Taker Of Skulls (Book 5) (17 page)

“I will do my best,” said Verlek.

He slung it over his back as he had seen Kormak do. The Guardian wondered if he had made a huge mistake as the dwarves crowded in around him.

All of the humans were stripped of any weapons they were carrying. They took away Karnea’s bag of adjuncts and the rune on her arm as well. They seemed familiar with power of such things.

The dwarves looked oddly at Sasha when they took away her runestone thrower. One or two of them grumbled to each other in a tone that suggested that some dark suspicion had been confirmed. “What is going on?” she asked.

“We are being held prisoner,” said Kormak. “Until they decide what to do with us.”

“They don’t look any too friendly,” said Boreas. He went to stand beside Sasha, and hovered by her protectively.

“They think we are Shadow worshippers,” said Kormak. “I suspect they think everyone who lives outside their walls is one.”

“Living in this place I can see how they would believe that,” said Karnea.

Utti leaned forward and said very softly, “Be silent. Speak when you are told to.”

Karnea flinched away from him. Kormak stepped between the dwarf and the scholar. Utti did not seem quite so intimidated now that he was the only one of the two of them holding a weapon.

They were led into a vast hall with many low arched openings leading off from it. The guards took them to the right and led them down a long ramp. There were faint lights here glowing in the ceiling. They appeared to be of the same type as the one Karnea had carried and which had now been confiscated.

At the end of a corridor they were pushed through an arch. After they were inside a massive stone door slid down from the top of the arch, effectively cutting them off from all escape. Kormak looked around. The walls of the room were bare. There was no furniture. The place was more barren than any cell he had ever been in.

Sasha spread her hands wide and gave them a wan smile. “Just when I think things can’t get worse, they somehow manage to,” she said.

“We’re still alive,” said Kormak.

“There’s a lot of dwarves out there who seem to wish we were otherwise,” said Boreas.

“I don’t think their leaders want us dead.”

“Was the big one with the long beard their leader then?”

“Warleader perhaps. I don’t know if he was their chief.”

“Bastards took my stonethrower,” said Sasha.

“They think you stole it,” Karnea said. “I heard one of them say so.”

“How could I have stolen it from them? I’ve never set eyes on one of them before this trip.”

“I think they regard everything down here as their property. Not without reason since their ancestors made it.”

“You always seem to take their side,” said Sasha.

“There are no sides here,” said Karnea. “We should all be on the same side.”

“The dwarves don’t seem to think so,” Kormak said. Sasha looked at him gratefully. “They regard my sword as some sort of forbidden weapon, a device of evil. How could that be? It was made by dwarves.”

Karnea looked at him sidelong and Kormak felt suddenly naive. It was not a sensation he was used to. “How many men do you know who claim the works of other men are evil? There can be differences of opinions between dwarves as well as humans. It’s hardly surprising given the differences between these dwarves and those beneath Aethelas.”

“Differences?” Kormak asked.

“You have never encountered those dwarves, Sir Kormak? I am surprised.”

“I have been below, but they did not allow me to see them.”

“No. They would not. I did not see my first dwarf until I had been below for six months. They do not willingly deal with us face to face.”

“How are the two tribes different?” Sasha asked. She looked genuinely curious.

“These ones are much more primitive. They dress like orcs or southern barbarians, which is to say hardly at all. Their speech is rough and their runework, at least as exemplified by their tattoos, is both crudely done and over-elaborate.”

“You are saying these ones are less civilised?”

“Less sophisticated certainly.”

“They are the ones who remained in the City in the Deeps. You would think it would be the opposite.”

“A lot of things can happen in two thousand years.”

“I agree with you,” said Sasha. “They are certainly not what I expected, judging from the statues and artefacts we found in the Underhalls. These are like Aquilean hill-tribesmen. They don’t seem much above the level of goblins themselves.”

“Something happened here,” said Karnea. “And I mean to find out what if it kills me.”

“I don’t think it’s the finding out that will kill you,” said Kormak. “It will most likely be a dwarven axe.”

As he said the words, there was a creaking sound and the door slid slowly upwards. Two armed dwarves blocked the exit. Others stood behind them.

