The Dwarf Kingdoms (Book 5) (7 page)

“What is your plan once we enter the stables?” asked Elerian softly.

“If the chamber is guarded, we will first have to overcome the sentries,” replied Ascilius quietly. “Not a single one must be allowed to escape, for if the castella is roused against us, our task will become almost impossible. If we succeed in taking the stables, I will see if I can open the entryway that leads into the city. If luck favors us and I succeed, we may be able to enter Galenus without any more fighting if we can get all of the wagons into the city before the Goblins are aware of us.”

“What happens if the doors are sealed as they were in Ennodius?” asked Elerian, for it seemed to him that that was the more likely possibility.

“Things become much more difficult then,” replied Ascilius grimly. “We will have to clear the entire castella of Goblins before we can signal the Dwarves inside the city to open either the stable doors or the upper gate leading from the city to the castella. If we are forced to use the upper gate, many Dwarves are certain to die, for the road that leads from the fortress to Galenus runs across an open ridge where the wagons will be exposed to the crossbows and engines of war of the Goblins.”

Listening to Ascilius, Elerian was troubled by the tentative, uncertain nature of the Dwarf’s plan, but he kept his misgivings to himself. Instead, he sought to reassure his companion, for he understood better now the worry and uncertainty that weighed down Ascilius’s spirits.

“Take heart,” Elerian said quietly. “No matter what obstacles we face after the door behind us opens, we have the courage and strength of arms to overcome them and make a good ending to this adventure.”

“We will see,” said Ascilius soberly as he wrapped himself in his cloak and lay down on the hard stone floor of the tunnel. Like the rest of the company, he was soon fast asleep, the dim mage light hovering above his head revealing his craggy face but casting his closed, deep-set eyes into shadow, lending a grim look to his features, as if in sleep his innermost worries were revealed. Left alone with his thoughts, Elerian took to the dream paths in his mind which soon took him away from the dark passageway in which he now found himself, carrying him far to the east where his heart was.

When Ascilius roused himself hours later, he looked first at Elerian on his left. His companion was sitting with his eyes open, but there was a distant look on his face as if his mind was somewhere else. Ascilius had seen that look before, and it always caused him concern.

“One day, he may sink too deeply into that state and never awaken, for the gift of the Elves can be a danger as well as a blessing,” thought Ascilius worriedly to himself. Sitting up with a muffled groan, he stretched his aching muscles.

“Feeling your age ancient one,” asked Elerian who had come instantly awake at the sound of Ascilius’s voice. He regarded the Dwarf with steady gray eyes that seemed to shine with their own light.

“I’ll not deny it,” said Ascilius ruefully. “I am too old to be sleeping on stone floors.”

“Perhaps tomorrow we will sleep in a real bed again,” said Elerian lightly.

“A thought worth fighting for,” replied Ascilius with a smile. He took a deep pull from his wine skin and then rose to his feet, appearing much refreshed.

“Are you ready for what comes?” he asked Elerian, the doubts gone from his face and an eager light burning in his dark eyes.

Elerian rose in a single lithe move. “I am more than ready to pay my respects to the Goblins,” he replied cheerfully. There was a light rasp of steel on leather as he drew Acris out of its sheath. The lines of argentum inlaid in the blade gleamed in the dim rays of Ascilius's mage light.

“As much as I like a good fight, I hope that we will find the stables empty,” said Ascilius, grasping Fulmen in his right hand and settling his shield on his left arm. The argentum inlaid in the head and handle of his hammer gleamed softly as did the hammer and crown worked into the front of the shield. Ascilius nudged the Dwarves closest to him with his right foot to rouse them, and they, in turn, woke their comrades until all of the company was awake and standing with their weapons in hand. Their knapsacks and other gear were left stacked against a wall of the tunnel, for if they lost the coming battle, they would no longer have need of them.

