The Phantom Dwarf

by J. M. Fosberg

  King Patria stood on the platform. “Commander Thompson, the guards at the rear palace gate are under the control of the Black Dragons. Take Prince Grundel, Master Rundo and whatever soldiers you wish and find out where this healer’s family is being held. Tonight the Black Dragons will know what it is like to be attacked.”

  Commander Thompson slammed an open hand to his chest. He had a smile on his face. “As you command, Your Highness.”

  Grundel and Rundo followed the commander of the palace guard to the palace barracks where the soldiers who were in reserve would be. These were soldiers who were waiting in the palace in case there was an attack or the King needed additional guards for some reason. Now they would be arresting one of the palace guards and hopefully conducting a raid on the Black Dragons that were holding the healers family.

  Commander Thompson quickly briefed his men. A few minutes later, they were all in their armor. Commander Thompson led them out of the palace. Grundel and Rundo followed directly behind him, and the two ranks of men followed behind them. The two men at the gate saluted Commander Thompson as he approached. He saluted back and continued through the gate. He stopped a few steps past the two guards. He turned and faced the two men.

  “Seize them!” His command echoed through the grounds.

  The two men started to draw their weapons. Rundo threw both of his daggers; each of the two men received one in their sword hand. Neither of the guards was able to successfully draw their weapons, and Commander Thompson’s men seized them without anyone being harmed. Two of his men took the guards post at the gate. The two guards were dragged back into the palace. King Patria was still waiting in the throne room when they arrived.

  “Your Highness, I have the two men you requested,” Commander Thompson said as he made his way across the room toward the throne

  King Patria remained on his throne as the two guards were forced to their knees. “Where are the Black Dragons holding the healer’s family?”

  Neither man spoke.

  “You are both already guilty. How bad things get from here is up to you. I am a fair man. If you have been coerced, I will take that into consideration. If you do not cooperate, then I will have no choice but to have your families arrested. Then I will have all of your known associates arrested. They will all be interrogated for as long as it takes for me to be certain of their involvement. Some of them will no doubt be convicted of aiding the Black Dragons. The ones who are not will never be fully trusted by anyone they know again. If you come clean, then you can prevent this from happening. You can save the family of the healer and possibly your own lives.”

  One of the men spit at the king. The spit fell far short of ever making its mark. The other man looked at his partner uncertainly.

  King Patria did not wait another moment. He reacted to the guard’s defiance. “Take him!”

  One of the soldiers grabbed the defiant man by his arm and lifted him to his feet with so much force that he nearly pulled the man’s arm out of socket.

  Patria waited for the man to be gone, then looked down at the remaining man. “I do not believe that you want anyone to be hurt. What do the Black Dragons have against you?”

  The man looked down at the ground. “Your Highness, the other guard told me of what was going to happen. He said that the healer was going to kill someone. He told me that the Black Dragons would be in control of the city within the next couple of months. He said that I did not have to help, but that the Black Dragons knew where my family was and if I told anyone of what was happening they would go after them.” The man looked up into the king’s eyes. “When they find out that we have been taken, the Black Dragons will go after my family for sure.”

  “Where is the healer’s family being held?”

  “All I know is that at sundown a man is supposed to come by the gate. When he does, we are supposed to tell him whether the healer did the job or not. That is all I know, Your Highness. Please, don’t let my family pay for this. I have a wife and a boy.”

  Patria looked to Commander Thompson. “Commander, you have a new lieutenant in your ranks. Inform him that at sundown he is to leave the palace and go retrieve this guard’s family. I want you to take your men and come up with a plan to track whoever comes to the gate. Have you men at the gate tell whoever comes that the healer did the job. Have him followed and then see if you can recover the healer’s family. Use your judgment when he stops.”

  Rundo stepped forward. “I can help track him. My hawk Messah will follow him. We just have to follow her. That way we won’t have to get close enough to be discovered. I can watch through Messah’s eyes. I will just need someone to guide me while I do. I can’t see through my own eyes when I am looking through hers.”

  Commander Thompson looked at Rundo for a moment before returning his gaze to his king. “With Master Rundo’s help, our chances of success will be much greater, Your Highness. We will begin preparing immediately. We don’t have much time until sundown.”

  “Inform me when it is done. Until then, I want all of the men involved locked away where they will not be able to send a warning.”

  “Yes, Your Highness,” Commander Thompson said with a salute. He turned and walked out of the room, taking the prisoner and guards with him.

  Grundel and Rundo waited until he left.

  “What do you two think of the plan?” the king asked when they were alone.

  “It is as good as any. The only thing I am worried about is the prisoners when we find them. The Black Dragons are not known for leaving their prisoners alive. If they are still alive, they are as like as not to kill them when we ambush them.”

  King Patria nodded his agreement. “There is nothing we can do about that. If Jerrie wasn’t wounded, he might be able to get to the prisoners before the Black Dragons even knew he was there, but we can’t risk it. Commander Thompson will attack fast. With any luck, the Black Dragons will be too focused on surviving to worry about the prisoners. With you two there, they won’t have a chance.”

