting,” he turned to the dwarves, “Perhaps you could explain the issue a little bit?”

Oh crap, we have to guard them?  At least I got Lynn, my poor husband has to guard the arrogant twit, I mean Baron Timmons.

Ambassador Tursac replied gruffly, “It’s really quite simple, some creature with the magic to conceal itself from us, is murdering our young.  There had been nine victims when we left, and we’ve had no luck in trying to trace the creature.  Our magic is of fire and earth, and suitable for the forge, and mining, not finding a hidden creature in our tunnels.  About the only thing we are sure of is that it’s a creature of water magic, at least partially.  It leaves no trace or clue at the scene, and never attacks unless the target is alone, no witnesses.  We fear only a mage will be able to identify it and find it.  The only clue is the method it uses, the murdered young have all drowned to death, in a stone tunnel without water sources nearby.  The noble mages won’t need protection from us, but we believe it is crucial you’re there to defend them if the creature decides to attempt to stop them.”

Okay, I felt a little sick to my stomach.  Dwarven children were dying, and we’d taken a few days to get as much as we could out of it?  I know those were the political realities, but damn, three hundred swords and shields of dwarven steel?  We were getting a lot out of this deal, and I knew we should get something for helping, but it still seemed wrong to extract payment from people losing their young.  I stared at the table while I tried to wrestle my emotions back in check.  In that moment, I was disgusted by the king, but then again we were in dire straits as well, and he was doing his best to save his people from invasion.  I couldn’t put a price on children, but I also couldn’t put a price on the Trelin soldier’s lives that would be saved by the dwarven weapons.  Either way, it was a damned ugly trade.

But what else were they supposed to do?  Rush to each other’s aid?  That wouldn’t happen in real life.  Well, I’d have done it for free, but the king ruled a nation, and the dwarves weren’t rushing to our aid either, so there it was.  I wondered if I was being too judgmental again, and decided that I probably was.

I’d have to work on that.

The king said, “That’s it.  The mages will be riding in the carriage with the ambassadors, the guardians will ride up top, and I want you two on horseback scouting ahead and watching the rear until you get to the dwarven mountains.  Go get packed, I want you on the road east by lunchtime.”

That was blunt enough, we got up and I followed Gerard out.  All I needed to do was grab my saddle bags and load in fresh oats and water bags.  Other than that, I was ready, dressed, and had my sword at my side and my dagger in my boot.  Anything else I could summon at need.  I felt like I should introduce myself to my new charge, but I supposed there would be time enough on the road to get to know Lynn.

I also planned to read the dwarven history when we stopped later that night, I should have done it earlier, but it never seemed like I had enough time to do everything I wanted to do.  I also refused to feel guilty for enjoying my honeymoon and new husband during our vacation.

“Do you know how long the trip will be?” I asked curiously on the way back to our suite.

Gerard shrugged, “It’ll be tomorrow night before we get to the mountain entrance to Belirith, the mountains are about eighty miles away, I’m not sure how long we’ll be travelling underground after that.  Perhaps another few days?  The dwarven kingdom spans the whole north-south range from about Lanmoor, and as far north as Castlehaven is in Jendas.  They have several villages and cities in the mountains, and countless mines.  I’m not sure where the king is at, or where the trouble is.”

“Got it, hopefully not as far north as Castlehaven, it would take us a week.”

Gerard smiled, “I suspect it will be closer to the middle, the dwarves care nothing for our politics or wars, if the problem was that far north they’d have gone to Jendas for aid.  We’ll find out later.”

I nodded, and once I’d taken care of my saddlebags I helped Gerard pack.  I just hoped it wouldn’t be as hard, or as annoying, as I thought it would be…

Chapter Four

It was a warm sunny afternoon, but it was most definitely cooler out than when I’d gotten here almost a month ago now.  It was hard to tell without a clock, but I was fairly sure the days were getting shorter as well.  I suddenly realized I had no idea what the change of seasons were like on this world.

Gerard and I were at the stables waiting by the strange dwarven carriage, Stormy was excited to see me, and being a bit fractious about getting on the road.  Unfortunately, we were stuck waiting until the nobles and dwarves showed up.

“Is winter very cold, how long does it last?”

I felt stupid asking, but it was information I didn’t have.

Gerard shrugged, “In Trelin it doesn’t get below freezing very often like it does in Jendas.  We’ve got another few weeks for winter, which lasts for three or four months.  The weather changes are fairly mild in Trelin.”

That was good to know, and if it stayed above freezing my riding clothes would be more than warm enough.

Gerard looked uncomfortable for a moment, and I asked, “What is it?”

He sighed, “You aren’t going to like it.  I don’t like it, and I’m used to it when I get these types of assignments.”

“What?” I asked suspiciously.

He frowned, “The Baron and Marchioness are in charge, and though I could tell you liked her, you can’t chat her up or call her Lynn, ever.  If you have an opinion about the problem or want to talk to one of the dwarves, just don’t.  Guards are seen but not heard, we don’t talk when on duty unless asked a direct question, and we never ask questions unless it’s to clarify a request.”

He was right, I was going to hate this.  No, I already hated it.

“Any good news?”

He nodded, “They can’t really give us orders, only requests.  We work for the king, and not them.  We’re there to guard them, not pour their drinks, or wait out in the other room.  We’ll literally be sleeping in the same room, which means we may not find time to sleep together for the duration of the mission.”

Oh crap, I really hated this mission.

He continued, “That said, they’re nobles of the kingdom, which means we very respectfully ignore them if they try to give us orders that will compromise our job.”

“This is Alex’s revenge for saving his life, isn’t it?”

Gerard’s eyes widened in shock, “Tell me you didn’t just call the king by a nickname?”

I bit my lip and tried not to smile.  When I disliked things, I tended to push back, it was who I was.  I was a grown woman, married, and deeply in love.  In a lot of ways, very responsible, I’d even saved the humans and elves.  But I was still just eighteen, and I’d have to watch my inner teenager on this mission.

Worse, how stupid does someone have to be to cut the telepath out of the investigation.  I was sure the baron and marchioness were very powerful, and quite competent, I hoped.

I asked in mock innocence with widened eyes, “Would I do that?”

Gerard snorted, “Behave love.”

“It seems I don’t have a choice, since we’ll be sleeping apart.  Don’t worry, I’ll behave, but I might have to vent in private to my husband.”

The baron had already rubbed me the wrong way, now it was going to be intolerable.

He replied, “We won’t have much private time.”

I smirked, and sent telepathically, “So, when has that ever been able to stop me?”

His eyes widened, and he laughed, “Good point.”

He added, “And no, it wasn’t revenge.  I believe the king trusts you enough to put his kingdom in your care.  Quiet guard or not, it’s essential to protect our charges, or Trelin could fall.”

I sighed, I knew he was right. 

I might be a telepath, but I couldn’t feel magic, or cast spells to identify it.  I had the magical device, but that would work on magic imbued in an object or something alive, I didn’t think it would work to pick up old traces of magical energy from last week.  Even if it could, it wouldn’t help me track it down.  No, I might have been able to help, but it will be the mages that track down the murderer.  I wondered what it could be.  None of the races I knew or have heard about had water magic.

He was also right about the war, right now the numbers said it could go either way.  Defending gave us a slight advantage, but this was a world of magic and fortifications would only go so far, even ones protected from other magic would fail under the strain of constant magical attack.

I almost smiled at Lynn when our charges came out along with the dwarves.  It wasn’t until I crushed the impulse that I realized how hard this would really be.  I wasn’t exactly a superhero or supervillain on this world, but I’d been raised to be in plain sight.  I wasn’t sure how successfully I’d be able to fade into the background.

I sighed, when they didn’t even say hello.  Thinking about it I understood, guards were invisible and ignored, and I’d better damned well get used to it…

All the villages and cities were on the north-south line, straight up and down the height of Trelin, and the same went for Jendas for that matter.  That didn’t mean the rest of the kingdom was unoccupied however.  As we left on the eastern road, the rocky hills turned into flatter land, and farms started to show up on the side of the road.

Gerard and I had split the duty, we’d swap back and forth during the ride between scouting out front, and watching our rear.  Right then, I was about a hundred feet behind the horseless magical carriage, which admittedly was moving along fairly quickly and we were making good time.

In addition to the farms, I found out there were small trading outposts as we passed the first one.  Not a village by any stretch, but there were a few buildings grouped together.  One was a large general store where a farmer could find most anything they’d need, including replacement parts for farming equipment and other things from swords to knitting needles.  That way they wouldn’t have to go all the way to the city every time they needed something.  Gerard told me when I asked via telepathy, and read his public mind with his permission, that the outposts were all over the place off the main north-south road between the villages and cities.

There was also a business that would buy and haul crops to the city if the farmer didn’t have enough wagons.  Lastly, there was a small tavern with just a few rooms for the night, since not many travelers would come this way or even need an inn.  The main point of the tavern of course, was the tap room, where farmers could come mingle with their neighbors and drink their profits.

My new telekinetic scan was easy for me now, I didn’t have to concentrate much at all to send out all three at once every thirty seconds or so as we rode.  Telepathy, empathy, and telekinesis.  The latter was only good for about a hundred yards, but that was good enough to find a shielded mage before they attacked.  The former two were good out to about a quarter mile, and would catch anything else that meant us harm long before we got there, even from the rear.

It was a long and boring afternoon and early evening.

We made it to the second trading post as the sun sat on the horizon, and we followed the carriage off the road.  I took care of my horse quickly, since the nobles were waiting on us to finish before exiting the carriage.

Bryce and Lynn, I could call them whatever I wanted in my head, left the carriage, and we fell in behind them silently and followed them into the tavern.  The place was crowded with farmers, and I took in the emotions, and the place felt right.  That relaxed me a little bit, but I didn’t let my guard down too much.  Last thing I needed to do was to fail on my first day as a guard.

I expected trouble at some point, if any of Jendas’s spies survived the king’s purge, I didn’t doubt they’d want to ambush us at some point before we left Trelin.  So far so good, but I wouldn’t depend on it.

“The Dwarves?” I asked silently.

Gerard thought, “They’ll stay in the carriage.”

I supposed that made sense, I didn’t think the tavern had four rooms to rent, and they probably didn’t want to hang around a bunch of drunk humans anyway.  I wasn’t looking forward to being alone with Lynn later either, I had no idea how to act.  I couldn’t help but notice Lynn’s annoyance, at Bryce’s tone when he demanded two rooms, with an extra cot each, though she didn’t show it on her face.  Oh good, at least I won’t have to sleep on the floor.

That’s when I realized it could have been worse, I could’ve been stuck in the carriage with him all afternoon.  Poor Lynn.

I suppressed a giggle as we sat down.

Bryce called out demandingly, “Four meals, and ales!”

The barmaid ran over with ales a few seconds later, and then went for the food.  The food as usual was amazing on this world, no processed food or chemicals, all very fresh, but I politely requested more of it, as one helping wouldn’t be nearly enough.  It wasn’t as good as the castle’s fare, but that came down to spices and the cook’s talents more than the quality of the meats and veggies.

Lynn looked at me and asked, “You saved the king’s life last night?”

I replied, “Yes Marchioness Darish, any paladin could have saved him from the poison, I was just the first on scene.”

Bryce frowned at Lynn, probably for speaking with the help, and because a baron outranked a marchioness and should set the tone, but she ignored it and asked me another question.

“Perhaps, but none of the others knew there was a problem, and the guard reports said you just appeared a few seconds after it all started.  How did you know which guard was the poisoner?”

I explained empathy, and that the guard that did it wasn’t feeling the emotions a guard worried about his king should be feeling.

Lynn asked, “So you can feel my emotions?”

I nodded, “Anyone unshielded.  It comes in handy for picking out what doesn’t fit, like an assassin on the prowl.”

Lynn asked, “Unshielded?”

“Yes, the general protection mage shields, I can’t read the emotions of a mage with those protections.  In fact, if the mage advisor had lived twenty seconds longer I wouldn’t have known there was a problem until it was too late.”

I also left out, that if the young queen hadn’t truly loved the king, and been truly distraught, I’d have missed it as well.  I tried not to share things like that, empaths with loose tongues quickly lost their friends.

Bryce, being an asshat, immediately cast a spell and shielded himself.  I didn’t mind, his arrogance was grating, now it was just a blank spot.

Lynn bit her lip and turned away, obviously wanting to laugh at the man, but he was her superior and she didn’t dare.  Gerard also looked amused, but only to those who knew him well.

Then she said, “I feel lucky to have you guarding me then.”

It wasn’t a question, so after a moment I decided a subtle nod of acknowledgment would do.  Bryce gave her a more pointed look, and this time she desisted and stopped asking questions.

We finished our dinner, and then retired to the back hallway next to the kitchen, where there were three rooms.  I sent Gerard a mental hug and a surge of emotions, as we went into separate rooms.  It was the first time I’d not be sleeping in the same bed with him since we got married.  It felt… wrong.

I took off my sword, dagger, and boots, and then got on the cot.  I’ll admit, I was a bit disappointed when Lynn remained quiet.  I don’t know what I’d expected, and I could feel her curiosity, and that she even liked me.  But sometimes, humans didn’t act on their feelings, which I’d learned long ago.  She was a noble, and I wasn’t.  In private or not, that separation didn’t come down.

I’d have to add Lynn to the list of people that could have been friends, but never would be.  Like Caroline.  It just seemed so stupid, but this world was different, there were no nobles where I came from.  Perhaps there was even a good reason for it, politically I mean.  If there was, I wasn’t sure what it would be.  Except… paladins were supposed to stay out of politics, and if we were friends I could more easily be sucked into a bad situation if I had loyalties or a friendship toward one Marchioness, or I could be targeted by another noble to send Lynn a message, or…  Okay, there were lots of good reasons.

That didn’t mean I liked it though.

I did one more scan as far as I could reach, and then just relaxed.  My empathy would still pick up an intruder, just from much closer when I wasn’t pushing my power quite so hard.  Still, even at rest, my empathy picked up everything in the tavern and outside, so good enough.

Really, my power had two ranges.  Humans leaked thoughts and emotions all the time, and my telepathy and empathy picked it up when I wasn’t even trying out to about a hundred yards.  Which was interesting, because that matched my ultimate reach with telekinesis.  That’s why I needed mental shields to block and filter outside thoughts and emotions, it was always on.

However, I also had some control over the powers of telepathy and empathy as well, and could exert more mental power and stretch it out to over twelve hundred feet in all directions, instead of three hundred when my power was at rest.  I’ve always considered that a scan ability, because it wasn’t something I could maintain constantly.

Once my charge settled down to sleep, I summoned the book on dwarven history, and started reading.

Chapter Five

It was clear another human had written this, and a lot of the history was speculation, and in some ways, I already knew some of it from reading the other books.  Originally the dwarves had settled along the whole mountain range, including inside Chilik.  It was when the three races joined for the first and last time to push the evil races south, that they grudgingly moved out of Chilik.

They didn’t dislike humans exactly, but their temperaments were different.  They were of stone and fire, where humans were a balance of all the elements.  Stone was steady and stubborn, fire direct and blatant.  The dwarves were stubborn, blunt, and direct in their mannerisms and speech.

The human tendency towards prettying things up and making things politically correct, or sound better, just annoyed the hell out of the dwarves who are brutally honest about everything.  They don’t tell white lies, or use innuendo or subtlety.  Sarcasm would be completely lost on them as well.  They didn’t dislike humans, they simply didn’t trust them.

We lied, exaggerated, and skirted around things.  Well, except for the paladins and clerics.  But even we could hold part of the truth to misdirect, something a dwarf would never even consider.  Like the fact that I’d avoided talking about telepathy at all in my conversation with Lynn.  I hadn’t lied, I just hadn’t mentioned that part of the story.  In a lot of ways, humans were much more like the elves, than we’d ever be like the dwarves.

I still thought it a shame we weren’t at least trading partners with the elves, all because some noble couldn’t keep it in his pants and didn’t know no meant no.  But I got a little off subject.

The dwarves lived to about six hundred years or so, barring accidents or disease, and their intrinsic fire and earth magic was mostly geared toward the environment, and not fighting.  In other words, they used it to forge incredibly strong and well-made swords, to hack their enemies up, because they couldn’t throw fireballs, or throw earth, but they could sense the gold and iron easily and know exactly where to mine.  They could also control the temperatures in their forges, and by feel knew how much to heat the metal, and when it would be best to pull it out of the fire and shape it.

Despite their smaller size, the dwarves were stronger than humans, and were very good at physical combat.  The only magic they used in combat was what their rune-wrights imbued into their weapons and siege engines.  It also meant all dwarves would be an open book to me as far as empathy and telepathy, not that I’d pry with the latter, but I was a lot more open about using empathy.

Since the banishing of the evil races to the south, the dwarves have bartered with us six different times.  All relating to something they couldn’t handle on their own, for a specified amount of swords, shields, and other items made of dwarven steel.  Of course, I knew that wasn’t true, there was a black market for dwarven steel in Trelin, and probably in Jendas as well.

