Diaries of a Dwarven Rifleman

When he opened his eyes he beheld the tallest woman that he had ever seen. She was pretty though startlingly thin, and her eyes were full of concern. She spoke to him and while he couldn't understand the words he could tell it was a question. He sat up on the pallet he'd been laying on and scrabbled away from her, his back to the wall as his eyes locked on hers. She reached out slowly and gently touched the brand on his cheek, then turned to speak to someone else. He looked around the room and saw the blue-eyed dwarf standing near a doorway, and an older woman wearing a shirt of metal links sitting in a chair nearby. Candles lit the stone room and he realized that he was warm. The pallet was soft beneath him, as was the blanket that he'd displaced when he sat up.

He hurt all over and his arm throbbed with a dull ache. The break had been splinted and was bound tightly against his body under a clean shirt of finely woven fabric that reached to below his knees. The tall, kind-eyed woman patted his good shoulder gently and stepped away to talk to the others.

He had found them, the dwarven Masters! Or rather they had found him. He did not know where he was but he slowly relaxed. Clearly they meant him no harm and it came to him that he was safe. He shook with reaction and tears began to flow, then he was sobbing uncontrollably. He felt strong arms gather him up and hold him while he cried, pouring out the accumulated fear, the stress of his flight and injury. Finally he lapsed into exhausted slumber.

Chapter Twenty-Three

“We like to say that you can't break a dwarf's spirit, and that is even true of some. But the Baasgarta had found that they could twist that spirit, turn it back against us so that we forged and were held by chains of the same spirit that had made us indomitable. In many ways this was the worst of their crimes against Dwarves. “

From the diaries of Engvyr Gunnarson

“At first we thought he was someone's child that was missed in the evacuation, but the scars on his cheek and shoulder tell a different story,” Engvyr said, “When the Baasgarta caught him, well, what else could we do?”

Master Ranger Berryc waved a hand dismissively.

“Oh you did right, there's no doubt a ‘that,” he said, “I've a feeling that the lad in yonder room is a key to this whole affair. It'd be nice if we could talk to him.”

“Well, even if we can suss out his speech it's going to be a while,” Deandra said briskly as she emerged from the room where the boy was being kept, “He's traumatized, exhausted and finally sleeping. It's a miracle that he hasn't already taken a fever so I'll thank you not to disturb him until he wakes.”

Engvyr smiled at her tone of command and extended a hand to her, which she took as she moved to stand close to his chair. He felt a thrill at her touch and comfort in her nearness. Besotted, he thought with a grin, that's the word. She squeezed his hand as if sensing his thought. With an effort he returned his attention to the conversation.

“It sounds to me almost like the old tongue,” Engvyr said, “or a dialect of it anyway. I'm just not familiar enough to say.”

Ynghilda nodded agreement and said, “It seemed so to me, too. I've sent to the camp for Harryl Gymlison. He learned the old tongue as a student in Ironhame, so if it is a dialect he's got the best chance to figure it out of anyone local.”

“In the meantime it seems likely to me that the boy is an escapee from the Baasgarta,” Said Colonel Oakes, commander of the 3rd Rifles, “I can't really see where else he might have come from.”

Ynghilda nodded, “They've been taking our folk. We've suspected they might be keeping them for slaves, but this boy isn't one of our own. Might be from somewhere else along the North taken years back but I don’t know anywhere they speak that tongue. That'd mean the Baasgarta have been taking dwarves for a lot longer than we thought. Hell, he might even have been born there.”

“Well,” said the Colonel, rising to depart, “We're not likely to figure it out by jawing over it all night. I need to get back to the camp. If'n you're able to find out anything be so kind as to send a rider to fetch me there.”

He nodded to them all and departed.

“The boy is likely to sleep through the night,” Deandra said, “I'll set with him so he doesn't wake alone.”