The Fate of the Dwarves

by Markus Heitz

  Then he turned round and went back to the table, contemplating the vraccasium urn that shone in the reflected firelight, as if it had an inner strength. He placed a hand on it and felt its warmth.

  “I shall miss you, Scholar,” he whispered. Then, picking up the urn he left the room without looking round. The Blue Mountains were waiting for their king.

  Dramatis Personae

  DWARVES

  Firstling Kingdom

  Xamtor Boldface, king of the Firstlings, from the clan of the Bold Faces of Borengar’s firstling folk.

  Secondling Kingdom

  Boïndil Doubleblade, also known as Ireheart, from the clan of the Swinging Axes, warrior.

  Boëndalin Powerthrust, his eldest son.

  Thirdling Kingdom

  Tungdil Goldhand, warrior and scholar.

  Goda Flameheart, warrior.

  Sanda and Bandaál, two of Goda’s children.

  Hargorin Deathbringer, leader of the Black Squadron.

  Jarkalín Blackfist, horseman with the Black Squadron.

  Rognor Mortalblow, king of the thirdlings.

  Fourthling Kingdom

  Frandibar Gemholder of the clan of the Gold Beaters, king of the fourthlings.

  Goïmslîn Fastdraw (Slîn) of the clan of the Sapphire Finders, descended from Goïmdil’s fourthling folk.

  Fifthling Kingdom

  Balyndis Steelfinger of the clan of the Steel Fingers, queen.

  Balyndar Steelfinger of the clan of the Steel Fingers, her son.

  Freelings

  Gordislan Starfist, king of Trovegold.

  Barskalín, sytràp (commander) of the Zhadár (älfar name for the Invisibles).

  HUMANS

  Rodario the Incomparable, actor.

  Rodario the Seventh, actor.

  Mallenia, freedom-fighter.

  Queen Wey XI, deposed queen of Weyurn.

  Princess Coïra Weytana, her daughter.

  Count Loytan Loytansberg, a noble in Weyurn.

  Duke Amtrin, ruler in Gauragar; a vassal of the älfar.

  Enslin Rotha, mayor of Hangtower.

  Tilda Cooperstone, town councilor in Hangtower.

  Tilman Berbusch, rebel.

  Hindrek, gamekeeper.

  Cobert, his eldest son.

  Ortram, his youngest son.

  Qelda, his wife.

  Duke Pawald, vassal of the älfar.

  Wislaf, Gerobert, Vlatin and Diederich, Pawald’s men.

  Frederik, butcher in Topholiton.

  Zedrik, sentry in Topholiton.

  Uwo, fishmonger in Topholiton.

  Arnfried, blacksmith in Topholiton.

  Girín, official, deputy for Lohasbrand.

  Rilde, farmer (f.) of large estate.

  Xara, her daughter.

  Mila, farmer (f.).

  Grolf and Lirf, farmhands.

  Lombrecht, the old farmer, Rilde’s father.

  Franek, famulus.

  Droman, Vot and Bumina, two famuli and one famula.

  OTHERS

  Aiphatòn, emperor of the älfar.

  Sisaroth, Tirîgon and Firûsha, älfar triplets, also known as the Dsôn Aklán, the gods of Dsôn (Bhará).

  Ùtsintas, älf in Dsôn Bhará.

  Wielgar, Lohasbrander, henchman of Lohasbrand.

  Pashbar, orc guard.

  Yagur, ubari army officer in Evildam.

  Pfalgur, ubari army officer in Evildam.

  Fanaríl and Alysante, elves.

  Ilahín, elf.

  Fiëa, an elf, wife of Ilahín.

  Afterword

  After the third volume I was convinced I had finished Tungdil Goldhand’s story. Well…

  Could I have guessed that what I considered the end of the matter would have aroused so much curiosity and so many requests for the saga to be continued? It certainly took me by surprise: Eighteen months of endless emails all on the same topic. At readings (no matter which book I was reading from) people would ask about volume four. And people all wanted to know about that joke (which still has not been explained, and now never will be. There are some secrets that have to stay secret. This is the author’s revenge.)

  It was tremendous fun thinking up these new adventures and placing the old friends in fresh battles. For the very last time.

