The Black Dragon

by W. D. Newman

CHAPTER 20

  THE CHALLENGE

  Out on the platforms and walkways, the entire upper levels of the Kahzidar were still and eerily quiet. With the exception of a few Holediggers who were rounding up some stray Stonebreakers, the city appeared empty and deserted. However, down on the lower levels, the elevators were busy bringing up the Mudcrawlers from the mines and the entire area was packed and bustling with activity. As soon as the Mudcrawlers stepped off the elevators they were directed into a line of gnomes that ran all the way down the rail tracks and disappeared into the tunnels. Each time the elevators ascended from the slave mines, they were filled to capacity and the line down the rail tracks was moving very fast. Mueller instructed half of the gnomes in colony twenty-one to fan out and help with the roundup of stray Stonebreakers. The other half was directed to the elevators to help with the evacuation of the mines. Ben marveled at how fast the gnomes were able to traverse the platforms and scale the ladders. They looked like spiders scurrying across a web.

  Once colony twenty-one was on its way, Mueller turned to address the others. “Follow me and be very careful,” he instructed. “Gnomes are quite adept at climbing and I have heard that elves are too, but I have also heard that dwarves are not.”

  Hob hitched his trousers up and tucked his beard into his tunic. “I can do ANYTHING a bloody gnome can do,” he growled. “You forget, we dwarves have been living underground for thousands of years.”

  “Forgive me, Hob,” said Mueller. “I meant no insult; I was only concerned for your safety. What about you Ben? Will you do okay on this?”

  Ben peered out over the walkway. It was a long, long way to the bottom. He swallowed the lump that was rising in his throat and mumbled that he would be fine.

  “Come along, then,” Mueller instructed.

  The platforms were narrow, with no rails to keep one from falling, and the walls in which the city was carved were extremely steep. Gabriel followed along behind Mueller and the other gnomes with no trouble. Ben was a little shaky and followed along more slowly, but poor Hob had to hug the stone walls and shuffle along with his eyes closed. At the end of each platform was a ladder that led to a lower platform. They zigzagged back and forth across platforms, up and down many ladders, slowly making their way to the lower parts of the city.

  When they finally descended the last ladder, Hob let out an audible sigh of relief and declared that it was a piece of cake. The rails on the road at the bottom of the city were jammed with hundreds upon hundreds of Mudcrawlers, all of whom were moving at a steady pace, down into a nearby tunnel.

  "Are they all going to the coliseum?" asked Ben.

  "Yes," Mueller answered.

  "Do you think the Holediggers have captured Ringwald?"

  "I don't know for certain, but I suspect they have. Come, let's head to the coliseum and find out."

  When they tried to join the procession to the coliseum, one of the Mudcrawlers in line glanced up and recognition dawned in his eyes. “Mueller? Mueller Mudcrawler, is that you?”

  “Lennie?”

  “It is you!” the gnome shouted. “I thought you were dead! I saw you fall into the crevice with my own eyes!”

  “Yes, I fell, but I did not die and my name is no longer Mueller Mudcrawler.”

  Lennie looked at his old friend with a puzzled expression. “What do you mean? Have you been restored?”

  “No, Lennie, you know as well as I do that no one has ever been restored. I have a new name. My new name is Mueller Alderman.”

  “Alderman,” said Lennie. “That is a good sounding name. How did you come by it?”

  “My friend gave it to me. I am a free gnome now and so are you.”

  “A free gnome? I don’t understand.”

  “You will,” Mueller smiled, clapping his old friend on the back. “Everything will be explained at the coliseum.”

  Mueller waved goodbye to Lennie as the swift moving line carried him away, and then he, Ben, Gabriel and Hob fell in line with the other Mudcrawlers to march to the coliseum. Not all of the Mudcrawlers were gnomes. Gabriel recognized the family that he saw lowered into the slave mines when he and Gob were first brought to the city. They were still clinging to each other, but there was now a faint glimmer of hope in their eyes.

  The coliseum turned out to be another large cavern, not too far distant from the city. Seats were carved into the bowl-shaped stone walls and stretched from the ceiling, all the way down to the ground level several stories below. On the ground floor, in the center of the arena, hundreds of captured Stonebreakers milled around, nervously fidgeting, and eyeing the growing crowd with a wary eye. The lower levels, just above the arena floor, were filled with nearly three thousand Holediggers, all of them armed with spears and the short curved swords that all gnomes favor. No wonder it was an easy victory; the Stonebreakers were far outnumbered and most of them simply surrendered without a fight.

  The Mudcrawlers were being directed into the upper levels of the arena, but Mueller and his companions were pulled aside and led down to an elevated platform just above the Stonebreaker prisoners on the ground floor. Harry, with a triumphant look of joy and happiness upon his face, was waiting there to greet them.

  "It's over!" he cried. "Kahzidar is free!"

  "Do you have Ringwald?" Mueller asked.

  "Yes, we have him and several of his most loyal followers who would not surrender. We are not going to bring them out until the coliseum is full. I want him to see and know that his entire kingdom is against him. I want to see the look on his face when he realizes that, too."

