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. Whereas in the past it had
borne only the traffic of.sheep- and goat-herders, or the oc-
casional farmer's cart, now the road was wide and well-
worn.
Flint recalled the building of the Passroad from his child-
hood, though he had been too young to help with the work.
The hill dwarves had labored for several years to smooth
out the grades, lay a stone foundation over the swampy
stretches, and create a route that could, someday, connect
Hillhome to the not-so-distant shore of the Newsea.
The immediate purpose of the road had been to open up
the valley adjacent to Hillhome to hill dwarf settlements,
and this had occurred to a limited extent. Still, in retrospect,
the road had not been very profitable, considering all the
work.
Suddenly Flint's thick body tensed like a mandolin string.
He was not alone.
The dwarf's first warning was a vague perception, not re-
ally sight but more sound, of something approaching from
the southwest. Wooden wheels crunched over gravel. Flint
turned from the low fire to the pass, and his infravision -
the natural, temperature-sensing ability of dwarves that al-
lowed them to see objects in the dark by the heat they
radiate - quickly adjusted
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