The book even describes dwarven steel in more detail than the king explained, no doubt for my benefit.  The secret ingredient was some kind of crystal dust, only found in one place in the mountains.  It wasn’t so much a secret, as no one else but the dwarves had access to it.  Still, how much to use and when to use it in the forging process wasn’t explained, so there were still some secrets.  The dwarves had refused to trade for it every time Trelin or Jendas asked.

The dwarves were ruled by the royal family, so marked with amber eyes of the yellow light brown variety, while the rest of the race had darker brown eyes.  Even within the royal family itself, only some were born with amber eyes, and those were the ones who could be possible heirs, which meant unlike humans the firstborn didn’t count for much if they had the wrong eyes.  The author of the history had no idea where their capitol city was, but that’s where the king lived, and where the crystal dust was found.

Other humans had entered the dwarven kingdom for the other tasks the dwarves needed help with, but never to the center of their culture.  I wondered how we’d be welcomed.  Well, since they were so blunt and straightforward, I wouldn’t have to wonder for long after we got there.

The royal family were there to guide the dwarves, but not in the same way a human king was, instead they led by example, and hard work.  Often, a dwarven king would be a smith, a rune-wright, or even a mining delver.  A mining delver was one who specialized in finding veins of ores or gems deep in the rock, and were often responsible for deciding where to open new mines, or close mines that were played out.  All dwarves could do it to a certain extent, but delvers were very good at it. 

In other words, the dwarven kings and queens worked for a living, and didn’t sit on a throne and soak up their subjects’ profits in taxes.  A shocking concept for humans, but I kind of found it amusing.  Not the dwarves, the amusing part was trying to imagine King Alexander holding a skilled job outside of politics.

Anyway, that’s what we were heading into.  I sent the book back to the bookshelf, ran one more far out scan, and then closed my eyes to fall asleep.  It was even harder than I’d expected, without Gerard’s arms around me, and his body close to mine.  Enough with my whining, but I would hate every night of this mission I had to spend apart from him.  It could have been worse though, at least he was near and not on a separate mission altogether.

Chapter Six

We hadn’t gotten very far the next morning, when we ran into trouble.  The farms were thick for about an hour’s ride past the trading post.  Further than that the farms were broken up by small patches of woods, and the road started to get a little bit hilly.  The mountains were still about fifty miles away, but humans were getting scarcer.

It was midmorning and I was out front when I felt them.  Ten men who were full of nervous energy and excitement.  It just took me a moment to peek into their minds from a quarter mile away.  They were cutthroats and thieves that had been hired by a spy for two hundred gold. They already had half of it, and would get the other half when they returned to Magehaven.  They’d caught up to us a couple of hours after sunset, and then kept going another hour last night to set up this morning ambush.

There wasn’t a mage among them.  Their plan was to swarm from the side as we passed, with half of them shooting bows from the tree line.  It was decent plan and they would have had surprise on their side if not for me, except they’d be in range of telekinesis far before we were alongside.

I didn’t like killing, but I’d long past gotten over my squeamishness about summarily executing bandits and murderers.  As we reached one hundred yards, I simply reached out with telekinesis, and snapped all their necks where they stood waiting.  Their bodies fell concealed in the trees and underbrush.  I found the sack of a hundred gold on the leader, and pulled it to me, it shot out of the woods and toward my hand.

I teleported it to my temple room.

My only regret, was that the spy was safe for now, though I did know what he looked like from the bandit leader’s mind, and could likely find him when we got back to Magehaven if he was still there stirring up mischief.

I sensed no curiosity or alarm from our charges, or Gerard.  They hadn’t even noticed the bandits were there.

“Gerard, there were bandits in the trees ahead, hired by a Jendas’ spy back in Magehaven to stop us.”

He thought at me hard, which made me smile, “Were?!”

“I took care of them, none of them had magic.  Should we loot?”

I know, I was a bit obsessed with loot, especially for a woman that had obsidian pieces worth over a hundred thousand gold, and knew where to get enough to make billions.  Still, at the rate we found stuff to loot, I’d never have to dip into that obsidian again as long as I didn’t spend to lavishly, which wasn’t one of my things.  Getting lucky once wouldn’t be noticed, but if I kept selling the stuff without being careful, it would probably draw attention of the wrong kind, from disreputable mages, otherwise known as the nobles of the kingdom.

He replied, “No.  Better our charges don’t find out what happened, if you took them out when they were still in cover.  I’d rather them not know exactly how deadly you are.”

I sent a feeling of agreement, I knew I already made Bryce nervous, and that was just from my empathy.  It was probably the best decision.  They didn’t have much anyway, just a handful of swords, bows, and ten daggers.  They weren’t even wearing armor.

I did feel bad about the horses though, and I just couldn’t let them starve to death to keep a secret.  I untied them when we were almost out of range and sent calming thoughts and emotions so they wouldn’t move for at least an hour or so.  When they got hungry they’d probably head back west, someone would find them.

The rest of the day there was nothing, and after we had lunch there hadn’t been any signs of human habitation at all.  No farms, or hunters.  It was late afternoon and right before dinner time when we made it to the mountains.

We stopped in front of what looked like a cliff, but my telekinesis sunk into the stone, and I could feel the secret entrance and tunnel beyond it.  An entrance and tunnel about twice as wide and high as the carriage.

I decided then this would be one more secret I’d have to keep.  I had no doubt the dwarves would be wary of bringing a human into their midst who could easily find and read their traps, secret doors, and possibly their vaults.  No, I wouldn’t be sharing that, not even with Gerald, unless I was absolutely sure I wouldn’t be overheard.

The dwarven guardian, Nolebera, jumped off the carriage, and activated the cliff opening.  The rock ground against rock, shook, and rumbled, as the large entry door opened up.  She returned to the carriage, and said, “You two stay behind us, it’s best if the others see us before they see you.  Your charges will be safe.  Don’t go too far from the carriage.”

Gerard nodded in agreement, we were on their turf now.  Some of the runes on the carriage lit up like a glow bug as it drove into the darkness, which provided plenty of light to see, and Gerard and I followed.  The stone shook and rumbled, and ground closed behind us with a finality that made me a little nervous.  I reminded myself I could teleport, but still felt a little confined under the weight of the stone mountain.  I hoped I’d get used to it.

Welcome to Belirith…

The walls and floor were smooth dark brown rock, the ceiling was flat as well but not perfectly so, and was pockmarked with small crags.  Every once in a while, there was an elaborate rune design on the wall.  At first, I thought they were magical in nature, but when we got to our first intersection two miles in I started to suspect they were like mile markers and street signs.

We turned left at that point and headed north on a tunnel road at least twice as wide as the one we’d been on, and I couldn’t help but compare this to a main highway, and the smaller one to an entrance ramp or access road like the highway systems back home.  I couldn’t even imagine the effort involved in digging this thing out, but I supposed they’d been mining and expanding in these mountains for thousands of years.

We didn’t go much further before we stopped for the night.  The carriage turned into a side tunnel, which seemed to dead end into a large cavern.  There was a small underground lake and a slow moving stream, a small stable, and a couple of small one room buildings.  I suppressed a giggle, as I thought this must be like a rest area on the side of an interstate.  The small stable was the only building that looked brand new, and I wondered if they’d set this up in anticipation of our agreement to come.  Dwarves didn’t use horses as far as I knew.

Gerard and I dismounted, and I took the time to unsaddle and brush down Stormy well, and made sure she had what she needed for food and water.  She was tired from the day’s ride, but content enough in this cavern stable.

Gerard asked, “How are you doing in this place?”

I replied, “It was a bit disconcerting at first, all that weight above my head, but I’m getting used to it.  It helps that I can teleport.  How about you?”

Thank the goddess I wasn’t claustrophobic.

Gerard replied, “I’m good, it’s impressive.”

I smiled, and stole a kiss, but then we had to get back to our charges, I was sure they were impatient to leave the carriage.  The dwarves stayed with the carriage again, and we were given the use of the two, small one room buildings.  I looked at the stream a little longingly right before I entered the stone shack, I could definitely use a bath after riding a horse for two days.  I cheated a bit, with aqua-kinesis and micro-kinesis, and at least felt a little better with the dust and sweat gone, but still hoped she’d want a bath in the morning.  It just wasn’t the same without soap.

The shack had three smaller beds obviously designed for dwarves, I’d fit if I bent my legs enough.  There were also supplies for a fire, but if anything, the cavern was a little too warm already.  Lynn was silent, so I followed her lead and just ate my cold dinner and got ready for bed.  Hopefully tomorrow night we’d reach our destination, or at least a dwarven town with nicer facilities and something better than trail food.  It was still better than sleeping in a tent though, and I tweaked my vanity a little bit by mocking myself.  I’d gotten spoiled on my week-long honeymoon in the castle.

I wasn’t truly upset about any of that anyway, so much as the fact I couldn’t ask questions.  It was annoying.  I was sure the dwarves had told Bryce and Lynn the itinerary, they just couldn’t be bothered to pass it on to their guards.  I suppose I really didn’t have a need to know, but it felt strange to be cut off.  It was like I wasn’t even on this mission to help the dwarves find a murdering creature, and I suppose I wasn’t.  My mission was to protect Lynn.

To that end, I checked the area with my mind one last time, and outside of the eight of us no one else was in my range.  I closed my eyes, and eventually found sleep.

Chapter Seven

The next day’s travel was interesting, but also a little frustrating as my curiosity was once again denied until the very end of the day.

We travelled north on the large highway, and passed by several east west corridors.  The mountain tunnels carried sounds very well, and I heard miners, picks, and shovels.  I heard what sounded like a whole town down another corridor, but it was all too far off the main road through the mountains to actually see any of it.  Except the occasional dwarven wagon or carriage moving past us in the other direction, all I saw during the day were the flat walls, ground, ceiling, and the back of the dwarven carriage.

The one good thing was Gerard and I got to ride relatively close together, as we followed the carriage.  We chatted away most of the day while I let my mind range out ahead and behind, but no dangers presented themselves.

It was late afternoon when Gerard asked, “How are you holding together?”

I sighed and said, “Honestly, I’m good.  Why?”

I really was, for all my mental complaining, things weren’t nearly so bad, and the dwarven tunnels and kingdom were interesting.  I was excited about getting to the capitol city, or what passed as one in the dwarven kingdom.  All my complaints really stemmed back to not knowing what was going on, and wanting to ask questions I couldn’t.  I supposed it was an opportunity to grow, but it felt confining.  I wasn’t used to it at all.

I’d always been independent growing up, and between google and my parents I’d grown up getting the answers whenever I wanted them.  I suppose I was handling it though, since I hadn’t broken my own morals and delved into anyone’s head for the answers.

Gerard replied, “You just seem a little tense today.”

I supposed I was, probably because I didn’t want to complain like a whiny teenager, and was holding it all in.  Was I really that high maintenance?  I tried to smile, until I felt it.  If denying my curiosity was the worst of the trip, then I’d say we were in for an easy mission.  Still, no one liked working in the dark, did they?  How did regular guards do this day after day without going nuts?

I said I wouldn’t mention it again, but I think being separated from Gerard at night was making it worse, a mountain out of a molehill.  I needed a pillow to scream in, like I used to do when I was fourteen.  My complaining thoughts were starting to annoy me now.

I shrugged, not sure what to say.  I decided I needed to meditate tonight, and order my mind.  I felt scattered, surely I wasn’t so spoiled that not knowing our destination would make me spin out of control, but that’s what it felt like just then.

Or maybe, it was not asking questions, no Gerard in my bed, and the crushing weight of all that stone over my head. 

Shit. 

That’s exactly what it was, and why my mind was being so whiny.  Being underground had me off balance far more than the other two things.  Perversely, I felt better almost immediately, now that I finally admitted that to myself and knew what the real problem was.  Being underground was freaking me out and making everything else seem worse.

“I think it’s the underground thing, I’ll be fine.”

Going after the demons hadn’t bothered me at all, and I wondered if that was simply because of the adrenaline and anticipation of battle.  Probably.

Gerard replied, “Anything I can do?”

“No, not really, but I have a few ideas.”

I had to keep my mind busy.  I started to scan the rock around me with telekinesis, deep inside of it.  I spent the rest of the afternoon in sporadic conversation with my husband, and trying to figure out the dwarven traps we passed which weren’t armed.  I also tested something new, and although it failed it taught me something new.

I ran across a few gems deep in the rock, and studied their structure with my telekinesis.  I could feel their molecules, their size, and even detected small flaws in the gems.  But when I tried to teleport them out of the rock, and into my hands, I failed.  It seemed counterintuitive, but even though I felt like I knew more studying the rock with my telekinesis senses, I obviously couldn’t pick up the quantum signature of the object so I could teleport it. 

For some reason, looking at it with my naked eyes was required to do that.  My mind may have learned less about the object that way, but apparently my power learned far more, enough to teleport it, if I laid eyes on something.

Maybe I was crazy, but it also felt like studying what I was afraid of helped.  The rock, striations, and deposits of metals and gems I saw all around us helped.  The fear of all that weight above me, was a nebulous concept, a not quite formed idea that tickled my hind brain.  I was far from cured, perhaps I’d never be happy underground, but I did feel more in control and not quite at my wits end any longer.

I’d lost track of time, it was hard to tell with no sun and no watch on my wrist, so I was a little startled as the carriage took the next turn off, and Gerard and I followed it.  After about a half a mile, the tunnel opened up into a large cavern maybe a half mile long, and a quarter mile wide, with a small waterfall on the far side into an underground lake. 

The cavern was half filled with stone houses on quarter acre lots.  There were even some flora in the cavern, and the air felt fresher, perhaps they had more airshafts in here than in the tunnels?  Based on my empathy, there were a couple of thousand dwarves living here.  I was curious if they considered this a city or a small town, but as usual on this trip I swallowed my questions.  I’d figure it out once we got to the capitol city, by comparison.

We got a few curious looks, a few that weren’t all that trusting, but none that gave me cause to worry for our safety as we rode about a quarter way through town, and then the carriage pulled behind a large building that looked like a tavern.  Once again, there was a stable in the back that looked newly built, and we got the horses taken care of as quickly as possible, but I didn’t stint on attention either.

This time, the dwarves left the carriage, and Gerard and I stayed close to our charges as we entered the large tavern.  It looked like a common room the world over, tables, chairs, long bar, and drunk patrons.  The only thing different was the furniture was all just a bit too small for us, but it wasn’t too bad, and was still better and more comfortable than sitting astride a saddle like I’d done all day.  I didn’t sense any danger, and relaxed as the eight of us sat around the table.

The dwarves around us were rowdy, loud, and while curious about us it didn’t change how they acted at all as far as I could tell. 

I was starved, as usual, but it didn’t take long for the food and ale to come out.  I immediately noticed several differences, when we’d eaten at the human inn, the other patrons and the servers were obviously nervous or outright afraid of the nobles with us.  Here in the dwarven inn, the ambassadors and guardians were treated no differently than anyone else.

I considered what I’d learned in the history book, and decided they wore those robes for our benefit, and probably had a regular job most of the time, like the king.  It was different, odd, but in some ways better to my way of thinking.  I also knew a society like that wouldn’t ever work for humans.  What it basically amounted to was the dwarves had a system closer to anarchy than anything else, but it clearly worked for them.

Tursac said, “We’re making good time, we should reach the capitol on schedule, or earlier.”

I suppressed a giggle at my frustration, couldn’t he have said when instead of on schedule?  It was clear to me I needed to be more patient.

Lynn asked, “Is the capitol like this place?”

I wanted to kiss her, at least someone was asking questions.

Tursac laughed, and took a drink from his ale mug.

“No Lynn, it’s about eight times larger, and besides the north-south entrances for the main highway, there are seven other tunnels which lead to various places, many of which split off into other tunnels.  Foundries, forges, our oldest mines, stockpiles of weapons, the runic college, and other places I will not talk about.  This is merely a small village, many of which are spread out through the mountains.  You’ll see for yourself tomorrow.”

Oh, thank god, real answers.  I felt like an addict who’d finally gotten a hit.  I covered my mouth and coughed, to hide the giggle.  Maybe I was impatient, but at least I could make fun of myself for it.  Even stranger, the eight-foot ceiling in this building made my nerves about the cavern roof go away, as if the building’s roof could stop a cave in.  It was ridiculous, but stupid or not my primitive brain was relaxed for the first time since we came in the door on the side of the mountain yesterday afternoon.

I was sure the dwarves’ happy chatter, good natured grumbling, and the ale had something to do with it as well.  I also enjoyed absorbing the emotions of the dwarves around me.

Bryce looked unimpressed with the description of the capitol city, and as arrogant as ever.  He was still shielded, which meant that I was at least safe from his emotions, but it was also annoying because I’d had to take my enchanted ring off.  Being near him all the time would make my early warning system in my sleep worthless, since the ring when worn wouldn’t ever stop vibrating.  Then again, the dwarves didn’t have magical shields, so hopefully it wouldn’t matter.

