Deepforge (18 page)

“You can’t be serious!” General Lucas said at the sight of the bridge.

“Ok,” Bruno started, “everyone needs to get across as quickly as possible. This bridge is four miles long, and you need to sprint. Just on the other side is a tunnel. Once you get in there you’ll be safe, but you have to go
fast
. As soon as you hit the bridge, run! Is everyone clear?”

The few in front acknowledged what he said, and relayed it back so everyone in the army understood.

“Bruno, what is that bridge made of?” Teelena asked, getting a close look at the construction as the wind whipped the low clouds around the structure.

Bruno looked at Cray, who nodded. “White dragon bones. This is their high mountain lair.” He pointed at the canyon.

“Jesus!” Grognor said, “we’re going over their lair? Is there any other way?”

“Look around you, Sire. This is it. Now, as soon as we hit this bridge we’ll have only a short window of time to get across. Once they’re alerted to our presence, they
will
attack.”

Grognor looked back at the single file on the narrow ledge. “Ok, let’s do this.”

“The Stone Children will hang back until the last of them are headed out,” Cray said.

“As will I,” Grognor said.

“No, Sire,” Bruno said, respectfully. “You’re the Emperor. Of everyone, you need to be the first across. I’m afraid I have to insist.”

Grognor smiled. “No matter what happens, you are still the same, talents or not.”

“Yes, Sire. I know not where the coin is, but, it’s a big world. No use worrying about how it got here, or where it is. What’s important is here, now.” He motioned to the bridge.

Grognor looked at the bridge, unsure of its structural integrity.

“Sire,” Cray said, “there’s no other material in these mountains more suited for this bridge. Trust us, it can handle the weight.”

Grognor looked at Teelena, and then back at the Stone Children. “We do trust you. Let’s go.” He motioned to Teelena, who moved ahead and kicked her horse hard. “The Empress and our unborn child are more important than me.” He smiled at The Stone Children, and then kicked his horse hard. The two raced off across the bridge.

Bruno and the rest of the Stone Children quickly began prompting everyone else. “Go, go, go!” They waved them on. Three at a time, they raced onto the bridge at full speed. Grognor and Teelena raced across on their brave steeds, their hooves making a loud clatter on the planks made of dragon bone. The first half of the suspension bridge sloped down, curving and bending back up toward the other side in an upside down rainbow of bone. The couple urged their horses faster, their progression descending into the low clouds hanging in the canyon. The fog was thick, but not thick enough to mask the sounds of the rest of the army. Their horses’ hooves roared against the dragon bone bridge, loudly echoing across the mountains. There was no doubt of their presence.

As the army invaded the bridge, the loud sound of hooves was nearly deafening. Just about the time Grognor and Teelena had reached the lowest point of the bridge and started heading back up toward the other side, they all heard something. Something louder and lower than the hooves’ noise.

“Dragon!” Delvin exclaimed, and kicked his horse again. “Hurry up, slow poke!”

The roar sounded louder than anything, and echoed back and forth across the mountain peaks. It was then joined by several others.

“Shit, they woke up the nest,” Bruno said. “Hurry up!” They waved the army faster and faster.

As Grognor and Teelena began to rise out of the fog, they saw a beast rise up aside them. It was bigger than the red dragon they had seen at Lakeshore. It was a white dragon. Its scales were a bright white, and had bright red, sinister eyes. As soon as it spotted the couple, it roared loud. The force of the roar was powerful enough to cause the bridge to sway. The loud roar also caused the couple to go temporarily deaf, and the horses to nearly balk. They whinnied in fear, but raced on. The dragon then flapped its wings to hover, and inhaled deeply.

“Brace yourself, my darling!” Grognor said, and hugged the horse’s neck close.

The fury of the white dragon breath washed over them in a blizzard more furious than what they had just recently experienced. Ice instantly formed on them. The wind of the arctic breath lasted for a long time, robbing the couple and the horses’ bodies of heat. They shivered, but continued on. The energy of their movement kept them just warm enough, despite the force of the beast’s breath weapon. Of more immediate concern was the thick ice forming on the bridge itself, making traction difficult. The metal horses’ shoes shattered the glass-like ice and plowed through it as the dragon finally finished its attack.

