Dol looked down at the hammer for the first time since he smashed the case and thought for a moment, “Not too bad, but I feel it.”
“The handle, it’s so small,” said Milli looking closely at the great weapon as they made it to the next landing and quickly darted through the door. “Where is this other stairwell?”
“It should be around the corner,” said Brogus. “We dwarves like to stick to the blueprint.”
“There it is,” said Milli as they came around the corner and found an open doorway, exactly like the one they just came through, down to the engravings on the silver door knob, and they quickly dashed back up to the floor above.
“What if they’re waiting for us?” asked Brogus as they stood for a moment on the landing. “They might know our plans.”
“Uldex promised me that he would distract the chase.”
“It doesn’t make any difference,” said Dol, a small frown on his face, and he immediately strode through the open doorway and into the corridor beyond. This deep in the mountain, the hallways lacked both the gleam and finish of the grand chambers above. The corridors didn’t have the smooth stone walls of the upper chambers and, in particular, the ceiling lacked the professional finishing that dwarves put on all their stonework.
“It’s a bit dank,” she said noting that the light stones embedded into the wall were further spaced than above and not of the same intensity.
“We’re too deep for fineries, these aren’t working mine shafts, that’s even further down, but nobody lives here, it’s just tapped out silver and gold veins,” said Brogus. I’ve been down here a hundred times and it gets worse the deeper we go. Come on, it’s this way.”
“Do you hear anything?” said Milli as she turned to Dol to find him carefully examining the hammer in his hand.
“What was that,” said Dol and looked up from the hammer with an unfocused gaze. “Did you say something?”
“Do you hear anything?” said Milli with a stamp of her little foot. She wore a pair of leather boots with wide toes that did not squish her feet. She didn’t often get a chance to put on the work boots but a young dwarf apprentice, she couldn’t remember his name, gave them to her as a gift a few years back. She remembered the disdain she had at the gift originally but now they proved their worth as the only pair of shoes she owned good for hiking and running.
Dol looked up for a moment, startled and tore his gaze away from the hammer, “No, I think we lost them but they’ll be all over the area soon enough. Let’s find that exit and those mules. Have you ever ridden a mule, Milli?”
The girl looked at Dol for a moment and arched her eyebrows as she gave off a silly little grin, “Actually, what is a mule?”
Brogus laughed aloud although the sound didn’t travel far in the thick stone corridor, “You’ll find out soon enough, spawns of Arioch they are. I rode them with the trade caravans, they like to bite, they do, and their gait isn’t smooth.”
Milli laughed and her smile returned in full force, “Why didn’t you tell me all this before we stole the hammer?”
“It’s just around this corner,” said Brogus as they turned down another of the winding passages and then he pulled up short.
“What is it?” said Milli as she also came around the corner but then she saw the brick wall extension that extended for as far as they could see. “They bricked it up?”
Brogus sat down with a thump and put his hands to his head and tugged at his beard, “They’ve been on to us from the first.”
Milli looked down the corridor, “There have to be other areas close to the surface we can break through, don’t there?”
Brogus shook his head and yanked at his beard some more, “They’ll be here any minute, even if Uldex distracts them somehow; they know this is where we’re headed.”
“Don’t give up,” said Milli and she looked at Dol. “What… oh.”
Dol stood in front of the brick wall, the great Hammer of Fire grasped in two hands. The handle was slim, with delicate rune figures carved up and down its length, but the hammer head was thick and almost black with a few heavy red symbols barely visible on it. With a quick motion the dwarf brought the hammer back and smashed it into the brick wall. There was a dull thunk of a sound, but nothing else. Even before the sound faded Dol brought back the hammer and struck another blow.
“Help him,” said Milli turning to Brogus, but the heavyset dwarf was already on his feet pulling an iron jam out from his pack.
“Thump,” went the hammer into the wall again but this time one of the brick’s faces cracked and a powder of red dust puffed into the air. Brogus thrust the jam into the cracked and held it with steady hands just as Dol’s hammer smashed into it sending a shower of brick particles through the air. One of them sizzled past Milli’s head and she ducked back and away.
“Slam,” came the sound of the hammer and the spike drove half its length into the wall.
“Now, this one,” said Brogus as he jammed another spike into the wall and Dol’s hammer hit it directly on the head. The entire wall shuddered and three heavy bricks fell from up above, narrowly missing the two and landing with a crack at their feet.
“Wham,” went the hammer and another spike drove into the wall.
“Two more and we drive a cross spike,” said Brogus, holding the spike at the end without even looking as Dol brought he hammer in for another blow.
“Crash,” sounded the hammer and a shower of bricks flew from the wall.
“That’s enough,” said Brogus placing a spike at angle to the ones already in the wall.
Dol brought the hammer down again and an entire section of brick tumbled to the floor with a terrible crash.
“Now,” said Brogus. “One good blow and we’ll punch through.”
No sooner had the big dwarf uttered the words than Dol’s hammer hit the wall with terrible blow and the old limestone crumbled beneath it. Daylight streamed through.
“You did it!” screamed Milli almost jumping up and down as she peered at the two from around a little bend. “We’re through, come on!” She dashed out and ducked down to crawl past the narrow opening. Dol was next and Brogus came up the rear.
He spotted one of his iron spikes on the ground in the debris of fallen bricks and reached down to pick it up, “Waste not, want… by the spirit of the elders,” he said and suddenly dropped the spike with a flip of his hand. The thing rang out as it scuttled across the floor and he stared at his hand for a moment, “That’s not possible.” He stared at his hand and felt the pain of the burning heat beginning to spread.
“Come on, you big oaf, there’s a bunch of things out here with four legs and a lot of teeth,” came Milli’s voice from outside in the blinding sunshine.
Brogus took one more look back at the iron spike now resting on the floor and shook his hand in pain. “Coming, coming.”
Chapter 7
Seven dwarfs sat in solidly made, thick stone chairs these on a raised podium decorated at the corners with flourishes depicting axes, hammers, and shields. Before them stood a single dwarf dressed in heavy plate armor that gleamed in the intense light thrown down by a hundred glow-stones embedded in the walls of the huge spherical chamber. The highly polished marble floor looked glass-like as the reflections of the seven on the podium were so clear that they almost appeared to be separate dwarves. Around the chamber stood one hundred tall, fluted columns each with a massive volute at the cap. Etched into the podium the faces of fifty dwarfs stared starkly down at the petitioner in front of them. Around the perimeter of the chamber stood two dozen dwarves, these wearing heavy plate mail that gleamed bright gold as if polished just a few hours before and carrying
