A Bard's Story: Here There Be Dragons

Chapter Eight

Ash's workshop is not, as Kehdem expects, lower in the depths of the mountain. Instead, they spend a good fifteen minutes climbing a fairly steep slope. "Why are we going so high?" Kehdem asks when it becomes clear that it's not an accident.

"Runecrafting is much easier with sunlight," Ash says matter-of-factly.

"But we're inside the mountain," Kehdem says. "How can you have sunlight?"

"You will see," Ash says. "It is good dwarven craft."

"Oh, you can make sunlight with runecraft? That's impressive."

"No," Ash says. Then he pauses, as if he's thinking about whether it would be possible. "Maybe I can learn. But it is not runecraft, only good craft. You will see."

Kehdem supposes he will. It doesn't take much longer for them to reach a door which Ash holds open for Kehdem to duck through. When he steps inside, he is, reasonably, amazed. The workshop isn't particularly large, and it's a bit cluttered with equipment much like what was in Semben's workshop, but it is far more impressively lit. Carved all the way to the top of the mountain are narrow shafts, through which sunlight currently pours. Underneath each empty shaft is a table with at least one piece of equipment on it, and there are half a dozen of these setups throughout the room. The edges of the room are still a bit dark, but the furniture there seems to all be shelving, not working surfaces.

"This whole workshop is just for you?" Kehdem asks, amazed.

"Gölet do most of the runecrafting," Ash says. "But all dwarves know how. One of the duties of my tezet is to do the difficult runecrafting. And Gazerü does not have any gölet."

"Gazerü?" Kehdem asks.

Ash gestures vaguely around them. "All of this is Gazerü," he says. "The workshops, and the sleeping rooms, and the dining room, and all the other rooms... and the dwarves, too."

"Oh, is that the name of your city?"

"Gazerü is the name, yes," Ash says. He hesitates near the door to his workshop. "I am going to do some runecrafting, but I am going to be busy for a while. I will not be able to take you back to the library."

"That's fine," Kehdem says. "I'm sure Leyha can handle herself for a bit. I mean, unless you want me to leave you alone."

"You can stay," Ash says. He shuts the door to the workshop and heads over to a set of shelves that's filled with nothing but rocks. Each of the shelves is full of fairly nondescript rocks, but some of them are glowing, so Kehdem guesses that these are the totally unprocessed form of runestones.

"What are you doing?" Kehdem asks.

"Choosing the right new stone," Ash says.

"How do you know which one is the right one?"

"There are different... kinds, xî? Flavors?"

"Kinds sounds right," Kehdem says.

"The different kinds are good for different runes," Ash says. "Only some can handle the very special runes. We will need many of them to remove your marks."

"About that... do you know what happened to us?"

"Yes," Ash says.

Kehdem waits for a moment, listening closely — but not too closely — to his connection to Leyha. Since they entered the mountain, it's been less than he's used to, and as they already knew, the connection weakens with distance. A combination of the two effects means that, for the first time since getting the marks four years ago, he's not overhearing every one of Leyha's thoughts.