Bladeborn

by Clayton Schonberger

  “Well,” Spe agreed, “I suppose since we are comrades I must assume your ally is my ally.”

  “General Bladeborn,” King Rosen asked, “how in the world did you learn to speak the language of a dragon? For surely that is what you are doing—conversing with it.”

  “Nightslayer taught me, my King,” Bladeborn said. “You remember a few weeks ago when I told you that the Sword speaks to me, mind to mind. Well, the Sword has taught me many things, and one is how to converse with a dragon.”

  “I am pleased, General,” King Rosen said. He gave it some thought and walked around the dragon once, as if to examine it from all angles. Spe watched King Rosen lazily, and yawned. King Rosen then picked up the golden bar, and hefted it. A hint of joy came over his face. “Perhaps the gods have finally smiled upon us.”

  Bladeborn put the items back in the bag and said, “We must find that Dwarven guide, Rollbard, so that we can reach the King of the Dwarves. The dragon said that the Dwarven Hall entrance is hidden by magic. If my plan works, the pyramid city will fly again, and it will take the humans of the remaining Realms to safety. I will see your sister, my dear Deocarla again—and stop her from marrying a man she does not truly love. We will be reunited with our people much sooner than expected; and I can try to fix the problems begun by the war with the Rhinolon. Now, let us go.”

  They turned to the dragon, and King Rosen said, “So we have to ride on its neck?”

  Bladeborn nodded and asked Spe, “Can you carry us both, Spe?”

  “Easily,” the dragon said. The dragon once again grew large, and King Rosen gingerly climbed onto the beast.

  “You grip the scales on the sides of its neck with your knees, my King. It’s safe,” Bladeborn said.

  “All right,” King Rosen said. “Off we go, then.”

  Spe leapt into the air and they flew to where Rollbard was sleeping.

  When Rollbard saw King Rosen and Bladeborn riding the dragon, the stocky old mountaineer exclaimed, “I am forever your servant! For surely, I have underestimated you! I watched you defeat the fire demons, and I wasn’t sure how you did that. But to have bested a dragon! With a friend like you, I can only be the better!”

  “Well if you are my servant,” Bladeborn said, “why don’t you return the gold and jewelry that King Rosen and I were cheated out of when we first met! This would be an act of good faith.”

  “Oh, no problem! Think nothing of it!” Rollbard said. “I will gladly take you to the Hall of the Dwarven King now! He will probably reward me. I just have one boon to ask.”

  “What is it?” Bladeborn said as he put his rings back on.

  “I beg you… Mighty Bladeborn, if the dragon is truly your friend—my family is made up of smiths. Ask the dragon to use his fiery breath at our forges. Just for an afternoon. Only dragon fire can make the best weapons and armor in creation. Such legendary Items were made long ago by dragons in captivity. As I said, I am your servant, but I ask you to consider it at least.”

  Bladeborn asked Spe, “Could you control your fire for a Dwarven smith?”

  Spe shrugged and said, “If it is for you, I think it is alright.”

  The three of them rode on the neck of Spe toward the east where Rollbard said the Dwarven Hall entrance could be found. On Spe’s neck The Dwarf was terrified.

  “I’m falling off! I’m falling off!” Rollbard screamed.

  “Don’t worry,” Bladeborn said gripping the panicky Dwarf’s shirt. “I got you. You’re safe.”

  Through the smoky red sky deep in the Spiral Mountains they followed the Dwarf’s directions to the hidden entrance of the Dwarven Halls.

  Chapter 21: The Dwarves

  After a week in the Dwarven Kingdom passed, Bladeborn, King Rosen, and Spe were called into the audience chamber of the Dwarf King, Vimtan. It had been difficult for them to get an audience with him at all. Now they stood facing King Vimtan, who was dressed in a finely embroidered, gem-encrusted robe. His garment was unusual in the bleak, dingy, stone audience hall deep beneath the Spiral Mountains. Vimtan had been hearing the appeals of many others, and he met each of them with a dismissive, lazy attitude. However, Bladeborn had a unique story and the King sat up a bit to argue.

  “So, you claim to have killed a fiery demon?” the Dwarven King asked Bladeborn again, in Dwaven language.

