The Half Dwarf Prince (17 page)

Vingaza saw the big dwarf’s belt buckle absorb the dark energy stream that one of the other wizards had cast just as he was shooting his own at the human with the knives. When he saw that, Vingaza knew that these were the ones who had killed Malvagio and Cattivo. They had taken his assassins’ magical belt buckles, and likely their weapons. The big dwarf’s axes were obviously enchanted, as they had cut through the magical shield of the wizard it had hit. He didn’t take the time to figure it out. He knew that these two were well prepared to fight wizards, and the dwarves were winning the fight. He abandoned the other wizards. If they weren’t smart enough to figure out they were outmatched, that was their problem. He was already beginning to travel when a dagger cut through his shield. It distracted him just enough to stop him from traveling. The dagger was sticking out of his shoulder. He knew his attack would be diverted so instead he shot an energy blast at the ground in front of him, throwing the two dead orcs up into the air to fall on top of the dangerous fighter who had wounded him. He was just starting to travel again when he realized he was too late.

Grundel had not called his axe back. After he killed the first wizard he called on the axe in his hand to move to the other. The wizard there was shocked as Grundel flew the ten feet through the air. His path took him just to the side of the wizard, so he kicked out his legs, slamming them into the Black Dragon as he went by. He stopped there, bringing his axe down into the back of the wizard even as he called his other axe to him. He was about to turn on the third wizard when he saw the one in front of Jerrie blast the orc bodies into the air and begin to travel. He threw his axe at the wizard as he became less solid. The axe spun end-over-end, and the blade buried into the wizard’s back. Grundel didn’t have time to turn around before a bolt of lightning slammed into his back. Apparently his belt buckle had to be between him and the magical attack for it to absorb the magic. He dropped to his hands and knees. He heard the orcs charging up behind him, but he could not stand. It was all he could do not to curl up into a ball. Dwarves had an innate resistance to magic. They were not very capable at using it, but it was less effective against them. Lightning was still electricity, though, and he was wrapped in steel chainmail. Every muscle in his body was flexed to the point that he thought they all might rip apart. He felt like his eyes were trying to push out of his skull. His teeth had locked together, and it was sheer luck that he didn’t bite off any of his tongue. The agony only lasted a few seconds, but those seconds might as well have been hours.

Rundo let one his daggers fly. They didn’t break through the wizard’s magical shield, but it captured the wizard’s attention, distracting him so that he was unable to avoid Jerrie’s dagger, which did break through the shield and bury into his face. Frau broke through the front line of dwarves and ran to kneel at Grundel’s side. Rundo began throwing his daggers as fast as they would appear. The orcs had backed off when the wizards broke through and started firing their spells, but now they were charging. Rundo had killed a dozen in as many seconds, but they were almost on top of Grundel now.

Rundo
linked with the wind in the tunnel and pushed. He knocked Grundel and Frau over, but the orcs who were standing up fell harder. The dwarf line pushed past their queen and took advantage of the fallen orcs. They pushed forward, killing a hundred orcs in half a minute, and gained another thirty paces of ground. Rundo hadn’t pushed the wind far—it had been purely on instinct—but it had been enough to give the dwarves the advantage.

Fredin ignored the dwarves in front of him when he caught sight of the huge dwarf up the tunnel fighting off the wizards. He knew just by looking at him that this was the only dwarf who could fit the description of the half-dwarf Stoneheart, the grandson of the dwarf king who had killed his own son. Today that debt would be paid.

Fredin
pushed his way up the tunnel. He had to force his way through a thousand orcs. He continued to push through to watch what he could of the fight between the wizards and the dwarves. He was looking over the heads of the orcs and could only see flashes of light, but he knew the moments when the wizards died. He saw the big dwarf engulfed in lightning as he fell. He was almost there, and then he was on his back, pushed down by a sudden, incredible wind. It seemed the dwarves had a wizard also. He stomped forward, shoving orcs out of the way as he moved. He needed to see if the big dwarf was dead. He hoped he was still alive so that he could kill him. He pushed through the front line of orcs and kicked at the first shield he saw. The dwarf behind it slid back half a step, but that was all. He saw the big dwarf on the ground a couple paces behind the shield wall. A dwarf next to him was helping him to his feet.

“You,
Stoneheart
! You are mine!”

Then someone slammed into his chest and knocked him back a step.

