Mimir's Well (The Oracles of Kurnugi Book 3) Read online

  Mimir’s Well

  The Oracles of Kurnugi

  BOOK 3

  WRITTEN BY

  Gama Ray Martinez

  Published by Rudder Writing, LLC

  7301 Seascape Drive, Rowlett, TX 75088

  972-207-6087

  The Oracles of Kurnugi: Mimir's Well (Book 3)

  © 2014 by Gama Ray Martinez

  All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information, contact Rudder Writing, LLC.

  The views expressed within this book may not necessarily reflect the views or beliefs of Rudder Writing, LLC and its members.

  Martinez, Gama Ray

  The Oracles of Kurnugi: Mimir's Well (Book 3)

  ISBN-13:

  978-0692423837

  ISBN-10:

  0692423834

  RUDDER WRITING, LLC is a registered trademark.

  Manufactured in the United States of America

  Cover design by Emerald Studios

  CHAPTER 1

  Henry kept his eyes on the glowing emberstone in Valin's hand as the dwarf led them forward. Total darkness waited just beyond the stone's reach as if threatening to swallow them whole. Henry could practically feel the tons upon tons of earth bearing down on them as they made their way through the underground tunnel.

  "I swear, I don't even remember what the sun looks like," he grumbled. The cavern echoed his words, distorting his voice slightly.

  "Stop complaining," Andromeda said. "It hasn't been that long."

  He glared at her. Almost involuntarily, his eyes wandered to her hair, which had changed from black to blond several days ago, the result of crossing the boundary between worlds. Neither she nor Valin seemed to notice, and Henry had learned long ago that pointing out such things did no good. If the details of different worlds were remembered at all, it was only in the vaguest terms.

  "It's been close," he said under his breath.

  Without the rising and falling of the sun, it was hard to tell how long they'd been underground. They'd stopped to sleep several times, but sometimes, it felt like they had walked for days, and others it was only a few hours. Henry suspected it had been at least a week since they'd left the kingdom of Argath, a realm rooted in the story of Snow White. After helping to win a war against the evil witch queen Zuab, Henry had convinced the dwarven prince Valin to lead them deep underground, to the home of Hreidmar, High King over all dwarfkind. He'd thought it would be a relatively quick journey. No such luck. The earth was honeycombed with so many passages, it might as well have been a maze. Though it shouldn't have caught him by surprise, he hadn't expected the darkness to be so absolute. Valin's yellow emberstone, the only source of light they carried, seemed pitifully small when compared with the darkness pressing in on all sides.

  "How deep would you say we are, Valin?" Henry asked.

  The dwarf thought for a second. "Seven or eight miles, maybe as many as nine, but no more than that."

  Henry wracked his brain, trying to remember just how thick the earth's crust was, but he'd never been the best science student. In the end, he didn't suppose it mattered. Kurnugi, the land of human imagination, had a way of ignoring pesky little details like geology, gravity, and the laws of physics.

  "How long until we reach Jord?"

  "Another day or so, depending on the weather."

  "The weather?"

  Valin shrugged. "Earthquakes or dust showers caused by shifted masses of rocks. Giant worms burrowing through stone occasionally collapse passages. Sometimes volcanic activity melts underground deposits of ice, and water seeps through cracks making it rain in some of the larger caverns. In the wrong place, that can cause mudslides that cut off entire passages."

  "I had no idea conditions down here could be so complex," Andromeda said.

  Valin smiled. "No less so than on the surface."

  Henry glanced from the ever-thinning bags of oats to the horses he and Andromeda rode. Henry had never ridden a horse before coming to Kurnugi, and Andromeda was a princess who'd always had others to take care of her animals. The dwarves had little experience with horses, and no one had anticipated how the animals would eat when not supplemented by grazing. Both Pegasus and Andromeda's mare, Oakash, were huge creatures, and they needed plenty of food. Henry just hoped they wouldn't run out of supplies before making it to Jord.