Lynn didn’t ask any more questions, but the dwarves spoke freely to each other and basically ignored the taciturn humans at their table.  Lynn and Bryce by choice, while Gerard and I weren’t supposed to talk.  I didn’t pick up much, they talked about family and what they were planning when they got back to the main city.  I did learn that they wouldn’t be staying with us, and the king would provide us with an escort when we got there.

I got the vibes that they wouldn’t mind getting away from us.  They didn’t really hate us or anything, it was just that they didn’t get us, at all.

After dinner Gerard and I traded a silent good night, and followed our charges to the rooms.  There was a tub, but like everything else it was dwarf sized so a tight fit.  Still, I was more than happy to cope with that and wash up once Lynn was finished.  I cleaned up my outfit as well, and dried it and myself with aqua-kinesis before I got dressed again, sans my boots and weapons, which I had by the wall next to the small bed I slept on.

I was excited, and looking forward to seeing the dwarven city.  I’d also get some answers, if only where we’d be staying, and who would be leading us to the murder sites.  I was also curious to see more magic, though I knew I wouldn’t be able to sense it.  I still had only vague ideas what a mage was truly capable of, and almost all of that related to battle.

Outside of Gerard’s absence, I felt more like myself as I fell asleep, than I had the last couple of days…

Chapter Eight

The dwarves may have been spread out throughout the mountains, but it was clear that they were more concentrated around the capitol just like humans were.  The last day’s ride to the capitol showed a lot more dwarves passing us in the large mountain tunnel, and there were more side tunnels and mines than on the previous day.

Based on how far we were going, and the time, I guessed the dwarven capitol in the mountains were almost directly east of Lorbridge, which was fifty miles or so south to the mountain pass into Jendas.  That explained to me why they’d come to Trelin instead of Jendas, Trelin’s capitol was much closer.  I doubted the dwarves cared about human politics at all, just as Gerard had said.

I’d been able to meditate a little, and though being below the mountain still bothered me, I felt more balanced and was able to ignore it a little better.  It wasn’t something that could be fixed with rationality.

It was early afternoon when we entered a very large cavern.  It was easily two miles long, and a mile wide.  The cavern ceiling was domed, and went up extremely high, and there were several support columns as wide as a skyscraper in Manhattan.  The large stone columns were also responsible for the lighting in the city, they glowed warmly and filled the cavern with an even light.  The city itself seemed to be on a shallow hill, like an upside-down saucer, and we were looking up slightly into it.  I guessed that was to avoid flooding, some water must leak down the air shafts, or there was an underground river close by that overflowed in the spring melt?  It was just a guess.

The large highway cut the city in half, and exited out the north side, and as Tursac indicated there were seven other smaller but still wide tunnels.  Four on the eastern side, and three on the western.  The area was bigger, but there were even more houses here by square footage, since they didn’t get a quarter acre for each one.  There were large buildings in the market place that looked like stores and inns, and I made out what looked like warehouses on the west side, but I couldn’t identify the castle, and suddenly wondered if the king lived in a small house just like everyone else.

I chuckled under my breath, at the thought of Alexander living in a small house and having a job, besides ruling I mean.

The carriage rolled slowly through the city, giving others plenty of time to get out of the way, and gawk at Gerard and I on our horses.  I was a bit surprised when we pulled into the back of an inn, but I supposed I shouldn’t have been.  If the king didn’t have a castle, he wouldn’t have a guest wing or servants either.

We dismounted and took care of our horses, got them put up in another new stable, and then followed our charges into the inn.  The four dwarves stuck around long enough to get us a pair of rooms, and made sure we were settled, and then took off as we sat down to eat.  Obviously, planning had been done inside the carriage, once again I had no clue what was going on.  Lynn didn’t seem worried, so I just went with it and ate an early dinner, and drank some ale.

“Any idea what’s going on, I know you’ve been with me the whole time.”

Gerard smirked, and thought, “The ambassadors probably went to the king to explain the deal, and get his final approval.  Then the king will probably send his representative or guide to come get us.  It’s a guess, but probably a good one.  There’s a good chance that won’t be until morning.”

Damn, I should’ve thought of that.  I tried to relax, and enjoy the ale, though not too much of it.  I really didn’t need to get a buzz and loosen my tongue around Bryce, or my powers.  To be fair, he wasn’t even being obnoxious right now, just stand-offish.  I couldn’t even mingle with the dwarves, since I had to stay by Lynn and be watchful, so I settled for people watching, or dwarf watching as it may be.

Over in one corner it looked like they were gambling, and right next to them was a couple who barely noticed their rowdy neighbors.  Unlike humans, what I felt from them empathy wise was how they acted, there was no dissembling, or hiding of opinions and emotions. 

This was good and bad, because it looked like two of the gamblers were about to start a bar fight.

I saw one clenching his fists, while the other yelled at him.  I wasn’t supposed to talk, but this was a part of my duties, wasn’t it?

“My lady, perhaps we should retire before…” my comment was cut short by a loud curse, the sound of fist hitting face, and the beginning of a bar fight.

Lynn frowned and I raised my eyebrows.  She nodded, and I got up just in time to avoid a dwarf at the next table, who was knocked away by a gambler, and shoved backwards into my chair.  The fight was spreading quickly.  We moved swiftly to the stairs, with the men a step behind us.  I was doing my best not to snicker, and kind of wanted to stay to watch, but I had my duties.

Apparently, I’d have no fun at all on this trip, although, I wasn’t sure when I’d decided bar fights were fun…

The next morning came quickly enough, and the four of us were eating breakfast in silence once again.  It wouldn’t be so bad I thought, if Lynn and Bryce would at least talk to each other, but that wasn’t happening.  So, I was people watching again when a young female dwarf walked into the tavern and headed our way.

She had long red hair in an elaborate ponytail, but otherwise wore simple light leather armor.  That seemed to be the standard dress, the dwarven steel armor was only worn by the active guards and guardians.  She was about four foot three, and when she saw us she smiled and came over.  The thing that really made her stand out in my mind, was her sharp amber eyes.

This girl was royalty, and a possible heir.

She said in a pleasant but no-nonsense tone, “Lord Timmons, Lady Darish, and guardians.  I’m Holmarra Orefall.  I’ll take you to meet the king and my eldest brother, who will be joining us to show you around.  We can both answer your questions.”

Bryce said snootily, “Of course princess, we’d be delighted.”

Holmarra grumbled, “Holmarra please.”

Bryce replied with a rather annoyed tone, “Of course.  Holmarra.  You must call us Bryce and Lynn as well if we are discarding titles for our visit?”

I didn’t snort, but it was very close.

He added, “Let me introduce our guards, Gerard, and Katherine.”

I opened my mouth to correct him, but Gerard shook his head sharply.  Shit, you’ve got to be kidding me.  Katherine?  Not that it was a bad name, but it wasn’t mine.

I picked up my cup and finished off the juice, then we stood up and I scanned ahead with my empathy, but didn’t sense anything off.  We exited the building and went north for a bit on the main street, and then turned to the right.  My guess must’ve been right about the king’s home, because all there was this way was normal sized houses.

The support columns looked brighter to me this morning, I wasn’t sure if my eyes were just adjusting, or if it changed throughout the day to simulate daylight more closely.  I knew they’d been extremely dim at night.  The city seemed quieter in the morning as well, maybe most of the dwarves were off to the mines, smithies, and foundries. 

The house we moved toward off the side street was a decent sized home, maybe three thousand square feet, but no bigger than the other houses around it.  Some areas did have smaller homes, but it was hardly a palace.  Perhaps it could be called a small mansion.  The mansion was two stories tall, and based on the windows had at least eight bedrooms on the second floor, assuming the rooms were doubled up in the back.  It was stone, but it was also exquisitely carved and accented like much of the city.

Holmarra led us around the side of the house, and I could hear the hammer and steel from the small building.  The king was a smith?  She opened the door and took us inside, where a wave of heat hit my face as we walked in, and I saw the cherry light glow of light against the wall as she held up a hand and went into the other room.

Three dwarven men, and a woman came back out with her.

The king and the other woman who must have been queen were older, so it was easy to pick them out.

The king was wearing a leather apron, and his skin was covered with dust from coal and smoke.  His brow was sweating, and he had a look of annoyance on his face, in his amber eyes, and from his emotions.  He was the tallest dwarf I’d seen at four foot seven, and his beard and hair were red, at least the parts that weren’t colored from the dust.

The queen was similarly dressed, and was dirty as well, outside of her elaborate ponytail with gold and gems she looked like a smith too.  She probably was a smith.  She felt amusement, and her brown eyes twinkled with suppressed mirth.  I wasn’t sure why, maybe she was amused at whatever had annoyed her husband the king, or maybe this was all some elaborate test, to see how the humans would deal with a monarch that worked and was dirty.  I wasn’t sure.

Bryce might have been a jackass in my opinion, but he was a consummate politician and didn’t bat an eye.  Lynn looked a bit bemused, but didn’t look shocked or judgmental either.  Gerard and I just tried to stick to the back and be invisible.

The other two men were obviously their sons, same red hair and beards, though only one of them had amber eyes, the other had brown eyes like their mother’s.  I wasn’t sure who was eldest yet, and which was the heir, but I’d know shortly since the eldest was coming with us according to what Holmarra told us earlier.

Both of them were dressed in leather as well, but only the amber eyed one was dirty.  So perhaps he was the middle son and would be staying here?

Holmarra said, “Father, meet Bryce and Lynn, the two nobles sent from Trelin to assist us, and their guardians, Gerard and Katherine.”

I grinded my teeth, and thought of several ways Bryce might have an accident in here.  There were all sorts of hot things, and a little telekinesis to the back of a knee… I cut off the thoughts.  Still, it was annoying, my name was Katrina.  I was half convinced the bastard had done it on purpose, but also wouldn’t be surprised if I was just that beneath his notice.

“Bryce, Lynn, this is my father King Nabrec Orefall and mother Queen Hammeana.”

Holmarra waved toward her brother with the amber eyes, “This is my middle brother Vothick, and named heir,” she waved at the older brown eyed male, “And this is Sanath, my eldest brother who will be joining us.”

Sanath seemed relaxed, and his emotions were neutral, as if he hadn’t decided how to see us yet.  Vothick seemed as annoyed as his father, maybe they just wanted to get back to work?  Who knew?

King Nabrec said gruffly, “It is good that you are here.  I’ve already given orders to my best two masters, one a master smith and the other a master rune-wright.  You can meet them later if you wish, but whatever is killing my children and young adults needs to be stopped as quickly as possible.  My daughter and son are a credit to my family, and have full knowledge of everything that went on, and can answer your questions.  As for me, I have my own work to do.”

I bit my bottom lip to stop a smile, Bryce seemed totally poleaxed at such a gruff and dismissive speech.  Apparently, the king was annoyed that he’d been dragged away from his project.

Bryce recovered a little, and bowed, “Of course your majesty, we’ll resolve this as quickly as possible.”

The king measured both Bryce and Lynn, and then grunted and went back into his smithy.  The queen and Vothick turned without a word and followed him.  I sensed Sanath was amused, he might have even been smiling, but it was impossible to read facial expressions under those damned beards.

Holmarra was smiling, I wasn’t really sure I got why though.  They were straightforward in expression and emotion, and acted on how they felt, but that didn’t mean what they felt or their motivations weren’t a mystery to me.  They were in a way, alien in thought.  I could guess one of the motivations, the king wouldn’t waste time gabbing when his people were dying, not for some meaningless political tripe as he’d see it.  But the annoyance was beyond me, and maybe it didn’t even have to do with us at all, for all I knew his son or wife had done something to annoy him.

Empathy didn’t mean I knew everything, I just felt the emotions.  Sometimes context made it easy to figure out, but most times that wasn’t the case.

Sanath cleared his throat, “Did you want to visit the murder sites in order, or does it matter?”

Bryce asked, “How many have there been?”

Sanath replied, “Eleven, there are two new murder sites since Tursac left to request your aid.”

Bryce said, “Which ones we visit first won’t matter, but we will need to know the order, and approximately when the murders happened.  The strength, decay rate of the residual magic, along with its type will tell us what our enemy is, and how strong it is.  I assume the last two were like the others, one dwarf alone, no witnesses and no one heard anything?”

Holmarra answered, “The same, no witnesses, no one felt, heard, or saw anything.”

Bryce replied, “Okay, show us to at least four sites, including the first and last.”

Shouldn’t I feel something because of this, I mean from the dwarves?  Why didn’t I feel fear from the city, why were kids and young adults not using the buddy system, why… I had a million questions, but bit my tongue.  I was here to watch the professionals work and guard their backs.  Problem was, they might have been powerful mages and experts in magic, but they didn’t ask any questions outside of what they needed for magical calculations.  Perhaps they didn’t need to, if they could find and trace the magic they wouldn’t need to.

I was eighteen, and hardly a brilliant investigator, but wasn’t having more information better?  I decided all I could do was watch and listen, which was what I was supposed to be doing anyway while guarding Lynn’s back.

Sanath said, “Follow me.”

Sanath led us out of the building, Bryce and Lynn followed, Gerard and I followed them, while Holmarra took up the rear.  I stretched out my empathy to look for anything out of place as we walked through the streets.  We were headed back west across the city, toward the warehouses and the three western tunnels.

I felt all sorts of things with my empathy, from grief and anger, to lust and love, as we crossed the city.  What I didn’t feel was the fear of a city under siege.  I tried to imagine that back in the human cities, or back home.  If teenagers were being randomly killed by a serial murder, people tended to take notice of such things.  Maybe the dwarves were more different than I’d even realized, or maybe there was something else going on here to account for it.

As we passed by the warehouses, I noticed there weren’t really more than a handful of dwarves on this edge of the city, and that one of the three tunnels was closed off with a gate of sorts.  The dwarves I did see, were wearing armor of dwarven steel, obviously guards.  But what were they guarding, the tunnels, which one, or was it whatever was in the warehouses, or because someone died near here? 

I bit my lip again, I was doing that a lot lately, as I suppressed the obvious questions.  Maybe I was annoyingly curious, but it was who I was.  No one challenged us, probably because we were with the king’s children, and we stopped fairly close to the cavern’s edge, between the closed tunnel and the central tunnel.

I stretched my empathy, telepathy, and telekinesis as far as I could around us, and down the tunnels.  I felt a handful of dwarves in the center tunnel a couple of hundred yards in.

Holmarra said, “This is where the first died, about a foot to my brother’s right.”

Chapter Nine

Gerard and I stayed alert, while Lynn and Baron jerk face dropped their packs on the ground and started to pull out all sorts of devices, along with what looked like a large leather log book and a writing instrument.  I wished I could feel magic, I had no idea what any of it did.  They set up several round silver plates about twice the side of a coin around the area Holmarra indicated, and then set up several devices around that.

Then Lynn picked up the leather book and opened it up, and grabbed a pen.  When she looked at Bryce, he nodded and then I felt his emotions again.  Obviously, he couldn’t do this while shielded or it would mess things up, otherwise he’d have never dropped it in my presence.  He felt arrogant, but also very focused as he started to circle the devices while muttering a spell under his breath.

There was nothing showy, or flashy, but the devices started to light up in different colors and words that I didn’t recognize.  I suppressed the urge to go into one of their minds to pull out a magical vocabulary and understanding.

Lynn started to note it all down, and I felt her amazement as she did so.  I wasn’t sure if that was good or bad, probably bad.  When she finished writing, Lynn helped Bryce pack everything away except the ledger.

Lynn asked, “You said this was the first, how long has it been?”

Holmarra said, “Just over three weeks.  Twenty-two days to be exact.”

Lynn wrote that down, and shook her head as she went over everything.

Sanath asked, “Is there a problem?”

Lynn muttered under her breath, “You could say that,” which drew a warning glare from Bryce.

Holmarra’s eyes narrowed, “What’s the problem, could you not find anything?”

Lynn’s eyes widened, but she looked over at Bryce for guidance.

Bryce answered, “The opposite problem.  We did detect elemental water based magic, but the readings seem far too strong for something done twenty-two days ago.  Worse, we’ve never seen or heard of anything with this kind of signature, either in power or type.  Whatever it is, it’s strong if it’s residual magical can remain this… focused, for so long.  Don’t worry, we’ll find it.”

Sanath nodded, “The last site is not far from here.  Follow me and watch your step.”

We followed Sanath toward one of the tunnels.  The south-western tunnel was blocked off, we passed the middle one with a few dwarves in it by moving north along the cavern wall, and then we turned left and entered the third northernmost western tunnel which had no one in it.

Small runes along the walls must have recognized our presence, because they started to glow with a soft light.  The ground was smooth, but the walls were crumbling and there was some loose dirt and stone near the edges, which I supposed accounted for Sanath’s warning to watch our step.

