The Half Dwarf Prince

by J. M. Fosberg

  The dwarves worked the next tunnel in much the same way. Jerrie stayed close this time. Rundo used the air to push the orcs twice on the command of Frau. Using this technique they cleared the next tunnel much more quickly. It had been over an hour of constant fighting, but finally there were no more orcs in front of them. The dwarves had rotated out a couple of times, moving the dwarves in the front to the back. All in all, forty to fifty dwarves had fallen. Some of them were likely still alive. Dwarves in the back stabilized the ones who could be saved and then caught up to the fighting. The wounded would be collected at the end of the fight. They couldn’t afford to leave dwarves behind when they were fighting so many.

  Fredin charged up the tunnel. He had his own seven thousand orcs behind him. He left the other twelve thousand from Hure’s clan and the other clan he had taken at the entrance. The fighting would most likely still be heavy there. The dwarves weren’t foolish enough to abandon the easiest access to the mountain. He was halfway up the passage to where his uncle’s clan would be when he heard fighting behind him. Dwarves must have come through the small entrance the orcs had collapsed. How had they gotten through all the entrances so fast? For the second time in this fight Fredin had to turn around and he hadn’t even swung his sword yet. The dwarves had smashed right through the line of orcs and had a shield wall working in both directions of the tunnel. He looked to Vingaza.

  “Now.”

  Vingaza and the other three wizards all threw spells down the tunnel to the intersection. Vingaza threw black, oily fingers of energy—one of the most powerful spells a wizard could use. He could send out a dozen of them and control each one individually. Most wizards could barely control one. Each of his black tendrils flew over the heads of orcs and found dwarves. The dwarves who were hit fell dead instantly. Two of the wizards had used lightning blasts, but the fourth—fool!—had thrown fire into the mix. The orcs were rushing in to take back the ground they’d lost, collapsing both shield walls at once. The black tendrils hadn’t scared the orcs, the lightning hadn’t scared them, but when that ball of fire exploded on the backs of the dwarves of the collapsing shield wall, the orcs all pushed back in utter fear.

  Fredin reached out and grabbed the wizard by the throat. Holding him off the ground he looked the human in the eye.

  “No fire!”

  He set the wizard back on the ground. He looked back to the dwarves. The dwarves hadn’t hesitated when the orcs had pushed back away from the fire. They rushed in to fill the gaps and began gaining ground again. They were fighting in both directions away from the intersection. They were too far apart now for the wizards to engage them all at once. Fredin gave up on the wizards. He charged down the tunnel, forcing orcs out of the way. Lightning shot over his head and he knew the wizards were softening the shield wall in front of him. He made it through to the front line. The dwarves had killed a hundred orcs on this side already. They were thirty paces away from the intersection of tunnels. They had gained ground quickly. The tunnel was too tight for his greatsword, so out came both of his dwarven-made blades. It was fitting that he would fight the dwarves with their own steel in the tunnels of the mountain he had taken.

  The other orcs weren’t getting through the shield wall, and he didn’t even try. Instead, Fredin struck over the top of the shield wall at the dwarves in the second rank. After stabbing three of them, the dwarf in front of him tried to stab at him. He had been waiting for it, though. He kicked the dwarf’s shield as hard as he could striking off-center to spin him. He stabbed the dwarf in the back. The dwarf behind him had just been stabbed as well so the gap didn’t fill, and Fredin had his opening. He stepped into the gap and stabbed out at the dwarves to each side. They both fell and the orcs pushed forward. The orcs took back their first piece of ground. The dwarves behind the first ranks had already established another shield wall, though, and so it all started over.

  The dwarves were still killing a lot more orcs, but they hadn’t brought enough dwarves to win this fight. They had brought only a thousand. Crone was killing dwarves in the upper levels and dwarves were giving their lives for ground down below. The Dungin clan would be small when this was over, but they would still have the mountain, and more orcs would come. It would take time, but Fredin would eventually win. He was killing them slowly. He was gaining ground.

