Free The Quest for the Trilogy: Boneslicer; Seaspray; Deathwhisper by Mel Odom

sure-footed as he’d been. He didn’t know if it was the sadness of the story or the potent sparkleberry wine that did him in. “On the morning of the tenth day, nearly all of the Unity army took sick and couldn’t even stand to defend themselves. The goblinkin came among them like butchers in the slaughterhouse. No one was spared.”
    â€œIt was the dwarven leader,” Verdin insisted. “He spread the sickness among the surviving troops so that his own life might be spared.”
    â€œWatch yer blasphemous tongue there, swab,” Hallekk growled.
    â€œThen ye explain to me how it was Oskarr managed to escape the sickness an’ make it back to the Cinder Clouds Islands.”
    â€œHe were a warrior!” Hallekk roared. “He managed to evade that sickness, an’ he got what he could of his troops outta the Painted Canyon an’ retreated.”
    â€œAfter they’d made a pact to stay an’ die together.”
    â€œDoesn’t make no sense to die when it ain’t gonna help nothin’. They knew if they’d bolted from Fell’s Keep that most of ’em woulda died. The sickness did ’em in afore that. The only thing Oskarr could do was lead them what was healthy enough to run for their lives an’ take ’em outta that death trap. He did it.”
    â€œHe went back home and stayed away from the fighting.”
    â€œBut Oskarr didn’t leave the war,” Wick said. “Oskarr returned to the Cinder Clouds Islands and worked on the side of the Unity until Lord Kharrion was finally killed.”
    â€œHammerin’ out swords an’ armor from the safety of his forge,” Verdin accused.
    â€œIt’s powerful hard for an army to fight when it ain’t got the tools it needs to see the job finished,” Hallekk said. “When it come to a-buildin’ them tools, wasn’t none finer than Master Blacksmith Oskarr. He hammered out a lot of armor an’ weapons them Unity troops needed over them years.”

    â€œFaugh!” Verdin said. “’Twas fightin’ that were needed! An’ after that, Oskarr lived himself out a life that was fat an’ happy.”
    â€œNo,” Wick said. “Oskarr died there in the Cinder Clouds Islands. For six years, Master Blacksmith Oskarr and his chief armorers supplied the Unity army. The forges never ran cold and the dwarves worked in shifts every hour of the day, hammering out swords and armor and arrowheads. During that time, it is said, the Cinder Clouds Islands were never silent, and the ringing of hammers filled all of the forges. In time, their work there drew the ire of the Goblin Lord because the supplies Master Blacksmith Oskarr and his people made started to turn the tide of the war.”
    â€œLord Kharrion attacked the Cinder Clouds Islands,” a dwarf said.
    â€œHe did,” Wick agreed. “The Goblin Lord’s spies discovered that Oskarr was preparing another large shipment of equipment in one month. Lord Kharrion put goblinkin ships in the water and went on the attack. He lay siege to Oskarr’s city and waited to starve them out. As everyone knows, there wasn’t much else in the Cinder Clouds Islands but veins of iron ore. It was a hardscrabble place even then. Only lizards and scrub brush lived there. Oskarr and his people depended on trade to keep food on the table.”
    â€œThere was fish,” someone suggested.
    â€œThe water was fouled by the forges,” Craugh said. “The Cinder Clouds Islands dwarves used forges tapped directly into the volcanoes that spewed forth the island archipelago. Sulfur, soot, and ash clouded the waters around the island and chased away all living things on land and in the sea. It’s impressive that the dwarves were strong enough to survive there. Volcanoes are very hard to tame.”
    Wick felt certain the wizard spoke from experience.
    â€œThere’s no truer heat than