  I am no fan of Happy Ends in the conventional sense. This ending is unambiguous, at least it is from my viewpoint. The dwarves have passed their final test and have earned peace and quiet.

  In order to forestall tons of emails asking about a possible fifth volume, I must emphasize: Nothing is planned! Anyway, tetralogies are unusual enough. Another fine reason.

  What’s next?

  The world of fantasy still has me in its grip and the universe won’t undergo any major change: It’s the turn of the älfar now! Evil demands the balance be redressed and wants the right to report from its point of view. There are a few issues to bring to light.

  When this will all be ready to read I cannot say at the moment. But the älfar won’t be patient for long. Although, I must admit it would be fun to write a whole series about a clumsy fat farting elf…

  Acknowledgments

  My thanks go first of all to the many, many dwarf-fans whose loyalty and enthusiasm I find fascinating! It has made me very happy to entertain my readers with stories about the “Small People.”

  I should like also to thank the numerous test-readers, Michael “LudoCreatrix,” Palm and Barbara Beckmann, Piper Verlag my publishers, and my editors Angela Kuepper and Carsten Polzin, both with Piper. Piper let me do whatever I want. Let’s hope that lasts! I don’t want to omit the Alten Bahnhof, where I spent so many creatively inspiring and entertaining evenings.

  And this is for those who enjoy statistics. During the writing of this book the author used up 223 candles, 359 liters of tea (Assam Hazelbank, Assam Mokalbarie, East Frisian blend, spiced tea, English blend, English Breakfast tea) and twice that amount of tap water, 91 joss sticks (various fragrances) and absolutely no drugs, legal or otherwise. None of the above-mentioned teas are drugs!

  No animals were harmed in the making of this book. Unless they might possibly and without my knowledge have come too close to the candles, the hot tea, the water or the joss sticks.

  extras

  meet the author

  MARKUS HEITZ was born in 1971 in Germany. He studied history, German language, and literature and won the German Fantasy Award in 2003 for his debut novel, Shadows Over Ulldart. His Dwarves series is a bestseller in Europe. Markus Heitz lives in Zweibrücken.

  introducing

  If you enjoyed

  THE FATE OF THE DWARVES,

  look out for

  SEVEN PRINCES

  by John R. Fultz

  It is an Age of Legends.

  Under the watchful eye of the Giants, the kingdoms of Men rose to power. Now, the Giant-King has slain the last of the Serpents and ushered in an era of untold peace and prosperity. Where a fire-blackened desert once stood, golden cities flourish in verdant fields.

  It is an Age of Heroes.

  But the realms of Man face a new threat—an ancient sorcerer slaughters the rightful King of Yaskatha before the unbelieving eyes of his son, young Prince D’zan. With the Giant-King lost to a mysterious doom, it seems that no one has the power to stop the coming storm.

  It is an Age of War.

  The fugitive Prince seeks allies across the realms of Men and Giants to liberate his father’s stolen kingdom. Six foreign Princes are tied to his fate. Only one thing is certain: War is coming.

  SEVEN PRINCES.

  Some will seek glory.

  Some will seek vengeance.

  All will be legends.

  In the twenty-sixth year of his reign madness came to the King of New Udurum. It did not fall upon him like a flood, but grew like a creeping fungus in the hollows of his mind. At first he hid the madness from his Queen, his children, and his subjects, but eventually he could no longer steady his shaking hands or hold the
gaze of his advisors during council.

  Udurum was a city of both Men and Giants. The power of King Vod had fostered an era of peace between the two races for almost three decades. Vod himself was both Man and Giant, and therefore the city’s perfect monarch. He was born as a Giant, grew into a sorcerer, and became a man to marry a human girl. He slew Omagh the Serpent-Father and rebuilt the fallen city of Giant-kind. Now, twenty-five years after he forged a path through the mountains and began the reconstruction of New Udurum, his children were grown and he felt the call of an old curse. This was the source of his madness.

  The children of King Vod and Queen Shaira were neither Giant nor human, but a new breed all their own. His first son Fangodrel was pale of skin, with sable hair and the anguished soul of a poet. These were altogether human qualities. His second and third sons likewise stood no taller than average Men, but they carried the strength of Giants in their modest frames, and their skins were the color of tempered bronze. These were Tadarus and Vireon, whom many called his “true sons.” His daughter, youngest of the brood, was named Sharadza. She took after Queen Shaira, almost a mirror image of her mother, yet in her fifteenth year was already as tall as her brothers.

