The price of pride

"Aye, do you think the one back in the cart is worth the price? Can't we just get some more of them brown-skinned?" he asked, his front teeth broken and brown.

"You idiot," the other smacked his head. The black lump on his cheek bobbed as he spoke. "He is a dwarf – not unlike those bony slaves at the fields. He is special."

"I see nothing special. Just a short freak with a weird beard," he scrubbed his beard; thick, black and uneven.

"Don't be so proud of your beard. From the looks of rings in his, he should be rather mighty with an axe."

"I would rather put a chain around his wrists," he glanced back.

Behind the cart, Nibur squirmed in tied ropes. "Damn it, I shouldn't have drank that stuff," Dalyor's face came to his mind, "I hate that guy being right."

He had tried to chant, but the metal contraption around his neck tightened and, the black jewel on it glowed every time he tried. "it's as if this thing is sucking out my Rak."