Song of the Serpent

by Hugh Matthews

  Krunzle said he would, but only under pressure. But you and I need to have a conversation about this partnership of ours, a free and frank exchange of views. And soon.

  Partnership? said Chirk. I was not aware we were in any such relationship. My impression was... An image formed in the thief's mind, of a man seated on a horse, with reins in one hand, a whip in the other, and spurs on the heels of his boots.

  I remind you, said Krunzle, that when Skanderbrog had to be dealt with, it was my strategy that won him over.

  He expected a disparaging critique of his point, and was surprised when Chirk said, That is true. There was a pause, then the snake said, At the time, however, your actions served your own interests. The question is: in less perilous circumstances, can you be trusted?

  I should have thought, Krunzle replied, that the question is: how can we arrange matters so that my interests receive some decent level of consideration? Because, when they are, then I have shown myself to be a ready and willing actor.

  Another pause, then: You are right. At least to this extent: we ought to have this conversation. But not now. Ask him the question I posed.

  Krunzle said, Give me a commitment to discuss my concerns. And a time.

  Very well, said Chirk. Before you sleep tonight.

  During this passage, Brond and Raimeau had been speaking about their dreams, and finding little in common other than the fact that they had both been motivated from within. The thin man had revealed, however, what Gyllana had admitted the night before by the light of their campfire.

  The leader of the Regulate was now more than a little interested in Berbackian, the errant Blackjacket. "He also was drawn by a dream?" he asked the woman. "What dream? And what did it command him to do?"

  Gyllana was reluctant to discuss it. "He may have been lying," she said. "It turns out he often did that, at least in my company."

  "I wish we had kept him longer, then," said Brond. "But he claimed to be carrying dispatches from the First Commissariote of Kerse to representatives of the Lumber Consortium in Falcon's Hollow. The Regulate wishes to retain good relations with all of our neighbors."

  "Though not Ulm's Delve," she said.

  "They are not friends to dwarves. Or I should say ‘were not,' now that you tell me the place has burned and its rabble are fled."

  "That was Krunzle's doing," said Raimeau.

  The bald head turned toward the thief. "Really? The Regulate owes you its thanks. They were a troublesome crew, and the gold should have been ours."

  Here was Krunzle's opportunity. But even as he formed in his mind a suggestion that the Regulate's thanks be expressed in a tangible form—preferably a round, shining, yellow form—Chirk nudged him. You will get more by asking for less, the snake said. Be modest, and ask about his aims for his movement. The advice was accompanied by the tiniest, briefest pressure around the man's throat.

  "It was nothing," Krunzle told the Noble Head. "Anyone would have done the same." He saw a momentary astonishment register on Gyllana's face, but pressed on regardless. "But, tell me, this movement you lead: where do you lead it to?"

  The bald head held itself erect and the whiskerless chin jutted out. "To the reestablishment of dwarven civilization, here in the Five Kingdoms. And, if I live to see all my plans bear their final fruit, the five will be united into one great republic. And every race on Golarion will turn their gaze to these mountains and say, ‘Behold, the dwarves are back.'"

  Prompted by Chirk, the thief said, "That is a noble goal, but it will take more than a few thousand dwarves, however dedicated, to achieve it. How will you go forward?"

  The gray eyes were thoughtful, then Krunzle saw the bald one come to a decision. "This is not something I would tell every passerby," Brond said, "but, obviously, we are not causally met. All of this,"—he gestured to include the hive of industry outside the windows—"is but the staging area for our true project."

  He paused, theatrically, then went on. "Not far south of here lies Mount Sinatuk. It is a fire mountain, though it has not spewed brimstone and lava in living memory. Indeed, our oldest texts on geology make no mention of an eruption."

  It was, however, a well-watered mountain. The abundant rainfall on the upper slopes sank deep into its substrata, where the moisture met heat and became steam. Brond's engineers had burrowed into the mountain to tap its energy, so as to convert it into heating and light and power for the Regulate. Grimsburrow was rapidly becoming the most livable dwarven settlement constructed since ancient times.

