start on you.”
“Do you think I should?” asked Milli.
“That’s not my decision,” said Petra. “Your life is your own to lead.”
“We started this together,” said Milli and sniffled again. “I’d like to see it through, one way or the other.”
Petra patted her on the back and smiled, “It’s a good idea, I think, to see things through and to finish what you start. Would you be better off if you were still back in Craggen Steep, still a prisoner, still safe?”
Milli paused for a long time and thought about it, “Brogus would be alive but he’d be stuck in one of those cubbies they have for the apprentices, working twelve hours a day down in the mines, his teeth rotting out, he’d probably only live to be thirty-five or so, most of the dwarves in the lower tunnels die so young. There are always collapses they don’t tell people about.”
“It doesn’t sound like much of a life,” said Petra.
“He would have never seen Das’von, traveled through the portal, the desert, that was so beautiful, and never ridden a horse,” said Milli.
“He’d be alive,” said Petra.
“Which side are you arguing?” said Milli with a suddenly playful smile and a light in her eyes.
“I’m an old woman,” said Petra. “I’ve seen a lot of the world traveling around as a witchy woman. I’ve met a lot of people. I’ve been in love or lust more than my share as well. It’s the only life I’ve known; traveling from here to there and selling potions to town-dwellers. I’ve seen a lot of them over the years also. People who grow up in one place, marry their neighbor, have kids, farm the land, and then die. It’s not all bad. Maybe a little dull but there is happiness as well. I’m not sure what the answers are.”
“Why aren’t there easy answer?” asked Milli.
“There are easy answers… to easy question,” replied Petra with a smile, and suddenly she had a far-off look in her eyes. “When you’re a young girl in love sometimes the answers are easy even if usually wrong.”
“I won’t go back to Craggen Steep,” said Milli. “No matter what. I don’t want a gilded prison. I’ve seen the world. I’ve met so many people, done so many things; I can’t go back, not now. I’d be miserable.”
“You don’t have to go back to Craggen Steep,” said Petra. “You don’t have to follow after Dol. You can stay here or travel back to the desert. They are a handsome people and that Black Horseman had some worthwhile ideas I think. You could go north to Das’von and join up with Corancil and his armies or stay here and wait to see if he conquers the world. You have many options in this life although you may think there are only a few choices. I think too many people settle on the obvious choices that life gives us. Look around and see all the possibilities.”
“I don’t want to leave Dol. He’s not a bad person. It’s the influence of the hammer. He’s changed. I want to be there when this finishes one way or the other.”
“Then you have to get on your horse and go,” said Petra, “instead of sitting around here talking with an old lady.”
“You won’t come with me?” asked Milli and took hold of Petra’s wrinkled hands with her own smooth, soft ones. “At least as far as the Five Sisters. You don’t have to come in with me and Dol to face Gazadum but you could at least travel with us. They say the Southern Sea is beautiful and you can have all of Brogus’ gold. That would buy you a house and keep you safe for the rest of your life.”
“Hmm,” said Petra. “All of Brogus’ gold you say?”
Milli laughed out loud, “That was your plan all along wasn’t it. To play on my sympathy to get you to come along?”
“Of course not,” said Petra and began to laugh as well, although tears came from her eyes to intermingle with the joy. “I would never do such a thing!”
Chapter 26
Dol stood outside the little farmhouse and pounded on the heavy wood door with his blackened right hand, “Let me in!”
Judging by the smoke pouring from the chimney there were occupants in the house, but long seconds went by before Dol again beat at the door, “I just want directions. Don’t make me kick down the door! I’ll do it.”
Again there was silence; Dol scratched his head and one of the bright red apples in his hair suddenly burst with a loud pop and threw seeds in all directions. “Damn!” said Dol and snatched his hand away. “I’ll steal your horses if you don’t come out and sell me one. I have gold!”
Time again passed in silence and Dol looked down at his heavy boot and then at the thick wooden door frame. He then leaned in and gave the door a little shove with his shoulder. “I’ll break it down,” he started to say just a pot-full of water came splashing down on him. “Do you think water will stop me?” he said as he stood back and looked at window frame from whence the water came. A woman peered from inside the house and over the windowsill. She held a cooking pot in a gloved right hand.
Dol shook his head and water sprayed, “Come down, I just want directions to the Five Sisters and to purchase a horse.” He reached into jerkin with his left hand, pulled out a little sack, and emptied a few gold coins into his palm, “Come on now, I have real gold. I don’t mean to harm you or your family. I need a horse.”
“What are you?” shrieked the woman and touched the pot with her right forefinger and immediately pulled it away with a shriek as she shook her hand.
“I’m a dwarf,” said Dol looking up at her with his eyebrows raised and then suddenly fingered the little amulet given to him at the last town and smiled. “You can understand me, right? Why do you ask?”
“That was boiling water,” said the woman with wide eyes and a death grip on her little pot. “Are you a demon?”
“No, I’m not a demon,” said Dol with a shake of his head which caused two more of the little apples to explode with popping sounds that accompanied the spreading of their seeds.
“Are you sure?” asked the woman.
Dol laughed, “I’m pretty sure. I’ve always had these apples in my hair since I was a boy. My grandfather was a tree shepherd.”
“Have you always been able to ignore boiling water?” said the woman.
“It probably mostly evaporated by the time it hit me,” said Dol with a shake of his head. “Please come down. I’ll pay you good gold for a horse. I don’t mean you any harm, I promise.”
The woman looked at him from the window again and shook her head, “I’ve got children here, and my husband is due to arrive home any minute. We don’t have any horses to anyway. Just a couple of mules and we need those to get in the crops.”
“With my gold you’ll be able to by ten mules,” said Dol holding up one of his gold coins to the sky.
“I can’t trust you,” shouted the woman from the upstairs window.
“I can kick in the door,” said Dol. “Or just go over to the barn and steal one of your mules. Be reasonable.”
The woman seemed to consider this for a few seconds and then ducked her head back down and away from the window. Another little bit of time passed and then the sound of a drawing bolt came from inside the door, and it opened enough for the woman to peer out, “Pass one of those gold coins to me.”
Dol immediately did as asked and she promptly slammed the door closed. Dol shook his head, rolled his eyes, turned around, and wandered in little circles around the front yard of the tidy little home. Two small flower beds decorated the approach to the front door with little yellow and red blooms while a vegetable garden was just off to the side of the house and Dol could make out strange little green things growing there. He walked over to the vegetables and stared down with pursed lips. In Craggen Steep the food was largely mushrooms and the meat of the darkling goats that flourished underground. Fruits and vegetables were a rare commodity for only the wealthiest of dwarves in Craggen Steep but they were readily available for all here on the surface. Since they came out into the world those many months ago he had acquired a taste for the tangy things.
He leaned down to touch a strange green fruit with narrow yellow stripes oblong in shape and about as thick as the width of his foot when he heard the sounds of approaching hoof beats. He turned in time to see the lead