“Gggggoooo, ggggoooo, ggggooo!” Grognor’s teeth chattered as he urged Teelena on.

“Ccccrapp!” Teelena yelled as she looked over the other side of the bridge. Another dragon emerged from the fog.

“Rrrrunnnn!” Grognor yelled as the second dragon roared and then began to inhale. The first dragon began to inhale again.

‘Shit, we’re not going to make it!’ Grognor thought. “Hhhheeeeeyaaaaaaa!” he yelled, kicking his horse hard.

Teelena was ahead of him, but they were still painfully far away from the other side. The dragons roared and expelled their frigid breath weapons upon the couple at the same time. Conflicting blizzards caused torrents of impossibly cold air to wrap around them, instantly freezing their garments. Surprisingly, though, it wasn’t quite as bad as a single attack. The winds almost cancelled each other out. The couple continued to push their heavy war horses, their hot breath pumping out steam from their nostrils.

They shivered and fought to maintain consciousness as the frigid air finally waned. The dragons weren’t done yet. The first one roared and crashed its body against the bridge, attempting to knock the couple over. It didn’t take much. Teelena and Grognor flew off their horses, landing on the bone bridge. The horses struggled to maintain footing and lost control also.

“Go on! Get up there!” Grognor yelled at the horses.

The horses struggled to get their footing, whinnying in fear and anger. Teelena slammed into the bridge and went out immediately. She was unconscious. As the second dragon flapped and prepared to attack, he grabbed his bride and threw her on the first horse to get his footing. “Get her out of here!” Grognor yelled.

The horse scrambled to run, the other one right behind. Grognor stood alone on the bridge with the army quickly closing in from behind and two dragons attacking him. “Come on, come and get some!” he yelled and unlatched his hammer and axe.

The roar from the hooves on the bridge got louder and louder as Grognor stood there challenging the dragons. The first dragon focused, roared, and hovered above him. The second broke off to attack the army. “Where you going, bitch?” The first dragon grasped onto the high sinew cables of the bridge, flapping to keep upright. Then, it swooped its snout down to bite at Grognor. Grognor swung at the same time with his hammer, landing a solid blow on the dragon’s mouth. Large teeth and blood flew out of the beast’s mouth as it reeled back, then Grognor swung with his axe and cut a large gash on the other side of the beast’s mouth. Blood spewed out as the dragon roared in anger. It released the bridge and inhaled for another frigid breath. Grognor balled up and prepared for the breath. It washed over him with impossibly cold air, encasing him in a block of ice.

He easily broke out of the ice, now fully infuriated. In front of him the dragon grasped onto the cabling again, biting down at the dwarf. Grognor roared nearly as loud as the dragon, and dropped his weapons. He jumped up and grabbed the dragon’s upper and lower jaws, and began twisting as hard as he could, screaming and roaring with fury as his did so. Time slowed down for him as the frustration, loss, and betrayal of the last weeks fully took him over. Tears rolled down from his eyes as he lost control over his anger. He continued to twist, the dragon struggling and roaring in pain and anger.

The dragon let go of the cabling and inhaled, Grognor still attached to its mouth. As the beast began to rise into the air, Grognor’s foot caught the cabling. He then wrapped the other leg into the cabling and screamed, “Where you goin’?” With strength he didn’t know he had, he actually managed to pull the dragon onto the bridge. The bridge creaked and moaned with the added weight. The dragon struggled to get away from the crazed dwarf. It managed to get off a half intensity breath weapon as Grognor continued to wrench and twist. “Die, you son-of-a-whore!” The dragon roared and swatted at him with its massive talons, but he simply jumped out of the way. The dragon did manage to connect with another swat, catching Grognor in the side. With one last rush of fury, he twisted more. The snap of the dragon’s neck sounded like a cannon shot. It echoed across the mountains and back again several times. Grognor twisted a bit more, throwing the dead dragon off the bridge. He stepped back, exhausted. The open gash on his side poured blood.

