Khaz lit the wick of a beeswax candle and set their powder to dry inside their uncapped horns. Mym lay on her back with her head on her pack, the candleflame close to her cheek, her feet on Daraway's lap. Khaz sat atop his pack and dried a small stringed instrument with a warm cloth. He rolled the cloth in his hand as he ran it in slow circular motions along the polished wooden frame. When he finished with its frame and came to the first string he plucked it and watched the moisture vibrate off of it in two thin parallel lines like phantom strings dissipating in the dry air. He lightly touched the cloth's surface to check it for damp then held it between thumb and forefinger and wiped it up and down the plucked string. He repeated this for each string. Afterward he flapped the cloth out in the air and guided it to the ground beside Mym's freshly soaked and scrubbed and wrung coat, then he positioned the candle between them. With the instrument under an armpit and upon a thigh he cleared his throat as if about to sing and he drew his hands across its row of strings and the sounds of home welled up in her and she wondered again why she'd come so far when everything she'd really needed was under the mountain or close enough to come calling.

"Ye were right about my leavin da," she said.

"I know it," he said.

When she didn't say more he started to play a dirge whose low notes matched her beating heart and whose highs scraped the red stars from the smoky sky. He played it once without voice and a quiet smile crept into his beard and his head moved in time. Then he began again with his throaty stonesong [waking] the ground on which they laid, and though it had nothing to say for it had never known dwarves it nonetheless heeded his [asks] and she felt its surface warm under her back.

"This is music for dyin te," she said.

He stopped playing and she regretted saying anything. "What'd ye rather I play?"

"Nevermind."

"Well?"

"Music for livin."

Daraway said, "They're the same thing love."

In the lull they heard the wailing of another orc. A small one by the pitch of him.

Khaz laid the instrument across his lap. "How long ye think it'll go on?"

"Already longer than they've earned," she said.

She felt Daraway gently squeeze her foot and say, "There she is."

"Aye," said Khaz.

"Sorry," she said. "I've been dealin with some feelins for leavin da. And for the end of dwarves generally and my role in it."

"It's easy to turn your back on what’s right when everything around you is wrong," said Daraway.

Mym looked up at her. “Not everythin,” she said.

The orc wailed again and somewhere a man wailed back and she heard his fellows laugh too loudly and drunkenly as if they'd sought solace from the day’s calamity in their cups yet found only fear.

Daraway lifted Mym's feet from her lap and set them on the ground. "I should check on Cousins."

"Aye we'll come," she said.

"Don't trouble yourselves. I'll be back shortly and you have things to discuss." She left without saying more.

"What'd she mean by that?" said Khaz.

"She means I have somethin I need te tell ye."

"Aye? Well go on."

She opened her mouth to speak and the orc wailed again and the men laughed again.

She said, "I've had enough of this. Come on."

They walked a few yards behind Daraway's hooded figure but when she turned into the hospital they continued past the stockade where the armiger's engineers had staked up limbs from the fallen tree for the crucifixions and past the drunks taunting the orc's cries and past the folded up ballistae and the tents of the shieldbearers until they arrived at the [armiger]'s pavilion. One [knight] told them to wait while the other ducked inside. They heard voices then nothing. The [knight] came back out and told them the [armiger] was indisposed. They'd have to come back in the morning.

"Now that's a whole herd of nak shit," she said.

"Wouldn't take nothin te string these two up beside the orcs," said Khaz.

The knights looked at each other.

"Don't think I can reach that high. Their feets would be tappin the ground."

"Well we could shorten em first."

"How much ye think?"

He looked them up and down while smoothing his mustache. "Six inches above the knee?"

She nodded. "Let em think on it. We'll be back."

They walked back past the shieldbearers and the ballistae and the passed out drunks and came to the edge of the stockade. They stopped and listened.

"None watchin but the guards now," she said. "Looks like they're over on the far side."

"Still close enough te see us."

"Only if they're lookin."

He nodded. "Ye goin or me?"

"Ye'll go. Give em a ruckus but not too much of one and not too quick on it. I don't know how much time I'll be needin."

The orc wailed again.

"I don't think needlin will get ye anywhere," he said.

"I know it."

"Just remindin ye. These aren't the brute who done yer da."

"I said I know it. I'm not here for that."