  “I told you, good King Vimtan, I am Bladeborn, General of the armies of the Valley Humans. Yes, I did kill a fiery demon and much more…I led the army that sacked Onager. This is King Rosen of the Sixth Realm, chief among the rulers of the Valley Realms. And this is Spe, the blood dragon, a friend of mine that I met while inside the pyramid city last week. As I said, we seek the Fifth Ward, a prize missing from the City.”

  “You are a trickster, Bladeborn,” King Vimtan declared. “The Elven Pyramid is haunted by tortured spirits of long-dead Elves. Tell me, why is it you seek this Fifth Ward in my halls?”

  “Good King Vimtan, we wish to make the Elf city fly again. To do this we need the Fifth Ward.”

  “Why do you want the Elf city to fly?” Vimtan asked. “Ha ha! That I would like to see!”

  “We wish to transport the humans of the Realms to safety, good King, away from the Rhinolon and the dangers of their devil lords.”

  “Bladeborn,” the old Dwarf King said wearily, “these past five days you have been living in the outer rooms of my halls at my expense, enjoying the hospitality of my home, because Rollbard the drunkard, for better or worse, showed you the entrance to my Kingdom, singing your praises. Is this not true?”

  “This is true to some degree, good King Vimtan,” Bladeborn said. “We awaited an audience with you in what was basically a barely habitable hovel you assigned us. The two small rooms were in the outer-city and you did not allow us entrance into the inner city until an hour ago.

  “Yes, yes,” King Vimtan said, impatiently.

  “While living in the two rooms,” Bladeborn declared, “we were only allowed to leave twice a day to go to the exercise hall. I offered things to the merchants of the outer city in trade. Each of the them said trading with us was illegal until you spoke on it.”

  “Yes, yes,” King Vimtan said, rolling his eyes.

  “Wishing to keep good faith with you, we have refused to sell any goods to the black marketers who have approached us, obviously let into our rooms by the Guards who were supposed to be watching over us. Worse still, in all honestly, good King Vimtan, we have been forced to fend off thieves on several occasions when those same Guards apparently wandered off. So far I am relatively unimpressed with your ‘hospitality.’”

  “Watch your tone, human,” the Dwarven King said with a bit of anger in his voice, “I am KING here. Nothing happens without my words of approval. I let you in—I can have you thrown out again!”

  Bladeborn begrudgingly nodded.

  King Vimtan said, “No one shall ever enter The Pyramid City again, for my scouts tell me that molten rock runs through it like blood through a vein.”

  Bladeborn shifted nervously from foot to foot. If that were true his plans may be dashed once again.

  Vimtan went on, “Also, any treasures that you may have hidden in there are now lost forever. So, all you have is that poor crown, and your sword. I do not know why you are even before me with your outrageous claims. Of course, seeing this small, domesticated blood dragon that you call Spe recalls the days of legend... Yet, overall, I find you are not nearly the champion you claim to be. And this tired-looking old man next to you could NEVER be King Rosen…He is two feet taller, a mighty man in his prime!”

  “We don’t have time for this, Spe.” Bladeborn said in dragon, frustrated and tired at the blatant disrespect shown by the Dwarven King. Spe, smiling only as a Dragon could, began to grow rapidly, filling the hall from its floor the ceiling. Bladeborn snapped Nightslayer out of the sheath and began to increase his size, too. Armored Dwarven Guards advanced on him in quick step. Bladeborn swatted the Sword flat-bladed across the helmets of thre
e of the nearest, knocking them all to the tiled floor.

  “Get his weapon! Get his weapon!” The Dwarf Captain of the Guard said. But then they realized the true threat was from the massive dragon. Spe huffed fire at them and they backed down.

  The Dwarfs assembled in the room were terrified. The Dwarf King magically vanished right before Bladeborn’s eyes. Yelling in Dwarven, Bladeborn threatened, “One exhalation of flame from my powerful dragon friend, and you all will perish!” He was now ten feet tall, with his head nearly brushing the top of the chamber. King Rosen stood between Spe and Bladeborn, with his arms folded on his chest, knowing that they had discussed what they would do if King Vimtan was uncooperative.

