Chapter 8 | Part 5

They reached the trees because Balin pulled Dulint through the last hundred paces.

Dulint’s lungs felt scraped raw. His right knee had stopped producing individual complaints and settled into one continuous threat.

Behind a fallen oak, Balin pushed him down.

“Two minutes.”

“One.”

“You can’t stand yet. Two.”

Dulint drank and tried not to cough the water back up.

Footsteps carried from the open ground beyond the trees.

Same cadence.

Closer.

Balin looked at the pack.

“We know they’re following the cube.”

“Aye.”

“So drop it.”

Dulint said nothing.

“Leave it here. They stop for it. We turn south, circle east later, reach Riverhold without glowing luggage.”

It was a good plan.

That was the problem.

Dulint pulled the pack into his lap.

He could leave the cube beneath the oak. Without its weight, he might keep up with Balin.

His hand did not move.

Balin watched him.

“Uncle.”

“I can’t leave it.”

“Why?”

Dulint opened his mouth.

He looked toward the road instead of at Balin.

Thrain had carried a map out of the flooded workings. Dulint had told that story often enough for Balin to know it by heart.

Now here he sat with something from the same mine, unable to abandon it even to save the boy listening to him.

“Thrain kept the map,” Dulint said at last.

Balin stared at him.

“When the old workings flooded, he kept it. Dropping it might have made his escape easier.”

“This is your reason?”

“I’ve spent half my life calling that courage.” Dulint rubbed his knee. “I’m not ready to call it stupidity the first time the family asks the same of me.”

“That’s a terrible reason.”

“Aye.”

“Possibly your worst today.”

“Still early.”

Balin looked toward the sound of the approaching footsteps.

Then back at Dulint.

“We could die for this.”

“We could.”

“And you still don’t know what it is.”

“No.”

Balin swore softly.

Dulint tightened the straps.

He knew Balin was right.

That did not make his hands willing to let go.

“Riverhold,” Dulint said.

Balin got an arm under his shoulder.

“Xandor had better be very entertaining.”

Together they moved deeper into the trees.

End of Chapter 8.5 —> 9.1: The Nightmare Sea: The Black Water