“I am Li, daughter of Dorrik Orehammer,” she said, “the only remaining descendant of Dondethor Orehammer. The sword is mine by birthright.”
“Uh huh. I’m going to need to see your driver’s license.”
“My dwarven lineage is not on my driver’s license.”
“No? Guess you’re out of luck then.”
Tension knotted my shoulders, and my chest tightened, making me glad I had my inhaler in my pocket. Not that I would use it in front of an enemy. No way would I show her that weakness.
“You will not return the blade to its rightful owner?” Li asked.
Uh. Would I? My fears that she could be presenting the truth returned to the forefront of my mind.
“How can you possibly know you’re its rightful owner? You’re a half-human mongrel from Earth, like me, right? Whoever your father was could have been lying about his heritage. Or your mother might have made it up.”
Her dark eyes flared with indignation. “My father was a great dwarf enchanter, trained by the masters of this world. When I was young, he told me personally that he came to Earth to seek his ancestor’s legendary sword. Only when he met my mother and fell in love was he distracted for a time. He always intended to return to his quest, but his death put an end to that prematurely.” She scowled at me, as if I’d been responsible.
Not likely. I’d never been to China, if that was where all this had happened, and I probably wasn’t much older than Li was. We might even be the same age. She only appeared to be about thirty, but so did I; we ought to have similar lifespans. Assuming she stopped bleeding. She was leaving droplets on the bare rock underneath her, but she didn’t let go of her weapons to check her wounds. She still looked like she was contemplating shooting me.
“That’s a nice story,” I said. “You’ll have to prove it to me though. No offense, but my boss says you’re a thief who’s taken all sorts of artifacts and treasures from our country in the past few months.”
Her chin lifted. “Artifacts and treasures that were stolen from the Old World. I am not a thief. I am a relic hunter and, when necessary, a vigilante. I deal with criminals that others can’t handle.” Her eyes narrowed. “Like assassins with magical tigers and all manner of magical trinkets that make them hard to kill.”
“Uh, like the magical trinkets that make you hard to find and kill? What happened to your invisibility charm? Did Sindari rip it off?”
“Sindari,” she mouthed. “The tiger? Yes. It is good that you gave me his name. If you do not give me the sword that is rightfully mine, then I will slay you and take the items you have stolen, including that charm.”
“You’re welcome to try.” I gave her another smile, though I mostly wanted to kick her again. I wouldn’t since she was bleeding and hadn’t tried to shoot me since we arrived here, but she was the reason I was stuck here, so the temptation was real.
“You will not do the honorable thing?”
“Not unless you prove to me that the sword is yours.”
“Yes.” Her eyes glinted with triumph. “I can do that.”
Uh oh. Had I walked into a trap?
“That is why I brought you here. I knew you would be difficult to kill, but I also believed that if you learned the truth, you would do the honorable thing.” Her eyes narrowed again, and she looked me up and down in contemplation. “Your reputation is not one of dishonor.”
This talk of honor disturbed me, bringing to mind my chat with Zav in the sauna. He would want me to do the honorable thing. He’d made that clear. But Li had to be lying. This all had to be some scheme. What were the odds that one of the handful of dwarf-human beings living on Earth would be the descendant of the dwarf who’d made my sword ten thousand years ago? That was way too much of a coincidence to be true.
But if this was all a ruse, why did Li believe that she could prove the sword was hers?
She must have a whole scheme set up. If that portal generator had brought her here previously, she would have had the opportunity to plant some fake evidence ahead of time.
“What are you going to do?” I asked. “Take me to some ancient dwarven shrine that lists all of Dondethor Orehammer’s descendants? Including your father and you?”
“Something like that.” Li pushed herself to her feet and pointed off to a huge black mountain in the distance. Smaller peaks framed it, all covered with snow, but the black peak was mysteriously free of a white cap. Was this Mount Crenel? “You will come?” she asked.
“It looks like a long walk. Why didn’t you just bring us out there?”
“Portals may not take one into Mount Crenel. Great magic protects it.”
“Oh, a dwarven security system. Won’t that be fun to bypass?” As I was looking at the ominous mountain, a large bird flew into view.
Not, fortunately, one made from bones, but it pinged my senses as magical, and it was headed in our direction.
Li saw it too. “Stone roc. It may see us as food. Or it may be drawn to our magic.”
It screeched, the primal sound echoing from the mountains. Its beady eyes focused on us, and it picked up speed, its beak parting in eagerness for a meal.
Li gripped her dagger and switched the dart weapon for her crossbow, then crouched, facing the creature as its great wings brought it closer. I drew Fezzik and, as soon as it was close enough, opened fire.
Lately, it had been rare for my pistol’s bullets to pierce an enemy’s defenses, but this time, my first round bit in with a satisfying thud. The bird shrieked and pulled up.
We ducked, and Li fired a bevy of crossbow bolts at the roc’s belly as it sailed past above. The magical weapon proved to have a repeating feature, new rounds thunking automatically into place. Her quarrels and my bullets both struck true.
I fired twice more, not convinced the huge bird wouldn’t turn around to try again, but it flapped its wings hard and flew away from us.
Only after I’d spent the bullets did I realize that I had a more limited supply than usual with me. All I had was what I’d been wearing when I’d been sucked through the portal, which meant no food and water and only the single spare magazine in my belt pouch.
“We should get off this ridge.” Li slung her crossbow across her back and adjusted her pack. “There are many large predators on this world. The lich is not the only reason the dwarves spend much of their time inside the mountains.”
“Did you say the lich?”
Li was studying the sky in all directions and didn’t answer until she walked past me, heading down a slope that would take us to lower ground. “You are unaware of the dragon lich?”
“The dragon lich?”
Suddenly a dwarven security system seemed very innocuous.
I ran to catch up with Li. Though she was shorter than I was, she walked quickly.
“I assumed your mate would have informed you that one of his dragon kin had made a deal with the underworld on Nagnortha to give itself eternal life and great power to control the undead.” Li spoke matter-of-factly, as if that didn’t sound like something out of a fantasy novel.
“I’ve encountered zombies and vampires—and the crazy stuff that comes out of your black box—but as far as I’m aware, liches are…” I stopped myself before saying make believe or something out of Dungeons & Dragons. “Not something found on Earth,” I finished.