Free Worms' Ending: Book Eight (The Longsword Chronicles 8) by GJ Kelly Page A

at
the gallop. Ven?”
    “At the trot, perhaps, miThal.”
    “Come then, we’ll move on a ways, whoever it is will catch
up to us soon enough. There’s another rise ahead which’ll give us a better view
of him and clearer ground for a shot if it turns out to be someone less than
friendly.”
    Ten minutes later, and Gawain and his companions turned
again to face the oncoming rider, loosening shoulders and necks, moving the
horses behind them out of the way while they faced the stranger.
    “Was that a call?” Gawain asked.
    “I think so,” Allazar replied. “Whoever it is has some
lungs.”
    “Whoever it is is small, miThal.”
    Snatches of another hollering call were caught between gusts
which whipped the cry away.
    “Is he shouting oowee at us?” Allazar frowned, cocking his
head and cupping his ear.
    “Ooooooy!” came the call again.
    “No,” Gawain sighed and shook his head sadly. “It’s oy, and
from the sound and the looks of it, it’s Ognorm of the Ruttmark.”
    “Oy!” came the call from the dwarf, clearer now and louder,
and over the tops of gorse and hawthorn they saw the diminutive figure waving
frantically while clinging to the pommel of his horse’s saddle. “Oy!”
     
    The horse, when finally it arrived, was in better condition
than the grinning and sweat-soaked dwarf upon its back, and that dwarf,
breathless, practically fell from the saddle and stood, bent double, hands on
his knees, gasping.
    “By them thrukken Teeth, melord, be you all cloth-eared since
leavin’? I bin shoutin’ for ye to stop fer thrukken miles! Ooh I are knackered
an’ no mistake.”
    Gawain blinked, and eyed first the exhausted dwarf, and then
the happy-looking horse that had once been so cruelly treated by elves bearing
the mark of the Tau at Urgenenn’s Tower. The animal, though breathing as
expected after a lengthy trot, seemed well enough, which surprised Gawain, and
doused the anger which had begun to glow in fear of the beast’s mistreatment.
    “You look worse than your horse, Ognorm,” Gawain remarked
sternly, arms folded.
    “Arr, ain’t surprised, me bein’ the one done most o’ the
running, ‘specially at night.”
    “Here, master dwarf,” Allazar handed Ognorm a water skin.
    “Ooh ta!” the dwarf took the skin, straightened his back,
and drank a long draught, spilling a goodly amount down his bearded chin.
    “What are doing here, Oggy? Who sent you?” Gawain demanded,
caught between admiration for the dwarf who had shared the quest for the Orb,
and frustration that the strength at Last Ridings had been diminished for his
presence here.
    “Me king sent me, melord, that’s who,” Ognorm blurted,
taking a gulp of air before another long pull on the water skin. “And who am I
to disobey me king? No-one, that’s who!”
    “Eryk is at Last Ridings?” Allazar gasped.
    “Narr,” Ognorm handed the water skin back to the wizard and
drew his sleeve across his chin. “Told me back in his own hall, Oggy, you
take Nadcracker down there to where Raheen now dwells and if anyone or anything
so much as squints at ‘im sideways, you shove that Nadcracker up their arse and
tell ‘em hello from Eryk! And Arr said I! So here I be!”
    Ognorm drew in another breath, and glared fiercely up into
Gawain’s eyes. “I told you melord! Told you with a pint in yer ‘and at The
Orb’s Ending in front of all me mates and yours what me king ordered me to do,
and yet you ride out without me! You knowing me orders from me king you left me
behind!”
    Gawain was astonished. “I meant no offence, Ognorm, nor
dishonour to Threlland…”
    “Narr well! How did I look! How did I look before ‘em all when
I walked in to the Endin’ for me lunch and them all gaping at me like I was
some Morloch-made monster! What be you doin’ ‘ere Oggy, cries they! What be you
doin’ ‘ere when ‘im you were sent to watch over’s gone north into danger!”
    The dwarf who’d proudly carried the Orb of Arristanas on