by Debra Dunbar
And his reply was in English. A dwarf knew English. Other than Rutter and Kirby, he was the only one I’d encountered so far who had.
“Did Kirby speak with you about possibly accompanying me to see the dwarf lady in the swamps?”
He shot me a puzzled frown. “No.”
I got the impression that he wasn’t going to take me. Just in case the answer was ‘no’, I decided to see if he knew anything about dwarven agriculture.
“Does Clan Clawhammer live in the mountains or the swamps? Or in the desolate demon lands around Dis?”
A long silence followed my question. “Clan Clawhammer is a mountain clan, but several of us have spent a few centuries in the demon lands for business purposes.”
Irix had said that dwarves acted as foster parents for groups of demon young, but this man didn’t look like a childcare provider. Not in the least.
Andor turned his back to me, but I pressed on. “I’m here to help the humans develop crops and plant life that can thrive in the changing conditions of Libertytown. Without the elven environmental controls, the wheat and oats they are planting now won’t be viable in another year. Already harvests are at a dangerously low level. I’m hoping to look at plants that dwarves use as food and perhaps replicate them here.”
He shot me an odd look over his shoulder. “You’re an elf who speaks a human language, and wants to help the humans. Why?”
“Because their other alternatives are death or crossing the gates to a world some of them left behind as infants. I want migration to be a last resort. I’m hoping they can manage to carve a life out here in Hel, just as the dwarves have.”
Silence fell heavy in the room. I wasn’t sure the dwarf would speak again, but was determined to keep my mouth shut and wait him out.
“The mountain plants might not thrive here, but the dwarf you asked to see, the one who lives in the swamp, knows the flora and fauna in this area better than most. She could tell you which plants are edible. Sometimes she demands a price.”
My heart sank. Did this dwarven lady take Visa? Or maybe the three twenties I had in my back pocket? “What sort of price?”
Andor shrugged. “I don’t know. That’s for her to decide. If that’s the reason you want to meet with her, I’ll take you. I’m going past there on my way back.”
For someone who seemed predisposed to dislike me, he was being very accommodating. I smiled and thanked him, thinking about what I might bring that would repay the woman for her information.
Kirby came back to the room, looking back and forth between us with a slight frown on his face. “Amber is here to help us turn around our crop failures. She’s a half-elf/half-demon who was raised as a human the other side of the gates. I was going to ask if you’d escort her to visit the Oma in the swamp, so she can find out about some of the plants indigenous to this area.”
Andor gave me a sharp nod and turned to face the mage. As dismissive as the gesture seemed, I got the feeling that Kirby’s recommendation carried some weight with him. And I particularly noted that he didn’t bat an eyelid at the mention of my half-breed status. That gave me some hope that he wouldn’t sell me out to the elves or the demons the moment we’d left the city.
The dwarf completed his transactions with Kirby, and he, Rutter, and I headed out. The swamp lands were only an hour or two walk from Libertytown, and Rutter promised to have me back before nightfall.
After the first hour of walking, the red sand became dotted with coarse grasses. Eventually the grasses took over and a few stunted trees emerged. I could smell the sulfur from the swamps ahead, and as foul as the odor was, at least it signified water.
“Where do the swamps come from? I mean, I can see the landscape transition, but it seems abrupt for such a short distance. There must be something feeding into them.”
Andor adjusted the pack on his shoulder, then glanced over at the pool. “The water is stagnant, so if they’re spring fed, it’s not significant. Change in Hel is abrupt – and not just climate and landscape. It’s the demons. They are chaos incarnate.”
The demons affected the environment? Just their presence, or was it intentional? We made our way around the marshy areas, Andor keeping us on the narrow path of solid ground between what looked like thick quicksand and fetid water. I smacked at the bugs the size of small birds that were determined to take a bite out of any exposed flesh. A small house appeared in the distance. It was stone with a tin roof, a curl of smoke coming from the chimney. As we got nearer, I saw a carved staff by the door with a metal end.
