Peter of Dwarven Stone (War of Contractia Book 4)

by Tj Dixon

  As the only dwarf in the city allowed to have children through natural means, I spend a lot of my time with my wives, but I can understand why they want to get out and about a bit. As long as they always come back I don’t mind. I have almost a hundred wives so they assume I don’t notice if one or two are missing, but I keep track of all my wives and children to keep them safe and ensure I can always get them back if they decide not to return to me. With over three hundred children and almost a hundred wives the only way to do so is with enchantments. That’s why I know they are all safely within my harem now.

  The elves and humans seem able to port despite our port blocks, but the port barriers on my harem seem to stop even the strongest of elves and humans. I hadn’t expected them to be able to port at all, but it is a relief that they can’t reach my wives. I can’t figure out how the enchantment on my guards works, but it seems to have affected every unshielded guard and the few who were shielded had their shields quickly torn down by the unshielded ones.

  There was only one dwarf who resisted the enchantment even after her shield went down. Captain Theo. It didn’t take the elves long to decide what to do with her. What little remains of her is splattered on the floor near my harem. She was a brave dwarf and I wish she were here with me now.

  For some reason the enchantment doesn’t affect me even though I’m not shielded. I daren’t raise a shield because it would reveal my presence. So now all I can do is crawl around dark tunnels in my own palace. It is both humiliating and terrifying. Silently I curse the elves and their damn human pets. Elves killed my grandfather and now they look likely to kill me too. If every elf in all existence had their soul torn to shreds and fed to a filthy rat god it would be too kind a fate. I should never have allowed the elf to enter this city. Of course he is the least of my worries now.

  I notice a lot of magic outside the palace. Enough to sense even through the closed gates. There must be fighting. So someone has noticed that the palace has been captured by the enemy. They’ll have a hard time opening the gates from outside. The palace is a veritable fortress. Of course I happen to be the one dwarf who can open the gates from anywhere. I smile and throw the gates open. Anyone who got in the way is going to be seriously hurt, though a dwarf wouldn’t be so easily killed. If they were human or elven they might be, but that thought just makes me smile more.

  “Hello your majesty.”

  (General Karina)

  The gates are thrown open from the inside by powerful magic and the Royal Guard standing in front of it are hit by the gates. This gives us a great chance to knock them out and restrain them whilst they are disoriented. Some are even knocked out by the gates themselves. They are all hurt, but they’ll live. Thankfully my own dwarves are all still standing, though one or two are starting to tire.

  “If you need a mana potion, drink it now! Then get into ranks of ten!” I call out. Only a few dwarves seem ready for one. I look around to make sure everyone is ready. They all seem to be and there is no time to waste. “Advance!”

  “Yes general!” They call out and we quickly but calmly advance in formation. Inside the palace we will be much more vulnerable to ambush because of the many intersecting corridors, but at least the main corridor will take us straight to the throne room and the hopefully sealed off harem sanctuary. If the king is a prisoner then speed is now vital. It feels odd to be rushing down these silver tiled corridors past the gem lined walls and under the silver plated roof with a company of dwarves. The rare times I have been here before I always walked slowly and dignified behind a royal escort. Generally one of the king’s sons or daughters.

  We proceed without interference and are soon almost at the throne room. Ahead of us the Royal Guard are hurrying into position. By the time we are in range of them they are ready for us. Rock fists bombard our shields but we send our own back at them. We outnumber the enemy, but they still have enough dwarves to give us serious trouble. Again there must be about a hundred of them.

  Then twenty elves line up behind the Royal Guard and send lightning at us. The only good thing is that we don’t need to worry about going easy on the elves. Now we mercilessly focus our attacks on the elves and instead of rock fists we use fire. Unlike dwarves, elves are not very resistant to fire magic so we need only break through their shields for a moment to kill them. We’ll deal with the Royal Guard afterwards.

  I hear footsteps behind us and turn to see what new threat we face. I blink as I realise it is an unexpected ally. Captain Lela is here with the remains of her company. She has also brought the outsiders with her. The king would not be happy to see them here, but they are allies and I am sure he would be more concerned with the enemy in front of us. I double check that they are not under any sort of enchantment but the only enchantments I can detect are defensive ones.

  I turn back forwards and to my shock see the Royal Guard have turned on the twenty elves behind them. In moments the elves have been cut down by the magical swords of the Royal Guard. I am stunned but the Royal Guard does not waste time. They charge into the throne room and after a moment’s hesitation I begin to lead the advance again.

