"Aella, I want to go check out this forge that the children were talking about," said Alfred quietly once they were along, back in the room the princess had them taken to."I don"t want you to be seen," she said, nodding.
"Is that wise?" asked Frederik, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed.
"I want to think of it as an investigation into the attempt on your life," Aella said, looking around the room carefully. It felt as if there were eyes on her, but she wasn"t sure from where.
Sending a little gust of wind racing around the room, she found a spot on one wall that seemed to be irregular. With a frown, she sent the gust rushing at the spot and was rewarded with a soft grunt. Grabbing all of the air out of that section, she pulled it into the room and was rewarded with another gasp followed by quick footsteps heading off. She didn"t appreciate spies.
Leaning against the wall, she sighed and stared up at the ceiling while she waited.
"King Aella?" asked a voice at the door.
Aella glanced down at the dwarf who was standing in the doorway. He was very old and unkempt. It was obvious from the quick glances he kept shooting around him, that he probably wasn"t supposed to be here.
"Could you follow me, please? It"s important!" he asked, craning his neck to keep an eye on all the hallways.
"So, polite!" she purred, pushing off from the wall and waving for Frederik to follow. "I was starting to wonder if anyone even remembered I was a king!"
"So sorry about that!" he murmured, giving her a slight bow before holding the door open for her to step out into the hall. "If you would follow me?"
Aella had no problems keeping up with his fast-little steps as he led them through older and older tunnels. She didn"t worry about Alfred finding them, as he would just hide until she returned. When he paused at a branch, she waited as he watched two guards walk by quietly, before motioning for her to continue following him. Frederik was starting to have some problems seeing, as it had been a while since they had pa.s.sed a lit torch. They reached their destination before she had to say anything, and the dwarf they were following lit a lamp sitting on a table.
Aella blinked a few times while her vision cleared, and looked over the haggard group before her.
"Your Majesty, thank you for coming," said a different dwarf, even older than the last. His beard dragged on the floor from his stooped posture as he moved to a small stool and lowered himself to it slowly.
She waited, knowing they were going to explain themselves.
"We are the… we were the advisors for the last king, before he pa.s.sed away several years ago. I"m sure you"ve noticed the twins who are trying to run things now?" asked the old dwarf with the long beard.
"I have encountered them, yes," nodded Aella, wondering if they were going to tell her of some great evil. It seemed appropriate to the settings.
"We were hoping you would be willing to help us, after seeing the two and how corrupt they are," said the dwarf hopefully.
The other dwarves in the room nodded their heads hopefully, their yellowed teeth glinting through the filth of their bears in the light.
"Help you with what?" she asked with a frown.
"Well, there are a number of dwarves who disagree with the rule of the two twins and wishes to leave the mountain. The two refuse to allow this, and throw any who refuse to do what they are ordered into the dungeons to rot. We have managed to rescue some of them, and we hide here, in the abandoned mines, trying to come up with a plan to escape while we struggle to survive."
"The prince and princess won"t let you leave the mountain?" Aella asked, thoughtfully. She hadn"t seen any old dwarves until now, and those who she had interacted with had been very quiet. She had just thought it was the way dwarves were.
"No, they claim that this is our home, and ignore the words of the elders. It has only been our home since their father claimed it as such. Before this place, we would often travel in search of other places to mine, throughout all the mountains. If you were to look, there are many places our ancestors mined out and left behind for the lesser races to occupy in these mountains. The twins refuse to move though, claiming that this is our home, and we should merely expand it and make it greater as we go."
"There is nothing left to mine here, except the rock, and even then, we risk destabilizing what we have already built by continuing to dig," exclaimed the dwarf that had brought them here. A glance from the older dwarf had him hanging his head and muttering an apology.
"We are older and not able to do much in our weakened states, which annoys the twins," explained the old dwarf after a pause. "They don"t want anyone telling them what to do, and hate whenever someone interferes. When we saw that they had let you into the city, it was a shock. We hope that you can do something to right the wrongs they have done to our people."
"So, besides the two royal brats, who would be in charge?" asked Aella. She could solve this really quickly.
"Normally, when an old king dies, the people get to choose who to instate as the new king, but no one is wanting either of the twins in power. If it was put to a vote, the king"s brother would be put in place, but he is very old now. We need someone younger, who believes in our ancient way of doing things, and who would let us do something other than sitting and stagnating."
"And that would be?" she asked, drawing out her question. They should know she didn"t have a clue who that could be. She hadn"t been around for very long at all, and short of the guards who were glued to the sides of the royal twins, she hadn"t seen many of them.
"I think Voluri would make a good king," piped up one of the dwarves in the back of the room. "He"s the cousin of the twins and was raised right, not spoiled as they were."
"Aye! Voluri would be excellent!" chimed in another on the other side of the room.
"Alright," said Aella with a grin. "But if I help you, what do I get out of this?"
They looked at each other uncomfortably, and it was immediately obvious they didn"t have anything to offer.
"There"s a large tablet of stone in the treasury…" began the old dwarf, but she shook her head and held up a hand.
"The prince offered that to me immediately when I first arrived. I fully intend to take it with me when I leave, but that can"t be the only thing you could offer me."
"Your Majesty," said Frederik, stepping closer to her, "Perhaps I could suggest something?"
"I would be delighted to hear your thoughts," said Aella.
"The elves have a similar tablet that they refuse to give to us until a certain dispute is resolved with the dwarves. Perhaps once we have dealt with these royal children, that dispute could be laid to rest?"
"That is a wonderful idea, Frederik," said Aella, turning back to the dwarves before her. "What do you think?"
"Are you speaking of the trade between us and the elves where we give them stone and they give us wood?" asked the old dwarf, looking confused. "Are we still not upholding that?"
"Let"s just say your kingdom is on the brink of war with the elves because it has not been seen as necessary by the twin brats in power," said Aella. "The king of the elves promised to give me my tablet if I dealt with the issue here in the dwarven city. However, when I mentioned it to the prince and princess, neither of them seemed interested in dealing with the issue."
"That is incredibly stupid on their part. If you can deal with them, so we can instate Voluri as king, then we will indeed have him look at this issue and attempt to resolve it quickly. The old king would never dare to invite trouble over such a small trade agreement," said the old dwarf with a shake of his head.
"Wonderful. I will be back in a few moments. Frederik, please wait here so our new friends don"t get cold feet and so I can find you again," she said with a grin, watching his eyes widen just a hair before he nodded his understanding.
Picturing the room, they had just left, she saw that Alfred had just returned to it, in the middle of the princess and the prince arguing over where she must have gone to. This would be fun!