Hammer and Axe

by Dan Parkinson

  Again the archers and darters let fly, and again the dwarven line was barely touched. Men in the assault wave braced themselves on their shields, preparing to arise and advance.

  It was what Willen Ironmaul had been waiting for. As the shield-bearers shifted their feet to straighten, there was an instant of vulnerability. Willen signaled, a drum sounded, and, from the rocks above the low slope, hundreds of iron balls shot out from hundreds of slings.

  The timing was perfect. Everywhere, men fell, flopping over one another, bumping one another as they went down. The row of shields collapsed and slings hummed again, like nests of angry hornets. The second barrage of iron balls ripped through the unprotected ranks of archers and dartsmen. Without shields, and only lightly armored, these crumpled by the hundreds as heavy iron smashed against skulls, ribs, arms, and legs, into throats and abdomens, many balls caroming away to strike a second or third time in the massed ranks before losing their momentum.

  A charge of mounted warriors, just assembling behind the archers, fell apart as iron balls found their marks among men and horses.

  “Look at their fallen!” Damon Omenborn shouted, atop the Southgate ledge. “See what is happening!”

  Everywhere, out on the field where men and horses had fallen, the air seemed to shimmer, a greenish glow that darted here and there. And the fallen bodies began to shimmer and fade.

  “That army is not real!” Damon said. “It is just sorcery. Tell them!”

  Drums sang, and the dwarven defense line hesitated, hearing the message. Then, as though by plan, a dozen or more wild-haired Klar warriors broke from one of the dwarven companies and ran toward the attackers, howling and brandishing cudgels. Arrows sang, and blades lashed out as they closed, and within a second every Klar was on the ground, mortally wounded … for a moment. Silence hung over the field as the twitching bodies sat upright, pulling disappearing shafts from themselves, picked up their cudgels, and charged again, right into the thick of the thousands of men. They charged and kept charging, leaving a widening trail of human bodies behind them, and slings hummed on the mountainside, reinforcing the attack.

  “Crazy Klar,” Willen Ironmaul muttered.

  “Crazy?” Damon said. “Maybe. Or maybe they’re just having fun. Give a Klar a good excuse to run amok, he’ll usually take it.”

  On his floating throne behind the first army, Kistilan stared at the distant havoc ahead of him, then his eyes went cold. Somehow the dwarves, a few of them at least, had resisted his shock troops. Seven thousand perfectly good spell-built fighters out there, and a mere handful of dwarves were running loose among them, knocking down everything that stood. In anger, he pointed and muttered. Lightning flared from his finger, crackling over the heads of his warriors to dart bright bolts at the rampaging Klar. One by one, the dwarves staggered and fell, blackened and smoking.

  The fourth army, though, was in total disarray, runaway horses and runaway men scampering everywhere. Many of them were heading blindly back toward the main force. Kistilan muttered, and the entire fourth army, in their thousands, shimmered and disappeared. On the field were only the bodies of the fallen, not yet faded away, and the smoking remains of the fallen dwarves.

  Then, two of those moved, stirred, and sat upright.

  Kral Baden shook himself, looked around, and grinned, bright teeth glinting in a soot-blackened face. To the other surviving Klar, he said, “Thought lightning hit us. But no lightning today. No clouds.”

  The third army of humans had continued to advance and now faced the left flank of the little dwarven line, the lead units only a few hundred yards away.

  Lodar Yellowkilt, leading the elite Daewar corps called the Golden Hammer, had heard the drums and had seen the human forces on the west collapse and disappear. The drums were right, then. Of the three human hordes remaining, two were only wizardry—not “real” in dwarven terms, and therefore not truly dangerous. But which ones were the illusions?

  Out on the field, human troops were forming, horsemen coming to the fore for a charge against the dwarven footmen. Lodar signaled, and a Hylar drummer raced to him. “Request permission to test this force,” Lodar said.

  The drummer beat a quick tattoo on his vibrar, the deep, haunting rhythm rolling upward along the slopes. There was a moment’s hesitation, then a response. “The chief of chiefs gives permission,” the Hylar drummer translated.

