Into the Forge

Chapter 36

Beyond the crest and down a shallow slope went Tipper-ton, following Bekki as the eventide swept over the world, and glimmering stars began to emerge in the indigo sky above. Through whin and pine they trudged and then up-slope again, the land becoming steeper the farther they trekked, neither Dwarf nor Warrow speaking, but saving their breath for the climb.

North Bekki turned, due north, up the steep face of a high-angled ridge barren of all but rock, and by the time they reached the top, Tip was panting heavily, Bekki a bit less so. As Tip came over the rise, Bekki pulled him behind a great rock and said, "Here we will pause awhile."

"But I can go on," puffed Tip. "I mean, Lady Phais often pressed us this hard and harder as she taught Beau and me the skills of climbing."

Bekki only grunted and stood in the darkness at the edge of the huge boulder and looked back the way they had come.

"What is it?" sissed Tip, clutching his bow and reaching for an arrow. "Are we being followed? By Rucks and such?"

"Nay, Waeran, it is not the Grg I look for, but sly Daels-men instead."

"Sly Daelsmen?"

"Aye. It would give them advantage to know where we are bound, to know of a secret way into Mineholt North."

"But surely Loden wouldn't send some-"

"Not Loden, Waeran, but grasp-handed Tain instead."

"Oh. -Are we going to be long?"

"A candlemark or so," said Bekki.

Tipperton shucked his pack and sat down. After a while Tip said, "What is it that Dwarves and the Daelsmen have lying between?"

Bekki growled. "They would charge us double tariffs: one to move our goods through their city, another to use their docks."

"Docks?"

"Aye. On the Ironwater."

"The river," said Tip, remembering his maps.

"Aye. By boat and barge, it is the swiftest way to reach the city of Rhondor or the wide Argon Sea beyond, for river legs never tire, but run all day and night."

"What's in Rhondor?"

"A good market. It is there we trade for much we need in our crafting, particularly in our forging: siarka, foran, zarn-"

"Whoa, Bekki, these are things beyond my ken. What is, oh, say, siarka?"

"The yellow rock: like chalk, it crumbles. We use it to make an etching liquid. In Rhondor it is plentiful, for it lies on the floor of Hel's Crucible for the taking, as do many other ores, nearly pure."

"Ah," said Tip.

Now Bekki sat down, yet he kept an eye on their backtrail.

After a while, Tip said, "And this dispute between your people and the Daelsmen is over tariffs? So you can reach the docks?"

Bekki grunted but otherwise did not reply.

"Well, why don't you just not use their docks? Go south from the city and launch lower down."

Tip could hear Bekki's teeth grind. "King Enrik claims the whole of all rivers in Riamon, and no matter where we would set in he would charge us the double fee."

"Oh?"

"Aye. And even though Prince Loden himself pled with his father to return to the old way-to charge but the single docking fee-King Enrik listened instead to Lord Tain."

"His advisor instead of his own son?"

"Aye, for Enrik is besotted with Lord Tain's youngest daughter, Lady Jolet, though she looks coldly upon him. It is Brandt she casts her smiles upon. But Brandt favors another, Lady Pietja, though she leads him on, for her eye follows Druker, second in line after Loden. -Kruk! Humankind! A pox on all their petty intrigues."

"Um, Bekki, how do you know this?"

"Because, Waldan, as the representative of my Delf-Lord, I was in King Enrik's court demanding the recision of this unwarranted tariff when the Horde marched past. I then asked the King to gather a great force of Daelsmen to help us slay all the Grg. He refused, saying that he would not lay Dael bare in these troubled times, and instead marshaled his army and set them to guarding the walls of the city instead of aiding allies.

"In the weeks after, Prince Loden pled with his father, saying that if the Daelsmen did not aid the Chakka and if as a result Mineholt North fell, then surely Dael would follow. Yet once again it was Tain's voice Enrik listened to.

