Chapter 178:

“Nothing’s changed,” Anton said softly as he stepped through the portal to Balefire Mine. Cetina and Rasha had already stepped through the portal, along with a few human and Beast-kin soldiers. They formed a loose circle around the portal, their attention focused between the closed hatch door and the tunnel in the rear of the storage room.

“Not a thing,” Cetina ordered the soldiers towards the trapdoor. She gave no distinction between the humans and the Beast-kin, something that soldiers gave no regard to either. Anton knew that it was only a matter of time, of cooperating during times of adversity, even if it was at knifepoint, before they began to ignore their physical differences.

“It smells a little cleaner,” Rasha added. “If anything.”

“The Ghlotsm should be gone.” Behind Anton the portal flashed, Verona and Kal stepped through, followed by another forty human and Beast-kin soldiers, Eider at the rear with her larger Beast-kin unofficial bodyguards. “I’ve been letting that White Ghlotsm do whatever it wants. Right now it’s nearing that crystal chasm.”

“So long as it keeps the bad creatures at bay.” Verona laughed, kicking at the faint layer of dirt covering the stone floor. “Can they work as miners?”

“Not a good idea if I lose control.” Anton took their hands and pulled them away from the portal. “Imagine them just turning on everyone else. It’d be a massacre. And…” Anton gently rubbed Kal’s ear. “And I don’t like the idea of slaves.”

Kal almost smirked, gently shaking her head. “I’m sure the Beast-kin appreciate that.”

“Don’t tell me that baby’s making you act strange?” Anton held their stomachs as the portal flashed again. This time twenty-odd Dwarves stepped through. “Just breathe and you’ll be fine.”

The Dwarves, Anton only recognised three from the original expedition to Atros, were still not used to travelling through the portal. They held their temples and groaned, more of a grumble, as their heads readjusted.

“Harden up.” Umikgruid laughed. “These humans and Beast-kin do this all the time.”

“We…” A Dwarf held his mouth, his cheeks swelled for a moment. “Aren’t used to this.”

“Nothing I can do to help that.” Anton ushered them forward. “But once you’re designing and building without restriction you’ll forget all about that.”

A sense of calm washed over the Dwarves. Anton marvelled that they were so entranced by the possibility that they wouldn’t be restricted in their designs. He hoped there wasn’t a reason for that.

“Anton.” Rasha approached. She had to lean low, lest her head or horn grind against the roof. “We’re ready. Do you want us to open the trapdoor?”

“Yes. Cetina? Can you station a few people near the portal? And that tunnel in the rear? We’ll send someone, more likely something, once we’ve secured Balefire Mine.”

Cetina relayed the order, choosing a few soldiers. Anton couldn’t entirely read their emotions; happy they didn’t have to go and fight but also knowing they would be staying inside a dark and cramped cellar. Mixed would be the best word.

Anton, after giving Verona her customary pot of blood, stood at the bottom of the trapdoor. Rasha stood underneath the trapdoor. She was strong enough to open it by herself, and with one hand. At the base of the stairs, a line of spearmen waited, behind them archers and crossbowmen. If anything had moved in they would be greeted well.

“Quietly, Rasha. We don’t know what’s waiting for us outside.”

Rasha slowly opened the trapdoor, stopping every moment the old, rusty hinges groaned. She kept herself under the protection of the wood as she pushed it completely open. As the trapdoor passed upright she held it tight, lest it fall and alert anything nearby.

“I can’t see anything,” Rasha whispered back. “Smells better than it did last time.”

Kal confirmed her words as they exited the underground cellar. A flash of white light, signalling the next wave of soldiers and Dwarves followed them out. The building they emerged into, an old sorting building with a somewhat intact mining rail, had degraded slightly since their last visit. The floor above had collapsed in multiple locations, the heavy desks had smashed onto the wooden floor, damaging it further and in some cases punching right through.

“Think this place can be saved?” Anton asked the Dwarves. “Or just rip it down and start again?”

