"Mages used them to store spells," he explained. "In fact I used one to bring you to Lumnia."

The dwarf looked over his shoulder and snorted. "You know nothing, human."

"I'm sure you know a lot more," admitted Jonas. "But as you have chosen to stay silent..."

"Rajni stones are vessels for magic," he said, cutting him short. "Human mages stored spells, but we use them as they were intended."

"To make torches and light rooms?" Jonas gently chided.

"The stones you see here are of a very low quality," Birger informed him. "Not that you would know the difference. Lights are all they're good for. With quality rajni stones we construct objects of great power."

"Like what?" asked Ethan.

"That you don't know these things does not bode well for your case," the dwarf said. "A true Dragonvein would have this knowledge. It was said that Praxis Dragonvein's wisdom rivaled even that of our scholars."

"I never knew my father," said Ethan. "I..."

Jonas squeezed his arm and gave him a warning look.

Birger let out a scornful laugh. "You will need better answers than that when you meet King Halvar. He is not as good natured as I am."

He pressed the pace and was soon several yards ahead of them. Ethan was stunned by how fast he could move on such short legs.

They continued on for two more hours, climbing up and down long stairwells and pa.s.sing through vast open chambers. Eventually they reached one with three separate tunnels leading out of it. Birger stopped to retrieve a small red stone from his pocket. Closing his eyes, he held the stone tightly in his right hand for about a minute before putting it away again. This done, he moved over to the right hand pa.s.sage and leaned against the wall.

"Rest here," he said. "We still have four days of hard travel before we arrive in Elyfoss. If you hear anything approaching...arm yourselves."

"Is there danger here?" asked Markus.

Birger made no reply. Instead, he just smiled wickedly and closed his eyes.

Using their packs as pillows, the four of them lay down together Markus and Ethan with swords drawn and ready by their sides, Kat and Jonas between them, daggers in hand.

"Do you think there's something down here?" whispered Kat.

"It's possible," Markus replied. "Only the dwarves care to dwell in the deep places of the world. Who knows what they might have found."

She shifted close to Ethan and shut her eyes. "I'm not scared. Are you?"

He forced a quiet laugh. "Me? Never."

Markus grunted. "Well, I certainly am."

Kat frowned and clutched her dagger even more tightly to her chest.

Sleep came in small s.n.a.t.c.hes. Unidentifiable echoes from the depths woke Ethan each time he began to drift. On one occasion, a loud thud from deep inside one of the pa.s.sages had him sitting bolt upright, sword gripped in both hands. Giving up any thought of sleep for a while after this, he tried to pa.s.s the time speculating on what a dwarf city might look like.

The tunnels he had seen thus far had been well constructed, but lacked decoration or any other indication of being inhabited. Even the ma.s.sive chambers they had pa.s.sed through were stark and dusty yet the ceilings were well lit by rajni stones, suggesting that they had once been used quite frequently. But for what, he could only speculate.

He was about to make one final attempt at sleep when he heard a sharp tapping sound coming from the pa.s.sage on the left, as if someone was. .h.i.tting the walls with a small stone. He listened anxiously to this for a moment. Then, abruptly, it ceased. He strained his ears for another minute or so, but it did not resume.

"Wake your friends," hissed Birger. He was on his feet, the small axe in his hand.

"I'm already awake," said Markus.

Ethan shook Kat and Jonas, who hurriedly rose.

"What is it?" asked Jonas.

"Trolls," Birger replied.

Markus laughed. "Trolls? You must be joking." But the tense look in the dwarf's eyes told him that he wasn't.

"I thought trolls were just a story," said Kat.

"So did I," agreed Jonas.

Birger flicked a hand. "Quiet!" Creeping over to the left pa.s.sage, he peered along it for several seconds.

The tapping resumed, this time louder than before.

He pointed to the center corridor, indicating to the others that they should take it. Ethan entered first, with Jonas and Kat just behind him. Markus stayed at the rear. Birger waited until they were all well inside before following.

"If fortune holds, they'll not be interested in a fight," he said.

"And if it doesn't?" asked Markus.

