Pat's face drooped and she narrowed her eyes. "I fail to see the difference."
"Ah don't, but that's not what we need ta be worrying about right now. That fool who led us here is Danto, the king's dog-servant."
"Dog-servant? You mean lieutenant?" Pat wondered.
"Ah mean what Ah say, but you can call him that if ya want. Anyway, he and Ah go back a ways, and Ah can tell ya he won't take kindly to us. Doesn't like outsiders in general, and humans in particular," Canto told them.
"Funny. He didn't seem out for our heads," Percy commented.
"But he wanted your head quite badly," Pat added, addressing Canto.
"Like Ah said before, Ah've had dealings with him and he isn't going to be on our side," Canto insisted.
"So what do you suggest?" Percy asked him. "Should we make our escape before this Danto fellow returns?"
Canto glanced around them with his narrow, alert eyes. "Won't work. Too many here to deal with. Just let me do the talking and we'll get out of this."
Pat snorted. "Letting you do the talking got us into this," she pointed out.
"And Ah aim to remedy the situation, so keep quiet and follow my orders," he commanded.
At that moment Danto reappeared with a middle-aged dwarf. The new dwarf had a long, braided beard, and wore robes of fine horsehair. A crown sat on his head and sparkled with the fine craftsmanship of ancient ability. The guards in the courtyard knelt on one knee and laid their axes on the ground. The pair walked over and stood before the group, and the crowned dwarf studied the newcomers carefully. His eyes fell on Canto and he frowned. "Ya again, is it? Danto said ya came back, but Ah thought ya were smarter than that."
"Duty leads a dwarf, not their whims," Canto countered.
The king scoffed. "When was duty ever a concern of yers?" he wondered.
Canto narrowed his eyes, but bit back the snarky reply he longed to throw out. "Ah know ya have some qualms with me, King Piako, but these people have nothing to do with 'em." He jerked his head toward his companions. "Let 'em go and deal with me alone."
The king turned his attention to the human companions and Ruth disguised as such. Suspicion was written all over his face. "Ah think these fine people are better left as guests to my hospitality. What sort of a king would Ah be if Ah tossed my kingdom's guests back onto the streets cold and hungry?"
"And with our horses under your control," Pat grumbled.
"Why don't ya come inside for a feast? Ah assure ya nothing in the world is like dwarf cooking," King Piako invited them. The offer was made at the end of an ax point as the guards around them took their cue and closed in on the group.
Pat held up her hands and the others followed suit. "We'd be delighted," she hurriedly replied.
"Good, now follow me," the king commanded
CHAPTER 15
The king turned and walked back through the doorway. The companions behind him were led by the ax point, and the humans had to duck beneath the low archway to avoid hitting their heads on the dwarf-size door frame.
Ruth, unfamiliar with dwarven castles, expected dark, damp passages with filth on the floor. What she found instead were wide, brightly lit hallways with natural light from strategic slits in the high walls or thick torches hanging in slots in the walls. There were clean stone floors beneath their feet, and from the walls protruded intricate carvings of axes and warriors made of wood. They were crafted with such elegance that they seemed to grow from the very stone. The layout of the castle was a smaller version of the maze of streets in the city. Corners were at odd angles, and passages took lefts and rights with such frequency that she wondered if the architect had been drunk at the time he drew up the plans.
Pat leaned toward Canto. "Must even the castle be a maze?" she asked him.
He shrugged. "Every dwarf king wants to make his mark and does it by adding another wall in the castle."
King Piako guided them down a long, meandering passage to the rear of the castle. The end of the hall opened to an airy dining hall with a high, domed ceiling made of metal so thin it was transparent. Precious gems were placed in the walls to create a dazzling effect of light from the setting sun above the dome, and illuminated even the far corners of the square room. Regardless of the food dropped from half a dozen long wooden tables arranged in a three sides of a rectangle, the floors were more spotless than those in the hall. The last side was open to allow servers to move in front of the tables and jugglers to entertain guests seated in high, wooden chairs on the other side of the tables.