Jerrie saw the huge orc
, whose head almost touched the top of the tunnel, burst through the front line of orcs. The giant orc was challenging Grundel, who was barely making his feet again. Jerrie leapt over the dwarves in front of him, kicking the orc in the chest with both feet. He landed on his back and shot his feet up in the air, lifting him off the ground to land back on his feet. The orc hadn’t been knocked back as far as he had hoped, but the orc had staggered back a couple of steps, which had kept him from killing Grundel, and that was really all Jerrie could have hoped for. The orcs started to push forward again, but the huge orc roared over everyone.

“
Hold!”

The orcs stopped in their tracks.

Fredin looked down at the human who had leapt out in front of the dwarves. He held a knife in each hand.

“Move out of the way. Send out the Stoneheart.”

The human didn’t respond. Instead, he leapt inside the reach of Fredin’s weapons and stabbed at his stomach. Fredin brought his fist down, with his sword’s pommel sticking out the bottom of it. It would have cracked the human’s skull wide open if he hadn’t abandoned his attack and rolled to the side at the last minute. He kicked out at the rolling human just as he was regaining his feet.

The human
was able to turn enough to avoid the brunt of the blow but he still got clipped, sending him stumbling back toward the orcs. One of them tried to cave his head in with a mace, but he saw that coming, too, and rolled away. Fredin took a step forward and pushed the tip of his sword into the chest of the orc who had tried to interfere. He gained a knife across the back of his left knee for his distraction. He turned back on the human. Something in his leg was severed. The cut wasn’t bad—it was barely bleeding—but the leg wouldn’t hold his weight. He reached up and took his helmet off, throwing it to the side. He swung one of his swords in a wide arc, pushing the human back as he reached up with his other hand and started drawing his greatsword. This tunnel was too small to use it as he would like, but he could use it well enough to keep this little fast-biting insect back far enough to kill it.

Jerrie knew the wide swing was only meant to push him back. He saw the orc reaching back for the big sword on his back. He also knew that even though the swing wasn’t intended to kill him, if he didn’t do exactly what this orc wanted him to do, that wide swing would have cut him in half. He leapt backwards and rolled back up to his feet.

The big orc had a sword as tall as anyone in this tunnel except for the huge orc himself. The orc was on
the defense now and Jerrie knew it. He had to get inside that sword. The sword came at him from the side, and he tried to roll under the swing. He had barely made the roll when the orc redirected the blade back and down. The orc had been expecting it. In desperation Jerrie brought one arm up, the metal bracer on his forearm catching the blade as he dove forward through the huge legs of the orc. He managed to get his other arm out and run his knife against one of the orc’s legs as he passed through. He rolled and spun back to his feet, facing the orc. He was pretty confident none of the orcs behind him would strike at him after the huge orc killed the last one who did, but they were still orcs. He realized that his knife had only cut open the shin of the leg he had already wounded. Jerrie knew he had cut through the back of that knee, and the huge orc wasn’t able to put any weight on it. He had him. He just had to get the orc to put weight on the wounded leg to off-balance him. Now he just had to deal with with the orc’s huge sword. He leapt to his left, to the side of the big orc’s good leg. The orc started to turn toward him, and when the sword came across, Jerrie rolled under it and came up so far to the orc’s right that he was almost behind him.

Fredin knew he had underestimated this one. He had been foolish to lash out in the middle of the fight. That wound on the back of his leg was slowing him down too much. He had the human cornered now. The only place he could go was backward, and there were only orcs and a wall behind him. That trick of going between his legs worked twice. The fast little human tried to escape around him, and he had brought his sword around to finish this one for good, but the human had been expecting that. He was already changing directions. Fredin couldn’t turn fast enough on the one leg. But if he didn’t turn, those knives would be in him. So he did the only thing he could: Fredin fell on him.

Jerrie was already bringing his knife up into the orc’s side when he realized the orc’s last-ditch plan. It had taken quick thinking. This orc wasn’t the brutish, wild fighter most orcs were. He thought quickly and used strategy. Now it was Jerrie’s turn for a last-ditch plan. He leapt away from the orc as far as he could. The orc slammed into the ground behind him. As Jerrie rolled onto his back, he saw the huge sword coming down at him. The orc had swung the sword with one arm while lying on his back. All Jerrie could do was put his arms up to block and hope they saved him from the blade. Then the sword stopped.

