Rise Of The Godking

"Brother! Brother! Brother!", they echoed, their faces s.h.i.+ning with excitement just as much as their bald heads.

After his rousing speech, the giant had fallen asleep. Promptly.

His eyelids had started to droop, and while Daneel had still been registering the crazy details of what he had been told, he heard a mumble about something related to exertion-induced slumber. Then, a deep, deep snore had reached his ears, and a group of dwarves had dutifully arrived with a large pillow on their shoulders.

From the way they had been standing just inside the cavern to his left, it became evident that this was something that often happened. As Daneel watched, they had climbed up on each other"s shoulders and carefully placed the pillow behind the giant"s head before one of them was positioned near his ears.

Seeing them, Daneel had antic.i.p.ated all kinds of sophisticated maneuvers to further grant comfort to their creator, and king.

"Will they give him a ma.s.sage using age-old tricks? Will they plug his ears using a carefully molded instrument? Or will they…"

His list of questions instantly stopped when the dwarf nearest to the giant"s ear cleared his throat…and began to sing a lullaby.

His ears burning, he had listened to the soothing tune that made the giant"s snore deepen until he felt a tugging at his waist.

Looking down, he had been greeted by the group that was around him, now, and as they walked along a narrow tunnel that they had come upon first after leaving that central audience room, he glanced at the only dwarf he had seen yet who had been capable of normal speech.

The rest were, well…basically children.

At the same time, the dwarf happened to look in his direction, too. He was also unique due to the detail that he had a beard, and he was dressed differently from the rest. He wore a green robe with a hood and held a wooden walking stick in his hands, and all the dwarves they saw on their way bowed to him respectfully.

"I know you must have a lot of questions. I will answer them all…or at least, I will answer those I am permitted to answer. Living for centuries can have…adverse effects on one"s mind. Oh, you nasty little critters! He meant to break out the wine for the guest, not for you all!"

The last shout was directed in front of him, and as Daneel turned to see the cave they had arrived in, he blinked, then burst out laughing.

More than one hundred dwarves were pa.s.sed out, p.i.s.s-drunk, on a long table. Their faces still held the glow of the cheer they had shouted just before, and their hands held goblets that were mostly still half-full.

The sight was a funny one, but Daneel stifled his laughter, knowing that it might offend his guide.

Yet, after sighing, the old dwarf picked up a goblet nearby and drained it away before laughing, too.

With a belch, he turned to Daneel and said, "Pardon them. They"re the youngest; they"ve just been turned. They"re essentially infants, and like infants…they can"t keep down their wine."

Daneel merely nodded and studied the room. It was a narrow cave, but it was long, very long. A table that could seat at least two hundred stretched out in front of him, and to its sides were numerous cupboards.

It was lit by fire, too, and it smelled of freshly baked bread. Daneel felt himself salivating; he hadn"t eaten such a delicacy in so long.

Walking to one of the cupboards, the old dwarf took out a fresh goblet and filled it from the wine cask in a different cupboard. Handing it to Daneel, he said, "Drink up. I"m afraid that our venerable leader might have forgotten that dinner was just served…hence his slumber, which usually does not arrive so abruptly after a meal of power. Combined with the hearty meal he had just before that…I expect that it must have been hard to stay awake."

Hearing the man speak of "hearty meals" and "dinner", Daneel couldn"t take it any more.

"How do you have so much food?!"

He hadn"t meant to shout, but his voice echoed in the cavern, making a few nearby hiccup and look around groggily.

The old dwarf made a shus.h.i.+ng motion, and pointed to the other end of the cavern. With an apologetic nod, Daneel hung his head and followed, tiptoeing around a few dwarfs who had taken to kissing the ground in their sleep.

It had seemed that he would hear the answer after they exited the cavern, but instead…he came upon it, himself.

The next cavern was just as narrow, but unlike the one before which had a reasonably placed ceiling, this one stretched up, up, up until Daneel couldn"t even see its highest point.

And on both walls, there were thousands of vines growing that were being harvested by a couple of dwarves nearby.

These plants, themselves, were a marvel, somehow thriving so far underground…but there was also another detail that made the cavern special.

The crystal he had mined for many days in the Pit��was here, placed in neat intervals so that its illumination would cover all the vines, leaving none in the dark.

"Gloomlitchen. It is known to all as a weed that is so tenacious that it even grows in the dark, but give it energy…and it transforms into an edible crop. It took one hundred years to make this happen. One hundred years of starving dwarves. One hundred years of sacrifice. We use our own excretions as manure. We use our own treated p.i.s.s to water it. In a way, it is our child, just like we are the children of our Maker. Ah…I"m rambling. It seems to be something I"ve inherited from our Maker, as I"m the one who has been around him the longest. I"ve ordered the chefs to prepare a fitting meal for you. While it gets made, do you want a tour? We have our own animal pens, vegetable gardens that grow a variation of Gloomlitchen, a sprawling bathhouse, and even a sparring area! Down here, you could live like a King…which makes sense, as it was all built for our King."

He slapped his stomach and laughed at his own little joke, while Daneel tried hard to digest everything he was being told.

This place had far, far more to it than he had imagined.

"It"s a G.o.dd.a.m.n city! How is it secret? And how did they even build it?! Besides, what about the water, and in fact, even the air! Either I"ve missed something, or there are secrets here that need to be uncovered!"

That last thought made his eyes blaze with the zeal of discovery. His horizons had already been greatly broadened by what he had witnessed so far, and he was determined to keep finding out more.

With a firm nod, he was about to say that it would be his pleasure to be taken on a tour…but he had to stop as a dwarf ran into the dining hall, and scurried to his elder.

With a frown, the old dwarf listened to the newcomer who spoke in a whisper. His frown only deepened as time pa.s.sed, and after dismissing the messenger, he mulled over what he had been told briefly.

Then, he waved his hand and spoke with a sigh, and hearing him, Daneel felt his heart sinking.

"Well…I guess all that will have to wait. Your friends above have made rather a big mess of things! Convinced that it was all a plot by Madeira to get revenge, they barged into your cavern! The sham is up. You must go right now. You cannot tell them anything about this place. Be careful…for we will be watching. Oh, and I have another task for you. The Maker and I talked about it. If things had gone well, he would have told you about it, himself…but in his place, I"ll do the honors. He is convinced that you are capable, but still…he has a test. Kill Xander"s accomplice, and free the children they are starving now. Finish this task, and you can feast. But for now…its time to leave!"