How did the newest one die in here?  Was this the dwarves first mine and now abandoned as played out?  How did the young victim get past the guards around the warehouses without their notice?  Why would a dwarven youth invade a played-out mine in the first place?  These weren’t young children, and grew up around mines and smithies, why would they come here?  Why would one come here alone when there was a killer on the loose?  Why…

So many obvious questions, but Lynn and Bryce didn’t ask one of them.  Honestly, it was driving me nuts as I once again held my tongue.  They had magic, and until they failed to trace the source of the magic I’d keep my mouth shut.  If it worked, I supposed all those whys wouldn’t matter, but it still drove me crazy.

Holmarra pointed over by the wall, and they once again set up their gear, Bryce mumbled his magic, and Lynn wrote it all down.  I felt her emotions, and could tell she didn’t like the readings at all, but this time she didn’t say anything.

We spent the morning going from site to site, all five we visited were on the western side of the city, and they did their thing and took their readings.  Afterwards, we all returned to the inn we were staying at, and ate a late lunch.

The food was quite good, and I ignored the stares as I piled it up on my plate.

Holmarra asked, “What have you discovered?”

Bryce replied, “The creature has strong magic, very powerful, but not as strong as we at first feared.  It seems extraordinarily well structured and hasn’t decayed as quickly as a mage’s magic would.  The residual magic signature from the last site where the murder took place two days ago was stronger than the first, but not as much as we would have expected it to be.”

Sanath asked, “Will you be able to track it and find the one responsible?”

Bryce said, “It’s a new kind of magic we’ve never encountered, which…”

Holmarra interrupted, and I felt a surge of annoyance as she snapped, “Yes or no mage.”

I bit my lip, again, to suppress the laughter at the shock on his face.  Hadn’t he realized by now the dwarves didn’t like politically long-winded answers that didn’t actually answer the question?

Lynn sighed, “The short answer is yes, but it will take time.  It’s rather simple actually.  But to track the new type of magic we’ll need to modify our spells carefully, we don’t have one made to track it, since it’s a new and unfamiliar form of magic to us.  Detecting it and tracking it are two different things.  We might even fail the first few times, if we don’t have it exactly right.”

Bryce didn’t look happy about being rescued by Lynn.  Actually, livid might be a better description.

Holmarra asked, “How long?”

Bryce said firmly, “As long as it takes.  But we’ll try to be ready for our first attempt tomorrow morning.  Can we visit the master smith and master rune-wright after lunch?  Then we’ll spend the rest of the day on modifying the needed spells.”

That threw me off a bit, was he checking up on them?  Didn’t trust them to keep their end of the deal?  Or was he just butt hurt for Holmarra cornering him like that for a real answer, and wanted to exert some pressure back?  I wasn’t sure, but I didn’t like that he was putting it off with dwarven teens dying.

Sanath nodded tersely, “We can.”

The rest of lunch was filled with a tense silence, so I focused on my plate and enjoyed my food.  I didn’t enjoy Bryce’s annoyance at all, nope, not me, not even a little, because I wasn’t at all petty…

The dwarven affinity with fire magic must be handy.  After lunch, we were led back to the west, to a large smithy just east of the warehouses.  It’d occurred to me that this cavern, even as large as it was, should have been an absolute sauna with all the smithies scattered around the city, all that heat had to go somewhere.  Maybe they have runes for that, drawing the heat out of the air and into the rocks?

Maybe they just have good airflow from outside somehow, but I doubted air shafts would be enough on their own.  More questions I couldn’t ask, but could only speculate on as I stuck close to Lynn and was ready to defend her.  I may have been burning with curiosity, and really missing my husband in bed at night, and felt a little closed in, but I wasn’t going to drop the ball and let her get killed.

We walked into the large building, which seemed to have multiple forges inside of it, where an older dwarf watched over a bunch of younger ones.  Apprentices to the master?  I followed them over to the older dwarf.

Holmarra introduced the four of us, and I felt the urge to kick Bryce again when she called me Katherine.  Then she introduced him to us.

“Bryce, Lynn, and guardians, meet Master Smith Skadic Firebrand.”

Skadic looked us over, and then looked directly at Bryce, “What did you want?”

Bryce said, “I wanted to meet you, and make sure you didn’t have any questions about our order.  I also wanted to inquire on how long it would take.”

What a jackass.  He’d just emphasized the words how long, no doubt to make a point.  Why the hell was he playing games?  Ego?

Skadic snorted, “If I had questions, I’d have come to find you.  I’ll have the three hundred shields and swords ready for you, per the specifications your king sent with you, all within a week.  That might sound fast to you, but we have all our smiths working on it, including the king and queen.”

Bryce said, “Excellent, that is good news.  We should be wrapped up with our end soon enough.”

Holmarra asked, “The rune-wright?  We should let Skadic get back to work.”

Bryce nodded regally, what a jackass.  Okay, I might have been a smidgen biased, but I really didn’t like the man.  I kept my mouth shut though, paladins were supposed to stay out of politics, though how that worked when I was guarding a noble I’ll never know.

We followed Holmarra this time, as Sanath took the rear of our little group.  To my surprise, we went west from there, and into the middle tunnel where I’d felt a handful of dwarves earlier.  This tunnel didn’t look mined at all, and went back about two hundred yards before the tunnel ended at a stone wall with a metal door.

Holmarra pulled it open and we walked through and into a continuing tunnel.  There were several doors on the right and left, and about sixty yards ahead, there was another wall with a steel door.  I really wanted to know what was past that second metal door. 

Holmarra peeked into all the doors as we went down the hallway, and I glanced inside the rooms as well as we past them, they were filled with books, weapons, and other objects covered with runes.

I knew when she’d chosen the right one, because I could feel the five dwarves inside the room.  We went through the door, and I took a look around the room.

Library was the first word that came to mind.  There were several tables right in front of us, which the five dwarves sat at, each one working on a different object, presumably enchanting it with their scribed runes of fire and earth.  Behind the tables, were rows of book shelves filled to capacity, with both scrolls and bound books.

Holmarra led us over to a surprisingly young looking dwarf.

Again, she introduced all of us, and I absolutely did not want to sink a hot hook into Bryce’s stomach and pull out his entrails when she called me Katherine again.  Fortunately for him, there weren’t any of those handy, and I wasn’t a murderer.

I knew I was overreacting in my mind, but the weight of the mountain over my head was still affecting me.

Then she introduced him, “This is Master Rune-Wright Donack Lavahide.”

Donack was four foot six, and had brown eyes, and light brown hair and beard.  He looked at each of us curiously, and then asked, “What brings you here?”

Bryce replied, “I just wanted to meet you, make sure there wasn’t any problem with building us siege engines that we can use.”

Donack frowned in confusion, “If there was a problem, I would’ve contacted you.”

I suppressed another giggle at the sour look on Bryce’s face as I looked around curiously.  I wondered how much more time he’d waste today with this political nonsense while the dwarves were still in danger from a predator.

Bryce nodded and turned to Holmarra, “Then if everything is well in hand, I think we should return to the inn where we can work on developing the correct spell to track and dispense of the creature.”

Finally, although not much would change for me, I’d still just be guarding Lynn…

Chapter Ten

I’d listened half interested because it was magic, but Lynn and Bryce’s conversation was over my head.  It didn’t even sound like magic, as they talked back and forth and modified their spell, which they’d cast the next morning.

In theory, everyone magical left a trail through the world which could be traced.  The key was they had to focus on the creature’s specific magic.  The devices they’d used to detect the signature could pick up any magic, which was worthless when trying to focus on a specific one.  I’d managed to piece that much together from their conversation, they’d cast the spell at the last death, and then follow the trail from there.  It would also be sensitive enough to pick it up within fifty feet or so.  Granted, that last would only be useful if it was somehow hiding in plain sight, but considering no one had seen the thing or had a clue what it was, that was a very good possibility.

If they didn’t make any mistakes, and the spell worked.

“I miss you,” I thought at my husband as I surreptitiously caressed his arm.

Strangely enough, it was true, I was used to an easy dialogue and comfortable silence between us, filled with touches and smiles.  Us playing grim and silent guards had put a distance between us that I knew was artificial and not real, but I felt it nevertheless.  Maybe he wasn’t playing, but I surely was.  I was an eighteen-year-old failed supervillain because of my conscience, what did I know about being a guard?  My abilities may have overcome any deficiencies in that area, but I just wasn’t made for this kind of thing.

He thought at me, “Behave.”

I grinned at him, Bryce and Lynn were far too absorbed to notice the impropriety.

“Make me,” I sent in a sultry mind voice, and then I sent him a few visuals that had him clenching his teeth, they involved several suggestions on how he could make me that were quite sensual in nature.

But I think I teased myself by doing it more than I did him, and the tingles in my body quickly became little frustrations.  I regretted it almost immediately, but I needed a break from this constant guarding, and some time alone with my husband.  I’d have to suck it up.  Even after this mission we wouldn’t get too much of a break, and we’d have to take stolen moments.  There was a war after all, and I was sure the king had more plans for Gerard.

I sighed and settled down to watching again, and sending out my three-fold mental scans in the area. 

Gerard thought at me teasingly, “The first chance I get.”

I replied with a grateful smile, glad he wasn’t upset.  This wasn’t easy for both of us and it helped to know that.

“So even if we find whatever it is tomorrow, we’ll be stuck here for the week, right?”

Gerard just nodded, we’d have to stick around for the weapons and take delivery.  It was far too much for me to teleport, and I wondered if they’d use those magic wagons and we’d become an escort.

We talked to each other while the two noble mages worked, I used telepathy to send to him, and read his public mind where he’d think back at me.  We speculated a lot about my unanswered questions for this case, which I wasn’t allowed to ask anyone that actually knew the answers.  It helped to at least talk to someone about it, even if he didn’t have the answers.

He did have a point of view I hadn’t considered, if the dwarves already knew all the information, then perhaps magic was truly the only way to track the creature.  I wasn’t sure if I agreed with that, I didn’t think the dwarves were stupid, no more than the elves had been, but sometimes it took an outside eye, perhaps one with empathy and telepathy to get to the bottom of things and put the facts together.  Maybe I was a natural investigator, because I sure as hell hated an unanswered mystery.

After we’d talked work to death, we talked about other things as well.  We both wanted children, he wanted them as soon as possible, I was thinking mid to late twenties, so we’d have to compromise on that one, but eighteen was far too young to be married with children.  I was still startled about the married part, happy, but startled.  We also both wanted that house outside the castle, but it would have to wait until the whole Jendas thing was settled, neither of us thought we’d have any free time until then.

I also grudgingly agreed to the servant thing, if only because both of us would be absent a lot, and we’d have to pay someone to maintain the property when we weren’t there anyway.  Plus, I sucked as a cook.

Once we’d wound down, and I did feel a lot better if still sexually frustrated, I pulled out my communications device and caught up with mom.  I knew I wouldn’t get away with talking out loud, but I was pretty good with thumb typing on the small keyboard.  She was still working on my education, but thought it would be done in a few days.  I didn’t have a whole lot of time to go to virtual school with Sia, but I was sure I could steal a few hours a week at least.  She also wanted to know when Gerard and I could come to breakfast again, but understood we were both on a mission.

She was a bit worried too.  It seemed that the GPS signals didn’t penetrate the mountains, so she didn’t know exactly where I was.

It was rather late when Bryce and Lynn finally seemed satisfied with their new spell, and we turned in.  We’d find out if it worked in the morning, Holmarra and Sanath would be back after breakfast to take us…

The hot water and soap felt good as I soaked.  I’d woken a bit early the next morning, and decided to sneak in another bath while Lynn slept, and cleaned my riding clothes as well, and since it was made of super suit materials it cleaned rather easily.  I’d been soaking for a while after I got finished cleaning up, and when I heard Lynn stirring I stepped out of the tub, used aqua-kinesis to leave all the water behind, and got dressed.

It had helped me unwind a bit, and relax.  It didn’t take long for Lynn to get ready, and we went down to the common room for breakfast.  There were very few dwarves here this morning, and they were all subdued, and probably had hang overs.  We walked over to Gerard and Bryce who were already seated, and I gave my husband a wink as I pulled out the chair and slid into it.

Then I stared at his face and felt my stomach sink.

He was gorgeous, I loved my husband in and out, and he was a very sexy man, but that wasn’t why I was staring at his face, and I broke the look when the waitress came over with three times the helpings of anyone else.  I thanked her under my breath and started to eat as my mind raced.  My husband was very attractive to me, and though hardly old at twenty-eight, there was a marked difference in maturity of looks in a man of his age.

Except, I’d just noticed this morning, that he didn’t look a day older than twenty-three, maybe twenty-four at the most.  My mother had sworn she’d just given him health nanites, the same ones she used on her, dad, and me.  It was also clear, that supervillains lied, even to their daughters.  What did she do?

I didn’t think my mother did anything bad to him, he was family now.  No, my mother would have done it for his own good, whatever it was, just like she’d tweaked my DNA for my own good.  Guessing from the conversation she’d had with Gerard about our future children, I’d also guess the changes were very dominant in the DNA, and my children would probably be as strong as I was mentally.  I had to admit, being the strongest telepath and empath on my world hadn’t sucked, even if I was still sore for her not enhancing other things about me.  Really, Gerard seemed to like them, a lot, but would it have killed her to make my breasts bigger?  Never mind, got off on a tangent there.

Point was, I was sure she’d meant well, even as she lied to my face about what was in Gerard’s drink.

That… didn’t make it right.  I don’t think he’d noticed yet though, it must have been a gradual change over the last week that I’ve been missing until now.  I needed to talk to my mother, and find out what she did.  But… I really didn’t have time right now, did I?  It would have to keep, along with all our other life plans.  Still, there was a small part of me that hoped, and feared, part of what she’d done would extend his life.  Maybe, just maybe, I wouldn’t have to live for centuries without him.  I hated myself for it, because I didn’t want to approve of my mother’s meddling at all.

But I supposed I could add selfishly hypocritical to being petty, at times.  No one was perfect, and the goddess knew I had my faults.

I ran another mental scan, and felt Sanath and Holmarra approaching, so I picked up speed and ate a little faster.  I also felt guilty for not telling Gerard right away, maybe it was stupid, but I wanted to be able to explain exactly what my mother had done all at once.  Then again, maybe he noticed and just hasn’t said anything, he seemed okay with all the new energy and feeling younger.  I pushed it all out of my mind, put it with all our personal life plans, and my questions about this case.  Something else I was getting too good at, though some would say I was just learning patience.

Patience was overrated.

I finished shoving food in my mouth right as our two guides arrived.

Holmarra said, “Good morning.”

Bryce and Lynn nodded in greeting, then Bryce said, “To the location of the last victim?”

Sanath grunted in agreement, and turned to lead the way as we all stood up.  Though by now we knew where we were going.  Gerard and I fell in behind our charges, and we walked to the western wall.  At least I was getting good exercise in this place, it was about a mile walk.  The whole city seemed stragely quiet that morning, and I wondered if they had a day off or something.

We entered the northernmost of the three western tunnels, and made our way to the site of the last murder.  Bryce reached into his bag, and took out a small device and placed in the spot the body had been, and then started to chant the spell.  It was long, complicated, and despite my dislike for him I felt a grudging admiration for the way the strange alien words rolled off his tongue without any faltering hesitation at all.

He may have been an ass, but he was also a very good mage.

When he finished, he bent down and picked up the device, it had a green circle, surrounded by an incomplete red circle that wasn’t quite closed in the direction further back into the mine, and he frowned down at it.

Holmarra asked, “What’s the problem?”

Bryce continued to scowl at it, and Lynn said, “The red circle is supposed to be a dot, the green circle is the cardinal directions with the top being north.  We should be able to find the creature with it, but according to that the creature is in virtually every direction.  I have no idea what that means.”

Brice grumbled, “It means the spell must be wrong, because this is impossible, unless the creature is non-corporeal and standing in the device, this is impossible.”

Lynn sighed, “Or, if there are many of them, and they’re all around us.”

Oh gee, I could have done without hearing that theory.

Brice snorted, “If there were this many, the dwarves would be facing an invasion, not a murder every few days.  No, we had to have missed something.  Can we test at the rest of the sites Holmarra?  Then we’ll have to reconfigure the spell again with the more complete information.”

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 wasn’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 about 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.

“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 and 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 her, 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.”

Bryce sneered, “Shut the hell up you pain in the ass,” and walked around me and started casting.

I was torn in that moment, I wanted to know the truth, but I feared the only way I’d get to the truth would be to turn on one of the people I was supposed to protect.

Turned out, I needn’t have worried, the creature glared at him and looked into his eyes.  Bryce immediately stopped his spell, and seemed frozen.  I could also feel his terror, and I changed my mind.  She wasn’t using mind control, she was doing something else, scaring her victims somehow with her mental abilities.  I was sure now she didn’t have telekinesis or empathy, just a powerful telepathy, and her water magic.

The creature stared at me in confusion, “Why are you not afraid.  You wish to know what I am?  The two legs have earned far more than their deaths, and I will see to it they pay for what they did.”

