The Nameless Dwarf Omnibus by D.P. Prior

Author:D.P. Prior [Prior, D.P.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Homunculus
Published: 2012-02-06T05:00:00+00:00

***

At first Nameless thought it was a coral bed, but then he realised that was an effect of the distance. As they drew nearer he could see enormous spires crusted with barnacles, towers swathed in weeds, minarets green with algae, and untold buttressed gatehouses decked with brightly coloured anemones. It was as big as an island, an impossible structure encased in a vast bubble of either water or glass. This was something far beyond the architectural abilities of any race he’d come across on Aethir, outstripping even the magnificence of Arx Gravis. There could be no doubt in his mind what it was they were approaching. This was no mere legend. It was looming right up in front of him, a colossal citadel at the bottom of the ocean, the prehistoric capital of the dwarf lords.

“Arnoch,” he whispered.

“Legends are like dreams,” Abednago said. “Most are based on truth.”

Nameless remembered Shader saying something like that. Many of the dreams of the humans on Earth were but echoes from Aethir, dim reflections of the troubled mind of the Cynocephalus.

“But Aethir itself was dreamed,” Nameless said. “So even my people are not real, if you look at it that way.”

The homunculus gave him the sort of smile a parent might give a child that was just starting to find its way in the world. His eyes sparkled as if within they contained the brightness of a thousand stars. “The dreams of a god are of a quite different order. Quite different.”

Nameless didn’t like where this conversation was going. Already his head was pounding. His brother Lucius was the family philosopher; Nameless was more for strong drink and the thrill of battle. Didn’t mean he wasn’t a thinker, only he preferred more tangible concepts.

“So, he is a god then?”

Abednago shrugged. “Some say so. Others say there is only one true god and that a dog-headed ape falls short of the definition. As do his parents, for that matter.”

The craft shuddered as it passed through the bubble surrounding the city and they turned towards a round stone door set between two towers. Nameless clutched the sides of his stool. They were going to crash, he was sure of it, but at the last moment the craft slowed. A sucking, gurgling sound rolled through the chamber, there was a whir and a click, and then they were still. A hairline crack split the centre of the circular door, which filled the eye-window, and swiftly drew wider to reveal a short corridor that ended in an identical portal.

“Stay seated,” Abednago said. “Then you won’t have to go out the way you came.”

“Thank goodness for that, laddie. I was—Aaagh!”

The stool fell through the floor and came to a jolting halt directly below in the cavernous maw Nameless had entered by.

“Aren’t you coming?” he hollered up to the homunculus.

Abednago peered through the hole left by Nameless’ stool. “Remember the courage we were talking about? This is definitely something you need to do alone.”

“Do what?” Nameless said, feeling his hackles rise.

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