The Dwarves didn’t even entertain the first notion. All he received were blank and vaguely irritated looks, that he would even ask such a thing.

“I think that’s a no.” Verona suppressed a laugh.

“At least they’re being honest,” Kal said.

Anton waved the other soldiers out. They kept their simple weapons close, at the very least they weren’t dropping their guard.

“Secure the building,” Anton told an attentive Cetina. “Have the lightest person you have check-up stairs, but don’t go all the way up. Just in case the wood has completely rotten.”

Anton allowed Cetina to issue simple orders as he walked to the rail entrance. He couldn’t hear anything from outside, a faint rattling from a piece of wood rocking back and forth in the gentle wind, no sign of any creatures, not that the Ghlotsm were particularly loud.

"Did you build this place?" Calo asked. She and her sister tapped the half-rotten wooden floor next to the wall. "Seems pretty old."

"Not us." Anton followed the rusted tracks and moved to the large entrance. "But, it certainly could have been."

The twins shared a glance, shrugged, and followed. Cetina and Rasha stood either side as the human and Beastkin soldiers exited the small door and into the city beyond. Anton could not see any signs of life, neither Goblin, Ghlotsm or some other nefarious creature. Dried husks and broken shells nestled in dry nests were the only evidence the Ghlotsm once infested this place. Anton knew the White Ghlotsm continued to grow its forces near the crystal fissure, though its activities had slowed considerably now the snows were falling in earnest.

I honestly only expected them to buy us some breathing room before they were overwhelmed like the White Goblin in The Shadow Isles. Once they're done there it'll be best for them to swing by the old capital. See if they can soften them up. If they fall...I can always make more.

"Anton?"

Rasha leaned close, a worried expression on her face.

"Sorry." Anton laughed, patting her arm. "I do that. Cetina knows that I do this from time to time."

Cetina smiled weakly.

"Too often," Anton grumbled. "Means that I miss things that people are trying to say."

Rasha smiled, stood up straight, and pointed across the mine.

On the far side of the ruined outer perimeter wall lay a battlefield, strewn with corpses of White Goblins and Ghlotsm. Anton double-checked that his White Ghlotsm was still functioning, it was but didn't relay anything else back. He did not know if it simply couldn't or chose not to, in an attempt to hide grievous losses.

"Do you see anything else?" Anton asked.

A creaking from behind, slightly elevated, stopped his thoughts. Several Dwarves were attempting to climb to the second level of the building, Dwarves who, by themselves, were pretty heavy.

"Don't go up there!" Anton yelled. The Dwarves froze in place. Anton pointed to the holes and the broken desks and cabinets littering the floor. "A lot of those are new. And I can't heal you if you're impaled through the head."

The Dwarves uttered an apology and swiftly moved down. One of the steps collapsed, sending the Dwarf tumbling forward and knocking the others down. They quickly hauled themselves up, dusted themselves down and left the building without a word.

"Does anyone see what caused that?" Anton asked. "I'm certain those are mine."

"You have Goblins?" Sheso asked.

Anton quickly explained what had transpired the second time they had arrived at Balefire, certainly no mention of the first. The twins were dubious but accept his explanation all the same.

"There are significant burn marks." Sheso held a hand to her brow. "But none of those can use magic."

"Might be a torch one dropped." Calo offered.

Anton gently shrugged. "If only those White Creatures could actually answer me properly. Let's move to the edge of the mine. I haven't seen the bottom before."

They followed the rusted and broken track line down to the platform as another small wave of dwarves and Human and Beastkin soldiers emerged from underground. Anton's boots slipped more than once, putting tremendous strain on his dragonoid feet, so too did Cetina and Rasha while the twins walked effortlessly down the slope.

"Can't imagine pulling a cart up that." Rasha used the butt of her halberd to stabilize her descent. "I would have trouble. Do you think they used slaves?"

"Definitely human." Anton tapped the wooden platform jutting out over the mine. The wood appeared strong, for untreated wood left in the elements for several decades. "I think they used a pulley system up there. That's where the slaves would have worked."

