The Half Dwarf Prince: 02 - The Dwarf War (22 page)

Grizzle
bent over the table as Hellen pulled the bolt out of the back of his leg. She had to cut around it a little because it had lodged in the bone. It was unbelievable that he had continued to put weight on the leg after that, but after dealing with other dwarves, and Grundel with his nearly fatal wounds, she had learned that dwarves could withstand quite a bit more than humans, and Stonehearts even more so than the average dwarf. Once the bolt was out, she packed the wound with a clean piece of linen. It was more a hole than a cut, so it would just have to be cleaned and packed every day while it healed. From her experience with dwarves she expected that it would only take about a week to heal, while it would have taken two to three weeks for the same wound to heal on a human. Grizzle also had a nasty cut in his leg that he had packed with dirt to slow the bleeding. He didn’t even flinch as she cleaned out that wound. By the time she had it clean, the wound was bleeding pretty heavily, and she stitched the cut up. With Grizzle taken care of she moved on to King Patria.

“This is going to hurt a lot
, Your Highness. You should probably bite down on this,” she told the king, handing him a roll of hard leather. He looked at it suspiciously, but then he put it in his mouth. Grundel held the king’s legs down and then Hellen pulled and shifted the lower half of the leg, realigning the bones. The king grunted, biting down on the leather in his mouth. He laid his head back and breathed out heavily when she let go of the leg.

“We need to splint the leg now
, so that it stays in place. It won’t hurt nearly as much, I promise.”

The king just nodded
, keeping the leather in his mouth. Hellen had Grundel hold flat pieces of wood along the king’s leg. She measured them and then broke off the ends. Grundel held them against the king’s leg again as she wrapped a long, thin length of cloth around the leg, holding the wood in place.

“You
’re all set, Your Highness, but you should avoid putting weight on that leg as much as possible for the next few weeks. The next few days you should avoid putting weight on it at all.”

King Patria looked
at Hellen and forced himself to talk. “Thank you.”

“Now for you,” Hellen said
, turning on Jabaal.

“I am fine
, my love, really,” Jabaal said, stepping back.

“That’s why there are half a dozen cuts in your pants soaked in blood
? If nothing else they need to be cleaned out. You know that better than anyone,” she scolded him.

Jabaal shook his head and climbed up on the table. He slid his pants off so she could inspect his leg. His
missing leg had returned when he called on his Kalime, but when he released the blessing of Kalime the leg had gone with it.

“This one will need a couple of stitches, but the rest just need to be cleaned,” she said. She put a couple of stitches in the deep cut on Jabaal’s leg and then spent another twenty minutes cleaning all of the others.

“What about you?” Hellen asked, turning to Grundel.

“I am fine,” Grundel answered.

“She’s going to check anyway,” Frau said.

Kraft and Grizzle both burst into laughter. Grundel just shook his head. He went over to the big stone table and sat down where Jabaal had just been.

“Take off your shirt and pants so I can look at you,” Hellen told him.

Grundel did as he was told.

“What happened?” Frau asked so loudly she was almost yelling, which caused everyone else to look. Grundel’s arms and legs were covered in blood, so it was hard to tell how many cuts he might have, but on the inside of his leg a few inches above his knee was a very angry-looking burn.

Grundel shrugged. “It’s nothing.”

“That is a pretty bad burn,” Hellen said. “How did you get that?”

“Somebody got lucky with a sword. I was bleeding bad
ly, so I pressed Firebringer against the cut for a second. The bleeding stopped,” he said dismissively.

Hellen didn’t let it be dismissed. “This is a bad burn, but if you were cut here, you would have bled to death in a couple of minutes
.”

Everyone was staring at
Grundel.

“What
? I said it was bleeding badly.”

“Ha
ha, that’s my boy, stubborn to the end. You’d better get used to it, Frau,” Grizzle said.

Frau turned and gave him an angry look, and he smiled and threw his hands up. Hellen moved on
, cleaning all the blood off. Grundel had dozens of cuts on his arms and legs, but none of them were very bad. There were a few that could use a couple of stitches.

“What happened here
?” she asked about the bruise that covered his entire side. It had faded to yellow and was almost gone, but she noticed it.

“Oh
, that’s from when he tackled a wizard out of a window and fell forty feet to the street,” Rundo said, walking into the room. Grundel turned to look at his friend and then shook his head.

“You did what
?” Frau said.

“It was nothing,” Grundel said. “Rundo
, who is this?” he asked, trying to turn the attention away from him.

“Is that her
?” Grizzle said, coming to his feet to meet the new arrivals.

Rundo
nodded, and the taller woman on the right blushed slightly. “Everyone this is Evelyn, her little sister Erica, and this is Brother David. He has come as the representative for the druids of the Einode Forest.”

Frau turned to them
after giving Grundel one last angry look. “Welcome to Shinestone. I am Frau Gemcutter. I am the queen of Shinestone. This is King Kraft of Haufen, and this is King Stoneheart, of Evermount, and king over the dwarven kingdoms.”

