The Howling Delve - Jaleigh Johnson [17]
Garavin whistled, and the dog's head came up. It fell into step beside its master. The dwarf set an unhurried pace through the trees, as if appreciating both the forest and his place in it.
Kail opened his mouth to ask another question, but Garavin, anticipating him again, tossed back over his shoulder, "The forest is named Mir. Ye're breathing Calishite ait now."
Kail smelled the camp before they reached the site. The scent of cooking sausages and the sharp, starchy tang of potatoes made his stomach burn.
They broke through a tree line, where the land dipped into a wide-lipped oval bowl of tamped down grass. At the bottom swirled half a dozen people, dwarves and humans in equal number, with more spilling out of a square, two-story hut. The trees curved up in tense green spires around the scene.
"How many are there?" Kail asked as they descended. There were more figures coming out of the hut than seemed possible for it to hold.
Garavin didn't answer but guided him through the crowd. Some of the diggers looked Kail over curiously as Garavin and he passed them by, but most congregated at four large water • barrels under the hut's eaves, 01 took seats on the grass with bowls of sausage and potatoes. All gave way or nodded respectfully to Gatavin when they saw him.
The door to the hut was propped open with a large piece of shimmering quartz. Inside, it was dark and humid, and smelled strongly of earth. Ahead of them, Kali could see two ladders poking up into a second-floor loft, which was curtained off. A table and four rickety-looking chairs sat to his left. To the right there was a gaping hole in the ground. More ladders rested against its insides like exposed ribs, descending at least fifteen feet into the ground.
Kail watched as torch- and candlelight bobbed in the darkness at the bottom: more diggers. "What are they doing?" he asked.
Garavin glanced up from the table, where he'd spread out a map. "Forging an outpost, of sorts. Goblins are stirring to the south and east of here, and with Myth Unnohyr hanging above our heads in the north, I-and certain other interested parties-would like to see a wall put between them."
He looked up as a squat, crooked-nosed dwarf appeared at the door. The newcomer's beard was as fair as Garavin's was dark.
Garavin tucked his spectacles away and nodded at Kali. "Take the lad out and get him a bow), Aln." To Kail, he said, "I won't be long."
Aln jerked a thumb toward the door, and Kail reluctantly followed him out into the yard.
" 'Ere." The fair-bearded dwarf thrust a bowl and a mug of water under Kail's nose. "Eat. We'll be 'ere a while. Fool elf brought down the wrong trees-think an elf d know better, but ye'd be wrong. Garavin'll be a while patching things up."
Kail nodded, tearing the end off his sausage with his teeth. The meat scotched his tongue, but he barely noticed. He'd had nothing to eat since the previous morning.
Aln eyed Kail as he wolfed down the food. "What of yerself? Are ye staying, then?"
Kail shook his head, though in truth he had no idea where he intended to go. With the immediate threat of pursuit lifted, he had time to think, but he had no gold, no food, and now no horse to carry him. All he had were the items he'd dug up in the cemetery, and he wasn't desperate enough to try to sell them. Not yet.
A shadow fell on either side of Aln as Laerin and Morgan joined them on the grass.
"We were just talking about ye," Aln said darkly.
Laerin gave a good-natured wince. "Feeling better?" he asked Kail.
Kail started to nod, then yelped, "Stop!"
But Morgan had already unfolded the wrappings on the latgest of his packages. "Whatevet you've got in here's going to rot under these moldy things…" He caught his breath. "Abbathor's hoard," he murmured, drawing out a length of blade.
"Don't speak that name here!" Aln hissed, holding his bowl high as Kail practically crawled over the dwatf s lap to get at Morgan.
"Put that down," Kali snarled, but by now the whole group could see the sword.
The blade was unremarkable, in need of polish and sharpening.