He touched her shoulder. "If the guards see or hear ye doin what I think ye'll be doin they're like te kill us both."

"Get on over there."

"Aye."

"Oy Khaz."

He turned back but his face was fully shadowed.

"Don't go tunnelin in sand. Things start comin down around ye I want ye te back on out."

"Aye same te ye."

He vanished into the dark and she stood in place and waited. In the stillness of the late hour the ground around her woke. Four tiny shoots of some sort of desert flower uncurled from a crevice and tested the rainwashed air. A cricket chirruped once as if tuning his legs then waited a breath to bait his audience then sawed away for what felt like an hour.

"Someone get the poor lad what he needs," she said.

Finally from the stockade's far side the faintest glint of an adze shone in the meager red moonlight. She started forward.

If the orcs were aware of her none showed it. Most hung from stakes of greenwood that bent under their weight. The otaur was too heavy for any branch. She was facedown with a limb across her back and her wrists lashed to each of its far ends, and her hooves tied behind her by one line looped over the limb so that the tension of it all curved her chest like an archer's bow. Her head was collapsed forward to rest on the tips of her horns with her short snout pressed into the sandstone and her breath ragged against it.

"Ye dead yet cowgirl?" said Mym.

The otaur didn't move.

She toed the otaur's flank and saw the dark bloodstain there. "Oy."

"She don't understand yew," said a voice some yards above her.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

She looked up and skylighted a little goblin tied up by his wrists to the end of a stake. His clawed feet clasped it to keep him from sliding down to suffocation.

"I told em she wouldn't know their talk. Even if she did she wouldn't tell em nothin. Won't tell yew neither."

She ignored the goblin and spoke to the otaur. "Yer friends with that tall orc, aye? The greyback? Where'd he get off te?"

"Yew meaning Orc."

"Orc." She stood tall as she could to get a look at the goblin. "Oy it’s ye. I about sliced yer head off down on the tree."

"Just little old me."

"Yer Orc abandoned ye. Left ye te men's devices and death."

"Maybe. Orc's got his own way of seein things done."

"Then ye know him also."

"Oh yeah little me knows Orc since forever. Since Booky's."

"Booky's?"

"Yew don't know Booky's? Wasn't so far from beardling mountains. Saw some on the pit rim once or twice maybe."

She said, "Tell me," and the goblin did. He told her about the pit and the mush and the executions. About the fighting and the killing. About how Orc saved an [ogre] when he should've killed them and about how he protected the goblins from the bettors and the [bookmaker]. About their friend the dogman who didn't get out. About the goblin's brudders who he'd not seen since that night.

She didn't know how to feel about it, but whatever she was feeling she didn't like. "So that's his home then?"

"Booky's ain't nobody's home cept maybe Booky."

"Well where'd he get off te? That's my tool he's carryin."

The otaur rumbled. The goblin said something in orc speech. The otaur rumbled again.

"What's she sayin?"

"Hard to hear. Maybe yew help her up so little me can hear proper. Maybe yew cut little me down to better listen."

She ran her hand along the bowed out limb and felt the tension of the rope tying hoof to hoof. She knelt beside the otaur's head and heard the wheezing and saw the big black eye and the thoughtfulness there. And the pain.

"Ye tell me what I want te know and I'll end yer sufferin."

The otaur rumbled again and the goblin talked back then said, "We tells yew and yew do what yew promised for all orcs here."

"Aye and the humans'll give me a stake of my own." She looked back at the otaur. "I'll do what I can."

"Orc went and gone away. Away away across the big sea maybe. I brought big boats up and he uses em to figure a way back."

"Back where? Ye just said Booky's isn't it."

"Naw. Orc's gonna go find some rock. Magic maybe. Gonna heal orc home maybe."

"What rock?"

"Dunno."

She knelt and asked the otaur, "What rock."

The otaur rumbled and tried to turn her head. The point of her horn lifted an inch. Dust caked her damp nostrils. She said something.

"She says yew know it. Some rock busted off the first rock."

"Te heal yer home?"

"Gonna regrow everything that's dead. Like magic."

"Earth's full of rocks and stones, goblin. Not one of em's magic."

"Yew never went into elfling forest. Lotsa magics there. Big life growing outta nothing. Tall and big."