"And down there." Cetina murmured.

Anton moved to the side of the platform and looked in. A gentle spiral led from the platform, down to the very bottom. The walls had obvious signs of chisel and pickaxe marks, many of the rusted tools lay discarded where they had simply been dropped. The discarded tools clustered around large veins of silver. Now they were closer the rivers of silver appeared to have veins trailing off in all directions. These too had work on them. He followed the circling path down to near the very bottom. The bottom had the greatest concentration of dried Ghlotsm eggs, clustering around the centre. There was still no sign of Chelium ore veins. Perhaps they had found them all already?

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"Do you want to go in?" Cetina asked, a smile almost crept over her lips. "I'm sure Verona and Kal would hate it if I let you go down there."

"No. I think we'll send the miners down there. When they're ready." Anton heard cursing behind him in a familiar voice. "Looks like we might be getting that report any second."

Umikgruid took the long way to them, by walking left to right while slowly descending. The few Dwarves that followed him copied after almost losing their footings.

"It's still a wreck," Umikgruid announced loudly as the ground began to flatten out. "A few of the buildings and the outer wall have collapsed but nothing too serious."

"It'll be easier just to tear them down rather than fix."

Umikgruid laughed. "Not much use other than kindling now. And even that's going to be pretty rough. But I came to tell you that we believe we can make this place very defensible and cart out a hell of a lot of silver and Chelium."

"Chelium?" One of the Dwarves asked softly but no one answered his question.

"Anything that can be reused?" Anton asked. "Or does it need to be made entirely from scratch?"

"I...Don't know exactly what that means, but we do need to make it from the beginning." Umikgruid kicked the rusted rails. "This is certainly no use."

"Do whatever you need to bring this place back." Anton looked into the mine. "We'll have all the money we need soon, but please don't go too crazy with the spending.

"I understand." Umikgruid smiled. "You can rely on us. Oh, and we'll run everything by you first, just like you asked. And the numbers of what we manage to bring out."

"I've only got one Strohierite stone left." Anton began walking back to the sorting building. "If you want to start now, which I think you do, you'll need to keep a watchful eye." He nodded to the small scorched battlefield. "Just in case that returns."

"Of course. Do you want to see where that tunnel goes?"

"Yes. But whoever you send tell them to be careful. There's no telling what's down there."

"Especially since a Strega Witch was involved," Cetina growled through gritted teeth. No one offered a rebuke.

---[]---

Anton's back ached as he began to finally right himself. The tunnel was just a tunnel, no traps or anything special. Ferula must have thought the undead creature was more than sufficient to keep intruders out. The tunnel opened to a large room, lined with roughly cut stone with a small ray of light seeping in from above. A broken ladder lay in the corner of the room, he knew exactly what it was for.

"I'm going to need your magic when I'm back." Cetina gently tapped his shoulder to push him forward.

"It's not that bad," Calo said.

"Just relax your body and you'll be fine." Calo immediately added.

Cetina's eye twitched violently. While she and Anton had to stoop low for many hundreds of meters, and Rasha was simply too big to fit reasonably, the twins had no such issues. They couldn't walk upright, like the dwarves, but only had to lower their body slightly.

They are taller than Verona but not by that much. I wonder if she would be laughing right now. That, or poking me in the sides. Kal only does that if she thinks I'm talking to some pretty Beastkin.

"We have twenty boxes of silver." The Dwarf, waiting patiently on a crate, began to relay his findings. "All forged in ingots, but I don't recognize the insignia."

He held a bar aloft, his muscles tensed from lifting such a dense piece of metal.

"That's the symbol of the Kar Kingdom." Anton approached the other crates. A water droplet struck the crate, causing everyone to look at its source. "Guess that noble thought he was going to bring it all back."

Anton waited for a reply that wasn't coming.

Normally Verona would say that's a good thing. No way would Atros be allowed. I'd also never met Kal or any of the Beastkin. Or Dwarves or Dark Elves. How boring that would be.