“This is the Maugan Swamp,” Andor told me. “And this house belongs to Oleana Clawhammer.”
I could hear the reverence in his voice. The door opened and a woman stood on the threshold. Her red-brown face was heavily lined, with a broad nose and piercing gray eyes. Thick silver braids hung from either side of her head, almost brushing the ground. She wore a dark blue apron over a long, blue and white checked dress. Bare feet peeked out from beneath the hem. She spoke, and Rutter translated for me.
“Andor! It has been far too long since you’ve visited me.”
My dwarven escort hustled forward to place a kiss on the thick silver ring that the woman wore on her thumb. “Oma, I have brought someone who requests the gift of knowledge.”
He spoke to her in English. Were dwarves especially skilled in languages or did they have lots of contact with English-speaking humans? I had thought Rutter would need to translate for everyone I’d meet, but it seemed some of the residents of Hel did speak my language.
The woman peered at me, her scrutiny making me feel like a bug on a collector’s board. “Is this your woman, Andor? I saw in the leaves that you would love outside of the dwarven race, but I didn’t foretell this elf/succubus woman.”
Andor looked appalled. “No, she is not my woman. Mage Kirby brought her through the gates from her human home to assist them in crop production.”
She snorted. “More likely she’s going to help them have an orgy. Come in, come in. Normally I’d chase this girl away with my staff, but I’m intrigued. And she is easy on the eyes.”
“I’m honored to meet you Ms. Clawhammer,” I said, bowing. “My name is Amber Lowrey, and as Andor said, I’m here in Hel to help the humans develop sustainable agriculture in the changing climate of Libertytown. I’m hoping you can help me identify appropriate indigenous plants and perhaps point me to where I can obtain samples.”
She waved me in, herding me toward a long wooden table with a series of doodles carved into the surface. I sat down into a straw-backed chair. There was another dwarf in the room – one that looked to be not much older than Andor but with golden blond hair and beard. The two male dwarves spoke, then the blond one walked over to Oleana and placed a loud kiss on her cheek. The elderly dwarf scowled, but the edge of her mouth curled into a smile as she smacked the dwarf on the ass with a spoon. Then she turned and stirred the contents of a stock pot with the same spoon while the two male dwarves left the house together.
“Are you hungry?”
What else did she use that spoon on before it went into the pot? Before I could politely decline, the dwarf woman set a bowl of hot soup in front of me and shoved a spoon into my hand. Rutter also got a bowl and went to sit in the corner to eat. I could hardly claim not to be hungry without offending her, so I blew on a spoonful of the soup and ate it.
Holy cow it was spicy. But good. Even though I was not particularly hungry and seriously concerned about the food sanitation practices in this kitchen, I still ate the soup. Tasty was tasty. I just didn’t want to know what was in it or where exactly that spoon had been.
“Humans,” the dwarf complained. “Always wanting to talk business before food. It’s a rudeness I tolerate, assuming that a short lifespan means they need to rush everything. I expect better of you, half-elf. The humans in Libertytown won’t starve to death in the next few hours. Eat your dinner, then we will talk.”
I’m ashamed to admit that I cleaned the bowl, a
nd even graciously accepted a second helping. Rutter got some meat jerky stuff after his soup and sat by my feet, gnawing on it while I slurped away. Once I was done, Oleana picked up the dishes and put them in a wash basin, then she sat down opposite me and folded her hands together.
“Roots are your best bet. Eight different varieties thrive in this acidic soil, but you’ll need irrigation. Get used to no trees unless you can somehow bring enough water up from the ground to support them, too. I assume the priority is food, so you might want to forget about shade for the time being.” She stood and pulled a box from under the counter, then disappeared through a back door. Seconds later she had returned, handing me the box. Inside were bunches of roots with the tops still attached. They looked similar to our parsnips and turnips, and I was willing to bet the leafy greens would be just as edible as the tubers. This would help, but the humans at Libertytown would need more variety than this for diet as well as crop rotation.
