Milli and Brogus continued to argue as they made their way down a narrow corridor in the upper levels of the citadel where apprentices and lower class dwarves made their home. The rock walls were smoothed to a fine finish but an odor of wet laundry hung densely in the air and the ruts in the stone floor were worn by the passage of thousands of years of apprentices. “We can’t do anything without Dol,” said the heavyset dwarf as his feet slammed into the ground with plodding steps. The apprentice quarters were squat, low, and not particularly clean. Built after the liberation of Craggen Steep from the elementals and sized for dwarves, they had low ceilings, narrow halls, and impossibly small chambers where generation after generation of young dwarfs learned the craft of metal smithing. “He’s set in his ways. He wants to steal it but he won’t do it. He’s stubborn as a tree, once he says something there’s no changing him.”
“You think I don’t know that, Brogus?” said Milli looking down at her feet as they walked. “Ugh, I hate coming up to this level of the mountain, I can’t believe they make you live in these little cubby holes.”
“You’ve got it good,” said Brogus as a young dwarf staggered passed and attempted to fit a key into a door across from them. “You’ve got the wrong cubby, Tomos. You’re one corridor over.”
The drunken dwarf waved his hand, mumbled something, and continued to try and fit his key in the lock.
“That’s Minodon’s,” tried Brogus again, “He’ll pound you to goblin size if you wake him. He’s on day shift at the forge.”
Milli looked at her companion and shook her head, “They’re all like that now. Anyone from one of the three families doesn’t try because promotion is certain, and the rest of you have given up because there is no chance for advancement. We have to get out of here. The city is dying.”
“So why didn’t you help me back there? If you had tried to tell him then he would have gone along, you know I’m right Milli. You can convince any dwarf of anything with those big yellow eyes of yours. We’re helpless against them.”
A low cough caught the duos attention as they rounded a corner in the apparently endless maze of the upper corridors and a dwarf figure stepped out towards them. Brogus’s hand immediately went to his side where he fingered a knife when he spotted a young dwarf with a scar down the left side of his face appear out of the shadows. “Don’t sneak around like that, Uldex,” he said and positioned himself between the newcomer and Milli.
“Hello, Millasandra,” said Uldex with a nod of his head to Milli. “It’s good to see you again. I’ve missed you.”
“Don’t even try it,” said Brogus as he put his hand on the dwarf’s chest and pushed him back a step. “She doesn’t want to talk to you and don’t forget what happened last time we tangled.”
Uldex eyes flickered briefly at Brogus and then he turned back to Milli, “We need to talk about the Hammer of Fire, Milli.”
The Halfling girl crossed her arms in front of her slim chest, her lips narrowed, her eyes turned cool, and she shook her head, “What do we have to talk about at all?”
Brogus glared at the other dwarf, his eyes raging with fire, “What do you know about the hammer anyway?”
“Keep out of this, Brogus,” said Uldex with another quick glance at Brogus, “I’m the one who put the idea of stealing the thing in Milli’s head in the first place.”
“That’s not true,” said Brogus his voice raising as several passers-by glanced in their direction.
“Can we talk somewhere privately?” said Uldex and took a step closer to Milli. “I owe you an apology… from before.”
“I took that apology out on your face,” said Brogus as Milli stood silently with her arms crossed on her chest and her eyes still cool with disdain.
“Just because I let you beat me once doesn’t mean I will let it happen again,” said Uldex and turned to face Brogus directly. His lips curled into a snarl and his chin jutted forward like a mountain ram ready to slam heads with a rival.
“Let me?”
“Let you!”
“Brogus,” intervened Milli, and put her hand on the big dwarf’s shoulder, “let me and Uldex talk for a minute, will you please?”
“I don’t like him, Milli,” said Brogus and took a step towards the dwarf with the long scar who stood his ground and glared back. The two continued to glare at one another until Milli spoke again.
“I know you don’t, Brogus, but I’m a big girl, I can take care of myself, now, please, let Uldex and me talk alone for a moment. You’re attracting too much attention,” this last as she looked around at several small groups of young apprentices that traversed the same hallway as them. One was a group of dwarves, just finishing a shift at one of the forges to judge by their filthy clothes and the smell of cinder that emanated from them, talking just around the bend. One of the young fellows kept glancing in the direction of the two belligerents and Milli.
Brogus looked at Milli for a moment, his dark eyes like little coals and then turned back to the dwarf with the scar, “I’ll be right over there, so don’t try anything funny.”
Uldex gazed back at him impassively with his jaw firm but said nothing and eventually Brogus, with one final sneer, turned and walked a few yards away to leave the two alone.
Uldex leaned forward and pounded his fist into his hand, “Milli, why aren’t you getting ready to take the damn thing already? I thought we had this all settled. I already told my uncle and he’s working with the First Edos. What are you doing here in the upper levels and where is that freak Delius?”
“Dol won’t do it,” said Milli with a shrug of her slender shoulders. “And he’s not a freak.”
“You said you could convince him; tonight’s the night, after that they’re going to lock the thing up in the Hall of Relics and you’ll never get at it. He might be a freak you like, Milli, but you can’t get around it, he’s a freak.”
“Dol won’t do it unless there is some grand scheme to be achieved,” said Milli with a shake of her head that sent her hair swirling so that it brushed against Uldex. “I thought reminding him of being passed over for promotion, again, would be enough but it wasn’t. He needs a reason to steal it. He’s like that. He’s slow to act, always thinking, and meditating. It’s that damned tree blood in his veins, however it got there. And, I don’t like that word, don’t use it again.”
