Into the Dragon's Den (Axe Druid Book 2)

by Christopher Johns

  “Reckon ye could swing a mean hammer,” Granda observed with a look of appreciation. “Yer at, what, forty-six strength now? Sure you don’t want ta pick up smithin’?”

  My eyebrows raised in shock, “Forty-seven—how did you know? And I’ll stick with enchanting; can’t beat Jaken at everything, can I?”

  Granda slapped his knee and pointed at Jaken as they both laughed. “Got ye good, lad. That was a good one. Aye, Jaken be learnin’ quick. Took ta the forge quick.”

  He walked over to the other side of the room. This wall was made of glass panes, and it did look out over the workshop floor. There was a medium-sized cot for him to lay in and a desk with several different designs of weapons or armor on them. It was hard to see from the entrance.

  The rest of the room itself was—surprisingly—covered in small trinkets and forged knickknacks. Hundreds of them. Each had a spot on shelves at the back of the room of varying sizes and complexity.

  One I saw looked like a tin soldier. Another was a wickedly curved dagger with a hilt that had a beard as a pommel. Another was a cup that reminded me of a canteen cup.

  “Admirin’ me collection, Zeke?” Granda had produced a long-necked pipe. As he packed it, he glanced over the shelves. “Every generation since I took me place as clan head, every would-be smith makes me an item. They let the metal speak to them, as they should, and bring me the product. Then I decide on if it be worthy—if they be worthy.” He lit his pipe and took a few small puffs before walking over to a particular piece. It was a small disc with a portion missing—a crescent moon.

  “This piece here was from yer friend, Jaken.” He showed it to us with a grin on his face. “Took to hammerin’ it right away. Took his time though, right proud I was. He molded the metal with his heart. He calls this ‘un Luna. One of me favorite pieces. It’ll be with me even when I rejoin the Mountain.”

  I looked over at my friend and saw there were tears forming in his eyes. I knew why too—his little girl at home. He had to miss her fiercely. Same as I missed my little boy. I wonder what he was doing. Probably sleeping right at that second. It had been night when I had gone to sleep on earth. Radiance, in her wisdom, said that there was a severe time dilation that meant that my physical body, all our physical bodies, were still technically asleep.

  I offered him a small nod in recognition, and he looked away. A moment later, we were accosted by the smell of delicious steak, ribs, and a mountain of steamed and sautéed veggies.

  “Help yerselfs, lads.” Granda piled food on to his plate with a thanks to the servers. “Eat yerselfs a hearty meal. We’ll have no’ one rumbly belly here.”

  The servers laughed at his hospitality joke, and we all tucked into various plates of food with the alcohol that customarily came with it. After the food was devoured and Granda belched with gusto, we sat back and stared at each other blearily as he re-lit his pipe. After a couple puffs, a long pull, and a cloud of surprisingly sweet smoke rippled from his nostrils, he addressed us again.

  “Thank ye fer abiding the Dwarven custom of no business with food in yer fat gobs, lads.” He took another draw of the pipe and observed us a moment longer. “Ye wish fer another axe then?”

  “Aye,” I replied. “Something different. I was wondering if you had any of that spell steel? What was it called?”

  “That’s the name, man,” Jaken corrected me. He produced a similar pipe of his own, and I looked at him oddly. “What? I smoke back home too. Besides, this stuff is nowhere near as bad.”

  I shook my head and looked back to Granda.

  “A weapon the size ye would need be a tall order, lad.” Granda puffed in thought. “Be mighty expensive—even with yer discount ‘cause I like ye.”

  “Could you maybe do a plating? Or an alloy?” I asked hopefully.

  Granda looked at me strangely. Closed his eyes a moment. Another moment passed. He took a long, hefty draw on his pipe, then shook his head. My heart fell. This was going to either be prohibitively expensive or just not happen.

  I looked back up at him, and he had a sad look on his face.

  But I had just told likely one of the smarter and best smiths in the whole of the Dwarven city that I had doubted his abilities. Even unknowingly.

  “I’m sorry, Granda—I had no idea…” I trailed off as his cheeks drew up into a sly grin.