  When Vod began ignoring his royal duties, his court began to grumble. Both Men and Giants feared his dissolution as an effective monarch. His uncle, the Giant called Fangodrim the Gray, tried to quell the fears of the court as best he could. But even he knew that Vod’s rule sat in peril.

  When the chill of early fall began to invade the warmth of late summer, Vod called for his children. “Bring them all before me,” he told Fangodrim. A cadre of servants ran along the gigantic corridors of the palace in search of Vod’s offspring.

  Sharadza sat beneath the spreading arms of a great oak, listening to the Storyteller. The leaves had turned from green to orange and red; the rest of the courtyard’s lush foliage was following suit. All the colors of the rainbow revealed themselves in this miniature version of the deep forest beyond the city walls. She was not permitted to exit the gates of New Udurum, not without the escort of her father, and he had not taken her into the forest since last season. Here, beneath trees grown safely within the palace grounds, she got a taste of those wild autumn colors, but in her heart she longed to walk among the colossal Uyga trees once again. The sun shone brightly through the turning leaves, but had lost its heat. The faintest breath of winter blew on the wind today. She sat on a stone bench as the old man finished his tale.

  “So the God of the Sky had no choice but to recognize the Sea God as his equal. But still sometimes the Sky and Sea fight one another, and these battles Men call hurricanes. Doomed is the ship that ventures across the waves while these two deities are in dispute.” The old man turned his head to better meet the eyes of the Princess. “Are you troubled, Majesty?” he asked.

  Sharadza had been distracted by the varicolored leaves blown upon the wind. Beyond the tops of the palace walls, gray clouds poured across the sky. Soon the season of storms would be upon them, and then the crystal purity of winter. She did not mind that chilliest of seasons, but fall was her favorite. Each tree seemed hung with fabulous jewels. She smiled at the old man. It really was not fair to invite him here and pay less than full attention to his stories.

  “Forgive me, Fellow,” she said. “I am somewhat distracted these days.”

  The old man smiled. He ran a hand through his short white beard and nodded. “You are growing up,” he sighed. “Mayhap you do not care for my stories any longer.”

  “No, don’t think that,” she said, taking his wrinkled hand in hers. “I treasure your visits, I really do. You know so many tales that I could never find in the library.”

  Old Fellow grinned. “Would you have another?” he asked.

  Sharadza rose and walked about the oak tree, trailing her fingers along its rough bark. “Tell me what you know of my father,” she said. “Tell me about Old Udurum. Before I was born.”

  “Ah,” said the Storyteller. “You had better ask the King for stories of his youth. He would tell them better than I.”

  “But you know he won’t talk to me,” she said, blinking her green eyes at him. “I hardly see him… He’s always in a meeting, or in council, or off brooding in the forest with his Giant cousins. He forgets I even exist.”

  “Nonsense, Majesty,” said Fellow, rising from his stone seat. His back was slightly bent, and he supported himself with a tall, roughly carved cane. His robes were a patchwork of motley, as if he wore all the shades of the fall leaves, a myriad of colors spread across the fabric of his flowing raiment. Yet Fellow wore such colors all year round. He had very little taste when it came to matters of style. She had given him gifts of silken tunics, delicate scarves woven in Shar Dni, and other garments worthy of a nobleman’s closet, but he refused to wear any of them. He would, however, accept whatever jewels or coins she managed to wheedle from her parents. Even Storytellers had to eat, and Fellow was little more than a vagabond. Yet he was so much more.

  “Your father cherishes you, as does your kind mother,” said Fellow in the tone of an encouraging schoolmaster, which he was not. Sharadza’s tutors were never so informal with her, nor did she relish spending time with them the way she savored her every rendezvous with the Storyteller. He wandered the streets of the city between visits, telling his stories on street corners and in wine shops, earning his daily bread by weaving tales for the weary Men and Giants of Udurum.

  “What do you know of him?” she asked, challenging Fellow to spill any secrets he might possess.