The dwarf breathed in for a moment, the fresh scent of her hair even stronger than the wet odor of decay that permeated the hallways, and blinked his eyes a couple of times before he managed to gather his thoughts. “Just stealing? Is that what he thinks? It’s a much grander scheme than that. This isn’t just about the hammer; it’s about all of Craggen Steep, the malaise that’s swept through this place. The High Council is corrupted, the three families are stagnant.”
“None of that matters to Dol. You don’t know him like I do, Uldex. When Dol signed his apprentice papers it meant something to him.”
“Those things don’t mean anything! Young dwarves break their apprenticeships all the time. All you have to do is pay the thing off later and nobody cares. I bet half the High Council members did it and almost every story you hear about one hero or another starts off with a dwarf abandoning his apprenticeship,” said Uldex speaking with passion, his hands waving in front of his scarred face. He also moved a few inches closer to Milli and breathed in deeply.
“He’s a quarter tree, once he sets his roots into something he won’t let go. We need to find something heroic to do once we steal the hammer and then he’ll go along. He doesn’t care about the High Council, or the malaise of Craggen Steep, or about your schemes to take over with your uncle.”
“What about Corancil? He took over in Das’von and Stav’rol. They say he’s building an army to invade the southlands and unite the entire continent as a single empire. Isn’t that reason enough to steal the hammer, to join his army? Think of the adventure, the riches. I’d do it myself if I could hold the thing. And I’d take you with me, Milli. All over the world, to see, to do, to live!”
“We thought of that,” said Milli as her cheeks reddened slightly and she flicked her head, sending her hair in a whirl around her face, “Dol doesn’t want to join an army. He wants to do something by himself. I know him, Uldex. He’ll never do it without a plan and without Dol no one can wield the thing.”
Uldex looked at Milli for a long time and they stood gazing at one another. “What ever happened with us?”
Milli rolled her eyes, “You were sleeping with every dwarf maiden of good family who couldn’t resist your bad boy charm as I recall. It wasn’t a short list.”
“Oh, there was that; what if I told you I’d reformed?”
“I wouldn’t fancy you if you turned into a good boy,” said Milli with a grin.
“Well then,” said Uldex with a smile and a wink.
“And I’ve gone off bad boys,” she replied with a frown.
“Where does that leave us?”
“Nowhere,” said Milli sharply. “Talk to your uncle or the First Edos, they’ve got to have an idea of what Dol can do with the hammer, something heroic, something for the ages, something people will talk about forever.”
Uldex pounded his fist into his hand again, “There isn’t time, you have to understand, Milli, they’re going to lock thing in the Hall of Relics after tonight. It’ll be guarded twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week; you have to convince Dol tonight.”
Milli shook her head and pursed her lips, “It’s you who doesn’t understand Uldex. Dol’s mind is made up. You have to go back to your uncle, find something for Dol to do, and then we’ll steal the thing wherever they lock it up. The First Edos is on our side, that’s what you said.”
Uldex shook his head and looked at the ground, “You know that this is about more than stealing the hammer, Milli. The Firefists have had control of the High Council for too long now. It’s time for a change at the top and stealing the hammer is only the first part of the plan. Once the Blackirons take control, things will start changing around here. We’ll announce ourselves publicly to the world. Send an army of our finest soldiers to join Corancil in the invasion of the southlands, we’ll become an important nation in the new empire being forged. You have to convince Dol, Milli. You can do it; you can convince any dwarf of anything. There are probably less than a dozen girls on the whole mountain that aren’t dwarves, and you’re by far the prettiest. This is important, Milli. There is a lot more going on than I’ve told you about.”
“Keeping secrets again, Uldex?” said Milli with a shake of her head and she put her hands on her hips.
“It’s not like that, Milli,” said Uldex his voice raising on octave as he held his hands out towards her. “I don’t know for certain what my uncle has in mind but the Blackirons have stood behind the Firefists for too long. I don’t know what the plan is, I don’t know anything that my uncle doesn’t want me to know, I just hear hints, rumors, things, but the Firefists, they’re crafty and powerful.”
“So you are keeping secrets,” said Milli.
“It’s a feeling, an idea, I don’t know anything for certain, but Borrumbus, he’s up to something and I want to be part of it. I want to get in early because whoever comes out on top is going to be an important person, Milli. I could be that somebody if there’s a change at the top. You could be there with me, if you wanted,” he finished and put his hand on her shoulder. “We could be there together.”
“You’ll always be a hired thug, Uldex,” said Milli her face hardening into an expressionless mask. “They can put you in the finest gold robes and you’ll never be more than that.”
Uldex’s face dropped, he closed his mouth and stared at her for a few long seconds that seemed to take an eternity. “Well, maybe you’re right, but I’ll help you anyway, that’s how much of a thug I am. I’ll talk to Uncle Borrombus and see if they can come up with something for Dol. But you work on him too, get him hungry for the hammer; you can make men do whatever you want if you put your mind to it, Milli.”
Milli nodded her head and started to reach out with her hand to touch Uldex on the shoulder but then stopped at the last moment, “I’ll speak with Dol,” she finally said and then turned back to where Brogus waited with his face still in a grimace and his hand at the dirk on his hip. “Meet me tomorrow afternoon by the fountains on the grand deck, maybe we’ll see a dragon fly by, I’ve heard Corancil is gathering them for the assault.”
Uldex nodded and vanished into the shadows while Milli walked over to her friend with a smile on her face although her hand twitched nervously at her side.