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At the heart of the lower levels, in an i walls pocketed with deep shadows, and a ceiling too high for the light of the brightest fire to find, rested the present ruler of Mithril Hall, perched upon a solid pedestal of the purest h and wide oblets and weapons, and countless other iteh blocks of mithril by the skilled hands of dwarven craftss frory for the ive theory sport before the kill

Shis froar spoke of murdered kin in the tunnels and whispered ruon was not of this world It had cohted world, unknown to the dwellers here except in the less substantial stuff of their blackest night there, old even then, and in high regard aon kin that ruled the plane But when the foolish and greedy dwarves that once inhabited these mines had delved into deep holes of sufficient darkness to open a gate to its plane, the dragon had been quick to coreatest of its own plane, Shi

It would deal with the intruders

For the first ti of the shadow hounds filled the tunnels, striking dread even into the hearts of their gray dwarf handlers The dragon sent them west on their mission, up toward the tunnels around the entry hall in Keeper’s Dale, where the companions had first entered the complex With their powerful maws and incredible stealth, the hounds were indeed a deadly force, but their mission noas not to catch and kill - only to herd

In the first fight for Mithril Hall, Shiloom alone had routed the e chambers on the eastern end of the upper level But final victory had escaped the dragon, for the end had coht for its scaly bulk

The beast would not ain It set its minions in motion, to drive whoever or whatever had come into the halls toward the only entrance that it had to the upper levels: Garulooht and unfolded its leathery wings for the first ti out under thear who had reht of their rising lord, partly in respect, butdown a secret tunnel at the back of the chalory, the place its loouishable darkness, it moved as silently as the cloud of blackness that followed

Wulfgar worried just hoould be crouching by the tie, for the tunnels became dwarven sized as they neared the eastern end of the upper level Bruenor knew this as a good sign, the only tunnels in the cos below the six foot mark were those of the deepest e

Faster than Bruenor had hoped, they ca off to the left, a spot familiar to the dwarf even after his two-century absence He ran his hand across the unremarkable wall beneath the torch and its telltale red sconce, searching for the brailed pattern that would lead his fingers to the precise spot He found one triangle, then another, and followed their lines to the central point, the bottommost point in the valley between the peaks of the twin-nified, the symbol of Dumathoin, the Keeper of Secrets Under the Mountain Bruenor pushed with a single finger, and the wall fell away, opening yet another low tunnel No light came from this one, but a hollow sound, like the wind across a rock face, greeted theht in, but slohen he saw the runes and sculpted reliefs carved into the walls All along the passage, on every surface, dwarven artisans had left their mark Bruenor swelled with pride, despite his depression, when he saw the ad expressions upon his friends’ faces

A few turns later they came upon a portcullis, lowered and rusted, and beyond it saw the wideness of another huge cavern

"Garu up to the iron bars "’Tis said ye can throw a torch off the rim and it’ll burn out afore ever it hits"

Four sets of eyes looked through the gate in wonder If the journey through Mithril Hall had been a disappointhts Bruenor had often told theht before thee, though it see hundreds of feet across and stretching beyond the liht They were above the floor of the chaht on the other site of the portcullis Straining to poke as h the bars, they could see the light of another room at the base of the stairs, and hear clearly the ruckus of several Duergar

To the left, the wall arced around to the edge, though the chasle bridge spanned the break, an ancient work of stone fitted so perfectly that its slight arch could still support an are carefully, noting that soht He followed the line of a cable across the chas and connect to a large lever sticking up from a ar sentries h their lax attitude spoke of countless days of boredo to fall!" Bruenor snorted

The others i about "Is there another way across, then?" Catti-brie asked

"Aye," replied the dwarf "A ledge to the south end of the gorge But hours o’ walking, and the only way to it is through this cavern!"

