"What has Priestess given you, Sir Frey?" Johann Zauber wanted to know, and Frey abruptly put the document in the magician's hand.
"It looks like a map of the city, surely a copy created by a Chronicler. It seems to cover all the ground that Prince Beliar's expedition explored.
In the light filtered by the crystals above, the sorcerer inspected it, then scratched his head. Elysia looked over his shoulder and saw only tiny runes scrawled and connected with lines of different colored ink. Some lines were thick, others thin, and some dotted.
"It doesn't look like any map I've ever seen," declared the wizard. "I don't see him head or tail.
Frey's lips curved into a contemptuous smile.
"I'd be surprised if you turned it on, because it's written in Engineer code. Thanks to a friend, I am barely able to understand it."
"We are in your hands, sir Frey, and in the Father's," the Paladin said. "Lead us."
♦ ♦ ♦
Elysia tried to count the number of steps she took, but she gave up at nine hundred and seventy-three. She had noted the corridors off the Silver Road, and was beginning to get an idea of the size of the dwarven fortress-city. It was like one of those floating mountains of ice that sailors said they had seen in the North Sea; ninety percent of its volume was sunk below the surface. The scale far surpassed any human work she had ever seen, and it was humbling.
The path passed many openings in the stone walls, some of which were partially bricked up, a work of recent manufacture. Something had punctured them with very primitive tools, and a stench of putrefaction hung in the air.
"Grain silos," Frey explained. "They were probably used to store the food that fed the city during the winter, though it seems the goblins have gotten their hands full on Prince Beliar's stores."
"If there are any greenskins near here, they will soon taste my steel." declared the paladin.
Jules and Elysia exchanged worried glances, not feeling as eager as the paladin and the dark hero to deal with whatever was down there.
♦ ♦ ♦
The cat girl had lost track of time, but she estimated that half an hour had passed since they had left the Silver Road to enter a room as large as the central park of Archheim, the capital of the Empire, and that it received light through of huge elongated openings made in the ceiling. Dust motes danced in dozens of columns of light taller than the eight towers of the Imperial magic academy. The echo of the footsteps disturbed the shadowy and strange beings that flapped, lurking, near the ceiling.
"A plaza," Frey said, his voice containing a note of astonishment, and he looked around the room with a strange mix of nervousness and interest. "So Grimmir told me. Here the Queen's personal guard held out against a goblin army a hundred times larger. They gave her, and many citizens, time to escape from her. I never harbored the hope of setting my eyes on a place where such a brave woman fought until her last breath. Tread carefully: each stone has been sanctified with the blood of an honorable champion; Elysia, you should learn from their example."
Elysia looked at the dark hero, and saw a new person. Ever since they entered the city, Frey had changed. He was no longer sneaking glances around him or muttering to himself. For the first time since Elysia had known him, the dark hero seemed to feel comfortable, as if he had returned to his home.
"Now it is we who are out of place." he understood suddenly, aware of the countless tons of stone that stood between her and the sun. She had to fight the fear that the entire mountain, held in place by her only thanks to the delicate handiwork of the ancient dwarves, would collapse on top of her and bury her forever. She sensed the approach of darkness, of those buried places that had never known the light of day, and the seeds of terror took root in her heart.
She looked across the plaza, larger than any structure she'd ever seen, and she knew she couldn't cross it. It was an absurd feeling being in the depths of the earth, but she began to feel agoraphobic. She didn't want to go under the vaulted ceiling for fear that the artificial sky would collapse on her. She felt dizzy, and her breath was a rasping gasp.
A reassuring hand rested on her shoulder, and Elysia looked up at Frey, who was standing next to her. Slowly, the urge to run up the Silver Road faded, and she experienced something akin to calm. Then she looked across the square again, overcome with a sense of reverence.
"Truly, the dwarves are an impressive people, Frey," she said, and Frey looked at her with eyes that showed sadness.
"Yes, Elysia, they were, but the skill that created this room is surely beyond her reach now. I doubt they have the number of stonemasons needed to build this."
Frey turned his head to look around the room, and then shook it.
"The glory days for the dwarves are behind us. In other times they surely created all this; but now, as far as Grimmir could tell, they huddle together in a few dwarfed cities deep within the gray mountains. Possibly the glory of the dwarves is gone, never to return. They crawl like worms through the works of old, and the glory of what they once were mocks them. Only the power of a god could save them."
She gestured toward the room with her sword, as if she wished to underscore the meaning of his words.
"This kind of thing has to be compared!" she bellowed, and the men, startled, looked at him.
Echoes of his voice echoed, and mixed with them, Elysia thought she heard the sounds of furtive movement. When she looked toward the source of the noise, she could almost swear she saw blinking amber eyes, slowly receding into the darkness.
♦ ♦ ♦
As they advanced, the stone of the underground area of the city took on a peculiar greenish hue. They stepped out of the light of the room into a shadowy space dimly lit by dim, flickering gems. From time to time, Elysia would hear some tapping, and then Frey would stop and put a hand against the wall. Out of curiosity, the cat girl did the same and felt small vibrations, as if something distant were running through the stone. Frey looked at her.
"The goblins are drumming on the walls," he explained. "They know we're here, so we'd better pick up our pace to confuse any scouts."
Elysia nodded.
The walls glittered like jade. Elysia saw red-eyed fat rats move away from the light, and Frey cursed and tried to stomp the closest one, but she dodged it. The dark hero shook his head.
"Even here, so close to the surface, we see the mark of corruption. Lower down it must be worse."
They came to a stairway that descended into darkness. There were great collapsed columns, huge piles of stone heaped here and there, and the stairway itself seemed crumbling. His presence disturbed a nest of flapping wings, and bats took to the air and fluttered from side to side. Disturbed, Elysia wondered if the stairway would be very safe.
They descended through galleries where the signs of orc spoliation were evident. The rats scuttled toward the nests, built under the broken stonework.
Frey gestured for a halt, and stood still, with a gaze fixed on Elysia, instructing her to sniff the air.
As she sniffed the air for any trace, Elysia thought she heard the sound of footsteps at the top of the stairs.
"Smells like goblins," the catgirl said.
"They're behind us, I think," Jules commented.
"They are everywhere around us" contradicted Elysia
Frey looked around as he analyzed the structure. "This site has been used as an orc trail for many years. I can recognize their marks."
"What will we do?" Elysia inquired as she exchanged worried glances with Zauber.
"Continue forward" Frey replied as he consulted the map. "In any case, we are going in the direction we want."
Elysia looked back, suspecting that they were being led into a trap. "I have a bad feeling" thought Elysia, because her reliable sixth sense yelled at her that no situation could be done yet but. "They've already cut off our way back to the surface, unless Frey finds another route."
Frey's expression assured him that she wasn't paying the slightest consideration to such things. The dark hero looked around him worriedly, as if he expected to see a ghost.
The footsteps of the pursuers came even closer.
From ahead, echoing through the galleries, came a bellow that was deeper and louder than any orc's.
"What was that?" Zuuber asked.
"Something big," Aldred replied in a stoic voice.
Frey ran his thumb along the edge of the axe, until it shone on it due to the sparks produced by the friction between the gauntlet and the edge of the greatsword.
"Fine," he said.
"It must be close," Elysia commented nervously, wondering if she was as pale-faced as the sorcerer and the ranger.
"It's hard to tell," Frey assured him. "These tunnels distort sound, and also amplify it. It could be miles away."
The roar came again, and this time they also heard the sound of running footsteps, as if the goblins were rushing to carry out an order.
"It's closer now," Elysia affirmed.
"Calm down, cat girl. Like I said, he's probably miles from here.