Captain Thompson was rushing toward the queen when the big armored scary-looking dwarf went thundering past him. Then Prince Stoneheart went flying past him, hanging from his axe, his feet dangling just a few inches off the ground. Up ahead, the wizard disappeared just as Grundel’s other axe flew past him.
Grundel flew past Flucht before he made it to the intersection. He released the magic of the axe with a mental command, and he immediately fell to the ground. He tucked and rolled as he called out for his other axe to return. It his hand just as he came to his feet. He was standing in the middle of the intersection the wizard had just been standing in, but there was no sign of the Black Dragon. Flucht came running up next to him just as he heard a scream somewhere a few blocks to his right. They both took off running.
Jabaal and Rundo caught up to Captain Thompson and were chasing after Grundel when the wizard vanished again. Rundo stopped and began to strip. He wished that his hawk Messah was here, so she could search for him, but he had left her at Shinestone with Rundo. He began shifting. By the time he was in the air, the soldiers and Jabaal were turning right at the intersection. Flying up over the buildings, Rundo took advantage of his hawk vision. He found the wizard, but there was another wizard appearing and disappearing on rooftops following him.
Grundel looked up and saw Rundo flying over city, going in the same direction. He threw his axe to the roof of the nearest building. He called on his weapon again, and the axe in his hand carried him to his axe on the rooftop.
He ran, leaping from rooftop to rooftop, following Rundo. He saw another wizard ahead of him disappear and reappear on another rooftop, and then he leapt down. Grundel sprinted after him. He made it to the top of the rooftop the wizard had leapt down off of in time to see a shard of ice materialize in front of the wizard’s hand and fly into the back of the other wizard as he was starting to disappear again. The Black Dragon wizard fell to the ground, dropping Grundel’s unconscious mother next to him. The other wizard began to move toward her and Grundel leapt off of the roof. He hit the ground, letting his legs give out under him as he rolled forward. The impact was painful, but he wasn’t about to let the man near his mother. He jumped up and ran the half dozen steps to stand between her and the wizard. He could feel the tightness in his right leg and ankle, and he knew it would hurt to put weight on it for days, but right now that wasn’t important.
The wizard stopped and stood staring at Grundel.
“Who are you?” Grundel asked.
“Dad?” the man responded.
“What?” Grundel asked. Then he remembered what Captain Thompson had said about the homeless man who had led him to where his mother had been taken. They said the man could only say the word dad.
“Are you the man who led Captain Thompson to my mother?”
Flucht came running over, his weapon ready and oriented toward the beggar. Grundel waved him off and Flucht posted himself a few steps behind the man.
The man ignored Flucht and continued to look at Grundel. “Dad,” the man said, this time in a different tone, and Grundel took it as a yes.
Rundo landed next to him and began transforming back into his halfling form.
The wizard turned his eyes to watch the change. “Dad,” the wizard said in a tone that somehow conveyed that he was impressed and surprised.
“Thank you. And Dad to you as well,” Rundo answered. He must have left his clothes. He was standing in the street naked, holding a belt with two sheathed daggers hanging from it. At least he had taken the time to snatch that up in his beak.
“How?” his mother asked from the ground behind him. He turned to her, knowing that Rundo wouldn’t take his eyes off of the other man.
“We came to save you. One of the Black Dragon wizards escaped with you. This wizard caught up to the other one,” Grundel explained.
“How are you alive?” she said. As she stood she put her hand on her son’s shoulder and pushing him gently to the side. Grundel moved to the side to allow his mother a better view of the man.
“Dad,” the man responded.
Grundel wrapped an arm around his mother and picked her up so that she was standing even though all her weight was on him. “That is all he says. He snuck up on the other wizard.”
She put her hand to his mouth. “Shhh.” She looked deep into the man’s eyes. Grundel saw something familiar in his eyes. He saw his mother’s eyes. His eyes. Patria eyes.
“How are you alive?” she asked again, and this time Grundel didn’t say anything, waiting to hear who he could be. The man looked away, but his mother wouldn’t stop. “How?” she demanded and tears appeared in her eyes. Grundel had never seen his mother cry.
The man looked back at her.
“How?” she pleaded in a raspy voice barely louder than a whisper.
The man looked into her eyes for a moment. He heard the footsteps of the soldiers coming around the corner. He looked back at them, then back to her. “I will tell you everything. Don’t tell them who I am yet.”
The wizard then pulled out a very small cheap-looking hand crossbow. He pulled a bolt from inside his vest and pushed it into the hole where the shard of ice had slammed into the man’s back. He turned and held up his hands. “Dad!”
Captain Thompson came running over. The other soldiers pulled up short; some took up defensive positions around them, while a few of them oriented on the beggar and the dead wizard.
“Your Highness, are you all right?” Captain Thompson asked.
“I will be fine. This man saved me. Please have a room prepared for him in the palace, while we figure this out,” Anna told them.
Captain Thompson looked at the beggar then at the body. He reached down and ripped the bolt out of the body violently. “Of course, Your Highness. Guard, back to the palace! Circle formation! Move!”
