Return of the Dwarf King

by Charley Case

  Gregory shrugged. “We don’t really know what happened back then. That’s why we call them the Dark Ages, not because it was bleak and grim. Which, now that I think about it, isn’t wrong either, but it’s mostly because there are very few records from that period. Religion and all that.” He walked over to a counter and turned on an electric kettle. “Tea?”

  Finn, still rattled to learn that dragons had been so abused here in the past, sat on one of the many stools around the central table. “That would be nice. Do you have any whiskey to put in it?”

  “I think I can scrounge some up,” he said over his shoulder, busily dropping tea bags into four mugs.

  “Now I’m wondering what exactly you are.” Finn decided to go on the offensive. “I can tell that you’re a Peabrain, but I don’t see any magical aura like I normally would with someone attuned to the energies. Are you using a concealment spell of some kind?”

  Gregory laughed and started pouring steaming water from the kettle. “No, nothing so special. I’m just really old. Once you live as long as I have, you start to see where the edges of the world are a bit blurry. Maybe you slip in for a peek. You don’t have to use magic to be aware of it.”

  “You don’t look that old. I mean, you look old, but not that old.”

  Finn took two of the offered mugs and held them while Gregory poured a finger of whiskey into one. The man glanced up at Penny, who nodded, and he gave her a shot as well.

  “I’m just over two hundred years old,” he said with a toothy smile.

  Finn cocked his head to the side. “But you are a Peabrain, right? How is that possible?”

  Gregory held up his right hand. On the middle finger was a gold ring that didn’t look all that impressive until Finn stared at it and noticed the telltale magical aura.

  “Percival’s ring. You know, the knight of the Round Table? It’s the ring he took from the sleeping maiden.”

  Finn had no idea what a round table had to do with anything, but Gregory seemed to think he should, so he just nodded. “What does it do?”

  A sigh escaped Gregory’s lips. “The legends say it makes the wearer impossible to kill. It’s worked so far. But I can’t take the damned thing off, and every magical I’ve come across has no clue how it works. I do get older, but at an incredibly slow rate. Found it back at the turn of the last century on a dig. Slipped it on, and I have been stuck with it since.”

  “That’s handy,” Finn said, only looking at the up side.

  “Sure, it’s nice to know that I’m not going out in some random accident, but to tell you the truth, I would rather not have to start my life over with a new identity every thirty years or so. It’s a real pain in the ass. But enough about me. What are you?”

  Finn smiled. “I’m a dwarf.”

  Gregory barked out a laugh. “Aren’t you all supposed to be short and stubby and carry an axe or something?”

  “Why do people keep thinking dwarves are short?” Finn asked, truly bemused.

  “It’s what the legends say. How is it I’ve never seen another dwarf in all my years? I know they once existed, but as far as I can tell, they all died out.”

  Mila came running into the room, breathing deeply, and slammed the door behind her. “We have a problem. A really big problem.”

  Finn jumped to his feet, Fragar coming out and unfolding an instant later. “What is it?”

  Penny hissed on his shoulder, mirroring his intensity.

  “I think a group of those Kashgar assholes just broke into the museum.” She started to look for a weapon. “I was crossing the lobby when the front door melted. At least eight guys came running through, but there could have been more. I heard the guy in front say to spread out and find the dwarf.”

  “Goddamned Kashgar!” Gregory shouted, stepping up to the table beside Finn. “Here, Mila, take this. Finn will be able to tell you how to activate it, I never could figure out that damned complicated language they use.” He tossed to her what looked like the gold handle of a sword.

  She caught it in midair and blinked a few times in surprise. “Gregory, what the fuck? I feel like I missed a few things while I was off peeing.”

  “You have no idea, but we can talk about it later,” Finn said, stepping close and inspecting the handle. He smiled. “This is Gram! Where did you find it?”

  “It was with the helm, but I didn’t realize it was that sword,” Gregory admitted, picking up the helm.

