Two Necromancers, a Dwarf Kingdom, and a Sky City

by L. G. Estrella

  Ten minutes later, he was desperately wishing he’d disobeyed his orders.

  They had teleported, but not into the skies over Diamondgate. Instead, they had reappeared in some strange place with crimson and violet skies where they’d been set upon by bizarre fungus creatures. The dwarves had done their best to fight them off, but it wasn’t easy. The creatures could manipulate time, and one of the main engines was badly damaged. Perhaps they’d be able to flee if he could repair it, but he needed to oversee the repairs in person. As he ran through the courtyard, something else appeared. It was an eldritch titan of immense size, a mountain-sized version of the fungus creatures they were still trying to fight off. The giant loomed over the Sky City, and he felt its power ripple outward. Time began to slow, and the magical defences woven into his tools and clothing activated. For a moment, he was able to shake off the attack, but then even his defences were overwhelmed. This was time manipulation on a scale far beyond anything he’d imagined possible. If only their barrier hadn’t failed following their attempt to teleport, they might have been able to fend off the attack. But right now, they were helpless. He had to do something – anything. If he could get to the barrier control chamber and recalibrate it…

  His mind slowed, but one thought lingered.

  He had to do something.

  And then there was nothing.

  Until now.

  He tripped and tumbled to the ground. Something tried to lift him to his feet, but he lashed out wildly. He’d not let these fungus monsters take him! He’d die first! He reached for the dagger at his side, but it was wrenched from his grasp. In a panic, he managed to break free, and he fumbled for the hammer on his tool belt. It wasn’t a war hammer, but it was better than nothing. However, all thoughts of battle fled as he laid eyes on a face that no dwarf could ever forget.

  It was Councillor Amanda Aurora Arthurs, the very woman who’d first visited the dwarves to broker an alliance between them and Everton. It was not an exaggeration to say that many dwarves considered her the most beautiful woman in the world. Slowly, he lowered the hammer as he did his best not to stare. The stories could never do justice to how it felt to stand in her presence. He inclined his head respectfully. “Councillor… how may I serve?” He noticed the state of her clothing out of the corner of his eye, and rage flared within him. Her clothing was badly ripped and torn, and there was blood all over it. “Who dared to attack you?” he growled. When she didn’t reply, he looked up only to see nothing but unfamiliar faces in the large group that filled the courtyard. “What’s going on? Who are these people? Councillor?”

  “Be at ease, Marden.” Her voice was every bit as reassuring as he remembered from the times they’d spoken. As an engineer of great skill, she had often sought his advice on improving the roads and infrastructure linking Everton and the Broken Mountains. “The ones who attacked me are already dead. However, you may wish to sit down. I have good news and bad news for you.”

  His mouth opened and closed but no sound emerged as he finally grasped the situation. He was still in the Sky City, and that damnable monster was still there with its tentacles coiled around the city. And the people with the councillor… there were dwarves, zombies, golems, a labyrinth hound, and even a little dragon! None of them had been there when Skygarde had teleported to this place, so how could they be here now? He took an unsteady step back, and the councillor reached out to steady him.

  “What…” His gaze swept over the crowd again, desperate to find a familiar face. There! One of the dwarves was wearing a crown. “King Eradin?”

  “No.” The huge dwarf tugged off his helm. “Although he was my ancestor. I am King Barin IV.”

  “King Barin IV? But King Barin II was the previous king…” Marden clutched at his head and turned to the councillor. “What’s going on? What happened?”

  She told him, and he might have thrown up a little in a combination of terror, panic, and confusion. Thankfully, there was a helpful man there who pulled a bucket out of thin air to prevent the situation from getting any messier than it already was. Yet, like any good dwarf, it wasn’t long before he adopted a more pragmatic approach. Finding out that he and everyone else in Skygarde had essentially been frozen in time for centuries was not pleasant. In fact, it was exactly the kind of thing to drive a dwarf mad. However, he could worry about the philosophical and existential implications later. Right now, he needed to focus on fixing the problem. Once he, the rest of them, and the Sky City were safe, he was going to sit down, grab as much mead as he could, and drink until he either passed out or things started to make sense. Hopefully, his friend Galen hadn’t been killed by one of those damn fungi before the giant one froze everything. He was a great drinking buddy.

