by Clark Graham
While he was talking to Ferdin, two of his warriors awoke from the spider-drugged sleep. Healers went to them right away until they got their bearings. In the midst of the chaos, the King came in the room. One of the healers had sent for him.
“So what the humans have said is true, you have awakened.”
“I am sorry, Father, I have led my men to defeat and had to be rescued by those who look down on us,” Cazz said,
“No, it is I that have made the mistake,” the King said, “I have hidden my sons in the High Mountain to protect them for too long. I have allowed evil to walk up to the door. Now we are prisoners in our own home. The humans have fought evil alone for too long. The dwarves will join the battle again.”
With a voice of excitement Cazz asked, “When do we go?”
“We?” the King frowned, “You are not going anywhere till your wounds have healed. As for the rest, a dwarf army leaves with the sixth born in a few hours. They will go with him to the South Fort.”
“A dwarf army walking towards a human castle. They will think that we are going to lay siege to it.” Cazz Started to laugh then suddenly grabbed his stomach. “Perhaps I am wounded worse than I first thought.”
“Perhaps,” said the King with a sly smile, “I have to see the army off. I will leave you to the capable hands of the healers.”
Cazz nodded as the King left.
Up in the Great Hall, all of the hundreds of warriors were in the last stages of preparing to leave. Armor, shield, axes, bows and helmets were being put on while they said their good-byes. With a wave from the King, all the wives, mothers and children went to the sides of the hall while the dwarf warriors formed ranks. Hemlot was in the front with Sarchise when the King came up.
Speaking to Hemlot he said, “Take him out of the high gate. It will save you several days off your journey. There was an old road there that was used when man and dwarf were allies. The road, if it still exists, will lead you straight to South Fort.” Turning to Sarchise he said, “Sixth born. Hemlot is here to protect you. Let him do his job, it is the way of the dwarf.”
Sarchise held his cap to his chest and bowed to the King. The King returned the bow and left.
“Well, Prince we are ready to go,” Ermort said.
Sarchise took out his dagger, “Next person who calls me ‘Prince’ is going to lose his scalp.”
Ermort stepped back holding the top of his head where his scalp was attached.
Hemlot spoke up, ”But I must call you Prince, it is the law.”
Sarchise looked down at him, “You are excused. I am ready, tell the men to march.”
With a word five hundred dwarf warriors moved forward in unison. Those on the edges of the column lit torches. The warriors broke out in song, old songs, some in a language that no human knew. Then they started singing one in the common tongue with words all to plain too the humans there.
Gremlins have a blood that’s green
The finest sight a dwarf’s ever seen
Gremlin blood spilled on the ground
With Gremlin warriors falling around
Hack and slash and maim and kill
Hack and slash and maim and kill
Killing gremlins is such a thrill
It was easy going while in the Great Hall, but some of the passageways beyond that were low and the humans had to bend down to fit through them. Hemlot led them up steep winding stairs and then back down steep winding stairs, across narrow bridges that spanned dark and unseen rivers. Suddenly they came out into a large cavern. The walls and the roof were white with stalactites and stalagmites nearly touching each other. There was a narrow path that led through them at first, then they came to a wide area of the path. They could see a waterfall come out of what seemed solid rock and cascaded across the bottom of the cavern. Below the path, it formed small pools and then made its way out the back side of the cavern. There were steps that went down to the pools. Ermort brought the column to a halt.
“The womb of High Mountain.” He said it to no one in particular. The warriors were taking off their shoes and going down to the pools to wash their feet. “It is here that legend says the first dwarf King came to live. Man and Elf chased him from the land above, when he fled he found a hole in the side of the mountain he crawled through it and found the womb. Seeing how beautiful it was, the dwarf moved down into the tunnels of the mountain and has never again lived under the stars. It is like a temple to us. We come here and wash our feet to pay homage to the god of the mountains.”
The humans respected that. They waited until all of the warriors who wished to, had washed their feet and then they moved out again. There were no more carved tunnels after that point. They walked through natural caves and caverns. Many were beautiful, but none as beautiful as the womb of the mountain. They walked for hours. Sometimes the dwarves sang and sometimes they passed through the caves in silence. Finally they came in to a large room with benches and tables enough to serve the entire army and then some.
“The guard room for the high gate. We will eat and sleep here and continue our journey in the morning,” Hemlot said.
Sarchise nodded. He was not used to having to bend over and walk on solid rock for miles. He was hungry and spent. Hemlot rang a bell and there appeared a cook. Seeing that the army was there, he started preparing a large dinner. The warriors sat at the benches and started peeling off their armor.
An hour later, the cooks and maidens came out and started serving the tired army. It was wild rabbit stew with bread and cheese. The dwarves ate with gusto and the humans enjoyed it very much. When all had finished, the maidens took the leftovers away and cleared the tables. The warriors started sitting on the floor, leaning against the walls to go to sleep. The humans did likewise. Ermort sat next to Hemlot and Sarchise. “When we finally get out of these caves I will not know where we are.”
