“I'm sure you're tired after their antics at the vet’s office today.” I pointed out.
“Antics?" He looked ready to go on-duty if the situation was severe enough.
Everyone else was watching Horace haul the offending parties to the front door when Dilwyn said, “Oh, it’s nothing, Chief Trew. I just brought them along today while I was filling in for Anima at the pet clinic. You know how they like to find trouble.”
“So far, it’s been nothing illegal,” David said, his concern not abated one iota. “But I’m counting on you to keep it that way, Dilwyn.”
“Oh, c’mon, Chief, they’re both good boys deep down,” Dilwyn said as Horace threw out his rowdy customers with a final, bellowed warning. “They just never had a mother in their lives and…well, I do what I can.”
“And so far that’s been good enough,” David said. “I’m not trying to give you a hard time. It’s just—“
“I know, I know,” Dilwyn said, blowing a breath. “You’re just as worried about them as I am. For different reasons, of course," he added apologetically.
The bar’s hushed silence at the throwing out of the unwanted patrons abated, and the soft murmurings rose once more to an overlapping din. Dilwyn added, “They try to help out, the boys. They really do." Mr. Werelamb shook a weary head. "I tell ya, Lye's excellent with the rock people. Sure, I've shown him how to handle 'em, but you can see, he's a natural. Gentle, observant. "
He sighed. "Oh, well. I'm doing what I can to educate 'em."
“Rock people? What, you mean like Keith Richards?” I asked.
Dilwyn had a good laugh at that one. “No, no, I meant them little fellows on Cathedral, can slice through rock with their bare hands and they use them hands to talk. A little-known fact.”
“You mean Rock Grumlins?” David asked, his eyes lighting up.
“I always want to say ‘gremlins’ but I know that’s not right,” Dilwyn said with a nod. “But yeah, that’s them. Anyway, I was treating this poor fellow, and he freaks out when I show him a thermometer. I got to do a lot of talking to him, but it was Lye who was finally able to convince him that the thermometer wouldn't hurt him.”
“So you know how to speak with them?” I asked, feeling my own excitement starting to ignite.
Dilwyn looked between the two of us, shifting uncomfortably. “Yeah, a little bit. Don’t get me wrong, though. I don’t always know what they’re—“
“I just spent half the day being repeatedly told that the last person who could speak their language died on the beaches of Cathedral four days ago,” David said, getting up from his seat. “You’d be a big help to our investigation if you could do some interpreting duties.”
“Right now?” Dilwyn Werelamb's face went slack with wonder at this unusual request.
I got up from my own stool. “Between the clinic, the boys and the farm, is there ever going to be a better time?”
Dilwyn tilted his head to the side. “Well, when you put it like that…”
Horace came back to the bar. “Ohh, are ya leavin’ already, then? I hope it t’weren’t on account a’ them—“ he pointed to the doors where he had thrown out his unruly customers.
“Nothing like that, Horace,” David said as Dilwyn reluctantly got to his feet. “Mind putting Werelamb’s drink on my tab? I’ll settle up by the end of the week.”
“Always a pleasure ta support me local constabulary,” Horace said to David’s back.
I drained the last dregs of my Griffin’s Beak before following Chief Trew and Dilwyn out the door.
Dilwyn all but groaned as he finally reached the entrance to the cave. “If I’d have known that this little trip was going to involve midnight mountain climbing…” His breathing was coming in ragged tatters, and I could see the scarlet hue to his face, even in the murky light.
As I scrambled onto the ledge behind him, I said, “Don’t think for a minute that this was any more fun for us. But we found out the hard way that brooms don’t work around this cliff.”
“Why not?” Dilwyn asked while I followed the rope to the cave wall.
“Does it matter?” David asked with a grunt as he rose to his feet. “Bottom line’s the same. This rope is the only way up.”
“And what about the way down?”
“A lot easier,” I promised him. “We’ll show you after we’re done talking to our friend.”
“Speaking of which, you might want to get them necklaces ready.”
