***
It was cool and damp outside. That was to be expected in a city that was built completely underground. Dwarves were renowned for their metal-working abilities, but in order to get that metal they had to be very proficient at tunneling. And they were. They had mined out the entire complex that Hammertown was built in, and even though it was a small civilian town, that was still impressive. I pulled the collar of my trench coat up and checked my shoulder holster for the third time since leaving the office. Talk of elves made me nervous, and Elven Artifacts doubly so. It felt kinda like finding a hand grenade taped to your toilet seat.
I got in the car and fired the steam engine. I hadn’t driven it all day so it took it a few minutes to build up the pressure to run the drive train. As I waited for the pressure to build, I glanced around to make sure no one had me under surveillance. There was no reason for them to, and if they were using magical means I wouldn’t know it anyway. Like I said I was nervous. If elves were operating in Hammertown, they wouldn’t want word of it getting out.
The gas streetlamps cast eerie shadows all around, and the night seems to be watching me, just waiting to pounce. I opened the throttle valve and engaged the drive train. I felt a little better as I pulled out onto the main road. After all, it was harder to hit a moving target, and I felt like I had a bulls-eye painted on my back. There wasn’t any way the Elves could possibly know of my involvement. I wasn’t even sure if I was involved enough to be a target yet. Now Kenson on the other hand… I stopped that train of thought before I could follow it out. Chances are, if he didn’t make the drop, they already knew about him. And he would be a target. That thought made me goose the car a little more. I wasn’t sure what I could do for him, but I knew I couldn’t do it from here.
Yon’s Lab was really just a rickety old storage building that he had converted into some semblance of a workshop. It was only about ten minutes away from my office, which tells you what kind of neighborhood he had moved in to. I really couldn’t understand Yon. His father was part of the upper crust. A real muckety-muck with the Gnomish Business types here in the city. All Yon had to do was ask and his daddy would have bought him a Lab complete with all the latest equipment. Yet Yon insisted on earning everything he got. I respected that. I didn’t understand it, but I respected it.
I pulled up to the front of the lab and started to blow the whistle, then thought better of it. The dwarves who were at home in this neighborhood probably went to bed at six sharp, and they wouldn’t appreciate me waking them up by blowing the steam whistle over and over. Especially with me being human and all. Besides, Yon wouldn’t pay any attention to it anyway. He can be kinda scatter-brained at times.
I got out of the car and walked up to the front of the storage building, but before I could knock the door flew open to reveal a gnome dressed in soft brown leather. A white scarf was wrapped around his neck and a dark brown long coat covered it all. A skullcap with ear flaps was snugged down on his head, completing the outfit. The gnome stood there looking at me like he had abruptly forgotten what he was about to say. His sudden appearance startled me bad enough, that I had my pistol halfway out of its holster before I realized it was only Yon. Like I said, I was a little nervous.
“You almost got to try out one of your Splinter-Slugs,” I re-holstered my pistol.
“Yikes!” he said, turning a little pale. “You’ve got to be pretty skittish to be packing the Heavies.”
“What’re you jerking the door open like that for anyway?”
Yon blushed and moved back into the lab, motioning me to follow him. Now Yon is a brilliant inventor, but he is a terrible housekeeper. Piles of tools are everywhere on his workshop benches like fish at market. Gadgets and gizmos of all shapes, sizes and design can be found along the walls and floor, usually under odd-looking diagrams with coffee stains and notes adorning them, undecipherable to anyone but Yon.
“When you asked me about the Artifact, I got to thinking,” He said loudly. A little too loudly for me to be comfortable with. “This would be the perfect time to test out my new gadget. If I can just remember where I put it.”
“We need to hurry, Yon,” I said with just a touch of impatience.
“I know, I know, Boss. Just help me find it and we can go.” Yon always called me Boss for some reason. Even though I never paid him in anything more than returned favors. I think he liked the idea of helping me with my cases. Most of them weren’t really that interesting.
“What does it look like? And what does it do?”
“It’s a Scrying Machine. You might’ve read about it in the paper.”
I did remember some odd story about a new invention of some sort. I just couldn’t remember anything more than the headline; Scrying Machine:Future Blood Hound of the Civil Watch? in the Hammertown Herald.
“I dimly recall something about it, but what good will it do us?”
“When I found out about Carinodite a few weeks ago, I was totally fascinated with it,” He said as he rummaged through the piles of parts. “Carinodite is a mineral that has a sympathetic affinity to magic. It reads the aura or signature of a type of magic.”
“You lost me.”
“You see, anytime somebody uses magic it leaves a resonance, kind of like the smell of gunpowder after someone fires a projectile weapon. Well, my Scrying Machine brings that resonance into the optical plane.”
“Say again?”
“It makes the trail visible to…well, not to humans, but to any being with the ability to see in infravision.”
“And how will that help us?” I asked as I picked up what appeared to be a pocket watch glued to a leather bracer.
“Well, an interesting side effect to using the mineral this way was the ability to categorize the magic used. The humans that use magic mostly stick to water, or sound magic, while dwarves and gnomes use deep Earth or mineral magic. And elves…”
“Elves use Dark Sorcery or Demon Magic. I follow you now.”
“Ahaha!” he exclaimed dragging a leather suitcase from underneath a pile of charts. “This is it.”
“Great! Now can we go?”
“Sure, just waitin on you, Boss.”
I rolled my eyes and started toward the door, just then remembering I was still carrying the Pocket-Watch-Gadget-Thingy.
“What is this, Yon?”
“It’s a Forearm Watch. So when you’re busy you don’t have to hunt your pocket -watch down.”
“That’ll never fly.” I grimaced and pitched it onto the nearest workbench. “If you’re busy, chances are you’re using your hands. If you’re using your hands you won’t have time to look at your forearm either.”
“True,” Yon said as I passed him and headed for the door. “I hadn’t thought of that.”
There Shouldn't Be Elves In Hammertown Page 2
