Once they got going, the children started to enjoy the process. Grim had them march, one at a time, along the riverbank. As they did, Betty looked out from her position from behind the bar. Each time a child walked past, she told Og-Grim-Dog what she could see.
‘Top of Nath’s head. Lydia, shoulders and up. Nothing. Harry’s head.’
When it was done, the children were called back in. Grim thanked them. Og gave Betty a purse full of coin. The villagers of Urlay would need it more than them.
‘So, young Harry here was the height of the orcs you saw?’
‘Yes,’ said Betty, falteringly. ‘I’m sure of it, but it doesn’t make sense. He’s but twelve years old.’
‘And they were all the same size? Each one, it was just their head you could see?’
‘Aye. I can see it clearly, in my mind’s eye.’
‘Wait a minute,’ said Dog, only now paying attention to Grim’s little experiment. ‘The orcs you saw were all this size?’ He put his hand parallel to the top of Harry’s head. The boy only came up to the ogre’s hip. ‘They weren’t no orcs, then. They were dwarves. But that means—’
‘Yes,’ said Grim. ‘It was Gurin.’
‘Dwarves did this?’ Betty asked. ‘Why?’
‘I’m not sure. But we’re going to go back to Mer Khazer now. Those dwarves have some questions to answer.’
‘Thank you. Here, let me get you something for the journey,’ she said, leaving for the kitchen. While they waited, Og and Dog gave the children rides. The children took turns sitting in the ogre’s great hands, who then shot their arms up at full speed, taking care not to slam the kids into the ceiling. Betty came back with a loaf of bread, a big slab of cheese and a little bag of vegetables.
Dog took the food, looking a little emotional at the gift. They said their goodbyes to the children of Urlay and Betty led them out of The Crushed Grapes.
Outside, Grim heard human voices. Out on the river, a group of barges were heading for the jetty. They were full of armed men.
‘Oh dear,’ said Betty. ‘It’ll be Deston, the reeve of Dorwich City. He has a fearsome reputation. I think you should go—quickly. They might not understand what you’re doing here.’
Sure enough, shouts of alarm and anger carried to them from the river, as the soldiers on the barges spotted the ogre with the woman.
‘Goodbye,’ said Og-Grim-Dog, before turning away and walking back through the village. Grim retraced their steps, passing the houses of the villagers one last time before beginning the climb up from the valley floor. The shouts of hostility from the river didn’t stop. Og looked back over his shoulder.
‘They’re getting off their boats,’ he said. ‘Looks like they’re going to chase us.’
‘Let them,’ said Dog. ‘I’m in the mood for a fight.’
‘There’s far too many, Dog,’ Grim chided. An idea suddenly struck him. ‘Put on Raya’s amulet, will you?’
Dog reluctantly did as he asked, and the ogre became both invisible and silent.
‘That should make following us a little more difficult,’ Grim said. He relaxed a little, concentrating on making the return journey to Mer Khazer.
THE REEVE OF MER KHAZER
Once more, Og-Grim-Dog found themselves passing through the gates of Mer Khazer. Their mood was sombre, because although they had liked Gurin the dwarf, they knew they had to confront him over his actions.
Grim had the time to think about their approach during the return journey from Urlay. Challenging Gurin alone, he decided, wasn’t a great idea. Gurin was a hot head, as was Dog, and the chances of violence would be high. He would prefer to avoid bloodshed. So, when they got back to The Bruised Bollocks, he called a meeting of Shove It Up Your Ass. Sandon and Raya helped him to fetch everyone, and it wasn’t long before the six of them were reunited in the tap room of The Bollocks.
‘What’s this all about?’ Assata asked. ‘Where have you been?’
‘It’s time to come clean. There was a reason we came to Mer Khazer,’ Grim began. ‘We aimed to find out why Darkspike Dungeon was being attacked so frequently by adventurers. We thought that joining your crew would help us to find the answers we were looking for. We felt like we were getting close to solving the puzzle. So we returned to Urlay,’ he added, finding it hard not to take a quick glance at Gurin’s troubled expression.
‘After finding this amongst our dungeon winnings,’ said Og, laying one of the orc swords on the table.
‘Another one?’ Sandon asked.
‘Yes. Same as this,’ said Dog, placing the second next to it.
‘You can see,’ Grim resumed, ‘that the blade has the broad-headed shape common to orc swords. But the hilt is quite different to orcish weapons, more skilfully crafted than you would expect from orcs. In Urlay, we conducted an experiment with the landlady of The Crushed Grapes. Betty. We identified the height of the ‘orcs’ that she had seen by the river.’
‘They were this high,’ said Dog, putting his hand to his hip. ‘Dwarf size.’
‘Alright,’ said Gurin. He wasn’t as angry as Grim had expected. There was an air of resignation about him. ‘I can see you’ve got all the evidence you need. It was us.’
‘Us?’ Assata asked.
‘Me, Hurin, Durin, Thurin, Kurin and Tony.’
‘We worked out it was you who attacked Urlay,’ said Grim. ‘I’m not sure why you did it, though.’
Gurin sighed. ‘The Bureau. We just got sick of it. All the rules and regulations. The last straw was when they started turning down applications to dungeons, saying they were too weak for a dungeon crawl. A dungeon full of monsters, and the Bureau is taking their side over its members? What kind of lunacy is that? Anyway. We found a way round the ban. If there were reports of bands of orcs targeting human settlements, the Bureau would open up the local dungeons.’
‘So you killed humans,’ said Raya, sounding angry, ‘so that you could keep killing orcs and goblins?’
‘Hang on now, Raya. We didn’t kill any humans.’
‘How do you know that? You fired their homes. If no-one died after what you did, it’s only out of luck.’
‘I know. When you put it like that, we did wrong. I see that.’
‘You saw those dungeons we visited,’ Sandon added. ‘Wight’s Hollow and the rest. You’ve just made the situation worse. More dungeons will be closed now, thanks to you.’
‘I know, wizard, I know. But I had one last hurrah, didn’t I? After all, dwarves aren’t even a race any more, according to the Bureau. We’ve been all but pushed out already. The life we knew, the world that meant everything to us, has been taken away. So what did I have to lose?’
Brother Kane gave Gurin a beatific smile and withdrew his vial of holy water. ‘I forgive you, my son.’
‘Never mind that,’ said Assata, slapping the cleric’s arm. ‘We’re handing this murderer in to the authorities. And the other five as well. You need to face justice for what you’ve done, Gurin.’
The dwarf didn’t argue. They took him to see the reeve of Mer Khazer, who was in charge of law and order in the town.