  It was at least an hour before he made it the thirty paces to the intersection, and the dwarves had paid for every step with dwarf lives. The wizards had been throwing lightning into the dwarves on the other side of the intersection, and they were falling back to the tunnel now. They had killed at least fifty of the dwarves. It had cost them three times that many orc lives, but that was a win to Fredin.

  Fredin continued to lead the fight here at the intersection, but the tunnel the dwarves had fallen back to was narrower and easier to defend. They hadn’t been fighting here long when he heard fighting off to his left.

  Grundel came around the corner running right up on the back end of an orc line. He didn’t even hesitate. His axes went to work. The first orcs didn’t see it coming, as they were focused on the fighting in front of them. Grundel’s axes worked back and forth, cutting into necks and skulls one after the other. They dwarves had made it about ten paces when all the orcs nearby had realized that they were being attacked from behind and began turning to fight. Grundel fell back behind the shield wall in time to hear Frau giving her orders to one of the other dwarves from Shinestone. Grundel couldn’t remember his name.

  “Take them around the other side,” she ordered. “It’s only three tunnels, and you will be behind them.”

  The dwarf ran off, gathering up the dwarves in the rear to follow him. Grundel had only looked back for a few seconds but when he looked again to the fighting he saw them: four Black Dragon wizards were standing behind the orcs about ten paces from the shield wall. He couldn’t get ahead of the shield wall in time. Black tendrils had shot from the fingers of one of the wizards, and all eight of the dwarves forming the wall fell dead instantly. Now Grundel and Jerrie were out front.

  “Wizards!” Grundel shouted. “Form a wall and stay back!”

  When the dwarves fell dead in front of him, Jerrie sprang into action. He threw one knife into the throat of the nearest orc. He charged forward, ducking under the club of another as he slid his knife between the orc’s ribs and into his lungs. He opened the wound even more as he ripped the knife out. He turned back toward the orc who had caught his other knife with his throat and pulled the knife out. Grundel was fighting through the orcs on the other side, and Rundo’s daggers kept a steady pace, battering any orcs that tried to get between them. In less than a minute only a single rank of orcs separated them from the wizards.

  Rundo used his magical daggers. They wouldn’t do any good against the wizard’s magical shields, but they had no problem with orc flesh. Any orc that made the gap between Grundel and his two axes or the spinning, flailing, rolling Jerrie and his perfectly placed knives caught one of Rundo’s daggers in the face. The daggers were magically enchanted. They hit whatever they were aimed at, and after impact they returned to their sheaths, leaving an open wound; with no blade to stem the flow of blood, the recipient quickly bled to death.

  Grundel and Jerrie were almost to the wizards when a bolt of lightning came shooting toward the dwarves. Without even thinking about it Rundo spun to the side, wrapping up the queen. The lightning put down the two dwarves in the middle of the shield wall and slammed into Rundo’s back. He felt the force of the impact but the magical bolt did nothing more then knock the wind out of him. It was like he had been punched in his back. His magically enchanted jacket had done its job.

  Grundel cut through the last of the orcs between him and the wizards. A bolt of lighting had gone by him a second ago, but he couldn’t afford to look back. He knew he needed to finish this and fast. He threw his axe at the nearest wizard just as the wizard released a tendril of black energy at him. His belt had dissipated all of the magical energy from th
e earlier attacks during the fighting in the upper levels, so it was able to absorb this one. He saw the look of shock as his axe slammed into the wizard, but he didn’t know if it was because his belt had absorbed the attack or because his axe had cut through the wizard’s magical shield.

