“Anyway, now that you are here, we should be about our business,” Karnea said. “I must confess I am quite excited by what we might uncover. We’ll need to find tools and supplies, and maybe porters and a few guards as well. A guide from among the prospectors is necessary, someone who knows their way around the Underhalls.”
“That’s a lot of loose lips.”
“I doubt any of them will realise what we are after,” Karnea said. “They will think we are just treasure hunters like themselves.”
Kormak doubted that. Karnea seemed as unlikely a tomb robber as he could imagine. At best people might assume she was a rich dilettante looking for thrills. There seemed no reason to tell her this though.
“Then let’s make a start,” Kormak said. “We’d best find the guides first. They can tell us what we’ll need by way of supplies.”
Chapter Three
THAT EVENING THEY spent long hours trawling through ever sleazier taverns, climbing ever higher on the ridges above the town and closer to the outskirts. They showed Karnea’s rune to people, making light of its worth yet letting them know they would be interested in finding more like it.
Those who looked like they might have the knowledge and skills required did not want to go. They had found something profitable and sold it or they would have been in the Underhalls still seeking, not down here in Varigston guzzling ale. They did not want to leave till their money was gone. The prospectors were part of a class of scavengers who wandered from dwarvish ruin to dwarvish ruin picking the places clean after they were discovered. Khazduroth was the biggest motherlode of their lifetimes.
There were others—shifty, desperate-looking men who could not answer the most basic questions Karnea put to them in a convincing manner. They wanted her money but they could not do what she wanted.
Now they were in the last and roughest looking tavern of them all. The prospectors stared at Karnea sullenly. They were a hard looking bunch, and they had been drinking, and they seemed intent on treating what Karnea was saying as a joke. There were a dozen of them, and they did not look too impressed by Boreas and Kormak. They were big men themselves, roughly dressed, wearing their hair in what they all thought was a dwarvish fashion, beards braided down to their waists and in some cases forked.
“You ever seen a rune torque like this?” Karnea was saying to their spokesman. He was half a head shorter than the largest of the prospectors but he was far broader both about the shoulder and the belly. An old rune-headed dwarf hammer lay on the table in front of him. Brown stuff and a tuft of something was stuck to one side of it. Kormak guessed the prospector was not too fussy about cleaning it.
“Nice work,” he said. “And worth a pretty penny, no doubt. I’ve seen weapons and armour and shields. I’ve seen runestones and everglow lanterns and statues of the Gods. That’s what the merchants pay for. I’ll keep my eyes open for ones of these.”
“Have you ever seen anything that looked like a forge in Khazduroth?”
The prospector laughed. “There are streets of forges. It was a dwarf city after all.”
“Did they have anything in them?”
The man spread his massive hands. “If there were tools they were took long ago. Many a blacksmith would give his children’s heads for dwarf-made tools.”
“Could you take us there?” Karnea could not keep the excitement from her voice.
The prospector looked at her sharply. “You willing to pay?”
Karnea nodded. She was going too quickly, trusting the wrong men but it was too late to stop her now.
“How much?”
“A solar each,” Karnea said. It was a lot of money. Probably far too much. The man showed a grin like a skull. His crew exchanged smiles and nudges.
“For that much, we’ll carry you there on our backs.”
“We might take you up on that” Kormak said. The men looked at him menacingly and did not laugh. A pretty dark-haired woman was looking in their direction. She was garbed like a prospector too. She had been paying attention ever since Karnea had revealed the rune. A flicker of what looked like recognition passed over her face when she saw it.
“When can you start?” Karnea asked.
“Soon as you’re ready to go. Of course, we’ll need an advance for supplies and such.” Karnea nodded.
“A silver each should be sufficient for that,” said Kormak, before she could dig them into further trouble. The prospector nodded all too quickly. Kormak did not trust him in the slightest. Karnea nodded to Boreas. He produced a pouch and counted out silver to each of the men.