A Crown Of War (Book 4)

by Michael Ploof

  Dirk soon found himself idle. Krentz remained far from the main force as the dwarves held them back. He whistled to Fyrfrost and left Krentz to her healing. A disturbance in the dust and smoke above told him Fyrfrost heard his call. When she swooped for him, he leapt into the air to be caught by unseen talons.

  Fyrfrost lifted Dirk into the air and performed an aerial somersault throwing Dirk high into the air. He twirled like an acrobat as Fyrfrost leveled out below. Tucking his legs in and quickly kicking them out again he twirled, spun, and fell into Fyrfrost’s saddle. Dirk howled triumphantly and gripped the saddle’s horn.

  “Let’s find some trouble,” he called to Fyrfrost.

  They flew high over the Ky’Dren Pass, getting a good look at the battle below; the fight did not go well for the dwarves. The collective armies of the dark elves, Draggard, barbarians, and undead had driven the dwarves back nearly a mile into the pass. For the moment, a bottleneck in the pass held the dark hordes at bay. Farther back awaited another such bottleneck, this one with a large metal door. Dirk doubted the door would hold long against the dark elves.

  Below, a collection of shields like the giant, metal shell of a turtle protected the dwarves. Over the dwarven shields, stones flew to land among the attacking Draggard. The stone-wielding dwarf reminded him of Roakore; he stood upon a pile of rubble surrounded by his dead kin. Big hands reached out into the air, and stones and boulders alike flew through the air killing many.

  One of the dwarf’s hurled boulders sailed past a decorated Barbarian women: Aurora Snowfell. She had indeed made her choice, Dirk realized. On a large horse, she watched the advancement of her barbarians. Beside her, on a steed of black, sat a dark elf lich lord with a staff of bones in her left hand. The stone-wielding dwarf had gotten their attention. The lich lord pointed, and the dark elf at her side leapt from his horse, turned to black smoke, and shot off toward the dwarf.

  Looking back the many hundreds of yards into the pass, he determined that Krentz was still safely behind the dwarven line aiding the warriors in their attempt to hold the narrow expanse. He spurred Fyrfrost into a dive and flew toward the northern wall. The dark elf landed and was met by flying stones and boulders that he easily turned back on the dwarf. Another dwarf barreled in shield-first. The dark elf sent him flying into the northern wall. Fyrfrost brought Dirk directly over the elf and he leapt from the saddle.

  Dirk landed as Zander dove to the side and came up in a defensive stance. The assassin was on the dark elf in a flash, striking with sword and dagger. Zander growled and summoned a spell to his right hand. Dirk dove to the left, avoiding the fireball, and hurled a dart at Zander’s feet. The dart was one of Krentz’s newest creations, made to absorb any nearby spell energy. A humming globe opened beside Zander as he backed from it cautiously. Dirk threw another dart, this one exploding near his head. With a cry of rage, Zander shot spells from each hand in rapid succession. They flew toward Dirk, but soon curved and surged into the globe of Dirk’s enchanted dart.

  A call went out nearby, “Ky’Ro has fallen!”

  Dozens of enraged dwarves rushed toward Zander with weapons held high. Dirk attacked the dark elf, not wanting the dwarves to mistake his allegiance. A cry of alarm went up from the dwarves as they learned of Ky’Ro’s fate. The fallen dwarf now stood before them, his eyes lit with the hellish green light. Zander deflected a slash from Dirk and twirled away. He shot a spell from his right hand that quickly turned and disappeared into the globe. Dirk pressed the attack, knowing the dark elf was frustrated and confused by the spell-absorbing energy globe. The globe would gain power with every spell, and soon pull the dark elf’s energy shield into it as well.

  “Kill them all!” Zander ordered the undead Ky’Ro.

  The angry dwarves reached Zander and struck wildly, sparks exploded with every blow to Zander’s back as the dark elf fended off Dirk’s attacks as well. Zander leapt over Dirk when he found himself trapped, but the leap brought him too close to the energy globe. He landed and his energy shield was pulled into the globe. Dirk attacked mercilessly, his sword and dagger coming from all angles too quickly for Zander to block. The dwarves pressed the attack as Dirk scored a hit to Zander’s face leaving a long slash from chin to ear. Zander called Ky’Ro to him, and the undead dwarf charged to his master’s side. He had taken up a dead dwarf’s mighty double-headed axe, and cleared a swath to his master, felling any dwarf in the way.