  "How admirable," said the Kalistocrat's daughter.

  "But there's more," said the Noble Head. "When they got deep into Mount Sinatuk's bowels, as with any volcano, they found lava tubes. And in some of those tubes they found diamonds."

  "Diamonds?" said Gyllana, and Krunzle saw in her eye the Kersite merchant's unmistakable glint. "Mineable diamonds?"

  "Just so," said the dwarf.

  The woman leaned forward. "How well are you capitalized? Mining is a costly affair."

  Brond fluttered a hand. "We are managing. Though, if Drosket brings back a wagonload of abandoned gold, it will certainly help."

  Gyllana's gaze never left the hairless face. "And have you lined up customers for the mine's output? Or, better yet, an experienced merchandiser who could find you customers all around the Inner Sea?"

  The dwarf gave her a bemused smile. "It is early days, yet," he said. "At this point, we have no more than a few samples. But our geologists are confident that, as we progress deeper into the mountain, the finds will become richer. And, individually, larger."

  The woman was sitting forward now, her hands clasped over her knees. She had the look of a bird that had just spotted a particularly juicy caterpillar crawling amiably along the branch on which it was perched.

  Krunzle, however, was following Chirk's lead, though where the snake's inquiries were heading remained a mystery. "Progress?" he said. "So your main shaft is not completed?"

  "It is not," said the dwarf. "It is a difficult business, made all the more so by the fact that we are having to learn as we do. The techniques of mining into volcanoes are abstruse and complicated. Even our best are not yet up to the challenge." He paused and nodded, as if to confirm an unvoiced thought, then said, as much to himself as to his three listeners, "But we will be. We are learning as we go."

  "I do not doubt it," said Gyllana. "Perhaps we could establish a preliminary arrangement for when you achieve your breakthrough? I would be delighted to see your samples and—"

  Krunzle cut her off. "How far have you got?"

  "As of yesterday's report," said Brond, "the tunnel is a little over six standard miles."

  "And how large is the mountain?"

  "Two miles high—but, of course, we are drilling down and at an angle to intersect the lava tubes above the main magma chamber. That is where the prize blues are to be found."

  Gyllana's face now became very still. "Blues?" she said.

  "Oh, yes," said the dwarf. "We have found some clears and some yellows, even a few pinks. But the majority are gems of the truest blue. If our geologists have accurately determined the trends, we will ultimately come upon blue diamonds of exceptional quality, and exceptional size."

  "How exceptional?" the Kalistocrat's daughter said.

  In answer, Brond held up one fist. Like any dwarf's fist, even a hairless one, it was of a substantial size. Then he moved the cupped palm of his other hand over it, perhaps a finger's width above the pale knuckles.

  Gyllana took in an involuntary breath. "Exceptional size, indeed," she said. Her eyes glittered.

  Krunzle knew that blue diamonds were of interest to wizards—something to do with focusing or concentrating arcane powers. Is that it? he asked Chirk. Is that what we're after?

  The snake's answer was ambiguous. I need to see the mine.

  Through my eyes?

  Those are the only eyes I have, said the snake, then added, at the moment.

  Why do you need to s
ee it?

  I'll know that when I do.

  "May we visit the mine works?" the thief asked Brond.

  Gyllana stepped in, suspicion molding her face as she said, "I don't think that would be a good idea."

  "You think he will steal our diamonds," said the dwarf, waving Krunzle's protests to silence with a pale hand and a small smile.

  "I think he would steal the mountain if he could find a buyer," said the woman.

  "You might be right," said Brond, "under normal circumstances. But these are not normal circumstances. We are all part of a mystery, and I have a feeling—a strong feeling—that Mount Sinatuk is also a player in the enigma."

  "Mysteries are well enough, in their place," said Gyllana, "which is in the library of an evening, with the brandy decanter ready to hand. But this is a matter of money." She quoted the old Kersite proverb about the man who let a thief inspect his trouser buttons.

  "I am not worried about stumbling around with my trews about my ankles," said Brond. He spread his hands. "I have come a long way by heeding my presentiments; I will not stop now."

