Read Online Dark Obligations: Book One of the Phantom Badgers by RW Krpoun - Free Book Online

treat which the creatures clearly enjoyed. The load strapped and tied onto each of the saddles was a heavy one: each beast carried seventy pounds of acorns (its rations for twelve days), five day’s rations for the raiders, a small brazier, and twenty pounds of charcoal. Additionally, split between the two were bundles of candles (both ordinary tallow candles for light, and marked wax time-candles to measure sentry-watches), grapnels and lengths of light chain, some tools, a number of coiled ropes, bundles of empty sacks, two pots, two skillets, and a box of additional medical supplies. Each animal was loaded to its fullest capacity, but travel within the Dwarven Hold would be easy for the most part, and their loads would steadily lighten as rations were consumed.
    Durek called the Badgers together while Kurt and Gottri cleaned up after breakfast. “All right, this is the last time we go over this, so if you’ve got any questions, toss ‘em out before I’m through. We’re about to enter Gradrek Heleth , so I’ll cover the basics one more time. Keep a quart or so of water on you, but no more: we should have no problem finding fresh water, so there’s no point in weighing ourselves down. You each have four day’s rations; the next issue will be in four days, so don’t waste any. We’ll travel with the komad in the center of the group, half in front, half behind, and two scouts a hundred paces ahead, one being a Dwarf. Everyone keep alert.”
    “As far as loot goes, we do no looting or searching unless by my command; we don’t have time or the portage capacity for serious gathering until we have recovered the books and are on our way out. To remind you newcomers, remember: anything found is Company property unless you find it on a solo scouting mission authorized by myself or unless you take it in si ngle combat. Everything else goes into the Company coffers.”
    “Now, as we’ve noted before, Gradrek Heleth sees a great deal of traffic, relatively speaking. There is an entire keiba of Cave Goblins, the Bronze Hydras, living in the Hold, as well as semi-permanent enclaves from the Direthrell, Dark Sun nation-cult, and others. Minions of the Void often travel here looking for loot and a chance to prove themselves, and the Orcs are known to mount raids. It is not impossible to run into other followers of the Eight, including Dwarves, raiding into the place as well. While this sounds like a great deal of traffic, remember that Gradrek Heleth consists of five cidhe , a argalt , a piseagan , and miles of mines, not to mention the under-deeps, so there is a huge volume of space for these wanderers or inhabitants; it is possible that we might even traverse the place to and from our goal without serious incident, although that isn’t something I would count on.”
    “As for non-intelligent inhabitants, we can expect Titan spiders, the odd hydra, and anything th at has wandered in from the raith ; there are strange creatures indeed in the depths of the world. Any questions?”
    “Yes, I have one,” Nuil ia raised her hand. “What exactly are these tiles we’re getting before we look for the books?”
    “They are called advarkel , or anvil tiles. Dwarves do not use metal anvils except in the initial stages of working raw metal; all the shaping and precision work is done on stone anvils covered with a specially-treated type of ceramic tile impregnated with metal dust; these advarkel are shaped and constructed for specific metal work at specific stages of the creative process, and grow harder and stronger with use, wearing out only after several centuries. Thus old tiles are much more valuable than new tiles, which is why we are going after these. Only a few hundred of the very best tiles were taken when Gradrek Heleth was evacuated; thousands more remain even after all this time.”
    “You would think that they would have been looted long ago,” Arian commented.
    “No t really, only Dwarves use them so there isn’t