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have fallen into its black depths just as the burning Gargon fell long ago."
"Speak not the name of the Dread needlessly" Shannon's voice held a sharp
edge "for it portends evil in Black Drimmen-deeve. And do not despair too
soon, for I believe our Drimm friends will yet show us the way."
"Kruk!" spat Anval. "We cannot throw a hook to cross over, and we cannot go
around the ends, and we cannot climb down and across. Bonn, it will be slow,
yet all that is left to us is a climb up and over on the roof."
"Roof? Climb?" asked Perry, looking upward, dumfounded. "How can we cross over
on the roof? It must be eighty or a hundred feet up to there, and we are not
flies to walk upside
18
DEMHI5 L McKIERNAN
THE 8REQA PATH
19
down on that stone ceiling. Do you propose an enchantment, a miracle?"
"Nay," growled Bonn, rummaging in his pack, "not a miracle, nor spell, but
this instead." From his pack Bonn extracted a leather harness laden with
crafted metal snap-rings and thin-bladed spikes, each spike with an eyelet on
the side of the thick end; also affixed to the belting were many
different-sized, small, irregular iron cubes, each hollowed out by a hole
through the center.
"What is that?" asked Perry, puzzled.
"A climbing harness," replied Bonn.
"And what are those things fastened to it?" Perry pointed to the metal
objects.
"Rock-nails. Rings. Jams," answered Bonn, unfastening one each of the three
types of devices and handing them to the Warrow, who held them in the lantern
light to examine them closely. Bonn spoke on: "Heed: with the nail, you drive
the spike into a thin crevice in the stone, then snap a ring through the
eyelet; one of several leather straps is then clipped between the climbing
harness and the ring. You haul yourself up and along as you go, suspended by
strap on a trail of driven rock-nails and attached rings. When you come to a
place where the crevices are wider, you wedge a proper-sized jam in place,
slipping a snap-ring through the hole, using it instead of a nail."
Borin turned to Lord Kian. "I will make the climb, and once across I will let
myself down; and then we will fix a rope over the Great Deop for the rest to
use; or we will haul the bridge back up, and all can stride above the dark
depths on its broad span."
Perry examined the devices while Borin prepared himself for the climb, putting
on the. tackle, buckling the cross straps of the harness and cinching tight
the wide belt burdened with the rings, nails, and jams. The Dwarf also
attached hanks of rope to the belt; and he tied a small hammer by a thong to
his wrist.
"Here," rasped Anval, fastening a thick leather pad to the hammer face, "it
will deaden the sound of each strike." Borin nodded but said nought, for his
gaze was sweeping up and across the roof.
"It is a long reach," growled Borin to his brother as they
surveyed the intended route. "Should I need more climbware, I will drop a line
to you." Anval merely grunted in reply.
The Ironfists selected a place to start, and Perry gave Bonn back the nail,
jam, and ring. The Dwarf reached up high on die wall beside the stairs and
with muffled blows drove the rock-nail into a thin crack; then began the
perilous climb.
Quickly, Borin drove nail after nail into the stone, clipping and adjusting an
appropriate harness anchor strap to each new nail as he went, unclipping the
hindmost strap and retrieving the free snap-ring as he left each embedded nail
behind; and up like a fly he clambered. At times there were handholds, and he
did not use the rock-nails as he ascended. At other times, however, long still
study was needed before he drove a nail or wedged a jam and moved onward. At
last he topped the wall and started across the ceiling, the Dwarf now totally
dependent upon the leather belting, rings, nails, jams, and harness. Perry was
glad that it was not he who had to climb so high and dangle like a Yule
decoration, and he was amazed by Borin's ability. "How surely he goes,"
breathed the Warrow, looking up, knowing that were their places exchanged he
would be frozen with fear.
"Aye," answered Delk. "Borin is accounted a master stone climber even among
the CMkka."
"You speak as if all Dwarves climb like that," said Perry.
"Aye," responded Delk, "for the inside of a Mountain needs climbing more than
its outside ever does. And the Chilkka have been climbing Mountains since we
and they were created yet we more often climb within the living stone than
without. Even so, mayhap Borin is the best of us all."
Once again Perry turned his sight toward the Dwarf above. Yet Borin's progress
had slowed markedly, for he was now on the most difficult, the most hazardous
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