  Finn leaned in and whispered a word to Mila. Then he told her, “Don’t say it out loud, only quietly to yourself, like I do with Fragar. And mind the pointy end.”

  Mila glanced at him but nodded, holding the handle in both hands. He saw her lips move, then she jumped back in shock, nearly dropping the handle as a golden blade unfolded from it. In a split second, she was holding a three-foot-long, golden longsword that glowed faintly purple for a few seconds. The blade was covered in runes, just like Fragar.

  Gregory was approaching her with the helm, preparing to put it on her head, to Finn’s relief, when the door exploded inward, and Mila and Gregory were thrown across the room.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Penny leaped off Finn’s shoulder and sent a blast of white-hot flame into the smoking remains of the door. A scream let them know she had caught one of their attackers off guard, and more than likely melted their face.

  Finn wasted no time, charging blindly into the smoke, chopping sideways with Fragar, and feeling the blade sink into flesh, eliciting another scream from a second Kashgar attacker. Finn smiled, feeling his blood beginning to rise. Before he could take a second swing, two bodies came flying past their fallen partner and tackled Finn to the ground.

  He grunted as the air was forced from his lungs, but he quickly raised a knee, catching the Kashgar on his right between the legs, and with ball-crushing force, knocked him off his right arm.

  Several more men and a few women came pouring into the room, most of whom surrounded Finn and began to cast ensnaring spells. Tendrils of golden light spun out from their fingers, trailing tight chains of bubbles. The room suddenly filled with the smell of wildflowers as magic poured from them.

  Finn was still pinned by one determined blond-haired man and was unable to avoid the spells.

  Penny, on the other hand, was once again overlooked by their attackers and took the opportunity to wreak havoc on the casters. She swooped down from the ceiling and raked her talons across one woman’s shoulder and chest while breathing a tight jet of flame into the back of the man next to her.

  The woman and man both screamed and lost their concentration. The man flailed about before dropping to the floor to roll about to extinguish the magical flames. The other two casters changed targets to focus on Penny, thinking she was the more dangerous threat.

  They were wrong.

  “Colbh cloiche.”

  The words rang out of Finn with a command the earth couldn’t deny. He was a dwarf, and as such, the rocky bits of the universe had a special relationship with him.

  The smell of wildflowers was suddenly overpowered by a strong scent of pine as a pillar of granite shot from the ground at an angle, ripping a hole in the carpet, and slamming into the chest of one of the last two casters. He was thrown across the room to slam into the wall, ten feet off the ground, and came crashing down on a table covered in pottery that shattered upon impact.

  The last caster hesitated, now unsure who to attack.

  Penny took the opportunity to rake four deep gouges into his cheek and neck. Finn tossed Fragar with his fee arm, burying the blade in the Kashgar’s chest, and dropping him to the ground.

  Turning, Finn looked the blond man hanging on his left arm in the eye. The other man’s eyes widened when he realized the attack had gone terribly for his people.

  “Look, man. This will all go a whole lot better for you if you just give up. We can find you wherever you go,” he sputtered out.

  Finn punched him in the face with his right hand, knocking the man unconscious
in a single blow. A figure raced past him and out the door.

  “No!” Mila shouted, pointing at the fleeing woman. “She has the helm. Stop her!”

  Penny flapped her large wings, diving through the door. As soon as she was through, there was another explosion that knocked her back into the room to tumble across the floor. She rolled to her feet but stumbled to the side, stunned, and had to sit and shake her head to clear it.

  Mila stood over a Kashgar who had attacked her in concert with the one that got away. Gram dripped blood, and the man was missing a hand. He mumbled a spell, covering the stump with a cascade of bubbles that staunched the bleeding before he passed out.

  As soon as the attack was over, large bubbles appeared over each of the Kashgar’s heads, then popped, erasing their memories. This time, however, there was a bit of red ooze clinging to a few of their faces, and a smell like rotting wood wafted on the breeze.

  Gregory shakily climbed to his feet, using an overturned table for support. “Shit, those fellas came out of nowhere. I’m assuming you need that helm, and that they’re not going to hand it over easily.”

