and Tazi couldn't understand why he sounded disgusted. 'All of the dwarves except us-except the Duergar.' There was no mistaking the bitterness that edged his words.
'Once again, the gray dwarves were cheated out of what every other dwarf benefited from. That seems to be our lot in life, though we don't deserve it. I expected no less. But, as I said, my brother is a dreamer and a scholar. He wanted more. He was always searching for evidence, proof that there was more to it than just us. Adnama came across some parchments some months ago that led him to believe that there might be an offshoot of our kind located here.'
'Here?' Tazi asked and pointed to the floor of their room. 'Is that why you lit up when I mentioned the Citadel the night you were wounded?'
'Somewhere in the depths below the Citadel,' the duergar nodded, 'and here he came. I know he made it as far as some of the tunnels below, but that's when I lost track of him.'
'So you're here to find him,' Tazi finished, 'and reunite your people.'
'If there is another vein of duergar, if we were to combine numbers, we could become an unstoppable force,' he informed her.
Tazi frowned. 'And here I thought you just wanted your brother back and maybe what was best for your people. How are you any different from Naglatha or any of these other Red Wizards?' She shook her head and climbed all the way onto the bed. As she stretched out, she looked at him again.
'Get some rest,' she told him, suddenly exhausted, 'so we're ready for tomorrow. I think I understand you better now.' She closed her eyes and was asleep in mere moments.
Justikar watched the woman sleep for a while. When he was sure it was a deep slumber, he moved silently to her side and deftly removed her worn sack without jostling her or it at all. He swung the leather sack in his grip twice and smiled.
'I came here for family, too,' he whispered to the sleeping Tazi and slunk out of their chamber into the darkened hallway beyond.
CHAPTER NINE
3 Kythorn, 1373 DR
When she heard the light footsteps in the room, Tazi opened her eyes and instinctively reached for the knife she had secreted in her night table. As she fumbled around for it, and came up empty handed, Tazi remembered that she was not in her bed in Stormweather Towers, though it was as comfortable as hers, but in the depths of the Citadel. While her eyes focused on the source of the noise, she realized it was not some unknown intruder, but the duergar that had roused her. She sat bolt upright when she saw he was standing in the doorway to their room with her sack in his strong hands.
'What do you think you're doing?' she demanded and jumped from the bed to pull her bag from his unresisting fingers.
'Take a look inside,' the dwarf directed her,and Tazi saw he had a pleased expression on his face. She peered into the sack and looked back down at him incredulously.
'What have you done?' she whispered.
'While you slept, I did some exploring. Since that fat, pasty-faced girl said there were some workshops available to us, I thought it best to see for myself if that were true. There is a passable forge and bellows, so I made use of them during the night,' he told her smugly.
Tazi could see that the dwarf was watching her closely. She pulled the drawstrings farther open and extracted a small, razor sharp dagger that radiated with a deep red shine from the bag. She would have described the piece as delicate if she hadn't seen the evil glint to its edge.
'That metal was a little tough to work with and I had to use almost all of it. It's not nearly as malleable as regular gold. In fact, it appeared to be even harder than steel. And there's something else about it,' he added quietly, 'a quality I can't put my finger on. It's not something I have ever run across before. I wouldn't mind having some of it myself.'
Tazi relit one of their lamps and inspected the dagger in its ruddy glow. The blade felt like a natural extension of her hand. The weight and balance were perfect. And she wasn't able to deny that the workmanship was some of the best she had ever beheld. And Tazi was a woman who had seen and could afford the finest. When she gazed at the dwarf again, she could see he enjoyed her pleasure in his skill.
'But, Justikar,' she asked in a curious voice, 'why did you do it? I know it's a good idea to have a weapon, but why did you do it to my gold?'
'I thought about what you told me last night,' he explained to her seriously, 'and I think this will make a more fitting offering to the spirit of your father.'
'How is that?' she wondered.
'Because this,' he nodded to the dagger she held expertly in her white hand, 'is what you have become, Thazienne Uskevren. If you think long and honestly, you will know I am right about that. And to make peace with your sire, you will have to make peace with yourself.'
Tazi frowned at his words and had little to say. She busied herself with wondering where she could secret the blade, but all the while the dwarf's words echoed in her ears. Had she become something sharp and deadly like the dagger? A woman who appeared to be one thing and yet was really something else? Weren't the dwarf's sentiments similar to the words Steorf had voiced when he gave Tazi her necklace saying the chain was deceiving, like her?
'You see more than I give you credit for,' she informed the duergar.
'You just don't know me,' he replied.
'I think I might like to,' Tazi told him with a smile.
'No,' he warned her seriously, 'no, you wouldn't.'
Tazi shrugged her shoulders and slipped the dagger into her right boot for the time being. Given all the wizards that were housed in the Citadel, she decided there were probably enough magical items present that the dagger might go unnoticed. If it did, she would have a fine weapon that would come in handy. And if it was discovered, she would at least know it had been confiscated and not search for it fruitlessly later on.
'What else did you find while I was snoring away? Surely you didn't spend your entire time making one, little blade?' The dwarf gave her a dirty look at her last statement until he saw her crooked grin and realized she was teasing.
'Why don't you come with me, and I'll show you?' he invited.
Tazi grabbed a glass from her table and rinsed the morning taste from her mouth and ran her fingers through her tangled, shoulder-length hair. The dwarf moved over to a dressing table against the wall while she was busy and rummaged around the bottles and brushes. When he found what he wanted, he grabbed it and came back to where Tazi sat.
'Is this what you need?' he asked and held out an item to Tazi.
She turned and saw he was holding a hand mirror for her. She was about to snap at him until she saw his sly smile. She wasn't the only one who liked to slip in a joke.
'Show me,' Tazi told him, ready to go.
Together, they snuck out into the hall. The rest of the chamber doors were shut, and Tazi wondered if the other servants were taking advantage of the events and resting in or if they had already gone to assist their respective masters.
'Do you think they've gone?' she whispered cautiously to the duergar.
'You'll see,' was all Justikar offered.
Tazi studied the walls. There were many designs carved into them. She still marveled at the fact that they were now deep underground. Whoever had constructed the structure, be it the lizardfolk Naglatha mentioned or some other equally fantastic beings, Tazi was overwhelmed at their abilities. Stones and other decorative tiles and mosaics covered the hallway, and the tunnel had been cut with such precision and squared angles, it looked like a corridor one would find in any well-built house or mansion. There wasn't the slightest hint that it was bored through
