Micah The Wanderer - Book 4: Underground - Part 1

Part 1

In the last chapter I had said that because we lived in the same general direction, Ohmlee, Delwyn and I were traveling together. In fact we don’t really live very close together it’s just that after five years in Imperial house my wanderlust was in full force and I wanted to see a bit of the countryside before returning home where I am sure my father would practically nail my foot to the floor to keep me home for a while.

Traveling with an elf and a dwarf brings home your human limitations very quickly. I quickly realized that both of them had been restraining themselves for the last five years to keep from embarrassing the rest of us. Elves don’t really need to sleep that much, about one night out of every ten is all they need. Apparently when we poor humans and dwarves were snoring away Delwyn had been reading or practicing his magic or simply practicing with his bow. While we had whined about having so much to do he was actually bored and looking for things to do while we slept. Elves can also travel very quickly on their own.

I had been impressed with the Molambasa and their ability to run very far and very fast. Compared to Delwyn when he decided to scout ahead for our little group they weren’t moving. I was amazed when he said what his intentions were and I turned his way to answer him and he was already disappearing around a bend in the road some quarter mile distant. When I said something to Ohmlee about it he simply grunted and said Delwyn was taking his time because we weren’t in any hurry. When he came back it was like magic. One moment he wasn’t there and the next he was with a light sheen of perspiration on his skin.

He wasn’t even breathing hard when he said that the road and the land around it for the next ten miles were apparently clear. He had only been gone about twenty minutes and had still had time to scout the trees on either side of the road for the distance he had traveled. In addition to the sharp eyesight I have already mentioned in the previous chapter elves also have acute hearing. He heard several horsemen and coaches long before he could have seen them not to mention the string of rabbits he hunted apparently by sound alone as he would be walking along and suddenly draw and fire his bow faster than I could see. After he fired he would step off the road into the woods and return a few moments later with another rabbit pierced by his arrow. I realized that he wasn’t showing off or trying to intimidate me with his abilities, just acting as he would around anyone he trusted. He was letting us see his true abilities because he knew he could trust us.

As for Ohmlee, well his eyes weren’t as sharp as Delwyn’s or even mine but his hearing was almost as good as Delwyn’s. His night-vision was much more impressive than mine and we were able to keep moving long after nightfall to find a suitable campsite.  His strength and stamina were what was truly impressive. I am no weakling and I like to walk but after about four hours it was obvious that Ohmlee could walk me into the ground even if he was carrying twice the weight I did.

His pack I later learned contained several dwarfish books that each weighed in the neighborhood of ten pounds each. These were the books of his family lineage and as the son of the king they were his responsibility even while he was at the academy. By noon of the first day he wasn’t even breathing heavy and I was ready to take a break. I learned that when dwarves are determined on something that they will even work themselves to death to achieve their goal. Weakness is not a word that shows up anywhere in any dwarfish language.

Getting back to our journey, we traveled east on the imperial road out of Imperios and through Politi. When we reached the border Samisand shared with Politi we turned north off the road and began traveling cross country. To avoid this becoming some boring travelogue detailing every tree, bush and outcropping we encountered as we traveled I will relay some of what I learned about Dwarf and Elf culture as we traveled. I was curious and we needed something to pass the time so I asked questions and they answered them. I learned that neither of them knew much about the others culture and listened as attentively as I did to the answers that were given. Since we will be traveling to Ohmlee’s home first I will detail what I learned from him first and hopefully by the time I finish we will have arrived thus saving you from hearing about the aforementioned countryside.

To start with Dwarf culture is highly patriarchal. There has never been anything resembling a queen in their culture. Even the wife of the Under King, their highest political leader, is simply called his wife and has no authority outside the home. From what I was able to gather without ticking Ohmlee off was that dwarf’s thought that female dwarfs were only good for cooking and having babies. At that even the males took over the care of the children as soon as they could toddle around on their own legs and females only got to cook the day to day food that kept everybody going. When it came to one of their famed banquets the females were shooed away from the kitchens and males took over the preparation of one of these meals. I decided to desist in this particular area of questions at this point as I could tell Delwyn was not happy with what he was hearing. Elf society is of course highly matriarchal.