  “Volunteers!” Lodar called. Instantly, the entire Golden Hammer stepped forward, volunteering.

  “Very well.” Lodar nodded. “Full strength.” He pointed. “Those horsemen will charge us,” he said. “Wait for my signal, then form two companies. First company line countercharge, down and defend, then reverse. Second company hold fast. Hammer and anvil.”

  “They have lances,” a squad leader pointed out.

  “They have no lances,” Lodar said bluntly. “That is only wizardry. They are not there.”

  “Aye.” The squad leader grinned. “Like that other bunch those crazy Klar routed.”

  Trumpets blared, and a hundred horsemen separated from the human front, trotting as they spread into a long line, each six feet from the next. Lodar Yellowkilt traced the pattern of Reorx on his armored breast and hoped that what he had told the squadman was true. His troops were convinced now that the enemies ahead were nothing more than figments of sorcery.

  Lodar hoped earnestly that they were.

  The human cavalry line came at a trot, then a canter, and then full gallop as steel-tipped lances leveled out ahead of them. In a moment they had crossed half the field and were midway between their own forces and the dwarven line.

  “By the plan!” Lodar shouted. “Charge!”

  Shields high and hammers ready, half the Golden Hammer ran toward the charging horsemen, spreading into a spearhead formation, a tight, solid V of racing dwarves.

  The human riders, caught off-guard by the unexpected countercharge, hesitated for an instant, and the line became ragged. But then they were galloping again, lances lowering toward the short, stocky targets of the dwarves. Hooves thundering, dwarven boots thumping an echo, the two formations clashed at midfield. Here a lance pierced dwarven armor, there a Daewar ducked beneath a thrust and broke the front legs of a horse with a single hammer blow. Then, abruptly, all the dwarves dropped to the ground, falling backward, their shields over them. Horses thundered over and around them, lances spearing downward, men falling as hammers lashed out from beneath shields, cutting their mounts from under them.

  A long second passed, and the charge had swept by, thundering onward toward the second unit of the Golden Hammer, still holding the line. Where the forces had met was a jumble of bodies—men, horses, and dwarves everywhere. But among the dwarves, most raised their shields, jumped to their feet, and turned.

  Lodar gritted his teeth in pain, looking at the broken lance head jutting from his breastplate. “It isn’t real,” he told himself fiercely. “It had better not be real.”

  All around him, other maimed and pierced dwarves were telling themselves the same thing. And suddenly, lances faded, holes in armor closed, blood stopped flowing. And high on the mountainside beyond, drums sang of what sentinels saw. This army, like the one to the west, was only a figment.

  But figment or not, the horsemen were still charging toward the second company of the Golden Hammer. “To the anvil!” Lodar ordered. “Crush formation!”

  A solid phalanx of angry Daewar at his back, Lodar Yellowkilt headed after the human horsemen.

  Still seventy strong, the horse charge hit the “anvil” of Daergar defense like a scythe hitting wheat … and bounced off like a scythe hitting stone.

  With shields braced by stout bats of wood, heeled into solid stone, the Daewar met the horse charge in the way they had learned a century before. Real or not, lances or no, a horse charge cannot break steel shields set in stone. The humans hit the line, lances breaking, and many were thrown from their saddles by the impact. Some horses went over the shields, where their sa
ddles were emptied by sling-balls and hammer blows. Others veered aside, bumping and jostling each other. “Fall back!” a human shouted. “Regroup!”

  But it was too late. Like steel-swathed, gold-bearded wrath, the first company of the Golden Hammer hit the riders from behind, crushing them against the “anvil” of the braced line. Everywhere steel clanged on steel, men screamed, horses floundered, and the solid, deep-throated chant of the Golden Hammer echoed: “Re-orx! Re-orx! Re-orx!” Dwarves fell, then stood to fight again. Men fell and did not.

  Far out on the field, wizards guiding the replicate army ran here and there in confusion and frustration. The army began to disperse, large groups heading off to find cover, wizards following, bickering among themselves.