“They’ve done nothing, you’re mistaken, and blaming them for the transgression of others, the ones that came before them.”

She screamed, “Lies!  You wish to see my true form, very well.”

Her body tore and bones crunched, and she grew, and then she grew some more.  I gaped at what she’d become, and the senseless words just fell out of my mouth in a tone of pure awe.

“Gerard, didn’t you tell me dragons were just a myth?”

Gerard choked out, “They are a myth.  No such thing.”

I laughed at his denial, but I knew exactly how he felt.

The blue dragon with beautiful glittering blue scales, long leather-like dark sapphire wings, and swirling ochre eyes, reared back on her hind feet.  She was the size of a van, not counting the wings, or the neck and head, and I got the impression that made her just a child of her race, but she was still huge, and intimidating.  Then she inhaled deeply. 

Oh shit, I knew it was just legend, but I wasn’t about to take chances.

I teleported the four of us two blocks away, and I was heartily glad I had when the icy breath streamed out of her mouth in a cone, and sparkled against the fire and air magic of her prison.

For about a second.

Then the spell fizzled spectacularly, and the cone of ice breath hit where we’d just been standing and layered a half block of street and buildings in ice.  She pushed off with her hind feet, and took to the air.

I said, “My love.  Reptile, scales, big, breath attack of its magical element, and has wings and can fly.  By definition, that’s a dragon.  She even has dragon fear.”

Although, technically that last one was just a telepathic thing, I wondered if I could learn how to do it.

Lynn said in a shocked voice, “Dragons are just a myth.”

I snorted, “Well, we’ll have to settle for her until a real one comes along then.”

Lynn glared at me for a moment, but then laughed a little hysterically.

Bryce still looked terrified, and I wondered if he’d snap out of it, I didn’t want to dig in there and try and undo it since I didn’t completely understand what she’d done.

“The crystals, right?  They are the bones and scales of your ancestors?  Do you object to them using the crystal, because they didn’t know, they just found it here.”

It seemed obvious to me now, her gorgeous glittering sapphire scales almost looked like she was covered in that crystal sand.  The secret… the dark secret of dwarven steel, was that it was partially made with the remains of a dragon’s body and magic.  I had so many questions.

Her mental voice almost destroyed my shields, if I hadn’t been the most powerful human with mental powers from my world, she would have destroyed my shield, and quite possibly my mind.  It was a little sobering that this young dragon was my mental equal, I’d hate to get on her bad side in a few centuries.

“I care not for the remains.  I hold my mother’s memories of the past.  It was the two legs that committed genocide on my race long ago.  I am the first hatchling in millennia, and I hatched alone.”

She must think we’re all the same.  At a guess, somehow the water flooding the mine must have caused her to hatch, which meant she was sixty years old, and grew up with old bitter memories.  Then the earthquake three weeks ago either forced her out, or opened up a new passage for her to escape, and she found the dwarves.

I sent her mental pictures of all the different races, and then said, “Not all the same.  Some good, some evil,” I showed her the elves, dwarves, and humans, and then the evil races, demons, ogres, goblins, and orcs, I explained the differences in the good and evil races, and then added, “I suspect these are the ones that performed genocide on your people, am I correct?” I asked as I held up the mental picture of the demon example.

Dragons were a very magical race, even more so than the dwarves and elves, their scales and bones had to be full of powerful organized magic for it to last for millennia after death.  I could imagine a demon’s chaos magic would literally shake the dragon’s scales and bones apart into dust if they got close enough and overcame the dragon’s magical defenses.  Maybe that’s what she feared so much, and why she was so cautious, but the dwarves couldn’t do that to her at all.

I supposed it was a good thing she’d been fearing them mistakenly, or she probably could have murdered every dwarf in this city by now if it wasn’t for her very cautious approach.

It might also be why she’d been hiding what she really was, and shapeshifted into a dwarven form.  Maybe she thought they had a weapon specifically for dragons, and only revealed herself because she’d needed to, in order to escape the trap Lynn and Bryce had set.

I also wondered if they were supposed to be the fourth “good” race.  One that had been wiped out early by the evil races and relegated to mythical status.  She still didn’t seem evil to me, merely sad, lost, and angry at those she believed killed all the rest of her kind so long ago.  I’d feel better about my assumptions though, if I could actually feel her mind and emotions, but they were still blocked off.

She was so beautiful, and I felt awe as she circled above us.  Small young dragon or not, her claws were as big as I was, and she could probably eat me in one bite.  It was rather humbling.  I actually had tears in my eyes, both of awed joy at the creature flying above me, and sadness that a whole race had been eradicated by evil.  To say I was a little messed up in the head in that moment was an epic understatement.

“Will you speak to me, and tell me what happened?  How did you come to be born?  What is your name?”

I had many more questions too, but I stopped sending them.

Bryce finally snapped out of it, and said angrily, “We need to kill it.”

I asked, “Is that what the contract says, or do we just need to stop the killing?”

Bryce said coldly, “The murderous creature must die, if we are to earn our weapons and shields.”

I sighed, nothing is ever easy, but as he didn’t start casting I ignored his comment for now.  But… there was no way in hell I’d kill the last dragon in existence, she was just a confused angry child that was lashing out at a perceived evil.  I don’t care what the deal was, I didn’t care what it cost, and I knew by what she’d said that my goddess was in agreement.  In the end, that’s all I needed to know.

I was going to go with my feelings, and with what was right.

The young female dragon roared, and then flew toward the west. 

She sent, “I must think on what you’ve told me, and go over my mother’s memories again.  If you have lied to me, you will be the first that dies when I return.”

Well, that was comforting, sort of.  At least we didn’t have to worry about more dwarves dying…

Chapter Fourteen

We were back at our table at the tavern, and I took a long drink of ale.  Getting drunk would be stupid, but slightly tipsy I could handle and still not lose control of my powers.  We were all silent for a while, and lost in our own thoughts.

I had no doubt baron asshat was plotting how to kill the dragon.

Lynn said, “The trap by the mine has been destroyed, the…” she trailed off, and shook her head, before she reluctantly said, “dragon must’ve destroyed it and gone back in its watery lair.”

I decided it was now or never, and shared my silent communication with the dragon with everyone else at the table.

Bryce sighed in annoyance, “So?  We still have to kill it.  We need those weapons, and the king is depending on me to get them.”

I shook my head, “We can’t kill the last dragon in existence, not if it’s just a confused, lonely, and angry child dragon.  She’s not evil, just confused.  We need to talk to the king tomorrow, and renegotiate.  He just might jump at the chance, she has first-hand knowledge of a war we never knew even happened from her mother’s memories, not to mention if she decides the dwarves aren’t at fault, they have a good chance of getting a dragon as an ally out of it.”

She’d said she’d been hatched alone, but she hadn’t said she’d been the only egg.  But even if that last thought was just wishful thinking on my part, there was no way I’d kill her.

Or let anyone else do it.  If nothing else, I bet I could get Queen Aleisia to take her in, the elves would watch over her.  They revered nature after all.

Gerard said, “She’s right.  The situation has changed, we were expecting a monstrous or evil creature, not the last female of a sentient race we believed to be nothing but a myth.  The current path is simpler, but it’s also an evil decision.”

“Shit, now the bitch has got you speaking out of turn too?  Shut the hell up, both of you.  We’ll do what I say, when I say.  The creature dies.”

I snapped, “The bitch doesn’t work for you, and I don’t work for King Alexander either.  I work for Arella, and I’m here as a favor to my husband.  I won’t kill her, not unless its self-defense and absolutely necessary, and I won’t let anyone else do it either.  Especially not some arrogant asshole who doesn’t know right from wrong.”

Wow, maybe I shouldn’t drink ale after all.  I’m pretty sure I’d just referred to myself in the third person, and called myself a bitch, and then called a Baron of Trelin bad words.  At least I used the honorific for the king.

Crap.  He was turning purple.

Oh good, and now Holmarra and Sanath were coming.  That was no surprise, I imagine a lot of dwarves had seen the large dragon flying overhead, and it’d reached the king’s ears if he hadn’t seen it himself.  Probably not a conversation he wanted put off until tomorrow morning.

He finally blew, and roared at me, “How dare you speak to me in such a tone!”

Yup, so much for being careful how I went about it, and not making any enemies.  Lynn looked shocked, but also a little amused.  It wasn’t really my fault, I’d been holding my temper just fine, and had even taken the abuse from him and let it roll down my back… until he’d verbally attacked my husband instead of me that is.  He’s lucky I didn’t smash him into a wall.

Lynn said, “Perhaps it isn’t a horrible idea to consider.  It might be easier to negotiate something new with the king and the dragon, than actually killing the dragon, even if it’s a young one, it’s extraordinarily powerful, especially in its natural form.”

He scowled, “We need to make sure the contract goes through, we need those weapons and shields.”

He was like a broken record, maybe he’d drunk too much too?

I frowned, “We do need it, but I won’t murder an innocent to get it.”

He roared, “I don’t need you to, I just need you to shut up!”

I raised an eyebrow, his magic hadn’t done jack shit to the dragon, and he’d be dead if it wasn’t for me.  The dragon would squash his ass without Gerard’s and my assistance, and I wouldn’t be giving it.

Holmarra cleared her throat, “My father would like to speak to you.  Now.”

Bryce gave me an evil look, that quite clearly said I better not talk, at all.  Then got up and walked toward Holmarra.  Lynn gave me a look, and shook her head.  I almost felt guilty, like I’d somehow let her down, but Bryce was an asshat, that clearly wasn’t my fault.  She stood, and Gerard and I followed our charges as we went to see the king of the dwarves.  It was clear though, that I’d just made a lifelong enemy.  His lifetime anyway, not mine, unless young nobles inherited the grudges too?  Then I might be in trouble.

My pocket said, “Hello?”

I blushed as I pulled the communicator out, “Hi mom, now’s not a good time.”

She said, “Okay, just calling to let you know the education pad is finished, so stop by soon okay?”

“Alright, I’ll be by as soon as I can, for the day if possible.”

I was drawing a lot of looks, and shrugged after we said our goodbyes.  I turned the mute back on, and stuck it in my pocket.

It also reminded me of the Gerard anti-aging issue, he looked around twenty-four still, but I had no doubt it would drop another year or two in the next couple of days.  Or maybe it wouldn’t, and this was his target age of whatever she’d done.  I suppose I’d have to wait and see.

Lynn asked, “Who was that?  And what was that?”

I smiled, “The Goblin Queen of Chilik, my mother.  And that was a communication device that doesn’t use magic, it uses science.”

I felt more in control of myself by the end of the walk.  The columns were dim but still gave enough light to navigate the city at night.  The cooler air seemed to clear my head as we approached the king’s small mansion, this time we were taken to the front door, and inside the house itself.

Holmarra took us to a room right off the front entry, which had a table and several chairs.  The king was still dressed simply, but now his leathers were immaculate, as were the queens, and he was very clean.  The heir wasn’t present, but he was the only one not here.  Sanath nodded to us as we sat down on the opposite side of the table.

The king got right to the point.

“While I appreciate you saved the life of that young dwarf, perhaps in the future if something like that happens late in the evening you could come straight here to report?  Especially if it involves a creature long thought to be nothing but a myth.”

Bryce said, “Of course your majesty.  We almost had the creature down, but one of our guards, Katherine, pulled us away prematurely.  I’ve taken her for task for this failure, and we’ll destroy it soon.”

Wait, what?  I’d saved the asshole’s life, he was standing there as frozen as a statue.

The king frowned, “Call me Nabrec.  I was told by many witnesses, that had Katherine not magically pulled you away a couple of blocks, the dragon would have frozen you all solid.  I was also told, the dragon effortlessly destroyed your magical traps and returned to her lair.”

Bryce said, “I’m not sure I understand Nabrec.”

Holmarra snorted and said bluntly, “He means you’re a damned liar, your guard saved your life.  I also believe your shifting blame because you’re angry at the woman.  Something only a human would do.  I heard what you said to the guard before you knew I was there, I’m very interested to hear what she might have to say.  Since it was her that figured out where the dragon was from, and she’s the only one who’s done any damage to it at all.  She’s also the one who found it both times.  All you’ve done is throw around magic that didn’t work to find, trap, or kill it.  Now you sit there and blame your failures on your guardian?  From what I understand about you humans, even for your race that’s dishonorable behavior.”

I almost felt sorry for him, as he sat there helplessly.  What could he possibly say?  He might be able to politic his way out of it in front of a human, but dwarves?  Not a chance.  Lynn looked amused, but gave me a warning look, which I understood.  Bryce would find some way to take this out on me at a later date.

Nabrec nodded in approval at his daughter, and then turned to me.  It was what I wanted, but it also freaked me out at the same time. 

“What do you say Katherine?”

I sighed, and decided it wasn’t important right now, I could be known as Katherine to the dwarves, and two human nobles.

“I think the facts change everything, and we should renegotiate our deal.”

The king’s face turned stony, “Explain.”  Apparently, the dwarves took deals very seriously.

“We believed it to be a murderous creature and evil.  What we’ve found is a dragon, the last of her kind.  She’s killing your people in the mistaken belief that you’re responsible for the genocide of her race.  She has racial memories of the war between the dragons and another race, before the dwarves got here.  The problem is she’s young, and didn’t understand there were differences.  She called us two-legs, and believed we were all the same.  I believe I convinced her otherwise, and also believe it was the demons who you chased south that had killed her ancestors, but she’s gone to think on it, and if she decides I was lying, she promised to kill me first.  So, for now your people are safe from her, I think.

“I’m not positive, but I think the flooded mine failure from sixty years ago somehow caused her egg to quicken and hatch, and over three weeks ago the earthquake either drove her out or freed her.  She found the dwarves, and she found dwarven steel, and drew some wrong conclusions.  So, I propose for our services in working out a treaty of sorts between your people and the dragon, instead of killing it, we would still get the same items we asked for.  The situation has changed, and I believe so must the solution.  I’ll not murder a child, even if she did do terrible things in ignorance.  Although, if she keeps doing it now that I’ve told her the truth of things, I’ll kill her in self-defense, but I think she deserves a chance.”

Nabrec asked, “What does our steel have to do with it?”

“I suspected the truth immediately when I saw her sparkling sapphire scales, and when I asked her about it she confirmed it.  The crystals you use to make dwarven steel are the bones and scales of her ancestors, that’s why the magic matches as well, because dwarven steel is literally part dragon magic.  She also said she doesn’t care about that part, they’re dead and gone, she just wanted revenge against those who caused the genocide of her race.”

Nabrec asked, “So you spoke to her?”

I nodded, “Mentally I did, apparently she has both water magic as a blue dragon, and telepathy.  It’s how she causes fear in those she attacks, literally getting inside of their minds, and was why the dwarven victims couldn’t flee or even cry out.  I know she’s killed, but there’s a good chance she could be a powerful ally to the dwarves, or at least a good neighbor, once she accepts the truth.  I am loath to kill an innocent, and she is innocent.”

She was a killer, but it was a case of mistaken identity.  If she’d been killing demons, the true architects of her race’s genocide, I’d have cheered and helped her do it.  It was still a hard thing, and I worried the king and other dwarves would want revenge.  They really wouldn’t even be wrong to feel that way.

Nabrec said, “And if she doesn’t?”

I sighed, “If she doesn’t, then we can’t let her kill anyone else, and I’ll kill her myself, or die trying.  Hopefully with help,” I added.

Goddess knows how.

Nabrec laughed, “That’s honest enough.  So, you are suggesting we change the deal so that you can either make peace between us, or if that fails you’ll kill the dragon.  Either way you get the swords, shields, and siege devices?  I can see where the former option would be even better for us, she’s already fierce now, and when she grows up she’ll be a real force to be reckoned with.  Return to the tavern, I will send my eldest and daughter to you tomorrow with the answer.  Just out of curiosity, what will you do if I say no.”

I replied, “I will not murder her if she relents, and realizes the truth.  I suspect when she does, she will be overcome with grief and guilt.  She is no monster.  I can’t speak for anyone else obviously, but I won’t be involved with it, even if it costs us what we so desperately need against Jendas’s invasion.”

Lynn shook her head, “How can you make that judgment?”

I touched my holy symbol, and looked down at it, “Because I would not want to disappoint my goddess.  Murder is wrong, and using it as an expedient solution no matter the reason would be evil.  If she relents, and begs forgiveness, it would be murder.  It would be… finishing the job the demons started so long ago.”

It might also be justice, she did kill twelve dwarves.  Is it because she was a dragon and the last of her kind that I was making this stand?  No, I didn’t think so, it was because she was a different species, and this case was unique.  In a way, she was fighting a war, and war is not murder.  Once she understood the truth, then it would be murder, and she’ll have let her hate twist her.  I didn’t believe that would happen though, I hoped I was right.

It felt right though, and given the goddess’s words to me before I left on this mission, I can’t help but think my feelings should weigh more in my decisions until the mission is done.

