Days of Future Past - Part 2: Present Tense Page 15

  Hakk nodded and then turned to Baror, "How soon can your boat be ready to make a trip to the island?"

  "I can have it ready in two days."

  "Fine, I will ask for volunteers to crew it in the morning." He looked at Grunim, "You wish to volunteer I assume?"

  Grunim nodded, "Yes, Hakk. I do. Our gods brought me this opportunity; I will not turn from it now."

  Hakk nodded and smiled, "I knew my daughter picked a good husband."

  Hakk turned back to the three of us. "Anything you need, you will have. You are my guests now, as well as Grunim's. Only those of us in this room, and the ones who volunteer will be told of what you are planning to do.

  "Tomorrow, after breakfast, I will send for you. We have very detailed maps of the dragon isle for you to review, so we can plan this in detail."

  "We?" I asked.

  "You don't think I would not go with you?" Hakk laughed, "Two of my cousins died on the island. I will do whatever I can to avenge their deaths and restore honor to their memory and all that were killed there."

  I nodded, a bit stunned by how well all of this was suddenly going.

  "Sleep well, I will see you tomorrow," Hakk said, and with Baror in tow they left.

  Grunim smiled broadly at us.

  "I told ye I could help ye, did I not?"

  I nodded a little dumbly; this would make things far simpler, and faster.

  For the first time I started to wonder if I just might survive this after all.

  "Well come, let me show ye yer room. Ye must be tired after everything to have fallen asleep on the couch so quickly.

  "Yes," I smiled and putting my arms around them, I gave each of the girls a hug. "Bed sounds like a wonderful idea."

  - 12 -

  The next morning found the three of us, plus Grunim, his uncle Baror, and Hakk standing around a table with a very large and very detailed map of Sutter Butte. The dwarves had done a very detailed survey of the butte, and the map not only had contour lines, but it also showed where all of the cave entrances that they had dug were, as well as the air shafts, and notations as to which mines were accessible from each entrance, and which areas the air shafts supplied.

  There was a second set of maps detailing the underground caverns, where they were in relationship to each other, how deep they were, and how they all interconnected as well.

  "Now, this hall here," Hakk was telling us as he pointed to a large cavern on the map. "Is where the nursery for the dragons is located. These rooms off of it," and he motioned to a number of large rooms that were all adjoining it, "are the lairs of the older juveniles." Hakk next pointed to another hall above the first one. It wasn't as large, but it also had several large rooms attached to it, and was connected directly by ramps to the lower hall.

  "This is where the adult dragons live, both the parents of the ones below, and those now old enough that they're being segregated from the eggs and the hatchlings."

  "How do you know all of this?" Sarah asked.

  "We sent some spies in years ago, when there were less dragons flying about. They were able to leave some listening devices about and determine what the dragons were up to. We thought at first they just wanted the treasure and would leave after they had gotten it. This is how we learned about their turning it into an isolated breeding colony."

  "How many breeding pairs are there?"

  Hakk shrugged, "Best we can figure out, from the devices and from the people watching the mountain is that there are only two breeding pairs there at any time. But they've been doing it a while, so some of those hatchlings have to be twenty years old now."

  Sarah shook her head, "I do not get it. Dragons are not known for cooperating. How did this even come to pass?"

  "Lord Oris is how it came to pass," Hakk said angrily. "He is in league with Aybem and the other evil lords of the Nev wastes. He's in there with a small army. They help care for the younger dragons and protect them. They run sheep and cattle on the slopes of the island to help feed them and the adult dragons keep a human settlement to the north in thrall for other goods.

  "I suspect that Oris and his people are also trying to condition the young born there to be more susceptible to working with the other lords and minions in the wastes."

  "I am surprised that the dragons there even agreed to this."

  Hakk shrugged, "Most dragons care little for their offspring. If the rewards were great enough, I can see some agreeing."

  Sarah nodded slowly, "Yes, that is true."

  I had been looking over the map quite closely while they had been talking. I didn't care so much about the why of it; I just wanted to know where to plant the bomb. The lower hall would probably be the best place, but if it was full of hatchlings, older dragons and Lord Oris' guards, it wouldn't be the easiest.

  "How thick is the floor between these two halls?"

  Hakk looked at the diagrams, then back at me. "Forty feet. Why?"

  "I think it will be easier to get to the upper hall, than the lower one."

  "The lower hall is the main one; there are more direct passages to it."

  "Yes, I can see that. However, if that's where the eggs and the youngest are kept, that is also going to be the most heavily protected."

  Hakk 'hmmmed' a bit and then started to look over a bunch of notes that weren't written in English and spent a few minutes studying the maps and diagrams.

  "You may have a point, Paul. Also, most of the passageways to the upper hall are smaller, so you're less likely to encounter any dragons along that route."

  Heather spoke up, "What about this 'small army' living there that you mentioned?"

  "I will be bringing a group of warriors with me," Hakk smiled, "I do not expect any problems."

  "You are planning on coming back I hope?" Sarah asked rather pointedly.

  Hakk nodded, "Yes, of course I am, and I hope to bring your husband back with me."

  "That is what I wanted to hear," Sarah said.