THE TWO ARMED dwarves entered. One of them was Utti, who gave them an evil look. The other was a hulking brute who Kormak did not recognise but who seemed to take his cue from Utti. They pushed the humans back against the far wall. Verlek entered bearing a tray of food and drink. He eyed the chamber with distaste then set the tray down on the floor.

Two of the dwarves retreated outside. Verlek and Utti remained as the door slid down. “Eat!” said Verlek. Kormak moved forward and inspected the plates. They contained slabs of something cooked in a very black sauce. There was flask and four small stone goblets as well. Kormak took one of the plates and a spoon and took a small taste of the slab. It was a mushroom in some sort of fermented sauce. The taste was not as unpleasant as he had expected.

“We won’t poison you,” said Utti. He sounded as if he had given the subject some consideration though. Kormak got the impression Utti would not mind poisoning them if he could get away with it. He poured some of the dark liquid into a flask and sipped it. It burned going down his throat and he had to fight to keep from spluttering. It was definitely very, very alcoholic. Kormak indicated that the others should eat and they fell too with a will. He realised it was a very long time since they had eaten.

“Not a place I would have put guests,” said Verlek. “It is an old storechamber.”

“They are not our guests,” said Utti.

“They are not our enemies either,” said Verlek.

“Not until the Dwarfmoot decides so.”

“The Dwarfmoot may decide they are our allies,” said Verlek.

“I doubt it,” said Utti. “There are the Faithful and there is everyone else.”

“Why do you call yourselves the Faithful?” Karnea asked.

Utti looked at the ceiling and blew air out through his lips with a peculiar fluttering sound. His beard fluttered around, its ends tying themselves into knots.

“We call ourselves that because we kept the faith,” said Verlek.

“When others did not?” Karnea asked.

Verlek nodded.

“Other dwarves?” Karnea prompted.

“Yes,” said Verlek. He was looking away. His beard writhed now as well. Did that signify embarrassment, Kormak wondered.

“Others broke their oaths,” said Utti suddenly. There was a boastful tone in his voice. “We did not.”

“Do you refer to the ones who forged my sword?” Kormak asked.

“They made that which it was forbidden to make,” said Utti. “They marked their blades with the runes of Chaos and Death. They made that which was forbidden by our mistress, by all of the Eldrim.”

“Not all,” said Verlek. Utti glared at him. His beard went rigid and stopped moving altogether.

“Stare all you like,” said Verlek. “But you know I have truth. The Exiles did what they did at the behest of Eldrim.”

“So they claimed,” said Utti. He sounded as if he did not believe that was the case. Karnea chewed her lips as they talked. She desperately wanted them to keep talking so much was obvious. She did not dare interrupt them even to ask a question. “These are not matters to be spoken on before outsiders.”

Verlek shrugged. “I have questions of my own to put to you, if you would answer them.”

Karnea nodded eagerly. Utti felt compelled to say, “If you do not answer them willingly, you will answer them later with your hand in the furnace.”

“I will answer any questions you have truthfully and honestly unless they go against oaths I have spoken,” said Karnea. “And if they do, I will tell you.”

“Fairly spoken,” Verlek said. Utti merely grunted. “Where do you come from?”

“We come from the surface,” said Karnea. “From beyond the City in the Deeps.”

“You dwell among the monsters and Shadow worshippers?”

“We dwell among men.”

“So you serve those who opposed the Eldrim.”

“We serve the Holy Sun,” Karnea said. “We oppose the Old Ones only when they break the Law.”

“Who makes a Law that binds the Eldrim?” Utti sneered.

“The Old Ones did,” said Kormak. “They agreed to it with our masters and the kings of men. It has kept peace between us for a thousand years.”

“You lie,” said Utti. “The Eldrim would not negotiate with their inferiors.”

“They are intelligent,” said Kormak. “They will negotiate with anyone who has the power to destroy them.”

“And you claim you do?”

“You already know the answer to that,” said Kormak. “You have seen the sword. You know what it does. There are hundreds more like it.”

“An obscenity,” said Utti.