  He raised his head and his voice. "Guards!" The two escorts and his own two sentries came through the doors as if they had been loaded onto spring guns, spears leveled and on the run toward the group. "There is no problem," Brond told them. "Stand down."

  He began to issue orders: senior staff were to be advised that the Noble Head would make an immediate visit to the mining zone; two full companies of spear-dwarves and a company of axe-dwarves would provide escort.

  While he was speaking, Senior Crown Torphyr entered the room. "Noble Head," he said, "you're not intending to take these ..."—he appeared to discard the word he first thought of and substitute another—"these persons into the security zone?"

  Brond looked at the officer as if he were a precocious child whose outbursts had to be tolerated. "I am, Crown," he said, "but if you are concerned, you may command the escort."

  Another protest was on the officer's lips, Krunzle thought, but it was apparently trampled to death by Torphyr's acceptance of an assignment that would put him in close contact with the Regulate's ultimate source of medals, promotion, and prestige. The crown snapped his heels together, smacked his fist into his beard again, and rushed off to do whatever was required.

  "In the meantime," Brond said when they were just the four of them again, "what about lunch?"

  Krunzle had to admire the efficiency. By the time they had eaten a well prepared meal—the nut-brown ale was as good as any he'd ever tasted—a column had been assembled in the great courtyard. A half-platoon of spear-dwarves formed the vanguard and another defended the rear. A string of ox-drawn carts carrying rations and other military impedimenta occupied the middle of the column, with a half-platoon of axe-dwarves on either flank.

  Krunzle was surprised to see these last troops; again, they were like something from a bygone age. Some of the dwarven armies of old that had fought against orcs and men—and anyone else who got in their way—had contained specialized units that used the long-hafted, single-edged axe, with a hook on the back of its head that could pull a horseman from the saddle. The axe-dwarves had been trained to fight in formation, twirling their weapons in a two-handed grip and in choreographed unison, so that an enemy facing them needed to be both resolute and handy with their own equipment. A platoon of axe-dwarves came on like a rolling mower of forty synchronized, razor-sharp blades, and very little had ever stood before such a force, never mind stopped it.

  The three travelers' horses, fed, watered, and rested, were brought to them. They were to ride ahead of the wagons, with the Noble Head and his bodyguard of ten elite dwarven warriors; unlike the spear- and axe-dwarves, these were clad in articulated plate armor and carried body-length shields and two-handed swords longer than their wielders were tall. The shields were to protect the leader from missiles, but if any enemy came within spear-thrust range, out would come the greatswords.

  "Impressive," Raimeau said to the thief as they sat on their horses waiting for the Noble Head of the Regulate to come out of his quarters.

  "Worrisome, I would have said," said Krunzle. "This doesn't look like a ceremonial procession. They look like they wouldn't be surprised to find themselves in a fight."

  The thin man's face rearranged itself as he considered the argument, then he shrugged. "I'm still dealing with the notion of being surrounded by dwarves and not having to be terrified of them."

  Gyllana had also been assessing the force assembled around them. Her expression was thoughtful. "Orcs, Brond said. When was the last time orcs came into Druma in numbers that warranted ninety dwarves armed to their gritted teeth?"

  "A hundred," said Raimeau. "You've left out the cart drivers."

  "Perhaps your father should get into the arms trade," Krunzle said. "A new market opens."

  "They're making their own," the woman said. She cast an eye over the armor of the bodyguard. "And it looks to be of more than just good quality."

  "Then buy from the Regulate and sell it to other dwarves."

  "That's all we need," said Raimeau, "a world full of better-armed runts." One of the elite sword-dwarves turned to look up at him, and the thin man said, "Sorry."

  A trumpet blew and the entire column snapped to attention as Brond came out of the archway below the great chamber. Like his bodyguard, he wore gleaming plate, but carried a mace with a black iron head from which protruded short spikes of polished steel. He moved easily in the armor, and needed no help to mount the stocky, long-maned horse that one of his guards held for him.