I nodded and fished them out of my bag. There were just strands of twine and attached to them, a recent newspaper picture of Millicent. After I’d described the small shrine we'd seen in the cave system earlier to Dilwyn, he recommended that we take a few minutes to make up an offering of sorts. He had told us that the grumlins never stopped singing Ms. Pond's praises, so he knew what was needed for us to gain entry.
The trip inside was easier for us this time. Oh, we still kept our wands lit and my other hand didn’t dare let go of the guideline. But there’s something about knowing where you’re going that can take a lot of stress off your shoulders. Just the same, I found myself wishing that at least one of my cats—yes, even Gloom or Fraidy—was able to join us on this evening jaunt.
Like before, the Grumlin found us before we found it. The familiar cadence of his claws rang out to us. I glanced at Dilwyn.
“He’s saying a cross between ‘hello’ and ‘who goes there,'” Dilwyn explained. “For the rock people, one’s the same as the other.”
Pulling out a coin from his pocket, he tapped the cave wall in a careful, deliberate manner. The Grumlin’s pearl eyes latched onto Dilwyn’s hand.
“So what are you saying?” David asked.
“Friends,” Dilwyn said. “Or the nearest rock people word to that.”
The little rock-digger looked at the pictures around our neck. He made a few clicks with his hands and then pointed at Dilwyn again. Dilwyn tapped out the same “friends” code on the wall.
The Grumlin looked at Werelamb, looked at me, then looked at David. It did this two more times before gesturing us to follow him deeper into the tunnel.
“Well, it's further than we got last time,” David said with a relieved sigh.
“Don’t doubt it,” Dilwyn said as we followed the Grumlin. “These little ones are peaceful enough but mighty territorial if you happen to step the wrong way.”
“But they still let others work them to death mining for black diamond,” I pointed out. “Put them through the kind of deplorable conditions that Millicent was fighting against up until she died.”
“All true but they see it a little differently,” Dilwyn explained. “Out in the mines, it's a ... well, a work area they don’t and can't control. But this here is their private turf. Every last one of them is willing to die to make sure their privacy is protected and that nothing happens to their home.”
The Grumlin took us to the shrine we had seen earlier. It was even more impressive up close; a real monument of love to a woman who had given her all to improve the Grumlins’ lot in life.
The Grumlin turned back to us and made a few more signing gestures, first to me and then to David.
“The little one’s apologizing for being so mean earlier,” Dilwyn explained. "He didn't know that you were friends of Millicent's."
The Grumlin made a few more gestures before pointing at the picture on the shrine. “Near as I can figure it, a lot of folks were downright mean to Ms. Pond there,” Dilwyn translated. “The last thing they wanted was for any strange humans to come by and desecrate her memory some more.”
“Can you tell him that wasn’t why we were here earlier?” I asked, wondering at the limits of Dilwyn’s language skills. But Dilwyn rose to the challenge and confidently tapped out the message, which led to yet another hand message from the Grumlin.
“He knows that now,” the substitute vet said. “But he is wondering why you’d come all this way if not to honor yours and his mutual friend.”
“Tell the
m we’re investigating Millicent’s murder,” David said.
Dilwyn’s face got worried. “You sure you want to phrase it like—“
“Yes, I do, Mr. Werelamb,” David said sternly. Then, more gently, he added, “Please…”
Dilwyn sent the message in a series of clicks and taps from his coin on the rock, and for a moment, the Grumlin didn’t say anything. It stood on the spot, every bit as immobile as the rock around him. Then it signed out a message. This time, less urgent, like he was taking his time to consider his answer.
“Glad he's moving a bit slower, or I’d not have caught all that,” Dilwyn admitted. “But the little guy is definitely confused. He’s saying that he heard it was a lightning strike that did Millicent in, just an unlucky bolt from the blue.”
“As best you can, tell him that it’s looking like it was anything BUT unlucky,” David said.