  “Yeah,” Mila said with a frown. “I’m really sorry about all this.”

  “It’s fine.” He waved her concern away. “I understand you didn’t feel like you could just come out and say you knew about the other world here on Earth. After all, I didn’t tell you I was aware of it either. This is a delicate game we’re playing.” He put his hands on his hips and looked around at all the dead or unconscious bodies. “You two need to get out of here before I call the authorities. This isn’t the first time I’ve had to clean up something like this.”

  “Wait, what?” Mila was lost.

  Finn saw a small swatch of silver chainmail on the ground and picked it up to inspect it. “I can fill her in on the plane ride home. You’re sure you don't need any help here?”

  “I have some friends I can call. I’ll leave one or two and tell the cops it was a robbery gone bad,” Gregory confirmed. “If you get caught up in this, they won’t let you back into the US until it is all cleared up, and I have a feeling you’re working against a deadline.”

  Finn nodded and held up the chainmail. “Do you mind if I take this with us?”

  “I’ll just add it to the things they stole. I’ll call it something else, though, so no one catches you with it.” He winked and waved them toward the door. “It was a pleasure meeting you, Finn and Penny. I’m sure we can talk more later when there isn’t such a large mess to clean up. Mila, you should hang on to this one. He’s special.”

  “Thank you, Gregory. I won’t forget this,” Finn said, shaking the elderly man’s hand.

  Gregory smiled. “A favor from a dwarf king. I can live with that.”

  While Finn hadn’t exactly agreed to a favor, he was willing to give one to Mila’s old teacher. Not to mention, getting his hands on Gram and the chainmail was worth a favor. “I look forward to hearing what I can do for you.”

  Finn took Mila’s hand and led her into the hall. She was looking over her shoulder at Gregory, who gave her a friendly wave. “Talk to you later, dear. Remember, stick close to that one.”

  Penny shot Gregory a smile and a wave before flying after them.

  The car ride back to the airport and the process of buying tickets and getting through security passed in relative silence. Mila kept almost talking, only to clam up at the last second. Finn was glad for her silence since it let him think through the problem of how the Kashgar kept finding them.

  At the apartment, he’d thought they had just followed him from the market, but to be attacked in another country altogether meant they were either keeping very close watch of him or they had a way of finding him through magical means. But if they were finding him through magical means, then they had to have put a tracking spell on him at some point, and he would have smelled the magic.

  Then it hit him. When he had mentioned the Dark Star to the Huldu in the market, the elf he had bought the healing potions off of had begun to act strange, as if she knew exactly who he was talking about. Plus, the entire market had reeked of magic at every turn.

  Finn suddenly became very suspicious that he knew exactly what had happened.

  Scanning for somewhere private, he spotted a family restroom and took Mila’s hand, pulling her toward the door.

  “Hey, whoa,” she protested as she was pulled off balance. “Where are we going?”

  “Sorry.” He gave her a reassuring smile. “I just realized how those Kashgar keep finding us. I need your help.”

  “Okay, all you need to do is ask. Quit just pulling me around,” she retorted, a little heat in her voice.

  Finn let go of her hand, realization dawning that he was not trusting her like he should.

  “Sorry. I’m not very used to people wanting to help. Out there, life is a little lonely for a dwarf. Most people don’t like us, due to my kind ruling over them.”

  “Okay, I understand that, but you need to remember that all that baggage you picked up out there doesn’t mean shit here. I don’t have a problem with you because you’re a dwarf. My problem is that you keep dragging me around by the hand. I can make my own decisions, and I can see that the world is a whole lot bigger than I thought it was just a day ago. It’s taken me a while to grasp just how big, but I already told you I’m in. Just talk to me.”

  Finn took a deep breath. He’d never met anyone quite like Mila. She was strong and determined, and for whatever reason, she kept sticking her neck out for him. The least he could do was trust her judgment. After all, she was the expert when it came to Earth and their social interactions. And she had shown herself to be a friend. The least he could do was offer the same for her.