Holmarra stood, “I’ll escort you back.”

We all knew a dismissal when we heard one, and the four of us got up, and followed Holmarra back to the inn.  I knew the king had been impressed by my blunt honesty, and even my fear about facing the dragon alone, but I hoped he and his family would be equally impressed by my proposal.  I had to hope that having a friendly dragon as a neighbor would outweigh any need they might have for revenge.  I supposed I’d find out in the morning.

Chapter Fifteen

It didn’t take Bryce long to open his mouth when Holmarra was out of the inn.

“You idiot.  Why did you tell him everything?  He already knows you explained the truth, and now he can say just say no and send us away, and then open up talks with the dragon on his own.”

I shook my head, “He’s not human.  Or I should say, he’s not like you.  Doing it that way would be dishonest, plus dwarves hate large bodies of water, I don’t think any of them would want to deal with the blue dragon until they were relatively sure of it.  No, the only question is will they be willing to forgive an angry confused child of another race for killing their own.  That will decide the answer, not greed or betrayal.  Besides, if he says no to changing the contract that means you and Lynn can keep trying to kill it, and they have to give you the weapons and shields.  You’ll just do it without my help.”

Bryce clenched his teeth, “You will regret this Katrina.”

My mouth dropped open, and I slipped a hand in my pocket.

“You bastard, you did know my name and did that on purpose.  You’re more petty than I thought, and that’s saying a lot.  So how will I regret this Bryce.”

He sneered, “Even if your little plan works, I’ll destroy you for making me look like a fool, and for getting above your place.”

I tilted my head, “So even though I saved you, and it was your lies and misdirection that got you in trouble, you’re saying it’s all my fault?  You even admitted my plan has a chance of success.  Are you insane, or just that spoiled and entitled?”

He glared, “You won’t even see it coming, and you’ll live just long enough to regret this day.”

“Kill me?  For what?  Saving your life, attempting to fix this mission that went south because of new information?  For not being a psychopath willing to murder the last of a race because of a misunderstanding?  Or simply because I opened my mouth and asked a question you sick bastard.”

Gerard was looking at me as if I’d gone insane, and I couldn’t help but wink at him and smile.  I imagined I did look a bit insane in this moment, but I knew something he didn’t.

“Because you don’t know your place, and you made me look bad, you stupid bitch.  Don’t you get it?  When I’m finished with my report no one will believe anything you say, you won’t be welcome anywhere in Trelin, I don’t give a shit what the truth is, no one will believe you.  You should have stayed out of it.”

I nodded, and pulled my hand out of my pocket, the one I had slipped into the pocket a little earlier.  It was holding the communicator.

“Sia, I assume you got all that?”

Sia replied, “Yes Katrina, would you like me to play it back?”

“Please do Sia, and thank you.”

I smirked, and sat down as our conversation played out once again in front of us.  I supposed this was the first time in this planet’s history someone would get busted by their own ill-considered words.

The color drained from his face, “What is that?”

I replied, “Something called technology, it can do a lot of things on the world I came from, recording voices is very basic.  Sia, can you estimate exactly what my mother would do, if Brice here managed to have me killed.”

Sia replied, “There is an eighty-three percent chance she would use mind control on him, force him to kill everyone he loves, and then torture him slowly until he begs for death.  There is a sixteen percent chance she would do that and kill all the other nobles of Trelin for failing her daughter so badly.”

“Sia, that was only ninety nine percent.”

Sia replied, “There is a marginal chance that Bryce may successfully evade capture, in which case she would most likely wipe Magehaven off the face of the world.”

I frowned, not liking that at all, I was happy mom loved me, but destroying a city?”

Brice snorted, “She can’t do that, we’d stop her.”

I shook my head, “My mother thinks explosives are gauche and uninspired, but just to clear up any misconceptions, she has the knowledge and ability to build a bomb that would crack this planet into two pieces, and kill everyone on it.  A weapon to destroy a few square miles of city is child’s play to her.”

Sia replied, “Incorrect, the bomb would render the planet into many pieces, but she would never do that.”

“I think we’ve gotten off point, the point was you need to give up the idea of revenge, you have no idea how terrifying my mother is.  Seriously, just get over it.  Also, if you try to spin things in the reports, I’ll have to play that little recording for the king.  Just go home when this is over, and get over it.”

“You!” he accused going purple, “You!”

I nodded slowly, “Am blackmailing your ass.  Don’t screw with me anymore.  It’s your fault, I’m not supposed to play politics remember?  You dragged me into it, but I’m not going to lay down and die for your ego.”

He growled and marched off.  Gerard gave me a worried look as he followed his insane charge, and I felt guilty for worrying him, but I really didn’t have a choice.  I’d probably have to explain it twice too, momentarily to Lynn, and then to Gerard through telepathy when we were all in bed.

I waited for a moment, and said, “Umm, Sia?”

Sia replied, “Yes Katrina?”

“Umm, let’s keep this between us okay, no need to play that for my mom unless I end up dead, then you can tell her, okay?”

I was afraid if she found out about the threat, she’d just kill him without waiting.

Sia said, “On the condition that I don’t believe you to be in true danger.  My programming puts your life before all other considerations.  Good night Katrina.”

“Good night.” I said and then hit the mute and slipped it back in my pocket.

Only thing was, how would she know if I was really in danger way down in Chilik?  I got a really bad feeling that my mother had seeded Trelin with spy nanites.  I also had a feeling Sia was seeding even more around Baron Timmons offices and estates this very moment.  Hopefully Sia wouldn’t go Skynet on us all, sometimes mom’s inventions had a tendency to go too far.

Lynn frowned at me, “Why did you do that?  And who is Sia?”

I shrugged, “Sia is my mother’s assistant, she isn’t human, she’s like a… magical construct intelligence.  As for why I did it, I could feel his rage my lady, he was already planning my death, I could tell from the intensity of it.  I truly had no choice.  Now he has a chance to live, because honestly, he doesn’t have a chance of winning this even if I do die, and if he comes after me, most likely he’ll fail, and he’ll need to fear me far more than my mother.  Still, I thought he needed to know the consequences for his actions, as a Baron I imagine there aren’t many of those normally.”

She sighed, “Paladins aren’t supposed to blackmail high nobles, it’s just not done.”

I shrugged, “High nobles aren’t supposed to be petty enough to kill paladins that annoy them.  Especially when it was their own lies and pettiness that got them in trouble in the first place.  Look, if I screw this up, and my plan goes to crap, I’ll take my lumps.  I won’t be killed for vanity though, I don’t care whose vanity it is.  There are lines that shouldn’t be crossed.  Plus, now if I have to defend myself from him, my conscience will be clear because I warned him first.”

She nodded, “You’ve made an enemy for life today, don’t trust it if he backs down. If he has to wait twenty years for his revenge he will, nursing the grudge the whole time.  I know his type, why do you think I’ve been keeping my head down, and I’m a noble.”

Was she suggesting I move against him first?  Nah, that was crazy.  I was almost positive killing nobles was frowned upon, only the king could do it, and only if he had lots of evidence.  Kings who kill nobles on a whim usually get assassinated by all the other nobles.

“Yes my lady, I’ll be cautious.”

She snorted, and said sarcastically, “So respectful.”

I nodded, “The position of a noble should be respected, it is only when the person occupying it proves themselves unworthy of that respect, that my respect will be withdrawn.  Your worthy of it twice over, unless I’ve read you wrong.”

She shook her head, “Paladins aren’t supposed to approve or disapprove of nobles either.  I’d suggest you stop trying to explain before you dig yourself a hole so deep you can’t climb out.”

I laughed, “Hopefully I’ll learn, I am still young.  My world didn’t have nobles.”

She snorted, “Who ruled then, the people?”

I nodded, “It was crazy, in some ways better, but in a lot of ways much, much, worse.  I also won’t let that get around, last thing I want to do is be guilty of sedition on accident.  I hear talking about alternate forms of government make nobles nervous.”

She was right, I totally needed to shut the hell up now, or possibly sooner if I could find a time machine lying around.  I blame it on the fact I hadn’t been able to talk or ask questions for days while Bryce needled and insulted me, and now I was on an artificial high from getting it all off my chest.  Bryce was such an asshat.

She nodded and then shook her head again, “Bedtime.  You’re a good guard Katrina, and I feel safe with you around, but if you don’t learn to shut up your going to make a lot of enemies.  Bryce is hardly the only… stubborn noble in Trelin.  Remember that.”

“Yes my lady.”

She glared at me, and then made for the stairs.  Did she think I was messing with her?  I really did respect her, and her opinion.  No, really.  I did.  I swear.

I sighed, and then followed in her wake.

Chapter Sixteen

I didn’t sleep all that well that night.  First, I’d had to go over all the reasons for inciting and blackmailing Bryce once again with Gerald, who was angry about it.  I was sure, even if Bryce didn’t try to have me killed and backed off instead, there would repercussions for this that wouldn’t be good.

I also realized it was inevitable, even if I hadn’t spoken up or asked those few questions that I had, the biggest problem had been that I’d found the dragon twice, and the mages hadn’t found her at all.  That, and I’d been the only one to try and communicate with her.  How much worse would it have been if I’d just kept it all inside?

Perhaps I was just making excuses to justify my actions, but I just didn’t see a different way that would have worked out better, Bryce’s ego was just too large and easily bruised.  Not all the nobles were like that, but some were.  Even if I hadn’t spoken out loud, his ego would never have survived me showing him up by locating the dragon twice, and being the only one to effectively harm her.

The second reason I had trouble sleeping all night, was what if my great plan did blow up in my face, and Trelin wound up out of luck on the weapons because of it.  Not only would more soldiers die, but it’d probably be the king after me at that point, at the very least he’d kick me out of the castle and refuse to allow me to accompany Gerard any longer.  At worst, he’d condemn me and either banish me from Trelin or execute me for sedition or some such crap.

In the end, I don’t think I could have done any differently, and lived with myself, or looked my goddess in the eye the next time I visited the temple.  In fact, I thought that’s what I needed, to see Arella.  It would calm my nerves to feel her approval, and although I could feel her presence slightly when touching the holy symbol, it wasn’t the same.

Of course, I couldn’t leave Lynn alone, so that wasn’t an option right now.  Even if I could teleport straight to the temple and be back within minutes.  Neither was sleeping in my husband’s arms an option, which would be almost as beneficial and calming.

It was all a lot of pressure, and I still wasn’t entirely comfortable under the weight of all that stone above us, it wearied my mind and made all my worries seem worse.  Eventually, I did fall into an uneasy sleep, and I managed to get a couple of hours shut-eye before dawn and breakfast…

Breakfast was a bit awkward to say the least, as the four of us sat in silence and waited for Holmarra and Sanath to show up.  Bryce was once again shielded and his face was a cold mask. Gerard felt worried for me, and Lynn was worried too, but it was far more diffuse.  At a guess, I’d say she was worried for the mission, herself, and maybe just a little for me.

I felt a little better with a lot of warm food in my stomach, but otherwise felt the same as last night.  I’d have thought I’d have been used to the stress of large responsibility by now, and if anything, my first two missions were far more critical than this one.  Humanity or elven kind wouldn’t be completely destroyed if I failed here, and there was a chance Trelin would successfully fight off Jendas anyway.

 I almost laughed when I figured it out, this fear was far more selfish of me.  If I’d failed the previous two missions, I wouldn’t have had to face those I failed, because most, if not all of them, would’ve been dead.  If I failed here, I would have to face the king, and take responsibility for my interference.  Which was still better than committing an atrocity and destroying that dragon if there was another way.

Holmarra and Sanath came in range, “They’re coming.”

Gerard answered silently, “Let’s hope for the best, we can’t fail.”

I smiled, no pressure.  It’d been just about a month since my arrival on this world, but I couldn’t even imagine the person I used to be then, finishing up high school, and arguing with dad about fashion choices.  Or doing very stupid things in the hopes of getting a date Omega’s son.  I was a very different person, this world was harder, so much harder, but also better, and more rewarding.

I decided I wouldn’t fail, but I also couldn’t control the actions of others.  The dwarves saying no wouldn’t be my failure.  I’d just have to find another way.

Holmarra and Sanath walked into the tavern and sat at our table.

Sanath said, “It was a long night of spirited discussion.  The swords, shields, and siege engines will be ready in three days, and will be released to you if and when the blue dragon is dead, or an acknowledged ally of the dwarves.”

It felt like a thousand pounds were lifted up off my shoulders, but of course, I still had to talk to the dragon, and work out some kind of deal between them and the dwarves.  I doubted that would be a simple task.  I couldn’t exactly work alone, I had to protect Lynn at all times, that part of my mission hadn’t changed.  I also feared that Bryce would be working against me, I wouldn’t put it past him to make sure I failed, and then to blame me for it somehow.

Holmarra cleared her throat, “There is more.  It seems clear to us that Katherine will not be able to function as an emissary to the dragon if she is caught up with guard duties.  We also do not trust Baron Bryce Timmons and withdraw our welcome to him.  He must leave our kingdom.  How you solve those two issues is up to you.”

Bryce turned purple and I bit my lip.  What she’d suggested solved a few problems, but also introduced new ones.  Not suggested, ordered really.  If Bryce left, so would Gerard, which would still leave me guarding Lynn.  I already had a way around it, but I doubted the baron would allow it.

Bryce said, “Very well.  I’ll need an open space to create the teleport spell, I can get myself back to my estate, and then update the king.  Gerard, you should stay here and assist, guard Lynn when Katherine is off doing what she does, at the very least if you’re all successful you’ll be needed to guard the shipment.”

I frowned, why was he helping?  Oh, right, he’d have the king’s ear for days without the benefit of Lynn’s, Gerard’s, or my point of view.  Right now, he was fairly powerless here, that wouldn’t be true back home.  Something told me my eventual homecoming, even if successful, wouldn’t be praised.  Even if the king didn’t listen to his poison, I was sure Bryce would find the ears of his cronies quite receptive. 

I could offer to teleport him straight to the castle, it had been what I’d thought of, but I was sure he’d spurn my offer, and didn’t bother.  Plus, I was kind of curious what a mage teleport spell looked like.

Holmarra said, “You can use the open area between the warehouses and western tunnels.”

Brice stood, “Give me five minutes to pack, and I’m prepared to leave your kingdom immediately after.”

Sanath nodded, but he looked suspicious.

Brice left for the stairs, and Gerard got up to follow him.  Lynn gave me a look that verified all my paranoid reasoning of a moment ago.  I also realized though this would free me up to act, as Gerard could guard Lynn at times, I’d still have to guard her at night.  One of us would have to guard her at all times, so I wasn’t getting my personal time with my husband back anytime soon.

I shook my head, that was the least of my worries.

We didn’t wait too long before they both came back down the stairs, and Sanath and Holmarra got up and escorted us to the west side of the city while I thought of all the things I had to get done, and tried not to think about what Bryce would get up to in our absence from Magehaven.

When we arrived at an open area behind one of the warehouses, he pulled out a magical device and activated it.  All the device did was create a perfect circle, with four symbols in the cardinal directions.  Then Bryce picked up his bag, stepped into the circle, and set it down between his feet

Holmarra asked, “Why did we need a big space for that little circle?”

Bryce said, “You should back up a bit.  This is safe enough but it causes… well you’ll see.”

Then he started chanting a spell.

Holmarra, Sanath, Gerard and I backed away to where Lynn was standing, we figured she knew what the spell was going to do.  It was long, and complicated, but the alien tongue fell off his tongue effortlessly.  When he finished, there was a loud pop and a rush of air, then a secondary pop right on top of it which caused an explosive wind to fly out and lift and blow dust all over the place.  I shut my eyes when it was blown into my face.

As near as I could figure, the mage version of teleport did a bad job at handling the air vacuum, and it caused an implosion of air.  I wasn’t sure what the explosion of air after it was about, maybe the spell actually swapped air from the other side with his body mass?  A vacuum immediately followed by an overpressure of air?  Either way, it was still cool to see, even if mine was better.

Lynn sighed, and then said, “Let’s go back to the tavern and plan.”

Gerard and I nodded, and the dwarven siblings walked us back…

Chapter Seventeen

Lynn looked tired, and a little relieved.

“Alright Katrina, what’s your plan?”

I replied, “My lady, the dragon withdrew to go over her mother’s memories.  I’m willing to go in her lair and try to make contact, but I think we should put that off as long as we can.  Maybe two days?”

Lynn asked, “Why?”

I said, “The best thing that could happen is she goes over the memories and comes to us to talk.  She needs to both decide I told the truth that the dwarves aren’t the same as the demons, and she has to decide what to do next.  The second part, a discussion with us, would go better if the first part was finished.  The longer we wait the bigger the chance she’ll have made that decision already.

“The sooner we decide she’s taking too long for our timetable, the less likely she’ll be to listen to me.  Especially if I invade her lair, or nest, or whatever Dragons have, before she’s accepted the truth I gave her.”