The Grumlin hadn’t moved an inch since his last message. For the longest time, he stood stock-still while Dilwyn passed on David’s latest communication. Then his mouth opened and a high-pitched whine came rolling from his throat and into the blackness. He attacked the nearest rock wall with a savagery that would have done justice to a grizzly bear attack. Dilwyn barely leaped out of the way as a spray of stray rocks began whirling around our heads. I had to hold up my own hand to keep some pebbles from hitting me in the eye. Finally, the blood-curdling cry and the destruction of the wall beside the shrine stopped. I thought I recognized the gestures he was giving Dilwyn before pointing at the newest hole made in the stone.
“Did he just apologize for doing that?” I asked.
“More like for losing his temper,” Dilwyn clarified. “They don’t like getting angry and are dead embarrassed when they do.”
While I was contemplating how a race this potentially destructive ever let themselves be exploited in the first place, the Grumlin signed some more words at a faster pace. Dilwyn tapped out the coin just as quick while our diminutive tour guide was “talking.”.
When the Grumlin was done, Dilwyn nodded and turned to us. “Little guy just said that if somebody really DID murder Millicent here, there was nothing on this earth that would keep them from the murderer.”
David frowned. “Make sure our host understands that my people will handle that side of things. All we’re looking for right now is some cooperation and information that could help with that.”
Dilwyn nodded again and tapped out the message. While that was going on, David observed, “It’s got to be their lack of size that made them slaves to the black diamond trade in the first place. If they were even twice as big as they are now—“
“Uh, sorry to interrupt, Chief,” Dilwyn said. “But the little guy just asked me what you all want to know.”
“Let’s start with the shrine to Millicent,” I suggested. “I’d really like to know what the significance of this is to them.”
An exchange of messages later, Dilwyn said, “This is the spot where Ms. Pond, Goddess rest her soul, first gathered his people with a message of hope.”
“And what was her message of hope?” I asked.
Dilwyn translated, “That they were free creatures who deserved better than to let a bunch of surface-dwellers use them for their own gain.” Dilwyn paused. "And, that this was their land, and that as indigenous people they had sovereign rights." The farmer cleared his throat. "Rights that aren't currently being exercised. Millicent, by all accounts, offered a pathway of education to rectify that."
“What about the fact that Millicent was a ‘surface dweller’ herself?” David pointed out.
“I was just getting to that,” Dilwyn said. “That just made her more credible in their eyes. Gotta say that it makes sense. I mean, who’d know better about the sins and transgressions of a particular race than one of its own citizens?”
The Grumlin signed something else, casting a sad glance to the shrine as he did so.
“There was also the fact that she was so ... I think the word he meant was ... 'different,'” Dilwyn interpreted. “I mean, Ms. Pond was definitely one of a kind, right?”
“And being different is a…I guess the word is ‘sin’ for the Grumlins?” I asked.
“I really don’t know,” Dilwyn admitted, crossing his arms in thought as he leaned against the wall behind him. “I’ve never seen rock people who looked that different from this fellow here. But they don’t seem to hate on their own for any kind of differences, near as I can tell.”
“Okay, so why choose this spot to make the big speech?” David asked, waving his hand around the cavern. “Leave the rope aside and it looks like the same kind of cave passage that we’ve seen everywhere else here.”
“Afraid I only know enough to ask the first of that,” Dilwyn cautioned him.
“Just as long as the question is asked.”
Werelamb posed the query, and the Grumlin gave us another round of critical look-overs. He must have liked what he saw because he gestured for all of us to follow him past the shrine. We followed, holding onto the guideline, which was running parallel to the route he was taking.
I noticed a dim red glow just around the next bend. The cord ran out just before the passage turned that particular corner. The light itself was unearthly, a dull, rusty red that seemed to cast no shadows from the nearby stalagmites and stalactites. The Grumlin seemed unafraid of the light as he turned the corner. A quick glance ahead through Faerie Sight revealed a large…'something' ahead. A 'something' that seethed with undeniably Fae type energies. It looked just big enough and wide enough to be a door.