The otaur pinioned her face sideways on the point of a horn and her back twisted and her far hand pinned against the ground and her neck shook from the effort. Her eyes sought Mym's and in a voice deep enough to make a dwarf shudder she said, "Orcstone."

Mym pushed off her knees and squatted back on her heels and looked across the dead land to the north. She thought about things for a while before she finally said, "Yer lot must be desperate te be dredgin up dwarf myths for holdin onte. Mighty desperate. Deadmannin an icescrew in a half inch of powder desperate."

"Not desperate," said the goblin on the stake. "Happy to be hunted across big sea. Happy to see cubs starve. Happy so many humans care so much about best friends orcsies and tuskies and greenies and horners. Happy."

"Well I'm not here for all that. I just want my tool. Yer lot wanted somethin different from what ye had and ye got it. No fragment off the stone of the earth's goin te change that. There isn't no such thing anyhow. It's just an old story left over from the first dwarves. Like carvin lads and lasses from granite and bringin em te life."

The otaur's big eyes sought the goblin. Mym looked directly into them and said, "It's just a myth."

The goblin talked then the otaur said something and lowered her face back to the ground and shuddered from the pain of the effort.

"She says Orc found orcstone's brudder already. One old beardlings made for elflings."

"Another myth."

"She says Orc found it. Says some cave beardling told him where to find other one. One made for orcsies."

Her brow furrowed. "There are other dwarves here?"

"Just the one in the cave. Ain't others but little yew and that little beard followin yew around."

"Is he called Barzun?"

"Don't know no names. He died telling Orc about magic rock. Maybe he knew something yew don't."

"Where's he now?"

"Dead. Orc tried to save him but he died. Whole world's dying."

"Yer lyin."

"I ain't."

"Ye want te die that bad?"

"Maybe. Maybe better being dead than living in this world of humies."

She heard harsh voices over where Khaz and the knights should be. "Tell me about the orcstone's brother."

The goblin scrabbled his little feet against the stake. "Orc found it with elflings. He goes in there and finds lotsa magics."

"He lied."

"Naw Orc don't lie like that."

"Everybody lies."

"Orc don’t lie any good. And he don’t lie when it matters. Not to his friends."

"Didn't know orcs had friends."

"There's lotsa things yew don't know."

At the edge of the stockade she heard Khaz shout. A man shouted back.

"Ye tell these humans about the stones?"

"Sure we tell. We tell yew anythings to get yew outta our home. Humies and beardlings need to go away. Go back to theirs and let us have what's ours."

She put her foot on the middle of the otaur's back and sliced her pick across the line binding her hooves and it snapped as it split. She flipped her grip and swung her adze through the noose at the left wrist and it whispered through the rope and sank into the branch with a loud knock.

"Ye best hurry. Daylight's comin."

The otaur rolled onto her back and sat up and yanked her other arm free and stretched and stood thrice Mym's height.

Mym leaned back with her pick before her. "Stone and bone yer a tall one."

But the otaur didn't answer. The goblin was speaking fast and quiet to the otaur and his little feet thumped the limb. The otaur's enormous fingers fumbled over his bindings then she just snapped the limb that held them.

Mym decided it was time to leave.

She [stonespoke] deep enough for Khaz to [hear] and ran back to where they'd split. A minute later he was with her and together they hurried out of sight of the stockade. She told him what she'd learned as they went.

"And ye freed em?" he said.

"Aye."

"I thought ye might. And when the humans retake em and learn what ye did?"

She shrugged. "They come for me they'll get plenty more than they warrant. This way."

She led him toward the hospital.

"So yer tall orc's headin back across the sea," said Khaz.

"Seems so."

"Searchin for the stone of the earth."

"Aye."

"Ye told em it's a lie?"

She shrugged. "I tried to. They seemed pretty sure of it. Said they found the elfstone."

"Feel like we got dropped into one of Thayne's old storybooks."

"Sure does. At least the orc'll be easier te find on our shores."

"But ye don't know whereabouts he's headin."

"No."

"Then how ye goin te find him?"

"Just goin te go wherever people are screamin orc."

They came to the rows of tarps and the humans laying atop them and the dead laying under them.

He said, "Maybe it's time we just get back to the mountain. Look in on yer da and Thayne."

"Maybe. Oy Dara."

Daraway looked up and watched them come out of the dark. She was kneeling over the girl. The blanket was pulled back and Mym could see the girl’s waist was heavily bandaged.

