The Unwilling Ambassador (Book 3) (22 page)

"We can't win this, and Ah'm done for," Piako moaned.

"Please, Your Majesty, don't speak," Danto insisted.

Piako shook his head. "Doesn't matter. Ah know when Ah've been beaten, and this wound's beaten me. Ah don't have much time, but Ah've got enough to do this." He removed the crown from his head and held it out to Danto. "Take it and lead the people. Ya will make a better king than Ah ever did."

"B-but Ah can't," Danto protested.

"Ya can and ya will!" Piako yelled.

Canto stomped up to the pair and snatched the crown from the feeble king's hand. With his other hand Canto tore open the king's bloody shirt. The gruff old dwarf looked over the bloody wound and scoffed. "Ah can't even see yer guts, so quit yer whining and get back up!"

Piako scowled at the interloper. "Ah'm dying, ya idiot!"

"It's just a scratch, but if yer going to be a sissy then we need a new king," Canto growled.

"That's what Ah was trying to do when ya grabbed my crown!" Piako yelled.

"Ya were putting it on the wrong hands." Canto shoved the crown onto his own head. "There. Now ya got the right head." The mouths of the onlookers dropped, and Piako's face turned a dark shade of red.

"Get that off yer head and give it to Danto!" he ordered Canto.

"Ah think not, and if ya don't mind Ah got an army to run." Canto pushed past Danto and strode to the gate. His friends glanced at one another, shrugged, and hurried after their new king.

Piako was furious. "Danto, kill that idiot!" he screamed. He kicked and pounded his fists against the cot, but his mild injury shot stabbing pains through his body. The former king whimpered and clutched at his wound.

Danto shrugged. "Ah'd like to, Piako, but yer not my king anymore," he pointed out. Piako's mouth flopped open and shut like a fish gasping for air, but Danto merely gave a waist bow and followed the friends out into the field of battle.

The friends stood at the outer entrance and surveyed the carnage of the battlefield. The fields of grain were now fields of battle that stretched from the walls to the edge of the marshes. The opponent of the dwarves of Dirth were the former dwarves of Dirth, now zombies with rotting flesh and soggy beards. The dead dwarves shuffled from the marshes in the thousands with their bodies covered in their molding clothing and debris from the swamps which had acted as their grave. Their empty sockets were filled with the unearthly purple light of the stone that controlled their worm-filled mind. They carried their rusted axes in their hands and swung them against their former friends and descendants. Their front line hacked at the defenders with ruthless efficiency, and bit by bit they crept closer to the walls.

"This will not be easy," Percy told the group.

Canto stepped to the front with his ax in hand and smiled. "That's fine. Ah like these odds."

Thino, who now held a shield with his chisel in the other hand, looked at Canto as though the former was insane. "Like these odds? Have ya lost yer mind?"

Canto looked at Thino's weapon ensemble and raised an eyebrow. "Have ya lost yer own mind?" he countered.

"No, but Ah know a slaughter when Ah see one, and this is going to be a slaughter," he argued.

Canto smirked. "Yep, for them, but if'n they try to take me down Ah'm gonna take a bunch of 'em with me."

"Then what are we waiting for?" Pat spoke up. She unsheathed her sword and it shone brightly in the dark night.

Shilo lifted her hand and her crows flew like a storm of black feathers over them. "Just the king's cry," she replied.

Canto lifted his ax and unleashed a bellow that rang across the battlefield. "Ho!" Many fights paused and turned to see what the noise was about, and the crown atop Canto's head glistened like a beacon of hope. He turned to his companions and swung his ax in front of him. "Charge!"

The five companions charged into the fray and cut down the lines of rotting foes. Heads rolled and sharp blades flung arms and legs high into the air to drop down and be trampled by the defenders. Canto glanced over at Thino and saw the other dwarf shove his chisel into the faces of the undead and use the shield as a giant hammer that slammed the chisel straight through the heads.

"Not bad!" Canto yelled.

Thino looked to him and his face paled. "Behind ya!" he yelled.