"Then I hope you can use those weapons you carry."

Ethan led them down the long pa.s.sageway, then up a tall flight of stairs. At the top was a small room with a door on opposite walls.

Birger turned and crouched low. "If they come, we can hold them off here."

"I'm still finding it hard to believe that trolls are real," said Jonas.

"Oh, they're very real," Birger replied. "Nasty little devils too. They'd kill you rather than look at you."

"How is it they've remained hidden for so long?" Jonas asked. "As far as humans are concerned, they are only stories."

"We've kept them secret from the rest of the world, that's why. There's no need to have you lot fumbling down here, looking for trouble. Besides, trolls never caused any harm until Shinzan became Emperor."

"What happened?" asked Jonas.

Birger scowled. "He decimated my people. Now there aren't enough of us to keep them away."

Jonas stiffened. "I'm sorry."

"Why? Humans never cared whether we lived or died. And they still don't."

He was about to add something further when his hand suddenly shot up to silence the group.

From the bottom of the stairs came a cacophony of high-pitched squeals and guttural growls that sent Ethan's heart racing. He tightened his grip on his sword.

After a short while the sounds faded and Birger visibly relaxed.

"Are they gone?" whispered Kat, trying hard to mask her fear.

"Gone? No. But they must have already eaten. For sure they know we're here."

The dwarf's words sent a chill up Ethan's spine. "What do they look like?"

"What does it matter? Just hope you never see one. Not one of that lot, anyway. The adults are docile enough...but the juveniles." He spat and put away his axe.

"You mean they're children?" asked Ethan.

"I mean they'll kill you if they have the chance. So keep your mouth shut and do as you're told. We're not out of danger yet. We need to get away from here as fast as we can, lest they change their mind...or get hungry again."

Having issued this warning, Birger pushed past them all and stepped through the door on the left.

"Actually, he's a bit friendlier than I expected," joked Markus.

"Yeah," agreed Ethan, grinning. "At least he hasn't killed us yet."

Laughing, they chased after the dwarf.

For the next few days their pace was grueling to the point that Ethan feared Jonas would collapse. Several times he considered asking Birger to slow down a bit, but Jonas a.s.sured him he would be fine.

"It's just the stairs that get to me," the old man said as they bedded down on the third night. "Why there has to be so many of them is beyond me."

"I wonder how long it took to make all this?" mused Ethan.

"Thousands of years I would imagine," Jonas told him. "Dwarf craft was famed throughout Lumnia in my day. Though what has become of their talents in these dark times, I can only speculate."

The further they traveled, the more intricate the designs of the chambers they pa.s.sed through became. In one of these, ma.s.sive pillars towered high to a brightly lit ceiling, revealing incredibly detailed carved images of stars, moons and planets, all of them inlaid with gold and gemstones. The light split within the gem's facets, raining down in a cascade of color and beauty. Everyone apart from Birger, who seemed almost irritated by the scene, had stared up in astonishment. But this chamber, like all the others, was abandoned.

On the day they were set to arrive, Birger stopped and gathered the group together.

"I'm taking us through the west gate," he told them. "No one goes there anymore, so we should be able to pa.s.s unseen for a while."

"Why do we need to hide?" asked Ethan.

"We're not hiding," he replied irritably. "I just would rather avoid causing a disturbance if possible. And your presence here will certainly do that."

Jonas cleared his throat. "I hesitate to ask, but I couldn't help noticing that we didn't see any other dwarves along the way. Not a single one. Lord Dragonvein visited your people many times, both here and in the north, and he told me stories of your vast halls and great cities. He said they were always teeming with people and bustling with life. And yet the mountain now seems all but deserted. What happened here?"

Birger's eyes locked onto Jonas', but he did not flinch or falter under the scrutiny.

Finally, the dwarf heaved a sigh and shifted his gaze. "We did not desert our cities, or abandon our halls. There simply aren't enough of us left to fill them anymore. After the mages were defeated, the Emperor set his sights on us. But not even his vast armies could penetrate our defenses. For three years we fought, and for a time it looked as if we might prevail. But then Shinzan himself came."