I moved on to other areas of inquiry that would be safer. I learned that Dwarf society is very orderly. There has never been a dwarf against dwarf war. There is no such thing as different clans of dwarf. All dwarfs are dwarfs together. The only distinction that comes to bear in Dwarf society is in the metals they work. Ohmlee’s particular group was an iron working group and made mainly weapons and armor. Other groups might work gold or silver and deal mainly with jewelry and decorative art. Some groups worked mainly in coal and these were the ones humans had the most dealing with. I’m afraid that might be where most of the human prejudice against dwarves might come from. You get dirty digging coal and it is grim work because of random gas pockets. As a side effect the dwarfs who deal with coal are dirty, grim individuals. That’s what most humans see so that must be what’s true.

Now I am going to debunk a little myth that has been around for quite some time. Most humans have never seen a dwarf female and so it has often been speculated that it was hard to distinguish between male and female. It has been speculated that this particular distinction is really considered unimportant until a relationship reaches a certain point at which the future couple will discuss it privately and either continue on or simply become good friends. I can tell you from personal experience that this myth is complete and utter horse apples.

When we arrived at Ohmlee’s home I had the opportunity to meet and spend time with several female dwarves and they were lovely creatures. To be honest most male dwarves look like they were seven foot men who have been compressed to between four and five feet tall. Female dwarves, at least the ones I encountered, were perfect miniatures of human females. They were perfectly proportioned for their four to four and a half foot height. It was an odd sight to see a perfect petite female standing next to her husband with his heavy arms, legs and body. I also learned that although males are considered mature and able to make their own decisions when they turn about thirty-five years old, females are not considered mature until they are sixty. Most of what a female does before she turns that age will be discounted as childish exuberance and they never really get to make their own decisions.

A word in here about dwarfish longevity, a healthy male dwarf can live to be five hundred years old barring mine accidents and axe injuries. Dwarves don’t have wars amongst themselves but that doesn’t mean they don’t fight. A healthy female dwarf can live to be close to seven hundred years old. In part their longevity can probably be credited to their being removed from most of what is dangerous in dwarf society.

Dwarf society is actually a large conglomerate of smaller societies called mines. A mine by definition is a series of interconnected underground passages and above ground block or stone buildings. A mine usually has in the area of fifty families of dwarves. Each mine has a supervisor that is referred to as the lord. He is usually the best engineer in the group and is elected by the group. Each mine and lord reports and answers to a dwarf who is usually in charge of the particular geographic area that the mine resides in. This dwarf is called the king and he is appointed by the Under-King. This appointment tends to run in certain families but can be changed as families fall out of favor or gather esteem. The area he is in charge of is of course called a kingdom. Dwarf kingdoms do not however follow human boundaries.

Ohmlee’s father was king of all the dwarves north of the Scale Mountains to the base of the Black mountains in the north. His territory extended as far east as Imperial house and as far west as the imperial north road. Looking at a map you can see that this encompassed part of Samisand, all of Matos, part of Politi and almost half of Imperios. People in these countries would truly be amazed at the variety of things that went on several hundred feet below their homes and land.

Above all the Dwarf kings, metaphorically speaking is the Under-King. Centuries before men stopped hitting each other over the heads with rocks and started hitting each other over the head with steel, there was an Under-King. This is a bloodline that runs back as far as dwarf memory. The Under-King has no other name. Oh he has something that he is called when he’s a kid I’m sure but when he assumes the throne he is simply called the Under-King. The Under-Kings home is carved into the solid granite of the Black Mountains at the end of the imperial north road. He is the creator and arbiter of all dwarf law. He is the final appeal and the final judgment in all things dwarf.

---

At this point I am going to end my discussion of all things dwarf because we had arrived in the area of Ohmlee’s home. After we had traveled north along the border we had turned east following a low line of foothills of the Scale Mountains that marked the border of Matos. At some point that I could not tell was any different from any other point we started climbing into the hills going south. I couldn’t distinguish any path or trail but Ohmlee and Delwyn both assured me there was one that was obvious to elfish and dwarfish eyes. This was the first time but not the last that I had doubts about the veracity of this kind of statement. Elves and Dwarves both tended to be mysterious and secretive around humans and even though we were friends they just couldn’t help themselves.