  Suddenly, the horses' hooves seemed much louder, and their steps echoed through the cavern. They came upon a large lake and made camp on the shore. The surface of the water was a smooth as glass and stretched far beyond the light provided by the emberstone. If Henry listened, he could just make out the sound of drops of water falling into the lake. The horses kept giving the water sidelong glances, and Henry checked their water skins and found most of them empty.

  "Is it safe to drink?" he asked.

  Valin looked up from a map he was studying by the light of his emberstone. He wrinkled his brow and thought for a second before looking down at his map.

  "This would be Lake Tungl," he said, though it sounded more like a question than a statement.

  "You don't seem very sure," Henry said.

  Valin waved off his concern. "There's a large deposit of silver on the other side. It'll give the water a strange taste, but it's not actually dangerous."

  "Unless this isn't Lake Tungl," Henry said flatly.

  He looked over the dwarf's shoulder, but the map was covered in dwarven runes, and the lines crisscrossed each other in strange ways, to take into account the three-dimensional nature of traveling underground. Valin had tried to explain it to him a few times, but the explanations went over Henry's head.

  "No, I'm sure it is," Valin said as he rolled up the map and put it in a round case of polished stone. Henry glared at him, but the dwarf only shrugged. "I did offer to send someone else to guide you."

  Henry shook his head. "The mirror said it had to be you."

  "Then, you may as well trust me."

  Henry let out a breath and walked to the shore. His boot sunk into wet clay as he approached, and he took a second to pull it out before dipping his hand into the water and bringing it to his mouth. He stopped and looked up at Valin.

  "You know, the mirror can't actually see the future. It might not have thought about you leading us to poison water."

  Valin rolled his eyes. "Master Henry, there are no poison lakes this side of Jord. I'm almost positive about that."

  Henry groaned, but Andromeda sighed and forced her way past him, heedless of the water soaking her dress.

  "For someone with a magic shirt that makes him immune to poison, you're awfully squeamish."

  She brought water up in her cupped hands and drank. As soon as she swallowed, Valin went pale. He tore open the map case and practically ripped the map out. He unrolled it and ran his fingers down the paper. Henry's blood went cold, but Valin let out a breath of relief.

  "No, it's not poisonous."

  "Valin!"

  "I thought we were somewhere else for a second, but don't worry. This is definitely Lake Tungl."

  Laughter erupted from the shadows. Henry spun around. His sword hissed as he drew it, and he pointed it in the direction of the sound. A second later, Valin hefted an axe as big as he was, but he lowered it when half a dozen armored dwarves came out of the darkness. Each had skin the color of earth or stone, and they wore armor of interlocking plates. Given what little Henry knew of dwarven magic, he doubted that armor was ordinary steel. A three foot tall red bearded dwarf walked over to Valin and clapped him on the back.

  "Valin, you old goat," he said through a smile. "How many times have
you made this trip? Don't tell me you still don't know how to read a map."

  "Normally, I'm not the one plotting the route, Nabbi," Valin said between laughs.

  "King Hreidmar heard your footsteps on the stone and sent us to guide you the rest of the way." Nabbi looked at Henry and Andromeda. When he spoke, his voice had lost all hint of laughter. "He said nothing of these, though."

  "They are my friends and allies of King Fjalar."

  "They are human." The way he said 'human' made it sound almost like a curse.

  Valin picked up his axe again and moved to stand in front of Andromeda. Henry stood beside him. He held his sword low but didn't sheathe it.

  "They are under my protection, and you will not harm them, not while I can prevent it."

  His voice practically dripped with the threat, and his feet were spread wide in a stance used by dwarven warriors. The other dwarves scrambled to surround them, their armored boots clanking on the stone.

  "Gentlemen." Andromeda's voice was soft but somehow carried over the commotion. "We shouldn't be hasty here. King Hreidmar wants to see Valin, and we are his companions. Surely, the king can decide what to do with us."

  "And who are you, girl?" Nabbi almost spat the words.