  Bladeborn saw more Dwarven Guards with spears coming toward him. He thundered like a kettledrum, “Back, foolish Dwarves, or face our wrath!” Bladeborn swept Nightslayer past them. They kept their weapons pointed at him but they backed off. “Where did that King of yours go?”

  There was a tense pause while Bladeborn, Rosen, and Spe watched the confused and frightened Dwarves try to decide what to do. Finally, a Dwarven cleric advanced with words of peace, “O, mighty General Bladeborn, I am called Telunk, High Priest of Aden. I can act as mouthpiece for King Vimtan for the time being. You say your friend is a fully developed dragon? Rollbard the drunken was not merely telling tales of wild imagination?”

  Bladeborn glared defiantly at the cleric.

  “Perhaps your reputation is genuine, Bladeborn,” the cleric said. “I don’t know how it can be, but if that dragon is willing to cooperate with us in a difficult manner requiring some amount of…patience…on your part, King Vimtan may give you a trade agreement. And further, he might know of the Fifth Ward you seek. Just, please, call the thing off for now!”

  “Looks like we got their attention, Spe!” Bladeborn said, in dragon. “You can return to your Rockcat size.”

  “Harrumph, I was hoping they would attack!” Spe said, genuinely disappointed. “It has been a long time since I ate a Dwarf.”

  Bladeborn addressed those in the hall in Dwarven King again, and announced, “We can be patient if given a bit of respect!”

  “General Bladeborn,” Telunk responded, “There is nothing other than the sun itself hotter than a full-sized blood dragon’s flaming breath. When controlled, the breath of…err… your friend can be ideal for making many very useful things from certain metals that become pliable under no other heat. For centuries, our people have been mining these special ores from the Spiral Mountains. This has been done only with great difficulty, yet to date we have been unable to make much use of them.”

  “So now that we have arrived you wish that the dragon would help...?” Bladeborn asked, in the Dwarven tongue.

  “Well, yes,” the Dwarven Priest of Aden exclaimed. The cleric spoke as if being coached by an invisible person, nearby him. “I err… can speak for the King. If the dragon consents to help us for six months, Vimtan, the generous King of the Dwarves will give the Fifth Ward over, and more. The Dwarves would even try at leading the tribes of the Human Realms through the underworld to the other continent in exchange for the six months of the fire in their forges. We know that is what you and your leader, Err… the man you identify as ‘…King Rosen of the Six Realms…’ would want.”

  “How do you know we have been considering such a journey?” Bladeborn asked suspiciously.

  Telunk looked embarrassed, “There is little that happens in the Halls of the Dwarven King that he is not aware of.”

  “So, you have been spying on King Rosen and me?” Bladeborn asked angrily.

  “Absolutely not!” Telunk insisted. “How would we know what you speak about in your private quarters? We don’t understand your language!”

  “One of you might!” Bladeborn said.

  “General, be reasonable,” Telunk said. “How we found out about it is unimportant. Focus on what is mutually beneficial. Consider what IS important to you, General. The Fifth Ward, and an escort through Draconia to the yellow sun side of the world.”

  Bladeborn weighed their options, “I will hear more of your bargain.”

  Suddenly, Telunk backed off on the bargain, like whoever he was speaking for told him to change what the nature of the deal, “The dragon-fire is, err…fairly useful to us. We can…use it, as we said. In addition, now that Pyramid City has been destroyed once and for all, the Dwarf King is willing to lift the curse that shields the location of the Pyramid from the Elves. But the Dragon’s service will be required for one year. Thusly the most gracious and wise King Vimtan speaks.”

  Bladeborn turned to Spe, and in dragon, asked, “For the past week, we have talked about you lending your fire to the Dwarven smiths on several occasions.”

  “Yes,” Spe said. “I have done this for mortals before in my lifetime. So, have other, lesser blood dragons.”

  Bladeborn continued, “The Dwarven King apparently is asking you to aid the smiths of his realm at their forges. He has asked for one year; a ridiculous amount of time which we simply don’t have. I will tell him no more than two months. I know this would not be something a noble dragon would normally consent to doing, but I have a lot depending on this. You know what this could mean to my people. The time has come to decide: will you do this? If you do, I promise that after fair division of the treasures in the sack of endless space, I will release you from obligations to me.”

