The Half Dwarf Prince: 02 - The Dwarf War

by J. M. Fosberg

  The dwarves on the wall were focusing their crossbow strikes on the men that were being attacked inside the army’s ranks; their magic bolts were helping to defeat the magical shields. The army continued to move down the road into the fields between Evermount and Shinestone. They had at least forced the army to go into the field away from the entrance of Shinestone, so they would be canalized if they did try to attack. The dwarf army was pushing forward, and the rear ranks of the human army stopped inside the walls and defended, blocking the dwarves of Tiefes Loch from passing.

  They rained crossbow bolts down on the approaching dwarves. So far the trap had sprung beautifully, but then a couple of wizards appeared behind the wall, firing up at the dwarves. One shot was fired straight at Grizzle’s back, and he was knocked over the wall, falling between the charging dwarves of Tiefes Loch and the defending army of men from Portwein.

  Jabaal watched as Grizzle went tumbling off the wall. He called on his god for the first time since the battle in which he had lost his leg. He yelled out “Kalime Aquida!” and his body was surrounded in a blue light that was the blessing of his god. Most of the paladins of Kalime could barely get a weapon or a shield to glow, but when Jabaal called out to his god, his faith surrounded him. He was surprised to see that when he was surrounded in the blue light, the leg he had lost appeared, glowing brightly. He didn’t take the time to contemplate that, though. Grizzle was about to face off against the army of Tiefes Loch, and Jabaal wasn’t about to let him do it alone. He leapt off the eighty-foot wall, flipping in the air as he fell toward the dwarf army.

  Rundo rode forward at the front of the army with King Patria. As they approached the rear of the Tiefes Loch army, he saw the blue light that could only be Jabaal go over the top of the wall in the distance. He didn’t have time to think about what that might mean, though, because he saw a black tendril of dark energy fly toward the king. Grundel leapt off the back of his horse, flying in front of his uncle. His belt buckle absorbed the tendril of energy, and he went tumbling to the ground. He felt his shoulder dislocate and snap back into place as he rolled. He came back to his feet, running toward the army. He spun his arm, testing his shoulder, and it seemed to be working fine. He reached over his shoulder, pulling his axes free. He threw one of them into the midst of the enemy army and he watched with a stab of guilt as his axe found dwarf flesh for the first time since they were created.

  Jerrie was riding alongside the king, with his White Dragons following close by. Grundel had leapt in front of the king to stop a tendril of dark energy. The king’s horse jerked to a halt, throwing the king on the ground. Jerrie didn’t stop, figuring the King was safer where he was. Jerrie had located the wizard when he had fired, but he was hiding behind a dwarf. Crossbow bolts just barely missed him as Jerrie rode into the ranks of Teifes Loch dwarves and then leapt off the horse, letting it run into the dwarf ranks. The dwarf directly in its path leapt out of the way, and Jerrie released the knife he was already beginning to throw. The knife went over the shoulder of the dodging dwarf and into the chest of the wizard, who couldn’t stay low behind the much shorter dwarfs as he tried to get out of the path of the charging horse. The horse died at the hands of the dwarves, but not before the wizard.

  The Patria army slammed into the dwarf shield wall. Jerrie knew that the dwarves had the advantage. Their shield wall was very effective, as he had seen when fighting with the dwarves against the orcs in Shinestone.

  Grundel came charging after Jerrie and the soldiers of Patria. He ran between their lines, bringing his axe down and making a hole in the shield wall while calling to his other axe. He spun as he stepped into the place of the fallen dwarf, cutting down the dwarves on his left and right and creating a gap that the Patria soldiers could flood into. He blocked the swing of the war hammer from the dwarf in front of him just before his other axe slammed into the back of the dwarf. The dwarf fell forward, and he called his other axe out of the dwarf’s back and into his hand. With both axes in hand, he spun in a circle, extending his arms out as he did, letting his axes cut into the four dwarves within reach. Grundel turned right, fighting his way along the backside of the shield wall, and gave the human army a change to get inside the dwarf ranks. Jerrie had somehow made it to him and was moving along behind him, spinning and rolling and diving, his knives finding tendons and joints and the insides of thighs more often than organs. He was protecting Grundel’s back as he fought his way forward.

