Chapter 19

I kept Var's pearl as we searched throughout the day. When the bleak, hopeless thoughts crowded in, I would reach into my pocket and touch its smooth, cool roundness. It helped.

Aunt Nott had taken over the organization of the search. We decided to start with the places Var knew or people she'd met: The inn, the weaver she'd bought the fabric from, the women who had stood beside Var at the entrance to Thorin's Hall.

No one had seen her.

"What about Lady Ran?" I asked my aunt as I paced back and forth in her office at the Goldsmith's Guild.

"What about her?" Aunt Nott demanded. "Those two don't know each other at all. No reason why Var would go to Ran, if she were running away."

I shook my head. "No, I mean, what if Lady Ran had something to do with Var's disappearance."

"Don't be ridiculous. Ran is odd, I grant you, but nothing to worry about. I've worked with her for years." Aunt Nott waved her hand. "Dwalin, I'm not going to waste my guards' time harassing her. If you want to talk to Ran, you're on your own."

Waste of time or not, I had to explore every possibility. So I went by myself to Lady Ran's big, rambling house down the street from Aunt Nott. My aunt's guards told me she occupied the place alone, except for her servants.

That was strange. Most dwarves live with their relatives—or at least, most male dwarves live with their female relatives, just like I did with Aunt Nott. When you're out and about for most of your life, traveling or working or fighting, there's not much sense in having your own house that's empty all the time. So you stay with a family member – usually a female family member, because dwarf women are the ones with the houses. Since there are lots of male dwarves, and we all need somewhere to stay from time to time, a dwarven household is typically a busy place. My male cousins and uncles were always coming and going in Aunt Nott's house.

When I pounded on the door to Lady Ran's house, the sound bounced back to me in a booming echo. Who lived like that, all alone? A sour-looking servant poked his head out. He nodded and led me past two guard-dwarves into a large, chilly room that looked like an office in a counting-house—big drawers that probably held files, a big rectangular marble table, and one big throne-like chair behind the table.

Time passed. I'd looked at everything there was to look at, even opened a few drawers that were not locked, and was on the point of giving up when Lady Ran finally came in. She looked different than usual, her hair braided with dark purple ribbons and her dress laced up tight around the middle. Her cheeks were flushed pink and her eyes glittered a little.

She smiled at me—a triumphant smile, like she'd won a prize. "Dwalin."

That was definitely strange, even from her. I folded my arms across my chest and gave her my most serious look. "Sorry to bother you, Lady Ran, but I wondered if you might have seen my betrothed Var recently. Remember her? You met her in Aunt—I mean, Lady Nott's office."

Lady Ran came closer, trailing the fingers of one hand along the marble surface of the table while she stroked her straggly beard with her other hand. She stopped just in front of me, and looked up into my face.

"Why would you want to ask me about someone I hardly know?" She smiled up at me and blinked a couple of times. "Could it be that you have another reason for coming to see me?"

"No," I replied. "But Var is gone, and I hoped you might have seen her, or could tell me something about what happened to her."

"Oh, you poor man. You poor, poor man." She bit her lip and looked down, then turned away from me. After a moment, she said, "Yes, I saw her. She was leaving Ered Luin. She was wearing traveling clothes, and had a pack on her back. I thought you—I thought you and she might have quarreled, and she decided not to go through with the marriage…" She shrugged.

Var had left me. The realization hit me like a punch in the chest, driving the air out of my lungs. Ripping out my heart, leaving me hollow and stunned and too numb to feel any pain.

Gone. Just like the last time, just when I had thought that we'd finally gotten things sorted out between us, she'd had some other secret up her sleeve and she was gone. What did I really know about her anyway? She was a mystery to me, when it came down to it. I had only known her for a short while—weeks, at the most. She had lived an entire life that I knew nothing about. I had a glimpse of her dealings, with elves and spies and danger and kidnapping and murder. Why did I think I could trust her?

My attention came back to Lady Ran, who was looking up at me with her head tilted to one side. The concerned expression she wore didn't fit her face. Behind the frown I could see a look, almost of glee, lurking in her eyes. Who could I trust?

Perhaps a little test would be in order, to see if Lady Ran were trustworthy. "What about her maid?" I asked.

Lady Ran waved a hand dismissively. "Oh, her maid was with her. They left together."

Cold, icy fingers gripped the back of my neck. With an effort, I kept my voice level. "Var didn't have a maid."

Lady Ran froze, then she gave a slight laugh. "Oh, silly me. I must have just assumed that the other dwarf with her was her maid. Must have been somebody else. A lover, perhaps?"