  Vingaza saw the big dwarf’s belt buckle absorb the dark energy stream that one of the other wizards had cast just as he was shooting his own at the human with the knives. When he saw that, Vingaza knew that these were the ones who had killed Malvagio and Cattivo. They had taken his assassins’ magical belt buckles, and likely their weapons. The big dwarf’s axes were obviously enchanted, as they had cut through the magical shield of the wizard it had hit. He didn’t take the time to figure it out. He knew that these two were well prepared to fight wizards, and the dwarves were winning the fight. He abandoned the other wizards. If they weren’t smart enough to figure out they were outmatched, that was their problem. He was already beginning to travel when a dagger cut through his shield. It distracted him just enough to stop him from traveling. The dagger was sticking out of his shoulder. He knew his attack would be diverted so instead he shot an energy blast at the ground in front of him, throwing the two dead orcs up into the air to fall on top of the dangerous fighter who had wounded him. He was just starting to travel again when he realized he was too late.

  Grundel had not called his axe back. After he killed the first wizard he called on the axe in his hand to move to the other. The wizard there was shocked as Grundel flew the ten feet through the air. His path took him just to the side of the wizard, so he kicked out his legs, slamming them into the Black Dragon as he went by. He stopped there, bringing his axe down into the back of the wizard even as he called his other axe to him. He was about to turn on the third wizard when he saw the one in front of Jerrie blast the orc bodies into the air and begin to travel. He threw his axe at the wizard as he became less solid. The axe spun end-over-end, and the blade buried into the wizard’s back. Grundel didn’t have time to turn around before a bolt of lightning slammed into his back. Apparently his belt buckle had to be between him and the magical attack for it to absorb the magic. He dropped to his hands and knees. He heard the orcs charging up behind him, but he could not stand. It was all he could do not to curl up into a ball. Dwarves had an innate resistance to magic. They were not very capable at using it, but it was less effective against them. Lightning was still electricity, though, and he was wrapped in steel chainmail. Every muscle in his body was flexed to the point that he thought they all might rip apart. He felt like his eyes were trying to push out of his skull. His teeth had locked together, and it was sheer luck that he didn’t bite off any of his tongue. The agony only lasted a few seconds, but those seconds might as well have been hours.

  Rundo let one his daggers fly. They didn’t break through the wizard’s magical shield, but it captured the wizard’s attention, distracting him so that he was unable to avoid Jerrie’s dagger, which did break through the shield and bury into his face. Frau broke through the front line of dwarves and ran to kneel at Grundel’s side. Rundo began throwing his daggers as fast as they would appear. The orcs had backed off when the wizards broke through and started firing their spells, but now they were charging. Rundo had killed a dozen in as many seconds, but they were almost on top of Grundel now.

  Rundo linked with the wind in the tunnel and pushed. He knocked Grundel and Frau over, but the orcs who were standing up fell harder. The dwarf line pushed past their queen and took advantage of the fallen orcs. They pushed forward, killing a hundred orcs in half a minute, and gained another thirty paces of ground. Rundo hadn’t pushed the wind far—it had been purely on instinct—but it had been enough to give the dwarves the advantage.

  Fredin ignored the dwarves in front of him when he caught sight of the huge dwarf up the tunnel fighting off the wizards. He knew just by looking at him that this was the only dwarf who could fit the description of the half-dwarf Stoneheart, the grandson of the dwarf king who had killed his own son. Today that debt would be paid.

  Fredin pushed his way up the tunnel. He had to force his way through a thousand orcs. He continued to push through to watch what he could of the fight between the wizards and the dwarves. He was looking over the heads of the orcs and could only see flashes of light, but he knew the moments when the wizards died. He saw the big dwarf engulfed in lightning as he fell. He was almost there, and then he was on his back, pushed down by a sudden, incredible wind. It seemed the dwarves had a wizard also. He stomped forward, shoving orcs out of the way as he moved. He needed to see if the big dwarf was dead. He hoped he was still alive so that he could kill him. He pushed through the front line of orcs and kicked at the first shield he saw. The dwarf behind it slid back half a step, but that was all. He saw the big dwarf on the ground a couple paces behind the shield wall. A dwarf next to him was helping him to his feet.