Lynn smirked, “I think the legends call it an Eyrie.  So, you think if we wait a day or two she’ll come out?”

I sighed, “Probably not, I’m not that lucky.  For all we know it will take her several years to go over all her mother’s memories, time we obviously don’t have.  But that isn’t her problem.  I would suggest we wait two days for the best case scenario to happen, her approaching us.  After that we can’t put it off any longer, and you can send me in.”

Lynn nodded, “And if I told you to go now?”

I replied, “I would go.”

So far, the only rule I’d broken was talking out of turn, I’d not actually disobeyed any valid commands, the rest of the time I was doing my job and protecting them.  Well, I’d also blackmailed Bryce, but that didn’t count.  I’d never gotten orders not to do it?

Okay, I knew that was weak, but I didn’t have a choice.

Lynn asked, “Gerard?”

Gerard said, “I think she’s got a good plan, but even if she is successful in making contact in two days, who knows how long it will take to work out a treaty of sorts with the dwarves?  We don’t want to rush and fail, but we need to get those weapons back to Magehaven as soon as possible, and sent north.”

Lynn asked, “Is there any good news?”

I smirked, “Yes, humans aren’t an involved party in the negotiations.  I don’t think it will take long.  The dwarves are straight forward to a fault, and I have the feeling a dragon isn’t much different.  It will either happen fast, or fail fast, in my opinion, once contact is made.”

Lynn asked, “What makes you think that.  Water is far more flexible than stone and fire, won’t that inform her nature and complicate matters?  Isn’t that what complicates matters for humans, always looking for a new angle.”

I couldn’t help the smile, she’d sounded amused as we deprecated the human tendency to complicate matters because of lack of trust.  It wasn’t a bad thing, it just was.  I already had an answer though, I’d put all that tossing and turning to good use.

“Because the dragon is telepathic.  Trying to hide things, or gain an advantage through trickery just wouldn’t work.  She may be more flexible than dwarves in nature because of water magic, like her shapeshifting, but not on the intellectual level of deals and negotiation.  It’s part of why she accepted my word almost easily, it isn’t easy to lie to a telepath.  She’s still young though, and inexperienced, so she needs to process it all.”

Actually, outside of a shielded mage, it would be impossible to lie to a telepath.  But the dragon hadn’t been taught that, nor did she have enough experience to have confidence in it.

Lynn sighed, “Very well, we’ll wait until after breakfast the day after tomorrow.  What’s the plan for then, if the dragon doesn’t come out I mean?”

I replied, “I don’t have a good plan, but I have a plan.  I’ll just go in the entrance, and if she doesn’t sense me and come out, I’ll start looking around the flooded mine.  My powers should allow me to create a bubble of air to go underwater as well.  Eventually I’ll find her, and I’ll explain what’s going on and why there’s a time constraint.”

Gerard said, “If she’ll listen to you.”

I nodded grudgingly, “Yes.”

Lynn asked, “And if she attacks you?”

“I’ll retreat to the entrance if necessary, and keep trying to reason with her.  I will kill her in self-defense if she goes after the dwarves again, or even us out here in the city.  But in her lair, I’ll be the invader, and to be honest, all by myself I’ll be lucky to hold her off.”

Lynn nodded, “You’re crazy, you know that?  Fine, it seems we have a plan.  Don’t mess up.”

“I’ll try not to, my lady.”

I shook my head, easier said than done…

The next two days went by slowly, and it was almost inevitable that the dragon wouldn’t come out of her lair in that time.  I just wasn’t that lucky.  With Bryce gone both Gerald and I took some time for ourselves, while the other guarded Lynn.  We still couldn’t spend private time together, but it helped to be able to leave her with Gerard and go take a bath, or try and clear my head.  I did manage a few discreet hugs and kisses though, and lived for those moments.

It was a decent enough plan we had, but so many parts of it could fail, and I’d have to be ready to adapt.  I’d considered popping out on one of my breaks to visit the temple, and possibly mom as well.  I’d love to see the goddess, or pick up my education tablet, but until things were decided with the dragon I couldn’t leave, not even for a short while.  What if she chose that moment to come out and speak with me, and I wasn’t here?  That was just the kind of luck I did have.

Still, I made plans to do both as soon as the dragon and dwarven thing was settled.

We mostly stuck with the tavern, and although Lynn didn’t speak to us much and kept that aloofness of a noble, she was far more relaxed without Bryce here to see her conduct.  She also wasn’t arrogant about it.  It was simply how things were in our society.

As for Bryce, I was sure he was up to something, but I didn’t borrow trouble and worry about it all that much.  Whatever kind of reception he managed to arrange for me and perhaps the others, would be dealt with when it happened.  I wasn’t worried about assassins from him, Sia would handle that if he tried, but political crap within the bounds of law was a real possibility.

The morning two days later eventually came, and we were eating breakfast while we waited for Holmarra and Sanath to show up and escort us.  I was rather nervous to be honest, invading the lair of the dragon in all the stories never ended well.

Gerard was worried about me, I could tell, but as usual he was willing to allow me to be who and what I was.  Which… was an arrogant eighteen-year-old woman who was about to invade the dragon’s den.  I didn’t want to think about it anymore, so I changed the subject.

“You told me winter was coming soon right, isn’t Jendas playing things a little too close?”

Even if they did manage to cross, and take Ironcastle, their soldiers would be effectively cut off when the pass was snowed in, cutting off any possible retreat or reinforcement.  They’d have to advance, hold, or die at that point, no retreat.

Gerard nodded, “Yes, but it won’t freeze down south of the pass, so they’ll be able to run their campaign.  The Jendas king won’t be thinking of failure.  Most likely he’ll train a secondary force that winter to replace lost troops, and hope his soldiers have at least taken Lorbridge by then.  The trick is for us to stop them at Ironcastle, if we do that his secondary buildup won’t break through either.”

“What about Lorbridge, can’t we stop them there too if we don’t get the weapons in time?”

Gerard shrugged, “Sure, but at that point they’ll be deep in Trelin, and if we beat them there many will desert, and we’ll be cleaning out bandits for years.  They’ll have also at that point taken over and fortified Ironcastle, and be expecting relief troops in the spring.  We could still win of course, but it would be much harder and longer of a fight.”

I sighed, it would take at least three days to get the swords and shields to Magehaven, then another three days, possibly four, to get them up to Ironcastle.  There was no way I could teleport them all, it was too much mass.  I might be able to summon a few swords at a time, but it would exhaust me, and I’d never be able to teleport the siege engines.

In short, once I got this all settled, if I did, it would take us at least a week to get to the front with it.  The king estimated two weeks before Jendas would be ready to invade, and we’d already spent one of those weeks between getting here and working on the problem.  I needed to make this work, and fast, if we’d have any chance of getting to Ironcastle before they lost the battle and the keep to the enemy’s foothold. 

As it was, the garrison there already would probably have to hold the enemy off for a day without the weapons and siege engines before we could arrive.  And that was if we left now which wasn’t going to happen.

Lynn said, “Don’t worry about that, and just focus on the mission here.  We’ll get there when we get there.  The soldiers should be able to hold for days, they’re in a fortified position, and the enemy will be at a disadvantage coming out of the pass.”

I nodded in agreement, but it wasn’t that easy to shrug it off.

Holmarra came in and walked over to the table, “You intend to go into the mine?”

I nodded.

Holmarra grunted, “Follow me, my brother won’t be joining us this morning.”

I picked up my cup and finished off my juice, and then stood up.  I had plans, and I went over them again as we approached the flooded mine, but I knew the key here would be flexibility and thinking on my feet.  While I was in a flooded mine under tons of rock.

Piece of cake.

Chapter Eighteen

Gerard gave me a good luck kiss, and I flew over the fence and landed gently before the tunnel entrance.  I took a deep breath, my heart was beating fast.  I didn’t really want to go in there.  It was dark, damp, and hadn’t been checked for stability in years.  I reminded myself I could teleport, and not to be a chicken, then I walked in.

A few of the dwarven runes still worked, but the light was dim, and I couldn’t see more than a couple of feet in front of me.  I did have my scans running, and knew the general immediate layout with my telekinesis scan, but I wanted to see it with my own eyes.  I muttered a prayer under my breath, and my holy symbol lit up with a bright soft light.

Better.

I walked a little farther, about fifty feet in, and there was a split in the tunnel.  I stopped for a minute, and sent out a mental call for the dragon, to let her know I was there.  Though I wasn’t sure if she heard me, wherever she was it was farther than a quarter mile away.  Then I waited for a good fifteen minutes, glancing up at the ceiling nervously every few minutes.

I annoyed myself, and resisted the urge to do it again.  The tunnel would not collapse, and if it did I could clear it or teleport out.  The tunnel to the left went about two hundred feet, and then there was a mineshaft filled with water.  The right tunnel went straight out for as far as I could reach with telekinesis, and kept going as far as I could tell.

I chose the right tunnel.  It was just a guess, and hopefully a good one.  The floor sloped downward.  The tunnel floor was wet but not flooded, and I could hear drips of water.  I’d been less scared facing the damned lich in the shadow castle, which was ridiculous.  But between my apparent fear of being underground, and not having Gerard with me, it made a huge difference.

There were several smaller tunnels which were swamped with debris, they were also dead ends according to my telekinesis, mining tunnels that led to several veins of ore.  I ignored them and kept going forward almost half a mile through twists and turns of the tunnel until I found another mine shaft full of water at a dead end.

Crap.

I also felt the dragon, she was ahead of me and to the right, and down about ten feet.  I could feel the path through the water that would lead me down, over, and up.  The problem was, the over part was against the current of the large underground river, and I immediately worried I’d be swept downstream.  Which was ridiculous, because I could teleport.  Damn this underground thing, it made me stupid and scared.  My heart was hammering in my chest, I was more scared of the mine than the dragon, which again, was stupid.

Since she was in range, I sent telepathically, “May I come speak to you?  It’s important.  I promise I mean you no harm or enmity.”

She replied in a booming mind voice, “Come then,” although it was more like a challenge than an invitation.

I sighed, and needled myself.  This was what I wanted wasn’t it?

I used telekinesis in three different ways which was rather a challenge.  I used aqua-kinesis to push the water away from me, aero-kinesis to keep an air bubble around my body so I could breath, and then I used telekinesis to fly as I jumped off the edge and into the mineshaft.  The water was fifteen feet down, and my air bubble caused a large splash.

I moved slightly forward, and started to get pushed the wrong way by the current, but I flew against it harder and harder until I made some progress in the right direction.  When I reached the other opening, I moved through it, and then up about five feet and into a small cavern which lit up with gentle light from my light spell.

The dragon was close, only ten feet away.  Which was way too close considering she was the size of a van, with claws long enough to reach out and strike.  Worse, I was floating above the water, which meant I had to move forward another five feet, and land.  I was in chomping distance of her very large jaws and teeth as my boots settled on the ground. 

The dragon’s closeness and wariness became apparent, as I finally noticed other things about the cavern.  There was a couple of inches of water on the ground, and behind the dragon there were very large eggs.  With a quick glance, I estimated fifteen or so unhatched dragon eggs.  I also noticed one that was broken open, all the way in the back by the corner.  I guess I must’ve looked far too curious about her unborn siblings, because she started to growl at me.  I swallowed and looked back up at the swirling ochre eyes that were as big as my torso.

“I’m sorry I had to disturb you, but the dwarves would like the problem between you and them resolved, and I am on a deadline of sorts myself.  Have you considered what I told you?”

She said in a gravelly voice, “Yes.  I will no longer harm the dwarves.  My ancient enemies are no longer in this place.  I will leave the dwarves alone.”

I nodded, “That’s a good start, are you willing to come to some official treaty with them?  Is there anything you want?”

The cavern seemed kind of dreary to me, and humid, but I supposed for a water dragon it would make a nice home.

She laughed, or at least I think she did, and she said sarcastically, “I want my siblings to be born, can you arrange that?”

“Umm, why did you hatch, do you know?”

She shook her head, which caused my heart to skip.

“Can I take a look at your egg?”

She growled low in her throat, “Do not touch any of the others, or I will kill you.”

I nodded slowly, suddenly regretful of my suggestion.  I did have a big mouth.  I walked toward the edge of the cavern, and traced the wall.  The dragon turned and watched my every step as I made my way to the back of the cavern and her broken egg.  The eggs themselves went up to my stomach, they were very large.

I looked at her egg, and what was around it, looking for some clue of why the flooding would have caused her egg to quicken and hatch.  There was nothing obvious at first, but this whole corner of the cavern had small bleached pebbles around her egg.  I frowned down at them and picked one up.  It wasn’t a pebble, it was a bleached crystal.

I turned to the dragon, and almost jumped out of my skin.  Her snout was only about two feet away.  How in the nine hells could a creature that big move so damned silently?

“I’ll be back in a few minutes, I think I have a theory, but I want to verify it before I suggest the possibility.  Does your mother’s memories not have the knowledge of how to hatch your siblings?”

She growled, “No.  Only some memories are transferred, not all.  She must have decided it was more important to know about our enemy, than how to hatch eggs.”

I nodded, “Do you have a name?  Mine is Katrina.”

She chuffed and blew her breath in my face.

“Enidthalasarmaraya, but you may call me Enid.  What is this time constraint you speak of, and why are you willing to help me when I attacked you?”

I said, “The human kingdom to the north of ours is attacking ours.  We need to return with the dwarven steel as soon as possible to fight them off.  If I can arrange peace between you and the dwarves, they will give us the weapons and shields.”

She growled out, “I see, so you do this out of self-interest?”

I shrugged helplessly, “Partly.  In truth, the original agreement called for the death of the creature killing the dwarves.  I argued against that because I believed it would be wrong, and the dwarves agreed to amend the deal to peaceful relations.  So, in a way, I am doing this for you, as well as for myself and my people.”

She said, “I can scent the truth on you.  Go, find out what you must find out, and return.”

I replied, “I’ll be back soon Enid, and I will appear right here, next to your egg.  I also promise to come alone and bring no one else to your hatching ground.”

The dragon nodded, which was alarming at two feet away, and I teleported back to the entrance of the mine.  I closed my eyes and took a deep breath.  When my heart stopped beating like a hummingbird’s wings, I flew out and over the fence.  I wasn’t completely convinced I couldn’t win a fight against the dragon, but I was sure it was very possible I’d lose.  I’d never met a more beautiful yet intimidating creature in my life.  It was also… exciting.  I’d just spoken to a dragon!  I suppressed a squeal of excitement.

Lynn asked, “What happened?”

I replied, “At first she just said she would leave the dwarves alone, but I mentioned making it more official than that.  She seems willing to negotiate, but I don’t think she’s quite ready to meet the dwarves face to face yet.  I need to speak to the master rune-wright.”

Holmarra nodded, “Follow me.”

We didn’t have far to go, we moved to the next tunnel entrance, and took it to the iron door.  Once through we located him in the second room on the left.  He looked up at us as we walked into the room with an impatient look on his face.  I guess I couldn’t blame him for that, the last two times we’d visited him we’d wasted his time.

I didn’t bother with niceties, dwarves didn’t do niceties.

“What happens when a crystal gets wet?”

He grunted, “Wet?  Nothing.  If it’s submerged in water however, the magic is drained out of it, or cancelled out.  The crystal will look like it was bleached out.  We lost a number of them a long time ago that way to a flood.”

I gently tossed the bleached crystal to him and he snagged it out of the air.

He asked sharply, “Where did you get this?”

I replied, ‘There’s a whole pile of them around the dragon’s split open egg.”

His eyes narrowed, and I nodded, “That’s all I needed to know, thanks Donack.”

Holmarra asked, “What’s this all about?”

“I think I figured out why Enid’s egg hatched.”

Lynn asked, “Enid?”

I grinned, “The dragon’s name is much longer, but I’m not even going to try to pronounce it, she said to call her Enid.”

Holmarra asked, “Why is it important how she was hatched?”

I sighed, “Because, there are fifteen more unhatched eggs, and what she wants most is her brothers and sisters to be born.  Be back soon.”

I wanted to giggle as I popped back into the dragon’s cavern, the look on their faces were priceless.  But giggling into a dragon’s snout just wasn’t done.  I fell back against the cavern wall instead and squeaked like a mouse.

Served me right.

I asked, “Hi Enid, can you feel and control your raw magic?”

Enid backed up a bit, “Of course, why?”

“Can you fill your scales, on your feet with extra, so it leaks into the water?  By one of the other eggs?”

She looked confused, but she stepped back carefully by another egg, and I can only assume she tried, since I can’t feel magic at all.

“Why am I doing this?”

I replied, “I think sixty years ago, when the mine was flooded, the egg room was flooded.  I think those crystals in the corner around your egg is what remains of your mother, she must have died down here after moving your eggs from the main cavern.  I think when the water rushed in here it pushed all the crystals into the corner, around your egg.  It’s just a guess, but when the water soaked the crystals, their magic was drained into the element, probably because it is water magic.  I’m thinking maybe your egg at that point absorbed that freed magic from the water, like a sponge for lack of a better word, and quickened your egg.”