  The place was filling up fast, but it was so large that it would probably be another hour before every seat was occupied. Harry led them to a wide cloth that had been laid on top of the platform. Spread across this cloth, were meats, cheeses, hard breads, dried fruits, and tankards of cold water. Ben and his companions were instructed to eat and rest before the ceremonies began. Hob, still wary of gnomes, declined at first, but hunger finally overcame the dwarf and he loosened his belt and set to the food as if it were his last meal. Ben however was not hungry and lay down on the cloth to take a short nap. According to his watch, it was now 6:00 AM and he desperately needed some sleep. As soon as he got comfortable and closed his eyes, Mueller started shaking him and calling his name.

  "Ben, wake up. It's time."

  Ben sat up and rubbed his eyes. It felt like he had sand in them. He glanced at his watch and was shocked to find that he had slept almost two hours. Hob and Gabriel helped him to his feet. As he stretched and yawned, a gnome who was standing close behind him blew three loud blasts on a long, silver horn. Startled, Ben jumped and any remnants of sleep that had been lingering behind were chased away as the last note on the horn reverberated throughout the coliseum.

  The crowd quieted down as drummers positioned around the edges of the arena began to beat a slow and steady cadence on their drums, while a procession of gnomes gradually made its way across the arena floor. The Stonebreakers who had surrendered, fell back to make room for the procession to pass. A murmur began to run though the stands and the crowd angrily rose to their feet. Someone booed. Someone else joined them. Then the booing spread; low at first, but quickly building into a deafening roar. The Holediggers in the procession were leading out Ringwald and about two dozen of his loyal cronies.

  Ben was afraid the crowd was going to turn into an unruly mob and that there would be bloodshed after all, but when Ringwald was standing at the base of the platform, below him, the drums ceased and the crowd, once more, began to quiet. Mueller appeared at Ben's side and handed him a horn to speak in.

  "This will amplify your voice enough for everyone to hear. The acoustics in here are quite amazing."

  "What shall I say," Ben asked.

  "Congratulate everyone on their victory. Talk about freedom and about how great Kahzidar shall become as a free nation. Recite Abraham Lincoln’s words again! Then, perform the na
ming ceremony and turn it over to Harry when you are finished."

  "We have set up a temporary governing body of twenty-four gnomes," Harry explained. "The Head Master of each of the twenty-four colonies from the slave mines will serve on this council until a more permanent government can be established."

  "Along with some form of election," Mueller added.

  "Of course," Harry laughed. He clapped Mueller on the back and motioned for Ben to proceed.

  "Here we go again," Ben thought to himself. At least this would be the last time he had to perform this ceremony. He racked his brain for something about freedom. He didn't want to repeat the Gettysburg Address again. He was so tired, he didn't know if he could even remember it now. No, he needed something short and sweet. Something that was simple and straight to the point. Now that his friends were safe, he wanted to hurry and get back to the others too. And once Amos was well, he planned to sleep around the clock.

  He raised the horn to his mouth. He couldn't think! The entire kingdom of Kahzidar was waiting with bated breath to hear what he would say and he could not think of anything! Sweat began to pop out on his forehead. Think, he told himself. Think! Think! Think! And then suddenly, before he even realized what he was doing, he found himself shouting through the horn at the top of his lungs, "FREEEEEDOOOOMMMMMMMMM!!!!"

  The coliseum erupted. Gnomes were yelling, cheering, whooping, and crying. Nothing else was needed. Ben glanced down at Ringwald. The ousted gnome king openly glared at him with hatred and malice. When the excitement finally died down, Mueller appeared at Ben's side and took the horn from him.

  “I was expecting another great speech. Actually, I was hoping you would recite Lincoln once more; I don’t think I’ve ever heard such moving words before. However, you have pulled it off again. Nothing could have been better than that one word and the emotion with which you conveyed it. Well done Ben! Well done!”

  “Well, it was not really my idea,” said Ben, sheepishly. “I got the idea from a movie called Braveheart.”

  “What’s a movie?” Mueller asked, with a puzzled expression.

  “It’s a story,” Ben answered, “a story that is acted out with real people.”

  “How interesting! You shall have to tell me the story of this Braveheart one day, but for now, we need to get on with the ceremony.” Mueller raised the horn to his mouth. "Quiet please! Everyone, please quiet down and be seated, we have one very important matter of business to attend to." He waited a moment for everyone to sit, and then continued, "In Kahzidar, there have always been Stonebreakers, Holediggers, and Mudcrawlers, but today, there is a new name in Kahzidar and that name is Alderman. It is a name that belongs to Ben and he has unselfishly given the name to those that would have it. I was once a Holedigger and then a Mudcrawler, but I am now an Alderman; a free gnome of Kahzidar. Who will abandon the old names and the old ways and become one of us, one of the free gnomes of Kahzidar? Stand and be named!"

  As one, every gnome in the coliseum stood.

  "What about us?" one of the Stonebreakers cried out below. "What will become of us?"

  "Those that surrendered are welcome to join us," Harry answered, "but those that did not, shall be punished."

  The Stonebreakers that had surrendered crowded around the base of the platform where Ben stood. They were anxious to join the Alderman gnomes and called for Ben to begin the naming. However, the Stonebreakers that remained loyal to Ringwald sneered at them and called them cowards and turncoats.

  Mueller handed the horn back to Ben. "It's all yours," he smiled.

  Ben took the horn and raised it to his lips. Before he could speak though, Ringwald screamed out loudly enough for everyone in the coliseum to hear him.

  "I CALL FOR THE GNOME BONES TO SETTLE THIS DISPUTE TO MY AUTHORITY!"

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