  “You, Stoneheart! You are mine!”

  Then someone slammed into his chest and knocked him back a step.

  Jerrie saw the huge orc, whose head almost touched the top of the tunnel, burst through the front line of orcs. The giant orc was challenging Grundel, who was barely making his feet again. Jerrie leapt over the dwarves in front of him, kicking the orc in the chest with both feet. He landed on his back and shot his feet up in the air, lifting him off the ground to land back on his feet. The orc hadn’t been knocked back as far as he had hoped, but the orc had staggered back a couple of steps, which had kept him from killing Grundel, and that was really all Jerrie could have hoped for. The orcs started to push forward again, but the huge orc roared over everyone.

  “Hold!”

  The orcs stopped in their tracks.

  Fredin looked down at the human who had leapt out in front of the dwarves. He held a knife in each hand.

  “Move out of the way. Send out the Stoneheart.”

  The human didn’t respond. Instead, he leapt inside the reach of Fredin’s weapons and stabbed at his stomach. Fredin brought his fist down, with his sword’s pommel sticking out the bottom of it. It would have cracked the human’s skull wide open if he hadn’t abandoned his attack and rolled to the side at the last minute. He kicked out at the rolling human just as he was regaining his feet.

  The human was able to turn enough to avoid the brunt of the blow but he still got clipped, sending him stumbling back toward the orcs. One of them tried to cave his head in with a mace, but he saw that coming, too, and rolled away. Fredin took a step forward and pushed the tip of his sword into the chest of the orc who had tried to interfere. He gained a knife across the back of his left knee for his distraction. He turned back on the human. Something in his leg was severed. The cut wasn’t bad—it was barely bleeding—but the leg wouldn’t hold his weight. He reached up and took his helmet off, throwing it to the side. He swung one of his swords in a wide arc, pushing the human back as he reached up with his other hand and started drawing his greatsword. This tunnel was too small to use it as he would like, but he could use it well enough to keep this little fast-biting insect back far enough to kill it.

  Jerrie knew the wide swing was only meant to push him back. He saw the orc reaching back for the big sword on his back. He also knew that even though the swing wasn’t intended to kill him, if he didn’t do exactly what this orc wanted him to do, that wide swing would have cut him in half. He leapt backwards and rolled back up to his feet.

  The big orc had a sword as tall as anyone in this tunnel except for the huge orc himself. The orc was on the defense now and Jerrie knew it. He had to get inside that sword. The sword came at him from the side, and he tried to roll under the swing. He had barely made the roll when the orc redirected the blade back and down. The orc had been expecting it. In desperation Jerrie brought one arm up, the metal bracer on his forearm catching the blade as he dove forward through the huge legs of the orc. He managed to get his other arm out and run his knife against one of the orc’s legs as he passed through. He rolled and spun back to his feet, facing the or
c. He was pretty confident none of the orcs behind him would strike at him after the huge orc killed the last one who did, but they were still orcs. He realized that his knife had only cut open the shin of the leg he had already wounded. Jerrie knew he had cut through the back of that knee, and the huge orc wasn’t able to put any weight on it. He had him. He just had to get the orc to put weight on the wounded leg to off-balance him. Now he just had to deal with with the orc’s huge sword. He leapt to his left, to the side of the big orc’s good leg. The orc started to turn toward him, and when the sword came across, Jerrie rolled under it and came up so far to the orc’s right that he was almost behind him.

  Fredin knew he had underestimated this one. He had been foolish to lash out in the middle of the fight. That wound on the back of his leg was slowing him down too much. He had the human cornered now. The only place he could go was backward, and there were only orcs and a wall behind him. That trick of going between his legs worked twice. The fast little human tried to escape around him, and he had brought his sword around to finish this one for good, but the human had been expecting that. He was already changing directions. Fredin couldn’t turn fast enough on the one leg. But if he didn’t turn, those knives would be in him. So he did the only thing he could: Fredin fell on him.