  "I am Princess Andromeda daughter of..." she hesitated for a second. "Daughter of Budli, King of Gothia."

  Henry's shock only lasted a second. He'd been half expecting something like this. Though she didn't realize it, Andromeda was the princess of every story. Who her father was and what land he ruled changed whenever they crossed the boundary between tales. When he'd met her, she was a Greek princess. In Argath, her stepmother had poisoned her with an apple. He'd hoped when she finally revealed her new identity in this world, it would tell him something about the story he was in, but the names were a complete mystery.

  "And this is Master Henry Alexander Gideon," Valin said. "Surely, his exploits have reached even as far as Jord."

  Murmurs rippled through the dwarves, but Nabbi raised his hand to silence them. Some of the edge had gone out of his voice. "Noble visitors, but they're still human."

  "Noble enough that the king would want to know of them."

  Nabbi scowled. "If it were anyone but you, Valin..." He looked at the other dwarves. "Take the human's weapon."

  "I wouldn't," Valin said.

  "I won't take him into Jord armed."

  "That is a forged blade, Nabbi, freely given to him by a forgemaster. It is his and may not be taken from him, save in battle."

  "One of your forgemasters gave him a weapon? A human?"

  For a second, Henry thought Nabbi would order his dwarves to attack, and he tightened his grip on his sword. Valin just shook his head.

  "My forgemasters couldn't duplicate that weapon if they had a thousand years. Neither could Hreidmar's, I'd wager."

  "Then, how do you know it was given to him? He could have stolen it."

  "It doesn't matter how I know. All that matters is that you have the sworn word of a prince of the Nordi Mountains that it is so."

  Nabbi clenched his teeth and nodded. The soldiers put down their weapons, though many threw Henry nervous glances.

  "Very well, Valin. Come with us. The high king himself will decide your fate."

  CHAPTER 2

  "What was that about my sword?" Henry pitched his voice low so their escorts couldn't hear.

  "Forgemasters are highly respected among our people," Valin said. "If one gifts a warrior with a weapon, that weapon is his, and no one may take it from him."

  "But Hephaestus isn't a dwarf."

  "It doesn't make the slightest bit of difference. Alviss is the greatest forgemaster I've ever known, not that I'd expect anyone here to admit that about a dwarf of the surface kingdoms. Still, Alviss acknowledged Hephaestus. By our laws, he is a forgemaster."

  "Are we prisoners, then?"

  Valin shrugged. "It's no different than when I first brought you before Fjalar."

  "Are all dwarves this stubborn?"

  "As the mountain," Valin said, grinning.

  The dwarves hadn't brought food for the horses, but they kept a hard pace. After a day, or what passed for a day this far underground, they came through a narrow tunnel that opened up near the top of a wide cavern. The dwarven city of Jord, capital of the kingdom of Nidavellir, stretched out before them.

  The other cities Henry had seen in Kurnugi had been small, no more than a few miles across. Even in the largest, a man on foot could make it from side to the other in a couple of hours. Jord made them look like toys. Stone towers scattered throughout the city spiraled up as high as any skyscraper Henry had ever seen. Each held a glowing white emberstone that, when combined with the rest, illuminated the town as brightly as the sun could have. The buildings stretched out for miles, everything from small houses to palace-like structures that would've covered a couple of city blocks. Some glittered with precious gems or metals, but most were grey stone. That wasn't to say that their color was uniform, though. It shifted and changed, making the city look like it was made from storm clouds. Even from this distance, he could tell the city was a flurry of activity. People flowed through the streets like blood through veins, and it took Henry several seconds to see that the streets themselves formed a pattern that could only be seen from above, that of a battle-axe crossed with a war hammer.

  "I've never seen a city so large," Andromeda said.

  Valin nodded. "It would take three days to walk from one end to the other, and that's only if you didn't stop to eat or sleep."