Everyone shook hands and then they moved on
, introducing the others.

“What about me
?” Jerrie said, walking into the room. Rundo looked behind him. “Jerrie, this is Evelyn; Evelyn, this is Jerrie.”

“Of course it is,” Jerrie said
, wrapping his arms around the woman and lifting her off the ground as he hugged her. “I have heard a lot about you. It is nice to finally meet you,” he said, setting her down. “Everyone, this is Captain Thompson, the leader of King Patria’s army. Captain Thompson, these are the most important dwarves in all of Gegend.”

“Jerrie
, have Hellen look you over,” Frau told him.

“Yes
, Queen Gemcutter,” Jerrie said, smiling as he saluted the dwarf queen.

He took his pants and shirt off and he saw
that the other girl who had come with Rundo blushed as she stared at him. He winked at her and then turned to Hellen, holding out his arms.

“You don’t have a mark on you,” Hellen said.

“Now you know why I am in such a good mood,” he said, putting his pants back on.

Grundel smiled at his friend. Jerrie had successfully diverted all the attention away from him.

Jerrie turned back to Frau. “Queen Gemcutter, the dwarves have replaced the men surrounding that deep canal that Rundo’s friends so cleverly trapped them in. Both armies have set camp, and the commander of Portwein’s army will be brought up shortly. We found the man who turned the Portwein army on King Bergmann, but he was already dead. His name was Master Rupert. He was apparently King Merwein’s personal advisor. He is the one who killed King Bergmann; he still had the knife in his hand that he stabbed him in the neck with. I told the men to have both of the bodies brought up.”

“Thank you
, Jerrie,” Frau replied. “I think we will leave the dwarves of Tiefes Loch in their prison for the night. Today has been eventful enough; we will deal with them tomorrow. We will have to think about what to do about King Bergmann’s body. I think that we should send Master Rupert’s body back to King Merwein with his army, but we will talk to the commander about it later.”

“Good, I think we could all use sometime to reunite
, and I would like to get to know the woman who has captured the heart of our halfling,” Grizzle said.

Everyone turned to Rundo and Evelyn. She was blushing deeply.

First thing in the morning, they all went out to the landing at the top of the stairs that led into Shinestone. They looked at King Bergmann’s body.

“What is this
?” Grundel asked, pointing to the black mark on the king’s chest just barely showing above his shirt.

Grizzle reached down and pulled the shirt down further. “Bordin’s furnace! It can’t be!”

Kraft came over, pulling the shirt down. “We have to talk to those dwarves!”

“What is that
?” Grundel asked.

“That is the mark of chaos,” Frau said. “It is the mark of Delvidge.”

“Bergmann abandoned Bordin?” Grundel asked.

“That’s what it looks like. I haven’t heard of a dwarf abandoning the father in centuries. We have to go see the other dwarves,” Grizzle said
, and started down the stairs.

They all followed.
Grizzle was limping and leaning on a cane that was basically just a rod of steel that he had bent at the top. The two human armies were carrying their soldiers’ bodies inside the wall and piling them up. The Portwein army had far fewer casualties and theirs had all been nearby. They had already collected all of their dead and wounded, and they were now going out helping the Patria army bring in theirs.

The bodies of the dwarves of Tiefes Loch hadn’t been touched. Grizzle went to the first dwarf he came across and pulled back his armor. He had the swirling black lines on his chest. He went to the next dwarf and he had the tattoos also. The others were checking the bodies of the other dwarves.

“All of them,” Grizzle said.

“You know what this means,” Kraft said.

“We don’t know that for sure,” Frau said. “We need to go talk to the ones who are still alive.”

They walked between the walls and out onto the main road
, over to the edge of the pit. It was forty feet deep, so many of the dwarves who hadn’t died when they were thrown into the pits by the violent wind had died when other dwarves and weapons had come down on top of them. There were still hundreds of dwarves alive in the pits, though. Grizzle went to the edge of the pit and looked down. Some of the dwarves had obviously tried to climb out and been shot by the dwarves of Shinestone. He looked around and saw a fallen tree across the road.

“Hey you,” he said
, getting the attention of the nearest dwarf.

“Yes
, King Grizzle,” the dwarf answered.

“Grab the others and bring that fallen tree over here. We need to talk to some of these dwarves,” Grizzle said.

“Yes, King Grizzle,” the dwarf said, and then ran off to follow the order. A few minutes later, two dozen dwarves were carrying a tree that was nearly a hundred feet tall. After ten minutes of hacking the branches off, it was just one long log about four feet wide.

“Once we roll that in there you make sure that none of them come out of there except the ones we let come up,” Frau said to the dwarves.

“Yes, Queen Gemcutter,” one of them answered.

She looked down into the trench, and then over at the dwarves. “Roll it in.”

The tree rolled into the pit. About sixty feet of it was at an angle in the trench, and the rest of it stuck out into the air. The second it fell into the trench, dwarves started climbing up it with weapons in hand. The dwarves standing around the trench started firing their crossbows.

