C20 Chapter 20

The dwarfs’ mine

Outside the building, Gomek was out of his mind with anxiousness. He had already anticipated them finding another way to leave the palace.

“What have you been doing this entire time? Some banal chit chat with the King?”

His question was meant to be sarcastic. Dana looked at him in surprise.

“How do you know that?”

Gomek was more than a little surprised.

“The King caught you and you’re not sitting in jail yet? Did you hex him?”

“Of course not. He had been waiting for me. I’ll tell you about it later. We need to get back to Erogat now.” Dana grabbed Gomek’s arm and pulled him with her to the monolith.

A short while later, they were back in Erogat’s office. He was in the process of creating a realistic image of the necklace. While they waited for him to finish, she told them about her meeting with the King.

“Very good!”, he interrupted her. Nobody knew if he meant the story or the model.

“Looks good. Using this, we can build a replica.”

It was true. One could clearly see every fine detail. He had created a beautiful image that was easy to study from each side.

“And now?” Gomek gazed from one to the other, question visible in his gaze.

“We’ll split the work.” Dana thumped Gomek on the shoulder.

“You will start drawing a picture of the necklace and the socket of the stone. Then you need to get to our trainer, the dwarfs’ blacksmith in the old forest, and work out the parts in great detail.”

“Why go through him?”, Gomek wondered.

“He will not tell a soul about what you create in his craft room. That’s why!”, Dana sternly replied.

“Where will I get the gold?” Gomek’s question was legitimate. Dana turned to Erogat. “You don’t have gold lying around here by any chance?”

“Possibly! There’s some of that old stuff around here somewhere. Maybe there!” Erogat pointed to a corner of his library.

“Apropos gold. Why didn’t you tell me we couldn’t duplicate noble metal and jewels?”, Dana remembered in that instant.

“These things have no meaning to us. They’re only useful to heighten the magic. The only living creature aiming for wealth is the human being. He is so absorbed in it, he can never satisfy his yearning. That could be the reason why we can’t duplicate these things!”, the ghost proposed.

“And the dwarfs?” Dana’s curiosity had been spiked.

“Their wealth lies in their families and their work”, Erogat replied.

In the meantime, he had found a block of gold among his things.

“Here, Gomek, this will make a nice necklace…and what will you do?” Erogat turned to Dana.

“I’ll go down into the mines and search for an appropriate jewel.”

She pointed at the map she’d received from the King. Then they got on their respective ways. Once in the dwarf city, they parted ways. Gomek to go create the necklace, and she to aim down into the mines of the dwarfs. Strangely, Shari was looking forward to that.

“What’s with you? Caves and tunnels aren’t really your thing!”, Dana wondered.

“Ha!”, the little fairy laughed self-assuredly. “We’re going down into the dwarf kingdom. That will be interesting at least. It can’t be as bad there as it was in the scary tunnels. Hopefully, we won’t be alone there. The dwarfs need to work, don’t they?”

Shari’s voice sounded unsure.

“We will see!”, Dana whispered into her small friend’s ear.

They followed the path that started between the museum and the ministry for science for a while, which led them into the mountains. When the path rounded a corner, it got larger until it ended in a circular plaza. In a circle around the plaza, the dwarfs had erected wooden accommodations. Dana and Shari aimed straight for the only large gate. The path into the mines had to be right there, according to Dana. Before they reached the gate, a dwarf stopped them.

“No entrance permitted, young lady. Even a young hero like you shall not pass.”

She smiled at him and gave him the papers from the King. He swallowed, since he hadn’t seen anything like this in half an eternity.

“Excuse me…”, he stammered sheepishly. “I couldn’t know…”

He immediately opened the door and then politely stepped aside.

“I hope you know what you’re doing. If you should run into trouble…there are alarm buttons everywhere. Press one and we’ll come to your rescue.”

Dana politely thanked him for the tip and then entered the true world of the dwarfs. This was the only place the dwarf felt completely in his element, except if your name was Gomek. At the thought, she had to chuckle. Gomek with a Hack and a shovel – she would’ve loved to see that.

There was a map of the tunnel system near the entrance. Dana realized right away that not everything was marked down on the map.

“See, Shari, there’s always just one level on here. The map would get too large and confusing otherwise.”

Dana’s assumption had been right. When she ran into a worker who was doing repairs on the walls of the tunnels, he proofed her assumption right.

“There are maps everywhere around here, but they only show you the level you are currently on. Different level, different map. It’s that easy.”

Then he left them alone and kept doing his work. Dana walked ahead and awed at the dwarfs’ work. With much love for details, they had worked the tunnels into the rock. All had been equipped with signs: when they’d been built, how much and what they worked on, and more things like that. They seemed to have been built to last for all eternity.