The largest seat, positioned on a pedestal, sat in the center of the long center side of the rectangle, and King Piako seated himself in that. On either side of him lay large cantankus, pets used to lick up the food that constantly dropped to the floor. Pat no longer wondered how the floors were so clean. He gestured for them to be seated on one of the short sides which was unoccupied, and their bindings were also cut to accommodate eating. The other two dozen chairs were taken by dwarves in various conditions of inebriation. An old dwarf woman shuffled around the tables with her cart picking up the bones the cantankus were done with and the dishes the other dwarves had tossed aside.
The king turned to the drunken dinner mates and frowned. "Got to the best wine before me? What do ya think of your king that ya won't wait for him before ya start yer meal?"
"We were merely toasting to yer honor, my king, and got carried away," one of the less plastered men spoke up. He stood and raised a goblet to Piako. "To the best king the dwarves ever had."
"Have," Piako corrected him.
"Have had," the dwarf amended. "And may his beard never fall out nor his ax never fail him."
"Here here!" came the cries from the drunken dwarves. Many of them raised their goblets only to have the contents spill over them. The cantankus sprang at them and there was a great yell when the beasts licked the drink off the revelers.
Three of the four companions looked at the sight with disgust, and Ruth had pity for them. Canto sneered at the lot. "What a sorry lot ya have here, Piako. We heard all the good ones had gone to the borders, but this proves it."
King Piako looked to Canto and narrowed his eyes. "What's there to fear with the borders protected?" he countered.
Canto scoffed. "Plenty, if ya know what's good for ya. That stone, fer one."
The king held up his hand and smiled. "Before we get down to business Ah'd rather we not do it on an empty stomach."
Servants hurried forward and set food in front of the king and the new guests. Pat, Percy, and Ruth glanced at the plates and cringed when the contents slithered onto the table and toward them. The food was a mess of live worms, horrible-smelling pudding, and meat that was either charred in hell for too long or just cut off the animal and set on the plate. They wanted to push the plates away, but the king noticed their hesitation and leaned toward them with his hard eyes drilling into them. "Ya too good for dwarven food?" he accused them. The three remembered Canto's story of the bloody civil war, and they all hurriedly shook their heads.
"Oh, no, not at all," Pat quickly replied. "It's just that, well, that we're not sure the proper manners to eat the food."
King Piako tilted his head back and let out a great laugh that the other dwarves joined. "Manners? Ya just dig in how ya please, and the best way to show yer appreciation is to eat it all." He demonstrated by shoveling a forkful into his mouth. Canto dug in and sloshed food over the table.
"Oh, well, I guess we'll just dig in then," Pat murmured. Percy, Ruth, and she slid the squirming worms onto their plates, pinned them beneath the meat and pudding, and had a pile of grub on their food that would have made grown men shiver at the sight. Pat took a rough fork in hand and dipped the prongs into the mess. She pulled out a squirming, living mass of slop that dripped onto the table and left stains that ate through the finish. She didn't want to imagine what it was going to do to her stomach. Pat looked to Percy's ashen face and saw his horror-filled eyes were locked on her fork.
"Is dwarven food poiso
nous to humans?" he whispered to her.
"I hope not," she quietly replied. Pat gulped, prepared her stomach, and shoved the fork into her mouth. She never knew suffering until she felt that mess known as dwarven food slosh around in her mouth. The worms tried their best to escape through her clenched teeth and the pudding exploded in flavors of vomit and earwax. Her face turned colors not known to most artists and with a Herculean effort she swallowed the muck. She shuddered and glanced at Percy. The muck on his fork had long fallen off, but he was too entranced by her eating antics to notice. "Eat something," she muttered to him.
"But I want to live," he protested.
"Eat something or we might not," she hissed. Percy hardened his jaws, picked up another forkful and shoved it into his mouth. He went for the shovel and swallow method, but he still felt the food twitch against his taste buds. The young man slapped his hand over his mouth and turned a ghastly shade of green. "Keep it in and lower your hand," Pat ordered him.