"How's Cousins?" said Mym.

"Why don't you ask the true original?" said the girl.

Mym smiled. "Would ye listen te that. Ye feelin good enough for travelin?"

"Yeah sure. Y'all just stitch me on a new belly. Plenty of spares around."

"She's not traveling anywhere anytime soon," said Daraway. She held Mym's canteen to the girl's lips.

After swallowing Cousins said, "Y'all ain't my ma. Tellin me what I can't set to."

Daraway capped the canteen. "Fine. Get yourself up and show us what you can set to."

Slowly Cousins drew her hands up either side of her torso and pushed their heels into the ground and her teeth shone in the dark. She raised an inch panting all the time then let herself down. "Y'know it ain't much fun traveling from one absolute nowhere to the next. Maybe I'll just fix to lay down while y'all go and get whatever y'all came for."

Mym brushed her fingers through the girl's hair. She noticed Daraway looking and the little motion she made with her chin. They stood up and walked a few feet away. Khaz came after.

"Traveling?" said Daraway.

"Aye. I found out me orc went back across the sea chasin after a wrongheaded old myth. Got me thinkin about me own damned myth of carvin life out of stone."

"I thought you believed in that."

She shook her head and looked at the ground. "It's da's belief. I'm just livin it here to avoid the pain of it elsewhere. It’s time I stop chasin it before any more kids get hurt. It's time I get back te the mountain and check on him. It's time I give him what he wants.”

She felt Daraway touch her on the cheek.

She lifted her head. “I get any softer over here and I'll never be able te do it."

Daraway stepped into her and wrapped her in her arms in a tight embrace. "You're not getting soft,” she whispered. “You're just remembering who you are."

Mym allowed herself a moment there then she let go and took a half step back. "Aye I’ve got soft. Listenin te goblins and otaurs and feelin bad for em. It's damned time I head back."

Daraway wiped the heel of her hand against her eyes. "With the armiger?" she said.

"Oy? No not with the armiger. He leavin already?"

“He departed at dusk with a company of mariners. He's after something though I haven’t yet learned just what it is."

"Got sneaks and spies even among yer own kind eh?" said Khaz.

Mym looked at Khaz, "He might be chasin the same thing as me orc."

"Which is?" said Daraway.

"The orcstone. A goblin says he found the elfstone up in the forest.”

“You got in the stockade”

“Aye. The orckin there think the orcstone’s been found, by Barzun no less, found and carried back around te the other side of the world."

Daraway nodded. If she was surprised she didn't show it. “What do the stones say?”

Mym shrugged. “Nothin. Even if the orcstone’s real, and I’m not sayin it is, the stones about wouldn’t know anythin of it. The orcstone and the others were supposed te have been knocked off of the stone of the earth. And that’s supposed te be the eldest of stones. No stones anywhere have a memory of it, at least that’s how the legend goes.”

Daraway nodded. “And now you’re off to chase it.”

“I’m off te see me about me da.”

Daraway nodded but said nothing.

Mym looked at her and she knew the woman wasn’t coming with her. "I don't want te lose ye again."

"I know."

"I have te go."

Daraway looked at Cousins. "And I have to stay."

Mym stepped forward again and pushed her arms inside Daraway's cloak and embraced her around the waist. She felt the woman kiss the top of her head.

She looked up at her. "Be sure you keep the girl away from any orcs comin through.”

"What do you mean?"

"She means she did somethin stupid," said Khaz.

"Wasn't the first time," said Mym.

Daraway sighed and shook her head. "Won't be the last."

----------------------------------------

> +2 [Belonging]: ...back when I was laid up is when things started to change. Now I ain't sayin it's cause of me but y'know maybe it was. They said I was done. Like hell I was and she weren't neither. You ain't never done with the place you're supposed to be... (4/10)

> +2 [Stonespeaking]: Over there’s where she learnt there's more te stonespeech than just talkin and listenin. Those stranger stones learnt her ways of speakin we’d forgot. It’s part of why we’re in this mess of messes now... (7/10)

> -2 [Vengefulness]: For a time I feared I'd never have her back from that dark place she'd gone. Ask yourself, does it take more courage to make an oath or to break one? To conform to your tribe's expectations or to defy them? (4/10)