  The old man licked his dry lips. “I know that he built New Udurum on the ruins of the old city, after the Lord of Serpents destroyed it.”

  “Everyone knows that.”

  “Yes, but did you know the young Vod was born a Giant but was raised by human parents?”

  Sharadza nodded, sitting back down on the cold bench. Thunder rolled low in the distance, like the pounding of great breakers at the edge of a distant sea. She had heard rumors of her father’s human parents, but he never spoke of them to her.

  “Oh, they did not know he was a Giant at first, just a very large baby,” said the Storyteller. “But they soon found out when he grew too fast.” His voice sank to a whisper. “They say his human father abandoned him, but his mother never did. She died not long after the building of the new city.”

  “She would have been my grandmother,” said Sharadza.

  “Not entirely,” said Fellow, “for she was never related to your father by blood.”

  “What about the Serpent Lord? Is it true my father slew him?”

  “Yes,” said the Storyteller. “By virtue of his sorcery, the same powers that make him both Giant and Man, your father destroyed the oldest enemy of Giant-kind. His magic made him tall as the Grim Mountains, and he wrestled with the Great Wyrm, his flesh burned by the great fires that it spit in his face. Their battle took place right here, among the ruins of Old Udurum. Nearly all the Giants had been slain and their city toppled. When young Vod crushed the life out of the monster, he vowed to rebuild the city. That is why we have this capital of Giants and Men. Your father brought peace to the Great Ones and the Small Ones. He is a hero. Never forget that.”

  Sharadza nodded. How could she ever forget the legacy of her father? But there was much she still did not understand. The wind caught up her long black curls, and she brushed them away from her face.

  “Is it true the Giants are dying?” she asked.

  The Storyteller frowned at her. “Since the destruction of Old Udurum, no Giantess has borne a child. Some say the dying Serpent Lord put a curse on his enemies, and that is the reason why the she-Giants are barren. If your father had not fallen in love with your mother, a human, you and your brothers might never have been born at all! The Giants who live among us now are old. Yes, they are a dying breed, and they know it. Little more than a thousand still walk the world, and by the time your own children are grown someday, they may all be gone.”

  �
��Is there nothing we can do?” Sharadza asked. Such finality made her want to cry. Her cousins were Giants, so if they died a part of her died with them. Her father’s best friend was his uncle Fangodrim, who was uncle to her as well.

  “Likely not,” said Fellow. “These things are decided by higher powers than you or I. But remember that it is not death that counts in the end, but a life lived well.”

  Sharadza smiled through her brimming tears. Fellow was always saying things like that. “Jewels of wisdom” he sometimes called them. It was one of the things she loved about him.

  “Fellow,” she said, “I have another question for you.”

  “Of course, Majesty.”

  “How did my father learn sorcery? Was he born with it?”

  Fellow sat quietly for a moment. Sharadza heard the moaning wind and a peal of approaching thunder.

  “I’d best tell that story another time,” said the old man.

  “Why?”

  “Because your mother is coming.”

  “Oh! You must hide. I’m not supposed to be listening to your tales. She says you’re a liar and not to be trusted.”

  Fellow smiled at her, the skin about his gray eyes wrinkling. “Do you believe that, Princess?”

  She kissed his cheek. “Of course not. Now go. I hear her steps along the walk.”

  Fellow turned toward the tall hedge and disappeared into the leaves. He would find his way back out onto the streets of New Udurum by a hidden path she had shown him months ago. She could not explain her mother’s distrust of the Storyteller, but she knew in her heart it was baseless, so she smuggled him into the royal gardens whenever she could, at least once a week. She began to think of him as her grandfather, albeit a grandfather she could never publicly acknowledge. She had learned much from his stories, and there was much more to discover.

  Queen Shaira rounded the corner of the hedge maze with two palace guards in tow. Shaira was not a tall woman, but her presence loomed as that of a Giantess. Her hair was dark and her eyes bright as emeralds, both like her daughter’s. Looking at her mother, standing there in her gown of purple silk and white brocade, a crown of silver and diamond circling her brow, Sharadza knew exactly what she would look like when she was grown. There could be no doubt that she would be the spitting image of her beautiful and regal mother. At the age of forty-five, Shaira retained every bit of her beauty, and this gave Sharadza no small comfort.