  “Knew ye would’a been a fine smith, lad.” He took his pipe and smacked it on his boot before he stood. “Wait ye here. I’ll be right back.”

  He all but flew out of the door to his room and down the stairs yelling unintelligibly in Dwarven. Five minutes later, Granda and two other Dwarves, twins, charged back into the room with sacks over their shoulders. The two other Dwarves, bald-headed with greying beards and wolfish grins nodded to us as they began to upend their loot on to the desk.

  “Stop, ye silly lads!” Granda cried. “Me designs!”

  James was there in a blink to grab the precious papers and set them aside as metal pieces clanked on to the desk unceremoniously.

  “Thank ye, James—good lad.” Granda patted his shoulder and began to sift through some of the metals they had brought to him. “Now, these be metals that take a spell with little resistance. We took into account that it would be for an axe, so I had the lads grab metals we had a goodly supply of. Now, we will check to see which of ‘em will work well with this.”

  He produced an ingot of the pure white metal that he would be working.

  “Lads, sing to the metal.” Granda thumped the ingot on to the desk and looked expectantly at the two Dwarves with him.

  “Aye, clan head,” they said in unison.

  They turned to the metals before them and began to hum. One of them, the one behind the desk, began to sing a deep song.

  At first, I was confused, but Granda stepped over to translate for us in a hushed tone.

  It was about the beginning of the world from what I could understand. Of how Fainne gave the Dwarves metal to search for and use to create the way he had created them.

  The second Dwarf, the one in front of the desk, picked up the ingot, held it before his lips, and began to sing to it in a much deeper tone than his brother Dwarf. Before my eyes, the metal in his hand began to vibrate slightly, and as it did so, he nodded to his brother.

  After that exchange, the Dwarf behind the desk began to sing lower than he had before. This verse he sang was about the finding. The finding of the first vein of ore and how the Dwarves had celebrated and sang the praises of their find to Fainne for days. That he had returned that love with more ore and different kinds. That each ore had a brother and an opposite. That every ore was valuable in its own way.

  As they continued to sing, some of the ore began to vibrate in return. Each one that did, they picked it up carefully and held it to the ingot. Once they came close, they tapped them together, and a single peal of sound rang out. The first one, both Dwarves shook their heads and the Dwarf holding it sat it down, picked up another and held it up. Another no. They repeated the process six times until, finally, a beautiful ringing echoed around us.

  As they sat the ingot on the desk and handed the ore to Granda, they finished their song together.

  “Our thanks to the mountain for giving us this ore, our love to our father for favoring us with more,” they sang.

  Their voices died down, and they smiled together at all of us. They began gathering the other ores into their bags once more and finally stood in front of Granda.

  “Thank ye, lads.” They shook Granda’s hand as he thanked them. “Ye get ye downstairs and tell me Deltrif that ye earned a sip o’ her gran da’s,” he lowered his voice to a whisper, “secret stash of ale. She’ll know ye has. But just this once, lads. Honor.”

  “Honor,” they spoke back with a slight bow of their heads.

  Granda turned back to us and lifted the two metals. “Well, this will be interesting. I’ve never know’d ta have this metal—call it Mage bane—make any kind of alloy with another, let alone with
Spell Steel. It’s much easier to work with though. The key will be getting it to the proper temperature. We don’t have the proper things we would need to do so.”

  “Could we make something for you?” I offered. “Between Shellica and I, we could possibly make a bucket that would be able to withstand the lava.”

  Granda froze and looked to Jaken, who immediately held his hands up in his defense. “I only told them and swore them to secrecy. They understand what’s at stake.”

  Granda eyed the two of us and nodded after a moment. “Good judgment call, lad. I wish ye would have let me know first, but ye weren’t reckless with it. And what did ye have in mind, Zekiel?”

  “Well, walk me through your process. You need to make ingots first, right?” I asked.

  “For a sophisticated weapon as I’d be makin’? Aye.”

  “How do you do that?” I began to try and put together ideas in my head.

