The Wealth of Kings (2 page)

Then, the wedge reached Borgnat and everything changed.

Two dwarves went down in one swing.

Borgnat’s goarg smashed in the heads of two cavedogs, one under each hoof.

A group of orcs rushed in to defend their general.

The fighting turned quite fierce as the dwarves traded blow for blow with the orcs. Neither the orcs, nor the dwarves easily gave up their ground. Sylus rushed in to help, but even he had to hit each orc multiple times before they would fall to the ground. Not surprisingly, only the strongest orc warriors had been placed near Borgnat.

Sylus took a glancing shot to the back. A warhammer came swinging in and collided with his chest, but he shook it off and pressed the attack. He broke the right hand of an orc swordsman and then smashed the orc’s knee inward. The bone crunched, but the orc barely fell to his knee before pulling a short sword from his belt and launching a counter attack that nearly stabbed Sylus’ cavedog in the face. Luckily the lizard pulled back in time. Sylus then brought Murskain down upon the orc’s head, arresting the inexorable will of this warrior as his neck was crushed beneath Sylus’ hammer.

A great spray of blood arced in front of Sylus then as a dwarf arm spun end over end to bounce onto the ground. Sylus couldn’t help but feel a stab of pain in his heart as he watched his now one-armed captain struggle against Borgnat. He lashed out at the goarg with his remaining arm, but the animal dropped its head and easily deflected the captain’s hammer with its horns and thick skull.

The captain’s cavedog lunged out, but Borgnat drove his greatsword down through the lizard’s neck with lightning-fast reflexes.

The goarg then lurched forward and connected with the captain’s chest. To his credit, the dwarf captain was not dislodged from his saddle, but the attack had opened a clear shot to his chest. Borgnat seized the opportunity and the captain hung limp from the orc general’s blade before sliding off and slumping to the ground.

Sylus had charged in when he first saw the severed arm, but he didn’t reach Borgnat until seconds after his captain was slain.

The dwarf king let out a feral yell and rose out of the saddle to launch his attack. Jumping is not a dwarf’s strong point, but Sylus had this particular maneuver down to an art form. He stood upon his cavedog and shouted a single word in Peish. Immediately, the cavedog leapt straight up into the air. Just before the cavedog reached the apex of its jump, Sylus launched off from the lizard’s back, coupling the momentum of his mount with his own effort. The maneuver succeeded. Sylus managed to clear the charging goarg’s horns by mere inches, and direct his attack at an incredulous Borgnat.

The two collided with what must have sounded like a clap of thunder to everyone around them. Borgnat’s sword was caught on Sylus’ hammer, but the dwarf’s feet drove into the orc general’s chest and the two went tumbling off the backside of the goarg to crash onto the ground below.

Sylus was the first to roll to his feet, but Borgnat was able to muster a defense from his knees, stopping Sylus’ horizontal chop by planting the point of his sword into the ground and presenting it as a barrier. The metal rang out over the field, but the sword held firm. Borgnat then jumped to his feet and twirled his sword over as he ripped it from the ground and twisted his arms into a diagonal chop of his own.

Sylus stuck Murskain’s head up in the sword’s path. As the two weapons collided, the dwarf’s sturdy, muscled arms shook and trembled under the force of the blow. Borgnat then launched a kick that landed high on Sylus’ chest, just below and to the right of his neck. From the weight of the kick, the king knew instinctively that he would stumble if he tried to stay on his feet. So, he let himself roll backward with the momentum, somersaulting away from a heavy chop that scarred the ground, but fell short of cutting Sylus as the king rolled out of the way and back up to his feet.

“Igaze furge, de megollek,” Borgnat snarled.

Sylus hadn’t the slightest idea what the orc had said, the orcish language was not something that he had ever bothered to study. The king figured knowing how to put the brutes down was the only thing he needed to learn about orcs.