Ascilius extinguished his small mage light before speaking a word of command. At the sound of his deep voice, a set of double doors outlined with a silver thread of argentum sprang into view in the stone wall before him. The doors silently swung inward, revealing a thick, impenetrable darkness. From past experience, Elerian knew that a large cavern lay on the other side of the entryway before him, housing the stables that were contained in the lowest level of every Dwarf city and fortress. The faint sound of voices suddenly came to Elerian’s keen ears. Looking off to his left, he saw a small, flickering pinpoint of red that might have come from either a fire or a torch.

“There is a guard here,” whispered Ascilius to Elerian in a disappointed voice, for he had also seen the distant light. “We will have to deal with them first.”

Silently, Ascilius led his Dwarves out of the passageway, splitting them into two equal groups with whispered commands. Well used to moving through darkness, they quickly and quietly followed his orders. Falx and Ennecus led half the company toward the ramp located in the center of the stables. It would be their task to secure the door into the ramp so that none of the enemy could escape into the upper levels of the fortress. After the two captains set off with their Dwarves, Ascilius directed Falco and Crito to follow him with the rest of the company. With Elerian by his right side, Ascilius cautiously led the way toward the faint light on the far side of the stables, following one of the streets that ran between the stalls that filled the cavern around them. The Dwarves did their best to be silent and stealthy, but to Elerian’s sharp ears, their advance seemed anything but quiet. All too often, he heard the tramp of a booted foot or the muffled sound of one Dwarf bumping into another in the darkness.

“We will never make it across without being discovered,” he thought to himself anxiously. “The keen ears of a Wood Goblin or a mutare can hear the racket they are making from halfway across this chamber.” At any moment, he expected an alarm to ring out, but surprisingly, none came. The faint sounds Elerian had heard earlier, however, became plainer now.

“It sounds like revelry, as if there is a party in progress,” thought Elerian to himself, wondering at the source of the noise. After an endless time creeping through the darkness beside Ascilius, he finally saw a large entranceway outlined in the northwest wall of the stables. The steel double doors that sealed it shut reflected the crimson rays of flickering torches, the source of the light they had seen from across the stables.

In the wide street that ran in front of the doorway, Elerian counted at least thirty mutare and a dozen Mordi. In keeping with their dislike for each other, the changelings and the Wood Goblins had gathered with their own kind on opposite sides of the entryway. Some were eating and drinking, seated on benches drawn up to wooden tables. Others were gaming on the floor. Loud voices and snarls filled the air, and several minor arguments were already in progress. Not one of the sentries, Goblin or mutare, was paying the least attention to the dark chamber that lay beyond the pool of reddish light cast by their torches.

“Stay here and deal with any who try to run off,” whispered Ascilius to Elerian before silently rushing toward the unsuspecting enemy guards with Falco, Crito, and the rest of the Dwarves at his back. In a compact mass, holding their round shields in front of them, the stocky Dwarves struck the startled Goblins and their changeling allies like a battering ram, pushing everyone and everything irresistibly backwards toward the outer wall of the stables. Many of the guards did not even have time to reach for their weapons before they were thrust back by a line of powerful Dwarves who stabbed at them with short swords or knives through the gaps between their shields. The changelings roared like wild beasts, tearing at the Dwarves with fang and claw, but the Mordi fell back, calling loudly for help or blowing on their horns to summon aid. The Dwarves bellowed war cries in return, adding to the din. Elerian, who stood with Acris held ready in his right hand where Ascilius had instructed him to wait, felt no regret at being left out of the battle.

“There is no place for an Elf in this brawl, for there is no room for the deft, deadly use of knife or sword, only brute strength against brute strength,” he thought critically to himself. “I only hope that the uproar does not carry to the upper levels of the fortress, warning the enemy that they are under attack.”

The fierce battle Elerian was witnessing between the Dwarves and the guards did not last long. Outnumbering the Goblins and their allies by better than two to one, the Dwarves quickly overcame and slew the last of their enemies. Elerian listened carefully as silence fell over the stables once more, but he heard nothing from the ramp in the center of the stables.

“The sounds of the battle must not have carried to the upper levels of the fortress,” was his relived thought as the silence around him continued unbroken, for by now any reinforcements that might have been summoned would be battling the Dwarves guarding the ramp. Ascilius strode up to Elerian then, his dark eyes gleaming and his face flushed from his exertions. Fresh blood spattered his shield and mail, and there was a bloody scratch across his right cheek where the claw of a mutare had scored it.

