Birger scowled. “He decimated my people. Now there aren’t enough of us to keep them away.”
Jonas stiffened. “I’m sorry.”
“Why? Humans never cared whether we lived or died. And they still don’t.”
He was about to add something further when his hand suddenly shot up to silence the group.
From the bottom of the stairs came a cacophony of high-pitched squeals and guttural growls that sent Ethan’s heart racing. He tightened his grip on his sword.
After a short while the sounds faded and Birger visibly relaxed.
“Are they gone?” whispered Kat, trying hard to mask her fear.
“Gone? No. But they must have already eaten. For sure they know we’re here.”
The dwarf’s words sent a chill up Ethan’s spine. “What do they look like?”
“What does it matter? Just hope you never see one. Not one of that lot, anyway. The adults are docile enough…but the juveniles.” He spat and put away his axe.
“You mean they’re children?” asked Ethan.
“I mean they’ll kill you if they have the chance. So keep your mouth shut and do as you’re told. We’re not out of danger yet. We need to get away from here as fast as we can, lest they change their mind…or get hungry again.”
Having issued this warning, Birger pushed past them all and stepped through the door on the left.
“Actually, he’s a bit friendlier than I expected,” joked Markus.
“Yeah,” agreed Ethan, grinning. “At least he hasn’t killed us yet.”
Laughing, they chased after the dwarf.
For the next few days their pace was grueling to the point that Ethan feared Jonas would collapse. Several times he considered asking Birger to slow down a bit, but Jonas assured him he would be fine.
“It’s just the stairs that get to me,” the old man said as they bedded down on the third night. “Why there has to be so many of them is beyond me.”
“I wonder how long it took to make all this?” mused Ethan.
“Thousands of years I would imagine,” Jonas told him. “Dwarf craft was famed throughout Lumnia in my day. Though what has become of their talents in these dark times, I can only speculate.”
The further they traveled, the more intricate the designs of the chambers they passed through became. In one of these, massive pillars towered high to a brightly lit ceiling, revealing incredibly detailed carved images of stars, moons and planets, all of them inlaid with gold and gemstones. The light split within the gem’s facets, raining down in a cascade of color and beauty. Everyone apart from Birger, who seemed almost irritated by the scene, had stared up in astonishment. But this chamber, like all the others, was abandoned.
On the day they were set to arrive, Birger stopped and gathered the group together.
“I’m taking us through the west gate,” he told them. “No one goes there anymore, so we should be able to pass unseen for a while.”
“Why do we need to hide?” asked Ethan.
“We’re not hiding,” he replied irritably. “I just would rather avoid causing a disturbance if possible. And your presence here will certainly do that.”
Jonas cleared his throat. “I hesitate to ask, but I couldn’t help noticing that we didn’t see any other dwarves along the way. Not a single one. Lord Dragonvein visited your people many times, both here and in the north, and he told me stories of your vast halls and great cities. He said they were always teeming with people and bustling with life. And yet the mountain now seems all but deserted. What happened here?”
Birger’s eyes locked onto Jonas’, but he did not flinch or falter under the scrutiny.
Finally, the dwarf heaved a sigh and shifted his gaze. “We did not desert our cities, or abandon our halls. There simply aren’t enough of us left to fill them anymore. After the mages were defeated, the Emperor set his sights on us. But not even his vast armies could penetrate our defenses. For three years we fought, and for a time it looked as if we might prevail. But then Shinzan himself came.”
He paused, his face racked with hatred. “He slaughtered us like sheep. We tried to surrender, but he ignored our pleas and continued his bloody rampage. When he did finally stop, our numbers were but a fraction of what they once were. Our kin in the north, hoping to avoid a similar fate, surrendered at once. But Shinzan didn’t care and did the same to them.”