Chapter 310

Contrary to all expectations, the city under the mountain was warm, like late spring or early summer in Re-Estize, and with the soft glow of the lights, it was like a sunrise from every direction. Their guide, true to his evident form already, was quick to point out places where his family could profit from the visitors… though he didn't put it quite like that.

"Doesn't it get hard to sleep with lights in every direction?" Lakyus asked when they reached a fork in the stone 'road'.

"Oh no miss, see it's mornin now by our reckon'n." The dwarf ambled along and pointed to a soft light coming from yet another tunnel ahead. "See we got some lights what are on all the time, an others, they glow only part of the time, it's night when we say it is, day when we say it is, an we like it right fine just that way. Prolly we get a whole lot more work done than you long legs." He chuckled, "Now, you wanna see how we be buildin these things, I'm takin you, but if'n you wanna see somethin real neat, it's on the way with only the slightest diversion."

The dwarf stopped and held his hand out to the group.

"And what if it's not? What if we pay you and we're not impressed at all?" Lupu asked with a taunting grin on her face.

The dwarf chuckled aloud, "Aye miss, that's fair, tell yah what, if'n nobody in yer little gaggle o'friends is impressed, I'll refund everybody."

"And what if it's just me who isn't impressed, gonna keep 'my' money?" Lupu taunted the dwarf, catching his weasel words, and causing him to reassess the red haired woman again.

But not offer a full refund. "Well lass, I got'ta take you all along anyway, sooo… think of it as just you payin for the happiness and thrill of your dear travelin companions, and who would say no to that?"

"You're a sly one, aincha?" Lupu asked, and the dwarf only winked.

"Ahm just a dwarf makin his way in the world, thas'all, now we goin'ere or noht?" He wiggled the fingers of his outstretched palm, and Momon finally sighed and reached into his pouch and shelled out a silver for every member of the party.

"Lead on, master dwarf." Momon said.

"Aye ah'd be happy to, but you don't have to call me master dwarf, yah can just call me Tagrim, me friends, they call me Tagrim the Just. Or 'Taggy, if'n we been drinkin a bit much."

"Alright, Tagrim, lead on." Momon said again, and the dwarf shoved the handful of silvers into his pouch where they clinked together against the others.

"Oy now this is somethin special, now nobody do nothin, ahright, I don usually show folk this, but you're a brave lookin lot." Tagrim said and took them down a narrow side passage that forced them to walk single file. "Watch yer heads, long-legs. This is'n active mine. An it ain't sized for you folk. Well, maybe you two," he pointed at the twins, "an yer little girl there."

Evileye fumed. "I'm not a child. I'm an adventurer."

"A short adventurer." Lupu pointed out.

"Our shorty." Gagran said with a taunting grin, and promptly smacked her head on the stone, which broke when she hit it. "Ow!" She said and rubbed her face.

"Like ah said, it ain't sized for you folk. But no worries, it's not the deep part we goin to, it's over here, then we'll head back to the main path an I'll show you the mailbox." Tagrim warned them again and then distracted them with gabbing, it seemed he had a gift for it, and it kept them engaged until they entered a great, wide opening.

"Undead!" Lakyus shouted and immediately sprang to the attack. "Turn undead!" She bellowed.

She hadn't been wrong, there were dozens of skeletons at work swinging pickaxes in a steady and tireless rhythm, hauling the broken stone into carts and pushing them down a wide corridor off the area they were working in.

"What're you doin! Don do that, lady!" Tagrim shouted as the golden light swept over the skeletons, and they vanished into nothingness, their tools falling to the stone with a loud, echoing clank.

"Whadja do that for?! Are you crazy, lass? Those're city property! Ah ain't payin fer that! How'm I s'posed to explain it meself?!" Tagrim was shouting then, stamping his foot on the ground and gesturing wildly at the place where the skeletons were working.

Lakyus looked at him, dumbstruck by his reaction. Instead of the thanks she was expecting for protecting him from monsters, he was raging. "I… they're undead, undead are evil at best, mindless animals or natural disasters at worst… I just took care of them like the vermin they are… I what?" She asked as he raged on about the expense of it all and the cost of transporting them and so on.

"Those undead, them skeletons, were leased from the Allfather! The savior of our people ye long legged, short brained idjit! Them's right expensive doncha know?! They work in all the dangerous spots an keep our folk alive an free from harm! Oh aye the tunnel doctors don't get much work anymore, but we haven' had a damn tunnel death in the last two years thanks ta them… an you went and made a bunch of em vanish!" The dwarf crossed his arms and began tapping his foot.

"You're payin for those, I hope you know that, ah sure ain't… not cause a one dizzy idjit…" Tagrim snapped.

"But- But- But- they're dangerous… I'm a priestess, I'm supposed to put down things like that." Lakyus protested, while Evileye mentally shrank behind them all.

'She doesn't know what I am, she doesn't know what I am, she doesn't know what she's saying, she doesn't mean me. It's okay that she thinks that, if she knew what I was…' Evileye tried to tell herself, but as the blonde priestess of the water god went on trying to defend her actions, Evileye's protests to herself felt more hollowed out than the mountain in which they now stood.

"Ah don't care. You destroyed city property an you're gonna have to pay for it. We gonna have to order more to replace what was lost, an we gonna have to pay for the ones you destroyed, since they was leased." Tagrim said with matter of fact indifference to Lakyus's protests.

"Uh… maybe this isn't the right time to ask this but… where do the bodies come from? Some of those were human, but a lot weren't." Gagaran asked and cast her eyes about as if she expected more undead to show up at any moment.

"Oh, well a bunch of em came from war, dead frogmen, dead lizardmen, dead human warriors… all in all, we lease about ten thousand skeletal workers doin projects as far away as the old capital, the Allfather gave us generous terms, an we give him first sale rights on all state owned mines." Tagrim's anger vanished when he briefly ventured into a subject of which he was clearly proud.

Lakyus's jaw fell open in horror. "Ten thousand undead beneath the mountain… I heard a bard's horror epic that started that way once… and it's real?!" She gasped and shivered.

"Aye but it's fine, they's easy to control, they got no brains, no will, they just follow orders, never tire, never ask for a raise, never take up the extra beer… leaves us free to do a whole lot more with our time, an we're happy… now you gonna argue, or you gonna agree to pay? If'n you refuse, fraid I'll have to call the guards to arrest ya." Tagrim promised, and Lakyus slumped at the shoulders.

"Fine… I'll pay for them… but can we… keep this discreet?" Lakyus asked as she ran out of steam.

"Aye, twenty gold large if it's from the Kingdom of Nazarick, fifty gold large if'n it's some a them old Re-Estize ones. What'll it be?" Tagrim stuck his hand out again.

Lakyus sucked in her teeth at the sum. "I don't carry that much… but," she reached to her neck and pulled out the adamantite tag identifying her status, "this is my security, I'll draft a letter authorizing you to draw that much off my account in the Adventurer's Guild in Re-Estize, hold on to this plate until you've been paid. Deal?"

Tagrim frowned, "I'll need an extra five for the delay and the risk and the interest."

"Done. But let us never speak of this again." Lakyus retorted.

"Fine, but you gotta promise not to do that no more either when I get you to the mailbox site, I know we got some undead down that way." Tagrim replied and began to lead them back the way they'd come.

"I… I promise." She said, but slowly. "Just don't let those creatures come too close to me.

At her back, she had no idea that Evileye's heart was tearing in two.