“How about any of the desert plants? I’m assuming not those tumbleweeds, but is anything else edible?”
She pursed her lips. “Some of the cactus down near Dis is edible, but it wouldn’t be the best use of field space. Maybe they could use it as an ornamental, or along the edge of the planted fields.”
“Thanks. How about a leafy green or a vegetable? Would something like zucchini or radicchio grow there? Grain?” I asked.
“The grasslands between the desert and the swamps don’t have edible plant life. Up in the mountains we grow grains and vegetables with very little water, but the temperatures in Libertytown are already too high for those to survive. There is a thick-skinned fruit that grows on a succulent near Dis. It’s like a pomegranate. Honestly, your biggest problems are the lack of water and the swings in temperature between day and night. The high elves modified the environment to a great degree, but small changes would go a long way toward making Libertytown sustainable for humans.”
These roots might be all the humans could grow, and even then I would have to figure out a way to irrigate. Pomegranates were a possibility. And if I could somehow manage to bio-dome the fields to hold the heat in at night and filter the intense daytime sun, we might be able to do grains and vegetables from the mountains. I’d seen plastic sheeting used to protect against frost, keeping the heat from escaping sun-warmed ground during the nighttime hours. Even if they didn’t have plastics here, I could convince Sam to send a few thousand rolls across the gates. That would take care of the evening temps, but I still needed to deal with the intense daytime heat and the lack of water.
“I might be able to use some human techniques from across the gates to stabilize the temperate. Combine that with some genetic modification, and it might be possible to get the drought-resistant mountain plants to survive.”
The dwarf pursed her lips then nodded. “I’ll have Andor escort you there and introduce you to Svetek. She’ll give you some samples that you can take back.”
I looked down at the box she’d just given me. “Can I pick this up on the way back?”
She smiled, the wrinkles on her cheeks creasing into deep lines. “I’ll have someone deliver them to Libertytown. That way you don’t need to carry them yourself.”
“Thank you.” Things were looking up. It wouldn’t be an easy road for the humans here, but there seemed to be a dim light at the end of the long tunnel.
“You said we’d need to bring the water up for irrigation. I’m assuming there is a spring system that runs under the desert? How deep is the water table, and how can we divine where the lines run?”
Oleana chuckled. “Smart girl. Seems you’ve got more to you than sex after all. Yes, there are underground streams, but they are far underground. In the area of Libertytown, I’d guess anywhere from three thousand to ten thousand feet below the surface. And, of course, that makes divining for their location difficult. I think there are some maps of the underground waterways that the elves commissioned. If you could get your hands on those, it might make water location easier.”
It would, but then there would be the issue of drilling so far and pumping the water to the surface. Did anyone in Hel have the technology for that sort of thing? I’m sure they had basic wells, and maybe used magic for these purposes, but a ten thousand foot well was not something that could be accomplished with a flick of a wand, as far as I knew.
“Do you have any other suggestions?” I asked her.
“Have the humans leave Hel. The demons won’t care if they starve. The elves won’t care if they starve. They’re on their own if they persist in trying to carve an independent existence here. It’s going to be difficult. It might be easier to face the challenges of returning home.”
I thanked her. As Rutter and I got up to leave she halted me with an outstretched hand. “Don’t you wish to know your future, half-elf?”
My future. My long, tens of thousands of years’ future. I’d watch the humans I loved die. I was despised by my mother’s people, and viewed as a play toy by my sire’s. Those were the constants of my future. The unknowns were whether Irix and I would spend it together, and that was one question I was terrified to know the answer to.
“No. I don’t want to know my future. Thank you for the offer, though.”
She chuckled. “Wise. My parting advice to you, then is to love with your heart, not just your body.”
It was something I tried to do every day.
