The Silver Mage - Katharine Kerr [92]
“Swine! Filthy, dung-eating swine!” Kov felt his eyes fill with tears. “They and their kind will pay for this. Some way or another, they will pay and pay and pay again. I swear it by the Mountain Gods!”
Jemjek threw his head back and howled in agreement. Behind them in the hot smoky tunnel Dwrgwn wept and moaned.
Kov wiped his eyes on his arm, then made his way through the crowd and went to his chamber to change out of his wet wrap. Someone had put a basket of blue fungus on his bed. By its light he dressed, then took the basket and hurried to the gold chamber. Thanks to the fire directly above, the warren had turned hot, the air stifling, but when he walked through the heaps and jars of treasures, by the blue light of the fungus he could see that none had come to harm. It’s not hot enough to melt gold! he told himself sharply. His irrational fear frightened him the more. He was becoming entirely too protective of these glittering piles of stolen goods.
“Kov?” The voice belonged to Leejak, standing in the doorway. “I do come to fetch you. There be a council.”
“Well and good, then,” Kov said. “How much danger are we in?”
“We be safe enough if we do stay deep in the tunnels. The Horsekin swine, they did burn the covers to our doors.”
It took Kov a moment to puzzle out what he meant. “Those structures over the entrances?” Kov said. “The things that looked like crates.”
“Those, truly. They not find us now. We all be quiet now. They not think to look under themselves.”
Underground, Kov supposed he meant. “How long can we hold out here?”
“Not long. Not much food.” Leejak shrugged and spread his hands palms-up. “But we need not to stay. We have deep roads.”
“Of course! The tunnels run a long way.”
“Very long way north. Also toward west. We travel, we fill in behind us, block tunnels. They do never find us. Dwrgwn dig good, very good.”
“So they do.” Kov suddenly smiled, but he knew that it wasn’t a pleasant smile. “I have an idea, Spearleader.”
“Tell me on way to council. There been need for us to go now.” When they reached the chamber, they found it full. All of the Dwrgwn were crowding into the council chamber to consult with the Lady. They moved in silence, unspeaking, cautious. Kov entered the chamber by the door near her chair to find the room glowing with dim light from fungi baskets. Beside her chair, candles burned in small gold sconces. When he started to close the door, Lady stopped him.
“Leave that be for the air,” she said, “or the flames will devour it all and leave us fainting.”
That night she wore a black dress, set with beads of onyx and jet, glittering in long sparks of light as if she, too, burned. She gestured to Kov to kneel beside her chair to her left. Leejak sat down by her right. Once they were settled, she stood. Tears ran down her face, but she wiped them away with an impatient shake of her head. For some while she spoke in the Dwrgic tongue. Kov could pick out words here and there and the occasional phrase. As far as he could tell, she was speaking of mourning their dead and of moving farther up the river or perhaps to some other river—too many unknown words baffled him. When she finished, Leejak rose and spoke as well, but only briefly.
A few at a time, the Dwrgwn got up and left the chamber, again in silence, moving carefully through the throng and out into the hall, more quietly even than the Mountain Folk could move. At last the council chamber emptied. Lady rose and blew out the candles, leaving the room awash in pale blue light. When Kov got up to join the spearleader, Lady turned to face them.
“Kov and Leejak, I beg you to forgive me. You were right, and I would not listen. Now all we can do is hide in our burrows like terrified water rats.”
“Not all,” Leejak said. “But for now, enough.” He glanced at Kov. “The people do collect their things. We do move everything north, then plan.”
“What about the gold?” Kov spoke so quickly that he once again realized how much he was coming to value the treasure. “We can’t just leave it.”
“We won’t.” Lady’s voice ached with tears,