  Even with Grundel creating openings and Jerrie’s unimaginable speed, the dwarf walls were filling in behind them in most places, and more humans were falling along those walls than dwarves. Then something very unexpected happened.

  Rundo, in hawk form, was just landing on the wall. He had seen Jabaal leap off the wall. He landed next to his gear and quickly began changing. Just as he got ready and threw his first knife down from the top of the wall, a shadow passed over his head, and a huge rock fell into the dwarf army. He looked up, and he didn’t need to feel her aura to know who that was—Evelyn in her huge hawk form. A dozen other large birds followed behind her, dropping rocks into the enemy army. They swooped back out of range, and after Rundo spent a minute throwing daggers down into the dwarf army, the birds returned to drop more rocks.

  Grizzle saw the huge birds dropping big stones onto the attacking army. He was pretty sure he had broken his left arm, but he only needed one arm to swing Gorgon’s Hammer—the hammer that the smith Gorgon had made and Bordin had blessed with the sacrifice of Gorgon’s life in Grizzle’s first fight with Miskrull. He swung the hammer, full of the enchantment of his god, at the dwarves. It slammed into the first dwarf so hard that he knocked down the two dwarves on his right as he was thrown to the side. His backswing crushed the skull of the next dwarves in line. He swung the hammer back the other way, caving in the chest of one of the dwarves and knocking back another.

  Jabaal came flying over the dwarves in front of Grizzle in a cloud of blue light, and both of Jabaal’s swords stabbed down into the shoulders and necks of dwarves as he landed next to Grizzle. Grizzle fought to the left, and Jabaal went to his knees and spun off to the right. The two of them each went a few feet in opposite directions before working their way back towards the other. It had been a little while since either of them had fought together, but it was second nature. Grizzle swung his hammer, caving in the head of the dwarf in front of Jabaal, and then Jabaal went flying over Grizzle, leaping off the head of his hammer and onto the shoulders of a dwarf. His jump sent Grizzle into a spin, and he brought his hammer up into the chest of the dwarf who had been coming in behind him. It was the only reason Jabaal would have pushed off of his hammer like that. Jabaal was leaping from dwarf to dwarf, his swords shooting out beneath him, his feet barely touching the shoulders and heads of the dwarves below him. He would inevitably take some cuts on his legs, but he moved so fast when doing this that no one had ever gotten a solid hit on him. Even the cut that had taken his leg had only done so because of infection.

  The dwarves of Tiefes Loch were having to protect themselves from above as the huge birds dropped rocks on the shield wall. Having to protect themselves from the rocks was making the shield wall weaker, and the humans were gaining ground. Grundel was still cutting his way through the dwarves behind the shield wall. Jerrie was moving his one hand so quickly that his knife was deflecting blows of dwarves before the weapons were even close, and the dagger found fatal spots before the dwarves even realized their attack had been deflected. No one had gotten close to him from behind. He had taken a nasty cut on one of his legs, but it was still numb. He looked over the heads of the dwarves and saw a bunch of people coming out of the trees on the other side of the road.

  Jerrie blocked with the sword on his right, and then Jerrie’s knife came in under his arm, stabbing the dwarf as he tried to throw his axe forward, cutting down into the shoulder of the dwarf in front of him. That had been too close. He looked up again just in time to see the humans on the other side of the road with their
hands up. A heavy wind blew across the road, throwing hundred of the dwarves into the deep trench below the wall. The humans then ran into the forest as the dwarves who hadn’t been thrown into the deep hole shot crossbows at them.