Canto turned in time to see a dwarf charge him, but the attack was stopped when a murder of crows flung themselves into the creature's face. Shilo came in for the kill with an ax swing to the throat that severed the head's ties with the neck. The creature collapsed into a mess of rotting but still limbs. Shilo dropped the heavy ax head to the ground, turned to the two and smirked. Sweat ran down her face and she was already covered in blood. "What are ya doing just gawking? There are creatures to be killed!" she scolded them.

"Yes, ma'am!" Thino replied, and Canto bowed his head and swung his ax over any rotted neck within range.

Pat and Percy took a partner approach by sticking together. Their sharp blades cut through the offensive line until they found themselves well ahead of the others and deeper into enemy territory than they intended. The undead things fought with greater ferocity and the partners' arms grew heavy from the constant hacking and blocking. "I think. . .we may have. . .overextended ourselves," Percy gasped.

"Keep fighting or our bodies will be extended across the field!" Pat yelled back.

They fought as though their lives depended on it, and with each passing minute that became more and more true. The never-ending stream of undead things from the swamp crashed against their defenses, and the defenders were beaten down to exhaustion. Canto swung and missed his mark, the neck of a creature, and was saved only by Danto jumping from a nearby fray and striking the head off the thing.

"Watch yerself or you'll have the shortest reign in history!" Danto yelled at him.

Canto growled and swung his blade at Danto, who's eyes widened and he ducked. Canto cut off the head of an attacking undead behind Danto, and the thing fell to the ground. "Watch yerself!" Canto snapped.

Shilo and Thino found themselves boxed in and their backs pressed against each other while each fended off their side of the attack. An ax blade struck Shilo in the shoulder and caused her to drop her weapon and stumble to the ground. She pressed her hand against the bleeding wound and looked up into the remorseless face of one of her third cousins.

The creature swung its ax down, but Thino jumped in front of her. He blocked the strong blow, but the shield cracked. Then he swung his chisel around the side and slammed it into the thing's temple. It dropped its ax and stumbled back. Shilo grabbed the weapon and chopped its head off. She stood over the body and sneered. "Ya always were an ass, Abino," she growled.

Canto was hit in the cheek by a sharp blade, but managed to swipe the thing's head off before stumbling back. Blood flowed freely from the wound and his lungs gasped for air. His arms were weary and his legs shook beneath him. The undead around them fought with their mindless purpose, to protect the stone, and cared nothing for friend or foe. The defenders were about to break under the strain when a noise came to their ears.

Over the clamor of steel against rusted steel, and cries over slurred grunts, a loud, piercing sound broke through the din of battle. It was a long, slow blow of a horn that echoed over the entire valley. Dwarf, dead and living, paused and looked to the source of the sound; the mountains to the south. Torches lit up the mountain path that led down into the valley and at the head of a line of cantankus was a short figure who blew on a white horn.

Shilo's face broke into a wide grin. "Kilo!" she yelled.

The horn blower was Kilo from the fort. He led his men in a charge down the mountain and stormed the valley on their swift cantankus. They crashed into the right flank of the undead creature army and cut them down. The undead turned their attention to the fresh warriors and a weight was lifted from the weary defenders. That didn't slow down Canto and his allies. They picked themselves up along with new weapons and charged the front and left flanks. This was their final chance to give time to their friends, and they made use by slaughtering as many of the slaughtered as they could find.

Pat glanced over to the city and scowled. "Come on, Ned. We can't hold them off forever."

CHAPTER 25

Inside the city the group of friends were the attackers, and the stone the defender. Ned led Sins, Ruth, Fluffy and Fred over the ruins of the buildings to the destroyed square. They came within forty yards of the stone before they spotted the glowing rock standing above the destruction it caused. There was a circular area at the base twenty yards in diameter that was devoid of rubble. It pulsed with power and the light at the top kept up a constant stream of brilliance into the swamp.