Anyway, I couldn’t see any path or trail but they both insisted there was one there. As we moved along there was evidence even I could see that people had moved along this route at one time but not recently. Delwyn insisted that there had been recent traffic over this supposed path but it was hard to credit it because nothing could be seen by my or Ohmlee’s eyes. We climbed higher into the hills and Delwyn kept telling us we were getting close to whoever was traveling this path before us as the signs were getting fresher. I looked at Ohmlee and he shrugged and kept moving.

We entered a clearing along the path and something stopped me in my tracks. I don’t remember drawing them but suddenly my Hawk-wings were in my hands. Ohmlee and Delwyn both turned at the sound of them sliding from their sheaths and looked at me quizzically. I shook my head at them. I couldn’t explain it but I sensed danger from somewhere.

Suddenly a whining noise filled the air and Delwyn spun and leapt bringing his elfish blades up and around in an arc. He landed facing away from us but the whining had stopped and two black arrows lay sheared in half on the ground on either side of him. Ohmlee looked down at the arrows for a second and unshipped his axe. The two of us spun instinctively to have our backs towards each other and Delwyn forming a triangle. Seconds later a roar cut through the silence of the trees and a group of orcs surged from the cover of the brush surrounding the clearing. I didn’t have time to count or worry about how much we were outnumbered before they came within striking distance and we were involved in a melee.

For the first time in my life I was in close combat with opponents who sought my life. I had helped defend the caravan as a scout when I had traveled south with the imperial house escort but I had used a bow and had never gotten close to my opponents. This time I was close enough to smell the rank smell of their bodies and even the foul stench of their breath. I was close enough to see the smears of dirt on their unwashed bodies and the sweat running down their arms and bare chests. I had been afraid that the first time I had to face opponents in actual combat that I wouldn’t be able to follow through on any killing blow or to strike in a way to permanently injure someone. The fact that these were non-humans and part of a group that I had, so-far, no personal dealing with may have made what I did easier.

The three of us cut through the attacking group like a new scythe through ripe grain. I estimate that ten minutes after Delwyn had struck the two arrows from the air the three of us were the only living beings in the clearing. We stood there with our weapons still bared covered in black blood and panting heavily.

I had a small cut on my right forearm that could hardly be credited as a wound and Ohmlee was limping from where one of them had nicked his thigh as it fell. Delwyn was unmarked. I did a quick count of the bodies lying around the clearing. Fifteen orc warriors lay dead around the three of us.

When I got my breath back I turned towards the other two. "Did you see; did any of them get away?"

Ohmlee used his axe for support as he eased himself to the ground. He shrugged his shoulders and shook his head as he drew a clean cloth from his pack and began to bind the wound on his leg. I looked over at where Delwyn stood gazing into the surrounding trees.

He looked at me and slowly shook his head. "None that entered this clearing left alive. Not all entered however."

Ohmlee asked from where he sat on the ground. "How do you know that?"

I answered before Delwyn could as I had been surveying the bodies lying around the clearing. "The first strike was attempted by bowmen. None of these bodies have bows. Delwyn, you need to scout around out there and see if we still have trouble coming."

He nodded and turned to Ohmlee. "You are familiar with orc poisons. You should check your wound and Micah’s for sign of contamination."

Ohmlee nodded and when I looked back towards Delwyn he was gone. He had already disappeared into the woods around us.

Ohmlee spoke up then. "My wound is clean, let me see yours."

I sheathed the sword I held in the hand on my injured arm and held it out for his inspection. I kept the other drawn and ready for action as I scanned the trees around us.

I felt Ohmlee’s surprisingly gentle touch as he probed the cut on my arm. "How did you know they were there? Delwyn didn’t hear or see them and I didn’t hear or smell them."

I shrugged. "I don’t know. I just sensed something. A hedge wizard I ran into once said I had a touch of magic in my blood. Maybe that’s what sensed them."

