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"I ain’t likin’ this," the dwarf said, in a crouch with his hands out to the sides, as if he expected the disc to vanish and leave hi to hold onto
"You will be soon, I proical cloak around her and in the blink of an eye had transformed herself into a crow She dived into the pit
Next went Athrogate, with Jarlaxle bringing up the rear Before he stepped back onto Valindra’s conjured disc, the drow put his hand near the insignia he wore, of House Baenre of Menzoberranzan He had his own levitation ic, just in case
But he needn’t have feared any mischief from the lich, he soon discovered The discs floated steadily and easily,to the mental coed from a sheer drop to a steep decline, as Dahlia had said, but they didn’t dismiss the discs or step off them It was easier to float above the broken, uneven floor than to walk
The corridor grew tighter around the a crouch or a lean here and there, and at one point, they actually had to lie down on their discs to pass under a low overhang Still, they wound their way left and right, and ever doard
Because of one last obstacle, Athrogate pulled a bit ahead of Jarlaxle over the final expanse of broken tunnel, and just as the drow cae widened up ahead, he heard Athrogate mutter in tones reverent and awe-filled, "By Dumathoin"
The reference to Dumathoin, in dwarven lore the Keeper of Secrets Under the Mountain, soht be beyond, but still he found it hard to breathe when he cae beside his four companions
They were on a natural balcony overlooking a huge chamber, perhaps a third the size of Menzoberranzan Whether froht for hieneral contours of the cavern A pond lay before thee stalaged by stairwells and balconies that uard posts or trade kiosks Stalactites hung fro on their end of the cavern as well, and Jarlaxle noted similar construction on several of them The dwarves who had worked the cavern had adopted the fashion of the drow, he realized, and had used the natural for before, but he had little doubt in his guess The work on the stalagmites and stalactites was surely not drow in nature, not delicate and curving, nor li faerie fire
"There are ballistae up there," Dor’crae, who had returned to his hu to the stalactites "Guard stations overlooking the entrance"
"No … no it canno’ be," Athrogate whispered, and he slouched on his disc as if the strength simply fled his body
But Jarlaxle heard hope in the dwarf’s voice ate had, perhaps, dared to hope, and so Jarlaxle paid the dwarf no concern at that moment and continued instead his study of the cavern
On the far side of the dark pond, a couple hundred feet or more from their balcony, stood half a dozen clusters of s set at the end of a mine rail, and more than one of those lines held an ancient ed straight away fro toward the back of the expansive cavern beyond even his superior darkvision
"Coiant bird She slipped over the balcony’s low natural rail and glided on black feathered wings down to the water and across Dor’crae became a bat once more and quickly followed, as did Valindra on her disc
"Are you joining us?" Jarlaxle asked Athrogate when he saw that the dwarf ate looked at hih tumultuous sluet the words out
"Well, let us see what it be, my friend," Jarlaxle replied, and started away
He’d barely descended to skiate passed hi his own disc on with all speed
On the far side of the pond, Dahlia, an elf once ate simply leaped down froround The fall didn’t hinder the dwarf at all, though--in fact, he didn’t even seeht back to his feet and stu the central rail line
"This place knewhis bat for low to pick up a whitened bone "Goblin, or a slanced around to confirround was scarred and h, were the sights that lay ahead, the ih his back was to the drow, Jarlaxle could well i down his hairy face
And who could blame hiends of the Delzoun dwarves, could guess easily enough that they had stuendary hoend of their history, the place Bruenor Battlehaht for reat wall faced the off the end of the cavern It was built ate towers on either side of a massive set ofthe top of the wall that spanned the cavern and seemed as if it had been built deep into the stone at either end The strangest part, aside fro up the wall, Jarlaxle alive way to open sky, but instead there was only a very short space to the natural ceiling of the cavern A tall huht up there, and even Jarlaxle would have to crouch inas Jarlaxle came up beside hi
"I can think of no other place it could be,shoulder
"You know it, then?" asked Dahlia,up behind them with Dor’crae and Valindra in tow
"Behold Gauntlgrym," Jarlaxle explained "Ancient hoend--"
"Never did a dwarf doubt it!" Athrogate bellowed
"… bya s the elves, withthe droho know the Underdark better than any And doubt not that we have searched for it all these centuries If one-tenth of the clairyinable wealth behind that wall, behind those doors" He paused and considered the sight before hiion that was far froic must have masked this place all these years," he said "Such a place as this cavern alone could not have gone unnoticed in the Northdark through so rym?" Dor’crae asked "The dwarves have built, and abandoned, doate broke out into verse:
Silver halls and mithral doors