Jeff Crook - The Rose and the Skull

Uhoh awoke with a heart-stopping scream of terror. Its volume momentarily stunned the kapak so that he nearly let go. Still half blind with sleep, Uhoh shouted, "I tell no one, Papa! I not tell!" He kicked and fought to escape, his small but dangerous yellow teeth flashing as he snapped at the claw that held him.

Recovering from his surprise at finding the gully dwarf alive, the kapak struggled to maintain his grip, all the while trying to avoid those clashing yellow teeth. Gully dwarf bites aren't usually poisonous, but they hurt. With a deft move, he flipped Uhoh over and lifted him by one foot. Like the special holds used by minotaur alligator wrestlers, this seemed to have some mystical calming effect on the gully dwarf. Now upside-down, he fell still and quiet, blinking at the draconians fearfully.

"I'll bleed him out," the kapak said as he lowered his tusk-dagger to Uhoh's throat.

"Wait!" the bozak snarled. "Idiot. Don't kill him yet."

"Why not?" the kapak shouted angrily. "Make up your mind, boz!"

"Find out what he knows. Didn't you hear him? 'I tell no one, Papa,' he said. Tell no one what? What did Gunthar tell him before he died?" the bozak asked in hurried and excited whispers.

"Speak up, little rat," the kapak demanded. "What did Gunthar say to you?"

"Papa say lots of things," Uhoh squeaked.

The kapak shook him violently by his leg. "You know what I mean. What are you not supposed to tell? Speak up, before I cut you."

"Kill me, you never find out," Uhoh whispered.

The kapak started at these words, his fanged, reptilian jaw dropping open in surprise. Unable to hear, the bozak demanded, "What did he say?"

"This is no ordinary gully dwarf!" the kapak growled as he shook Uhoh even more violently than before. Uhoh's teeth clacked together like steam-driven gnomish castanets.

"What did he say?" the bozak demanded.

"He won't talk," the kapak said, still shaking Uhoh.

"Bind him, then. We'll take him back to the mountain for… deeper questioning," the bozak ordered. "If Gunthar suspected anything and spoke of it to the gully dwarf, we'll need to know what it was so we can warn the others. Destroy all paths that lead back to the mountain-that is the fourth law of Iulus. There can't be a single clue tying us, or he who hired us. No traces, no witnesses."

Reluctantly, the kapak sheathed his tusk-dagger and loosened a coil of thin rope from his belt, all the while holding Uhoh aloft. Meanwhile, the bozak made a last few magical adjustments to the surrounding area, just to make doubly sure no draconian tracks remained in the soft forest soil. Uhoh whimpered softly, a bit dazed from his shaking. Then he blinked, suddenly alert, and quiet. A few leaves rustled, as though stirred by some unseen breeze. The kapak halted, sniffing, testing the air with his tongue.

From the concealing undergrowth just off the path, a large gray blur streaked out. The kapak screamed in agony, dropping Uhoh on his head. The gully dwarf rolled to his feet, wincingly gripping his bruised pate, and shouting excitedly, "Millisant!"

The boar hound had a firm toothy grip on the kapak's tail and was shaking it like a snake, growling low in her throat. It was a testament to her strength and anger that the screaming draconian was tossed about like a gnome with his suspenders caught in his own machine. Yanked from his feet, he kicked and clawed at the forest floor, trying to regain his footing and ruining all the bozak's careful work of concealment.

With a snarl of rage, the bozak leaped into the fray, then leaped out, painfully shaking his well-chewed hand. With a leaping cavort and a high baritone bark of victory, Millisant dashed away, followed quickly by the gully dwarf. The draconians stared in stunned silence at the woods, then angrily began to blame each other.

A horn continued to blow mournfully throughout the night. As the first snow of the year began to fall, outriders were sent along the better-known trails, calling for Lord Gunthar in case he was lost in the dark. Uhoh slipped past them without being seen, but as he neared the castle, he wondered how he was going to get around the guards at the gate. He sat in the bushes with Millisant at his side and waited. There was nothing else to be done, but he simply had to find a way into the castle without being seen. Soon the snow lay thick across his shoulders and stood in a comical white pile on Millisant's snout. She whuffled and settled onto her haunches, blinking her long lashes at him. Uhoh nodded, as though he understood her perfectly.

As Uhoh sat there, growing sleepy with the cold, a commotion erupted near the gate. Lord Gunthar's horse, Traveler, had appeared from the wood, lame with a tusk wound. As Uhoh watched, Liam Ehrling and Tohr Malen came out from the castle and examined the shivering, exhausted horse, while more riders were quickly mounted and sent out in search of Lord Gunthar. From the castle poured a great many of the other Knights, while a crowd of lingering fair-goers gathered close by to try to get a glimpse of the horse. Uhoh slipped in beside them and inched his way toward the gate, Millisant at his heel. He glanced around and saw the guards busy watching the spectacle, so he dashed beneath the postern and into the courtyard of the castle. As he entered, grooms from the stables hurried out to see to Traveler's wounds, while villagers and Knights alike speculated upon Gunthar's fate.

More than once as they made their furtive way to the stable yard and the kennels, Uhoh and Millisant were forced to detour around Knights and guards nervously patrolling the castle. Luckily, there were still quite a number of peasants and merchants who had not yet gone home from the fair. Besides, what was one more gully dwarf or dog?

Sheep, cattle, and goats wandered the night-darkened grounds searching for some nibble of food, or huddled in small pens sleepily eyeing all the commotion. One old heifer waited alone by her owner's stall, lowing pitifully for a milking, but no one paid her any mind. Every so often, a trumpeter atop the tallest tower of the castle blew his mournful dirge over the forest, a noisy beacon to those lost in the night.

After what seemed liked hours, Uhoh finally reached the stable yard. He found it empty and dark. Inside the stables, horses from the hunt slept in their stalls, while the grooms and retainers were out searching the grounds for any sign of the castle's lost master. Uhoh crept to the door of the kennels and silently opened it. A low dangerous growl answered him.

"Shhhhh!" he hissed.

The growling stopped. "Who there?" someone asked.

"It me. Uhoh Ragnap, esquire," Uhoh answered.

"Uhoh dead. You his ghost?" A note of fear had crept into the speaker's voice.

"I not dead!" Uhoh said. "See. No spook. Me real." He proudly slapped his chest.

Slowly, a pair of gully dwarves appeared from the darkness. Uhoh stepped back so they could see him more clearly in the dim light from the courtyard. One of them was small even for a gully dwarf; she hardly came up to Uhoh's elbow. The second gully dwarf, though much larger than his companion, kept fearfully to the shadows. He was taller than Uhoh by a head, not counting the nest of hair standing straight up from the crown of his head.

"We hear they blow horn for you," the taller Aghar said from the shadows.

"Me no lost," Uhoh said. "Uhoh never get lost."

"What about time when… " the taller one began, before the shorter gully dwarf interrupted him.

"They blow horn 'cause you dead," she said as she stepped forward and gave Uhoh a vicious poke to the ribs. "But you not dead. You 'live!" She stepped back in awe.

"Me almost killed by slagd," Uhoh said. "But Uhoh 'scape. Very clever."

"Slagd!" the tall one cried as he vanished again.