Sylus charged in, raising his hammer up and to the left. Borgnat prepared a perfect parry, as Sylus expected. The two weapons collided, but Sylus stiffened his shoulders and lunged in under the weapons, releasing Murskain as he sailed in to collide with Borgnat. Their armor clanged, and Borgnat grunted as he fought against the dwarf’s momentum. Sylus hadn’t expected to bring the large orc down, he had only wanted to throw him off guard, and that had worked.

Borgnat came down with his arms. One hand grabbed Sylus’ hair and pulled back as the other arm brought the pommel of the sword down onto Sylus’ helmet. It was a heavy blow, but if there is one trait all dwarves have in common, it is their extremely thick skulls. Sylus ignored the sting and reached for a pair of small, scimitar-shaped daggers at his belt. With incredible speed he plunged the twin blades up on either side of Borgnat, slipping through the joint between Borgnat’s breastplate and his greaves, just over the thick belt. The blades found soft tissue underneath and bored deeply into the orc’s flesh.

Sylus twisted the daggers as he rolled around to the left, pulling the orc’s torso along with him.

Now Borgnat was ready to strike properly. He let go of Sylus’ hair and prepared to chop down mightily. Sylus then did something Borgnat had not anticipated. The dwarf king picked his legs up and, hanging from the two knives, dug deep into the orc, and swung himself under the orc’s legs. Borgnat swung down, and stumbled forward as he lost his balance. The dwarf king let go of his knives and wasted no time clambering up Borgnat’s back as the orc fell to his face. Sylus pulled a large knife from Borgnat’s own belt and then leapt up to add extra momentum as he aimed for the back of Borgnat’s neck.

Sylus came down hard, snapping the orc general’s neck bone as he simultaneously drove the orc’s knife through the flesh.

Borgnat let out a short wail, and then his body twitched twice before going stiff.

Sylus had no time to relish the victory, though. The fight was still raging around him. He let go of the knife and sprinted for his hammer. A moment later his cavedog stopped in front of him and he mounted the great lizard once again. Dwarves swarmed to him, shouting out the great victory and calling the battle for themselves.

The remaining orcs disagreed. They fought fervently. Not until the last orc was surrounded by twelve angry dwarves and put to death with a series of chops and stabs did the battle end.

“Stubborn lot,” Sylus spat as he saw the final orc fall.

Cheers went up through the ranks and Sylus turned about in his saddle, making a mental guesstimate about the casualties. Fortunately, dwarves were also a stubborn lot. Many of the wounded began rising from the ground, drastically reducing Sylus’ initial fatality estimate. Still, the fight had been costly. Including the wounded that were not beyond saving, Sylus had little over half his army remaining.

It had been a terrible cost for the dwarves to pay. Sylus said little as he helped his remaining officers tally the dead and arrange for care of the fallen bodies. He said less as they made their march back to Roegudok Hall.

Yet, even while in the depths of sorrow for his fallen kin, he knew that the price would have been much higher if Borgnat had been allowed to reach the humans unimpeded.

When the dwarves reached the outer gates of Roegudok Hall, they were greeted by a score of the Home Guard, the mountain’s defensive army. They opened the thick, brass gates leading into the outer tunnel and stood silently saluting their kin as Sylus marched the cavedog riders through the tunnel.

Sylus led his army through a long, upward sloping tunnel. The walls were smooth, with small holes in the low hanging ceiling every dozen yards or so. To those not of the dwarven race, the construction of the tunnel seemed strange, but Sylus appreciated the purpose behind its unique design. Roegudok Hall was built on the inside of a great mountain. The sheer cliffs and impassable peak forced all guests, both invited and uninvited, to use the tunnel as the main entrance. Tu’luh, and other dragon lords known as Ancients, had helped the dwarves design the entrance when the dwarf kingdom was first established some three thousand-three hundred years ago in the year nine hundred of the Ancient Era. The tunnel’s slope allowed the dwarves to defend against invading armies by unleashing molten metal, burning oil, or any other deadly liquid they deemed appropriate to scourge the invaders. The defense was so effective that no invader had even seen the gates of Roegudok Hall itself. A few orcish armies had tried over the years, but they did so at great peril, and were either sent scurrying for the south, or were utterly destroyed before they could reach the end of the three-mile-long tunnel.

