As others have said: solid world-building. Love the hints of dwarven culture, as in "beardless animal", and "by the Company." The present-tense was used to good effect, though there's a stray paragraph in the middle where you switch to past-tense ("His tone brooked... he expected... his barter-tongue was..."). The dwarf's voice comes through really well, though, and I loved the twist at the end. Great work!