“The brothers can handle it. Dad would’ve had a fit if he knew I was skiving off on account of the youngins, but he’s six hundred feet under out there down in the shaft. I reckon he’ll be rolling in his grave a long time before we hear him up here.”
Gwenla had told Alison of the dwarven tradition to bury their dead deep within abandoned mineshafts, the depth correlating to the esteem with which they were held by dwarven society. Yordin’s father must have been quite esteemed indeed.
“You must be Gwenla’s associates. Which one is the prince?” Yordin gestured to the others to join them at the table. “That one, I reckon.” He pointed at Keir, who smiled and shook his head.
“I’m only a marquess, I’m afraid,” he said. “Prince Idris is busy at the university.”
“I never could keep all of those titles straight. Prince, marquess. It’s all the same to me. How’d you lot manage to get tangled up with Gwenla?”
Alison explained how she’d joined in Gwenla’s schemes to save Herot’s Hollow when she moved there from the city, omitting the part about reuniting Keir with the town following his accidental imperiling of it through a magical vine he hadn’t realized he’d unleashed upon it. And also the part of how she’d helped play matchmaker for Lady Sibba and Weyland. She explained the chance meeting of Prince Idris by her former roommate, and how his sister Princess Ceridwen had forced them to come up with an alternate power source on the spot when they sabotaged a hydro-‘lectric dam demonstration by Andsaz, a rival dwarven industrialist.
“Oh boy, I bet Andsaz was furious. He probably fired his whole engineering team. I need to have someone reach out—there could be an opportunity there,” said Yordin.
It was funny to hear this man, dressed as he was in stain-covered pajamas (stained with both sweat and some kind of reddish sauce) talk about business over a kitchen table.
Gwenla then explained her idea about harnessing the power of the sun, and how they’d turned it into a nearly working prototype with the help of a journal article published by the very professor they were going to see next.
“It was a good idea to use magic to make it seem like it was working,” said Yordin. “If you’re looking for a job, let me know. The number of times we’ve had a prototype fail during a live demonstration—magic could be a game changer.” He nodded approvingly at Alison.
Alison smiled back but said nothing. She wasn’t sure she felt using magic for fraudulent reasons was the best practice ingeneral, but maybe if it were for a good purpose like saving the town, she’d consider it.
“You brought the plans?” asked Yordin.
Lady Sibba retrieved the schematics drawn up by Weyland from her satchel. She had annotated them with the terminology from the original journal article, and Alison had provided some calculations based on formulas Professor Marin had provided.
“I’ll need to have my number-checkers take a look, but this looks like good work. And you say Professor Marin will sort the power-saver issue?”
The professor had written back with promising news regarding the issues they’d had with the prototype, including an issue that even Yordin wasn’t able to solve: none of the current power-savers, the devices used to store ‘lectricity long term, had high enough capacity to be used in the ‘lectrical grid. His engines and machinery used power-savers, but there was an issue of scale.
“Professor Marin has several experimental technologies she’d like us to test. We’re hoping to have the final designs within the month,” said Gwenla.
“Good, very good,” said Yordin. “We’ve got the line running components now. It’ll just be a matter of assembly and power-saver production. We should be able to meet your timeline for the first delivery. I wanted to talk to you about the coin.”
Gwenla glanced at Alison. They’d agreed to split their new venture nine ways: one part each to Gwenla, Alison, Keir, Lady Sibba, Weyland, Idris, Rinka, Professor Marin, and Yordin, with Yordin receiving a double share due to his production costs. (They’d offered the same to Professor Marin, but she’d refused.) But Gwenla had been worried that her cousin would think they were trying to cheat him and might demand more.
Gwenla had been wrong.
“It’s too generous of an offer. I’ll accept my share, but I won’t let you double it. I’ve had my solicitor draw up a new contract; it’s at the office so it doesn’t get covered in soup. But there’s just one more condition I have.”
“Name it,” said Gwenla. “I’ll do anything to keep the king from stripping Herot’s Hollow.”
Yordin laughed at that. “There are worse things than a mine, you know. Most dwarves know that. But you’ve never been like most dwarves, have you?”
“I suppose not,” said Gwenla. “Name your price, Yordin.”
Yordin took a deep breath in, drawing his pajamaed body upright into as dignified of a position as was possible. “Take Finnli with you.”
Gwenla scrunched her grey eyebrows together. “Finnli? Who’s Finnli?”
Chapter Three
THE MONSTER
Ceri
Ceri could see nothing in the darkened library, but she could feel something reaching for her on the floor.
It grabbed her by the arms.
