"Our enemies are weak between here and Nesme," Galen explained. "A thin line, with no support to be found anywhere around the town."
"The ruins of Nesme, ye mean," Dagna corrected.
"Not so ruined. Battered yes, but still defensible."
The dwarf paused for a moment and let those words digest. "Defensible?"
"Behind our walls, we are formidable, good dwarf."
"I'm not for doubting that, but are ye forgetting that yer enemy already chased ye out from behind those walls once?"
"We weren't properly prepared for them."
"Yer forces were many times yer present number!"
"We can hold the town," Galen insisted. "Word has gone out to Everlund, Mirabar, and Silverymoon. Surely help will soon arrive."
"To bury yer bones?" Dagna said, and Galen scowled at him. "Ye can't be thinking to move closer to the Trollmoors with an army o' bog blokes and trolls on yer heels."
"Army? The fighting has lessened since our escape from the trolls," Galen argued. "We have reason to believe that many of our enemies have gone into tunnels heading for Mithral Hall."
"Aye, tunnels to Mithral Hall," said Dagna. "Which is why I come to ye this day. We found the way back, deep and quiet. We can make the tunnels afore the morrow and be well on our way."
"Have you not listened to a word I've said?"
"Have ye yerself heared them words?" Dagna replied. "Ye're for walking out from the protection o' the mountains onto open ground where yer enemies can sweep upon ye. Ye're to get yer people slaughtered."
"I am to save Nesme."
"Nesme's gone!"
"And would you so quickly abandon Mithral Hall, General Dagna?"
"Mithral Hall's not gone."
It was Galen Firth's turn to pause and take a deep breath against the unrelenting pragmatism of General Dagna. "I am of the Riders of Nesme," he explained slowly and calmly, as if reciting a vow he had made many times before. "My life has been given to the protection of the town, wholly so. We see a way back to our homes. If we get back behind our city wall - "
"The damned trolls'll catch ye there and kill ye."
"Not if many have turned their eyes to the north, as we believe."
"And ye'd be willing to risk all yer kinfolk on that belief?"
"Help will come," Galen declared. "Nesme will rise again."
Dagna locked stares with the man. "Me and me boys're heading for the tunnels and back to Mithral Hall. Ye're welcomed to join us - Steward Regis's offered his hand. Ye'd be wise to take it."
"If we go home - to our homes, good dwarf! - will Mithral Hall not offer us the support we need?"
"Ye're asking me to follow ye on a fool's errand!"
"I am asking you to stand beside your neighbors as they defend their homes from a common enemy."
"You cannot be serious," came another voice, and both Dagna and Galen Firth turned to see Rannek moving to join them. The young man's stride was purposeful and determined. "We have a way to the north, underground where our allies can better protect us."
"You would abandon Nesme?"
Rannek shook his head vigorously. "I would secure the wounded and those who cannot fight, first and foremost. They are the cause of the Riders, not empty buildings and walls that can be rebuilt."
"Rannek now determines the course of the Riders? Rannek the watchman?"
Dagna watched the exchange carefully, and noted how the younger man seemed to lose all momentum so suddenly.
"I speak for the Riders and I speak for all the folk of Nesme," Galen Firth went on, turning back to the dwarf. "We see an opportunity to return to our homes, and we shall seize it."
"A fool's errand," said Dagna.
"Can you say with certainty that these tunnels you have found will be any less filled with enemies? Can you be so certain that they will even usher us to Mithral Hall? Or might it be that we go underground, flee from the region, only to have the armies of Mirabar, Silverymoon, and Everlund arrive? What then, General Dagna? They will find no one to rescue and no town to help secure. They will believe they are too late and turn for home."
"Or turn north to the bigger fight that's facing Clan Battlehammer."
"That would be your hope, wouldn't it?"
"Don't ye be talking stupid," Dagna warned. "We come all the way down here, I put ten of me boys in the Halls o' Moradin, and all for yer own sake."
Galen Firth backed off just a bit, and even dipped the slightest of bows.