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Adam and his companions camped in the grasslands that night. Until now, none of them had shown any real ability for building a stockade. This time, whatever they attempted to create was a brilliant success. Simple ideas like making a fence from woven stems went so well that the fence ended up surprisingly well-designed and strong, in no time. When they had finished, they admired their work. Palustric insisted that with the Key of Ingenuity dwarves, more skilful than he, would be able to work miracles. There was no doubt that the Key was responsible for their new-found skill, he explained. He went on for hours, long after Adam had fallen asleep, describing what life with the Key would be like for the dwarves. Lar, whose hearing was so much more sensitive than Adam’s, couldn’t get to sle
