| Fred thought that he must be careful not to become overconfident. Though
the armour was wonderful, it would not render him totally invulnerable.
Perhaps its previous wearer had made the mistake of thinking that, and
found out his error when he faced Minestus. For how else had the armour
come to be in Minestus's hoard?
While Fred attempted to find his way back to the dragon's lair, Rift
frantically continued his search for the Crystallic. "You fool!" he shouted
at Astra. "I was going to use it to take us out of here. Now we are both
going to die." "You don't even know for sure that the Crystallic can do
that. Perhaps it can only be used for transformations." Astra didn't really
believe that, but if her words worried Rift then so much the better. She
realised now that when she had attempted to wrestle the Crystallic from
him, it had signified that she was no longer prepared to let him be her
master. She went on: "Anyway, don't bother to find the bauble on my account.
I'd sooner die a free woman than live as your slave. I've decided that,
whatever happens, I'm not going to dance to your tune any more."
Turning her back contemptuously on Rift, Astra looked around the cavern,
dimly lit by the flames of the dwarves' torches. The battle was too confused
for it to be possible to get any clear idea of who was winning. There still
seemed to be an awful lot of orcs, though. Astra saw that not too far from
the dim corner in which she and Rift lurked was the body of a slain dwarf,
his battle axe and shield lying by his side. Astra's eyes lit up. Though
a sword was her weapon of choice, a battle axe would be a most acceptable
substitute. As an unarmed non-dwarf, Astra had not been of interest to
the orcs till now, but she did not care that to take up a weapon would
make her into a target; indeed she would almost welcome death as the solution
to her troubles.
She might have no great liking for dwarves, and feel a thorough loathing
for Tarin in particular, but she had heard enough tales of the atrocities
committed by orcs to be in no doubt on whose side she should fight if she
could get hold of the weapon.
-
 Astra
dashes out in an attempt to grab the axe and shield before anyone can intervene.
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