Free The Hammer of Fire by Tom Liberman Page B

Relics?” said Brogus. “How are
we possibly going to get in there, steal the hammer,” here he
lowered his voice, “and get back out again? There are hundreds of
Council Stalwarts guarding it all the time.”
    “Don’t exaggerate,” said Milli with a shake
of her head that sent her hair flying, “it’s hardly hundreds and
there are plenty of times it’s not guarded.”
    “Now is the time,” said Dol as he contributed
to the conversation for the first time. His face was still a mask
of impassivity but his eyes glowed black and he nodded his head.
“Now, they think they’ve won.”
    “Dol’s right,” said Milli. “Their confident
now that our plan was foiled and they’ll relax. With Uldex helping
we can get in and get out. You still have a plan to leave Craggen
Steep, right, Brogus?”
    The burly dwarf nodded his head, “I’ve got
friends in the lower levels who know about an old breakout section.
Somebody split rock through to the surface years ago and it was
patched up, but it’s only a few inches thick, there was an
earthquake or something. We’ll poke a hole in it no trouble and be
on our way. I can even have mules waiting for us. But I don’t know
much about the outside world, I’ve only been with one caravan and
that was when I was a kid. We don’t even know where this Koalhelm
Tol is located.”
    “It’s in the south,” said Milli, “as far
south as you can get in a region filled with volcanoes. Fierfelm
said …,”
    “Fierfelm!” interrupted Brogus with a sudden
exclamation that sent his beer slopping out of his mug, “I thought
you said it was Uldex that told you all this.”
    Milli paused and leaned back in her chair
with a little twinkle in her eye and small grin on her face, “I may
have led you to believe that, but I never said it.”
    “What?” shouted Brogus, standing, putting
both hands flat against the table, and leaning over so that his
considerable bulk loomed directly above Milli. “You don’t think we
should have known that?” He asked with a look over at Dol who sat
impassively in his own seat. “Don’t you think little miss pretty
should have told us that, Dol? Don’t you?”
    Dol shrugged his shoulders and stared back at
Brogus with calm black eyes, “What difference does it make where
the information comes from, as long as it’s accurate. I want that
hammer, I want to be the one remembered for killing Gazadum. You
can either watch me to do it, or you can help.”
    Brogus stood for a few long seconds as their
eyes bored into one another and then he looked up at the ceiling
and shook his head, “There’s no stopping you, once you’ve made up
your mind. I’ve known that since we were kids. Remember when I
broke your nose for eating more than half the brownies that
time?”
    Dol nodded and a small smile appeared on his
face.
    “What did he do to you?” asked Milli, looking
quickly back and forth between the two.
    “He ate all the brownies the next time,” said
Brogus with a snort as he collapsed back in his seat. “I could have
beat him some more, but what was the point? Then he’d probably just
eat all the pie too. You can’t win with Dol.”
    Milli laughed aloud, the sound almost like a
song, “That’s our Dol. Now that we’ve settled the what, we need to
figure out the how.”
    “They’ll expect us to wait a few days at
least to see the guard routines,” said Brogus with his hand on his
chin as he looked at Milli. “I think Dol might be right. We should
do it as soon as possible. If they knew about us stealing it in the
first place they might have found out about my escape route too. It
wouldn’t take a team of miners more than an hour to brick up that
narrow break and we’d never get through.”
    “So, we do it tonight then?” said Milli in a
whisper.
    “Why not now?” said Dol and suddenly stood
up.
    Milli’s eyes opened wide and she stared at
her thick-haired friend with her mouth agape, and then she shut it
with a snap. “Why not