  “You can thank the faeries!” Lela calls out to me on the mental link. Faeries? Oh, she did mention about faeries earlier. My hesitation gone now I am sure that this isn’t a trap, I speed up the advance. In the throne room I see the Royal Guard fighting humans. No, it would be more accurate to say slaughtering humans. The enemy have too little room to keep their distance, which has left them vulnerable to the swords of the Royal Guard.

  The king is nowhere in sight, but in front of his harem sanctuary is a bloody mess. It seems we were too late. He was probably killed the moment his guards fell under enemy control. If the king is dead what of the Council of Elders? Are they dead too?

  (Smithy Lord Thor)

  “Hello your majesty.”

  “Thor?! What are you doing here? I thought you were dead!” The foolish king whispers. He looks like he’s got an old friend back. I suppose I did try to appear like his friend, but that pretence ends today.

  “I’m here to kill you, your majesty.” I tell him and he blinks before looking at me in horror.

  “You jest?”

  “No, I’m quite serious.” I tell him. I can easily kill him, so he may as well know his fate and my reasons. “I had a son once. You had him executed.”

  “I don’t remember that!”

  “Of course you don’t. He was one of over a hundred young men executed for reading picture books after you banned them.”

  “Your son was one those dirty young men who read those disgusting picture books?” The king asks incredulously.

  “He was a fine outstanding citizen, as was I until you had him executed for something so trivial and pointless.”

  “There were pictures of young dwarven girls in those books, without their clothes.”

  “In some of those books there were, but only ever imaginary young girls that only existed in the books.” I remind him.

  “But even so, the thought of young men reading such filth makes me feel physically sick.”

  “The books with those images in were disgusting, but the ones that had them in only became popular after you banned dwarves from having babies naturally, and nobody was harmed by them. A lot of people were harmed by your executions.”

  “They only had themselves to blame. I warned them to stop reading that filth and they refused! They refused me, the king! How dare they?!” The king says loudly, forgetting to keep his voice down.

  “So it was really just about your authority?” I ask. Not that it really matters.

  “No, it was about protecting young girls!” The king shouts.

  “Well, thanks to your actions all those imaginary young girls can sleep safely in their imaginary beds, whilst the real people of Nirvali become my subjects, because I’m taking your place as king. Those that survive will become my subjects, that is. Many will die. The elves have promised to make me king of not only Nirvali, but of a
ll dwarves so I’ll be a much greater king than you. Any last words?”

  “I’m disappointed in you Thor.”

  “I’ve been disappointed in you for a long time, your majesty.” I say with a smile. Then I summon my twin demon daggers and hold them threateningly. The king draws his dwarven daggers. I look at his large belly and laugh. “So the king who never has any exercise, at least outside of his harem, wishes to challenge me. This should be fun.”

  “Did you think I would simply die without a fight?” The king asks incredulously.

  “No, your majesty. That would be boring.” I say and thrust my right knife at him. He parries with his left knife and attacks with his right, but I counter his attack. Then I smile and his knives shatter.

  “Impossible…” He says looking at his now empty hands in disbelief. I smile and easily shield myself from his flames. Then I stab my right knife into his chest and listen to his howls of pain. I should thank his wives for making these tunnels sound proof and shielding them from magical detection so carefully. I can tell that Karina has retaken the palace, but other than the king and his wives only Captain Theo knew of these tunnels. I made sure the enchantment didn’t work on her so the elves would have to kill her.

  “You’re going to hell, King Norbert. Have a good trip.”

  “Damn you, Thor.” King Norbert manages to gasp.

  “No, you’re the one that’s damned, not me.” I laugh.

  “I’m…”

  “You’re what?” I ask and lean forward, wanting to hear his last words.

  “Taking… you… with me!” He says and grasps my throat weakly. I laugh, but then feel something tugging at me. Shocked and scared I pull away, but the king’s grasp is strong despite the fact that he is dying. No, not dying, dead. He is dead and he truly plans to take me with him in his death grasp.

  I pull away desperately and even use earth magic, but it is no use and I feel demonic hands on my soul. Then I realise I have no need to worry. I summon a demon bat. It isn’t very powerful, but it is strong enough to fend off the demon that is attacking me. I feel the hands of the demon’s grasp on my soul weaken. Then it is gone and I push aside the king’s dead hands with ease now.

  “Thor.” I hear a harsh female voice behind me. It is Karina and I realise that no matter how good the magical shielding on these tunnels may be it can’t hide the presence of a demon. A demon dagger sure, but that is just the soul of a demon. An actual demon is a very different matter. Sure I could hide its presence, but in my desperation I forgot to do so. The port block is still up though, so how did she port here?

