A Bard's Story: Here There Be Dragons

Chapter Twelve

One morning — well, midway through former work one cycle; Leyha's entirely lost track of the time outside the mountain but has more or less adjusted to the dwarven days — Jes comes looking for her. He easily finds her in the room she shares with Kehdem, her fellow mage having already joined Ash in his morning runecrafting. "Leyha," Jes says upon entering.

"Jes," she says back. "Are you asking for help with the traps again?"

"No," he says, but his tone implies that she's not that far off. "Would you like to see some of the labîrn∂?"

Leyha's heart leaps. She's pretty sure it shows on her face, since Jes lets out his deep, rolling chuckle. "I'd love to!" she says. "Why, though?"

"One of my duties is to ensure that the doors are working," he says.

"The labyrinth has doors?" Leyha asks, confused.

"Oh yes," Jes says. "It connects all the cities in the mountain. Once, that was its duty."

"But now?"

"Early in the Dragon Wars, some dragons got inside. They used it to destroy many cities very easy. Dwarves changed it, to trap anyone who did not belong. There were many zözeen who knew the way through the — labyrinth, you said?"

Leyha nods.

"Many had the duty to lead other dwarves between the cities. Now there are none. Dwarves do not travel between cities."

"At all?" Leyha asks.

Jes shrugs. "Very little. Deep in the mountain, the cities are close. It is not so far to go in the labyrinth. It is safe."

Leyha considers this knowledge carefully. A massive maze in the mountain that connects all the dwarven cities? What's next? But she doesn't feel like waiting around to find out. "Alright," she says. "Let's go check out these doors. Do I need to bring anything?"

Jes glances over at the pair of crossbows resting on the makeshift table constructed from stone end tables and a slab of semi-permanent, semi-solid magic. "Bring your crossbow," he says. "And we will get food. We will miss former meal. Maybe latter meal, too."

Leyha nods and scoops up her crossbow. As she's strapping it onto her back, she sends a thought to Kehdem along the marks: Jes and I are going to explore the labyrinth. It sounds like we'll be back around latter meal.

She's not surprised when she doesn't get an immediate response. Kehdem is deeply distracted with the runecrafting, and has been for a while. By the time he responds, she's begun to wonder if she would've been better off leaving a note for him to find instead.

Are you sure that's a good idea? he asks finally. There are dragons in the labyrinth...

Jes doesn't seem concerned, Leyha answers. If you're that worried about it, ask Ash what he thinks.

I did, Kehdem says. That's why I'm not so sure it's a good idea.

A little frustrated, since she knows Kehdem is enjoying himself in his unofficial lessons, she says, Well, if you come up with any better way for me to while away the hours, let me know. In the meantime, you know how to reach me.

With that, she cuts him off from her mind. It's not complete; nothing they've tried since they got the marks has been. But given the mountain and the distance between them, even the marks' connection needs some power to communicate anything but the vaguest sense of a presence. She knows Kehdem's alive, and that's about it. She can only hope it's equally effective in both directions. Once this distraction has been taken care of, she nods to Jes, and he leads the way to the labyrinth.