The Exodus Sagas: Book IV - Of Moons and Myth (5 page)

“Ye’ had better yield, or it will be the
Smokin’ Granvang
in a moment!” Kimmarik held the bleeding face of Erden next to the hot golden anvil, ready to push down should he not give up.

“I yield, I yield, ye’ blasted wretch!” His eye was an inch from the steaming hot embers that kept the anvil scalding.

Kimmarik threw Erden Granvang
to the ground. He looked about
full circle, his boys stood tall with him over twenty or more dwarves that were all crawling and groaning in pain. Bruised, bleeding, and beaten, they all shuffled on the stone floor away from the Thalanaxe boys and their father.

“This is gonna cost us more than seven gold coins, but it sure was fun
, eh?!
” Kimmarik smiled to his sons, then to his youngest, then he met the eyes of his father.

“
Was there
a fight, what did I miss?” Pentrik stood, wobbly, putting a hand on little Zen for support.
He handed the box to Azenairk as he gazed at the moaning dwarves on the ground of
the pub. He kicked one, then spa
t
into his gray beard
.

“Kimmarik, Kimmarik! Come quick!” Rhosda yelled into the pub, looking to the mess, then back up as if it mattered not. Two of their workers, covered in soot, stood behind her.

“Sorry hun, it got a bit complicated with papi and all. I uhh, well ye’ see, the boys and I just----“

“Oh close yer hairy spitbucket and come here,
look
at this
.” Rhosda opened a
cloth that one of the miners handed her.

“What is it mum?” Little Azenairk tried to see, standing on the tips of his toes.

“
Oh by Vundrens
holy
helmet
, where did ye’ get that then?” Kimmarik stared, his boys stood with their mouths agape, and old Pentrik just stumbled past.
He took the box back from Zen, patted him on the head, and kept walking in his smiling stupor.

“The miners found it, tis
gold
Kimmarik
, it
---“ Rhosda was cut off.

“Ye’ got to give it back then, tis a lot, someone will surely be lookin’ for it and---“

Smack!

She slapp
ed her husband out of his glare
and stare, wiggling his graying beard and refocusing his blue eyes to blink.

“Tis
ours
fool! It was in
our
mines, the outer ones! The ones yer father had bought o’er thirty years past now, they be full of gold on the south walls hun.”
Rhosda Thalanaxe coughed, then held the rough golden ore low. It was pure, sol
id, enough to make a thousand
coins or more.

“
Ye’ serious
?”

“Aye master Thalanaxe, we gonna need more workers then.” One of the miners spoke up. “Yer family likely gonna be rich again, but we need more men to fetch all of it.”

“How many we
, uhh, we
talkin’?” Kimmarik was choked up, he could barely speak.
“ I mean, how..uhh..how much gold be there then?”

“Gimme’ twenty to mine, five to hold guard, and about fifteen more to haul, stack, and keep diggin’ out
and down
. Should do it.”

“
Ye’ serious
?”

“Aye, he be serious then! Snap out o’ it Kimmarik.” Rhosda put her hand gently on the side of her husbands face.

“Boys, pinch me or somethin’, so I know I not be dreamin’.”

Two hard slaps into his back and a third
low
into his thigh did the trick, Kimmarik Thalanaxe was not dreaming.

“Then, then, we can get our old home back, up topside near the peaks?
The fancy noble nice one?
”

“Aye husband.” Rhosda was tearing up.

“And then, our things, our family things we been sellin’ off, we can get them back too?” Kimmarik began to choke up again.

“Aye father.” Geadrik put his hand on his fathers shoulder.

“Then, little Azenairk can go and study at the temple then? Zen, My little
Agrvund
?” Kimmarik looked to his youngest, then to his father who had sat down with the rusty box against a tunne
l wall, talking to himself and his heirlooms
.

“Aye father, he can.” Tadnek spoke up, putting his arms around his mother and father.

The bells rang three times in the halls of Boraduum, summoning the soldiers to head to the outdoors to the north. They all heard it, thirty thousand dwarves in Boraduum, the army was over five thousand strong and ready for war. The Thalanaxe family stood still, staring at one another, then the gold, and the bells rang again.
No one spoke for untold moments, no one breathed much either.

“Time to go boys. Ye’ got me armor at the barracks?”

“Aye father.” Tadnek nodded.

Kimmarik hugged his wife, then his youngest, then nodded to his drunken father who was unaware of anything besides the old rusty box and its contents.

“Can ye’ keep up, old man? I thought ye’ slowed a bit last battle, maybe ye’ should let me lead the second brigade this time?” Geadrik smiled and smacked his father on the back, then rubbed Azenairks head, lastly hugging his mother before they left.

“
Baah
, ye’ stay close to me boys, I’ll show ye’ how tis’
done in case ye’ forg
ot me actions at the last two battles
. Them giants and ogre fear the name Thalanaxe out there, mostly cuz’ o’ me ye’ know.” Kimmarik smiled, turned with his two oldest, and walked toward the north t
unnels, ready for war once more
.

“So, I’ll be takin’ care o’ everything then?! With the mines, and home, and Zen and papi!?” Rhosda yelled down the tunnel, then coughed, waiting for her husband to reply.