  Zander rushed to Ky’Ro and quickly put the undead dwarf between himself and Dirk. Lich lord and undead slave fought back-to-back. Zander killed any dwarf that dared get too close, and Ky’Ro tried to chop Dirk in half with the big axe. The dwarves could not take it upon themselves to strike their fallen prince, but Dirk had no qualms about it. He dodged the lumbering strikes and stabbed the dwarf through the chest with both sword and dagger. The blows had no effect on him and Dirk quickly rolled to the side to avoid the swing of the axe. Again the axe came and Dirk leapt into the air flipping twice to land ten feet away. A Draggard jumped from the northern wall and Dirk swatted the leading spear to the side and struck twice, leaving the Draggard to land legless. He threw an explosive dart at the dwarf that hit him in the shoulder and exploded. Through the smoke of the blast, Ky’Ro came on still. His right arm and shoulder were gone, yet he came on.

  *

  Raene was left to watch helplessly as the man in black fought off the dark elf who killed her brother. Ky’Ro rose from the dead and turned his blade against his kin. The man in black possessed a magic about him, it was in his armor and blades, and in his darts. Frustrated with her inability to move, she was yet entranced by the man’s attack. He opened a globe of energy that seemed to pull the dark elf’s spells to it, and eventually stripped him of his energy shield. Ky’Ro came to the dark elf’s side just as the man in black was about to deal the final blow.

  Beside Raene sat a large shard of stone. Her body was broken and useless, and though pain wracked her mind, she fought for the clarity that would help her to focus. Determination set her mind aflame, determination to inflict any damage she could to the murderous dark elf. The shard beside her began to vibrate and teeter as Raene focused her will upon it. Through the pain and tears, she took hold of the shard of stone with her mind and floated it just above the ground. She gathered what strength she had left and waited for the moment.

  *

  An explosion shook the earth, and dozens of dwarves and shields flew through the air, mangled and broken. Another blast sounded, sweeping more dwarves aside. The ground rumbled as the barbarians and undead charged the broken line.

  Dirk ducked an axe and managed to throw a dart at Zander past the one-armed dwarf. The lich lord twirled away from a dwarven war hammer and swatted the dart away into the dwarven ranks. A surge of human undead hit the dwarves and chaos ensued along the northern wall of the Ky’Dren Pass.

  Zander chopped down a mace-wielding dwarf and turned to strike another. Behind him came the cry of Raene, and he turned her way as a shard of jagged stone flew into his chest. The dark elf staggered back and gripped the shard with one hand whilst parrying the blow of a dwarven axe. With a cry of pain Zander pulled the shard from his chest and broke it over the head of a dwarf.

  *

  Aurora charged through the sea of shields with twenty undead soldiers leading the way. Something forced her to disregard Veolindra’s advice to stay back: Dirk Blackthorn. He stood on a pile of rubble battling an undead dwarf. A strange glowing globe tethered to the dark elf Zander as he frantically fought off the dwarven attack.

  Aurora’s undead guards cut a swath through the dwarves as more explosions sounded behind her. The dark elves began peppering the sea of shields with fireballs, and the dwarven line faltered. Chaos ruled the Ky’Dren Pass as the dwarves fought frantically to hold the enemy at bay.

  Along each wall, similar battles played out, as the Draggard and dark elves attacked the dwarven towers and balconies from which dwarven harpoons, spears, and metal bolts rained down upon t
he enemy ranks. The dwarves fought bravely, but the overwhelming numbers and the spells of the dark elves proved too much. The Ky’Dren Pass would be lost in short time. Already, thousands of dwarves had poured into the Pass from the southern wall, and a steady stream of warriors poured still. But the dark elves began to concentrate their spells on the dwarven tunnels and doorways into the mountain. Fireballs blasted chunks of stone from on high to rain down the side of the wall, closing off many of the passages. Water too was used by the dark elves. They summoned it from their surroundings and forced it to creep into the cracks and crevices along the wall. The water was then frozen solid, splitting the stone and causing deadly avalanches. Worse yet for the dwarves was the raising of their fallen kin. Dark elf lich lords walked the smoldering battlefield, which glowed green in the dreary sunlight. Their ragged cloaks blew in the hot wind of the ravaged land, and, everywhere they went, the dead rose behind them, Draggard, barbarian, and dwarf alike.