  In a place where spring thaws had eroded the land along a tiny stream into a maze of high-banked gulches, Slip Codel had been hiding, waiting for a chance to ambush someone. The young Theiwar had become separated from his assigned group, and then had been cut off by the advance of the mercenaries from the east.

  Now he crouched low, behind a leaning slab of stone on a tall bank, as hundreds of humans raced past him, some riding and some on foot. Slip watched them pass, many of them within arm’s length of his hiding place, and itched to ambush them. But he was alone, and they were many. After a few minutes, they had all passed, and Slip started to rise. Then he crouched again as a strange-looking man raced around a shoulder of rock and stopped, out of breath and panting. The man was unarmed and wore nothing more than a long dirty robe of white material. With a hiss of anger, he peered at the clefts where the other humans had gone and raised a hand. “Dek seratis,” he said. “Dek manit—”

  Whatever else he meant to say went unsaid. Slip Codel’s hammer rapped him on the skull, and the human slumped to the ground.

  Slip dropped down beside him and walked around the inert form of the fallen man. The man was still breathing. Slip raised his hammer again, then changed his mind. Slinging his hammer, he crouched beside the man, lifted him across strong shoulders, and stood. With the unconscious human dragging the ground fore and aft, Slip headed for the slopes of Thorbardin. It might be, he felt, that somebody there would like to talk to this human about what was going on.

  On the walled ledge outside Southgate, Willen Ironmaul and Damon Omenborn saw the destruction of the horse charge and knew that Lodar Yellowkilt had guessed correctly. They had identified the second conjured army.

  Damon, peering through a far-seer devised by Hylar glaziers—magnifying lenses mounted within a brass tube—saw something now that he had not seen before. Far out on the Promontory, where two full identical armies yet remained, a speck hung in the air above one of the hordes. Twisting the ribbed bands of the device, he adjusted the lenses for greater magnification. The speck grew and became a man sitting in a chair … a chair suspended from nothing, simply floating above the humans massed below.

  He handed the far-seer to his father, pointing out the speck. Willen gazed through the lenses, then handed the device to Barek.

  “One wizard has put himself above the rest,” Damon said. “He is in charge, then.” He turned to his father and the captain general. “If you had four armies and only one was real, which army would you lead?”

  “The real one,” Willen Ironmaul said.

  “Let’s test your theory,” Barek said to Damon. “It’s time we bring out the discobels.”

  Damon nodded.

  “I agree,” Willen said. “Let’s find out if the real army has a real wizard in charge.”

  At the captain general’s command, drums sounded, and, a short distance down each sloping ramp, dwarves went to work with cables and winches. Slowly, from behind each main guard tower, there appeared a huge contrivance of lashed and braced timbers as tall as the towers themselves. Lumbering on great iron wheels, the two discobels rolled into view, and dwarves clambered up their sides, carrying tools. Winches aloft sang, and high on each tower a long, outthrust arm as thick as the bole of a mountain cedar swung back and back, creaking as cable-springs took the strain of its inertia.

  When each arm was drawn back, a quarter of the way around the timber tower, stone anchors were set at the bases of the structures. More dwarves scampered upward, carrying steel-edged iron disks, each three feet across and eight inches thick at its center, tapering outward to the edge, which was a narrow band of tempered steel with sharp teeth three inches long. The things looked like giant, circular saw blades.

  Carefully, dwarven tenders set the disks into curved slots at the end of each long, drawn-back arm, then scampered down from the structure, leaving only the throwing crews aloft.

  Barek Stone gazed out across the littered field, gauging distances. “Three-fourths of a mile,” he called. “Full elevation.”

  “Do these things have that kind of range?” Damon asked his father.

  “Not quite,” Willen admitted. “Only about a thousand yards. But Barek knows what he’s doing.”

  Damon gazed across the distance and nodded. “Ah,” he said. “The stone and the water?”

  “Exactly,” Willen replied.

  “The army on the right,” Barek called to the dwarves high on the towers. “The one with the dark speck floating above!”

  “We can’t hit that little speck!” someone shouted back. “Rust, Barek! We may be good, but we aren’t that good!”

