can get in and get out. You still have a plan to leave Craggen Steep, right, Brogus?”
The burly dwarf nodded his head, “I’ve got friends in the lower levels who know about an old breakout section. Somebody split rock through to the surface years ago and it was patched up, but it’s only a few inches thick, there was an earthquake or something. We’ll poke a hole in it no trouble and be on our way. I can even have mules waiting for us. But I don’t know much about the outside world, I’ve only been with one caravan and that was when I was a kid. We don’t even know where this Koalhelm Tol is located.”
“It’s in the south,” said Milli, “as far south as you can get in a region filled with volcanoes. Fierfelm said…,”
“Fierfelm!” interrupted Brogus with a sudden exclamation that sent his beer slopping out of his mug, “I thought you said it was Uldex that told you all this.”
Milli paused and leaned back in her chair with a little twinkle in her eye and small grin on her face, “I may have led you to believe that, but I never said it.”
“What?” shouted Brogus, standing, putting both hands flat against the table, and leaning over so that his considerable bulk loomed directly above Milli. “You don’t think we should have known that?” He asked with a look over at Dol who sat impassively in his own seat. “Don’t you think little miss pretty should have told us that, Dol? Don’t you?”
Dol shrugged his shoulders and stared back at Brogus with calm black eyes, “What difference does it make where the information comes from, as long as it’s accurate. I want that hammer, I want to be the one remembered for killing Gazadum. You can either watch me to do it, or you can help.”
Brogus stood for a few long seconds as their eyes bored into one another and then he looked up at the ceiling and shook his head, “There’s no stopping you, once you’ve made up your mind. I’ve known that since we were kids. Remember when I broke your nose for eating more than half the brownies that time?”
Dol nodded and a small smile appeared on his face.
“What did he do to you?” asked Milli, looking quickly back and forth between the two.
“He ate all the brownies the next time,” said Brogus with a snort as he collapsed back in his seat. “I could have beat him some more, but what was the point? Then he’d probably just eat all the pie too. You can’t win with Dol.”
Milli laughed aloud, the sound almost like a song, “That’s our Dol. Now that we’ve settled the what, we need to figure out the how.”
“They’ll expect us to wait a few days at least to see the guard routines,” said Brogus with his hand on his chin as he looked at Milli. “I think Dol might be right. We should do it as soon as possible. If they knew about us stealing it in the first place they might have found out about my escape route too. It wouldn’t take a team of miners more than an hour to brick up that narrow break and we’d never get through.”
“So, we do it tonight then?” said Milli in a whisper.
“Why not now?” said Dol and suddenly stood up.
Milli’s eyes opened wide and she stared at her thick-haired friend with her mouth agape, and then she shut it with a snap. “Why not now?” she went on more to herself. “They certainly won’t be expecting it. We just run into the hall and grab the thing.”
“They’ll catch us quick enough,” said Brogus. “They can communicate through the tunnels and have a hundred stalwarts waiting for us whichever direction we go.”
“Uldex can help with that, he can send false messages, get them all confused, we’ll be half way to Das’von before they know we’re even gone. Once we’ve joined up with Corancil’s army they can’t stop us, not without revealing Craggen Steep’s location at least and they’ll never do that.”
“Is it decided that we’re joining up with Corancil, then?” asked Brogus with a grin on his face as he imagined the glories of the marching armies, the booty stolen from defeated towns, the young girls willing to do anything for a powerful soldier.
“How else are we going to get all the way to the southern continent, do you know how far that is?” asked Milli with a little shake of her head. “The First Edos told me what to look for geographically, five volcanoes, along the southern shore of a huge peninsula, but he didn’t tell me how to get there. We need Corancil, they say he’s built portals, transportation gates that can take a dwarf from one side of the continent to the next in a blink of an eye.
Brogus shook his head and smiled, “I don’t believe that nonsense, it’s impossible, but even if we have to walk, we’ll be better off with the army than trying it on our own. Those are wild lands in the center of the world, I’ve talked with traders that went all the way to Sea’cra in the east, it’s dangerous, at least ten thousand miles to the south too, maybe more.
“I don’t believe that bit about portals either,” said Milli with a grin she could not suppress and glowing eyes, “but I guess we’ll find out, won’t we!”
Half an hour later Milli stood at the entrance to the Hall of Relics chatting with a young dwarf who wore a heavy set of chain armor and held a massive pike upright in his right hand. His wore a broad smile on his face as he explained something apparently quite important to the girl, and two other guards stood next to them and interjected their thoughts quite frequently. Milli smiled as they told their stories, gently touching an elbow here or a shoulder there, as she laughed in a musical way.
Brogus and Dol stood about a hundred paces up a long, marble floored corridor and gazed at one of the many sculptures that adorned the passage. The one they examined depicted a squat dwarf with relatively short beard who held a double-headed axe held in both hands while a raven perched on his shoulder. Flat letters imprinted onto an iron plaque on the wall declared, “Harras Drawhammer and Orc Cleaver”. The two spoke in low tones as they glanced occasionally at the thick stone statue.
“How long should we give her?” said Brogus with a glance down the hallway as he fingers tapped his upper thigh and he rocked back and forth on his heels.
Dol said, “Milli will signal, like she said.”
“It’s been too long,” said Brogus with another glance down the hallway, and his fingers increased their drumbeat on his leg. “I’m going to go.”
Dol quietly reached out with his hand, grabbed the heavily built dwarf apprentice by the elbow, and gave him a squeeze.
“That hurts!”
“Wait,” said Dol quietly without relaxing his grip.
“Fine, let go of me, I’ll wait.”
Dol released his grip and then looked back to the statue with a placid expression on his face. “The three main families are the Drawhammers, Blackirons, and Firefists, but weren’t there five major families at one point?”
“How am I supposed to know that?” asked Brogus looking at the statue and shrugging his shoulders. “What does an apprentice like you care about the important families and the High Council anyway?”
Dol looked steadily at Brogus, “Was it the Highhelms? And that raven, wasn’t there something about a family that spoke with ravens?”
Brogus gave out a snort and shook his head, “Fine, if you want to yak about this nonsense be my guest, but don’t expect me to say anything. Aren’t you even a little excited? We’re about to steal the most important relic in all of Craggen Steep, leave the mountain for the first time in our lives, join up with Corancil’s army, and head to the southern end of the world.”
Dol looked calmly at Brogus and smiled, “The pIan is to be inconspicuous while Milli does her thing.”
“Incon what? Anyway, why do we have to do everything exactly the way we plan?”
Dol nodded, “Otherwise there is chaos.”
“A little chaos might do you some good, Dol. You’re too damn calm, too quiet; it’s why you don’t have many friends. You’ve got to get a little crazy, a little wild, do something at random!”
“No,” said Dol firmly and glanced down the hallway towards the halfling girl and the guards. “I think Milli is signaling us.”
Brogus turned sharply and spotted the girl twirling her long hair with one hand while laughing gaily at something one of the dwarves said, “Let’s kick in the door!”
“Slowly, keep cool,” said Dol in a low tone turning to walk slowly up the hallway towards Milli and the heavily armed dwarves at her side. “Keep talking about the statue.”