Grundel stood and watched the fight as he tried to gather himself. The lightning blast had stunned him badly. He knew that Frau had come to him, but he pushed that from his mind immediately. This wasn’t the time to sort out those thoughts. He was still dizzy, but he was back on his feet. He watched as Jerrie worked his way in and out of the huge orc’s guard. He really was fast. He rolled and spun and leapt, changing directions unimaginably fast. Grundel had regained his senses and had pushed up to the front of the dwarf lines, completely mesmerized by the fight, when he saw the orc nearly crush Jerrie.

Jerrie was on his face in front of him. Grundel wasn’t looking at him
, though; he was looking at that long blade as it came down towards his friend. Grundel reached out with his axe and caught the blade, hooking it between the axe head and the handle. He walked forward, the metal of his axe scrapping against the metal of the sword. He stood over the orc, who was still lying on his back. He stepped on his arm and the sword fell from his hand.

“
I am Grundel Stoneheart. I am the one you wanted.”

And then his axe came down on the orc’s neck. As he relieved the orc of his head
, Grundel stepped over the body and spun, cutting into the two orcs that were close enough to reach. The dwarf line pushed past him, and the tired dwarves fought with renewed vigor.

“I had him,” Jerrie said from the side.

“Yeah, but he wanted me anyway,” Grundel answered.

They looked at each other. They had both saved each other today. That look was the only thank
-you that was going to be had. They both knew it.

The orcs had lost at the tunnel intersection. The Haufen dwarves had pushed out and were fighting in both directions. The orcs were being attacked from both sides and the middle. Four dwarf shield walls continued to gain ground, closing on the orcs. In another hour, the last of the orcs fell. Dwarves cheered up and down the halls, exhausted dwarfs cheering for Shinestone.

Frau’s voice
, ringing out over the din, began to silence the dwarves.

“We haven’t won yet
! The dwarves of Tiefes Loch are still fighting at the entrance. Let’s go finish this!”

The dwarves
roared and cleared a path for their queen as she moved to the front of the formation and led the way down to the entrance of Shinestone, and to the final fight of the day.

Frau led the dwarves over the dead bodies of thousands of orcs. The Haufen dwarves had taken the biggest hit. Their numbers were noticeably smaller and there were a lot of burnt and broken dwarf bodies at the intersection of the two tunnels. She couldn’t worry about the numbers now. There were still dwarves at the entrance. They may be the dwarves of Teifes Loch. None of them were likely to stick around, so none of them were really her dwarves, but they were still dwarves.

She led the dwarves with her down the tunnels. As she got closer she allowed herself to be optimistic. There were no sounds of fighting. Even if these orcs had wizards they wouldn’t have been able to defeat the dwarves yet. Those shield lines would have regrouped quickly after the wizard’s attacks. There was no reasonable explanation why the fighting would have stopped other than that the dwarves had won. She turned out of that tunnel and realized that whatever the explanation, it wasn’t reasonable.

They
emerged from the tunnel and found the back of the orcs’ formation. They were still three tunnels away from the long entrance, but these orcs were not even ready to fight. They sat on the ground or leaned up against walls. Many of them were asleep. They had staged to defend the entrance, but no attack had ever come. She turned on Verrator. For the first time all day he had his finely crafted sword in his hand. He lunged at her, but Grundel had seen the attack coming and jumped in front of her.

Jerrie had been suspicious of the other dwarf since he had met him. Throughout the day he had watched as all the dwarves had fought in the front at one time or another. Even the queen had jumped in now and then to stab out through the shield wall. Other dwarves always pushed in front of her, but she had found her opportunities.
Verrator had been the only one who hadn’t fought. He hadn’t even drawn his weapon. Jerrie was already releasing his knife when Grundel dove to the side in front of Frau. The impact of Verrator’s sword against Grundel pushed him down just enough that Jerrie’s knife buried in his shoulder and not his heart.

Grundel hit the ground. The finely crafted ancient sword would
not likely have found its way through his chain mail, but they had removed it after he had been electrocuted. He had never put it back on, and now he was lying on the ground with dwarven steel in his stomach. Verrator fell in front of him, letting go of the blade. At least he wouldn’t have to feel the blade come out before he died. The dwarves were on Verrator immediately. Frau knelt down next to Grundel.

“Why did you do that
?” she asked him.

“You are my queen,” he told her. Then it hit him
: this was the last time he was ever going to speak to her. He was dying. He could say whatever he wanted. Duty didn’t matter; he had done his duty. “I couldn’t risk losing you. Being around you has been torture, because no matter how much I fought it I knew I was falling in love with you. Dying would have been nothing compared to losing you,” he told her.