“Nothing like a little carnage to liven a Dwarf,” thought Elerian dryly to himself as he observed Ascilius’s pleased demeanor.

“We have made a good start,” said Ascilius cheerfully. “I did not lose a single Dwarf and only five are wounded. If I can open the doors into the city, everyone will be safe inside Galenus before the sun sets tonight.”

“I hope that he has better luck than he did in Ennodius,” thought Elerian to himself as he followed Ascilius to the entryway. Around him, the members of the company had begun the grim task of clearing away the bodies of the enemy and debris of the battle, but pools of dark, slick blood remained behind, making the footing treacherous. Elerian carefully avoided them, but  Ascilius impatiently strode over to the doors, ignoring the gore beneath his booted feet. Standing a few feet from the entryway, Ascilius spoke a word of command in a firm voice.

The doors trembled, but as Elerian had feared, they did not open the least little bit. Crossly, Ascilius began beating on them with his hammer and shouting for admittance at the top of his lungs. The argentum inlaid in Fulmen’s handle and head flashed like lightning with each blow, but when Ascilius finally ceased his assault on the portal, both doors still remained firmly closed, a few small dents on their smooth surface the only result of his hammer blows.

“That did not work in Ennodius either,” said Elerian dryly.

“It was worth a try,” replied Ascilius to Elerian in a disappointed, frustrated voice. “I was hoping that there might still be a sentry behind the doors.”

“Is there any way we could force them open?” asked Elerian.

“It would do no good,” replied Ascilius glumly. “The passageway behind them is almost certainly set to collapse if the doors are pried open or destroyed. That is why the Goblins have not bothered to use a ram to burst open the portal. It appears that we must take the upper levels of the fortress after all if we are to have any hope of entering the city.”

Shrugging off the blow to his hopes of a quick, bloodless entry into the city, Ascilius chose ten Dwarves, the five wounded among them, to remain behind in case the doors should suddenly open. After lighting his mage light again, he led the rest of his Dwarves to the center of the stables where they joined forces with Ennecus and Falx, who were waiting before the great doors that opened onto the ramp. The two captains and their Dwarves had heard the sounds of Ascilius’s assault on the enemy and were waiting impatiently for word of the outcome of the battle.

“We have overcome the guards, but I was not able to open the doors into the city,” Ascilius grimly informed his two captains. “We have no choice but to take the fortress, following the plan that I gave you on the road last night.”

“Lead on then,” replied Ennecus fiercely. “I am anxious to stain my ax with Goblin blood.” Behind the Dwarf captain, Elerian heard other Dwarves express similar sentiments.

“They are a stout crew,” thought Elerian to himself. “I hope their fierceness will make up for what we lack in numbers, for it seems to me now that Ascilius should have brought a larger force. Who knows how many of the enemy are laired in the upper levels of this place.”

“Quiet now, all of you,” said Ascilius addressing his Dwarves sternly and interrupting Elerian’s thoughts all in the same moment. “There must be no more noise now of any kind.”

When everyone was silent again, Ascilius pulled the right hand ramp door partially open. Standing motionless, he listened carefully for any sounds that might indicate the Goblins in the fortress were aware of the company of Dwarves in the stables. Soundlessly, Elerian walked to Ascilius right side and listened, too, but he heard nothing stirring in the dark passageway beyond the doorway. Reassured by the silence, Ascilius began to walk quietly up the ramp, followed by Elerian and the rest of the company, his single mage light providing the only illumination.

When the company reached the entrance to the next level, Ascilius drew Elerian aside and said softly, “This fortress is laid out much the same as Ennodius. Beyond this doorway is a large chamber. After you cross it, follow the passageway opposite this door. It will lead you through this level of the fortress to the great hall in front of the gates. To the right and left sides of the inner gate, you will find guardrooms, which are likely to be occupied. After overcoming the guards, you must close and bar the gates.”