  Nabbi grunted and guided them down a narrow path. It took them two hours to reach the iron gates of the city. Henry gaped. Hundreds of armed dwarves stood in their way. It was a small army. Their guides never slowed, and as they neared the gates Henry saw some of the dwarves were only statues. Dwarven stonework was so intricate, and the dwarves themselves so resembled stone, that it was impossible to tell which was statue and which was warrior unless it actually moved. It looked like only a few dozen were real. After a short exchange, the guards let them into the city.

  The streets were packed with dwarves. Some stopped what they were doing to look at the humans, but most jeered at them, and every once in a while, a child would throw a pebble at them. The crowd reacted even stronger toward the horses, shouting curses and throwing rotten fruit, though how they got fruit so far underground, Henry had no idea. Oakash, Andromeda's mare, had to be spoken softly to almost the entire time to keep from spooking. Pegasus, on the other hand, seemed curious.

  "What do they have against the animals?" Henry asked.

  "They are of the surface," Valin said. "Horses don't belong down here."

  "You should have told me that before."

  "Would you have left Pegasus behind if I had?"

  Henry thought about that for a second. "No."

  "I didn't think so."

  "We'll be staying there tonight." Nabbi pointed to a building with a hammer and anvil painted on a sign over the door.

  "Why don't we go directly to the palace?" Andromeda asked.

  "Your friend wasn't exaggerating when he said it would take three days to walk across this city," Nabbi said. "We're still a day from the palace, and that only if we travel hard."

  "The horses," Henry said.

  "They know how to take care of them," Nabbi said, "even if they rarely have to."

  He motioned to a boy who ran up to Andromeda and then to Henry and took the reins. Pegasus looked at Henry before going with the boy. They disappeared around the corner, though the stable boy looked over his shoulder at Henry for several seconds. Valin let out a sigh and rolled his eyes.

  "Do we really need to do this, Nabbi?"

  "I won't let him before the king armed on your word alone," Nabbi said.

  "What are you two talking about?" Henry asked.

  "The Hammer and Anvil is run by an old forgemaster," Valin said. "Last time I was here, it catered almost exclusively to those who follow that path."

  "It still
does," Nabbi said.

  Henry let out a breath. "Not this again."

  "Do you have some objection to having your weapon examined?" Nabbi asked.

  "Not really. I just don't like being the center of attention."

  Nabbi chuckled. "Don't be so arrogant. These aren't the forgemasters of the surface. They won't be easily impressed, and I can assure you, they've seen more complicated things than your sword."

  "I doubt it," Henry said, "but I wasn't really talking about the sword."

  "Oh?"

  "Never mind," Henry said. "Let's go."

  He moved past the dwarves and pushed open the door before strolling into the common room of the inn.

  CHAPTER 3

  Conversation filled the common room. The smell of roasting meat wafted from an open door opposite the entrance, underscored by the faint scent of burning coal. No one noticed him at first, but eventually, a beardless dwarf with skin the color of red clay glanced over his shoulder. He saw Henry, and his eyes went wide. The young dwarf said something, and the other two seated at his table, a dwarf with skin and hair the same color as the surrounding stones, and a ruby eyed elder with a snowy beard, turned and gasped. The silence spread out from the table until the entire common room stared at Henry. A few, ones who Henry guessed had no talent in the magic of the forge, were asking the others what they were seeing.

  "Well, this is unexpected," Nabbi said.

  Henry shrugged. "Only to you. Can we get this over with? I'm hungry, and I'm sure you want to get an early start tomorrow."

  Nabbi glared at him but nodded and led Valin, Henry, and Andromeda to a large stone table while the rest of his men scattered and found places to sit. He ordered food from a serving maid and instructed her to get the innkeeper. Henry tried to pretend the eyes on him didn't bother him, but they made his skin crawl. A few minutes later, the tallest dwarf Henry had ever seen, almost five feet, walked into the room. He scanned the area until his steel grey eyes locked onto Henry. For a moment, he stood with the same wide-eyed shock as the rest of the room, but he got over it after a few seconds and plodded across the room to sit at their table. His mail shirt scratched against the stone chair with a sound that made Henry's hair stand on end.