  “Not the speck!” the captain general shouted. “Just hit the army! Aim for the middle, where the humans are thickest.”

  “We’ll see what we can do,” the operator above responded. Cables strained, and winches creaked as the lashed arms of the discobel towers were adjusted for maximum elevation, and stop-blocks were set for aim. “Ready!” the voice from above said.

  “Then do it!” Barek roared.

  With twin crashes like echoing thunder, the discobels came alive. Released arms screamed around in half-arcs, crashed against their stop-blocks, and entire towers of lashed timber shuddered and rumbled. Twin disks soared away, high into the pale sky, then curved downward in the distance.

  “They’re falling short!” someone said.

  “The stone and the water,” Damon repeated.

  At maximum range, the big disks slashed downward. They hit the ground two-thirds of the way toward the army of humans, raising great clouds of dust, and soared again, twin ricochets like two flat stones thrown across the surface of a lake.

  In a second, the two disks reached the front ranks of the human horde and smashed through them, spinning and cleaving, slicing through everything in their paths. Men and horses fell—and parts of men and horses. Like howling, spinning reapers, the saw-edged disks clove twin trails of carnage through a hundred yards of mercenaries, cutting off heads in the front ranks, shearing torsos farther back, slicing off legs and feet beyond … then hit the ground and skipped again, taking down more men as they went.

  Above the army, the floating speck bobbled as the wizard stood upright on his throne, dancing and waving in fury.

  “Nice shots,” Barek Stone rumbled. “Now train that seer on the dead ones. Watch them.”

  The army seethed and swirled in panic, but where blood pooled around the hundreds of dead, nothing happened. The dead lay there, trampled by their comrades, and did not shimmer or fade.

  “That’s it,” Damon announced. “That is the army we must face. All those other warriors are only illusions.” He raised his glass to watch the floating wizard and shouted, “Guards! Mirrors!”

  All along the ramparts, guards reversed their shields, turning the backs of them outward as the air beyond Southgate crackled and flared.

  Bolts of sorcerous energy directed at the discobel towers and the dwarves on the main ledge hit the bright mirrors and bounced away. Bolts of lightning shot from the mirrors outward, across the open plain, to dance among the mercenaries gathered there. Smoke erupted, and blazing men ran in all directions, searing and dropping as they ran. The remaining duplicate army, east of the main group, flashed and disappeared.
r />   “That’s a trick I learned from my pet wizard,” Damon told his father.

  18

  Wizard’s Wings

  Days had passed since Quist Redfeather’s imprisonment in the walled place the dwarves called the Valley of the Thanes, and he had begun to wonder whether the dwarves had forgotten that he was there. The packs and kegs of supplies they had left for him beside a sealed gate were the only signs he had that anybody even knew about him. He had been alone since the night he had watched a burly, angry dwarf use a mage’s own magic to change the mage into a horse.

  Through the days, the tall, dour Cobar had wandered the little valley, seeking a way out. Then, giving up on that—a dwarf might climb such walls, but no human ever would—he simply explored to pass the time. He found a place where neat, tended graves marked the burial grounds of the dwarves and wandered through it, wondering. Each short, carefully covered grave was placed in careful symmetry with all the others, and each was marked by a piece of cut stone inscribed with runes that Quist couldn’t read. Despite his anger at the dwarves who had tricked him and imprisoned him in this place, he had no desire to desecrate the graves he found there. Such an act might have occurred to a Sackman or Rik raider, or some other such savage, but not to the proud Cobar. Though the runes told him nothing of who was buried there, they still indicated that each small grave was the resting place of someone who had been cared about … someone who had mattered to those who buried him.

  Strangely, it struck Quist as a Cobarlike thing to do, this marking of the graves of the cherished dead. His own people respected their dead, and so, it seemed, did the dwarves. In at least that way, he thought, the dwarves were far more human than many humans he had met—such as those from the northern deserts and those who ruled Xak Tsaroth—especially those who ruled Xak Tsaroth.

  What would the High Overlord do to Quist’s family when he failed to return from his mission? The Cobar didn’t know, but it pained him to think about it. Whatever their fate, he would devote his life to getting even.