The Howling Delve - Jaleigh Johnson [19]
As night fell, Morgan brought out tin buckets filled with tallow and arranged them in circles throughout the camp. When lit, the bucket candles gave off a peaceful glow like grazing fireflies. The evening meal came next: seasoned bread chunks and ham sliced off the bone by the same man who had served bteakfast. The diggers, drawn by the smell of food, gathered again in the clearing, and Garavin joined them, the great dog Borl trailing behind him.
The dwarf chewed a short-stem pipe and had a book wedged beneath one aim. He bypassed the food line, instead heading for one of the few trees in the bowl-shaped clearing.
Large silver-sheened leaves hung around a trunk that looked as if it had been split, long ago, by weight or perhaps by a lightning strike. One half had died, but the other portion thrived. Garavin sat in the space between the living and the dead halves. With his datk, weathered skin, he looked almost a part of the tree, a face staring out of the bark. He smoked, read, and watched the activities of the camp, while the mastiff slept at his feet.
Kail ate with Laerin and Morgan again, listening to them discuss the day's progress, but his eyes kept straying to Garavin. Finally, Laerin nudged him.
"Go," he said simply.
The dwarf did not look up from his book as Kali approached, and Kali wondered if he'd fallen asleep. Then a plume of smoke rose from Garavin's pipe, and his eyes followed. He nodded at the withered bit of stump, and Kali sat.
"Well? What do ye think of my diggers, Kail?"
It wasn't the question Kali had expected, so he said the first thing that came to mind. "They're not like you."
Garavin smiled. "Well, let's suppose ye and I were to mark a map of Faerun with the birthplaces and travels of all those lads and lasses ye saw today. Ye'd still be about it when winter came, and it would take a lifetime and more to walk in theit footsteps."
"They came all that way, just to end up here-to dig?" Kail asked in disbelief.
"Not by intent," Garavin said. "They came because they had nowhere else to go-much like ye, which is why I thought we should be talking."
"I have a home," Kail said. "I never wanted to end up here."
"I understand, and I can send ye back to Amn quick enough," said Garavin, "but that way leads to a quick death, or am I mistaken?"
Kali shook his head. "But I will go back someday," he said, meeting Garavin's eyes.
"I do not doubt ye," Garavin said, acknowledging the vow solemnly. "What I mean to do is offer ye a course for the intervening time. My diggers have been following a generally westward path since Nightal last," he said. "Our work in Mir and the surrounding area will take a pair of years, perhaps more, but once we reach the Shining Sea, I intend to run north for a bit. I could offer ye a place with us now, and give ye the option of leaving us when ye choose. Understand, I'm not in the habit of making this gesture to everyone. I need to keep a certain number of diggers in the company at a time. If I have too many, food will run short. Too few and we're weak on defense. But this way, ye could remain near the place ye're most wanting to be, and learn my trade in the meantime."
"I already know how to dig," Kail said, but he listened.
"This is different," Garavin said. "The first tenday will break yer back. Ye'll hate it, curse it… and me, come to think. The second tenday ye won't be able to keep yer eyes open, so ye won't have time to be thinking or cursing about anything-not the past, nor the future beyond putting one boot in front of the other. After that, as ye adjust, ye'll be having nothing but time. That is precious time-to consider yer place in the world and what ye intend to do with it."
Kali didn't need to consider eithet of those things. He pictured Balram, secure in his father's