adverse to a little danger. Now, tell me about this hammer that you stole and who is this First Edos?”
“The Hammer of Fire,” said Milli with a look towards Dol who did not look back at her. “It’s a relic of Craggen Steep, it was made by the First Edos; well, no, it was put together by the First Edos hundreds of years ago.”
“Not hundreds,” said Dol quietly while his hand gently rubbed up and down the handle of the hammer.
“Anyway, a long time ago,” said Milli. “If you want to tell the story; then go ahead.
Dol said nothing.
“No? Ok, then. I’ll tell it my way. As I was saying before I was rudely interrupted,” said Milli with a smile as she looked over to Dol and Brogus. Brogus looked back at her with a wide grin but Dol kept his eyes down and towards the fire. “It was put together hundreds of years ago.”
“Yes, you said made but then switched to put together,” said Petra. “There’s a difference?”
“As I understand it, yes,” said Milli once again looking over to Dol and Brogus. “The two parts, the handle and the head were made at different times and put together later.”
“That handle doesn’t much look like dwarf-craft, now that you mention it,” said Petra. “It’s too slim for the heavy hammer-head, and the writing on the side looks elf-wrought if you ask me, but I’ve not met too many of the faery folk in my travels. Lovely singers they are. We met up with a bunch of them once when I was a girl. They stayed up the entire night singing songs and telling stories.”
As Milli told the story to Petra, Brogus walked over to Dol and stood next to him at the fire. “Do you think she’ll want to stay with us after she knows everything?”
“I hope not,” said Dol with a sneer. “The less that come along the better. You’d be smart to convince Milli to head back. I can make it from here by myself. I’ve got a horse and directions. It’s just a matter of time.”
“I’m not very smart,” said Brogus stroking his lengthening beard. “I’m going to need a new band if I keep let it growing at this rate. Platinum doesn’t seem to be as plentiful out here in the world.”
“I take that to mean you’re not going to abandon the quest,” said Dol as a statement rather than a question.
Brogus nodded his head. “I hope Petra stays with us. She has a lot of experience about living out in the world. It’s different than in the mountains. Don’t look at me like that. I know it’s different but there are little things I wouldn’t think about, you wouldn’t think about. You know it’s true. Fishing? You couldn’t fish if your life depended on it.”
“There are fish in the mountain streams,” said Dol.
Brogus looked ahead, “Well, you may have found some fire in your spirit but you’re still as stubborn as ever. Why can’t you change that personality trait and just go along for once in your life?”
Dol looked into the fire and his right hand caressed the haft of the Hammer of Fire for a moment as he paused, “I’m not sure,” he finally admitted. “I don’t think I’m different. It’s this quest. It’s too dangerous. Milli could die and… I don’t want that.”
“I could die too,” said Brogus with a grunting little laugh that shook his belly. “You’re not worried about me?”
Dol shook his head, “Not as much, no. She’s been insulated from the brutality of the world in Craggen Steep. Taken care of. She thinks this is all a game but we know better. We’ve seen what the darklings do to prisoners, what the real world is like.”
“I’m not so smart, as you say,” said Brogus with his head tilted to the side and his brow furrowed. “But it seems to me that the outside world is coming to Craggen Steep whether we like it not. Corancil, the armies of the north, I don’t see how we can stay hidden. Like Petra says, they probably already know about us. Even if you convinced Milli to go back, and take Petra with her, what would she find when she go there? Dwarven armies joining Corancil? War, death, destruction? How is she worse off with us, even if things go wrong, than back home?”
Dol looked down at the ground and pursed his lips making a little sucking sound, “She’d be alive.”
“Maybe, maybe not,” said Brogus. “You can’t see the future any more than I can.”
“I see fiery death for us all,” said Dol. “You haven’t held the hammer. It was forged in the heart of Craggen Steep and I feel the heartbeat of Gazadum. I see what waits for us in the volcano. It’s isn’t life and it isn’t pretty.”
“Then let’s all turn back,” said Brogus putting his hand on his friend’s shoulder. “Or even just stay here in the south, explore, make a name for ourselves. With that hammer we’ll be heroes in no time. Why kill ourselves fulfilling the mission?”
“Because that is what I’ve set out to do and that is what I will do whether I live or not. I’ll take the hammer, I’ll battle Gazadum, and I’ll most likely die in the attempt. I just don’t want you and Milli to die with me.”
“And Petra,” said Brogus.
“And Petra,” replied Dol nodding his head. “It doesn’t matter to me anymore.” Here he looked up from the fire and directly at Brogus with his eyes burning a dull red like the last coal at the center of the fire long after all the rest have turned to ash. “I know my fate. Now you know as well. Make your own decision, Brogus.”
“I’ve made my decision,” replied the dwarf with a broad smile as his hand went to the heavy axe at his side. “I’m with you, Dol. To the end, wherever that takes us. To the volcanoes, to Gazadum, to glory, or to death, I’m with you and there’s nothing that will sway me, not even the fiery gaze of Gazadum himself, if he is still around, which I doubt anyway.”
“Are you boys done deciding the rest of our fates yet,” said Milli, suddenly standing over them with her hands on her rounded little hips and a wry grin on her face. “Petra knows everything now and she’s going to stay with us. So, Dol, it doesn’t matter what you think or what you do, we’re coming along all the way. To the mountains, to Gazadum, to death if that’s where this road leads. We’re all in this together!”
Brogus rose to his feet and joined Milli and Petra as they put their hands in the center of the little circle, “Together until the end,” he said.
Dol sat by the fire and turned his gaze back towards the flickering flames and said nothing at all.
Chapter 18
“We’re lost,” said Cleathelm as the little road they followed for days eventually trailed into a babbling creek and did not emerge from the other side. There were only two of them now that Rogu ate the poison mushrooms. They had left him on the road yesterday when he proved incapable of going on.
“What difference does it make?” said the Blaggard with a shrug of his shoulders as he unstrapped a canteen. “Look, there’s a volcano over there,” he went on while pointing up and to the right.
“I see it,” said Cleathelm looking in directly the opposite direction and pointing that way.
“No, over there,” said Blaggard pointing, but as he tried to correct the dwarf he saw the second volcano also. “Well, ain’t that spit and vinegar.”
“What?” said Cleathelm and turned to the little goblin with a scowl.
“That makes two lone volcanoes, at least. I suppose one of them might be close to the group of five. Which way should we head?”
“How am I supposed to know?” said Cleathelm looking back and forth between the two mountains that were nearly in opposite directions from one another. “This place is stupid.”
“I see smoke over there,” said Blaggard pointing in a third direction. “Could be a town, could be more volcanoes.”
“Even more?” said Cleathelm with a shake of his head. “We’ll never find Dol and the hammer blundering around like this.”
“We’re ahead of them, remember that,” said Blaggard. “That mage said Dol and his group went to the desert first and from there would have to find their way here. Your uncle said the First Edos told them about the five volcanoes. One of those is where Gazadum is hiding. A creature that big can’t keep hidden for long. People have to know about it. We’ve got time to find where Gazadum is holed up and then just stake the place out and wait for Dol and the others to arrive.”
“Yeah, I guess,” said the dwarf and looped his axe on his belt. “We go that way,” he said pointing towards