  “We better get going,” Rundo said.

  “Of course, I will be waiting here for you to finish. I’d go with you if I could, but Master Brennin and the rest of the city would chastise me for all eternity, and I would likely find myself constantly surrounded with guards. For the sake of my men’s time off and the sanity of my court, I will remain behind, waiting for news.”

  Grundel gave his uncle a half smile and a dwarven salute. The salute was the same as that of the Patrian soldiers, except the dwarves saluted with a closed fist to the chest instead of an open hand. His uncle returned the salute and Grundel and Rundo made their wait out of the chamber and headed down toward the barracks where Commander Thompson would be briefing the plan to the others and making the initial preparations.

  Chapter Thirty-five

  Ambush

  Rundo sat behind a building a couple blocks north of the palace. No matter which way the man traveled, they would be able to follow him from here. The palace was to the south, and the man would have to move east or west for a dozen blocks if he was going to go south. Any other direction he went, they would be able to parallel him of follow him after he passed. They had decided it would be best if Grundel carried him. Grundel would easily be able to keep up with the others while carrying him, and he could concentrate on what the man was doing without worrying about trying to walk or run while being blindly dragged along.

  It was nearly sundown when a man with long curly red hair approached the gate. Rundo was watching through the many-times magnified vision of a hawk. He could not hear any better, but he was about two hundred feet in the air and could see the men as if he was standing on a ledge right above him. The conversation was quick and the man took off at a brisk walk.

  “He’s moving east. He has curly long red hair, and he is wearing dark brown leather. He has a light brown cloak that keeps his sword hidden, but he is carrying one, and he doesn’t seem to notice it.”

  The simple statement wouldn’t mean muc
h to the average man, but to a soldier it told them that the man wore a sword regularly, which usually meant he had at least a moderate amount of skill with the blade. Anyone who hadn’t been carrying a weapon long would reach down and touch the thing often. They would constantly adjust it in an attempt to make it more comfortable. Skilled swordsmen simply got used to the unnatural contact and weight until they no longer noticed it. Wherever the sword rested was where it would go back to, no matter how many times you adjusted it. The only way to change this was to adjust the belt or baldric that held the weapon.

  The wearing of a cloak was not uncommon, especially in Patria. Patria was the closest city to the Einode desert. Being so near the desert meant that the city was often very dusty. On especially windy days, the hot wind would cover everything in sand and dust, leaving the whole city a pale brown and tan. The benefit of a cloak was that it allowed an individual who knew what he was doing to hide things under the loose-fitting garment. This was just another statement of the man’s skill.

  Grundel picked up Rundo and hung the halfling over his shoulder. The soldiers began moving east through the alleyways, following Commander Thompson.

  “He’s turning north,” Rundo told them.

  Commander Thompson froze and began signaling the men. In seconds, they had all disappeared in different directions. Grundel and Rundo just turned down a north and south running alley and sat down against a wall. A minute later, the man moved passed the alley they had all been in. He was two streets ahead of where they had been. Rundo watched through Messah’s eyes. He could pick out most of the soldiers’ hiding spots from up here. A smile crossed his face.

  “Time to move,” Commander Thompson said, appearing in the alley from the same street the man had passed on. He had hopped through a window and had carefully watched the man move away from them. They backtracked a block to the west and began moving north.

  After a few minutes, Rundo stopped them. “He has stopped.”

  Rundo watched the man for a moment. He was moving up and down the area. From the ground, it would have just looked like a man wandering around, but from above the pattern was very obvious. The man was making sure there was no one around. In a couple of breath’s time, he had scouted the entire block.

  “He is clearing the area. There is a big house four blocks to the north and two to the east. I believe that is the one he is going to.” The words had barely made it out of his mouth when the man stepped into the small alley between the big two-story house and a small house next to it. There was a hidden door painted to match the stone. If he hadn’t watched the man use it, he would never have noticed it. “There is a secret door in the alley on the south side.”

  “He’s in, we don’t have much time,” Commander Thompson explained. “Team one, take the main entrance. Team two, cover the north and east and make sure no one tries to escape that way. Team three, you’re on me with Grundel and Rundo. Rundo, I could use your daggers more than your eyes now.”

  Rundo hopped down off of Grundel’s shoulder and smiled up at the commander.

  “Follow me.” Commander Thompson knew that the halfling’s abilities far exceeded his appearance. He was the most skilled knife thrower he had ever seen, and that included Jerrie. No one could match Jerrie’s abilities in a knife fight, but the halfling had built his fighting prowess on avoiding getting close for as long as possible. He was also the one who knew where to find the secret entrance.

  They did not wait for the soldiers to get in place. They knew that if the captives were still alive, they wouldn’t be for long after it was clear that their usefulness had expired. Rundo pointed to the door. Grundel had spent most of his life in caves, and he easily noticed the valiant attempt at copying the stone. His magically enchanted axe cut through the wooden door easily. One half of the door fell inward, while the other half hung awkwardly on its hinges. Rundo and Commander Thompson blew past him into the room.