  Aurora spurred her mount and undead on faster and was soon plowing through the dwarven ranks like a tidal wave. A lone dwarf recklessly leapt to block her path and planted his heavy axe into the chest of her horse. Her mount lurched forward and threw her through the air, but Aurora was ready, she used the momentum to her advantage. She leapt high and came down with the Dragonlance of Ashai upon the head of a dwarf. Leaving him bleeding on the stone, she hurried on to Zander’s aid.

  *

  Krentz redoubled her efforts as the dwarves−led by King Ky’Ell−pushed the Draggard back from the bottleneck. Dwarves rushed from the southern wall and joined their king in the charge. Krentz became hard pressed to cover them all and refocused her efforts on the king and the front line. She flew as a wisp around the battlefield, making sure to steer clear of the dark elf necromancers. She had sent Chief to aid Dirk, seeing that he had engaged a dark elf. Ever confident he could hold his own, she still felt better knowing Chief had his back. She had seen the barbarian woman take notice of him as well. She saw too that Chief was almost to them. The spirit-wolf glided as glowing mist over the battlefield, his sights set on the charging barbarian.

  *

  Dirk cut through the leg of the undead dwarf and severed his head. Three undead soldiers rushed at him as the dwarf fell to the ground. Dirk withdrew a dart and hit the center soldier in the chest. The three undead exploded in a shower of blood and gore, and through the fine mist and smoke of the explosion, Aurora Snowfell charged. She thrust forth her long dragonlance, which Dirk prepared to deflect, but before the weapons met Chief slammed into Aurora from the side, and the two went tumbling over the pile of fallen rock.

  Zander turned from the dwarves as the undead soldiers and barbarians crashed into the scattered dwarven ranks. He charged Dirk, heedless of the energy globe that absorbed his energy shield. The spell couldn’t reach him now. Dirk sprinted to meet the charge, but came to an abrupt stop as a shadow moved across the sun. Zander noticed it as well, but too late. A giant slab of stone soared through the air and crushed him. Dirk followed the direction the slab came and found King KyʼEll and his dwarves charging toward him.

  “All dwarves to me!” the king bellowed, his voice no doubt lent strength from Krentz.

  Dirk leapt over the stone pile Chief and Aurora had disappeared behind, and came face-to-face with the barbarian Chieftain as she climbed to meet him. Dirk ducked low as Aurora’s dragonlance sailed over his head. Beyond her, he saw Chief in the clutches of a dark elf necromancer.

  Chapter Thirty-three

  Deeds of Legend

  Whill flew over white peaks, approaching the Ky’Dren Pass from the south. He pulled back the power of Adromida and slowed as he approached. With mind sight, he peered through the stone of the mountain to the living creatures within, and observed thousands of dwarves deep inside. The army was steadily filing north to the Pass. Whill came to land upon a ridge overlooking the pass, and what he witnessed infuriated him.

  A grand battle took place below him. The banners of Shierdon and Uthen-Arden flapped violently in the spell winds. Even from the height of the ridge, he sensed something not right about the human soldiers. With his mind sight, he peered into them, but did not find the usual glow of life-force, but, rather, a dull-green, pulsing light. Green tendrils of energy tethered them to their masters, the dark elves. The undead soldiers numbered in the thousands. They, along with the hordes of Draggard and barbarians, had taken the eastern mouth of the pass and drove the dwarves back with spells of fire and ice.

  Whill leapt from his perch and descended toward the line of skirmish casting fireballs in every direction. The spells engulfed the circling draquon, sending them flailing and screeching to the stone below. He landed like a lightning bolt atop a group of Draggard just inside the enemy line. His energy shield crushed them into the earth, and the shockwave that followed his landing knocked down any within a hundred yard radius. Adromida glowed at his command, radiating like the sun itself there in the pass. Silence followed his arrival as everyone in view became blinded by the glow. Confident that he had gained everyone’s attention, he let the sword’s sheen lessen until it was tolerable, yet still brilliant.