“Let one through
!” Grizzle yelled, and the dwarves let the one of the dwarves climbing up past, while continuing to fire at the other dwarves who were coming up the tree.

The dwarf that was let through
clambered up the tree and leapt out of the hole to the side. He swung his sword at Grundel, but Grundel blocked the attack with one axe and lopped off the dwarf’s arm with the other. The dwarf just reached down and tried to grab his sword with his other hand. Grundel kicked him in the chest, knocking him back. A couple of other dwarves ran over and held the dwarf down. Grundel reached down, pressing Firebringer against the bleeding stump and cauterizing the wound. The dwarf screamed in pain. Grundel pulled down the dwarf’s armor, exposing the tattoos on his chest.

“Why do you have the mark of chaos on you
?” Grizzle asked the obvious question.

“I am a Delvidge
dwarf,” the dwarf answered defiantly. He knew he was beaten, and now he would be defiant until death.

“All of the dwarves
who came with Bergmann were Delvidge dwarves?” Grizzle asked.

“All of the dwarves of Tiefes Loch are Delvidge dwarves. Bordin has grown weak. The dwarves of Bordin are growing weaker and weaker. Bordin is the god of a dying race. Delvidge is leading the dwarves back to power. We are the superior race and we will rule over all. You cannot defeat us,”
the dwarf said, and then spit on Grizzle.

“Says the dwarf of a defeated army,” Kraft said.

“Tiefes Loch will send more. You can’t defeat us all,” the dwarf said.

“They are all going to be like this,” Kraft said.

Grizzle nodded. “These are not Bordin dwarves. These dwarves are evil and devout. There is no hope for them,” he said, looking to Frau.

Frau nodded
, then she pulled her sword out and slid it into the dwarf’s chest. Within seconds the dwarf was dead and his skin was blue, all heat sucked from his body. She looked at the dwarves who had been holding the dwarf.

“
You heard what he said. These dwarves are not of Bordin. They are children of chaos. Push the tree into the pit. I will send more dwarves down with oil. Pour the oil into the trench and burn them all. Once they are all dead, I want all of these bodies thrown in and burned with them.”

“Yes
, Queen Gemcutter,” one of them said, and then they went to the tree and started pushing it, following it around the edge of the pit as it tilted up and then fell into the trench, crushing the evil dwarves beneath it.

Once they were back up in Shinestone and Frau had sent two hundred more dwarves down with a couple dozen barrels of oil, they gathered in the King’s Hall of Shinestone.

“How could this have happened without any of us knowing
?” Kraft asked.

“It has to have started decades ago,” Grizzle said.

“Centuries,” Frau said.

They all looked at her. “Before we killed Verrator
, he said that Tiefes Loch had been making their own rules for over three hundred years. He said that they had tripled their population since Bergmann became king. Bergmann has only been king for a little over a century, which means that his father was the one who converted three hundred years ago.”

“That doesn’t explain how we never found out,” Grizzle said.

“He killed them,” Kraft said.

“Who
?” Grundel asked.

“Everyone who wouldn’t convert. Brundel Bergmann was a very clever dwarf. He would have spent years preaching why the dwarves needed to change their ways, then he would have converted the ones he knew for sure would follow him. Once he had them
, he would give the rest of Tiefes Loch the opportunity to convert. Dwarves wouldn’t back down. It would have been a war inside Tiefes Loch between those who converted and those who didn’t. When it was done, everyone who was left would be converts. That is why Verrator told you that since Bergmann became king they had tripled their population, because the two hundred years between when they converted Tiefes Loch and when Bergmann took the throne had been spent reestablishing their population,” Kraft said.

“How could you know that
?” Frau said.

“I knew Brundel. He was always preaching
that we were a superior race, and that we were slowly dying. I agreed with some things he said. He could never have convinced me to abandon Bordin, but as the leader of his kingdom I can see how he would have been able to slowly turn enough dwarves to convert or kill the rest. It’s the only way he would have been able to do it without Bordin dwarves telling the rest of us,” Kraft said.

“So what do we do now
?” Grundel asked.

“There is only one thing we can do,” Kraft said
, looking to Grizzle.

Grizzle looked at Kraft
, nodding his agreement, and then turned to Frau. “An entire dwarven kingdom committed to Delvidge is as dangerous to the world as Miskrull, especially if they are as big as we have been led to believe. We have to gather the combined forces of Evermount, Shinestone, and Haufen and purge the world of this threat. We have to take back Tiefes Loch. Delvidge has destroyed one kingdom and is forcing us to destroy another. When this is all done, the dwarves will be very weak. I have to agree with you, Kraft. The way Brundel went about it may have been wrong, but we have to acknowledge that the world is changing, and we will have to change with it. We have been slowly dying, and in a year we will have nearly made our race extinct. We cannot allow the dwarves to ever become this weak again. These are issues to be dealt with after the threat, but we need to start talking with our dwarves and coming up with ideas. We can’t let this be the end of us.”

“I agree
, Grizzle, but for now we must focus on war. We are facing dwarves of Delvidge, and they will have the advantage of defense,” Kraft said.