“Not Gegs” said Limbeck sharply, his face darkening. ” ‘Geg’ is a slave word. An insult! Demeaning!” He slammed his clenched hand into his fist.
Taken aback by the dwarfs vehemence, Bane looked swiftly to Haplo for an explanation. Haplo himself was startled, but, remembering some of his conversations with Limbeck in the past, thought he understood what was going on. Indeed, Haplo might even be held partially accountable.
“You must understand, Your Highness, that Limbeck and his people are dwarves—a proper and ancient term for their race, just as you and your people are known as humans. The term ‘Gegs’—”
“—was given to us by the elves,” said Limbeck, tugging at his spectacles, which were starting to steam over due to the moisture rising from his beard. “Pardon me, Your Highness, but might I— Ah, thank you.”
He wiped his spectacles again on Bane’s proffered shirt-tail.
“I’m sorry I snapped at you, Your Highness,” Limbeck said coolly, placing the spectacles around his ears and staring at Bane through them. “You, of course, had no way of knowing that this word has now become a deadly insult to us dwarves. Hasn’t it?”
He looked to his fellows for support. But Lof was gaping at Haplo, whose blue glow was just beginning to fade. The other dwarf was staring nervously at the dog.
“Lof,” Limbeck snapped. “Did you hear what I just said?”
Lof jumped, looked extremely guilty, nudged his companion.
Their leader’s voice was stern. “I was saying that the term ‘Geg’ is an insult to us.”
Both dwarves instantly attempted to appear mortally offended and deeply wounded, though it was quite obvious that they didn’t have slightest idea what was going on.
Limbeck frowned, seemed to start to say something, then sighed and fell silent.
“May I talk to you? Alone?” he asked Haplo suddenly.
“Sure,” said Haplo, shrugging.
Bane flushed, opened his mouth- Haplo forestalled him with a look.
Limbeck eyed the boy. “You’re the one who came up with a diagram on the Kicksey-winsey. You figured out how it worked, didn’t you, Your Highness?”
“Yes, I did,” said Bane, with a becoming modesty.
Limbeck took off his spectacles, reached absently for the handkerchief. Pulling it out, he rediscovered the sodden mass. He shoved the spectacles back on his nose. “You come along, too, then,” he said.
Turning to his compatriots, he issued orders. “You stay here, keep watch. Let me know when the storm starts to lift.”
The two nodded solemnly, moved to stand by the window.
“It’s the elves I’m worried about,” Limbeck explained to Haplo. They were walking toward the front of the ship and Haplo’s living quarters. “They’ll spot your ship and come out to investigate. We’ll need to be getting back to the tunnels before the storm ends.”
“Elves?” Haplo repeated in astonishment. “Down here? On Drevlin?”
“Yes,” said Limbeck. “That’s one of the things I need to talk to you about.” He settled himself on a stool in Haplo’s cabin, a stool that had once belonged to the dwarves on Chelestra.
Haplo almost said something to that effect, checked himself. Limbeck wasn’t worried about dwarves on other worlds. He was having trouble enough with this one, apparently.
“When I became High Froman, the first thing I ordered done was to shut the Liftalofts down. The elves came for their water shipment… and didn’t get any. They decided to fight, figured they’d scare us with their bright steel and magic.
” ‘Run, Gegs,’ they yelled at us, ‘run away before we step on you like the bugs you are!’
“They played right into my hands,” Limbeck said, removing his spectacles and twirling them about by the ear bow. “Quite a few dwarves didn’t agree with me that we should fight. Especially the clarks. They didn’t want to upset things, wanted our lives to go on as before. But when they heard the elves call us ‘bugs’ and speak to us as if we truly had no more brains or feelings than insects, even the most peace-loving graybeard was ready to gnaw on elf ears.
“We surrounded the elves and their ship. There were hundreds, maybe a thousand dwarves there that day.” Limbeck looked back with a dreamy, wistful expression, and Haplo saw, for the first time since he’d met the dwarf, a hint of the idealistic Limbeck of old acquaintance.