The Doom Brigade Margaret Weis

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Then the draconians for reasons unknown, but undoubtedly sinister had ceased to fight. They had
stopped killing dwarves, merely knocked them over their heads instead. The High Thane, with true
short-sightedness only to be found in a dough-kneading, flour-sifting baker, had been rather charmed by
this turn of events and had flatly refused to even consider Moorthane's plan to take advantage of this
Reorx-sent opportunity and destroy the draconians once and for all.
It had been Moorthane's idea and his akme to burn the draconian village. This time, he'd gone
ahead and acted on his own before presenting it the High Thane, who would have probably come up
with some lamebrained scheme to move the village poor into the draconians' comfortable houses.
And where would the dwarves have been then? Eh?
Moorthane had known the draconians would come back. He just hadn't counted on mem coming
back quite so soon. The war chief had barely escaped with his life, having been in the woods attending to
some purely personal business when the draconians came roaring down the hill. Hiking up his britches,
Moorthane had sped back to the village. On the way he saw Pestle and Mortar, coming down from the
hills, coining from the same the direction as the draconians.
And this night, what had Moorthane found? Selquist entertaining draconians in his very own house!
Oh, sure, when questioned, his thieving friends had claimed that the draconians had burst in on them and
mat Selquist had valiantly driven them off. Not only that, but he'd actually chased after them and
purportedly stabbed one
A likely story.
At last, Selquist had gone too far. At last, Moorthane would have all the evidence he needed in order
to bring Selquist to trial and have him Cast Out. Not even Sel-quist's mother would stand up for her son
once she heard he was in league with the draconians.
"I've got you now, you Daergar runt," said Moorthane.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Inside Selquist's house, the dwarves completed the map.
There were parts of it on which they aft agreed, there were parts on which none of them agreed, and
mere were parts where the vote was split, but, overall, Selquist somewhat moodily pronounced it was "as
good as they were probably going to get."
"I think it's quite nice," said Pestle, admiring his brother's artistic talent. "Look how he's drawn the
little eggs, just like on the original, and the little draconian females with their stubby little wings "
"Hsst!" Selquist whispered. "Did you hear that?"
"It came from the garden," said Pestle.
"I've been trying to tell you," said Mortar, exasperated.
The rustling and thumping sound grew louder, followed by a yowl, a spitting and hissing, and a deep
voice cursing.
"Help! Draconians!" Auger bawled. "Help!"
"Oh, shut up, you blithering idiot" Moorthane's head appeared, thrust through the window curtains.
"It's me."
"Help! Moorbrain!" Selquist yelled, deftly snatching the map off the table and stuffing it down his
pants. "Help!"
Moorthane's face reddened in anger. He shook his fist at Selquist.
Standing up, Selquist walked over to the window. "Excuse me, Moorbrain. Nasty draft in here." He
slammed shut the window, missing Moorthane's head, but nearly catching his fingers.
"Do you think he heard?" Auger asked.
"He heard," Selquist said, a prey to deep gloom.
The door crashed open. Moorthane clomped inside.
"You see?" Selquist said.
Moorthane stomped over to the table, peered down at it.
The table was empty, except for some scattered pieces of charcoal and four empty mugs.
"All right" Moorthane glared around."Where is it?"
"What? Dinner? Oh, we ate hours ago. But thanks for asking," Selquist said.
"I'm not talking about dinner," Moorthane said, with a leering grin. "I'm talking about the treasure
map. I want to know a) what treasure? b) where if s located? and c) what you meant by draconian eggs?
Or else"-~he held up a hand to halt Selquist's undoubtedly sarcastic rejoinder "or else I will call a town
meeting and tell every dwarf in Celebundin that you've found a treasure map."
Selquist paled beneath his scroungy beard. "You wouldn't do that"
"Oh, wouldn't I?" Moorthane gloated.
"Let him," said Mortar, thinking he smelled a bluff.
"What? Are you crazy? Do you know what would happen?" Selquist demanded bitterly. "I couldn't
go to the outhouse without twenty-five dwarves traipsing after me, every one of them convinced that I
was going off after the treasure."
"Never a moment's peace," said Moorthane, fetching up a deep sigh. "Then, of course, there'd be
those who'll figure you've already found the treasure and that you have it hidden somewhere."
"They'll ransack the house!" Selquist said, horrified. "Tear up my garden!" His voice hardened. "All
right, Moorbrain, you win. But no more talk of my being Cast Out"
Moorthane glowered, hesitated.
"When I get the treasure. I'll probably move to Palanthas anyway," said Selquist carelessly. "Well cut [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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