Wulfgar grasped the iron bars of the portcullis and tested theh these bars, anyway," he put in "Unless you knohere we ," Bruenor replied, as though the answer, perfectly logical to thehis treasures, should have been obvious "The other way"

"Fretful folk," Regis said under his breath

Catching the reis by the collar, hoisting hiether "Me people are a careful lot," he snarled, his own frustration and confusion boiling out again in his e "We like to keep what’s our own to keep, especially fro mouths"

"Suren there’s another way in," Catti-brie reasoned, quick to diffuse the confrontation

Bruenor dropped the halfling to the floor "We can get to that roohted area at the base of the stairs

"Then let’s be quick," Catti-brie demanded "If the noise of the cave-in called out alarht not have reached this far"

Bruenor led them back down the small tunnel swiftly, and back to the corridor behind the secret door

Around the next bend in thethe runes and sculpted reliefs of the dwarven craftse and quickly lost all thoughts of anger at Regis He heard again in his ing of cos If the foulness that they had found here, and the loss of Drizzt, had tempered his fervent desire to reclaim Mithril Hall, the vivid recollections that assaulted hi this corridor worked to refuel those fires

Perhaps he would return with his ar out in the s his people’s glory suddenly rekindled, Bruenor looked around to his friends, tired, hungry, and grieving for the drow, and reminded himself that the et thenaled the end of the tunnel Bruenor slowed their pace and crept along to the exit cautiously Again the co yet another corridor, a huge passageway, nearly a cha and decorated walls Torches burned every few feet along both sides, running parallel below them

A lump welled in Bruenor’s throat when he looked upon the carvings lining the opposite wall across the way, great sculpted bas reliefs of Garuor, and of all the patriarchs of Clan Battlehammer He wondered, and not for the first tiside his ancestors’

"Half-a-dozen to ten, I make the out of a partly opened door down to the left, the rooe The coer corridor To the right, a stairway descended to the floor, and beyond it the tunnel wound its way back into the great halls

"Side rooar asked Bruenor

The dwarf shook his head "One anteroom there be, and only one," he answered "But e Whether they be filled with gray ones or no, we cannot know But no h the door across its way to co grip "Then let us go," he growled, starting for the stair

"What about the two in the cavern beyond?" asked Regis, staying the anxious warrior with his hand

"They’ll drop the bridge afore we ever e," added Catti-brie

Bruenor scratched his beard, then looked to his daughter "Hoell do ye shoot?" he asked her

Catti-brie held the h to take the likes of two sentries!" she answered

"Back to th’ other tunnel with ye," said Bruenor "At first sound of battle, take ’eirl; the cowardly scuns of trouble!"

With a nod, she was gone Wulfgar watched her disappear back down the corridor, not so deter that Catti-brie would be safe behind hiray ones have reinforcements near?" he asked Bruenor "What of Catti-brie? She will be blocked fro to us"

"No whinin’, boy!" Bruenor snapped, also uncomfortable with his decision to separate "Y’er heart’s for her is h ye aren’t to adhter, trained by h, still secret froirl’s battle-sht before ye The best ye can do for her is to finish these gray-bearded dogs too quick for their kin to coar tore his eyes away froaze on the open door below, readying himself for the task at hand

Alone now, Catti-brie quietly trotted back the short distance down the corridor and disappeared through the secret door

"Hold!" Sydney co that soolem on her heel, and peeked around the next turn in the tunnel, expecting that she had come up on the companions There was only empty corridor in front of her

The secret door had closed

Wulfgar took a deep breath and measured the odds If Catti-brie’s estimate was correct, he and Bruenor would be outnuh the door He knew that they had no options open before theain down the stairs, Bruenortentatively behind

The barbarian never slowed his long strides, or turned frohtest path to the door, yet the first sounds that they all heard were not the thu or the barbarian’s custo of Bruenor Battlehaht, and the dwarf placed the responsibility for the safety of his coar when they reached the bottoh the door, the mithril axe of his heroic namesake raised before hi the shining helle stroke "This one’s forthe second "And this one’s for me father’s father’s father!"

Bruenor’s ancestral line was long indeed The gray dwarves never had a chance

Wulfgar had started his charge right after he realized Bruenor was rushing by hiar lay dead and the furious Bruenor was about to drop the fourth Six others scrae assault, and et out the other door and into the cavern of the gorge where they could regroup Wulfgar hurled Aegis-fang - and took another, and Bruenor pounced upon his fifth victiorge, the two sentries heard the start of battle at the sa as happening, they hesitated