The soldiers tightened the circle around and began to move.
As the soldiers began to march, Grundel fell into step nest to Captain Thompson at the center. He carried his battered mother in his arms. “You could have at least put on some trousers,” Anna said jokingly to Rundo.
He had become very comfortable with his body lately, but his face still turned bright red before he shifted into his hawk form and leapt into the air. He was met by the huge hawk form of Evelyn and the circled the formation as it moved down the street back toward the palace.
Rundo kept one eye on the beggar all the way to the palace. He realized that Captain Thompson was constantly looking at the man as well. It was dark, but the moon was bright, and they were passing through torchlights. It didn’t take long before people began to notice who it was being escorted through the city. Cheers began going up ahead of them.
“The Queen is saved,” rang out around them in all directions.
Chapter Twelve
Fight or Die
General Moglin found his king sitting in the Assembly Hall on the throne. He was staring angrily up at the wall. “King Bergmann,” he said, snapping the king out of his contemplation.
“What happened?” the king asked angrily. He was becoming more and more impatient with each day.
“They are dead, King Bergmann,” General Moglin stated flatly.
“All of them?” the king asked.
“All three. They all just died. Flucht is there. I can feel him there. He is most likely with the champions of Evermount,” Moglin answered, using the term that had begun being used for King Stoneheart’s son and his non-dwarf companions.
“You said three of them could handle this,” the king shouted.
“We underestimated them. We couldn’t imagine that they could move that quickly without the aid of their wizard,” General Moglin answered. He did not get shaken or disturbed by the king’s anger. There was nothing that could be done to him that was worse than what had already been done, and he was a general who had nearly a century of experience when this king was born. He did what needed to be done, and when something didn’t go as planned he adapted and moved on.
/> “You underestimated them, or you overestimated yourself. It doesn’t matter. You failed. They obviously know how to defeat you now. I want to reinforce our strength. Send someone to negotiate with Portwein. No, you go. They will die for their betrayal, but first we will use them and weaken them at the same time. They are scared we will attack them. Reports have already come in that they are building another wall. Use that fear and their king’s greed to bring them to our cause. The will be our wall. When they collapse, Stoneheart’s dwarves will be weaker, and maybe then you and your Dwarves of Chaos can finally do what you were made for.”
“What would you like me to offer in order to feed the human king’s greed?” Moglin asked.
“Offer him whatever it takes. He will never see it, and if we have to give it to him, we will just take it back when this is all done. Portwein will be the first to fall when the dwarves’ kingdoms are all united under Delvidge.”
“I will leave immediately, King Bergmann,” General Moglin said, bringing his fist to his chest in salute. He turned and left the room. He didn’t like the idea of going to Portwein, but he couldn’t deny that it was a smart decision. If they could get Bordin’s dwarves fighting the humans before they could even attempt to get into Tiefes Loch, they would be weaker. He made his way through Tiefes Loch to gather the dwarves he would take with him. He needed enough to be intimidating, but not so many that they felt threatened and tried to defend themselves. He decided on thirty, not including himself. He would take ten of the Chaos Dwarves and twenty regular dwarven soldiers.
* * *
King Merwein sat in his room, brooding. He had hardly left the room over the last couple of days. The wall was not being built as fast as he would have liked, but it was coming along. His army hadn’t returned, and he felt very vulnerable. His soldiers had betrayed the dwarves of Tiefes Loch. They had done it on the command of his advisor, but it left him vulnerable. With the army gone, there wasn’t anything stopping the dwarves from attacking. From the word he had received, it would be another week before his army returned and months at the earliest before the wall was finished.
Someone knocked at the door, interrupting him from thinking about his predicament for the hundredth time that day.
“Who is it?” he shouted through the door. The door opened and his new aide stepped inside, offering a bow. He didn’t trust the man, but he was the first man who had been remotely competent in the position. He knew what needed to be done and took initiative. The others fumbled and stuttered anytime anyone of the smallest amount of importance was around. “What is it, Roland?”
“Your Highness, there is an envoy of dwarves at the gate.” Roland anticipated his next question and began explaining, “It is only thirty dwarves, Your Highness. They are being held at the gate until I send word to the sergeant of the guard. I thought you might want to see them, if only to delay the dwarves long enough for our army to return.”
“Good, Good. Send them up, but keep them heavily escorted. Keep at least two guards to each dwarf. When they get to the hall, send in only two of them and have a dozen guards in the room,” Merwein ordered.
“Yes, Your Highness. I will have them hold the rest of the group outside in the palace yard,” Roland told the king, bowing and dismissing himself without waiting for any further orders. That had irritated Merwein at first, but now he appreciated the man's ability to be brief and get things done. He just had to make sure that the man was acting in his best interest. He hadn’t figured out what his motives or ambitions were, and he wasn’t about to buy the man’s ‘good of the kingdom’ act.
* * *
General Moglin watched as a man walked up to the soldier at the gate. The soldier took his orders and then came out to meet him. “General, I will take you to the palace. I must ask you tell them to put their weapons away.”