He grunted and continued inspecting my arm. "Does this burn? Is there any numbness around it?"

"No, it just feels like any other cut I’ve ever had."

"Probably nothing to worry about then, let me know if you feel anything different within the next day. Otherwise I would say the blade was clean. This magic you have, how strong is it?"

"Not very, he said it wasn’t anything I could rely on just something that might help me sense other magic when it was around."

Ohmlee nodded and proceeded to wrap another bandage around the cut on my arm. "You hear about that from time to time. Somebody’s great, great, great grandmother had an affair with a wizard or something and one of her kids is a little different, luckier or unluckier. Ten generations later you run across one of her descendants who can sense magical traps or magical items that are nearby. Like you said nothing to rely on but handy at times. Do you think one of these had some magical help?"

He had gestured at the bodies lying around us and I shrugged before answering. "You said Delwyn didn’t hear or see them. I can believe that they could hide well enough so that he couldn’t spot them until he was right up on them but not hear them."

I shook my head.

"You said you couldn’t hear them or smell them, take a whiff. Can you smell them now?"

Ohmlee sniffed and wrinkled his nose in disgust. "With my head in a bucket of fish. I think we should check the bodies for any amulet or rings that looks out of place on one of our little green buddies."

He used his axe to get back up and I nodded and headed to one end of the clearing while he headed towards the other.

I called out to him before I bent to check the first body. "Keep your axe handy until Delwyn returns. Just in case."

He nodded and keeping his axe in one hand bent to check the first body. I started checking bodies, working my way to the center of the clearing. When I rolled the fourth body over on its back I caught a flash of gold as its hand moved. I was more comfortable referring to the bodies as it at the time rather than as people. I guess it helped me deal with my first killing fight.

I bent over the body’s right hand and saw a rather ornate gold ring around its index finger. I reached out a pulled at the ring but it wouldn’t budge. I twisted and turned the ring trying to remove it and finally, after glancing over at Ohmlee’s hunched figure, used my sword to sever the finger. As the ring sat in my palm I felt a slight tingle and an urge to place the ring on my finger. The ring was gold and was shaped like a many coiled serpent with a large flawed piece of what looked like quartz in its jaws. The body of the serpent made up the circle of the ring and seemed to shift as I poked at it with my finger, almost like it was trying to slide itself on my finger.

I heard Ohmlee’s voice as if from a distance and shook my head and looked up to see him standing almost next to me. "What did you find?"

I looked back down at the ring and with a sudden feeling of disgust dropped it from my hand to the ground. "That...that’s what I found."

He crouched down and prodded the ring with a finger. I was almost sure it shifted towards his extended finger. He grunted and stood up. He brought his foot down on the ring and there was a loud snap and a puff of smoke issued from around his boot.

When he raised his foot all that remained was a small pile of grey dust and an inferior looking flawed piece of quartz. "Serpent ring, they’re usually made by some really dark magic user to give to their thugs. They generate a field of...I guess the best description would be a field of nothingness. Anyone outside the field can’t see, hear or smell anyone inside the field. We’re lucky you have that unusual sense or we would have walked right into their arms."

At that point Delwyn reappeared in the clearing. He sniffed briefly and then looked down to where the ring had been. He nodded once and then sheathed his swords.

We followed suit and he reported what he had seen. "I thought I smelled dark sorcery. I guess it was that ring. There were four more of them from what I can tell. They left when things turned in our favor and have been moving at speed ever since. They are moving in the direction we are traveling. They may be going to join up with a larger group. I have seen signs of other groups moving through this area although not recently."

Ohmlee spoke up at this point. "I don’t understand this at all. My father has regular patrols through this area. There is no way he would allow any group of orcs to go rampaging through here unchallenged. We’d be seeing orc corpses nailed to trees all along the main paths."

I spoke as I scanned the trees around us for hostle eyes. "This could be recent activity that he isn’t aware of yet."

Ohmlee grunted as Delwyn knelt next to where the ring had been reduced to dust. He reached out to prod the piece of quartz and stopped just short of touching it. He withdrew his hand and shuddered all over. He looked up at us and his face was pale. "If they keep the groups small enough and each one has one of these they would be hard to find."