He sat on the bridge for a moment, and then realized the sound of the horses hooves had quieted. Thinking the worst, he jumped up to help with their battle. The entire army stood before him, stopped in their tracks. They had seen the whole thing.

“Sire!” General Lucas said.

“That was… amazing!” Delvin said.

Chapter 16

O
n the other side of the bridge was the tunnel. It met directly up with the landing and headed deep into the mountain. It was a very wide tunnel, easily big enough to handle several dozen abreast. They stopped as soon as they entered for a well deserved rest. As they rested, the Naw-nee and the Stone Children butchered one of the dragons for food.

“I can’t believe he just…snapped its neck!” Cray said, incredulous.

“It was the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen,” Eugene said as he sliced off long cuts of meat from the other dragon’s carcass.

“No, that shot
you did
was amazing, Eugene!” Bruno said.

“Lucky shot,” Eugene said.

“Well, nicely done. Brought it down right in front of us.”

“It never even got off a breath weapon!” Cray said, still amazed.

Teelena and Grongnor were bandaged up, and as soon as they were ready they all headed out. The tunnel was several miles long and quite large.

“This looks like an old lava tube,” Grognor said, looking at the internal structure.

“Yea, there’s a bunch of them in these mountains. This one opens up just above Deepforge,” Bruno said.

After a few more hours of travel, the tunnel ended near the peak of Deepforge Mountain.  There was only light snow on the ground and the air was much warmer. There was forest again, and the sweet smell of pine filled the air as the suns began to sink beneath the horizon.

“Nearly home. I wonder how they fare?” Teelena asked, referring to the siege.

Grognor noticed several strands of new wire strung up across poles, and at first, thought that maybe the gnomes were trying to rebuild the electrical infrastructure.

“Those are antennas. Somebody’s been trying to get a radio working,” Delvin said.

“Antennas?” Grognor contemplated the significance of this and the notes Bruno had brought.

“Someone approaches,” Bruno said.

Grognor put up his hand, stopping the progression of the army. Up ahead was one person, trudging along in the snow. It was Grognor’s sister.

Grognor looked over at Teelena. They dismounted, stepped a few steps forward, and waited for his sister to arrive.

She seemed exhausted, and was bruised up. She walked right up to Grognor and attempted to hug him, saying, “Brother! You’re alright! Thank the gods!”

Grognor stepped back, refusing the hug.

“Brother, what’s wrong?”

He pulled out Victoria’s sword and looked at it, then at his sister. She didn’t know the significance of this, and looked at him with confusion. Then, he reached into his belt pouch and pulled out the messages Bruno had brought. He threw them at her. Her heart raced, knowing what they were. She picked one up and quickly looked at it. Her signature was on the bottom,
‘…In
Her
name, Rebecca.’

“So, now you know, Brother. I would think this news is good news for you…” She trailed off, seeing the look in his eyes.

In a blur of motion, he shoved Victoria’s sword deep into Rebecca’s chest, all the way through.  Rebecca gasped in pain and horror, and tried desperately to get a breath to explain.

“It’s…for…the future…of…our…kind…” she tried to explain as she struggled to breathe. Blood poured down her chest and out her mouth and nose.

Grognor got face to face with her and growled, “My own sister, a
traitor
. The person who owned this blade was the most valiant, honorable soul I’ve ever met. She was a
human
named Victoria. She died killing your co-conspirator Brendon. Go, be with him now.” He yanked out the blade and wiped it clean on Rebecca’s coat before she fell. He re-sheathed the sword as he glanced at her with great disdain.

She grasped his coat, choking on her own blood, tears flowing down her cheeks. “B….r…oth…er…”

He pulled away and led his horse around her, not looking back as she fell to the blood stained snow. She coughed and gasped for breath, looking at him as he walked away. Teelena looked at her pathetic form and then turned away herself as the dying traitor reached up in desperation. As her strength quickly waned, she watched as the army continued on around her. She died gazing desperately again at her brother.