He paused, his face racked with hatred. "He slaughtered us like sheep. We tried to surrender, but he ignored our pleas and continued his b.l.o.o.d.y rampage. When he did finally stop, our numbers were but a fraction of what they once were. Our kin in the north, hoping to avoid a similar fate, surrendered at once. But Shinzan didn't care and did the same to them."

He looked up at the faces of the group. "I am telling you this so that you understand the decision my king is now faced with. I have put myself in great peril by bringing you here. But not as much as I bring to my people."

"Then why do it?" asked Markus.

"I have my reasons," he replied. "But enough of that. Come. Soon you will see why our industry and skill was famed throughout Lumnia."

After another twenty minutes, the pa.s.sage ended with a solid double door made of iron. Birger was forced to lean his shoulder hard into it twice before it screeched open. He then stretched out an arm as an invitation for them to step through.

Beyond was a broad avenue made from polished blue octagonal stones dotted with tiny flakes of silver and white; it was wide enough to easily accommodate six wagons side by side. Lining both sides at regular intervals were twenty-foot tall steel posts, each one capped by a shimmering white rajni stone. The ceiling was now so high that it could no longer be seen, though Ethan caught the sparkle of light here and there almost like the twinkle of distant stars peeking through a cloudy night sky.

As they walked along they saw, positioned between the light posts, life-sized statues of animals, dwarves...and humans. These were set in various poses depicting acts of heroism, charity, and kindness.

"I thought dwarves didn't like humans," Ethan remarked.

"Those were created a very long time ago," Birger explained. "Things between human and dwarf have not always been as they are now."

They continued for another few miles. At last, rising up in the distance, two gargantuan gold monoliths towering more than one hundred feet high came into view. As they drew near, Ethan could see that they were set on either side of two ma.s.sive gates made of the purest silver. These had been polished until they shone with an almost heavenly radiance.

"Magnificent," gasped Jonas.

"This is nothing," said Birger, his head held high. "What lies beyond is the true wonder."

When they were only a short distance away, the doors slowly swung outward. Ethan and the others looked for whoever was opening them, but there was no one to be seen.

"Do they open on their own?" asked Ethan.

Birger nodded. "The gate recognizes that I am a dwarf. Were I not here, you could not get in."

"How does it know?" asked Ethan.

"I'm just a simple miner," he replied, shrugging. "If you prove yourself to be a Dragonvein, then perhaps you could ask one of the builders. Though I doubt you'd understand the details, even if they told you."

He paused, and then gave a grand sweep of his arm. "Behold. The great city of Elyfoss."

While moving along, Ethan was dumbfounded by what he saw. The city stretched on for mile after mile in every direction. Towers and spires as tall as the Empire State building reached up, some nearly touching the twinkling lights that danced high above on the colossal ceiling. The buildings were of such elaborate design that they could rival even surpa.s.s anything he had seen on Earth. He stopped in his tracks, trying to fathom what it would take to construct something of this magnitude.

Birger ushered them on. The streets were constructed of the same material as the road outside the gates, but now featured broad sidewalks of polished white marble veined with deep blue and crimson. The smaller buildings were equally impressive as the skysc.r.a.pers. Their stonework was like an artist's canvas; stars and comets in stunning relief, together with mosaics of brave dwarf warriors were so numerous and beautiful, Ethan felt dizzy looking at them.

They walked for nearly five blocks before seeing anyone about. Most of the city's inhabitants were dressed similarly to Birger, though a few wore more elaborate attire with high collared shirts and pants made from a slick cloth that caught the light and gave it a metallic quality. As the group pa.s.sed by, everyone who saw them immediately stopped what they were doing and stared with a mixture of loathing and curiosity.

Ethan glanced over his shoulder. A crowd had gathered and was keeping pace a few yards behind them.

"It looks like we may not make it to the king," remarked Jonas.

"No one will harm you so long as I am here," Birger a.s.sured him. "But I warn you. When you meet the king, speak only when spoken to. And do not lie. If you are found to be false, you will be executed without delay. Do you understand?"

"We have no reason to lie," said Jonas.