  He smiled briefly at the three humans and said, in a conversational tone, "Well, then. I suppose destiny awaits."

  Senior Crown Torphyr, mounted on a horse of his own, rode back from the head of the column, saluted with fist to chest, and said, "Whenever you are ready, Noble Head."

  The leader of the Regulate returned the salute and said, "At your convenience, Crown."

  The trumpet blew once more, whistles sounded, and ninety dwarven left feet stepped forward. The cart drivers applied their whips and shouted encouragement to the oxen. Dwarves all around the courtyard ceased their labors and stood to watch the column depart through the great gates.

  "We are all, of course," Brond was saying to Gyllana, "creatures of destiny. Each of us plays a part in the great performance. One's part may be a leading role or it may turn out that you are just the fellow who trims the lamp-wicks before the curtain rises — either way, the proper thing to do is embrace one's lot with courage and good cheer."

  "But how do you know what your proper place is?" said the woman. "Our prophets, may their bounty ever increase, revealed to us the great truth that to strive for more is to put oneself into the eternal flow. For the struggle to dominate one's environment is surely the grand commandment graven into the heart of the world."

  The hairless dwarf made a dismissive gesture. "Spoken as a true Kalistocrat," he said. "But piling up pelf is not a blessed cause; it is but a succumbing to the lure of greed. The truly superior being craves nothing more than glory."

  "But to be rich is glorious," said Gyllana.

  "To be rich," said Brond, "is merely to be rich. How can there be glory in grubbing for groats?"

  "That ‘grubbing' provides the fundamental energy that builds a civilization."

  "Not so. My followers do not work to fill their purses. Pride, not greed, drives the work forward."

  Krunzle was paying only partial heed to this debate. When the two disputants fell to citing examples from the animal kingdom—eagles versus ants was one of them—he turned his mind inward and spoke to Chirk. There seems to be a good deal of talk about fate swirling around us. Most of us go through our lives without the need to be called to some grand quest. It is more than odd to me that each of us here—even I to some extent—has been summoned by dreams or visions. It worries me.

  The snake's response was a while in coming. Krunzle thought his remark had been ignored, or had at least gone unhear
d, and was about to repeat himself when he heard the quiet voice speaking from the back pastures of his head. It worries me, too. I would be less concerned if I did not feel like a dreamer who stumbles about in a half-daze, never sure whether he is treading the labyrinth he sees around him or is still lying abed, his limbs twitching and his eyes trembling beneath closed lids.

  Krunzle said, ‘Stumbling, treading, limb-twitching'; are those not unusual choices of imagery for a snake?

  They are, said Chirk, and that worries me also. I have a sense that when I finally and fully awaken from this dream, I will be startled. And perhaps not happy. There was a pause, then, On the other hand, I may find that you and your companions are only parts of my dream. If so, you will all summarily evaporate and trouble me no more.

  I am no figment, said Krunzle.

  Yet is that not exactly what any self-respecting figment would say? said the snake.

  The thief withdrew his attention from his inner world. Gyllana and Brond were still nattering to each other about the supremacy of greed over pride—or vice versa—as an organizing principle for the fulfilling life. Raimeau was sunk in an apparently unhappy contemplation of being surrounded by dwarves, and did not respond to Krunzle's overtures. He allowed his head to nod and let the rhythm of the horse's gait lull him into a dream of his own.

  When he awakened, he found the column halted. They had been climbing a sunlit slope when he had nodded off. Now they were following the course of a stream along the bottom of a narrow valley, closed in on both sides by dark, thickly packed evergreens. Not far forward, the watercourse curved away out of sight. A cold wind, blowing from the heights above, carried a sweet-sour smell.

  The dwarves had not only halted but, as Krunzle came back to the waking world, were executing maneuvers. Those along the flanks of the column turned to face outward. The vanguard and rear guard companies reformed themselves into crescents whose points curved back to partially cover the baggage train and command party. Shields that had been slung from backs were repositioned to make a wall, and spears and long-axes were readied for action. The plate-armored bodyguard formed into two ranks on each side of their leader and unsheathed their two-handed swords.