The army walked past her, each one looking down at her dead body as they went by. It was very clearly understood at this point; there would be no interrogations, no attempts to flush out any other conspirators.  If the Emperor was willing to summarily execute his own sister for treason, then nobody would be safe. Either the as of yet unknown conspirators would make themselves known and be subject to the same fate, or they would rethink their decision and stay loyal to Grognor.

Grognor continued on foot, leading his horse. Teelena caught up to him to discover he was crying like a baby. She said nothing, but reached down and held his hand as they walked side-by-side.  He glanced over to her, his face wet with tears and his beard forming ice, this time not from a blizzard, but from freezing tears. She nodded and flashed a supportive smile.

They had finally reached Deepforge Mountain. Chromatic dragons circled from the front, and battle was heard. Explosions were heard from deep within the citadel. Grognor knew.

“They’ve breached. Deepforge has been taken,” he said.

“Where the hell are the metallic dragons?” General Lucas said, searching the sky.

“Probably defeated. Ok, at this point, we will split forces,” Grognor said. “Eugene, you will be in charge of the horses. Take them across that ridge, to the other side. That trail will take you across a glacier, so be very careful. It will then take you down and out of the mountains near Little Table. From that point, see if you can track down the war machine division and come up the road with them. The rest of us will enter Deepforge from the rear.”

The dwarves were ready, but everyone else questioned the ‘rear’ comment.

Grognor explained, “There’s only one way Rebecca could have gotten up here directly from Deepforge. All other paths are blocked by ice this time of year. She would have either had to come up the valley and scale a thousand foot glacier wall, or through an old cooled lava tube. It’s tight, but she would have been able to do it.”

“Well, if she was a traitor, why didn’t she just get the Drakmids to come up that way?” Lucas asked.

“Because,” Grognor explained, “the only way to get to it is via the route through the valley and up the glacier face, or the way I just described to Eugene. It would be pointless, anyway. The tube is quite narrow. We’ll have to go in single file.”

“Wouldn’t that be a tactical disadvantage for us too, then?” Bruno asked.

Grognor smiled. “No, for you see, the Deep Level Engineers have been working on a little surprise for our population. We’ve been getting a bit crowded, and I had them working on five deeper levels in secret. We were going to unveil this on the first day of Summer. Not even your company knew about this.” He motioned to Devlin. “I suspect the engineers are down there, and if I know them like I think I do, have been sneaking the weaker people down in there since the war began. We’ll go in through the cooled tube and through a secret door I had built in. Once in, we will stage the attack.”

“This is why you hadn’t seemed as concerned as we all thought you should be,” Cray reasoned.

Grognor smiled. “Come on, let’s take back our home.”

The forces split. Grognor’s army was on foot. Eugene and the Naw-nee had disappeared across the ridge, with all the horses. Grognor knew exactly where he was taking the army, but it was all-too obvious. Rebecca had left her footsteps in the snow leading right up to a rock outcrop about a fourth of the way up Deepforge Peak.

“That’s it, right there. It’s a bit of a climb, but it’s nothing compared to what we’ve already experienced.” Grognor pointed.

Everyone saw and understood. They began climbing; most of them having no problem whatsoever. The dwarves and the gnomes were right at home, climbing the rough steep rock with expert skill. The Stone Children practically sprinted up, seemingly melding into the rock itself as they went. The halflings reluctantly climbed, more sure footed than they would admit, leaving the humans to have the toughest time.               Finally, they reached the outcrop.

“Ok,” Grognor started, “I’ll go in first, leading the way. Teelena will be right behind me, then the humans. Dwarves will take up the rear, and seal the tube behind us. We don’t want anyone else to know about this passage. Are we clear?”

Everyone nodded.

“Good, let’s go.”