Ned ducked down behind a broken wall and the others lined up beside him. Fluffy whimpered, and Fred gave him a scratch behind the ears. Ned turned to the assassin. "We need you opposite where we're standing now." Sins slunk off to take his position, and Ned looked to Ruth. "We will need you in the skies, but be wary. We don't yet know if the light blast can be thrown in the air." Ruth nodded and climbed to a nearby tall rubble mound. She opened her wings, jumped off the pile and took a draft high into the air. Ned looked to the stone and his heavy eyebrows crashed down as he concentrated his attention on the rock.

Fred waited a tense minute for his commands. "And Fluffy and me?" Fred asked Ned.

Ned shook himself and looked to the young man. "Pardon?"

"What about Fluffy and me?" Fred repeated.

"Oh, that." Ned waved off his apprentice's question. "You'll to catch the stone's attention and force it to fire the blast."

Fred's eyes widened and Fluffy's whimper grew louder. "We have to do what?" Fred hissed.

"Be the decoy, my dear apprentice," Ned rephrased. "You've had a great deal more than anyone else in the group, and the stone did activate with your magic," he pointed out.

"What's that got to do with anything?" he argued.

Ned chuckled. "Everything. The stone reacted to you the first time, so let's hope it reacts the same way again. Otherwise I'm not sure how to make it angry."

"So you want me to walk up there and die?" Fred asked him.

"I would rather you didn't, but if you feel it needs to be done-"

Fred jumped to his feet and glared at his master. "No, I don't feel it needs to be done!" he yelled. The light from the stone above them grew stronger and darker, and Ned clutched the top of Fluffy and Fred's heads and pulled them down below the crumbled wall.

"A little less noise and arguing, if you please," Ned scolded his young apprentice.

"But how am I supposed to get that thing's attention without getting blasted?" Fred argued.

Ned nodded to Fluffy. "Do you have such little faith in your large cantankus?" he wondered.

Fred glanced at Fluffy, who grinned and panted. "N-no, but-"

"But nothing. Sit proud on your beast's back and charge the stone as though your very life depends on defeating it."

Fred's face fell. "It does depend on it."

"Then you needn't use your imagination." He reached into his cloak, pulled out the comb Fred let him borrow earlier, and handed it to the boy. "You'll need this. Now go out there and test out my theories." Ned herded Fred into Fluffy's saddle and pulled the young man's stick from his waist. He pushed it into Fred's quivering hands, and the stone transformed into the staff. "If it will give you comfort, now is a perfect time to practice your fireball skill."

"It doesn't give me comfort," Fred replied.

Ned shrugged. "I had to try." Then he whacked Fluffy's butt, and the cantankus took off over the debris in the direction of the stone.

Fred clung to the saddle horn and his eyes latched onto the glowing rock ahead of him. The light deepened and the hairs on the back of his neck stood up. He tightly gripped the staff in one hand and raised it above himself. His thoughts focused on a barrier, and in a second light burst from the tip of his staff and surrounded the galloping pair in a shield. Fred didn't expect it to protect him from the blast, but it would save them from the debris in the blast.

Fluffy jumped and climbed over the debris piles closer to the stone, and the brightness of the light intensified. Fred tensed and beneath him he felt Fluffy do the same. Their mental connection through their collars ignited and Fred sensed the dog-beast's unease. He leaned close to Fluffy and wrapped his arms around the beast's thick neck. "Come on, Fluffy. We're ready for what it can do, so let's show them what we did in the caves below Tramadore," he whispered to his pet.

Fluffy's ears perked up and he let out a bark of agreement. Fred gripped the comb and brushed it across Fluffy's head. The cantankus purred and in a moment the beast burst forth with a speed that almost pulled Fred off the saddle. Fluffy bounded from pile to pile with his tongue hanging out and his eyes wide with glee. They hit the bare spot around the base and the stone ignited with a flaming light. A blast of energy burst from the surface of the stone and smashed into Fred's barrier. The light pushed them back to the very edge of the desolate area, but this time they were both prepared. Fluffy dug his claws into the mucky ground of the dwarf city and Fred's barrier blocked loose debris from hitting them. The light sped by them and they came out unharmed.