“We’re here to request your aid.” Grey gestured to the three of us. “I’m sure you know Mac and Eve. This is Carrow.”
Ogden nodded at my friends, then pinned me with a gaze. “Never met you before.”
“I’m new.” His intense scrutiny made me uncomfortable. Could he sense my magic?
“Hmm.” He turned his attention to Grey. “What kind of help? Does this have anything to do with those miserable sorcerers and that magical
dome outside?”
“They’ve been here?” Grey sounded surprised.
“Indeed, they have.” He grumbled. “Bastards.”
I leaned toward Mac and whispered, “What’s the deal there?”
“Longstanding grudge. Hundreds of years old.”
“What did they want?” Grey asked.
“The same thing that you want, I presume.” Ogden gave a knowing smile. “They wanted help navigating the tunnels to Black Church. But we’d never help those bastards.”
So the sorcerers were trying to help. Mariketta must have convinced them of the threat. Except these Dwarves were damned stubborn in their dislike of the sorcerers.
“It’s a matter of life and death,” I said.
“For you, perhaps,” Ogden said.
“Don’t you care that the city could be destroyed?” I demanded, unable to keep my mouth shut. “Your home?”
“This is my home.” He gestured to the restaurant around us. “And the rest of The Below. The explosion can’t reach underground.”
I tried to keep the horror off my face. “You’d live under a city of corpses and rubble.”
He shrugged. “That is not ideal, but we’ve got all our manpower busy shoring up the surface portions of our domain. We don’t have time to help you.”
“We can stop this,” I said. “If you can get us there, you won’t have to worry about bodies or destruction.”
Grey leaned forward. “I know you’re not particularly fond of the surface and that you’d survive down here even if it disappeared, but life would be better for you if that never happened. You can’t deny it. Just spare us one person to lead us to Black Church. That’s all.”
Ogden scowled and muttered to himself, then said, “You’ll have to pay.”
“I’ll take care of it,” Grey said.
The Dwarf looked at the four of us. “All of you.”
I frowned. “What do you want?”
“Money from him.” Ogden nodded to Grey. “Potions from Eve, a vision from Mac. And what can you do?”
“I can read information from objects and people.”
“A psychic, eh?”
“Yes.” It wasn’t an exact description, but let him believe it. “I’ll read any object you like.”
He pursed his lips. “Good. Payment first.”
“No.” Grey’s voice was firm. “You’ll have the money first—I’ll see to the transfer—but we need to begin immediately. Time is of the essence.”