  “It is as the necromancer suspected,” Marden said as he tried to wrap his mind around the idea of a necromancer actually helping the dwarves instead of trying to murder them all and turn them into zombies. “The teleportation device sent us here, and those things attacked us.”

  “Can you get the teleportation device and the weapons working again?” Daerin asked.

  Marden studied the other dwarf intently. He’d apparently made the golems keeping watch, and their quality was obvious to anyone with an eye for artifice. The king’s brother was a clever dwarf. “I’m not sure. I’d have to investigate them myself. We were attacked the second we got here. The little ones were bad enough, but the big one took at least a few of our best shots before it froze us all. I do know that at least one of our engines failed when we arrived, along with some of our weapons and our barrier. I didn’t have time to pinpoint the cause, but it’s possible the teleportation damaged them somehow.” He winced. “I was on my way to check the engine when the big one froze everything. If we couldn’t win the fight, I was hoping we’d be able to retreat and live to fight another day.”

  The king settled one hand on his shoulder. “Nobody blames you.” He looked over at the gigantic cosmic fungus. “Against a foe like that, it would have been better to retreat and come up with a plan than stay and fight an unwinnable battle. But put aside the regrets of the past. Your misfortune may prove to be a blessing in disguise, for the Sky City is needed once more.”

  “We should check the engine and the weapons,” Daerin said. “Because if we activate the teleportation device, we’re going to attract a lot of attention, and like any good dwarf, I’d like as many weapons as possible when these monsters come after us.”

  “That… that I can agree with.” Marden took a deep breath. To think he was so many years into the future. Everyone he’d known – his wife, his children, the rest of his family – all of them were gone. The dwarves of the Broken Mountains still endured, but they were fighting for survival against a seemingly endless tide of goblins. The Sky City had been built to fight the empire and safeguard the dwarves. If only it had been there… so much of the heartache these dwarves had told him about could have been avoided. But the king was right. There was no point in regretting a past he could not change. The Sky City could still return and fulfil its purpose. All of the resources and effort they’d put into building it would not be in vain if they could just make it back to their world.

  Marden looked at the old swordsman, the one whose seemingly harmless appearance only hinted at his skill. “Can you unfreeze a few of the others? I know it’s a lot to ask because it’s not easy, but we’ll need more help to get everything working.”

  Old Man nodded. As unassuming as he seemed, Marden wasn’t fooled. He was a dwarf. He knew trouble when he saw it. Old Man was dangerous. “I can unfreeze four or five at the most. Any more, and we run the risk of the big one realising something is amiss.”

  The necromancer grimaced. “And we wouldn’t want that – not until we’re ready.” He turned a watchful eye to the gigantic cosmic fungus. “It looks as though it’s hibernating while it consumes the energy of the Sky City. Once we start powering everything up, it’s bound to notice something is wrong.”

  “Aye.” Mard
en wished he could get a better read on the necromancer. The few he’d encountered in the past had all been bad news, but the king had been very clear on how helpful he’d been. He shook his head. The future was a strange place indeed if it had benevolent necromancers in it. And then there was the young dragon that claimed the elf was his mother. As a rule, elves and dragons did not get along. The latter burned things for a living, and the former lived in what were essentially giant pyres. Likewise, dwarves and dragons had little love for each other. Dragons loved to seize and hoard precious things, and dwarves loved to dig up gold, jewels, and other valuables. Dragons also didn’t believe in paying market prices, so conflict was usually inevitable with dragons almost always coming out on top. It was, after all, hard to beat a giant, flying reptile that was basically impervious to physical and magical attack that could breathe fire hot enough to melt stone and had teeth and claws capable of tearing through castles. Still, Marden wasn’t about to complain. The dragon might still be a wee lad for his kind, but it was nice to have a dragon on his side for once. “Let’s get going then. We’ve got a lot to do, and the sooner we’re out of here, the happier we’ll all be.” He glared at the giant eldritch horror wrapped around the city. “And it’ll be just our luck if that big bastard wakes up early.”