She reached a travelling basket and used it to drive to the next level. The busy surroundings Dana had anticipated just wasn’t there. Occasionally, she ran into a few workers.

“Why are there so few dwarfs around here?”, she simply asked one of the boys.

“Since we can’t get out of the mountains anymore and our trading partners can’t get inside, we don’t need the mining anymore. We’re only searching for light crystals at this point, but aside from that…” He shrugged his shoulders.

She didn’t want to keep them any longer. She now knew that she would make a lot of people, if not all of them, very happy with what she was planning. She explored this wonderful new world some more. Shari was already getting annoyed again. She had imagined an entirely different scenario. Now all she wanted was to quickly return up to the light.

“No.” Dana said that with a determination that didn’t allow for any rebuttals.

“Now we’re here anyway, we can just as well study everything.”

After they had explored that entire level, they travelled down to the net one. There, Dana pulled out the King’s map and compared her to the one on the wall.

“Not it, either. Let’s keep going.”

There wasn’t any more going on there. In one are, they discovered a waterproof door. This pulled her in as if it was magic. Maybe that had something to do with the inscription:

“Please always keep this door closed!”

“I wonder what’s behind it.” She pressed her head up against the door.

Quiet splashing of a river or something came through. She couldn’t resist. Klutzy, she opened the door. Dana pushed her head through the crack in the door. At first, she didn’t see anything because there was nothing around her but darkness. Once her eyes had gotten used to the darkness, she could make out a bright speck of light up high.

“Now I know where we are. We’re high above the waterfall, a little higher than the river…that leads nowhere.”

Suddenly, she was roughly grabbed at the shoulder and pulled back into the tunnel.

“What are you doing here, child? You triggered the alarm. This door must always remain closed; otherwise, when the tide comes in, these tunnels get flooded. That’s the reason why nobody is supposed to walk around here.”

Dana apologized repeatedly and quickly fled the scene. She didn’t need the dwarfs throwing her out now. After all, she was on a mission.

They went down deeper and deeper, until they finally reached the lowest level. The map had to help them again.

“We’re on the right path…Where to now? Oh yes, that way.”

She pointed to a tunnel on her left. Slowly and cautiously, she followed it. Down here, it wasn’t nearly as clean as it had been up on the higher levels.

“Nobody has been down here in centuries.”

Dana said that more to herself than to Shari. Time and again, they had to climb over rubble and cobwebs to access the half-destroyed tunnels. Following the map, they continuously moved deeper into the darkness. Left, right, then the next corner, and so on and so forth. Then they reached a small cave.

“Dead end!”, Shari mocked her.

“Arrived at destination!”, Dana cheered.

Listening with one ear pressed up against the rock, she tapped her fingers against the sidewalls. In one area, the tone changed. A smile slid over her face.

“The entrance is right here…hidden, of course!”, she triumphed.

Now she cautiously created another well thought out passage. In the end, she didn’t want anything to tumble down. The first cave was empty. Shari wanted to set off another mocking comment, when Dana, by way of another passage, mindfully entered the next cave. What a sight! It blinked and twinkled in any color imaginable. She was literally blinded by the light that was reflected a thousand-fold by the diamonds and jewels. She had to quickly close her eyes, but after a minute she got used to this array of colors. There were emeralds, diamonds, rubies and many more. This beauty was breathtaking. She sat down, lost in thought, and had the magnificent surroundings take effect on her.

“I believe we can’t ever let a human being in here. They would go sheer crazy…Luckily, we’re wired a different way.”

Dana laughed and playfully pushed Shari. “Come, don’t be so glum, chum. We’re here. Now all we need is the matching stone and up we go again.”

Shari started searching the cave immediately. And surely, after a little while she had found a stone that would match. Triumphantly, she held it up into the air.

“Wonderful!”, Dana praised the little fairy. “Back it is, then. Hopefully Gomek is already done as well. Let’s get cracking.”

Up at the gate, they got one more talking-to. After that, they went right off to see her parents, which was also the location of the meeting point with Gomek. Two days later, he appeared, beaming.

“Everything’s done. We can get moving.”

“Let’s go!”, Shari cheered.

Shortly thereafter, the trio arrived at Erogat’s working space, all in a splendid mood. There, Dana fit the jewel per the image and then put both pieces together.

“No discernable difference. Like they’re the very same thing. Now I can go to the King and switch out the locket.

Nobody will notice a difference. Gomek, you’ll wait here for me. I’ll be back soon.”

Dana turned around and got on her way to set her plan with the King in motion.