Ohmlee spoke up before I could. "Is it that strong of magic?"

Delwyn was digging through his pack for something and merely shook his head. "Not strong just very dark. I need to take it and have an experienced user look at the stone. It feels to be the focus of some larger malevolence."

"My father has an adviser, Ohmlus, he’s actually my uncle, but he is the greatest magic user in this area. We can take it to him."

He moved to pick up the stone with his hand but Delwyn batted his hand aside. "NO! Don’t touch it. My apologies friend but it feels poisonous, maybe dangerous."

This scared me and for a moment I couldn’t speak.

Ohmlee saw my pale face and turned to Delwyn. "Micah held it in his hand. He was the one who found it. I knew what it was more or less and destroyed it."

Delwyn got a worried look on his face and stepped over to me. "Which hand? Which hand did you hold it in?"

I held out my hand and he took it in his hands, holding it close to his face and examining it closely.

His eyes lost focus and my hand felt a wash of warmth. "Do you feel anything odd? Does your hand feel strange or tingle?"

I shook my head and spoke. "Just a sudden warmth since you took it in yours."

He continued to look at my hand for a few more moments before releasing it. He seemed to have relaxed and had a weak smile on his face when he looked at me. "That was my power flooding your hand. I can find nothing. I do not think the stone actually touched you. Tell me how you came to find it."

I started telling him about how Ohmlee and I had come to the conclusion that magic was afoot and we should search the bodies. I kept going until I got to the part about finding the ring. It was at that point that I seemed to remember for the first time that I had cut off the orcs fingers to get the ring. I stopped and looked over at the corpse. Sure enough the hand was outstretched and the fingers severed.

I looked at my own hand, the one that held the ring, and saw that it was coated with black orc blood. I started shaking all over and dropped my sword. I staggered back and felt Ohmlee brace me with his arm. I sank to the ground and blackness closed in for a moment. I heard Delwyn saying for me to breathe slowly and deep and after a moment the darkness retreated. I looked up to see my friends concerned faces staring at mine.

I nodded. "I’m okay. What happened?"

Delwyn answered. "Ring glamour, the ring had a spell on it to make someone want to wear it. Serpent rings are basically slaved imps. You wouldn’t willingly want to touch one unless you were already evil. Whoever made the ring wanted to be sure they came back to him. As soon as you saw the ring it was trying to control you to get you to take it home. The fact that you were able to mutilate that corpse and think nothing about it showed you weren’t thinking for yourself. When you confronted that behavior outside the glamour it nearly overwhelmed you. The stone is the controlling component. If it had touched you there would have been no way for you to resist. I need to take this to the user you mentioned."

Ohmlee looked at the stone where it lay and asked. "How do we do that if we can’t pick it up?"

"With this." Delwyn held a small piece of soft leather.

He laid it on the ground and it was about four inches square. He took out a thin bladed dagger and quickly pricked his finger. Using the tip of the dagger he wrote several elfish characters on the leather in blood. Each character glowed briefly upon completion and the next character was written right on top of the last. When he had written the fourth character he sheathed his dagger and passed his hand over the leather while muttering something in elfish. All four characters glowed red and then faded from view. Delwyn grunted and lifted the leather. He draped it over the stone and used it to pick it up. He produced a small pouch and placed the rolled up piece of leather in it before tying it shut. He placed the pouch in his backpack and only then seemed to relax.

He looked up to see our curious expressions. "I did a holding charm and a blood seal. The holding charm should keep us safe from its influence and the blood seal should hide us from anyone who might be looking for it."

"You think someone is going to be looking for that?"

"Someone went to a lot of trouble to make this and I’m willing to bet he made others. Any user with that much invested is going to have some way to keep tabs on these. Maybe not over any great distances but probably close to hand. Several groups are moving through this area. One of them may have a way to track the others."

Ohmlee piped in at this point. "We need to get to the nearest outpost of Kriock. Once underground we can travel more quickly to my father and Ohmlus."