Chapter 5
Along with the sample root vegetables, Oleana also sent word to Kirby that we’d be gone longer than just the afternoon. When Andor initially informed me that it was a three day walk to the mountains, I’d hesitated. I’d planned to be in Hel only a few days, a week max. Six days back and forth to the mountains, plus another few days modifying plants and assisting with irrigation would cut it close. I had a much-anticipated internship in two weeks, so I couldn’t stay here longer than planned.
I’d stood there outside of Oleana’s house, biting my lip and wondering if I could make plans to come back in the fall and what my half-done project would mean to Irix’s immunity. Andor was packing a large bag with foodstuff and water, and another with what looked like bedrolls. Just as I was about to tell him I couldn’t go, he turned to me, his dark eyes intense as they took in my expression.
“If you’re willing to move fast, we can do the journey in a little over a day. And I’ll give you one of my elf buttons for the return trip.” He looked over at Rutter and sighed. “Two of them.”
Elf buttons? I looked down at my t-shirt and jeans, wondering what elf buttons were for. Maybe I was supposed to trade them to someone for a horse? Didn’t seem like a fair trade to me, but I didn’t know how such things worked in Hel.
“They’re an elven-made transportation device that looks like a push-button. The ones I have will take you and your demon escort right outside of Patchine, which is only a few hours walk from LIbertytown.”
He turned his back on me and continued packing. These elf buttons sounded expensive. I thought about the twenties I had in my pocket, about my Visa card. “How much do you want for them?”
“Nothing. I’ve collected quite a few of them over the last few centuries. Things like that are a better trade than the ‘favors’ demons like to offer. Besides, I won’t be able to accompany you back and a half-elf girl with a Low will most likely be dead before you pass through the Gray-bridge Gap.” He looked up at me briefly. “I promised Kirby you’d be back. I intend to make good on that promise.”
“Thank you.” I took the pack he handed me and slung it across my shoulders. Without another word, the three of us set out west through the swamps.
After a few hours, the swamps cleared and once again I faced an endless landscape of tall grass and the occasional gnarled tree. Off in the distance were gray shadows that I assumed were mountains. I really wanted to let Rutter take a turn carrying my pack, but Andor announced we were going to “jog” and I wasn’t sure the Low could keep up with the two of us if he was carrying a pack. I eyed the dwarf
with his short legs and pack of his own and wondered if Andor would even be able to keep up. I was an elf. I was fast, even if I had an additional twenty pounds on my back.
I needn’t have worried. Andor took the lead with a pounding, steady, surprisingly long stride. I could have easily outrun him, but after two hours of this pace I was feeling as if my legs were about to fall off. I was clearly the sprinter where the dwarf was the marathoner. Rutter was no slow-poke either, although he tended to dart off to look at interesting lizards or trees, then complain loudly when we wouldn’t slow down for him to catch up. Night fell, and Andor kept going, never missing a step. What was he, Super Dwarf? Didn’t the guy get tired? Hungry? Thirsty? I had excellent night-vision, but still I tripped over an unexpected rock and did a face-plant onto the ground, sliding forward in the dirt from my momentum.
Andor halted and watched me get up. I was glad it was dark because I was probably covered in dirt with road-rash on my hands and arms.
“We’ll camp here.”
More welcome words were never said. I collapsed where I stood and pulled the pack from my back, yanking out a blanket before tossing it over to the dwarf. I didn’t care if I ate or drank, I just wanted to sleep.
Sleep proved elusive with my aching legs, and it was difficult to find a place on the ground that wasn’t littered with rocks. I sat up and watched Andor unpack a selection of meats, cheeses, bread, and fruits. My stomach rumbled and suddenly food was more important than sleep.
Rutter finally caught up with us, and I half listened to his chatter as I ate. Immediately after I’d finished my food, I was asleep on the rocky ground, dreaming that I was still running through the grasslands.
Chapter 6
“Shh.”
I awoke with a start to a hand over my mouth and someone’s arm pressing me into the ground. Andor. He took the hand away when he realized I wasn’t going to scream and sat back on his heels.