Percy slowly lowered his hand and leaned heavily over the table. "I believe we've just discovered a new torture device for Sins," he whispered.
Pat frowned at the mention of the assassin's name. "For once I wish I was with him," she grumbled.
King Piako finished his plate and released a belch that echoed around the room. He patted his stomach and sighed. "Nothing quite like dwarven food to fill the stomach," he complimented.
"I hope there's nothing like it elsewhere," Percy whispered.
The king turned to his guests and frowned when he noticed their nearly-untouched plates. "Still not eating?" he growled.
Pat cringed. "Well, you see, we ate before we-" Her words were interrupted by a loud burp from Canto as he finished his plate.
Piako glanced between her full plate and Canto's empty one. "Ya were saying?" he dared her to lie.
"They were saving it for me," Ruth spoke up. The humans turned their heads to their petite friend and were shocked to find her plate not only empty, but licked clean. She sheepishly smiled and licked a few loose drops of pudding off her lips. "They know I love dwarf food and saved part of their plates for me." She leaned over the table and slid their plates in front of her. Even the dwarves watched in awe as this small human girl packed away the mountains of food in front of her. She finished the muck in record time, and let loose a great belch at the end. Ruth glanced at her lap and blushed. "Excuse me," she whispered.
King Piako slammed the table and let out a great laugh. "What a sight Ah never thought Ah'd see!" he cried out in glee. "A human able to eat our food and like it!"
Pat nervously smiled. "Yes, she's quite the girl," she agreed.
"But Ah suppose with dinner over it's time we got down to business," the king insisted. He leaned toward the companions and looked them over one by one. "Now what do you know about the stone?" he asked them.
Canto pushed his empty plate to the side and shook his head. "It's nothing but trouble, and ya tapping on it ain't going to help matters," he replied.
Danto said ya knew some secret about breaking it open. What is it?" King Piako wondered.
"That breaking it open's a bad idea," Canto told him.
"Why's that?" the king persisted.
"Because what's inside is nothing but trouble."
The king frowned and atop the table he curled his hand into a fist. "Ah'm losing patience with yer stalling. What do ya know about the stone?" Piako demanded to know.
"That they're capable of destroying whole cities," Pat spoke up. "And if we're not careful Dirth could end up like Galaron."
"The traders sent some news about the place, but Ah haven't taken much stock of mere merchants. What can ya tell me happened to it?" the king wondered.
"It was destroyed by one of these stones, and the inhabitants were forced to flee to Tramadore," Pat told him.
King Piako sneered. "Just like humans to leave their city when the fighting gets too tough for 'em."
Canto narrowed his eyes. "These weren't yer normal armies where they've got their men lined up on one side and yers on the other. These armies keep coming out of the stones and don't stop until ya break it to bits."
"But how do you break it?" King Piako persisted.
"With a special item that the Stars might hold," Pat replied. "If we can ask their leader where it might be held then we can-"
King Piako jumped to his feet and slammed his fists on the table. "We're not going to be asking those things for anything!" he shouted.
Pat frowned. "But they might have the item to-"
"Ah don't care! Nothing good comes out of the Helpers except heat and light, and they're not providing us with either of 'em. Look!" He swooped his arm around the room at the darkening hall. The sun had nearly set and the light from the overhead dome was nearly useless. A group of servants hurried into the room with lit torches in their hands. They scurried to long, oil-soaked torches along the walls and lit them to provide light to the dark room. "We're needing to be using normal fire that doesn't last as long or burn as bright as their flames because they're clamoring for equal rights or some stupid things. Equal rights for a fire starter! We won't be brought down by their stupid demands!"
Pat's lips pursed together. "Are they that-" Canto's rough hand slapped over her mouth and he glared at her.
"Yer going to be getting us into trouble," he growled.
The trouble was already caused. King Piako stood and his furious eyes swept over the companions. "Helper sympathizers! Nothing but thieves to steal the stone and give it to those filthy things!" He turned to his guards who stood around the room and jerked his head toward his guests. "Toss them into the Keep and let them rot there until they've learned their lesson!" he ordered them.