  To Marden’s surprise, Daerin was even more skilled than he’d thought. The younger dwarf was truly gifted, more than capable of keeping up with him and the others they’d freed despite never having seen the Sky City before. To think there was still such talent amongst the dwarves! The weapons on the starboard side of the city had all suffered mechanical damage. They had likely been struck by one of the enormous tentacles the titanic fungus had used to grab Skygarde. However, the damage would be relatively straightforward to repair, and the necromancer and Old Man both felt they could get away with unfreezing time around some of the supplies and the weapons without alerting the creature, provided the weapons remained deactivated.

  More troubling was the damage to the systems that supplied magic to the weapons. However, Daerin and the necromancer both seemed to be well versed in runes and seals – the necromancer to an alarming degree. He even knew of quite a few innovations and alternate styles that had been developed since the Sky City had been trapped, as well as styles and techniques that had been ancient even in Marden’s youth. It made him wonder what sort of life the necromancer had led. It must surely have been an interesting one since runes and seals were not easy to learn, and he’d never heard of a necromancer with such expertise in them.

  “The Councillor looks exactly the same,” one of his fellows muttered. “And it’s been centuries.”

  “I suppose I should explain,” the councillor said. She was helping them carry supplies back and forth. “People have remarked on my longevity in the past, but I have concealed the cause of it. I am a vampire – an ancient vampire – and I’m no longer on the Council although one of my descendants is.”

  “A vampire?” Marden’s brows furrowed. It made sense, now that he thought about it. But vampire or not, the councillor had always done right by the dwarves, and if the stories the king had mentioned were true, then she had only continued to do right by them after Skygarde had vanished. “Well, none of us are comely, young virgins. I think we’ll be safe.”

  That drew laughter from all of the others, and the councillor’s lips curved up into a small but genuine smile. “Oh, you needn’t worry. None of you looks particularly tasty. So… how are the repairs going?”

  “We can’t work too quickly, and we can’t switch anything on. Your necromancer friend and the old swordsman both think too much activity will wake our opponent before we’re ready. That thing is sleeping at the moment, so we want to wait as long as we can before waking it up.” Marden’s lips pursed. “Based on our current pace and keeping in mind that we’re trying to avoid being noticed, it could take us a day or two to get everything ready. My main concern is the teleportation device. It uses the gate that connects to the Hearthgate as its core. From what you’ve said, these creatures were able to do something to the Hearthgate, so they must be sensitive to its energies. Once we activate the teleportation device, it will take at least fifteen to thirty minutes to warm up and calibrate. During that time…” He shook his head at the huge eldritch monstrosity wrapped around the Sky City. “That thing has been devouring the energy of this city for centuries. It’s had a nice, easy meal all this time. It won’t just let us walk away.”

  “Then we’ll have to fight it off long enough to make our escape, not to mention the others it might call upon for aid once it realises what is happening.” Amanda chuckled grimly. “Dwarves are fond of heroic tales, are they not?”

  Marden shared a look with his fellow dwarves. “Aye, my lady, we are. There’s nothing dwarves like more than beating the odds and overcoming adversity.”

  “Then let me tell you a story, Marden. A second war is coming. The Eternal Empire has gathered its strength once more, and Everton is about to be under siege. The Broken Mountains have been plagued by goblins, yet now there is a chance to be rid of them. The Sky City could not be there when it was needed, yet now it – and all of you – have a second chance. Precious few ever get to undo their mistakes, Marden. Precious few ever get a chance at redemption.” She smiled. “This is a story people will speak of for millennia. Your people will cherish the deeds you do and hold them in high esteem. You can be heroes, Marden, but first we need to get home. I ask you: are you ready?”