The actual sight of it confirmed my guess. A swirling rounded mass stood in the center of the corridor, which dead-ended behind the strange sight. The outer edge of the mass was lined with red; the color gradually fading in hue until it became pitch-black at its heart. No question that what was standing before us was nothing less than a permanent, active, magical portal to parts unknown. Mag Mell?
The Grumlin stood in front of the gate and pointed at Dilwyn. It flicked its hands in a fierce click, shush, shush click. Dilwyn nodded and pointed at his ear. Whatever the little guy was about to say, he’d listen very carefully.
With slow shuffles of his hand, the unusual critter began to 'speak.' About twenty seconds into this gesticulated story, Dilwyn chimed in with his translation. “This portal wasn’t always here. About three years ago, the rock people were just burrowing through the caves as usual when one of them hit a large cache of the black diamond just under the floor here.”
Clearing his throat and swallowing, Dilwyn added, “It instantly killed the poor rock-man who was investigating the find. Just as if lightning had sprung from the stone rather than the sky. Those are the exact words of the little fellow here, by the way. Next thing anyone knew, the portal was standing in place of where the dead rock guy was.”
“Did they ever get any—“
Dilwyn held up his hands to both David’s question and the Grumlin’s storytelling. “No offense, Chief, but this will go much smoother if you could save the questions until after this little fellow is done talking.”
Dilwyn gestured for the Grumlin to continue. The small humanoid picked up where he had left off. “They didn’t waste any time telling their human mining ‘partners’ about it. This is sacred territory, this is their home, so obviously they were rightly concerned about a whirling vortex turning up in their hallway." The Grumlin kept clicking and shushing his tale. "Um, not sure what the little chap said there. Something about an important sacred stone, or something?" Dilwyn shrugged. "Anyway, some governmental busybody with the backing from private corporate interests told them that the portal was harmless. It was merely a conveyor belt of sorts. A new way to ship the diamonds efficiently. And, less dangerous too, than the methods they use in their usual mining site close to The BD Cathedral."
David and I nodded, urging him to continue.
"Okay, so a woman comes. The woman has 'tall' hair."
Dilwyn noticed our questioning faces. "Don't
ask, I'm doing the best I can here. Not my fault that some stuff might get lost in translation." We kept quiet.
"So this woman comes out here and shows them that the portal is safe. She picks up some BD and walks through the gateway as if she's walking into a library or something. Just breezes through. She's gone a few seconds, and then out she pops, back in this cavern, safe and sound."
Dilwyn clicked his coin on the wall and looked expectantly at the short creature. "Ah, okay. So, after the woman reappears on this side, safe and well, she instructs them that the bulk of the BD shipments would now pass through this gate instead of The Cathedral site. Tells them that they'll be paid a better wage and that all kinds of protective spells would be placed around this sacred area to safeguard their privacy and to keep them from prying eyes."
The Grumlin hung its head and sighed. He looked tired. I pondered whether Grumlins were big communicators in general, or whether they just preferred to be quiet in their subdued, underground terrain. He resumed his signing for Dilwyn to interpret. “Black Diamond mining is hard enough as it is. It takes a lot of cutting and a lot of manual transportation. But the amounts they were shipping through this gate was unprecedented."
Dilwyn took a deep breath. "No attention was brought to this location here. That's one promise the 'tall-haired' woman kept. Nobody knows about this site or this portal. And the area around it is charmed to the hilt." David and I nodded our understanding; the wacky behavior of the brooms confirmed Dilwyn's translation.
"Visitors are allowed into the main mine just by request. But, this location?" He waved his hands to include the tunnels and caverns of where we currently stood. "This site was, and is, a secret." He paused. "Until Millicent Pond found it, that is."
I had a hunch on how the rest of this story went, and I wasn’t disappointed. “She told them they were being used, and that she wanted to help. In turn, they allowed themselves to trust in her, and they showed her this ... this ... gateway.” I said, nodding my head to the throbbing portal.
The Black Diamond Curse (Hattie Jenkins & The Infiniti Chronicles Book 4) Page 16
