The Hammer of Fire (29 page)

“I’ll remember, Carus” said Uldex. “And
you’ll remember that my orders are to be followed precisely.”

“I never thought anything else,” said the
little dwarf with his wicked grin in place. “Shall we head to town
then?”

Uldex nodded his head and looked at the fresh
corpse. “We need to get rid of the body first. That idiot Cleathelm
might get lost and end up doubling back on his tracks. We don’t
want him to find it.”

The little dwarf looked at the body and then
the ground, “We don’t have anything to dig with.”

“Drag him into the bushes and gets some rocks
from the creek back there, that’s the best we can do. Then we’ll go
to town and resupply. Remember to keep your jewelry and coin purse
well hidden, these yokels will cut your throat for even one of your
smallest rings.”

The little dwarf nodded his head and went
over to grab the big dwarf by the ankles.

“We have to stop here, Dol!” said Milli as
she stamped her foot and pointed to the little village spread out
in the valley below them. She stood next to her horse and held onto
his reins gently as she stared up at the tall dwarf still on his
horse. “This map that Brogus … acquired … is useless. We’re totally
lost.”

Dol sat on his stallion and looked to the
south with a grimace on his face but said nothing.

“We need to get supplies,” said Milli.

“We can see volcanoes,” said Dol. “Right over
there, and there,” he continued and pointed towards the high
mountains in the distance. “If we keep looking we’re sure to find a
group of five and then I kill Gazadum and get my reward.”

“The ones with Gazadum could be hundreds of
miles to the south or the west or the east,” said Milli. “You’re
being stubborn for the sake of being stubborn. We’ll get there
faster if we get directions. No one is going to try and stop us.
Who could possibly know us down here?”

Brogus dismounted with an awkward movement
although he managed to stay on his feet, walked over to Milli, and
stood next to the girl, “She’s right, Dol. How could anyone from
Craggen Steep have followed us down here? No one knows us or what
we’re doing. We go to town, get some directions, some good food and
drinks, a nice nights rest in a bed, and then leave. What can go
wrong?”

“I don’t like stopping,” said Dol with a
grimace.

“It will speed us up in the end,” argued
Milli. “We’ll have a better idea where we are, right, Petra?”

The old woman had been heretofore silent on
the issue as she watched the argument between the three from the
safety of the back of her horse, “I’m not completely opposed to
Dol’s point of view,” she finally said with a sage nod of her
head.

“What?” said Milli turning sharply to the
woman and glaring at her through eyes narrowed into slits.
“Why?”

Petra sat on the horse for long seconds
saying nothing before she finally replied, “I can’t say. I just
don’t like going into town, it’s a feeling.”

Milli stood silently looking at the older
woman on the horse, “I suppose if you have a feeling ….”

“No!” said Brogus his face red and his hands
waving back and forth, “A feeling? A feeling? That’s nothing. I’m
hungry, I’m thirsty, and I wouldn’t mind staying in a comfortable
bed for the night either. Come on, Petra, be reasonable. How strong
a feeling?”

“It’s difficult to judge these things,” said
the woman. My family has a history of foretelling but I’ve never
been much good at it.”

“We can have a séance!” shouted Milli and
clapped her hands while jumping up and down. “It’ll be fun and then
we’ll know if going into town is a good idea or not.”

“I’m really not much good …,” started Petra
but Milli was already unpacking her horse and chattering excitedly
to Dol and Brogus. “You two probably don’t know much about it being
dwarves and all,” she said with a toss of her long hair. “I read
about it in books. A couple of times old dwarf ladies came in and
tried to get me to read the cards because we halflings supposedly
have the gift.”

“Did you?” asked Brogus with an eager smile
on his face. “I’ve heard of fortune tellers before but there aren’t
any in Craggen Steep. At least not that I know about. We met a band
of gypsies once on a trade mission but I got stuck on kitchen duty
and couldn’t get my fortune read.”

Dol sighed, rolled his eyes, finally
dismounted in a desultory fashion, and kicked at a few rocks on the
ground while ignoring the excited Milli and Brogus.

