a while.
“ Not much is,” he laughed. “We Cutters aren’t oppressed with the weight of honors! In truth, I think it warns the elves away. Or it used to. Like the statue back in Beergarden, which Gilli thought was thirsty for his piss!”
I had no idea what he meant by that, nor did I ask. But s peaking of thirst, I knew I could go for a flagon or two of beer, and maybe something hot on my stomach. And I suddenly realized as far as we were concerned the past week had been entirely composed of work days.
“ Is this a feast day by any chance?”
“Out of your reckoning already, sir?” Uncle Jickie asked. “By thunder, lad. Wonder how you’d feel if you’d had a year of it!”
By which I took that he himself had no idea.
Fatigued from the trip, I took little notice of the enthusiastic interchange of news and greetings as guards docked the Feisty-Goat. We were led by stout Dwarven guard s into the gate. Stores, halls, warehouses and living apartments for an army of clerks, were banked against the inside walls, and the main building, with its spacious assembly room, stood conspicuously in the center of the enclosure. As we entered the courtyard, one of the chief traders was a young dwarf, perched on a mortar in the gate. The little magnate condescended mere grunts of welcome. That is, till Mighty Kenzo came up.
“ I say,” blurted out the young clerk. “Now here’s a dwarf of renown! Uncle Kenzo!”
“ Oh! Ha! Hang my balls on the mantle if it’s not the young light-head that thought my neighbor’s cat wanted to play with my rabbits!”
The bearded youth flushed at the sally of laughter.
“Don’t listen to the growls of gruff old mastiffs. He got a pretty daughter and a perfect wife out of that affair!”
“ Hold it at that, Master Tilli! We Cutters don’t put treasures on display in the store front like you mongers!”
All the fellows, even his fellow sellers, laughed.
“No,” broke in the Tilli, “but there is no law against looking at a pretty bit of memory when it comes calling out in this wilderness.”
To which, every dwarf in the crowd said a hearty, “Here! Here!”
I laughed a bit then shook wrists with Tilli before I walked off to stretch myself full length on a bench . The dwarves began to disperse back to their vending stalls. The early twilight, unique to spring evenings, was gathering in the courtyard. As the cool wind from the red western sky sighed past, I felt the caress of warm May air on my face and my mind was sent, not any particular memory, but to the innocent days of my youth in Delmark. How far away those days seemed. Yet it was not so long ago. Surely it is experience, not time, that ages a body.
I gazed high above the sloping roofs for some sign of moon or star. The sky was dark and overcast.
Without lowering my eyes, I stood.
Then I reached out beside me to keep my balance, fearing I might faint. My breath was gone. What I saw framed in a window of early stars, dropping from high in the sky straight towards us, was a living nightmare.
It was a dragon.
“The thunderwyrm,” I whispered airlessly, running back through the gates to the courtyard.
The face was shining with blood and the brows were black and arched over eyes that glowed bright ginger; the very pose of the head was evil, like a viper about to strike, and atop the head was a suggestion of archery, too—the devil’s archery, arrow-like spikes that writhed, fanning down its cascading back. The upper lip was drawing back, revealing the enormous shards it had for teeth. They looked like demons’ dirks, and behind that fearsome mouth was a terrible mass of a body. It was hideous, a wriggling visage of black, a shivering blue-veined hell on earth with the glow of fire visible in its throat.
“ Thunderwyrm !” I roared
A bloom of living fire appeared in the cheeks.
Activity exploded all around me.
Why can’t I
“ Not much is,” he laughed. “We Cutters aren’t oppressed with the weight of honors! In truth, I think it warns the elves away. Or it used to. Like the statue back in Beergarden, which Gilli thought was thirsty for his piss!”
I had no idea what he meant by that, nor did I ask. But s peaking of thirst, I knew I could go for a flagon or two of beer, and maybe something hot on my stomach. And I suddenly realized as far as we were concerned the past week had been entirely composed of work days.
“ Is this a feast day by any chance?”
“Out of your reckoning already, sir?” Uncle Jickie asked. “By thunder, lad. Wonder how you’d feel if you’d had a year of it!”
By which I took that he himself had no idea.
Fatigued from the trip, I took little notice of the enthusiastic interchange of news and greetings as guards docked the Feisty-Goat. We were led by stout Dwarven guard s into the gate. Stores, halls, warehouses and living apartments for an army of clerks, were banked against the inside walls, and the main building, with its spacious assembly room, stood conspicuously in the center of the enclosure. As we entered the courtyard, one of the chief traders was a young dwarf, perched on a mortar in the gate. The little magnate condescended mere grunts of welcome. That is, till Mighty Kenzo came up.
“ I say,” blurted out the young clerk. “Now here’s a dwarf of renown! Uncle Kenzo!”
“ Oh! Ha! Hang my balls on the mantle if it’s not the young light-head that thought my neighbor’s cat wanted to play with my rabbits!”
The bearded youth flushed at the sally of laughter.
“Don’t listen to the growls of gruff old mastiffs. He got a pretty daughter and a perfect wife out of that affair!”
“ Hold it at that, Master Tilli! We Cutters don’t put treasures on display in the store front like you mongers!”
All the fellows, even his fellow sellers, laughed.
“No,” broke in the Tilli, “but there is no law against looking at a pretty bit of memory when it comes calling out in this wilderness.”
To which, every dwarf in the crowd said a hearty, “Here! Here!”
I laughed a bit then shook wrists with Tilli before I walked off to stretch myself full length on a bench . The dwarves began to disperse back to their vending stalls. The early twilight, unique to spring evenings, was gathering in the courtyard. As the cool wind from the red western sky sighed past, I felt the caress of warm May air on my face and my mind was sent, not any particular memory, but to the innocent days of my youth in Delmark. How far away those days seemed. Yet it was not so long ago. Surely it is experience, not time, that ages a body.
I gazed high above the sloping roofs for some sign of moon or star. The sky was dark and overcast.
Without lowering my eyes, I stood.
Then I reached out beside me to keep my balance, fearing I might faint. My breath was gone. What I saw framed in a window of early stars, dropping from high in the sky straight towards us, was a living nightmare.
It was a dragon.
“The thunderwyrm,” I whispered airlessly, running back through the gates to the courtyard.
The face was shining with blood and the brows were black and arched over eyes that glowed bright ginger; the very pose of the head was evil, like a viper about to strike, and atop the head was a suggestion of archery, too—the devil’s archery, arrow-like spikes that writhed, fanning down its cascading back. The upper lip was drawing back, revealing the enormous shards it had for teeth. They looked like demons’ dirks, and behind that fearsome mouth was a terrible mass of a body. It was hideous, a wriggling visage of black, a shivering blue-veined hell on earth with the glow of fire visible in its throat.
“ Thunderwyrm !” I roared
A bloom of living fire appeared in the cheeks.
Activity exploded all around me.
Why can’t I
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