  “Karina.” I say with a sigh and port away before she can kill me. My hideout is just a large hole, but I’ll soon have the palace that old Norbert lived in. I suspect I’ll kill his wives, but maybe his daughters might be fun to keep alive and play with.

  “Dwarf.” An unfamiliar elven voice says coldly.

  “Elf.” I mutter back and turn to face her. She’s just a little girl, no bigger than a dwarven girl, but she is wearing a short black skirt and a red leather top that covers her from just below her shoulders to an inch or so above her belly button. She has bright green eyes and dark brown hair down to her shoulders. Her skin is pale.

  “Thank you for your assistance, but it is no longer required, so I will be disposing of you. Any last words?” She says with a cheerful smile that simply doesn’t match her cold words.

  “Your Envoy promised to make me king of all dwarves.” I remind her with a scowl.

  “Idiot, that’s me and of course I was lying. Now time to join your king.” She smiles. I summon every demon I have left. They fill the entire hole for an instant but then they are gone. Killed in an instant. I try to port but she blocks my port and laughs. “You had more of them left than I thought, but it’s time to say goodbye now, foolish dwarf.”

  Chapter 15 (Multiple)

  (The Envoy)

  This battle has been more fun than I’ve had for centuries. The look on the face of that foolish traitor as he died was hilarious, but he has given me plenty of fun sending my human cattle to die. Watching them get burned to ash one after the other was just so cute. I lost a few elves too, but they are unimportant.

  The time for fun is over now. If I lose too many elves or miss the opportunity to defeat the dwarves outright, then Azrael will be pissed at me. That’s why I am going to lead my elite guards into battle. The ten of them should be enough with me fighting alongside them. I’ll deal with the idiots at the palace first. I’ll have to make faery stew once the battle is won.

  “Hello miss Envoy.” A gruff dwarven voice says. It comes from near the corpse of the traitor. For a moment I wonder whether he has somehow survived, but that is of course impossible.

  “So who are you?” I ask shaking my head in amusement that an enemy would dare approach me despite knowing who I am.

  “My name’s Grunti. I’m sorry, but I’m here to kill you.”

  “Well what a coincidence, since I’m going to kill you.” I shrug.

  “Any last words?” The dwarf asks and I laugh the most I’ve laughed for a good ten centuries. I freeze his legs, or rather I try to. Something prevents me using magic.

  Now I’m a bit worried, but not overly concerned. Preventing elemental magic is one thing, but to prevent me from using death magic would be much harder. I summon a death feather and sigh in relief. To think a mere dwarf had me worried for a moment. I send the feather at the dwarf and he just stands there without even attempting to dodge.

  At the last moment I suspect a trick and stop the feather before it can reach him. He reaches out and grasps the feather before I can react. I try to unsummon the feather but it refuses to disappear. I try to contact my elite guards, but I am unable to. I try to port but there seems to be a port barrier around this dark hole we’re in.

  “I see, so that’s how it works.” The dwarf says thoughtfully looking at the feather as if he has forgotten me. I draw my acid knife and quietly approach the dwarf. Could he be foolish enough to ignore me, his enemy, at a time like this?

  My knife is only inches from the dwarf when he looks up and grabs my wrist. I struggle but he is much stronger. He drops the feather and looks at me sadly a moment. Then he brings his other hand back and punches me in the stomach.

  I disconnect from the pain, but as I do so something feels odd. I’m really worried now and seriously considering abandoning this body. Perhaps the dwarf might make a better temporary host, though there’s no chance in any hell that I would stay in a dirty dwarven body for longer than I have to.

  The dwarf then takes something out of his pocket and brings it towards my mouth. I summon a swarm of death feathers and fling them at him, but as I feared he ignores them just like he ignored my first death feather. If I could use elemental magic I could combine it with death magic and create death lances. That would kill him for sure. There are also a whole host of other options if I could use elemental magic. If I could get a long chant off there are also much more powerful spells I could cast with death magic, but right now that simply isn’t an option.

  I abandon my host body before he can force that lump of earth down my throat. I try to possess the dwarf but he resists. There is something shielding him that I couldn’t sense in my host body. I then try to leave this dark hole, but it seems to be shielded too. This is really worrying.

  I have only one option left so I assume my true form. The dwarf looks at me in horror for the first time. He drops the port block and ports away with my old host. In this form I can’t sense where he ported. Now I’m pissed though. I call my elite guards to me and they wince as they see my true form for the first time.

  I consider taking a new host but even my elite guards are unsuitable for that. Actually they are especially unsuitable. For now this form will be fine and hopefully I’ll get my old host back. When I next see that impudent dwarf I am going to roast him in the deepest pits of my favourite hell for all eternity.