She stared into his eyes. Tears were running down her cheeks. She bent down and pushed her lips against his. “I fell in love with you the second I saw you. That is why I demanded that you come with me. I just wanted to get to know you. I am sorry. This is my fault.”

“No, I had decided to come before you ever came to Evermount. This isn’t your fault; it’s his,” he said, looking at Verrator.

Frau
stood up and walked over to Verrator. The other dwarves had rushed past them to fight the orcs that had started getting up when they saw the commotion. They were fighting again. They were fighting for her kingdom. They had been fighting all day, while Verrator and the dwarves of Tiefes Loch had betrayed them from the start. She looked down into the dwarf’s eyes.

“Why? How could you betray your own kin?”

“You dwarves are not our kin. You have all grown weak. You follow the old ways. No dwarf can birth more than two dwarves, you work so hard to make the humans happy, and you depend on them for everything. Over the last three hundred years Tiefes Loch has made its own rules. The rest of you have treated us like we don’t matter. We have tripled our population since Bergmann took the throne. Tiefes Loch will not answer to Evermount any longer. We will rule all of the kingdoms. You will all bend the knee or fall. Our kingdom had more than the rest of you before the fall of Shinestone, and none of you had a clue. Now you will know. It is a new age for the dwarf. Today is only the first day. You have fought for hours—look around you. Your dwarves are exhausted and they have thousands of orcs to fight yet. The dwarves of Tiefes Loch wait at the entrance. When the fighting is done they will take Shinestone. Give yourself over to Tiefes Loch now. Submit to our rule and you will live through the day.”

“You will all die today. We will not submit. Grizzle is the king of the dwarves. We answer to his call alone. No matter what happens, you will not live through this day,” she spat angrily.

Verrator smiled at her. “Then let my death be remembered as the first of the dwarf wars, and the beginning of the reign of Tiefes Loch.”

“No one will remember you,” she said
, and then she pulled out her own sword and pushed it into his chest. She stared into his eyes and watched as the life left them.

“Help him out of the way,” she said
, pointing to Grundel. Two of the dwarves pulled him to the side and laid him down next to the wall.

Rundo was struggling with himself. He wanted to go help Grundel, but he didn’t know how much he could really help. He knew he could help in the fighting. He linked with the air and pushed it out with more force than any of his previous attempts. Every orc in the tunnel for hundreds of feet was knocked off his feet. The dwarves charged forward again. They were abandoning caution. They were exhausted, and they had a chance to finish this quickly. Rundo was exhausted, too. Each time he linked with the air it took more of his concentration. The dwarves made it almost all the way to the end of the tunnel before any orcs provided any real resistance. The dwarves didn’t form a shield wall; they charged into battle, cutting down the orcs before they could gather together. This cost more casualties for the dwarves, but it was faster. The dwarves wanted to finish this.

The shield wall
was reestablished as they turned down the tunnel, and Rundo sent out another wave of air. As he tired, it took him a few more seconds to manipulate the air into doing what he wanted, but orcs fell. The orcs behind them who were being knocked back didn’t know if the other orcs were fleeing or charging in their direction, but they began to push the orcs ahead of them. Soon the orcs were all pushing to escape the tunnel. The confusion made the orcs easy targets for the dwarves. Some orcs were trying to get away while others were turning to fight. Eventually the orcs’ momentum forward wasn’t enough, and the orcs had to turn and fight.

Rundo linked with the aura of air again. Establishing the connection was still easy
; manipulating the element took focus and energy. He pushed out with his mind, binding the air in the tunnel to his will. This time, the orcs were all bombarded with the strong wind, knocking them down. The dwarves were getting a system down. The dwarves up front would run past the first orcs that were knocked down, only striking out at the ones who grabbed at them. The dwarves coming up behind would hit the downed orcs as they moved forward, and the dwarves up front would start striking at the ones on the ground farther up. Doing this they were able to kill hundreds of orcs before the orcs could gather themselves.

The dwarves formed a shield
wall, and dwarves from the back moved up to take the place of the heavily breathing, thoroughly exhausted dwarves in the front. The shield line pushed forward just as it had all day, and then they turned a corner to the left and there was light at the end of the tunnel. Rundo linked with the air. Seeing the light and an end to the battle give him a final burst of energy. He pushed the air forward all the way to the end of the tunnel. The orcs at the end were forced out into the light. The orcs nearest the dwarves were killed before they could even register what had happened, while the orcs who managed to regain their feet ran for the exit. Orcs were known to fight to the end, but they were also followers, and the orcs near the end of the tunnel were running that way, so the rest began to follow.