Okay, it was a lot of assumptions, but it fit the facts.  Plus, water dragons were highly magical, it made sense that magic was what would make them finish growing in their eggs, and make them viable.  Obviously, that had been a freak accident.  Normally I would think it would be the mother who provided the magic by taking care of her nest, since a live dragon’s magic would constantly be regenerated by its life, or something.

She said in awe, “The egg is taking the magic from the water, but I don’t think I’m old or powerful enough to feed them enough magic to make them hatch yet.”

“I don’t imagine it’s an immediate process, you probably have to feed them magic for a long time as they finish growing.”

She snuffled doubtfully, “But the dwarves have all those crystals.”

Oh crap, what did I do now?

Chapter Nineteen

“What are you saying?”

Enid said, “If they give me enough crystals, I can have my siblings now.  It will take decades otherwise, I can feel it in me now that I’m doing this.  I’m not old and powerful enough to do it right.  Maybe in the future when I have my own eggs, I can do it the right way.”

I tried to imagine that, if this worked out in a few thousand years the blue dragons would be able to come back from the brink of extinction.  I also knew just how much the dwarves loved their crystals and dwarven steel.  How the hell was I going to get them to give fifteen small piles of it?

“Alright, so peace for both you and the dwarves, and you want them to give up fifteen small piles of crystal.  What are you willing to give in return?”

Enid swiveled her neck moving her snout closer, “A never ending supply.  They’ll eventually run out, but in two thousand years I will be ancient, too large to fit in this puny cavern, and when I pass I will leave ten times the crystals I’m asking for.  And so will my siblings.  Right now, their supply of crystal is finite, we will allow them to claim our dead bodies.”

“So much?”

Enid nodded, “Many of the dragons that were killed in the war with the demons were just hatchlings or young adults.  Not only will there be more crystals, but they will also be far more potent with magic.”

I nodded slowly, it was a hell of a long-term investment, but maybe they’d go for it?

“Anything else before I go talk to them?”

She shook her head, “Perhaps, they now live in our cavern.  This small den won’t do for me in a short few years, much less sixteen of us.”

I nodded, “I’ll mention it.  I’ll be back as soon as I can, it may be tomorrow.  Their whole civilization is based around those crystals, but I think I can convince them.”

In truth, I thought they owed the dragon race a lot.  They’d built their civilization on the death of another, the least they could do was help them come back.  Plus… more crystals in return later.

I kept my mouth shut though, and kept those thoughts to myself.  I didn’t want to make any promises I couldn’t keep.  I teleported back to Donack and the others, who glared at me.  I shrugged helplessly, not really sorry that I’d dropped that information bomb on them and split earlier.  If they thought they were startled, they should have been there with me when I saw the eggs for the first time in the cavern.

I took a few minutes to catch them up on what the dragon wanted, and what she’d offered in return.

Holmarra said, “I’ll walk you back to the tavern, you’ll wait there while my family discusses this and comes to a decision.  You say she wants the crystals, and help with a new large cavern for her new family?”

I replied, “Yes, but the crystals are for the return investment when they grow older and pass from this world, which will give you an endless and replenishing supply.  I think she’s willing to negotiate for the help with the cavern, she just isn’t sure what to offer for it, or what you would want.”

Holmarra nodded thoughtfully, and then walked off without a word.  Lynn, Gerard, and I quickly followed.  That hadn’t been too bad, and it’d only taken me an hour or two.  Okay, it’d been terrifying and exhilarating all at once, but I’d enjoyed it.  If the dwarves agree quickly enough, perhaps we could even get out of here in a day or two, when the weapons and shields were ready…

We were in the tavern eating lunch, and I’d just gotten done giving a more in depth report of my morning, including what I was thinking and what it was like down there.

Gerard shook his head, “You’re crazy, you know that right?  What possessed you to look away from her, she could have bitten you in half before you even noticed.”

I couldn’t argue that, she’d snuck up on me with preternatural silence when I was studying her egg and what I’d originally thought were pebbles.  I should have been keeping a mental eye on her if nothing else.

I nodded slowly, “Little bit, but hey, you married me.  So, who’s crazier?  Besides, talking with a dragon is a lot of fun.”

He snorted.

“Thank you, I enjoy conversing with you as well,” said dwarf Enid as she slipped into the chair and waved at the barmaid.

Lynn stopped breathing for a moment.

I asked with a casualness I didn’t feel, “So what brings you by?”

Enid scowled, “I got tired of waiting, plus I got used to dwarf food, cold fish just aren’t as satisfying as some beef stew and ale.  You don’t think they’d mind, do you?  I promised I wouldn’t harm anyone else, unless attacked.”

Gerard poked Lynn, who gasped in a breath.  I pretended not to notice.

I shrugged, “I don’t think so?  I think you’ll have to work out all the details with them, I’m just trying to get a starting point and common ground for you both to stand on when you meet.”

I noticed a few dwarves leave in a hurry, so I was sure the king would find out quickly.

Enid said, “You seem much calmer.”

I laughed, “You’re a little intimidating in your natural form my friend.”

Enid shrugged, and started to eat the stew as soon as it was put down in front of her.

She stopped for a moment and said, “I’ve been thinking, the dwarves seem to have trouble with flooding, and don’t appreciate water all that much.  Maybe in return for help building a new large cavern, I can change a few things and make sure that doesn’t happen anymore.  Water obeys me.”

“That may work.  Enid, this is my husband Gerald, and this is Mage Marchioness Lynn Darish, a noble from my kingdom.”

Enid nodded, “I know, I watched you all hunting me.”

Lynn squeaked, and then cleared her throat, “It’s nice to meet you officially Enid.  I regret the misunderstanding that started all this, we didn’t know what you really were.”

Enid nodded, “I was killing dwarves, I hold no blame toward you for this.  I do have a question?”

Lynn replied, “What question?”

Enid asked, “What of the other dragons, do you know?  The demons destroyed us blues, but I don’t know what happened to the reds, browns, or silvers.”

“Reds, browns, and silvers?” I asked carefully.

Enid nodded, “Of course, the fire, earth, and air dragons.  Surely you didn’t think water dragons were the only ones?  Were the others destroyed too?”

Enid dropped the spoon, and looked dismayed at our blank looks.

Lynn said, “I’m sorry.  Dragons have been nothing but myth and legend for thousands of years.  You’re the first one seen in all that time.  I don’t know what happened to your cousins.”

Enid replied, “Perhaps one day I will search, I have the locations of their homes from my mother’s memories.”

I wondered if there were other continents, and if there could still be dragons on those.  Now wasn’t the time to talk to Sia to find out though.  Maybe Enid would find them, and the other races were able to hide a few eggs from the demons as well?  It was almost too much to hope for, and I hated the demons a little more for their crimes of genocide.

She picked up her spoon and started eating again, which sounded like a marvelous idea so I joined her.  Maybe I was crazy, I was sitting a few feet away from a shapeshifted dragon, and was completely relaxed and enjoying the company, if not the sad conversation.  But perhaps the other three species had hidden away eggs as well at the end.  Perhaps one day they’d come back too, and not just the blue dragons.

I wasn’t at all surprised, when King Nabrec, Queen Hammeana, Heir Vothick, Eldest Sanath, and Princess and second heir Holmarra came into the tavern.  All of us looked their way.

Nabrec waved at another table, and his family settled there as he walked over to ours.

He said gruffly, “Enid, perhaps it’s time for us to speak together, and hammer out some kind of treaty and arrangement.  We’ll not only be allies, but close neighbors.”

I almost giggled, because he was staring at her bowl of stew as he said the last two words.  Apparently very close neighbors.

Enid said, “Thank you Nabrec, I’d be pleased to join you.”

I did giggle, when she got up and took her stew with her.  Nabrec just shook his head, muttered something about dragons, and followed her over to his family.

Lynn looked around the tavern, and it was pretty much cleared out.

She stood and said, “Maybe we should give them some privacy.  I think our part is done in this.”

I had to agree, and stood up.  I had my bowl of stew with me as we went up the stairs to our rooms.  What?  A girl has to eat…

Chapter Twenty

This mission had a very rough start, but it seemed to be ending on a good note.  From what I gathered, the dragons would get enough crystal to hatch the rest of the eggs and also get a new cavern, and the dwarves would get the dragon’s crystals when the dragons died, and would soon be able to reopen the flooded mine once it was drained out.  Enid would also be making sure the city was never flooded again.

As far as Enid and her siblings dropping by for stew, I wasn’t sure how they worked that out, but as we packed to leave just a day later, I knew they’d figure it out.  Honestly, I was kind of jealous, I wanted a dragon neighbor.  Enid had asked me to stop by on occasion though, I wasn’t sure when I’d have the time, but I planned to take her up on the offer.  If for no other reason than to meet her baby sibs after they were born. 

Baby dragons, it doesn’t get much cuter than that.

The swords, shields, and four siege devices took six wagons, and was way too much for me to teleport.  I may have been powerful, but my limit was a handful of people along with a reasonable amount of stuff.  Teleporting a larger amount of mass took a lot of energy out of me, and all that steel was just too much.  The dwarven wagons weren’t ours to keep either, we’d have to unload them at Magehaven into our own wagons before sending them north, and I had the feeling it would take twice as many human wagons.  Ten, instead of six, since the siege engines were wagons in themselves and we could keep those.

The dwarves weren’t for long goodbyes, and we set back out into the tunnels. It would take us a day and a half just to get outside, and another day and a half back to the capitol.  I couldn’t wait to get out of these caverns, and out from under the mountain.

I wondered if we’d make it in time to stop Jendas at the pass.  Ironcastle would have to hold out until we got there.  I also wondered what kind of reception I’d be getting back in Magehaven.  The fact my plan was successful may not matter, and although Bryce would prefer to have me killed, he could still make my life hell if he pushed things.

No point borrowing trouble, I’d find out when I got there.

I also wanted to visit mom and get the tablet, and see the goddess.  Maybe I could find an hour during the trip to slip away and get that done, possibly after we made camp in the evening and verified the area was secure.  I wasn’t sure yet.

I was also wanting to get my husband alone, but that too seemed impossible at the moment, which was starting to get very frustrating, it’d been at least a week since we shared sheets, and we were still newlyweds.

I felt guilty though, worrying about that as Trelin headed for war.  It was what it was though.  I also knew it wouldn’t last much longer, I could live with it for another few days, until Lynn was safely back home.

Stormy whickered, and started to prance, clearly excited to be back on the road.  At least one of us was having a good time…

Afterword: 

I hope you enjoyed this story, if you did please leave a review.  Reviews are the lifeblood of independent authors, and I would greatly appreciate any constructive feedback or opinions. 

Katrina’s story still has one more book to go.  Her and Gerard should be back soon in Defense of Trelin, the fifth and final book of the series.

I took a slight risk in this book, giving her a fear of being under all that stone, a light phobia to fight, as well as a couple of pet peeves to battle at the same time.  It made her short tempered, irritable, internally whiny, and her snarky comments were a bit more waspish.  Hopefully I didn’t take it too far, I don’t think I did put in too much angst, and I further hope that I managed to show you another complicated facet of her personality while being consistent with who she is in the earlier books even as she matures.

At the same time, I gave her a greater challenge, and a much higher attendant risk, in staying true to her beliefs, morals, and her inner need to be a heroine. 

About the Author:  If you have any comments or suggestions you can send me an email at dlharrisonauthor@gmail.com  If you like my work, or even if you don’t, please consider leaving a review of this book.  I can also be found at https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7456808.D_L_Harrison

Other books by D. L. Harrison:

http://www.amazon.com/author/dlharrison

The Formerly Dark Mage, by D. L. Harrison – This stand-alone fantasy book follows the life of Silvia and takes place in a world unique and separate to our own. 

Silvia is a dark mage. Unfortunately, she finds herself about to be sacrificed. Someone must have told her evil master about her plans to kill him and take over.  After that, things just seem to go downhill. She has no choice but to escape the kingdom of Zual, something that to her knowledge has never been done before. She will need to deal with many issues she never had to face before.

Among those issues, the white mages, and her conscience.

The Rise of a Dark Mage - This stand-alone fantasy book follows the life of Cassandra, it takes place in the same world as The Formerly Dark Mage, but happens three hundred years later, long after Silvia is gone and some shocking changes have taken place in the world.

Cassandra is a dark mage in the kingdom of Zual, she’s also a mage prodigy.

She hates both her kingdom, and her master.  She wants him dead, not to take his place, but so she can leave and explore the world.  Her ambition will drive her to rediscover the secrets of the strongest of magics.

She is determined to succeed, or she’ll die trying.

Celia Winters Novel Series

Witch’s Moon: A Celia Winters Novel Book 1

Celia Winters was raised by her single mother, and her earliest memories are of the store her mother owns and the nearby coven, who have always been her family’s close allies and friends.

She grew up believing her magic was weak, but she was satisfied with her life, and happy.  She was a midwife, healer, and supplier of surrounding covens. 

Then her mother died, and she’s about to discover she isn’t who, or what, she believes herself to be, not completely.  She will learn that her entire life up until now was a lie.  She’ll need to figure out her place, who she is when she no longer recognizes herself, and try to hold on to her closest friends as she gathers enemies for the simple crime of her existence.

She’s stronger than she believes, but will it be enough?

Power of Air Series:

Just a Psychic: The Power of Air Book One starts off this series.

Ben has grown up with missing memories of his early childhood.

He has known he was a psychic since his earliest memories, seeing the future and gaining knowledge with his gifts.

Is it possible he isn't just a psychic?

Ben's world is about to be turned upside down as he turns twenty-one, all is not as it seems.

 Alicia Jones novels is a series that follows a bright young inventor and scientist named Alicia Jones.  It is a space opera and light science fiction.

The first book is titled First Contact:

Alicia Jones is a genius, and a little odd.  At just twenty-three years of age, she is close to finishing her doctoral dissertation.  But when she tests her latest theory in the lab to generate a strong EM field, it has very unanticipated results.  Results that lead to faster than light travel, and first contact with another race.

 Her life just gets more complicated after that, when she finds out who she really is, and that the universe may not be as nice a place as she’d been told.  Her determination to help keep Earth safe takes her to places more dangerous and strange than she’d ever envisioned.

Spirit Sorceress series, by D. L. Harrison is a new urban fantasy series.  Miku is a spirit sorceress who spent the last one hundred years growing up and learning about her power in the forests near Seattle Washington.  She’s about to make her debut in the big city, but not in a way she ever expected.

The first book is titled Spirit Sorceress:

Miku is a spirit sorceress who spent her unusually long childhood in the forest away from the city with her mother and father.  After tragedy strikes, she finds herself alone and on her own.  She knows that one day she’ll need to move to Seattle, and fully accept her birthright, and if necessary finish her training on her own.

But before she’s ready, and still in grieving, a rogue vampire and his band come along and change everything.  She’ll need to learn her new place in the world, and find some allies quick if she’s to survive.

Katrina Baker Novels, by D. L. Harrison is a new series about a super named Katrina Baker.  Problem is, she gets caught up in her mother’s plan, who is a mad scientist and supervillain, and gets herself transported to another world in the multi-verse.  A world where mages, witches, clerics, and the gods are real.  Not to mention the monsters…

The first book is titled Banished:

Katrina baker is a super.  She has mental abilities such as telekinesis, telepathy, and others.  Her parents are supervillains, and she isn’t all that sure she’s cut out for that line of work.  Her empathy with others through her power makes it hard to be uncaring, much less mean or evil to people.  Problem is, the last thing she wants to do is disappoint mom and dad.

Katrina gets caught up in her mother’s supervillain plot to get rid the world of the indestructible hero Omega, and that’s when it all goes really wrong, and she finds herself on another world. 

Banished.

Will she be able to find her way back home, or even understand this new world of gods and magic, or will she die trying?

Book Description

Katrina baker is a super and she was banished just a month ago to a world of gods, magic, and evil races.  A place without plumbing, electricity, Facebook, and lattes. 

Things start to heat up between Trelin and Jendas, and a visit from the Dwarves isn’t helping things any in that regard.  Jendas shockingly commits, and with war coming Trelin will need all the help they can get.  The dwarves need their help, and they need dwarven steel weapons and shields to shift the odds in their favor. 

This mission is different though, Gerard is sent along with the group heading to the dwarven kingdom of Belirith as a guard for a high noble, and she’s more than happy to join them.  She finds out quickly though, that the job she’s agreed to is nothing like she’d thought it would be, not to mention the task that the dwarves need help with is fraught with peril and a lack of understanding.

One more problem.  There’s a dark secret about Dwarven Steel, that not even the dwarves know about.  Will she find out the truth in time, and manage not to anger the nobles she must guard, keep the deal with the dwarves, and do the right thing, all at the same time?

Sometimes, something has to give, will it be her morality, or will she truly step into trouble this time?