Now Kriock was the name of the mine that was Ohmlee’s father’s seat of power. Kriock was a dwarfish word meaning anvil. The main compound was where we had been heading when all this unpleasantness had happened. Now we needed to find the nearest access we could and hurry to report to Ohmlee’s father. It was at this point in my life that I started to notice a pattern. I was destined to wander but wherever I wandered there always seemed to be a crisis in progress or one about to happen. Most of the time I was able to help alleviate the crisis but sometimes I was merely caught up in it and dragged merrily or sometimes un-merrily along.

We gathered our gear and cleaned ourselves off as best we could. We moved out of the clearing heading in the same direction we had been going before the ambush. Just before we rounded a bend in the trail I looked back and saw the bodies scattered across the clearing. I felt dizzy for a moment and thought I was going to throw up. I clutched at a nearby tree and leaned my head against the trunk. After a moment I felt better and straightened up. I looked around and saw my two friends standing nearby watching me. I was embarrassed and tried to straighten up even more and meet their eyes. The look in both their eyes was not one of contempt as I had expected but ones of sympathy.

Delwyn turned and proceeded up the trail as Ohmlee stood with me a moment. "We had wondered how you would react to the shedding of blood for the first time."

"I’m sorry if I disappointed you."

Ohmlee looked surprised at my outburst. "Why should I be disappointed in a show of humanity or compassion? We took lives back there. Evil lives but lives none-the-less. I’m sure some of them had mates and children that would miss them. Fathers and mothers that would wonder where their sons have gone. We did what we had to do to survive. I’m just glad to see that the joy of combat has not dulled the fact that someone has died and isn’t coming back."

I looked at my diminutive friend as we walked along. In all the carrying on we did at the academy he had never displayed this depth of thought to me.

He realized I was staring at him and for some reason blushed. "Ye gods, I sound like my father."

I couldn’t help it, I threw back my head and laughed and after a beat he joined in. We stopped where we were and laughed until Delwyn reappeared with a look of concern on his face. When he saw that it was both of us laughing and not just me in some hysterical fit he looked so puzzled that both Ohmlee and I laughed even harder.

I leaned across and clasped his shoulder. "I’m sorry friend Delwyn, it seems Ohmlee has been channeling the spirit of his father and it unnerved him somewhat."

He looked even more puzzled so with a few fits and snorts we explained what I was talking about.

When we finished he was grinning as well and looked at Ohmlee with mischief in his eye. "What do you suppose friend Ohmlee here would give us to keep the fact that he is actually a deep thinker from his family and friends? Would it be worth a few gemstones do you think? Or perhaps access to his fathers stock of mead for an indefinite period?"

Ohmlee looked upset and even slightly panicked which caused Delwyn and I to snicker and giggle like school boys.

We both clapped him on the shoulder and I assured him. "Come my friend you’ve known us longer and better than that. No one will know you as more than the dull plodding individual you appear to be."

He opened his mouth, apparently to thank me, but stopped in thought at what I had said. Delwyn and I burst into laughter again and moved on up the trail. After a moment we heard Ohmlee begin to follow with a muttered exclamation about friends like us and not needing enemies.

---

We traveled quickly north in search of the nearest of the outposts of Kriock. Delwyn scouted ahead from time to time to make sure we didn't run into another ambush. I soon noticed that both Delwyn and Ohmlee were looking at me from time to time with expectant expressions on their faces. It took me a few minutes before I realized they were watching me to see if I reacted to a magical presence. I began to feel a terrible burden of responsibility. My friends were depending on me to detect something unseen and masked by magic and I wasn't sure I could depend on that ability.

Just when I was really starting to doubt myself something caused me to pause on the trail. Ohmlee was behind me and nearly ran into me when I stopped moving. Delwyn had been scouting a little way ahead but turned back when we stopped moving. He came back to us with his hand on the hilt of one of his swords and a curious expression on his face.

I shook my head and shrugged my shoulders. "I don't know. Something doesn't feel right."

He nodded and held out his left hand and began to turn in place while mumbling something in the Elvin tongue. He had completed about half his turn when he stopped and stepped off the path. He moved about five feet in that direction and then stopped and looked down. He looked back at us and signaled for us to come over.