  “Not yet,” Marden replied. He hefted his tools, and the others did the same. “But, my lady, I promise we will be – and soon. We failed once. We will not fail again.”

  He and the others worked tirelessly through the night. They gave it their all, and when dawn – or what passed for it in this accursed place – came, he was able to walk proudly to Amanda.

  “My lady.” He bowed. “We are ready.”

  “Ready?”

  “Yes. We are ready to take back what’s ours. We are ready to be heroes, albeit not conventional ones.” He grinned fiercely and pointed his hammer at the colossal cosmic fungus. “And most of all, we’re ready to beat that big bastard.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  Avraniel was not someone who needed to be told to attack her enemies. Her first instinct when threatened was to make whoever was threatening her realise that they had made the biggest damn mistake in their entire stupid life. She was the one who threatened people, not the other way around. The Sky City was finally ready to pick a fight, so they needed someone to get the party started. And what better way to start the party – and disrupt the magic freezing the rest of the city in time – than by hitting the huge fungus monster with an absolute crap load of fire? She didn’t know if she could kill it, but she’d definitely get its attention.

  “Are you ready?” Old Man asked. He had his hat tilted down a bit to hide his expression. Interesting. He usually only did that when he started to get a bit more serious in a fight. Well, she’d seen the look in his eyes earlier. He wasn’t fooling around, not this time.

  “Yeah, yeah. I’m ready.” She rolled her shoulders to loosen them up. She would have been perfectly content to blast away at this thing on her own, but they didn’t know if the giant fungus was truly dormant or if it was still alert enough to defend itself from a big attack. Sure, the huge son of a bitch looked like it was asleep, but it was still draining power from the Sky City. If it sensed her incoming attack, there was a chance it could wake up in time to defend itself. It had already shown it could stop time for an entire city. The last thing they needed was for it to stop her attack too. Instead of wasting power on trying to overwhelm it, Old Man would ensure her attack hit. It wasn’t her usual way of doing things, but she wasn’t an idiot. This would only be the start of the battle. Throwing around too much power before they knew how strong the colossal monster was – or if there were others just like it waiting to ambush them – would have been really dumb. “Let’s do this.”

  She raised the B
ow of the Sun and took aim, not that she could miss something so big. The weapon began to draw on her magic, and she felt a familiar surge of heat as an arrow formed. It was so bright and the heat was so intense that only someone with her magic or a dragon would have been able to get anywhere near it without going blind or catching fire. Old Man had moved further away, and sweat had broken out across his brow.

  Despite the massive amount of magic the bow required, it felt perfect in her hands, like it had been made for her. Her breathing was calm and even, and she felt more at peace than she had in days. Life could be complex. Hitting a giant monster with as much power as she could muster was nice and simple. Amanda shouted something about them being noticed, but Avraniel only smiled. Of course, they’d been noticed. She’d already put more power into this arrow than she had into the one that had smashed the barrier around that crime lord’s fortress, and she wasn’t stopping either.

  Of course, such a huge monster couldn’t wake up too quickly. If it was like the behemoths she’d faced in the past, they had at least a minute or two before it was fully alert, and a lot could happen in two minutes. She waited patiently as Old Man wove his magic around the arrow. Countering the effects of the cosmic fungus’s time manipulation across an area as large as the Sky City was probably impossible for the swordsman, but keeping an arrow-sized projectile safe was well within his power. She wasn’t sure where to aim, but there was a grove of massive mushrooms near the middle of its huge cylindrical body. She could feel a lot of power there, so it seemed like a good place to aim. If they were lucky, she might even damage something important. The little ones hadn’t really had any vital organs to aim for, but the big one didn’t look exactly the same as them. Maybe it did have some weak spots. If it did, then sooner or later, she’d find them and blast them.