The Dungeoneers by John David Anderson

Author:John David Anderson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2015-04-24T04:00:00+00:00

10

WHY WIZARDS SHOULDN’T CARRY SWORDS

The next morning brought both stew and conversation left over from the night before. The dining hall hummed with accounts of the attack on the castle, each version a revision of the last. In the latest telling, there were at least three hundred orcs, the wall of stone was twice the size of the castle, and Tye Thwodin had actually bested two orcs by smothering them beneath his armpits. And yet every conversation eventually circled around to Grahm Wolfe.

“I heard he was on a quest to find the entrance to the fabled mines of D’al Mordain.”

“No, you idiot; he was scouting out prospects along the Gray Hills.”

“Everyone knows he’s been hunting the lair of the Spider King.”

Nobody could stop talking about him. Even at Colm’s own table. Quinn, as it turned out, was quite an expert on the mysterious ranger.

“Haven’t you spent any time in the library?” he said, explaining how he had nearly finished both Master Fimbly’s A Brief History of Dungeoneering and Rolf Timlinsire’s Who’s Who of Adventurers in the short time they’d been here.

“I’ve been busy picking locks,” Colm said.

“Making butterflies,” Serene added.

Lena didn’t comment. She was staring dreamily at her knob of bread.

“So you’re saying you hadn’t even heard of him?”

“Is it that surprising that I never heard of one guy?” Colm said defensively.

Quinn actually stopped eating, spoon hovering over his bowl. “One guy? Are you kidding? Grahm Wolfe is probably the most feared ranger in all the land, not to mention he’s Tye Thwodin’s closest companion. Without him, there probably wouldn’t even be a legion.”

“Right,” Colm said, then shook his head. “Why is that again?”

“Rangers are scouts,” Serene explained. “They are responsible for finding the dungeons and lairs and vaults where treasure might be held. And because they venture into these places alone, it is often considered the most dangerous class of adventurer to aspire to.”

Quinn nodded in affirmation. “Once a ranger discovers a dungeon, he marks it and then reports back so a full-fledged exploration party can go tackle it and take its treasure.”

Colm hadn’t really thought about it before—how dungeons were discovered. He just kind of assumed you fell into them, like Master Thwodin had so many years ago—or were pushed into them, like he had been. He didn’t know somebody actually went out and searched for them.

“Grahm Wolfe is as close to family as Master Thwodin has left,” Quinn said. “He’s practically Tye’s son.” The mageling took another bite of roll and then launched into a tale of how a ten-year-old Grahm had been found sneaking around this very same castle one night, back before the guild was even founded. Tye Thwodin captured the boy, gave his ears a good boxing, and demanded to know if he was looking for treasure. Supposedly the response from the boy was “Food, but treasure will do.” In return for a hot meal, the boy explained that his parents had been killed by ogres, and that he had been traveling from town to town, begging, borrowing, stealing, and fighting for his livelihood.

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