Pathway

"What's going on here?" 

A gruff voice rang out from the doorway. Ju Feng looked up to see a thick-chested dwarf enter the forge. He had pale blond hair and beard, almost white, which contrasted oddly with his darker skin and eyes. When he crossed the room, Ju Feng noticed he walked with a slight limp, barely noticeable had he not been moving so quickly.

The dwarf crouched in front of Ingara and uttered soothing words in the dwarven language. Ju Feng stood to make room as Ongara looked at the blond dwarf with wide, red-rimmed eyes and shook her head furiously from side to side. She reached up to claw at her hair again, but the man caged her hands between his own and whispered soothing sounds that rolled out like low, distant thunder.

Breaths went by, but Ju Feng stayed where he was. Every movement made Ongara flinch and whimper, as if she expected the host of spiders to descend on them again in an instant. Ju Feng glanced at Chang Chang whose knees were cramped and cold from being so long on the floor, but she was ignored the pains.

Meanwhile, the blond dwarf was slowly getting through to Ingara. He whispered softly to her in Dwarvish, and Ongara answered—intimate words not meant for outsiders to hear. Chang Chang a flush of shame, but still she dared not move for fear of breaking the calm, protective circle that she, Ju Feng and the blonde dwarf had formed around Ongara. At last, the dwarf kissed both Ongara's hands and leaned close to brush away the tears that lingered at the corners of her eyes. They rose to their feet together and the man pulled her close, stroking his fingers through her wild hair. When they broke apart, Ingara was smiling tremulously.

"You must be Arngam." 

"It's not their fault. Don't look at them that way, Arn." 

Ongara said as she stepped from Arngam's embrace and smoothed her hair. 

"It was my own stupidity. Forsaken yaomo worship spiders. I should have been expecting something like that. Tell the patrols the next time they're overrun by spider attacks that they're probably illusions. That's what the rings we've been finding on all the drow corpses do. They're trying to break us with the fear of seeing so many of the bastards at once."

"I see. I'll inform the patrols and the master armswoman at once. This is valuable information." 

Arngam replied. The chill had left his voice, and he nodded at Icelin. 

"You have my congratulations." 

Chang Chang said tentatively. 

"On your upcoming wedding. I'm certain you'll be very happy together."

At the mention of the wedding, Ongara whirled on Arngam and jabbed an accusing finger at his chest. 

"What are you doing here, anyway? You know you're not to set foot over this threshold before the wedding. You'd better be on a mission from Moradin himself, if you don't want a beating."

Arngam smiled fondly at his betrothed. 

"There's my lovely one in all her fury. I heard you cry out. How could I not come to your aid?" 

"And get a peek at your wedding-day gift. Don't think I don't know what's really in your head."

Arngam raised his hands in surrender and added, sobbering.

"Don't worry, taerin, I haven't seen a thing. I'll leave you now—as long as you're all right." 

"I'm fine." 

Ongara said. She leaned in and kissed her love on the cheek and continued. 

"Go, and remember to tell the patrols."

He nodded and left the forge. When they were alone, Ongara turned to the table and laid her hands over the cloth covering the axe.

"Were they truly illusions?" 

She asked, not meeting Icelin's eyes. 

"They did not taint this?"

"Illusions and common spiders." 

Ju Feng said assuredly. 

"On a yaomo's hand, the ring might have called out to more monstrous creatures of the abysmal realm for it to mix with the illusions. On my hand, no touch of the dark goddess's magic reached those spiders. I'd have felt it."

Chang Chang quipped I'm.

Ingara closed her eyes briefly and nodded. 

"Thank you."

"Do you want us to leave you alone?" 

Ju Feng asked.

"No, I'm all right." 

Ongara uncovered the axe and lifted it in her hands, as if to feel the reassuring weight, the reality of the weapon. Her eyes clouded with memories. 

"I started dreaming this design the night they brought Arngam and me to the city on our backs and out of our heads with fever. We were in the mines, inspecting the structure of one of the dead-end tunnels to see if we could dig through it and join it to the main passages. Giant spiders set upon us. We must have disturbed a nest—no one had been in that tunnel for months. The worst part was that I didn't see the attack coming."

Ongara shivered and touched her hair. 

"I felt one of them land on my back. The hair on its belly was soft, like warm fur. It wound into my hair and brushed against my neck—and then it bit me. I thought someone had put a fire in my veins."

Ju Feng remembered the spider that had dropped on her from the cavern ceiling on their journey to the city. Pinned beneath its legs, she hadn't had time to think about the horror of becoming the monster's prey. She'd been too busy trying to escape. But she would always remember those eyes staring at her, the black, soulless orbs that looked on her as food and nothing more.

"How did you escape?" 

Ju Feng asked.

"I didn't. Arngam fought off as many as he could, while I writhed on the floor with cramps in my stomach like nothing I'd ever felt before. It was as if someone had taken hold of my insides and just kept twisting, twisting. Got so bad I could barely draw a breath. We'd have both died, but I screamed at Arngam to get away and bring back help. It was the only way. The spiders had enough time to work on me while he was gone."

"You were awake for it?" 

Chang Chang said, horrified. 

"Heavens tears, had I been in your place, I would have gone mad."

"Not quite," 

Ongara said, lips twisting in a bitter smile. 

"A spider's web, from the inside, smells like decay and something sharp and sweet that invades the lungs and makes a person lightheaded. Sometimes I still smell it, that scent—Arngam says I wash my hair more than any dwarf he's ever seen, but he's gentle with his teasing because he knows I'll never really get all the smell out.It's too much in my head."

"He's a good man said. He saved you from the spiders?"

"Aye, he brought a group back to rescue me, but it was still a nightmare of a fight." 

Ongara put the axe down and began absently cleaning her tools and arranging them near the forge. The familiar rituals seemed to comfort her. 

"I hated him too, while I was in that web. Out of my head with pain and fever, I cursed Arngam horribly for leaving me, even though I was the one who told him to do it. I pray to the gods he never heard any of the things I said."

"Even if he did, he knows you weren't yourself." 

Ju Feng said and continued. 

"Pain and fear change a person. It's no shame to you."

"You sound like my sister." 

Ingara smiled, chasing some of the shadows from her face. She glanced at them before recalling recent memories. Slowly, she continued.

"Druya is always eager to forgive anybody any offense, bless her. In the end, Arngam got his share of poison too, ripping me out of that web, and the physicians spent days nursing us out of the fever. While I was lying in the grip of it, I started making the axe in my mind. If Arngam was able to forgive me for all that had happened, I knew we'd be good for each other. I took away my share of scars from that web, but some good came of it, too."

She stared into the forge fire. 

"My thanks for your aid and for destroying the rings. I know you've not felt welcome, but we're grateful you're here. We need friends now more than ever. Father knows this. Orban, for all his stubbornness, knows it too."

"I don't know how much help we'll be able to provide. We are only two people. Young ones for that matter." 

Ju Feng said, echoing Chang Chang's earlier thoughts.

"The king disagrees. Druya's told me a little of it, but King Laggarma keeps his own counsel—and his own secrets—on some matters. He thinks you're important."

Why does that give me no comfort? Ju Feng didn't voice the thought, but then stared at Ongara and uttered.

"Speaking of the king, we should be going. Ongara, are you sure you're all right?"

"Once I begin my forge work, there'll be no other thought in my head. Any more of those rings come my way they'll go in the fire."

Ongara said assuredly as they made their way to the king's private chambers.