'm glad to see you, too," Shiara said. She started to bend over and winced. "Sorry, kitten; you'll have to wait to get petted until somebody does something about this stupid arm."
Nightwitch stopped rubbing and looked up. "Mmrew?"
"Well, I said I was sorry," Shiara said. "I didn't ask to break it."
The dwarves had reached the edge of the key's glow, and the whole tunnel was lit up by their torches. It made things a lot more cheerful, as well as letting me get a good look at the dwarves. There were seven of them, five males and two females, all carrying shovels and picks. I could see the dragon in back of the dwarves, looking almost as smug as Nightwitch had.
"Look!" it said when it got close enough to talk without shouting. "I found a whole lot of dwarves!"
"I see that," I said. I bowed to the dwarves as well as I could while trying to watch the quozzel at the same time. "My name is Daystar, and that's Shiara. We're very pleased to meet you."
"They're going to dig through the part of the tunnel that came down," the dragon said.
"Hold on just a minute? one of the dwarves said. "I didn't say I'd help. Not exactly. I said I'd look at this cave-in of yours."
"Me too," said another. "Proper mess it looks."
"Not natural," said a female dwarf. She looked at Shiara and me suspiciously.
"How do you know?" Shiara said belligerently.
"We made this tunnel," still another dwarf said. "And dwarf-made tunnels don't just fall in."
"Not ever," agreed the first one.
"Of course not," I said. "The quozzel made the tunnel cave in. It was trying to stop us from getting out of the Caves of Chance."
"The quozzel?" the dragon said, looking interested. "That dessert thing is back again?"
"You can't eat it until we find out if it knows anything else," I said.
"Besides, you had plenty of lunch."
The dragon sighed. "I suppose so. All right, I'll wait."
I looked at the dwarves. "We'd be very much obliged to you if you would help us get through this, or show us a way around it, or something," I said."
"Now, why should we do that?" one of them said.
"I don't see any reason," said another.
"Lot of work for nothing," added a third.
"And I don't like dragons!" said a voice from the middle of the group.
The dragon glared, but it couldn't pick out the dwarf who'd spoken.
"Could you at least set Shiara's arm?" I asked.
One of the female dwarves started to reply, but she was cut off by a yell from Shiara. "Daystar! Behind you!"
I raised the sword and spun around just as the quozzel bunched itself together and jumped at me. It came flying through the air, and I ducked.
Something dark and purple shot out of it toward me, and I slashed at it with the sword. I got most of the purple stuff and part of the quozzel as well. I heard it shriek, and then it had landed and launched itself again, straight for the wall of the tunnel.
"I'll kill all of you!" it whistled angrily. "Key stealers! Cannibals! I'll kill you d-d-dead!"
I lunged for it, but I was too late. The quozzel hit the tunnel wall, and instead of bouncing, it vanished into the rock like water being absorbed by a sponge, only faster. An instant later a shower of rocks fell out of the roof of the tunnel, and I heard the walls creaking ominously.
"Run!" I yelled. I started to follow my own advice but saw a large rock shifting in the wall of the tunnel just above Shiara's head. I shouted again and swung the sword at it, hoping it would be deflected like the other rocks the quozzel had tried to drop on me.
The flat of the sword hit the rock, and everything seemed to slow down suddenly. There was a lot of creaking, and the top of the tunnel started to sag, as if it were trying to fall in again but couldn't quite manage it. The sword got very heavy, and then there was an angry-sounding rumble and the whole tunnel shook. The rock that had been heading for Shiara went bouncing off the opposite wall of the tunnel, and all the creaking and rumbling stopped very abruptly.
I didn't move for several seconds at least. I didn't think the quozzel would give up this easily. Then I saw a thin trickle of dark purple stuff dripping down the wall of the tunnel where the quozzel had disappeared. I watched it for a minute or two and decided that we probably didn't have to worry about the quozzel anymore. I looked at Shiara.
"Are you all right?"
"That's a stupid question," Shiara said. "My arm is broken!"
"I mean, you didn't get any more hurt than you were already, did you?"
"No," she said. She looked at me. "Thanks."
I was so surprised that I couldn't think of anything to say for at least a minute.
"Um, you're welcome," I said finally. I realized suddenly that my sword still had some wet purple stuff on it from hitting the quozzel, and I started digging in my pocket for my handkerchief so I could wipe off the sword.
I couldn't find it. I sighed. It had probably fallen out of my pocket somewhere on the trip through the caves. I didn't really mind losing it, except that now I didn't have anything to get the purple goo off my sword with. I turned to the dwarves. "Excuse me, but do any of you-" I stopped. The dwarves were standing in a tight group, and all seven of them were staring at the sword.
"Now, why didn't you think to mention you had that?" one of them said.
17
In Which They Get out of the Caves and into Even More Trouble
Shiara and I looked at the dwarves. "He's been holding it since before you got here!" Shiara said finally. "Why should he have mentioned it?"
"It would have saved a lot of bother," one of the female dwarves said in an aggrieved tone.
"Time, too," said another.
"Inconsiderate, I call it."
"Well, not inconsiderate, exactly," said one of the male dwarves, eyeing the dragon. "A little thoughtless, maybe."
"Thoughtless?" The dragon looked puzzled. "Why? What difference does it make if Daystar has a sword?"
'"A sword is one thing. That sword is something else again."
"Someone should have told us."
"Someone should definitely have told us."
"After all, we aren't elves."
"Of course you're not elves," the dragon said. "Anyone can see that! What does that have to do with Daystar's sword?"
"It's not his sword!" one of the dwarves objected. "It's the King's!"
"And elves can recognize it just by looking at it," a female dwarf said in a resentful tone.
"So can some other people," said another darkly.
"But not dwarves."
"Unless we get a good look at it, of course. Which we couldn't, because of the light, not to mention the fact that you were standing there talking and distracting our attention."
"Which is why you should have mentioned it," a dwarf in the back finished triumphantly.
"I didn't mention it because there seem to be a lot of people who want it," I said. "One of them is a wizard."
About six of the dwarves started talking so fast it was hard to tell whether they were all speaking at the same time or whether they went one after another.
"Of course there are a lot of people who want it!"
"Particularly wizards."
"It's the King's sword, isn't it?"
"Maybe it isn't; he hasn't said."
"It has to be the King's sword, silly. There aren't any other swords that the earth obeys."
"What about Delvan's blade?"
"That's not a sword, it's an ax."
"And the earth doesn't obey it, it just shakes a lot."
"So this has to be the King's sword."
"Wait a minute!" I said. "What do you know about my sword?"
"It's the King's sword," one of the dwarves said indignantly. Another dwarf shushed him, and a dwarf near the front of the crowd stepped forward and bowed.
"We follow the sword," she said, as if it explained everything.