  “We have a smelter that we’ve built over a pool o’ lava that helps melt the ore down, and then we take the melt and pour it into a mold. Then they cool,” Granda explained, “but the heat necessary for us to smelt this would need to be even hotter than the smelter can manage. Mage bane be needin’ a large sum o’ heat ta work, much much more’n spell steel. Ta marry the two? We’d need more than the heat above the lava flows.”

  That gave me hope. “So if we were to make a bucket that could withstand the heat of the lava itself and the tools to handle it safely?”

  He thought about it for a moment, so I decided to sweeten the deal a bit. “I will pay you for the tools, and I will pay for the enchanting. After, you can keep them.”

  Granda thumped the desk. “I’ll give ye the tools, let ye pay for the magery, then I’ll take that price out o’ the weapon for letting me keep the Mage tools.”

  “I can see that being agreeable.” I smiled. That had honestly been the best case scenario for me. “But what else?”

  “Come, let’s get ye the tools.” He began down the stairs, then stopped with a serious look on his face. “I trust ye’ll let me do the designing?”

  “I will.” I smiled, then pointed to James. “James wanted something similar to this as well.” He showed him Flame Fang. “Can you help?”

  Granda looked the weapon over. “Design is by one of my kin. Ye want another of the same, or something different?”

  “Either way.” James shrugged happily. “I just want to be able to do extra damage with my fists.”

  “I’ll put word out ta me smiths and see who wants it. They’ll fight over it like wolves, ‘ey will, and the best design will win out. Ye trust me ta choose for ye?”

  James nodded, and we continued down the stairs. Granda took us across the building to the far wall that had what looked like open nooks that reminded me of open-faced lockers. Each one had a nameplate and several tools inside. Down the row, closest to the rear wall, Granda opened a door, went into it, and grabbed a large, thick metal bucket with a lid, a long pair of tongs, and a pair of thick gloves.

  “Here,” he passed them over to me, and I put them into my inventory. He dusted his hands off, then looked at us. “Ye have any specifications on what yer weapons be like? O’ course, other than having the spell steel added to yer weapon, Zekiel.”

  “Yeah, could the counterbalance on the head of the axe be a hammer’s head?” I asked.

  Granda nodded and looked over to James. “All I want is to be able to punch people. These ones have spikes, and that’s cool. But maybe a little something that can pierce a bit more?”

  “Aye, we can take it inta account,” Granda said with a wink. “Anything else, lads? Ye want ta stay for a pint?”

  “We need to get back and be ready for tomorrow, Granda, but thanks for the invitation,” Jaken said. “I’ll see you for more training in the morning?”

  “Ye’d bet’er!” Granda growled. “Working on some good items, hear?”

  “I hear ya.” He pushed his fist forward, and Granda rapped it with his own.

  Our walk back was quiet enough as I began plotting what kind of enchantments I would need to possibly do. I’d better use some components too. I’d have to see about maybe having Shellica go with me to get some in the morning.

  Chapter Twelve

  That night, I was visited by Maebe in her shadow form.

  “Hello, my champion,” she greeted me quietly.

  I damned near jumped out of my skin and tried to hide it, but she was already giggling.

  “Hi, Mae.” I sat up.

  My shirt was off, and I had let Coal come out. He had to sleep away from the walls, and on a sheet of metal the Dwarves had furnished me with to protect the floors.

  “I see you have collected another pet,” she observed. It was strange that the Flame Wolf had no idea she was there, but given that the spell seemed to be for people of Celestial blood, maybe he couldn’t hear her at all.

  “I have.” I smiled. “His name is Coal. I’m keeping an eye on him, helping him get stronger until he can go home to the Primordial Flame Elemental.”

  “Ah, so you are a protector now?” She stepped clear of the shadows and moved toward me in her shadow form. She sat next to me on the bed. “I come bearing news.”

  I looked at her. “Have you finally heard from Samir?”

  “I have.” She folded her hands in front of her on her lap and spoke. “He says that you are not to come back to his lands unless it is in pursuit of a creature like the one he took care of.”

  My stomach sank a bit, and my heart felt heavy. I knew it was a long shot, but I wanted to be able to see her again.