When we got to where he was he pointed to the ground in front of his feet. Lying on the ground in front of him was a small pin. It also had a snake theme to it like the ring earlier. The coils of the snake circled the stone and then extended down to a point to form the pin. "Our four friends must have decided that they didn't want to be tracked by magic anymore."

I nodded in agreement.

Ohmlee spoke at that point. "Can you tell which the control piece was? The pin or the ring?"

Delwyn shrugged. "I've never heard of a pin of control before but that doesn't mean there isn't any such thing. Micah, could you sense any difference?"

"My sense isn't that finely tuned but my reaction to the pin wasn't near as strong as the ring."

He nodded. "I agree. The pin was probably slaved to the ring."

Ohmlee spoke up again at this point. "Isn’t it unusual for one group to have so much magic when they aren't magic users themselves?"

Delwyn said, "Something is definitely going on here. Whoever supplied these things wanted the group to be able to divide up for an ambush without losing their ability to be concealed. Slaving the pins to the rings would have taken a great deal of effort."

His statement caused something to occur to me. "If the pin is slaved to the ring would breaking the ring like Ohmlee did have caused the pin to quit working? Would they have been able to tell it wasn't working?"

Delwyn stood there in thought for a moment. Suddenly his face lit up and we could see that something that we hadn't thought of had occurred to him.  He turned towards us. "What if we take that one step further? What if when we killed the ring bearer we broke the hold the ring had over the group? What if the whole group was slaved to the ring? That would explain the pins presence in such a small group. The ring itself isn't strong enough to hold the whole group so the pin is added to extend the control."

I spoke up this point. "So maybe these four that we're following aren't just running from us. Maybe they're running from whoever made these things."

Ohmlee nodded and prodded the pin where it lay on the ground with his foot. "They're running like hell to get away from the fight, realize that they're not being controlled anymore and ditch the pin and keep running. We've got to find an outpost. This smacks of something bigger than just a few raiding parties. You don't have to enslave large numbers of orcs to raid dwarf compounds."

We nodded and turned back to the trail.

Ohmlee asked before we moved out again. "Should we leave this pin here? What if some kid finds it?"

Delwyn answered. "Without the ring to control it it's more or less harmless. Left as it is without the control of the ring it will start to break down and eventually fade away."

Ohmlee nodded and we moved out. We were jogging along at a good pace when Delwyn stopped and held up his hand. When we had all stopped he turned a complete circle until he was back the way he was facing.

Delwyn pointed off to his right. "I hear dwarf voices in that direction."

Ohmlee nodded and began moving in that direction. I followed behind him with Delwyn bringing up the rear. We had decided on this order earlier. Dwarves were a little closer to trusting humans than they were elves so hopefully they would hold off filling us full of holes if they saw a dwarf in the lead with a human following behind instead of an elf leading the way.

We emerged into a clearing with a low stone building on the opposite side. I could see some heads poking above the wall atop the building. As we entered the clearing several moved around and one of them disappeared. I assumed the one that disappeared was going to get someone in authority to deal with the strangers. We arrived at the center of the clearing and stopped to wait on the arrival of that authority. While we were waiting we looked over the front of the building. It had obviously recently been the focus of some hostile intent.

Broken orc arrows littered the ground in front of it and dozens more stuck in the heavy door. Several orc corpses lay around the clearing. They looked fairly fresh. These were peppered with crossbow quarrels obviously from the dwarves of the outpost.

Another head appeared above the wall and I assumed the arrival of someone of higher authority. A face appeared above the wall. It was scruffy with a grayish brown beard and a bulbous nose. The eyes were hard and glared out at us as if we had done something offensive.

The voice when he spoke boomed out across the clearing. "Who are you and what do you want?"

Ohmlee answered for us as we had planned. "I am Ohmlee bearer of 'Bloodseeker the red axe' and these are my companions. We need transportation to Kriock right away."

There was an audible murmur at the mention of 'Bloodseeker' that was quickly hushed when the new arrival looked around. "I am Hurk bearer of 'Orcbane the hammer'. I have seen 'Bloodseeker' before. Bare the axe."