Now I knew, with a bone-deep certainty, who was responsible for Var's disappearance. Rage washed over me. I took a step toward her. "Don't lie."

She blanched and stepped back, putting the marble table between the two of us. "She's gone! I don't know where she is," Lady Ran screamed. Her lips curled back into a snarl, and her eyes filled with tears. "What does it matter? You belong to me."

"What are you talking about?" I stared at her.

"You were promised to me! Lady Nott said that she would tell you when you got back from Dunland, but she never did." She was crying now. "You weren't supposed to run off with that—that Southern bitch!"

I was getting colder by the minute. Lady Ran was crazy, and Var had to be somewhere in this house. "Get out of my way."

Striding over to the door, I yanked it open. Lady Ran grabbed me by the arm. I tried to shake her off, but she clung to me.

"She's not here! I don't know where she is. Forget about her and stay with me," the dwarf woman babbled, but her eyes kept darting toward an inner doorway. I wrenched free of her grasp. She wailed, "No! Don't go there!"

The door led to a small staircase that wound downward. I clattered down the stairs. Behind me, I could hear Lady Ran shouting to her guards.

The narrow, twisting stone stairs led down into a huge natural cavern. This was common in dwarven houses, which are built into the living rock of the mountain. Upper rooms might be shaped by our craftsmen to take advantage of light and air, but the lower levels are often left as natural caves.

It was dark, but like most dwarves I could see well enough by the light of the torches that dotted the mostly bare space. In one corner, a large bed heaped with linens had been placed. Farther away but directly in front of me, the torchlight just barely illuminated a tangle of iron gears and chains. From the sensation of cold coming from that direction, I didn't think there was a wall there. The cavern just extended into blackness.

Opposite the bed, standing chained to the wall, was Var. She gasped when she saw me. "No! Dwalin, get out of here, now!"

"I'm not leaving without you," I growled. Grabbing a torch, I looked around for something to free Var with.

There was a small table with a pitcher of water and a glass, but no tools. I moved farther back into the cavern, toward the tangle of machinery at the edge of the light, looking for something metal to use to break the chains holding Var.

Var was swearing at me in a fierce undertone. "By Mahal's holy axe, why can't you listen to me? Get out of here, get away from that crazy woman! You fool, it's not me she wants, it's you!"

"I'll take care of her next," I muttered, still looking.

I approached the end of the cavern where the machinery was. The torch I held showed a large hook on a chain leading to a block and tackle arrangement hanging from the cavern's ceiling. Beside me was a flattish rectangular metal cage, big enough to hold a dwarf. I frowned, not sure what I was looking at.

A gust of wind made the flame of my torch flicker wildly, and I glanced around for the source of the breeze. I waved the torch around me. The light bounced off the floor where I was standing, and then suddenly vanished as the floor gave way to pure blackness. That's when I realized I was standing at the edge of a huge pit.

I stepped back, moving to put the cage between me and the giant hole in the ground. Like many dwarves, I am uncomfortable with heights. But the opposite is true as well—I'm not exactly wild about depths, either. Scooping up a small chip of rock from the floor, I pitched it into the hole and listened for the echoes that would give me a hint of how deep the pit was.

The echo was faint, and took a long time coming. Very very deep. I licked my lips and took another step back.

Lady Ran and her two guards appeared at the foot of the stairs. She smiled at Var. "Well, you have your uses after all. Took him long enough to get here, though. I wonder, is that a reflection on him—or on you?"

"You can't do this," Var said. "You must be insane."

"Oh, no," Lady Ran shook her head. "I have just come to accept the fact that subtlety is lost on certain people. It's time for a more direct approach."

"If you mean me," I said, "I don't think a direct approach is going to do any better."

"Dwalin, you underestimate me. But then, practically everyone does." She gestured to her guards. "Guard him."

The two guards pulled out their swords and started toward me. With a grim smile, I slipped my axes into my hands. I saw both men swallow hard, then set their jaws and move in closer. Their eyes looked a little wild and desperate.

I don't mean to boast, but generally speaking, Grasper and Keeper are excellent deterrents to violence. Most sensible dwarves back away when I pull them out. These two looked like typical household guards, which meant that while they had some experience as fighters, they were not always battle-hardened warriors. Furthermore, this pair were a bit too young to have seen action at Azanulbizar. So why were they so eager to face me?

"Make it easy on yourselves, lads," I advised them. "Stand down."

"They won't. They know what will happen if they listen to you, Dwalin," Lady Ran said mockingly. "Make it easy on yourself, my dear. Face it. From now on, you're mine."