  The two men in the room did not abandon the captives and focus on their opponents as they had hoped. One man grabbed a lamp and threw it at the ground between them, while the other immediately made for the captives.

  Rundo threw both of his daggers. The first slammed into the man’s ribs, making him lower his arm enough that the slash that was aimed at the bound woman’s throat caught her shoulder instead. The second dagger slammed into the man’s back, just to the left of the spine. The man fell forward, his face smashing into the stone wall as the woman struggled violently to escape the ropes that bound her. Her screams were muffled by a rope in her mouth, but the fear was clear in her eyes, even through the stream of tears that were already running down her face.

  Rundo forced himself to look away. The man who had thrown the lamp was the red-haired man. He now stood behind a wall of flame. When he realized his companion had been killed trying to kill the captives, he decided to abandon them. He bolted for the door to his right. Grundel’s axe went flying across the room with remarkable speed. The man was quicker. He dropped to his knees, sliding across the smooth stone floor as Grundel’s axe crashed through the door that was blocking the man’s quick escape. Grundel tried to catch the man with the axe on its way back, but the man rolled forward under the blade and disappeared through the doorway.

  “Get the captives! We’ll follow him,” Commander Thompson shouted back to his men as he charged after the red-haired man with Grundel and Rundo. They ran up the stairs to a doorway that was still swaying from being slammed open.

  They went through it and came out in the street to the north of the huge house. A few feet from the door were the two soldiers who had been blocking this door. Both lay on the ground, grasping their throats as their blood poured through their fingers onto the street. The sound of a crossbow thrumming echoed down the street. They sprinted toward the sound. A block down the street, in an alley, they found another soldier. He had been carrying his crossbow and had fired it out of reflex when the dagger was buried in his back. The blade had punched straight between the bones and into his heart. He was already dead. There was no sign of the red-haired man.

  “He moved like Jerrie,” Rundo said out loud.

  “He was unbelievably fast,” Commander Thompson agreed.

  Grundel just looked down at his axe in disbelief, as if it had betrayed him somehow.

  “Let’s get back,” Commander Thompson suggested. “Our mission was to rescue the captives. We will send a patrol to clear the house and retrieve our fallen.”

  By the time they made it back, the two fallen men at the door to the house were both still. The pools of blood beneath them had met and the flow of blood from their necks had slowed to a drip.

  When they went back inside the house, they found that the soldiers had unbound the woman. She was clutching her child to her chest and crying hysterically. When she saw Rundo, she leaped to her feet. Her crying violent crying died, and she threw her arms around him. The soldiers had wrapped a bandage around her arm, but she didn’t seem to care about the wound.

  “Thank you,” the woman said to Rundo.

  “You’re all right now. We are going to take you back to the palace. Your father is there. He told the king of the Black Dragon’s plans, and the king sent us to save you.” It was all true. He had just left out the part about her father trying to kill Jerrie and that he was now a prisoner.

  “Thank you,” she said again, standing and grabbing her daughter’s hand. The girl stayed huddled next to her mother, and her mother stayed next to Rundo as they made their way back to the palace.

  Chapter Thirty-six

  The King Decrees

  King Patria sat on the throne as the old healer was led into the audience chamber. The woman and her daughter both ran to the old man. Patria waited as they wrapped their arms around him, and they both declared how happy they were that they were safe. After a few moments of celebration, the old man pushed himself away from his daughter and turned to face the king.

  The man took a knee and brought his open hand to his chest. “Kin
g Patria, thank you. You are an honorable man. I do not deserve your grace, and yet you hand it down. Whatever punishment you decide, I will accept willingly.”

  The woman turned to her father questioningly. King Patria nodded to the man and he took a moment to explain what he had done and how the king had chosen to help save her and her child even after his betrayal.

  The woman turned to the king. “Your Highness, please, my father only did what he thought he had to do to save his family. Please do not kill him. We will do anything.”

  “Your father will not die. While I waited for news of your rescue, I decided on his punishment.” He turned and faced the man. “I have decided to open a healing house. The house that your daughter was being held in is now the property of Patria. You will move into that house. You will be available every day to help anyone who needs healing. You will be provided food and supplies at your request, but you will not be allowed to profit from this endeavor. Your services will be provided at no charge. You will also have two apprentices at all times. If you promote someone to healer, they will be free to leave your service, and you will accept another apprentice. You will accept this as your punishment or you will spend the next ten years of your life in the dungeons.”

  Tears ran down the man’s face. “Thank you, Your Highness. I will not let you down. Anything you ask of me, I will do it. I will make you the greatest healers the palace has ever seen. With public service, they will gain experience quickly. You truly are too kind, but I will make sure that you do not regret your decision.”

  “Tomorrow the guards will take you to the house. You will inform them what you need to get started, and we will make sure you have it,” King Patria explained.

  “Thank you, Your Highness,” the man said again.

  King Patria nodded. The man stood, and a guard came to his side. The guard led the man and his family out of the hall.