  "Me too," Heather agreed.

  I silently voiced my own agreement with that sentiment as well.

  "So, where do we land?" Baror asked.

  "I think this would be the best site," Hakk said and pointed to a tunnel opening on the west side of the butte. "It's not too close to the living quarters and while there is a path to both halls from there, it is not a direct one."

  "I don't know, won't it be underwater?"

  "According to the current height of the sea, the water should only be about three feet deep down the tunnel."

  "Why do you have a tunnel below the water line?" Sarah asked.

  "The sea rises in the spring and lowers in the fall. The possibility exists that it could always flood some of the areas of the mine or the living quarters. This acts as a natural siphon, if the sea should rise too high, when it lowers past the entrance again."

  I looked at Sarah and we both shrugged. Engineering wasn't something I really knew anything about.

  "Okay, so once inside, then what?" I asked.

  Hakk spent the next three hours going over the route, along with five alternate routes, three possible detours, and eight different ways to escape the mountain. When the bomb went off, being inside any of the tunnels was most likely going to become very unhealthy due to the shock wave that would propagate outwards from the point of the explosion.

  "Are you sure that this bomb will destroy the lower hall?" Heather asked when we finally took a break from planning and had lunch.

  I nodded. "As I understand it, when the nuke goes off, everything within the blast radius will instantly become as hot as the sun. It creates a massive fireball that instantly vaporizes everything."

  "Instantly?"

  I nodded again. "That's what they always told us. Then of course you have all that heat and energy and the shockwave. I've seen movies of tests. It's pretty impressive."

  I noticed Heather started to look worried rather than impressed. Me? I'd gone past worried weeks ago and had started into acceptance. Since I learne
d that Hakk, Grunim and eight others would be helping me place the warhead, I'd started to feel decidedly optimistic. Hakk had figured out how long it should take us to get in, while moving carefully, for each of the possible routes. Then, more importantly, he'd figured out how long it would take us to get out, so I could set the timer on the warhead to give us enough time to escape.

  "You know what we should do?" I asked, trying to change the subject.

  "What?" Heather asked, sounding a little dejected.

  "Yes, what?" Sarah asked sounding fairly curious.

  "Get married."

  I smiled as they both sat bolt upright and looked at me.

  "What?" Heather blinked.

  "Yes, what?" Sarah echoed.

  "Well every time we meet anybody, we're always struggling on how to introduce each other," I said thinking back to first Luvon, and then the elves.

  "I've already started calling you both my wives, just to make it easier. Well, why not make it official?"

  "Here?" Sarah asked, looking around surprised.

  "Now?" Heather asked looking a bit shocked.

  "Yes, here. Now. I'm sure they have someone who can do the rites or rituals, or whatever passes for a marriage ceremony in this day and age."

  "My parents will kill me," Sarah groaned.

  "Yours and mine both!" Heather said, and then suddenly giggled. "Mom? Dad? Guess what? I got married! Sorry I didn't invite you, but we were in a dwarven city and we couldn't think of a better way to piss you all off!"

  "Yeah," Sarah agreed, "my folks will have a fit for not being here. Especially my mother!"

  "So," I interrupted. "I'll ask Grunim if he can set it up for tonight. Sound good?"

  "You weren't listening to any of it, were you?" Heather accused.

  "I didn't hear the word 'no' and that's all I was listening for," I smiled.

  I got hugged and kissed by the both of them, then, as they both very empathetically said "yes!"

  We were all in much better spirits when we returned to the planning room and started to go over the supplies we would need for the raid while Baror showed us pictures of the boat we would be taking and telling us what to expect on the trip.

  When I related our need for a marriage ceremony, all three of them, Grunim, Hakk, and Baror, smiled and offered to help.

  Several hours later and I found myself standing in front of a handcrafted marble altar decorated heavily with gold, silver, and a lot of other minerals that I couldn't even begin to name. I was wearing a very nice outfit with two jackets, one over the other, which Hakk had brought his own personal tailor in to make on the spot.

  They were made from heavy cloth, and reminded me very much of a karate gi. Only instead of being white, they were both dyed a number of different colors and the jackets each had a series of designs embroidered on the back and on the front.

  Over that was placed a soft leather strip that was almost like a scarf. It was eight inches wide, six feet long, and draped around my neck and down chest to my waist.

  As I watched, the girls came in then, with Grunim's wife Kilondi escorting them in place of their mothers. Grunim had already escorted me in, and was standing to my side, standing in for my father. A role that also functioned as 'best man' in the ceremony.

  The girls were gorgeous. They were also naked from the waist up.

  In the dwarven marriage ceremony, the bride only wore pants when she came down the aisle. Once they stood besides me on the altar, I was to take off my top and put it on them, to show that I was taking them into my care. Which was why I was currently wearing two of the tops, as I had to put one on each of them.

  Then at the end of the ceremony I would put a ring on each of them, and they would each put one on me. Grunim had told me that the two I wore would be made into one while we had our wedding feast, on a small anvil before us.

  Apparently triads were not unknown to dwarven society, even if they were fairly uncommon.