Within minutes the entrance to Shinestone was clear. All the orcs were dead or gone. Shinestone was back in the hands of dwarves.

Dwarves
’ cheers were cut short as the entrance began to fill again. It wasn’t orcs coming back, though. It was the dwarves of Tiefes Loch. Rundo watched as the dwarves of Tiefes Loch slowly poured into tunnel. It was hundreds of paces to the end of the tunnel, but they were slowly pouring in. The tunnel was about twenty paces wide. There were two hundred dwarves from Tiefes Loch. There were maybe five hundred dwarves left from Evermount, Shinestone, and Haufen. Those dwarves had been fighting for most of a day. They could hardly lift their weapons. They could barely put one foot in front of the other. Dwarves possessed an amazing constitution and incredible endurance, but these dwarves had fought hard and nonstop against an enemy that was much larger—in number and in stature—than them. They didn’t have much left. At best it was an even fight.

Jerrie looked from the dwarves to Frau and then finally at Rundo. He looked spent.

“You have anything left?” he asked his halfling friend. He had seen him slump after each of the last two wind attacks.

Rundo looked from Jerrie to the dwarves and then back at Frau. He thought about her last moments with Grundel. Those might have been his last moments
on this earth. These dwarves from Tiefes Loch had come here to kill him, to kill all of them. He reached out for one final attack. He didn’t link with the wind this time. He linked with the stone itself. He took a moment to get to know it. He looked down the tunnel at the enemy. The traitors. He reached out, and the entrance collapsed behind the invading dwarves.

“Get back,” he said to no one in particular, to everyone.

“Get back,” he heard the queen echo.

Rundo
manipulated the stone. The dwarves of Tiefes Loch were charging down the tunnel now. He heard dwarf shields slam into stone as the shield wall set itself behind him. The dwarves in front of him were charging. They were afraid of whatever had caused the end of the tunnel to collapse. They should be, he thought, and then he put everything out of his mind. He reached into the stone. He found where it was strong and where it was weak. He pushed his will out to manipulate it. He didn’t have to force all of the stone to do what he wanted; he didn’t have enough energy for that. But if he forced certain spots all the way down the tunnel, the rest would do what he wanted. He targeted the weak spots and a couple of the stronger spots that would have to give out. He forced his will into them. The stone cracked and broke away. From the entrance all the way back to him, each of the points he had targeted in the walls and ceilings released their hold on the rock around them.

With a deafening roar, t
he tunnel began to collapse. The traitorous dwarves ran toward them. He didn’t know if they were running to escape the tunnel or to attack. It didn’t matter. The stone had obeyed his call. He realized then that he was on his knees. He watched from the ground as the tunnel imploded, burying the Tiefes Loch dwarves beneath it. He realized then, as he watched the stones settle over two hundred dwarves, how exhausted he really was.

“That is one of the most tragic events these halls have ever witnesse
d,” Frau said as she walked up next to him.

Rundo
looked up at her. “I can open the tunnel again. It will take a little time, but after I have rested I can start putting it back the way it was. Stronger even.”

“No, this is now the tomb of the traitors of Tiefes Loch. Let it always be a reminder to any dwarf who would ever turn on his own kin.”

She bent down and helped him to his feet. She was supporting him at least as much as his own legs did. The dwarves weren’t cheering. The death of all their kin wasn’t an event to cheer even if it had likely saved all their lives.

“Let
’s go check on Grundel,” Frau said as Jerrie wrapped his arm under Rundo’s other arm and helped support him as they made his way back toward their fallen friend.

Grundel was lying on the ground listening to the distant fighting. He was dying. He wanted to help. He even tried to stand up, but the blade had cut through the muscles in his stomach. He almost made it to a sitting position when the blade shifted, and he slumped back down. The fighting didn’t last long. He heard the fighting stop. He heard a tunnel collapse. He knew that sound well. They had intentionally collapsed tunnels in Evermount to slow Miskrull down. That worried him. He heard footsteps coming back in his direction, but by then he was barely conscious. He tried to determine if the footsteps were dwarf or orc, but he couldn’t tell. He realized it didn’t matter. He was dying and he accepted it. She had kissed him. What more could he have asked for? He looked around, and the last thing he saw before he let the darkness take him were the bodies of hundreds of dead orcs. What more could a dwarf want before he died? He faded into unconsciousness with a smile on his face.

“Is he
. . . ?” Frau started to say, looking down at the unconscious Grundel.