The roof of the hame was an enormous slab of granite, its base set into a ledge on the side of the mountain. Its sides were set onto four roughly finished stone blocks, each half-again as tall as a dwarf and an arm's length thick. The spaces between were filled with dry stone walls, the rocks shaped and fitted until you couldn't have slipped a knife-edge between them. There were two small windows flanking the opening for the door and a chimney poked up near the back of the slab.
“How in the Lord and lady's name did they build this place? I just can't figure it.”
His father looked at the hame for a moment and shrugged.
“Danged if I know,” he said, “But folk are mighty clever and people can do amazing things when they put their minds to it.”
Engvyr shook his head, looking at the slab with a miner's eye.
“But that rock must weigh fifteen tons if it's a pound! I just can't make out how they managed it,” he said.
“That's a Stonewright's work for sure,” Roel said and gestured to the structure, “They can do some surprising things. A good one with a small team can erect a hame like this in a couple of weeks. I once watched a Stonewright and his apprentice lift a slab like this, must have weighed ten tons, in a day with nothing but a bunch of sticks, a couple of beams and some rope.”
He must have looked skeptical because the Ranger went on to explain.
“They'd already cut the slab with drills and blasting powder and they horsed it into position with levers and rollers. They set the beams into the ground hard up against the slab with their tops sloped towards each other and tied a rope between 'em. Putting a heavy stone on one end of the slab tipped it just enough that they could slide a narrow pole under the high side between the two beams. Then the 'prentice picked up the rock and walked to the other end of the slab so that it tipped it the other way and the wright put a pole under that end. He just kept carrying the rock from one end of the slab to the other while the Stonewright slid the poles under it. They kept at it until that big 'ol slab was as high as a dwarf can reach. Dangdest thing I ever saw.”
Engvyr studied the hame for a moment and then pointed to the side.
“So then they did somethin' similar to lift those side-blocks into place and dropped the slab on it, I reckon.”
Roel nodded.
“They just cut the rope between the beams and it settled right down into place. Next time we came through on our rounds that place was all finished. The family had already moved in and was planting crops.”
Once Engvyr had heard it told it seemed like the easiest thing in the world. He reckoned that a lot of things were like that. A dwarf needed to learn to look at things in different ways when the way that he knew wouldn't do.
“Might be we could stop admiring the place and go about getting it ready to live in?” Egerta inquired dryly.
The rangers made sure that nothing bigger than spiders and bugs had taken up residence. After they announced that it was safe they lit lamps and went within. There was a large main room with a fireplace under the slab itself. Three smallish rooms had been mined into the rock-face at the rear. A latrine had been built off to one side in a small addition.
The roof of the addition had rotted and fallen in, and the interior needed a good cleaning as animals had sheltered in it from time to time. A stout table made of a thick slab of wood still stood in the main room, likely left as it was too heavy to move and in fact wouldn't fit through the low, narrow door. It was still sound after all these years owing to its heavy construction and the dryness of the interior. They set to work with a will and that night they slept under a proper roof, with a fire in the newly cleaned fireplace.
They found the head of a broadax along one side of the hame, its haft long rotted away. They scoured it with sand to remove the worst of the rust and Rolph showed him how to cut and trim a new handle for it. They used it to cut planks for a door, a new roof for the latrine, some benches and other furniture. They also set up a corral for the livestock and trekked to nearby meadows to cut the tall grasses for feed. In a surprisingly short time the hame was becoming comfortable, even homey.
One afternoon Engvyr was gathering firewood and he heard a soft sound from the hillside above the hame. Moving carefully he came upon his aunt, curled into a ball and sobbing uncontrollably. He knew that she had hardly had time to properly mourn her lost husband before they had departed. With the fresh loss of her daughter and sister-in-law, who had been her best friend in the world, it was a testament to her inner strength that she had held herself together this long.
He moved off quietly and watched over her through the long afternoon until at last her tears ran out. She fell into a deep sleep right where she lay. Not wanting her to take a chill lying on the cold ground he worked his way back down to the hame and called out for her. She came down the hill, eyes dry and once again the model of strength she had been these last weeks.
Nor was his father immune to grief, and though he gave little outward sign he was a quieter man than the one that had raised Engvyr. Though Engvyr never saw him cry he was prone to nightmares and on more than one occasion he was red-eyed and puffy-faced when he rose in the morning.
Berget was now seeing to her own needs and would do as she was told but had yet to speak. When not occupied she would sit for hours staring blindly at nothing. Engvyr took to setting her small tasks to keep her busy, which seemed to help.
Rolph borrowed the Big 14 and went out hunting one day and brought down a boar bigger than he was. He had to fetch Engvyr and Roel to help carry it back to the hame. It took the rest of the day to skin and butcher it. They used some of their remaining salt to preserve large chunks of it and cure the side-meat. His aunt used the intestines and some local herbs to make strings of sausages that they hung by the fire to dry.
Finally Rolph told the family that it was time for them to move on.
“We've been off our rounds for weeks. As it is we'll not make our check-in without cutting out a loop of our patrol route.”
“We'd not meant to keep you from your duty, Ranger,” His aunt said.
He dismissed that concern with a wave.
“We've been doing our duty, ma'am. We patrol against threats and enforce the King's Law, yes, but it's just as much our job to help folks like yourselves. We do need to report in, and more-or-less on-time. If we don't they will have to take other rangers away from their patrols to search for us.”
“No worries,” his father assured them, “Get on with you. We're well set-up here, thanks to you. I'll be up and around soon enough and we'll be on our way.”
The Rangers shook hands with them all and accepted hugs from his aunt along with a bag of freshly made biscuits.
“Next time our rounds bring us this way we'll stop in and check on you. That'll likely be a month or so” Rolph told them, “until then be well.”
He swung into the saddle and gave a small wave. Roel touched the brim of his hat in farewell and they set off.
Chapter Seven
“A Dwarf may set his foot on any path he chooses, but that path will lead where it leads regardless of his intended destination. If he is too set in his mind on his original goal he may in his disappointment entirely miss the wonder of where he winds up.”
“You've done well for yourselves here,” Rolph commented, looking around the hame.
Good as their word the Rangers had returned. They brought with them some small things that the family might need, odds and ends like a spool of strong thread, some iron needles, a small bag of salt and a box of 14-bore slugs. They even brought some hard candy for Berget, which she accepted gravely. She still did not speak but a spark of life was coming back into her eyes at last.