  He turned to face the Draggard, dark elf, barbarian, and undead armies. No bodies remained on the ground in the dark elf army’s wake, for they had all been raised from the dead, and now stood before him. A shrill voice bellowed out in a foreign form of Elvish. The undead and Draggard responded by rushing Whill. Dozens of spears sailed toward him, along with arrows and streaking spells from the dark elves. Adromida’s power coursed through him as he brought up his left hand. A web of energy formed before him that trapped the spears and spells. Whill chanted a spell learned from one of the Elven Tomes, a spell that would send back the projectiles to their wielders. A small shockwave rippled through the air before him, and the missiles floating in place turned and shot back toward their owners. The spells erupted in explosions, and the spears and arrows found their marks.

  Inside his pulsing energy shield, Whill conjured a fire spell. He held the form of the spell in his mind and forced ever greater amounts of Adromida’s vast power into it. Soon, a storm of fire formed above his head. Like storm clouds of flame, spewing lightning and licking fire, the spell grew above him in a vortex, reaching high above the Pass walls. Whill unleashed the spell of whirlwind fire and lightning upon his enemies.

  “Veorack un arrek var talthous!” Whill bellowed, his voice shaking the earth below him.

  The cyclone of fire and lightning grew nearly as wide as the Pass, and rolled over the attacking army, cutting a swath through the center all the way to the mouth. When the flame and lightning receded in a rumbling of thunder, thousands of charred and smoldering Draggard, human undead, and barbarians littered the ground.

  “Charge!” the dwarven cry rang out in many voices.

  The dwarven army split off on both sides of Whill like a parting river, and crashed into the armies that remained along the southern and northern walls.

  *

  Dirk ducked below the dragonlance and leapt into a backflip as the tip came flying past once more. Aurora wielded the lance with great agility and strength, but Dirk was faster. Undead climbed the pile of rubble and reached for him with milky green eyes. He held his ground, easily felling the slow abominations as Aurora stalked toward him with hate-filled eyes. Dirk threw two darts in her direction that she batted away with the tip of the lance. The darts exploded on contact and bathed her in flame. Aurora kept coming, unhurt by the explosion. A shimmering energy shield surrounded her, the work of a dark elf.

  All around them, the dwarves clashed with the invaders. One hulking dwargon stomped past, and Dirk leapt to the side to avoid the giant’s feet. On the dwargon’s back rode a dozen dwarves, chopping and hacking away at its scaled flesh as they took it down.

  Aurora swatted dwarves away with the long lance as they rushed her, and Dirk took the opportunity to scale the pile of rubble. At the top, Chief was frantically trying to attack the dark elf woman assaulting him
with a spell of the same green light burning in the eyes of the undead. He threw four consecutive darts at the necromancer, two of which exploded against her energy shield. Each of the other two landed on either side of her and pulsed to life. Two globes flashed and instantly began to leach the green spell from the dark elf. She turned from Chief, infuriated, and blasted the globes with spells of fire and lightning. Her assault had no effect, however, and her energy was absorbed.

  Dirk leapt from the rubble as Aurora’s lance shattered the stone he had been standing upon. He pulled the timber wolf figurine from his pocket as he went, and summoned Chief. The infuriated dark elf abandoned her spell attacks fueling Dirk’s energy globes, and rushed him with two curved blades held out wide. Aurora leapt at him from behind with her lance pulled back to skewer him. Chief floated past the dark elf in a flash of light and returned to the figurine. Dirk landed and blocked the two blades of the dark elf as they came in from on high, and then twisted under the blows and behind his assailant as Aurora came down on him. She pulled her lance up short so as not to hit the dark elf, and Dirk found himself facing them both. Dirk frantically parried the dark elf’s two swords and Aurora’s long lance as he backpedaled closer to his energy globes. When he was between the pulsing globes, he bellowed the command Krentz had taught him. The absorbed energy from the globes lashed out and hit Dirk in the chest where, long ago, a gem had been embedded to store energy. Dirk stopped in his retreat and suddenly rushed his assailants. He leapt into the air over the lance as it stabbed for his chest. In a blur of movement aided by the energy from the globes, he slapped aside the dark elf’s swords and landed a heavy boot to her chest. Aurora spun a tight circle, bringing the lance around to slice Dirk in half; he brought up his sword and dagger in a successful cross block. The force of the blow sent him flying backward into a horde of undead. Aurora charged once more, as he hacked and slashed his way toward her.