"That's the other thing." The Dwarf turned sheepishly and pointed behind a distant crate near the ladder. "Do you want me to tell you what else I found before we move on to that?"

Anton gave a nod. He presumed it was a skeleton but he'd seen corpses before, created quite a few of them. Nevertheless, the Dwarf must have felt it was very important, so important that Anton would simply forget everything else should it be shown.

"I also found a small box of Chelium ingots, only a dozen or so. The only other thing I found was a map. A simple one that appears to have a destination somewhere within these lands."

Cetina took the small, dusty piece of paper. From the mere act of touch it looked ready to break already. Anton restored the map to a reasonable condition.

"The trail..." Cetina followed a faint red line on the crude map. "Leads to...What was that port called? Jaka. That was its name."

"They never made it," Anton said dryly. "We'd have known."

"How?" Calo absentmindedly asked. She and her sister inspected a silver ingot very closely. "Did you think they would have hired mercenaries to take the land back?"

"Yes. But everyone in Jaka was from Seocuria. Someone from the Kar Kingdom would have stuck out like a sore thumb. And I'd expect their children to be somewhere in between."

Anton stepped towards the Dwarf. "So I guess it's a body?"

"Yes. A tragic accident, I suspect."

The Dwarf showed them the skeleton, crumpled with a small crate of Chelium ore resting on its leg bones. The bones beneath were shattered but not from simple age. The crate had been dropped.

"Probably when he was still alive."

"What?" Cetina asked softly.

"The man tried..." A glint caught Anton's eye, something hidden underneath his hand. "One last journal. Right?"

"Do you know about this?" Calo asked Cetina.

Cetina shrugged. She had not been with them during their first foray into the dead kingdom.

"I'm interested in seeing what he has to say."

Anton looked again to the skeleton. While most of the clothes were completely rotten some scant pieces had survived, those with tiny pieces of gold and silver studs. Not something one expected a commoner to wear.

"What Atros would have been like if you decided to stay."

Anton caught the Dwarves attention. "Start bringing everything through, including that crate. When you're done, seal the tunnel. Don't want any unexpected visitors."

"And this room?" The Dwarf motioned to the stone roof above. "Collapse this too?"

"Why not?" Anton held the small journal tight. "There's nothing else for us here."

---[]---

A giant hand awaited Anton at the end of the tunnel, gently pulling him out. The owner, Rasha, smiled as she helped Cetina out.

"There's no way I'd have fit in there. Did you find anything?"

Anton groaned as he straightened his back. Being crouched for many hundreds of meters was not a pleasant experience. The twins merely chuckled as they exited, only needing to flex their necks a few times.

"Just a book. How good are you are reading?"

Rasha's face remained perfectly flat, forcefully so. "I think I can remember a few letters...That Graterian woman, Mezot, isn't that bad a teacher. When you can hear her."

"Powerful mage too," Cetina added softly.

"You're both learning faster than Verona at least." Anton smiled. "But don't tell her I said that."

"So what does it say?" Calo asked, poking the journal with a curious finger. "I've been wondering the whole time."

"Let's get some light and some air."

Out of the basement, construction continued to pick up pace. The Dwarves were sparing no effort, and neither were the Human and Beastkin soldiers. Thankfully Umikgruid had everything well under control and didn't need Anton's approval for every detail. He gave them a small nod from his position near the large entrance and continued to direct the work.

Anton chose the steps, they were more than strong enough for him and sat. Cetina and Rasha remained standing while Calo and Sheso knelt on the floor. Anton felt they were deliberately trying to look cute, not that they needed to try, and carried on regardless.

"There's only a few pages." Anton quickly flicked through the journal. "No surprise there. We found their last one down there."

"And a lot of skeletons," Cetina added.

"Of Ghlotsm?" Sheso asked.

