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palm and smoothed down a cowlick on his head, then took another swig of ale, swishing it back and forth between his teeth.
    Nia looked at me and I looked at her in amazement. We both followed Darroth’s smiling line of sight to the street door just in time to see it burst open. Silhouetted in the doorway was an obviously female dwarf who grinned and strode confidently toward our table. She was at least as tall as Darroth, which made her statuesque by their standards, with a surprisingly lithe body no wider than an adult human woman’s. Still, she had a dwarf’s physique and I could see rippled muscles peaking through the few gaps in her armor. The armor was mixed plate and chain of exquisite workmanship, and she had a large one-headed axe strapped to her back. She had long yellow braids of hair that were cinched up tight in a triple queue. But her face was what intrigued me the most. Her facial hair was yellow as well, but her beard and mustache were short, neat, and manicured. It was a far cry from the scraggly mop I was used to from Darroth and all the other males I had seen in the past. Mentally removing the impressive facial hair, I judged that her face would have been pretty on a human girl.
    The barkeep was visibly uncomfortable, almost fearful of the new arrival, evidenced by the fact that he immediately started removing the polished glasses from the top of the bar and frantically stowing them out of sight.
    “Princess Elsa, what a pleasant surprise,” he murmured, hurriedly grabbing bottles of liquor off the back bar and putting them elsewhere for safekeeping also.
    She advanced into the room, smiled airily and called out, “Relax, Logen, I’m not here to wreck the bar again…maybe.” He didn’t look like he believed her even one bit. “Besides, you should really thank me. The only way you can afford the upkeep on this place is by overbilling me for repairs when my boys get rambunctious.”
    Darroth nearly fell over himself jumping up to pull back a chair for her and I stood as well. His face lit up brightly as she came straight up to our table and eyed me appraisingly. “Hello again, Darroth. I take it this is the bold knight you were talking about?”
    He nodded. “That’s right. This is Sir Alex Martin, ruler of Sky Raven Fortress.”
    She reached out and clasped my hand, putting enough pressure into it to bring a normal human to his knees. Fortunately, I’m not a normal human, and years of hammer and pincher work had hardened my grip to the point where my eyes didn’t even narrow. She grinned, displaying even white teeth. “Impressive! Nice to meet you, Sir Alex; I am Elsa. And if you call me Princess, I’ll kill you; we clear? Please sit down so we can confab a little.”
    “As you wish, Elsa.”
    She smiled slightly, glancing at Darroth. “I like this guy already. Although I must say, he’s not nearly as big as you made him out to be. Sky Raven Fortress, hmmm? I thought that place was only a utopian old wives tale that our grandparents made up to get us to work harder and eat all our kalo root pudding.
    “It’s a real place alright; we all came from there recently,” I said.
    “Is that so? Darroth here has been regaling me with stories about his travels across the world, but thus far he has failed to mention that particular tidbit.”
    She looked at him somewhat askance, and Darroth looked a little sheepish and mumbled, “Well, I was saving that one for a special occasion. But time is short; shouldn’t we be getting down to business?”
    She nodded. “Quite true, but I have two rules I never break. One–never talk business with a sober dwarf. And two–never risk the lives of myself or my men on anyone I’m not sure of. And the best way I know to get to know someone is to have a few drinks. That way, we can eliminate both rules at one time. Logen! Three tall ales!”

Chapter 2
    Several hours later, I woke up. I found myself stretched out on a long wooden, high-backed bench, wearing