  King Patria knew that he had a broken leg, and probably a couple ribs. Every breath came with a stab of pain. He couldn’t fight, but he could lead. He had the men help him up onto a horse, and he called out weak points in the wall. He ordered reinforcements to the areas where too many men had fallen. He realized that the huge birds and the men who had blown the dwarves into the deep trench along the wall had to be druids. They must be the druids Rundo had told them about. He knew that he owed them the lives of whatever soldiers made it through this fight. They wouldn’t have had many men left at the end of this if it weren’t for the druids.

  Rundo stood on the wall, throwing his daggers down at the dwarves around Grizzle and Jabaal. They were fighting through the army of Tiefes Loch, but they were trapped in the center of it, and they would eventually get stuck there. Frau came up next to him and started firing her magically enchanted crossbow down at the enemy. Her crossbow fired quickly, but even with her crossbow magically reloading right after contact, and with Rundo’s daggers doing the same, Grizzle and Jabaal were still getting no relief. Kraft came up next to them.

  “We gotta get them outta there,” he said with a big smile on his face, and then he turned and fired his crossbow down into the dwarves ahead of Jabaal. All the dwarves within ten feet of the exploding bolt died or were thrown away. Even the ones outside the circle were staggering a little, and Jabaal went running along the shoulders and heads of the dazed dwarves, his swords following his feet, finding the necks and shoulders of the dwarves he passed.

  Rundo and Frau started firing at the dwarves behind Grizzle, and Kraft fired another of his exploding bolts down ahead of them. Finally, with Frau and Rundo’s quick firing and throwing, Kraft’s exploding bolts, Jabaal running around like a wild man stabbing out in flashes of blue, and Grizzle swinging that blessed hammer, they had made it about a hundred paces.

  Then Grizzle took a crossbow bolt in the back of his leg. He spun around, knocking the attacking dwarf to the side with his hammer, and then he threw it at the dwarf as he tried to reload his crossbow. A dwarf came in from the side with a sword, and when Grizzle turned to him he stepped into the sword, trusting in his enchanted armor to stop the blade. He reached down and grabbed the back edge of the blade before the dwarf could retract it. He pulled on the sword, bringing the other dwarf forward, and smashed his head into the face of the dwarf. The dwarf fell at Grizzle’s feet, and he turned the sword in his hand up just in time to deflect the axe coming down from another dwarf coming in at his right. Just as he deflected the axe, a crossbow bolt suddenly stuck into the dwarf’s neck. Grizzle dropped the sword and took up the blessed hammer. He started moving toward Jabaal, but then he felt a sharp pain in his leg. One of the dwarves who was dying on the ground had reached up with a last burst of strength and stabbed a knife into Grizzle’s lower leg. Now, with a crossbow bolt in back of his thigh and a deep cut in his lower calf, the leg wouldn’t hold him. He limped forward, swinging his hammer desperately to fend off the dwarves closing in on him.

  Rundo started stripping down on the wall. “What are you doing?” Frau asked.

  “Just keep them off him. Kraft, when I take off, put one of your exploding bolts on each side of him. Make them close. It’s all right if you daze him; just don’t get too close.”

  He didn’t wait for him to respond he dropped his clothes and gear on the ground and started shifting. He leaped into the air, but as the exploding bolts went off, another huge bird flew past him and picked up Grizzle. Rundo didn’t hesitate; he turned to his left, sweeping in toward Jabaal. He called out with an ear-piercing cry. Dwarves turned to look up, but Jabaal leapt off the shoulders of one dwarf, sheathing his blades as he flipped into air. Jabaal grabbed onto Rundo’s legs as he flew by. Rundo was pulled down slightly, but he gave a couple of hard flaps of his wings and he was on his way up out of range. One of the dwarves got off a shot, though, and it punched through his wing just outside where it connected with his body. He was still able to fly, but it was painful. He flew over the wall and dropped Jabaal in the field behind the wall, over by Grizzle.

  Evelyn was already taking off when Rundo dropped Jabaal down next to Grizzle. “Who was that?” Grizzle asked.

  “I think that was Rundo’s girl,” Jabaal said, looking at the huge hawk that was Rundo. Rundo cried out and lifted back into the air, flying back to his gear on the wall.