“Why do you say that?” Karnea asked.

Utti did not answer. Karnea continued patiently as if Utti had not interrupted her. She seemed to take real pleasure in explaining things. “We come from the surface. We guess you have not had much contact with it since the city was sealed.”

“We have all we need here,” said Verlek. “And we have our duty to perform. We would not desert our post. We keep the faith.” Again he said this as if he were talking about matters of the utmost importance. What could have kept the dwarves here in a city wracked by plague and all but abandoned?

“Things have changed since the days of glory though,” said Karnea. “Your people have changed.”

Verlek made the dwarven equivalent of a nod, a little sadly, it seemed. “Much has been forgotten. Much has been lost. The people are slowly dying.”

Utti glared at him once more. “You talk too much.”

“I speak only truth.”

“It has gotten much worse since Graghur returned, has it not?” Kormak asked. He was guessing but he thought he would throw that out just to see what kind of response it got.

Verlek nodded. “That is so. He is powerful and he is wicked and he seeks to destroy that which we protect.”

“He is an Old One,” said Kormak. He looked at Utti. “Do you revere him?”

Utti looked away. He made a peculiar grimace that Kormak could not interpret. Verlek spoke. He was clearly uncomfortable with the idea of opposing an Old One.

“He has his own shrine,” Verlek said. “You have seen his statue in the Underhalls.”

Utti rose and gestured to Verlek. “We are done talking.”

Verlek looked as if he wanted to defy Utti but he did not. Utti placed his hand on the door and drummed his fingers in a delicate pattern. With a creaking noise, the doorway rose again and the dwarves left.

Karnea stared at Kormak. “There is much that is strange here.”

“What were they saying?” Boreas asked. Karnea explained the gist of it to them, while Kormak studied the door. He wondered whether it had opened in response to the pattern Utti had tapped or whether that had been merely a signal for those outside to open it.

“You are saying that they revere the Old Ones. They think Kormak’s weapon is a blasphemy and yet they are forced to fight against Graghur.”

“It is a fight they cannot win, if they do not use the right weapon,” said Kormak.

“Let’s hope they know that too,” said Boreas.

The storehouse clearly had not been intended to hold living things. The air was close and stale and Kormak found himself wondering if they would suffocate if they remained trapped here too long. They lay on the flagstones and tried to sleep. There was little else for them to do save talk in subdued tones and that had swiftly become depressing.

Kormak stared at the ceiling and tried to plan a method of escape. They could try and overpower the guards when next the cell was opened, but even if they succeeded what then? They were still within the dwarf fortress and surrounded by an undetermined number of the Khazduri. Should they manage to escape, they needed to retrace their steps through the vast goblin haunted maze of the City in the Deeps. And they still would not have found what they came for.

They needed to convince the dwarves not to kill them, and to help them. It was not going to be easy since in the eyes of the dwarves they were heretics and blasphemers. He thought about that. It went against all the things he had been taught about the dwarves since he was a boy. They had rebelled against the Old Ones, just like many of the other Servitor Races. They hated their former masters with a passion. That was why they had created the runeswords for the Order. They were allies of men. Yet the dwarves they had found here did not fit that pattern. They still revered the Old Ones even though one of their ancient masters seemed hell-bent on destroying them.

He pushed all of these thoughts to one side. None of them were helping and none of them made the slightest difference. He needed to find out more. He needed to get out of this prison. He needed to get his sword back. He felt almost naked without it and he experienced a deep sense of shame when he remembered how he had surrendered it. He knew he was going to have to do something to expunge that.

Eventually, sleep came.

The door slid open with a grinding creak. Verlek, Utti and a number of other heavily armed dwarf warriors were there. Only Verlek looked remotely friendly and even his beard twisted agitatedly.

“You are to come with us, strangers,” said Utti. In Dwarvish, Kormak remembered the word stranger and enemy were synonymous. It seemed somehow appropriate. “The Dwarfmoot will judge you before the Wall of Skulls.”

There was a formal note to his speech that masked his dislike, but Kormak sensed some satisfaction in Utti’s manner that made him suspect that things were not going to go well for the humans.