  When the girls came up to the altar, I took off the leather 'shawl' as I had been coached and handed it to Kilondi, who took it and then went to stand on the far side of the altar from Grunim. I then took off the first jacket, and put it on Sarah, helping her into it, and then tying it closed.

  Then I took off the second top, leaving me now naked from the waist up and put it on Heather, and tying it closed as well, after helping her into it.

  They both then took the leather piece from Kilondi and draped it around my neck, fidgeting with it a moment, before smiling and each giving me a kiss on the cheek.

  We then turned and faced the dwarven priest who started off with a blessing, and then went into the ceremony.

  I had a hard time keeping my eyes on the priest as he went through the ceremony. I kept looking over at the two of them.

  I was getting married.

  Marriage wasn't anything I'd ever had any problems with the idea of, and I knew one day that I'd do it myself. I'd even looked forward to it, from time to time. Yeah, it's great to be able to hit the bars and pick up someone to bring home. Having a couple of girlfriends and even something of a 'bootie call' list was fun too. You could brag to your friends about your prowess and swagger a little because you knew how to play the game. But the truth of the whole thing was, that after a while, especially as you started to grow up, that it was kind of lacking.

  Just as you had your best buds, the guys you hung around with and did things with and shared your good times with. The idea of having a woman, a partner, a lover, a wife, who was always there, really started to become appealing.

  And over the last few months, the idea of having both Heather and Sarah with me from here on out, was one I couldn't ignore. It's one thing to tell someone that you love them, and that you want to be with them forever. It's another thing when they agree to it, and you start down that road, like the three of us finally had.

  It's something altogether different when you stand before the world and god and tell them that you really mean it.

  "Do you, Paul, take Heather and Sarah to be your wives, from here until the time that death shall send your soul to the great beyond?"

  "I do," I said, and I really meant it.

  "Do you, Sarah, take Heather and Paul to be your wife and your husband, from here until the time that death shall send your soul to the great beyond?"

  "I do," Sarah said with a smile.

  "Do you, Heather, take Sarah and Paul to be your wife and your husband, from here until the time that death shall send your soul to the great beyond?"

  "I most certainly do!" Heather said, grinning.

  "The rings?"

  Grunim handed me two rings, while Kilondi handed the girls each a ring.

  The girls kneeled before me, and put their rings on the ring finger of my left hand, then stood. Then it was my turn to kneel before them, and put their rings on their ring finger.

  When that was done, we turned to face the priest, who began a final blessing, and then finished by pronouncing the three of us husband and wives.

  We all kissed then, and I think it was a good several minutes before I could let either of them go. When we finally stopped hugging and kissing, I looked up over Heather's shoulder and back in a corner, in the shadows, I could see Coyote, and he was smiling. And all I could think of was, if he got me killed now, I would haunt his ass until the end of time.

  I heard one of his little bark-like laughs and the other two flinched for a moment, and then he was gone.

  "I'm gonna kill that dog," Heather grumbled in my ear.

  "Not if I beat you to it!" Sarah giggled.

  "Now now, ladies," I chided them, "I get him first."

  The others came over and shook hands with me and kissed the girls as they wished us luck, then we went to Hakk's home for a rather wonderful dinner. The two rings on my finger were quickly hammered into one, I guess they had been made with this intent in mind from the beginning, and then returned to my finger.

  "You know, you look good without a top," Sarah commented
when we finally finished dinner.

  I looked down at myself; I'd always kept myself in shape, easy enough as I was still fairly young. But with all of the exercise and work since I'd gotten here, as well as the more limited and better diet, there wasn't an ounce of fat on my body, and while I wasn't muscle bound, I did have quite a bit of muscle. Mostly of the kind martial artists and manual laborers had.

  "So do you," I smiled thinking about the start of the service.

  "Yes, but you are getting a lot more appreciative looks from the women here, than I did the men," she giggled.

  "Too bad for them, I'm already taken," I grinned back.

  "Yes, you most definitely are."

  - 13 -

  The next day was rather easy for the three of us. We didn't have anything to do until it came time to leave after all. But Grunim and Hakk were rather busy going over the plan of operations with the volunteers Hakk had gathered for the raid, and Baror was equally busy preparing the boat and crew for the journey.

  A couple of hours after lunch we packed our gear and journeyed down to the dam. Once we got there, we traveled the short distance to the hidden boathouse that was home to Baror's boat.

  The boathouse itself was amazing; it was quarried directly out of the side of the mountain pass that the river flowed through, and there were over a dozen boats in it. Two of which were even bigger than Baror's.

  The boat we were taking reminded me of the old patrol boats, or PT boats, that they used to show in the war movies when I was growing up. The boat was painted a very flat and non-reflective black and had two duel heavy-duty guns mounted on it, one fore and one aft, and it was made of some sort of metal instead of wood. The biggest difference however was the engines. The boat didn't have the standard piston engines with which I was familiar; instead it had two gas powered turbines driving the props.

  "How fast can this thing go?" I asked.

  "Faster than we need to," Baror told me. "The faster we go the noisier we are. So we don't cruise at more than half throttle, unless something is chasing us."

  "How long will it take to get where we're going, then?"