Ohmlee reached over his shoulder and unshipped the axe. I guess at this point I need to describe what "Bloodseeker" looked like. It was a double headed axe about two and a half feet long from the top of the blade to the end of the haft. The blade is about a foot and a half across from edge to edge and engraved with many runes and sigils. Atop the blade are affixed three rubies said to be drops of blood from the first dwarf under-king. Several more rubies adorn the haft above the hand grip and another large ruby was set in the end.

You would think all these rubies would be the reason for it being called the red axe. Ohmlee told me it was actually called that because of the race wars that happened centuries ago between men and dwarves. Men for the most part have forgotten these probably out of embarrassment. Men tried to cleanse the world of what they called the lesser races and got their asses handed to them on the first attempt by the dwarves. These conflicts are where "Bloodseeker" got its name. Ohmlee gripped the axe by the handle and held it aloft with the blade flat on towards the dwarf outpost.

There was a pause and then the dwarf in charge called out again. "Welcome Ohmlee bearer of 'Bloodseeker the red axe'. We will help you in any way we can. Open the gate."

This last was shouted down into the building and almost immediately we heard the sound of locks and bolts being opened. We began moving again.

As we approached the doorway Ohmlee whispered out of the corner of his mouth. "When we get inside keep your hands away from your weapons. They're letting us in because they recognize the axe. It doesn't mean they believe I am who I say I am."

We didn't answer because we were crossing the threshold into the outpost at that point. The room beyond was large and high enough for both Delwyn and I to stand upright. It was also large enough for the dozen dwarf's standing inside with crossbows pointing at us. We stopped moving and I heard rather than saw the door close behind us and the locks put back into place. Several lanterns lit the area after the light from the outside was cut off. No windows opened up into this lower floor. The dwarf who had spoken to us from the roof entered through another door and moved over between us and the crossbowmen. He somehow contrived to look down his nose at Delwyn and me while being shorter than either of us.

He turned to Ohmlee. "It's odd to see a dwarf traveling with a human and...” he paused while glaring at Delwyn, "an elf."

Ohmlee drew himself to his full height, as unimpressive as that was to me and glared back at the other dwarf. "And it's odder that a dwarf forgets the rules of hospitality."

I watched the dwarf's face twist in anger and then got a grip on himself.

"My apologies." He turned towards Delwyn and me. He held his hands at his sides in the traditional style of dwarf greeting. "I am Hurk bearer of 'Orcbane the axe'. Welcome to outpost 12 of Kriock. Rest easy under the roof we share."

I held my hands at my side. "I am Micah bearer of the hawk-wing swords who bear no name. Thank you for your welcome."

Delwyn did likewise. "I am Delwyn bearer of 'Strike' the bow. I thank you as well."

I saw his eyebrows rise in surprise as we returned his formal greeting correctly.

He turned back to Ohmlee. "How may we assist the bearer of 'the red axe'?"

"We have facts about the orc attacks that need to be shared with my father the king. Does the train run between here and Kriock?"

The look of surprise changed to a look of shock. "Your father the king? You're that Ohmlee?"

"Yes, I'm that Ohmlee. You know about me?"

"Everyone in Kriock knows your name. I wasn't aware that you had finished your training at Imperial house."

"I am on my way home from there now. My friends are also graduates of the academy. We need to get to my father and my uncle as soon as possible. We know something about a group of orcs moving through the area."

"Only one group? There have been attacks all over the area. They strike and then disappear taking whatever they can lay their grubby hands on. Your father has sent out patrols but they have been unable to find anyone or anything."

"We may have the answer to that. Does the train run to here?"

"Yes, the extension to here was finished last year. It will take about an hour to prepare the train for a run. It will take about three to get to Kriock."

"Can we get something to eat while we wait for it to be ready?"

He turned towards the dwarves who still stood with crossbows and nodded. The dwarves lowered the bows and moved away out of the room.

He turned back to us. "Come with me. We'll eat while they prepare the train."

He turned towards another doorway and headed that way.

Continued in Part 2

---