It was not very long before Tad came into the fountains area. He bounded up the stairs three at a time, not even slowing. He made it to his room, looking around for his pack and any cleaner clothes than he had on. On the divan where he had slept were yesterday's clothes cleaned, folded, and stacked. He was putting them on when he felt a soft puff of air inside the room.

"I was wondering when you were going to come in," said Tad. He had sensed his friend outside the window. Nico felt very nervous.

"Have you seen Beothorn? " asked Nico looking at the closed door.

"No, not since last night. What is going on?" asked Tad as he was finishing with his belt and pouches.

"Well, I might have met someone last—" Nico never finished the sentence.

The door was thrown open, "Thaddius, You're safe. Let me look at ya, " said Beothorn as he barged into the room. The dwarf was dressed in full chain mail, shield on the back, and war ax on his belt. He was even wearing his helmet. He reached Tad and spun him this way, then the other way looking at his chest and legs. He pulled Tad down a moment to look into his nose and eyes.

"Ye look good now. You looked much worse earlier. Did Marena speak to you of Yoroula? " asked Bethorn.

"Yes, I rushed here soon so we could get to the dig site. I think there is something more important going on with that artifact than we know," said Tad.

Beothorn looked at Tad, "I would not know, but certain things are moving much faster than I am happy with. " He gave Tad a quick hug, let go of him, then half a second later, the dwarf was across the space between them with Nico's shirt clenched in one mailed fist as he lifted him off the ground.

"You…" then he slammed Nico into the stone floor and picked him back up, "are going to", then he slammed him a second time. Nico was a big man, but Beothorn's strength was tremendous. Nico tried to grab his mailed arm, and smoke started to rise from his fingers as it touched the silvered mail Beothorn wore, "tell me," and he slammed Nico once more into the floor then held him aloft, "exactly what you told Ararmut's daughter. I already know what you did." He pulled Nico's face down to his helmeted eyes. Nico wasn't trying to gain his feet now.

Nico tried to teleport away from Beothorn, but he was not able to take others with him, so he shimmered and stayed clenched. Tad was amazed that Nico hardly looked hurt by the floor even though the skin on his fingertips looked burned now.

His friend stopped moving. Nico looked at Tad. Tad gave him a 'you are on your own friend' look, much like Nico's from the day before. "I didn't hurt her. I might have stretched the truth some. We were having fun. " said Nico in a more timid voice.

"You told her you would marry her Nicoloa Rogers. That is not stretching a truth!" and Beothorn slammed him into the stone harder this time. The dwarf's strength was amazing.

"Yes, I might have, I can hardly remember it all, really. I didn't realize the drink would be so strong. It just happened. " said Nico, now looking unhappy he had to say that out loud.

"This will not happen again. From this point, you two will stick together. Neither will go anywhere in this Hold without the other. " said Beothorn. Then he tossed Nico across the space where he slid to the wall and stopped near Tad. "You will NOT go near her again. If she turns up pregnant, you WILL be marrying her even if it's an ax handle ceremony. And you will stay here till that baby is raised to adulthood. Do I make myself clear! "

Beothorn was Tad's adoptive father, but at this moment, Tad realized why Samphire had made him head of security.

Nico was standing up, "Yes, I understand. I'll apologize to her. "

"NO, you will not go near her or her father. He might just have you strung up right now. You will stay with Tad, you will go with the caravan when we leave, and if you touch another woman in this Hold before a marriage ceremony is performed, I will let the father of the woman have at you, and I'll supply the mace. Now you two get your gear. We are going down in a few minutes. Tad, see if Zanna is coming out of that room. She made a difference last time. We might need her again. " said Beothorn. When he was done speaking, he left, and the stone door closed with a loud thud.

Nico rubbed his hands together, "Is your father always so angry? "

"Really, Nico? He just told you he saved you from a forced marriage and possible execution. What do you want from him? Do you even know what a dwarven ax handle wedding is? They tie you up and put an ax handle in between your wrists. Then the father of the bride stands behind you, and if you don't say the correct words in the ceremony or try to leave, he lifts on the handle. I will guarantee you that handle will be silver if Beothorn is involved. " said Tad as he cast a couple of minor heal spells on his friend's fingers.

Tad chuckled, "Oh, I just thought of something. You know that young dwarven lass was probably twice your age, right? Who likes the older ladies now?" Then he laughed out loud.

"Don't be an asshole. I was so drunk. So was she. I'll take the blame, but I feel more like the scapegoat in this. " said Nico rubbing his neck.

"Why didn't you shift and go out the window again? " asked Tad as they were leaving.

"I tried. His mail must have silver on it, the gauntlet kept me from reforming, and his grip on my shirt kept me from teleporting out," said Nico.

Tad chuckled again, "Well if you ever think about punching him the nuts as an option, I recommend you don't make him that mad. If he wanted to hurt you, I doubt he would have been talking."

"Yea, " Nico replied.

Tad stopped at Zanna's door, but she didn't respond. Tad looked at Nico, who just shrugged.

They went to Lamruil's room. The elf was there sharpening his blades on a stone. He saw them, sheathed his short swords, and grabbed his bow near the wall.

Tad looked at the quiver as the elf shouldered it, "How many of those do you have left?"

"Twenty-one. I'll have to make them count. I don't think I'll be creating more for a while," said Lamruil.

The three of them made it to the lift with a guard trailing behind them. The three climbed into the largest wagon Tad had ever seen. The box was made from iron plates, and it had five large mushroom cap wheels on each side. The edge had shields draped over the top of low metal walls next to the benches on the deck and three tall masts.

One large lizard pulled the wagon onto the lift with assistance from the dwarves nearby. Beothorn and Ararmut talked in the front, and thirty dwarves dressed in chainmail and plate armor were in the wagon. Most had spears. War hammers were in racks along each of the walls behind the shields.