“I didn’t say I was good at it,” interjected
Petra as she watched Brogus and Milli making preparations to set up
the camp, although they ignored her as they jabbered back and forth
about who would get their reading done first. “My sister was much
better than me,” Petra tried one last time before turning to Dol
who continued to kick little rocks and mutter to himself. “Not much
for fortune telling are you?” she asked him.

Dol paused at his rock kicking exercise,
looked up at Petra, and shook his head, “I’ve never been one to
pray or ask the Gods for guidance.”

Petra nodded her head, “I’ve known a few like
that over the years, but mostly it’s the other way around. People
are looking for answers as to why their lives are the way they are.
It seems in the nature of people to want a reason for what happen
to them.”

“What happens happens,” said Dol with a
little frown and a shrug of his shoulders. “I was born, I live for
a while, and then I’ll die.”

“That’s a rather fatalistic view, my friend,”
said Petra coming over and putting her arm over the dwarf’s
shoulder. Even though she was a relatively short woman she still
stood more than six inches taller than the dwarf although he was
quite a bit broader at the shoulder than she. “The gods are up
there causing things to happen. They know the future which makes
the future knowable. You just have to tap into the right lines of
energy.”

“I suppose that’s true,” said Dol. “But that
doesn’t mean I have to like it. If the future is determined then
nothing I do makes any difference. I have no free will.”

“Just because the Gods know the future
doesn’t mean you don’t have free will,” said Milli stopping her
activity around the camp fire to join the discussion. “You have
free will to make any decision you want. If you go home right now
then that’s your decision, right?”

Dol looked at her, licked his lips, grimaced,
and then shrugged his shoulders, “I guess, but if the Gods already
know what the future is then don’t they know what decision I’m
going to make?”

“But you still have the free will to make
that decision,” countered Milli.

“If they know what the decision is then isn’t
it already decided? The same with Petra telling your fortune. If
she can actually tell the future doesn’t that mean that the future
is already decided?”

“No, not at all,” said Brogus adding his
voice to the melee.

“Why not?” asked Dol his eyes beginning to
get a little fiery.

“It just doesn’t,” said Brogus while Milli
stood with her hands on her hips and a puzzled expression on her
face.

“I kind of see what Dol is saying,” said
Milli after a long pause. “I mean, if anything I decide is already
known then am I really making a decision at all?”

“That doesn’t make any sense,” said Brogus.
“Let’s say we go into to town. Then everything would be different
than if we didn’t go into town. Every decision we make changes the
way the world works.”

“By that argument,” said Dol. “Wouldn’t every
decision everyone makes lead to some different … I don’t know,
different reality?”

“Exactly,” said Brogus with a smile and he
clapped Dol on the back. “Now you’ve got it.”

“So, if that ant down there,” said Dol
pointing with his boot to a line of ants marching through the dirt
towards where they were just laying out the food, “turns right
instead of left that leads to a different reality?”

“Well,” said Brogus and put his hand to his
beard. “I’m not sure animals count.”

“What if you’re killed by a bear? Doesn’t
that decision make a different world? What if a pack of wolves eats
some pilgrims or something? Those all have to make
differences.”

“Animals don’t have free will like people,”
replied Brogus. “It’s different.”

“How is it different?” asked Dol
insisting.

“It just is,” said Brogus and shrugged his
shoulders.

“That’s why I didn’t want to start this
conversation at all,” said Dol turning to Petra. “It just leads to
headaches.”

Petra nodded her head, “I’ve always had
doubts about the fortune telling business to be honest. I sat in on
my sister and my grandmother for years when they gave them. Usually
they sized up a person, a young girl was usually looking for love,
and a young man was usually looking for … well, love. That sort of
thing. You could usually tell what they wanted to hear and that’s
what you told them.”

“That’s not really fortune telling then,”
said Milli. “I’ve read that some people are in better touch with
the Gods and they get visions of the future. Even the dwarves have
people like that.”

“Yeah,” said Dol. “We call them insane.”