"But then Loden declared that with or without his father's leave, he would gather a force and harass the Horde if nought else.

"After many a bitter argument, King Enrik suddenly changed his mind, and gave Loden leave to command a token brigade and harass the Horde. King Enrik sent Brandt as well. And he assigned Tain to go with his sons. Tain objected, saying that he could best serve his king by remaining in court, but Enrik commanded that Tain accompany Loden and give sound advice to him.

"Bah! The king merely wanted both Brandt and Tain out of the way-to have Lady Jolet to himself."

"Goodness, Bekki. Are you saying that King Enrik sent his sons and Lord Tain into peril just so he could have a tryst?"

Bekki turned his dark gaze toward Tipperton, then looked back down the ridge and muttered, "Again I say, a pox on all humans, with their ungoverned appetites and petty intrigues!"

Tipperton sighed, and sat without speaking. After long moments more, Bekki said, "We can go now, for it seems Lord Loden prevented Counsellor Tain from sending agents skulking after."

Tipperton stood and shouldered his pack and lute. "Lead on, Bekki. Lead on."

Together they set out along the ridge, and wended their way among the ever increasing boulders and crags while, behind, a dark figure slipped through the shadows and after.

"We turn here," said Bekki, and he stepped into a rushing stream.

Tip's eyes widened, yet in the starlight he followed Bekki into the rill, the water clear, the bottom rocky.

Upstream they trod and up, with stone slopes rising left and right, the chill bourne cascading down ledges and steps from the high snows above. Finally, in the depths of night, Bekki turned aside and scrambled up a stone rise. As he came to the top he halted, and guardedly peered over the ridge.

" 'Ware, Waldan," he cautioned as Tipperton came alongside.

Carefully, Tip raised up just enough to look beyond the crest, and far down below in the wide vale burned the fires of the besieging Horde.

Bekki pointed leftward and up, where immediately at hand a ledge ran along the mountain face to disappear into a wide, dark crevice. "We must go a short way in the open. Take care, for I would not have any of the Grg spy us."

Moving slowly so as not to draw enemy eyes, along the ledge they sidled, Tipperton alternately puffing and holding his breath, for although he had practiced at climbing in Arden Vale, still he was unsettled by heights.

On the slope behind, a figure in shadows watched.

At last they entered the fissure, and in the blackness Tip hissed, "Wait, Bekki, I can't see a thing."

"Here," grunted Bekki, "take my hand." And he reached out and grasped the buccan's fingers.

Leading Tipperton, Bekki stepped along the passage, and after a hundred Warrow-paces or so, he stopped.

"Why are we-?"

Tip's words were interrupted by a soft rhythmic tapping on the stone.

Silence.

Again sounded the tapping, the rhythm changed.

"Kha tak?" came a whisper.

"Shok Chdkka," murmured the response.

Stone on stone grated softly, and Bekki tugged Tipper-ton forward several strides.

Again stone whispered against stone.

There came a click of metal on metal, and of a sudden a phosphorescent blue-green glow lighted all, and Tip saw that he was in a carved chamber of stone, and a handful of armed and armored Dwarves stood glaring at him, the edges of their axes glinting wickedly.

"Lord Bekki," growled one in the fore, "to our secret entrance you bring a-"

"He is Sir Tipperton Thistledown," interrupted Bekki, "Waeran of the Wilderland, and emissary of the Lian, the Dylvana, the Baeron, and the Daelsmen, and I trust him with my life. Take heart, Kelk, for this Waeran brings an army to our aid."

A time later, a shadowed figure came over the ridge and past the pickets and down into the encampment, quietly making its way to where the Elves were bedded, in the midst of which slept Beau.

Removing his boots, Loric slipped under the blanket with Phais. Awakened, she turned and looked into his eyes.

"They are safely within the Drimmenholt, chier," he said. "I followed all the way."

She smiled and kissed him lingeringly, a kiss which soon burned with heat. And they made heady love as in the east the sky grew pale in the dawn.