The Dragoness Queen

Chapter Fifteen: The Realm of the Dead

The tour began.

Durag led Relma out of the dining hall while things were cleared away. They walked now through a tunnel of smoothed rock. On the walls here, Relma saw some actual designs. They showed many dwarves marching with spears and square shields. Their helms and armor had a death motif, much like William bore in his.As they walked, they came to two statues before them on either side of gray. One was of a beautiful maiden in flowing garb, standing with a hand upraised. The other, on the right, was kneeling in prayer. Her face was solemn, and a sword was in her hands.

Relma thought they were very beautiful, particularly liking the one on the left. It seemed somehow majestic and nice.

"These statues are beautiful," said Relma.

"Yes, we don't usually make statues, to be honest," said Durag. "They take a great deal of effort and are not a practical form of decoration. These, however, were forged recently.

"However, the details seemed worthwhile."

"Who are these angels of?" asked Relma, moving in to get a closer look.

"The Angel of Virtue, Rasoria on the left," said Durag. "And the Angel of Ways, Gabora, on the right."

"I am Rasoria," mused Relma. "But who is Gabora?" Why did she like her own statue so much? What did that say about her? But then, she hadn't known it was supposed to be her and it might not even look like her.

"A being who serves Barden," said Durag. "Mostly specializing in connecting different faraway places and bring about greater civilization."

They walked between the angels and came to an area where a pit was being filled with a gray material by dwarves. As Durag approached, one of the dwarves saluted but said nothing.

"What is this?" asked Relma.

"Don't step too near," said Durag. "We are experimenting with a new form of building material. A chemical mixture, which, when combined, turns from liquid into stone. We call it cement.

"You mix together a paste with certain rocks and then pour it into a mold."

"Then those statues weren't carved?" asked Relma.

"No, however, the molds took a truly painstaking amount of work to set up," said Durag. "It was why I made them in the first place. I wanted to see what I could make.

"Tell me, have you seen the guns of the Conquista?"

"Yes," said Relma.

"Yes, well, guns are a very useful invention. However, they have some critical weaknesses," said Durag and he led her over to a series of targets. A row of guns was laid out on racks. "For one thing, they create a massive amount of noise and smoke and are dangerous to the wielder. In bad weather, they are almost useless. And, last, of all, they are worthless against spiritual entities.