For the first time, the dwarf’s eyes lit up as brightly as his goggles had. “I’d never leave my people,” Sikurgurd said, looking ready to strike Fort. “I’d sooner cut off an arm, or feed myself to a Dracsi!”

“Can’t you fight them?” Gabriel asked, resuming their forward motion.

“We have few Dracsi-kin young enough as it is,” Sikurgurd said. “And our elders would defend Q’baos and the other Old Ones to their deaths if need be. We’d be forced to fight our own families, and so are trapped.”

“Hey, I think I see lights up ahead,” Jia said, pointing past Gabriel.

“That is Dra, my city,” Sikurgurd said, sounding a bit proud. “It’s not the largest of our settlements, but it is the deepest.”

“How big are we talking?” Gabriel asked him. “You said it’d be hard to sneak by.”

“As I said, we have a smaller population than others,” the dwarf said. “Still, I would imagine we wouldn’t have to deal with more than ten or twenty million of my kin before we reach the mines.”

- THIRTY -

MILLION?!” RACHEL SAID.

“There are another one or two million young ones,” Sikurgurd said. “They won’t be a problem for us, so that’s something.”

“Not really!” she responded.

Fort wasn’t feeling much better than Rachel about the whole thing, but he pushed Gabriel to continue on. It didn’t matter if there were two hundred or twenty million dwarves waiting for them. Somehow, they’d find a way through any obstacle…

“Whoops,” Gabriel said, coming to a stop as he rounded the corner. “The way’s blocked.”

Fort looked past him to find a gate made of lightning, the same one he’d seen in his dreams. Ten or fifteen bolts of lightning arced across the exit from the tunnel, any one of which had enough power to stop their hearts dead.

“Oh, don’t worry about that,” Sikurgurd said. “I told you, I learned how to control magic. I can open it.”

Gabriel gently set him down on the tunnel floor, and for a moment, the dwarf looked a bit dizzy. “Head rush,” he said, leaning against the wall. “I’ll be all right.”

Rachel began tapping her foot impatiently.

Sikurgurd quickly recovered, then approached the gate of lightning, his hands held out before him like he was trying to calm a wild animal. As he neared it, he slowed to a stop and closed his eyes, moving his hands in elaborate gestures.

First one, then more of the lightning bolts began to flicker, then die as Sikurgurd moved his hands up and down the gate, until finally the way was clear.

“How did you do that?” Rachel asked him in amazement. “I can create lightning, but I’m nowhere near good enough to be able to control it like that.”