Tad watched the giant wheels above roll as the heavy metal chain holding the lift was let out as the lift descended.

Nico elbowed him, "Look. That is a lot of dwarves. " Nico was standing looking over the edge.

Tad looked down. Below were a thousand dwarves lined up in the shadows, row upon row of dwarves sitting on lizard mounts. There were ten groups of a hundred, and in the center of each group was a war wagon. Each wagon had three of the larger lizards chained to it. The light from the setting sun was almost gone, and again Tad wished he could see better in the darkness.

The dwarven riders were in some leather or banded leather armor as they reached the ground. They all had shields, a long spear, and hammers or short blades on their belts. The dwarves in the wagons, though, all had metal armor of various types. Tad thought it might be a weight or speed issue for the lizards.

"Tad, come forward here, " shouted Beothorn from the front of the wagon by the first mast. The many lizards and dwarves were louder than Tad had imagined an army would be.

While passing Nico, Tad whispered, "Hey, there might be some dwarven ladies in that other wagon, but you might want to stay here till we know how old they are." Then he chuckled, not even looking to see how that one worked and walked to the front of the long wagon.

Tad looked at the seven rows of dwarves on each side as he went forward. These dwarves had a serious look on their faces. Gone were the drinkers of last night, they had been replaced with serious-looking men.

"Tad, we had word earlier of large forces of orcs being seen crossing the dunes. They were moving during the day. One of the scouts saw them. We are going into battle. No jokes and none of your live and let live antics. This foe will show you no mercy. This war wagon will proceed directly to the trail, and we will work our way up to our friends on the plateau. If we are attacked or if they are attacking there, then we will engage. You are our only healer. Keep that in mind before risking your life or your friends. Your survival could mean the survival of many as the trip back to the Hold will take several hours, possibly in the sun. " Beothorn finished talking then nodded to Ararmut, who was listening next to him.

"Tad, "said Ararmut pausing for a few moments looking out across the sand. "I was told you have never been in a battle. We rarely confront the orcs, especially this far away from the Hold. The council has decided that we will now. We can not risk the metal artifact falling into their hands or that changeling using Yoroula's image. We do not know if the changling creatures and orcs are working together, but the real Yoroula and her murdered husband had been my friends since I was young like you. We will find that creature whatever it is, and it will be destroyed " A dwarf rider was leading a riderless lizard up to their wagon.

Ararmut stood, taking a deep breath, " This battle will be fought on the open sand and is the first step. The orcs do not like to engage us when we have the stone to our back. The Hold is on full alert, and the militias are armed and waiting above if anything tries to scale these cliffs. We need you to talk to your little metal friend and find out why the orcs want that artifact." Then he left the wagon and mounted the waiting saddled lizard. Tad lost sight of him quickly as he rode into the gloom.

Two giant lizards were attached to the other chain harnesses of the war wagon.

"I see Zanna didn't come. That's probably good. Marena is still up there and might need the help. She will be checking each returning dwarf to see if he is a shifter. Did anyone tell you what they found in the back of the cave? " asked Beothorn.

"No, was the spider thing eating dwarves? " asked Tad.

"The spider is a blue wind scorpion, Tad. They like dry and hot areas and hate water. They are not uncommon in the dark pathways. It wasn't eating dwarves. As far as we can tell, it was only eating lizards. " he paused for a moment as the wagon started moving forward, flanked by a sea of mounted dwarves.

"There were four corpses. Yoroula, the real one, had the symbol of her station laying next to her. Her husband, another dwarf farmer, and a dead void changling. Well, we think it might be a void changling. We will know once they assemble the pieces. Hopefully, the guards will know more when we get back. Ararmut thinks the wind scorpion followed or chased the void changelings here, killing one and the other escaped and trapped the wind scorpion in that chamber. Perhaps the void creature used its comrade as bait as it did with you. When you catch it, you can ask. " Beothorn was quiet after that.

Tad was looking out at the mounted dwarves, "You know it's not a scorpion or a spider. It's something else. It screamed murderer, or at least that is what I think it did just before the thing hit me. Bubbles said the void changelings ate its children. I've never seen Bubbles so upset. "

"I know, lad. It also uses lasso's to snare its prey. It can even fling them dozens or yards. We used to call them Lasso Spiders when I was young. They hate the light. They also generally do not eat sentient creatures. They are partially aware and are insects. They might not eat you, but they also might not let you live if you go near their nests or harm them. I've never heard of one hunting something like this, though. We have a lot of questions and few solid answers. Can you sense the void creatures with your magic? " asked Beothorn.

Tad thought about it, "I can but not if they are disguised, I think. Somehow they feel like they are not there when disguised. In the future, I'll watch for that. I thought it might be just a dwarf ability or hereditary thing, but now I'll watch and double-check from now on. When the creature moved behind me, it was almost overwhelming the wrongness around the creature. That is easy to sense."

"Good, at least we have a chance. Marena believes her magic can spot them if she checks one at a time. That will be very hard to do with fifty thousand dwarves in the hold. " Beothorn leaned closer to Tad's ear.

"Are the dwarves in this wagon or nearby, ok? " asked his father.

Tad had been running with his soulmancy stretched out as far as his energia allowed him. It was covering most of the wave of dwarves as they went over dunes moving fast through the night.

Tad nodded in affirmative. He wasn't sensing anything different. Most of these dwarves were nothing like Beothorn. He could easily sense their emotional state. Determination, anger, and some fear are what he felt when he started concentrating on them individually.

"Good. Get back there with your friend and keep him out of trouble," said Beothorn as he looked out across the dunes and the riders.

***