  Grundel fought through the last of the dwarves ahead of them. The druids had reappeared and pushed hundreds of dwarves into the deep canal along the wall with their powerful wind. He had seen Rundo do something similar, but it was nothing compared to how powerful the wind was of the combined group of druids. With the two blasts of wind eliminating nearly half of the dwarves between them and the entrance to the wall, and with the help of the druids dropping stones on the dwarves, Grundel and the others had fought their way through. Grundel could still hear fighting past that turn, though, and he sprinted forward. He could barely lift his arms anymore. Even with his axes seeming nearly weightless, the blows that he blocked weren’t, and he had been swinging his arms back and forth for at least an hour, though it felt like an entire day.

  He heard his uncle behind him shouting loudly over the army, commanding men to line up along the trench and not to allow anyone out. He told them not to kill any of the dwarves who still lived unless they tried to escape. The rest of the army he was commanding to follow the heir.

  Grundel ran around the edge of the wall and found the dwarves were mostly holding their shields over their heads. They would have established a shield wall on the other side where the fighting was, but on this side they were just trying to protect themselves from the bombardment of crossbow bolts and stones coming down on them. Grundel threw his axe, and it flew through the ranks of dwarves. He knew there were men fighting them on the other side, so he called his axe back as he ran toward the army at an angle that would bring his axe back on a different path then it had left, cutting into dozens more dwarves. Just as his axe returned to him, there was an explosion. He slammed into the dwarf lines, and the army of Patria met the dwarves of Tiefes Loch again, but this time they did not have an established shield wall. Grundel heard another explosion.

  Jerrie ran up behind Grundel and then off to his side. His magically enchanted glove had proved to be as useful as any of his other items. He could move that hand so quickly he couldn’t even see it. As he ran into the dwarf army he changed his knife into a sword. He now had a sword in his magically enhanced hand. The sword worked in a blur, slapping dwarf weapons away as quickly as he could notice them. He was blocking and attacking before the dwarves could get a full swing in. Two dwarves swung their weapons at him at the same time, but he didn’t even slow down. His sword deflected both weapons and then cut a leg off each of the dwarves at the knee, and then he just kept moving through the army. An explosion went off close to him ahead, and he started working his way back toward Grundel.

  “He’s good,” Jabaal said, coming up next to Rundo on the wall. Grizzle stood next to him, leaning heavily on the wall. He wouldn’t leave the battlefield until the fight was over, and Rundo wasn’t going to waste his breath.

  “He Grundels you,” Grizzle said.

  “What?” Jabaal asked.

  Grizzle nodded down toward the fighting. “Look at them, they fight just like me and you. Grundel cuts his way through the army, creating gaps for the army, and Jerrie fights his way out and back to Grundel. They fight just like us. Jerrie is Grundel’s version of what you are to me.”

  Jabaal smiled. “What if he had two of me?” he said, then yelled out, “Kalime Aquida!” He began glowing blue and leapt off the wall, flipping in the air as he fell toward the dwarves.

  “His leg heals when he does that,” Rundo said in surprise.

&n
bsp; “More than that heals when he does that,” Grizzle said, as he watched his friend come to life now that he had an enemy to fight. Grizzle couldn’t go down there and fight—he could barely walk—but he could still throw Gorgon’s Hammer. He threw the weapon down into the dwindling dwarf ranks. Explosions went off in the dwarf ranks, and showers of crossbow bolts fell down on them. With the dwarves of Tiefes Loch fighting Grundel, Jerrie, Jabaal, and the army of Patria on one side; the army of Portwein on the other side; and with hundreds of crossbow bolts and huge rocks being dropped on them from above, the rest of the fight didn’t last long.

  The last of the dwarves fell between the two human armies, and then the two armies stood facing off between the walls with Jabaal, Grundel, and Jerrie between them. King Patria rode out ahead, and a single man walked out in front of the Portwein army.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Aftermath and Introductions