Kazin's Quest: Book I of The Dragon Mage Trilogy by Carey Scheppner

danced along the walls of the tunnel.
    Zylor merely grunted in response and threw his pack into a recess in the alcove’s wall. Then he straightened and stretched his aching muscles, reaching up to the ceiling of the tunnel. At least he could stand up straight at this location. Some previous sections of tunnel were so low he was forced to crouch to make it through. Harran mentioned earlier that there would be some tight places but none were impassable. Zylor could only hope the dwarf was telling the truth.
    Harran hacked a piece of coal-like rock from the wall and placed it on the floor in the center of the alcove. Then he reached into his pack and pulled out a piece of flint, striking it against his axe. The sparks jumped onto the black substance and it began to glow a dull red. After a moment it glowed slightly brighter and began to radiate heat. Harran rubbed his hands over the rock, getting the chill of the dank tunnels out of his bones. “Who’s taking first watch?” he asked, looking up at Zylor, who had seated himself with his back to the wall. This was a good question, considering neither one knew if the other could really be trusted.
    “You can have the first shift,” said Zylor. “I’m bushed. Walking with your shoulders stooped all day is tiring over the long haul.”
    This explanation seemed to satisfy the dwarf. Eventually Harran sat down on a tall, flat boulder near the glowing coal. They sat in awkward silence.
    Finally the dwarf could contain his curiosity no longer. “Is there really going to be a war between the minotaurs and humans? The way they were talking when we left, you’d think something big was going on. I couldn’t hear very much, of course, being all wrapped up at the time.”
    Zylor looked at the dwarf and managed a small grin. “It certainly looks that way. They’re recruiting more minotaurs than they usually do.”
    “Why is it that you wanted to leave at a time like this?” asked Harran. “It must be awfully important for you to pass up a chance to join the army and take part in a big battle.”
    “It is,” said Zylor fervently. “I need to hone my skills in peace or I’ll be drawn into the bloodlust of battle and forget about my mission.”
    “What mission is that?” inquired Harran casually, resting his elbows on his knees and putting his chin in his hands. He didn’t want to seem too interested in the answer to that, remembering the minotaur’s reaction the first time he asked a similar question back at the prison.
    “To best my uncle in combat and avenge my father’s death,” answered Zylor.
    “He killed your father?”
    “Yes, and almost my mother. In fact, he nearly killed me, too.”
    Harran looked across the reddish coal at Zylor. “You seem rather large as minotaurs go. Your uncle must certainly be huge if you’re concerned about defeating him.”
    Zylor laughed. “My uncle’s big but that’s not what I’m concerned about. He cheats. He uses poison. If I’m to best him without a weapon, I’ve got to hone my skills to a razor sharp edge.”
    “Why without a weapon?” asked Harran. “If I were you, I wouldn’t hesitate to sink an axe into his chest!”
    Zylor chuckled. “If I challenge Emperor Traygor to a duel, I won’t have a choice.”
    Harran sat bolt upright. “Your uncle’s the Emperor?!”
    Zylor nodded.
    Harran recalled what he could about the Emperor. By all accounts, he’d heard that Traygor inherited the throne from his brother, Trogor, who died of an apparent heart attack at a feast. Evidently this wasn’t so. The implications of this fact were significant. If Traygor murdered his way to the throne and word of this leaked out, it could result in a civil war. Consequently, the war with the humans could be averted, or at least halted, if already begun. In fact, a civil war could all but wipe out the minotaurs, with a unified army of humans coming at them from the east to clean up what was left!
    “Who else knows about this?”