The guards rushed up and grabbed the arms of the companions. Their arms were pinned to their backs and the ropes were tied around their wrists. They were hauled out of their seats, and pushed and shoved out of the dining hall to their unknown fate.
CHAPTER 16
Out in the hall Canto crashed into Pat and shot her a death glare. "Ya should have left the talking to me," he complained.
Pat snorted. "As though your words were wise," she shot back.
"Ah was getting a warning to that idiot and ya just had to butt in about those stupid Helpers."
"Stars," she argued.
"Helpers."
"Stars."
"Now is not the time, you two," Ruth's sensible words broke in on their argument.
"I must agree with Ruth. We have greater problems," Percy reminded them.
Their jailers shoved them down the slithering serpentine and into one of the countless side passages. Though this one was still clean, the passage was narrower and they were forced to march single-file down the hall. There were a dozen wooden doors on either side of the hall, and from a few of them emanated the sounds of waling and mumbling. Their march ended when they reached a thick wooden door at the end of the passage. The door was opened, the front guards stepped aside as well as they could, and the captives were pushed ahead into the room beyond the doorway. It turned out to be a dark, dank, square room with two cots against the far wall. The smooth, weathered walls were twenty feet high with slitted windows near the top and above their heads were only bars that crossed over the gap at the top to create a poor ceiling. The night sky shone above them, but their eyes were on the only entrance, and that was slammed shut behind them.
One of the guards peered through a few bars in a square hole in the door and sneered at the group. "Ya should be dragged out and drowned in the marsh for yer Helper-loving ways, but the king's feeling mighty merciful today. You'll stay here until yer called, and any tricks and ya won't get any food."
"What a travesty that would be," Percy murmured. They heard all the armor-wearing dwarves clink away.
"No guards?" Pat wondered.
"Ya heard what Shilo said. All the smart ones are at the borders," Canto reminded her.
"Well, that's an advantage for us." Pat turned to Ruth. "Any way you ca
n climb these walls?" she asked her.
"Perhaps, but my hands are tied so I can't reach my necklace. Someone must rub it for me," Ruth reminded her. The stone on her necklace lay just above her breasts. The two mens' eyes widened and their faces perked up.
"Ah'll be glad to help," Canto offered.
"You're too short. Allow me," Percy insisted.
"I'll do it," Pat spoke up.
Pat stepped up to Ruth, snatched the necklace, and lifted the jewel to Ruth's face. Ruth nuzzled the jewel, and in a moment she was transformed back into her gargoyle self. Her long fingers with their razor-sharp claws sliced through the ropes, and she did the same for everyone else's bindings. Then she walked over to the wall and wedged a clawed finger into the cracks between two stones. "I think I can, but I don't know if I can get through those bars and you're all too heavy for me to carry out."
"But you can go find Ned and Fred, and lead them to us," Pat pointed out.
"Are you forgetting about Sins?" Percy reminded her.
Canto sneered. "Ah wish Ah could," he muttered.
Percy smirked and pointed upward. "He hasn't forgotten about us." All heads turned up and they saw a shadowed head peek over the edge of the lip above them. "What news?" he called to him.
Sins' reply was to pull out his dagger and slice it through several points in the bars. A huge square chunk of the mess came toppling down into the cell, and Canto dove out of the way to avoid being squashed. The metal hit the ground with a loud, rattling clank. Canto rolled on to his back and glared at the assassin. "Two birds with one stone?" he growled.
Sins' eyebrows raised as though to shrug, and he pushed over a roll of rope. It slipped down and just touched the cell floor. Percy stepped up and tested the rope. It was strong and firmly fixed. He turned and smiled at the others. "Shall we?"
"Should we?" Pat asked them.
Percy frowned. "Would you rather stay here?"
"I would rather not make us escaped fugitives of an entire region," she argued.
"But we can't save these people if we don't escape," Percy pointed out.
The Unwilling Ambassador (Book 3) Page 10
