It is the 25th of Galena, year 255."So, let me see if I've understood all this," said Iamblichos and took another look at the schematic that the group had devised for the drawbridge and drawn up on a stone blackboard in the mechanics workshop. "You pull the lever, which releases this heavy stone weight inside the wall here," she pointed to the relevant part of the drawing, "and it pulls the bridge along with it as it falls, until it stops at the bottom. And then the bridge is up."
"That's the general idea of it, yeah", said Magnus.
"I've got a question then. How do we get the weight up again when we want to lower the bridge?" No one answered.
"What do you mean, lower the bridge?" said Neblime.
"I don't know, isn't that the whole point of a drawbridge? That it can be raised and lowered?" Iamblichos was visibly annoyed. She and Neblime did not get along well, and their bickering had become a daily event.
"I suppose you could have another, heavier weight in the wall on the opposite side," said Magnus, "and when you pull the lever again it releases that one."
"Now hold on just a second, I thought the bridge was going to retract into the floor! How do you geniuses plan on raising it anyway, without bringing the mountain down on us?" Neblime pointed at the low ceiling of the tunnel.
"Well, let's hear your idea then!" Iamblichos shot her arms out in a hopeless gesture.
"Actually," said Elagn and took a big bite out of the pear she was toting, "what you want is two equal weights connected to each other through pulleys that drive the bridge axle." She ignored the utterly bewildered faces that had turned towards her, and sauntered casually up to the blackboard where she drew up a new schematic. "The lever just inserts or retracts an extra pulley into the setup on either side, shifting the weight accordingly. Pretty simple, really. Oh, and I love your bridge!"
She started walking towards the bridge where it floated in the lava, rendered buoyant by evenly spaced air pockets inside the stone. The others tagged after her like a row of ducklings. She took another bite of her pear and flicked the remaining core over the edge, where it disappeared with a fizzle. Then she laid down flat on the bridge and burped with a content look on her face.
"Who are you?" asked Magnus incredulously as they gathered around her and sat down. "How did you find us here?"
"And where did you get THAT?" Taupe was looking at her as though the half eaten pear had been a gold nugget. "I haven't seen a pear since I was little!"
All of the dwarves had similar questions to the newcomer. They had been alone with themselves for nearly a year now, and had begun to wonder if they were the only ones of their kind not enslaved by the goblins. Evidently it was not so.
"One at a time, guys! Let her speak," said Magnus.
Elagn sat up, and began her story. "I'm Elagn. I was a mechanic in Dangledmirrors before... well, let's just say that I left before the worst bit happened. Family feuds, it's a long story. I hope they're okay. Anyways, I've been travelling west from there for about... a year now? Was hoping to settle down in Bouldermechanisms, I'd heard they were short on dwarfpower, but when I got there it turned out to be a smoking ruin full of goblins, and suddenly I had my hands full with avoiding their patrols. I ran into a group of refugees that had escaped before the siege, so I tagged along with them. Then we saw this volcano erupt, and decided to take shelter up here. Looks like you guys had the same idea. Nice tunnel you've dug, pretty well hidden."
"Wait, there are more of you?" asked Than402.
"Yeah, they're outside somewhere. Beirus went up to check out the crater, I think the other two were talking about gathering food. Well, Skaia was talking and Dwarobaki was listening. Skaia's a pretty decent cook, if you don't mind her babbling your ear off. But what about you guys? What's your story?"
The dwarves told her their tale. Her mouth fell open as she listened, and she was clearly shocked.
"So the rumors are true then... The West has fallen. Armok help us all. I guess that explains a thing or two... Look, if we're going to stay here we'll need to build a proper fortress. They're going to find this tunnel eventually. And when they do..." Her voice trailed off, and she started shivering, even though the crater was scorching hot.
"It's okay," said Taupe and put her hand on Elagn's shoulder. "We're not going to let them drag us back to the dungeons. If we all work together I'm sure we can get a real fortress going before they find us. It sounds like you know more about that sort of thing than any of us, and if you've got friends with you to help, all the better. I wouldn't mind tasting one of those pears you brought, either! Getting pretty sick of only eating plump helmets and dried horse." The others nodded profoundly at the mentioning of dried horse.
Elagn looked perplexed. Then she smiled.
"You guys have been prisoners for a while, haven't you? Let's go outside. I'll show you the pears."
They all went outside. The bridge had taken several months to construct, and it was now late summer. The dwarves blinked in the evening sun and raised their hands to shield their eyes from it. Elagn seemed unaffected. She gave Taupe a nudge and pointed at the nearest tree. Its branches were heavy with ripe, succulent pears.
"There they are!"
Through watering eyes, Taupe and the others slowly realised just what an orchard they had been living in. A heavy, fruity aroma wafted up from the slopes around them, where several enormous pear trees stood feasting on the rich volcanic soil, alongside scores of plum trees, chestnuts and hazels. In the grass between the trees were patches of blueberries, bayberries, strawberries and numerous tubers. Wild, docile animals were grazing here and there, building up fat reserves for the winter. The dwarves were terrified by all this nature, but a dwarf thinks with his stomach, and now their stomachs were giving the orders.
"Pears grow on trees," said Taupe dreamingly. "All this time... I never knew."
"Stepladders", said Magnus, cradling a handful of fallen hazel nuts like a mother holds her newborn child. "We need stepladders."
Than402 was crawling through the grass, feverishly stuffing his mouth full of strawberries and completely lost in the rapture. He had been born in the Mountainhome after the invasion, and had never even seen a piece of fresh fruit, let alone tasted one. Even Neblime and Iamblichos had forgotten their grudge, and danced around cackling like madmen, hoisting each other up on their shoulders to reach the goodness in the lower branches.
"OI! Who's this then?" Strong Beirus had come down from the crater along with the chatty Skaia and the taciturn Dwarobaki, and they were not quite sure what to think of these idiots tumbling down the hillside. "We went up to the crater and saw this magnificent bridge floating down there, so we hurried back down to see who might have built such a thing." She glanced over at the bridge builders, who were now engaged in a fierce ranged battle with plums as ammunition. "Is it them who did it? Are they... all right in the head?"
"Yeah," laughed Elagn. "Yeah, they're all right. They just need some time to shake off the cave adaptation. Come on, let's get inside. I've thought up some building designs for the crater that I'd like your opinion on."
Poll
Author
Topic: Ilrom Ziril: The Peak of Fire (Read 32525 times)