It was as if she had struck him between the eyes with the hammer he was holding. He stumbled, half-turned, then fell backward, landing on his rear. He sat in the dust, blinking as if blinded by brilliant lights, then let out a long sigh. His eyes finally focused and he looked up at her and said, “What…who are…?” He looked around, and Sandreena followed his gaze.

No one on the wall had witnessed the confrontation, but more workers were coming into view. Instead of coming to his feet and alerting the others of an intruder, the dwarf crawled toward her, reaching up to grab her by the leg and hissed, “Get down, for the gods’ sake!”

Sandreena kneeled, but kept her sword pointed at the dwarf. “You going to keep trying to kill me?”

The dwarf looked confused. “Kill you? Woman, I don’t know who you are, but if you’re not working for them”—he pointed toward the fortress—“then you’re my new friend.”

“Who are you?”

“I’m Keandar, son of Kendrin of Dorgin.”

She nodded, motioning for him to crawl with her back under the shelter of the wagon. Dorgin was the dwarven city closest to their current location, a tiny city-state on the border of Great Kesh and the Kingdom of the Isles.

“What is this place?”

“That’s a long tale, one I would prefer to recount as far away from here as possible.” He glanced under the wagon and said, “Some of my kin are in there, and I mean to get back to Dorgin, tell the King, and return with every war-hammer we can raise.”

Sandreena knew it would take more than even a small army of dwarves to deal with what was forming here, but decided that debate could wait. “Can you tell me what is going on in there?”

“Aye, some,” he said, “but only a bit. I was a guard, mostly, though those of my people with skills—the engineers, smiths, and mongers, and the stonemasons—they were given jobs inside. But we spoke a little while we ate, when we ate.”

“Come on,” she said, glancing at the position of the Little Moon. “I have a horse and we can ride double, but it’s some distance from here and we need to reach it by sunrise.”

“Sunrise?”

“Else one of my order will be taking it back to Durban without me.”

“Ah,” said the dwarf. “You’re not alone?”

“No,” said Sandreena. “There are two others.”

“Well, let’s have a leisurely chat after we’re miles from here. You lead, I’ll follow.”

Sandreena nodded once and crouched, then scampered from the wagons to the first pile of rocks, and began the long return to the gully that would take her past the guardhouse. When she reached it, she turned to Keandar and said, “We need to slip past that guard.”