Grognor started in, the narrow tube barely big enough for him to fit. He thought about the humans and how they were possibly going to fit. He looked back as Teelena easily walked upright. She looked behind and motioned the humans in behind her. To their surprise, the humans were remarkably flexible. They were able to hunch over, fitting easier than was expected.               Grognor smiled, pleased with yet another thing the humans could do. “I’m just so amazed at how versatile you people are,” Grognor said to General Lucas. “Seems like every time I underestimate you, you prove me wrong.”

“That’s how we’ve survived, Sire,” Lucas said with pride.

“Indeed. Ok, listen up everyone,” Grognor began, “we won’t be using torches or any source of unneeded yellow light. This mountain has more than enough red light to light our way. You can no doubt already feel the warmth. It’s a welcome change, isn’t it? Just as soon as the tunnel gets too dark to see, the dwarves will collapse the entrance. It will allow our red sight to work. Is there anyone here who doesn’t have red sight?”

Nobody spoke up.

“Good. It’s rare, but there are a minority of people who are born without it. Ok, any questions?”

One human spoke up, “Is there any chance of this tube collapsing on us?”

Grognor nodded. “Of course there is. Anything else?”

Nobody else spoke up.

“Ok, follow the leader,” Grognor said, and proceed down the tube.

As the army moved down the tunnel, it got warmer and warmer. Most of the humans were very much relieved with this fact; they were tired of the cold they had been subject to. Soon enough, it got beyond comfortable, edging on hot. It was getting too dark to see. The Stone Children were somehow moving through the lava tube with the greatest ease despite their size, as if they were part of the mountain itself.

“Halt!” Grognor ordered. “Blow it now! Everyone cover your ears!”

Moments later a low bone rattling blast filled the tunnel, along with a thick cloud of dust.

“Remain calm, and everyone close your eyes. When you can start seeing shapes, then go ahead and open them again. Your red sight should be active.”

As everyone began to open their eyes, the tunnel was bright as day. The warmth of the mountain radiated in the infrared enough that they needed no other light to see. They walked for nearly two hours until Grognor suddenly stopped. He looked back at the others, who looked forward to see what was up. He took out Victoria’s sword and shoved it into a crack in the wall, then twisted. A split second later part of the tunnel wall moved away, revealing a well made corridor. As soon as the secret door opened, they could hear the sounds of battle coming from the upper levels. Grognor stepped in and motioned everyone else to follow. He and Teelena stood just inside the corridor and waited for the rest of them. At that moment, several dwarven warriors rushed in from another part of the mountain, through the corridor, ready to fight. They stopped short when they saw the army and their leaders standing there.

“Brother!” Selena yelled, and rushed to hug him. “Thank goodness you made it!”

Grognor grabbed and hugged her tightly as tears once again rolled down his face. Teelena rubbed his arm.

Selena pulled away and hugged Teelena too. “I was trying to convince Vella to take the lava tube.” She pulled away with a confused look on her face. “How did you all get
here?
” Then she noticed Grognor crying. “Brother! What’s wrong?!”

Grognor grabbed and hugged her again. “Rebecca was a spy. She’s dead, Selena. I killed her.”

Selena gasped. “Oh, gods! No! Not
her!
”

“It’s true, Selena,” Teelena confirmed.

The two siblings cried for a moment and then pulled away from each other. Selena couldn’t believe her brother, the fierce dwarven warrior-Emperor, was crying…grieving. “Grognor…” she said, not understanding what had changed. She then began to be more aware of the others around. All the races were represented, including some people she didn’t recognize. “Grognor…what’s happened? Who are these people, and who are the humans attacking us?”

“Selena, this is Bruno. He’s leader of the Stone Children. They live northwest of us in the impassible mountains.” He then warmly introduced the leaders of the humans and everyone else.

Selena could see something major had changed. He was being more than civil to them. “I…I don’t understand. Humans are attacking in strange armor; with their chromatic dragon allies…we didn’t even know they were humans until we saw them without their helmets…why do you travel with humans?”