  “He did, however, give me leave to come to you,” I could see a small smile on the shadow’s face, “and he has shown me a way to cross over to you and return.”

  “This is great news!” I almost shouted. “But wait,” I looked at her, “what’s the cost?”

  Her shadowed gaze fell, “I see you did not forget your time among us, but the cost verse the reward was minor to me. I am free to come to this side of the veil whenever I please so long as the Seelie Fae are allowed to do the same as I in this realm. Not come here, but that they can send representatives.”

  “Okay, so they have some people here trying to—what?—make themselves out to be the better of the two representatives from the Fae realm?” I smirked. “They’re monsters. Their beauty is a lie. No one will be able to believe them over you guys because your people have already begun doing good works in your name.”

  One of which was taking over as leadership for Maven Rock. Nurturing the people.

  “Like I said—it was a small price to pay.” She smiled.

  I tried to hug her shadow, but my arms passed through. “Soon.” She nodded. “I will go so that you can sleep, but when you are ready, I will come. I will not be able to control where the tear is, but I will send a shadow to you so that we can find each other.”

  I smiled reassuringly. “I can’t wait.”

  She nodded once, then the shadows dissipated where they were.

  I laid down and tried to fall asleep, but I was too excited. It took a while, but I got there, eventually.

  I woke up the next morning to Coal scratching at the door and barking. “Wassat, boy?” I groaned. My mouth was dry, and my tongue felt thick. “Lil’ Timmy fall down the well?”

  The Flame Wolf looked at me oddly and sent me the impression of food.

  “Fair. Let’s go get some then.” I scratched my chest, then stood to get dressed. I grabbed some fresh clothes and changed before stepping out the door with Coal in tow.

  We walked into the mess hall, and I grabbed a plate of food from one of the kind Dwarves running the line. I also grabbed a large plate of meats, then another. The Dwarf behind the table looked at me oddly, but I gave him a wink and walked off.

  I strolled outside with Coal nipping at my heels. “Quit that shit!”

  He growled and barked at me again. “Look, man. If I spill this food, I put you back without eating.”

  H
e seemed to understand the threat because he slunk sullenly behind me.

  Once we were in the courtyard, I called Kayda from the collar and sat Coal’s food down. He tucked in immediately and took huge chomps of bacon and ham into his jaws.

  Kayda watched him eat, fascinated at his voracious manner. He finished the food quickly, then began to look for more. He looked up at her plate and began drooling. Kayda reached down with her beak and scrapped off a large piece of ham. Coal caught it on the way down.

  Brother funny, she spoke to me. She eyed him, then repeated the action.

  “Sweetheart, you need to eat too,” I reprimanded her gently. She eyed me for a moment, took half the food from the plate and ate it herself in a show of her size. Then she shoved her head at Coal. Getting the idea, I sat that plate on the ground, and Coal snatched up the remainder happily.

  “You know, you share really well,” I observed out loud to her. Through our connection, I said more, You would’ve made a great sister. I know you’ll take good care of Coal. Thank you.

  Kayda bumped my shoulder with her head affectionately and then ducked her head down next to her brother. Coal’s tail wagged wildly and began to lick the side of her beak in gratitude.

  “Time to go home, guys.” I called Coal back into my body in a burst of heat. Then I touched Kayda and willed her into the collar.

  I reached out to Shellica via Mental Message, “Wake up, shit granny. Could you meet me in the markets? I need to find some components for an enchantment that I’ll need for Granda to make a weapon for me.”

  A pause, then, “He wants you to enchant something for him?! When will you be there? I’m on my way now.”

  I laughed and left the compound to head toward the market. The city was bustling. Merchants called out their wares, and I watched as several different sales took place. I spotted Shellica waiting for me near a stall and walked over to her.

  “About time, lad,” she muttered sullenly. “What are you enchanting?”

  “A thick, lidded bucket, a pair of long tongs, and a set of gloves,” I told her bluntly. “I need to enchant the bucket for heat resistance and transference. The tongs to resist heat, a lot of heat, and the gloves for the same.”