“Their weapons are permanently attached to their hands. You are free to examine them. I can assure you that the weapons do not come off without a great deal of work in a forge with tools that are not available in your city,” he told the soldier.
The soldier stared at him for a minute before Moglin held up his hands, showing the deep gashes where his swords used to be attached. He fought with two swords, so when he went into the room with his weapons in hand, both of his swords were melded to his hands. That made it very difficult for him to accomplish quite a few things, and he had spent days in the forge while blacksmiths worked to remove the steel that had been melded to his hands. Now his hands were free, but none of the other Chaos Dwarves had removed any of their weapons. He watched the shocked look on the man's face come and go as he saw the wounds.
The soldier looked at a couple of the others’ hands, seeing that the weapons were somehow melded to their bodies and turned back to Moglin. “General, you may follow me. Please inform your dwarves that if they make any movement that is considered threatening, they will be killed immediately.”
General Moglin just stared into the man’s eyes. The soldier finally broke and turned around. They followed the guards through the city, and up to the extravagant palace.
The streets leading to the palace were crumbled stone or just dirt with more hovels than houses. The city was mostly poor, but the palace was painting perfect. The gate to the palace was made of solid gold and was completely ornamental. If anyone tried to get through that gate, the soft gold would give in easily. Once inside, the path to the palace was well-maintained granite. The steps to into the palace were marble. The doors were plated in gold, as were the bars on the balconies above him.
As they approached the palace steps, the guard turned and stopped. “I can only allow two of you to enter, and it cannot be one of your dwarves with weapons. I cannot allow you to take weapons into the audience chamber with the king.”
General Moglin looked at the man and smiled. He removed his swords from his hips and handed them to the dwarf beside him. “I will go alone.”
The man led him up the marble steps and through the gold-plated door. Inside, everything was ornamental, but it was obvious that it had been plated more recently. The entrance way was set up to be defended. It was narrow to prevent a surge of enemy forces into the palace, and there were small balconies and murder holes all the way down it. At the end of the entryway, a passage went left and right with a double door directly in front of him.
They went through the door into the king’s public audience chamber. It was a large room, roughly a hundred paces from the entrance to the far wall where the king’s throne sat. The room was roughly thirty paces from left to right. Moglin located twelve soldiers, not counting the one escorting him. There were six soldiers in a line at the bottom of the five steps that led up to the platform the throne sat on. The soldier with him escorted him across the room until he stood within ten paces of the line of soldiers. He stood between the remaining six guards, three on each side.
General Moglin stared up at the human king. He was what you would expect from a human noble. The bones in his face were prominent. He had dark hair that was cut at his shoulders. For whatever reason, he chose to shave the hair on the side of his face, leaving him with a short-trimmed beard around just his mouth and chin.
The king stood. “General Moglin, I understand you were sent here with a message from your king. Neither of us have time to waste with idle conversation, so let’s get right to it.”
Moglin had to admit he appreciated the man’s bluntness. “King Merwein, your men betrayed our army at Shinestone. That cost of that betrayal is your city.”
“Yes, I already know that. If Bergmann didn’t want something from me, I would be facing a dwarven army, not you, so what is it that he feels is worth my whole city?” Merwein asked in frustration. His patience had been worn thin to nearly non-existent.
Moglin stared around the room at the soldiers before looking back at the king. “You will send your army to Tiefes Loch. They will help defend our city. We can defeat the other dwarven army, but we will take great casualties. We intend to sh
are those casualties with you. Had it not been for your betrayal, our army would already be marching on Haufen. If your army does not come, the army of Tiefes Loch will march on your city. There is still plenty of time before the dwarves of Bordin make it this far south. We will burn your city to the ground and return in time to defend our own. Your choice is simple. Fight or die.” He heard the creaks of armor as the guards around the room tensed.
“You make very bold claims. What makes you think your dwarves can take this city so easily? Even if you took the city before the other dwarven army made it to Tiefes Loch, your army would be too weak to defend your home.”
King Merwein had barely finished talking when the dwarf general spun, his steel-covered hand smashing into the neck of the guard behind him. The man’s neck broke and he fell to the ground. The dwarf had somehow managed to take the soldier’s sword before he fell. He turned and threw the sword at one of the three crossbowmen standing in front of the platform. The sword buried to the hilt in the man’s chest.
King Merwein watched, frozen in awe as the dwarf stepped up to the next guard and blocked the man’s sword with his steel-covered forearm. He punched the man in the chest so hard that his armor dented, and he fell to the ground, gasping for breath. The bones in his chest were broken and his lungs were obviously not working. Whether they had collapsed from the blow or been punctured by the bones didn’t matter; he was dying. The dwarf didn’t even go for the soldier’s weapon, he just turned to the next guard in line.
King Merwein heard the twang as a crossbow bolt was released, but the next thing he saw was not a bolt in the dwarf’s chest but in his hand. He had caught it. He stabbed the nearest soldier in the neck with the bolt before spinning and throwing it so hard that it actually punched through the crossbowman’s breastplate into his chest.
The Half Dwarf Prince Trilogy Page 47