Ed Greenwood: Spellfire

"Well enough," Shandril said, and turned to where the dracolich lay. "Do you know this one?"

"Never seen it before I buried this axe in it," Delg replied, raising an eyebrow. "Does it matter?"

"No, I suppose not," Shandril replied, and let fly with roaring spellfire that blasted Shargrailar's helplessly flopping skull to bone shards. As the smoke died away, Shandril looked at Delg and shrugged, expressionless.

"Beware, Delg, I'm not safe to be near, these days," she said with a sigh. "So much killing, since first I left The Rising Moon… Is butchery what all the legends are built on?"

"Aye," the dwarf said gruffly, "Didn't you know?" He turned to Narm. "Let's drag your lord a goodly distance from all this carnage, and see what we can salvage before sunset."

"'We?' You'll come with us?"

"Aye, if you'll have me. On your bridal journey, and all."

The dwarf looked embarrassed, and then squinted at her defiantly, hands twisting nervously on his axe as he spoke. "I am a friend to you, Shandril, and will stand true by you and your lord. Few enough such you'll find, mark you, and you need but little more in life than good food and good friends. The company's gone now, all save for you… so old Delg'll ride with you.

"If you make it to Silverymoon all well, and are sick of me by then, I'll leave you. I hope you won't be… it is a trial indeed, when you be my age, befriending pretty girls anew to ride with… folks get all the wrong ideas, y'see."

The old dwarf handed her his axe. "Hold this, while I carry your mage here-easy, lad, you'll feel better soon enough; I know, I've lived through battles enough to tell, by now-down the road apiece. The sun waits not for all my talking." Nor did it, but it was a happy camp that sunset.

In the morning, the dwarf walked with the young couple as they headed west up into the mountains. It was a clear day, and the green Dalelands spread out behind them as they went up the rolling hills toward the Thunder Gap. All was peaceful. A lone black falcon soared high above in the clear blue air, and the day passed on with no attack or hurling of spellfire. Delg told Narm fierce tales of Shandril's daring with the company, and Narm, recovering, told Delg of the struggle in Myth Drannor and Rauglothgor's lair, and how she blasted apart the mountaintop. The dwarf looked at Shandril with new respect, and chuckled, and said, "I won't ask you to hold my axe, next time!"

Near sunset, on the heights of Thunder Gap, they turned at last and looked back over the marching trees, and the road dwindling down, down, down from where they stood to Highmoon, hazy in the distance.

"Who could know, looking at it, that this beautiful land could be so dangerous?" Narm asked quietly. Delg looked, and smiled, and said nothing.

"Never mind," Shandril replied, putting a hand on his arm. "We found each other, and that is worth it all."

They walked off into the evening together, and thought on many mornings ahead as the soft stars came out above them, and were very happy.