  “On one condition…” Spe said in dragon.

  “What is that?” Bladeborn asked.

  “I want that little Dwarven King to ask me personally to do this as a favor to him!” Spe growled, “I want to see that short King bow down a bit, before I give my promise to lend my fire to him!”

  “Threatening him in his Hall wasn’t enough for you?” Bladeborn asked Spe.

  “After how he treated us? NO!” Spe responded angrily. “The only reason his spies don’t know about the sack which holds our treasures is because only you and I have talked about it only in my language! He spied on us, heaped indignity on us… I want to be paid back in kind! He should treat you and the aged King Rosen as equals! And, as well, I have been offended by his rudeness.”

  “I cannot ask Vimtan to bow before us in his own Hall, Spe,” Bladeborn said. “All three of us have been frustrated with our treatment by the Dwarves; yet now we have been recognized and given the respect we deserve. And so, I ask you again: will you consent to do this?”

  “Grrrr. All right,” Spe said, “…But now, you owe me a good fight! A glorious battle against a common enemy with you as my ally. This is my price!”

  With the Telunk, the cleric of Aden, Bladeborn argued back and forth and terms for the bargain were roughed out. In the past King Rosen had considered leading the people of the Six Valleys through the center of Draconia. Yet he had never thought that he would have the support of Dwarves, who knew the ways of the under land so well. Telunk’s offering of Dwarven help changed everything.

  King Rosen whispered to Bladeborn, “If the Dwarves indeed help us find a safe path through the center of Draconia, our people could possibly find a safe homeland. I never thought any Dwarf would consent to doing so. Why they are striking such a bargain now mystifies me. I know they want your dragon friend to lend his fires to their forges. But there is probably more this King Vimtan wants. Still, accept his terms! It just might be the answer the people of the Realms have wanted for generations!”

  “Telunk,” Bladeborn announced. “We can work out the final details of this later. For now, we shall accept the terms—two months of the dragon’s fire for guidance through the under lands.”

  Telunk paused a moment as if he was listening to an invisible figure nearby, then he said, “Two months are not the agreement, General. The gracious King of the Dwarves…”

  Two months are all we care to offer at this time,” Bladeborn responded.

  “For now,” Telunk said, “the gracious King Vimtan, in all his wisdom, agrees.”

  They began their stay within the grime-fil
led halls of the Dwarven Kingdom.

  The inner passageways of the Dwarven Kingdom were undeniably vast, and at one time they must have been as beautiful as anything in the Human Realms. But even in the rooms where King Vimtan dwelled, there were piles of garbage with vermin all about and enormous sections of broken stonework badly in need of repair. Simple neglect and years of soot from the forges in the recesses of the halls had made the former glory of the place dingy, and the runic poems covering the walls were completely illegible.

  There were also hundreds of beggars and drunks in Vimtan’s Dwarven halls. They were almost as common as normal citizens in the city. Not long after Bladeborn and King Rosen began their stay in the halls of the Dwarven King, they came to know another unpleasant secret of the Dwarven way of life under Vimtan. The debtor’s prisons were filled to overflowing with entire families languishing in servitude. Many Nobles held their own prisoners for one reason or another, and those held in servitude by King Vimtan or a Noble did most of the labor in the city.

  After bargaining about it with King Vimtan for several days, they got the length of their stay down to two months.

  Bladeborn and King Rosen were invited to dine at the Dwarf King’s table often during the first weeks of their stay. But finding the King’s foodstuffs bland, they only ate small portions, and they agreed that there was a danger they could be poisoned.

  At this, Nightslayer said, ~~I would let you know, Swordsman, if the food you ate was poison~~

  “You are able to determine that?” Bladeborn asked the Sword. “Why didn’t you tell me you were able to do that before, Nightslayer?”

  ~~To this point, you have never been in such a high risk for poisoning, Swordsman…King Vimtan, were he to find out about the treasure you have in the sack, might try to steal them by killing you, King Rosen, and Spe with poison~~

  “Is he considering it?”

  ~~I don’t know, but I will warn you if the food you are about to eat is dangerous. You already know that because of my awareness I can warn you of impending threats. Usually, I can protect you from such things as this~~