Even the height of the ceiling was specially designed to aid in defending the great inner palace. With the tunnel only six feet tall, it hindered taller soldiers, yet allowed for the almost comfortable passage of invited guests, so long as they walked. Furthermore, no invader could ever ride a horse or goarg through the tunnel. This fact rendered enemy cavalry useless against the dwarves. Beyond this, Sylus knew of one additional secret defense that could be unleashed.

In a large aquafer above the ceiling was a great reservoir of millions of gallons of water. With a few levers, the aquafer could be drained into the tunnel. At the same time, a great door of iron would slide over the front entrance to the tunnel. The bottom of this door was a razor sharp blade, which was terrible enough for any foe caught underneath, but its true purpose was to block the released water from escaping and draining from the tunnel. Meanwhile, the great gates on the opposite end of the tunnel were also water tight. It created an effective trap that would work if all else failed to stop an invading army.

Sylus and his army reached the main gates and found them slightly open, allowing a wall of golden light to reach out from the extremely tall, arched doors of iron. Sylus needed only to signal by raising his hand. A series of horn blasts echoed through the tunnel and the doors creaked and groaned as they were pushed open to allow the army to ride through.

Even with the many losses suffered, and the foul mood Sylus was in, there was something about crossing that main threshold that always invigorated and cheered him. The sense of returning home, to a place that was wholly his and felt as comfortable as anything in the Middle Kingdom could. He had lived as a prince in Roegudok Hall for over two hundred years before taking his place as king when his father passed on from the plane of the living, yet even still he marveled at the beauty and exquisite craftsmanship that had forged the main hall from the once solid interior of the mountain. The vaulted ceilings almost disappeared well over two hundred feet above Sylus’ head. The ceiling was covered in a layer of gold and platinum plates that reflected the light of the torches and oil lamps hung in exact intervals of fifteen feet up each of the massive columns. Each supporting column had been hewn and worked to perfection. The pink granite stone was smooth as silk and polished so that one could almost use it as a mirror.

Off to the left of the entrance stood stone buildings; a guardhouse and a barracks for the Gate Patrol. These buildings were created with etchings and carvings into the stone bricks, and held in place by a scarlet red mortar that had also been polished to a high shine. The roof of each of these buildings consisted of gold and green shingles that glimmered in the light of the main hall.

A pair of dwarves sitting at a granite table outside the guardhouse rose from their game of cards and saluted their king upon sight. Sylus returned the salute and they returned to their cards after he passed.

There were many more ornate buildings of stone along the western wall of the chamber, but Sylus was now busy counting the great columns as he led his army through them. It wasn’t that he needed to count them, he would have known his way through the main hall if he was blindfolded, but he enjoyed counting the columns. It was almost as if each one was a dear friend welcoming him back from the outside and stretching out warmth from their lamps and torches.

After he had passed ten columns, and several smaller craftsman shops, Sylus turned to the right and led his army through the main pathway through the market. There were tables with trinkets of all shapes and sizes strewn over them. There were also a few tables that offered vegetables, both the kinds that grew inside the mountain as well as those grown in a secluded valley nestled near the top of the mountain. Other vendors offered clothing, books, weapons and armor. A few dwarves had carts pulled up around the back of the shops and tables, filling orders that they would transport to the various settlements outside Roegudok Hall. The hustle and bustle barely paused as the king rode by and the throngs of dwarves watched the first part of the procession.

Sylus knew they meant no disrespect to the fallen warriors. Those working in the market district were extremely busy. They could afford Sylus a moment of respect, but after that they had to return to their work to fill the orders they had. The dwarves within Roegudok Hall had everything they could ever wish for, and all indicators pointed to an era of unprecedented prosperity under Sylus’ reign. That also meant that they were the largest supplier of goods for the settlements outside the mountain. Armor, stone, metal ore, and all manner of dishes, jewelry, and other fine goods were shipped from the mountain as soon as the goods were produced. The great quantities of goods upon the tables for sale within the mountain were only a fraction of what the dwarves of Roegudok Hall produced.