  “You’re right. I am sorry.” He gave her a slight bow with his head. “I will learn to trust your judgment. And stop pulling you around by the hand. Unless you’re in danger—then I’m pulling with everything I’ve got.”

  “Okay, that’s more like it,” she said gently. “Now, what’s this revelation you had that entails dragging me to a bathroom?” She knocked on the family bathroom door for emphasis.

  “I think that elf in the market put a tracking spell on me. I need you to find it so Penny can remove it.”

  She raised an eyebrow. “Can’t Penny find it?”

  Finn gave her a chagrined smile. “Unfortunately, she can’t. Faerie dragons see with magical sight. Mundane things look normal to her, but magical things glow. When she looks at magical creatures, there is a light coming off of them that will mask any spells on their bodies. It would be like us trying to spot something on our bodies the same temperature as our skin through thermal goggles. You guys have those, right? Thermal goggles?”

  “Yeah, we have those. But there’s a problem with your plan.” She gave him a look as if he should be able to guess. After a few beats, it was obvious to her that he was at a loss. She rolled her eyes. “I can’t see magic at all. How am I supposed to spot a spell on you?”

  He made an O face, then shrugged. “You can see magic, though. You saw the runes on my head when we first met.”

  “Yeah, but I can’t see them now,” she protested.

  He sighed. “We have to try. What’s the point if they know where we are all the time? Eventually, they’ll track us when we’re at the ship, then this whole thing is for naught. Besides, we will never find your friend Jeff if they know we’re coming.”

  She pursed her lips, then nodded. “Okay, we can give it a shot. But if it doesn’t work, we’ll have to wait until we get home and Danica can take a look at you.”

  Finn rolled his eyes. “Good fucking point. Let’s just do that. Danica can help you spot the mark so that next time you can do it on your own.”

  Mila laughed. “See, asking me is already paying off. Come on, let’s get on the plane. There’s a mimosa waiting with my name on it.”

  “What’s a mimosa?” Finn asked, following her toward their gate.

  She took his hand this time and
smiled up at him. “Oh, buddy. You haven’t lived until you’ve had one. Come on. It seems I have a lot to teach you about this strange and wonderful world you two landed on.”

  Chapter Eighteen

  The flight back gave Finn a chance to indulge in the first-class wares. To the flight attendant’s shock, and Mila’s chagrin, he ended up having roughly fifteen mimosas, which wasn’t even close to enough to get him drunk but did give him a mild buzz.

  After scanning the movie selection, he decided on one that he had seen before—The Alamo starring John Wayne, his favorite actor. Of all the movies he had recorded on the Anthem, the John Wayne movies held a special place in his heart. The guy’s cocksure manner and ability to say the right thing at the right time made Finn realize just how badass a Peabrain could be, and the guy never once used magic, which blew Finn’s mind.

  Now that they were on Earth, the fact that the Duke didn’t use magic made a whole lot more sense.

  Mila took the chance to sleep and was out for most of the trip, snoring softly, and occasionally rolling over in the reclined chair. Finn asked for a blanket and covered her when he saw her shivering in the air conditioning. Penny, having seen The Alamo several times and not sharing Finn’s obsession with John Wayne, crawled from his seat to Mila’s and curled up under the blanket with her.

  They landed at 8:00 AM local time and jumped on the train after a long walk through Denver International. By nine, Mila was slipping her key into the front door of her condo and running to the bathroom.

  Finn figured out the coffee pot and made the strongest coffee he could, while Mila changed into something more comfortable—a pair of tights and a baggy t-shirt.

  They sat on the balcony overlooking Coors Field and the mountains in the distance behind it. Mila slouched in her chair, her bare feet on the railing, and sipped her mug of steaming black coffee while Finn dropped a few of the Charleston Chews into his and stirred it with a spoon. Penny skipped the coffee and just ate from a small pile of the little chocolate-covered nougats.