"Humans." Anton stopped on the first written page. "Children too. They starved to death down there, in the darkness. Hearing the Ghlotsm skitter and claw over the trapdoor, thinking that any moment the creatures would discover their hiding spot and tear them to shreds. A very long, protracted death.”

"A horrible way to die," Sheso spoke very softly, both looked very forlorn.

"Looks like our noble friend managed to get past the undead creature, with several attendants. They planned to make a break for Jaka and sail to Graterious where they could spend the silver. But..."

"He fell?"

Anton nodded. "Slipped while carrying a crate up and smashed his legs. The others abandoned him." Anton smiled as he flicked through the pages. "Seems like he had many words to say about their treachery. That's what most of the book is. Just rants and curses. Sorry, but there's nothing interesting to tell this time."

"This time?" Rasha tilted her head.

"We have the other journals back home. Some reading practice, maybe." Anton gently placed the book down. "But that looks like the end for our noble friend."

"A little disappointing." Cetina shrugged. "But mine could have been very similar."

"I'm glad it wasn’t." Anton's only received rolling eyes, but they all smiled faintly. Anton tapped the journal. "Balefire's established. We have a secure home and our other plans are proceeding nicely."

"Rest for the winter then?" Sheso asked.

"Verona was talking a hot outdoor bath," Calo said. "Like the ones we had back in The Shadow Isles. Is that true?"

"It is." Anton raised his hand as the twins were already on the verge of bursting from excitement. "But it was for our personal use."

The twins understood but Anton caught a twinge of annoyance on Rasha's face. He didn't need to be a genius to understand what irked her.

“It’s a low priority right now.” Anton chuckled. “Verona wants to have that giant palace built for us, so that’s going to take a while. At least there’s lots of room, so there’s that…But, with this money coming in I think it’s a good idea to start spending.”

“Won’t this mine run out eventually?” Rasha asked, her previous annoyance had already evaporated. “I don’t know much about…Economics? That stuff. But even I know the Seocurian Empire needed to do more than just mine gold and gemstones.”

Anton snapped his fingers. “That reminds me, the Seocurians apparently mine some very valuable crystals in the north. Small crystals worth hundreds of gold coins. Know anything about them?”

Rasha shook her head. “No. I barely left Danafra.” A wry smile crept over her lips as she slapped her forearms. “They wanted me for my muscle. But…Now that you mention it, I might have heard something.”

Rasha pointed to her large orange horn. “The Beast-kin that gave me this are in the north and work in the mines. At least that’s what I’ve heard. Anton…I might be able to speak to them. Or…Maybe not. They might just hate me since I’ve got Minotaur blood in me.”

“Such a damn shame that the Beast-kin are doing half of the Seocurian’s job for them.” Anton stood up, brushing the few rotten wood flakes from his backside. “That they wouldn’t listen to someone just because of their heritage is ridiculous…But that’s not going to change by me grumbling.”

“So what is the next plan?” Cetina coughed. “After taking one of the Chiroks south. That’s what we were talking about before becoming distracted by talk of hot baths…”

“I was thinking about travelling to Thessos.” Cetina nearly jumped at his words. “We need good clothes for winter, something we can also get there, and I’d like to continue expanding the range of our portals. We can also see for ourselves the land you come from. And to check on Thessos, see if the rumours are true.”

“I…” Cetina smiled and gripped her sword tight. “Thank you.”

“Can we come?” Sheso asked.

“If you want. I don’t have a problem with it. But check with your family first.” Anton smiled. “I don’t want for them to think that you’ve run off…”

Static filled Anton’s thoughts. A memory desperately forced itself to the surface, pieces surfaced through the haze; a small boy screaming and running through a river, a wave of cold before a hairy fist filled his vision. Anton blinked and it was gone. No one appeared to have noticed and he wanted to keep it that way.

“Cetina? On the way back tell us about the Bebbezzarian countryside. We’ll be seeing it a lot over the next few days.”

“Shame I can’t come.” Rasha sighed.

“One day.” Anton patted her arm as they walked towards the basement. “One day you will. Everyone will.”