“Aye! Ye’ be the smart one and all! Do what needs doin’, we be back in a few days or so
brown eyes
, won’t be long!” Kimmarik yelled, waved and turned as he walked away, kissing his hand and waving
it
again.

Zen held his mothers hand, kept a close eye on his papi and his rusty box, and smiled as he watched his heroes head to the north, to a battle he was too young to fight in, but would surely dream about, every night until they returned.

Evermont, Shanador
345 A.D.
fifty one years later

“Through pain and suffering, time and toil, the words of God will be sent from the holy mountain when you be most in need of them. Should you listen, be open in spirit to His will, and be pious to Vundren, He will never
let his devout
fail.”---
excerpt prayer from the Golhiarden, read from the holy tablet of law, passages of the dwarven family, kept in Bora
duum
Circa
4
643 B.C.

Azenairk sniffled, rubbed his shaved head, then pulled his black braided beard to keep the tears back in his brown eyes. He looked
down to the shield, his brother Tads
and
a
famil
y treasure from generations,
smiled at the
twin axes over the moon, and all
of
the scratches from battle.
The crest of Thalanaxe, at least he
still
had that.
He had never told anyone of these things, not aloud anyway, only in prayer to Vundren.

“
Go on
.”

Zen looked at the thick red lace in front of him, the dark wood in the closet of a prayer room
, he focused back to the moment
. He had forgotten it was a temple to Alden, forgotten he was in Evermont in Shanador, the memories were still fresh and vivid
five decades later
. He smiled at the feathered cross sewn into the lace in golden thread. He took a big breath and tried to continue.

“Well, me brothers never came home, not walkin’ anyway. That was the last time me family was together, happy, had hope. Twas about thirty giants in the Bori, with over two hundred ogre. Should have been an easy win, and it was with five thousand beards. But, me father and brothers, they led the second brigade, first ones into the ambush.
Over four hundred o’ me people
perished in all but three minutes
I heard.
Me brothers died quick they said, and me father fought with a rage that had scared even the other dwarves.
King told me mum her hus
band killed four giants there
, and eleven ogre,
alone
.
” Zen put his head down on the wooden shelf.

“
Continue
.”

“
Me brothers
… me older brothers
Tad and Gead
was buried, me father went to drinkin’ in his silence and grief. He and me mum talked little after that. Then papi passed on about a year later.
Me papi
.” The tears creased the corners now, blurring his vision as he sat and fought them.

“
I am listening
.”

“
Whewww
. Allright. The mines did flourish, and we was rich, but it was a hollow victory there. Then me mum…
me mum
…she got sick
in the chest. She passed on two
years after me papi.” The words were hard, like iron that wanted not to rise up his throat.

“
Go on my son
.” The voice was low, almost if tears were choking back on the other side of the curtain as well.

“Enough with the
son
rubbish, I be nearly twice yer age then. I just need to be tellin’ someone, in case we don’t be comin’ back from where we be headed is all.
Vundren’s mercy
!”

“
Well I have never done this before, not on this side anyway. Sorry, go on Azenairk
.”

“Tis allright, sorry bout that then. Where was I?”

“
Your mother
.”

“Right. After she passed, me father left the mines to one o’ the older workers. But, they ran dry. Me father did all he could, hoarded all our things from bout seven or eight generations
he had collected back
, and finally he just accepted it. We was done. He found old things, banners and deeds, related to a king once we was, but in the end it mattered not. He had taken out some loans and favors to open even more mines, and they was dry too
, or filled with worthless fools gold
. Taxes came, debts called
over the years
, and then he got sick.”

“
Where were you, during all of this, if you don’t mind me asking
?”

“Oh,
me father,
the
great Kimmarik
he was, he wouldn’t accept it. The one thing he never missed a coin on,
was me
. He had me the finest mentors, the full tutelage at the temple o’ Boraduum, and he never missed a mass. Especially when it was me
, his little
agrvund
,
presiding with the bishop
ye
’
see. The day I was confirmed and got me hammer and moons, you’d a thought he was the king o’ the whole continent. Proudest father in Boraduum he was,
even…even
…until his last breaths.”
The tears fell, fell harder than they had in decades.
Zen thought of how he was in line to be the next bishop, the next spiritual leader of Boraduum, perhaps bringing the old titles of
High Hammers
and such back to his people. He looked to the rusty box in his hand, blurred and watery through his tears, and pounded his fist on the wooden door to the confession room.
That box and its contents, were all he had left to remember his father
and family
by.

“
You need a moment
?”

“Naye, no. It’s just, just, I miss em all so damn much is all!” Azenairk wiped his face. “Sorry for cursin’ in yer church there Alden, Vundren has me forgiveness, just borrow some
from him
then.” He chuckled, mirrored in laughter from the other side.

“
Why me
?”

“Cuz’, ye be the closest thing to a priest I have here, and a close friend
ye are
James
Andellis
. Yer’ the best human I know, and a good man
, a solid knight without fear
. Ye’ overcome odds, from what I know of ye’, odds that woulda’ seen most in their graves. And, ye
’
be blessed. You know it, n’ I know it. Priest or no, I needed to speak to someone o’ faith today that would keep
it
quiet, before we go.”