“Shut up, Dol. You’ve always been a
spoil-sport. I thought maybe you were getting better now that you
seem to have a sense of humor but I guess some things never
change.”

Dol pursed his lips, gave Petra a sour look,
and then went about helping get the camp organized.

“You said your sister had the touch,” said
Milli almost tugging on Petra’s arm like a little girl who wants a
pony. “You might have it in you if you try.”

“You might be right,” said the woman with a
small smile. “You never know unless you try.”

“That’s the spirit,” said Brogus. “Do you use
cards, tokens, what?”

“I have a deck of cards around here
somewhere,” said Petra and went over to her horse and began
rummaging around in the saddle bags for a while.

“Can we help?” asked Mill in a voice that was
more high-pitched than normal.

“Just get the fire going,” said Petra, “and
put on some hot water for cooking. We’ve got those rabbits Brogus
bagged yesterday to cook before they go bad in this heat. Meat
won’t last long down in these southern climates.”

“There’s nothing else we can do?” said Milli
almost dancing with excitement.

“Just get the camp ready,” replied Petra with
a snort like laugh the came out of her nose. “You’re like little
children.”

Twenty minutes later the four of them sat
around the now blazing campfire with Milli and Brogus eagerly
watching Petra clear a patch of ground and lay down a black piece
of cloth that had stars and crescent moons stitched into it. The
old woman took her time and carefully smoothed the cloth until it
lay perfectly flat, or at least as perfectly flat as the ground
allowed, and then began to unpack a heavy deck of cards that more
than filled her hand. Their backs looked like a starry night with a
full moon rising near the upper right hand corner; the edges were
worn and frayed, and the few glimpses Milli and Brogus caught of
the cards themselves displayed colorful characters of various
sorts, little fields of swords, and other fantastical scenes.
Despite Petra’s caution she almost spilled the heavy cards as she
tried to shuffle them, as they did not fit easily in her small
hands. But, after what seemed an interminable period of waiting she
finally looked up and smiled at Milli and Brogus, “Who’s
first?”

The two looked at each other and sat on the
edge of their seats, “You go ahead,” said Milli to Brogus.

“No,” replied the broad-shouldered dwarf,
“Ladies first. Unless Dol wants to have a chance.”

Milli and Brogus looked over at the tall
dwarf but he pretended not to hear them and occupied himself with
the rabbits that were cooking over the small fire on a thick little
wire grill.

“Ok, I’ll go,” said Milli with a smile and
all but bounded over to where Petra waited. “What do I do?”

“Just sit down right here,” said Petra as she
riffled through the card deck. “Now, after I deal there will be
three piles of three cards each, the first three represent what has
past and the three possible interpretations of that. The next three
represent the present, and …”

“The last three the future,” interrupted
Milli bouncing up and down as she sat. “How do you know which of
the three cards is most important?”

“I was getting to that,” said Petra with a
little smile at the girl.

Brogus moved in close, getting down on his
haunches as he eagerly watched the proceedings in utter
silence.

“Now, in each group of three there is an
evil, neutral, and good position. The cards themselves have a
nature. Let’s say you pick a good card and it goes in the good
position of the past pile. That means it is matched with its
position and has greater meaning. Likewise, if you pick an evil
card and it goes in the good position it is mismatched and we
should probably ignore it. Does that make sense?”

Milli nodded her head in quick little motions
and stared at the cards in Petra’s hand. “Yes, that makes sense.
Suddenly, I’m not so sure I want to do this.”

Dol started to say something but then thought
better of it, closed his mouth, and returned to the rabbits which
were coming along nicely.

“The first thing to do is to think about
what’s troubling you. Some sort of problem that you face. You have
to really concentrate because this is about you as much as it is
about me. Keep that question in your mind.”

Milli closed her eyes and her upper lip
covered her lower as she sat in silence for what seemed to be a
long time but was probably no more than four or five seconds.
Brogus stared at her while Dol busied himself by the fire although
even he couldn’t keep from taking a look over to the group now and
again. Eventually Milli opened her eyes, “I’ve got it.”