Hemlot smiled, “I will, you will have to rely on a dwarf like we relied on you in the Westwood.”
“I suppose so, but just till I get my bearings,” Ermort replied. “Do we need to post a watch here?”
Hemlot smiled again. “You have two dwarf armies here. One army sleeping and the other will be awake. The gate guards are all about us as you will see tomorrow.”
“Good,” Ermort said and then went to sleep.
Sarchise slept surprisingly well against the cold stone. He woke in the morning to the smell of bacon cooking. The maidens were already getting everything ready when the army sat down to eat. The maidens brought out eggs and bacon and baked round cakes. The dwarves ate until they were all full. They began to put their armor back on.
In the midst of the army’s preparations, Fordin and Ferdin came running up.
“Prince,” they said to Sarchise. “Our father died last night. We are now free to join the army.”
Sarchise looked at them “I am sorry.”
Ferdin added “Harn also passed on, but all of the others including Prince Cazz are alive and resting from their wounds.”
“I am glad to hear it. Grab yourself some breakfast; we move out soon.”
The twins grabbed rolls and stuffed left over bacon and cheese in them and then returned, smiling.
In less than an hour, the army was ready to move again. They left the guardroom and walked through an archway. It was similar to the one at the other gate in that it had a history of the people. Only this one was not as elaborate. Gates swung open and the army stepped out into the light of day. The humans welcomed the sun, but many of the dwarf warriors were squinting.
There were many rows of walls leading past the mountain gate and the path led through them. Towers with bridges connecting them spanned the path that led down off the mountain. Dwarves with bows manned the towers and the bridges. As the army passed through, the dwarves cheered them on. The road ran out past the rock walls and onto the valley floor. There were dwarf farms on either side of the road for about a mile past the high gate, but when they passed the last watchtower the farms ceased. The wel
l-kept brick road started to have cracks in it, and the further they went, the less they saw of the road. Finally about five miles past the last guard tower the road was eaten up completely by the prairie grass.
The dwarves starting singing again. This time it did not echo against the walls, but the low, baritone voices rolled across the open plain.
The King said our prince is now a man
We will follow him if we can
But he leads us out of our world of stone
To where the leaves of the trees are blown
Who knows on some starry night
When wolves and spiders give us fright
We will leave our new prince on his own
And return back to our world of stone
Sarchise looked at Hemlot. “How on earth do you sneak up on an enemy like this?”
Hemlot had a look of surprise. “We don’t, we want them to hear us coming, it strikes fear in them!”
The dwarves kept marching, as the High Mountain became smaller behind them. They were into low brush land now and could see birds and deer around them. During the early evening the column came to a halt so that the hunters could bring in enough forage for the group. Another group cleared away some brush and started a fire. Other dwarves prepared places for sleeping.
“One day you must show us the secret to the dried meat that you carry,” Hemlot said to Sarchise.
“That will be very necessary if we ever go back to the Westwood. There, you cannot make your bonfires. I’m not so sure it is a good idea here. You must place your guards far away from the fire so that they can see if anything comes towards the fire.” Sarchise said.
The hunters did their job well and the army feasted on wild rabbit and venison. There was no central bonfire like in the Great Hall but each unit had its own small cooking fire. Guards were placed in all directions. The plains were fairly safe from giant spiders and razor bears, because they did not usually wander this far from Westwood, as long as there was plenty to eat in the woods. In time of famine they would look for food all over the five kingdoms.
The dwarves did not sleep as well as the humans did on the soft ground and they were not as refreshed as they were the day before. Nevertheless the army moved out at sunrise. There were no songs coming out of the dwarf warriors on this day, or the next two.
South Fort
The guard of the southernmost outpost of South Fort saw the dust cloud from a distance. He had been told to look for Sarchise and his Royal Scouts as they were late in reporting. There was more than a band of scouts coming from the amount of dust that they were kicking up. He watched them for a while to gauge their speed and the numbers then climbed down from his small wooden watchtower and ran to his captain at the outlying post. There was a series of posts, which supported between five and six watchtowers around South Fort. They would never be taken unawares like the Four Kingdoms had.
Commander Ives watched the out of breath guardsman running up. He listened to his report then followed him back to the tower to see for himself. Ives looked at the distance. He had keener vision than most humans because somewhere in his distant past he was part elf. He gazed at the approaching army to gauge who they were, how fast they were moving and what they were doing.
“Dwarves,” he muttered to himself. “Must be four hundred of them, all warriors dressed for battle.” He looked around. “Bring me a runner,” he yelled at the guard.
A few minutes later a young lad presented himself to the commander. “Take this message to South Fort.” Ives said scrawling something on a piece of paper. He handed it to the boy and the boy ran down off of the watchtower steps and started towards South Fort.
Ives climbed down and gathered three men to him, two archers and a runner. “We need a closer look, but at least we got an early warning to the city in time.” With that the four men started sneaking towards the dwarf army.
Sarchise turned to Ermort. He could see one of the watchtowers in the distance. “The guards must have seen us by now. We will make camp here so as not to upset anyone. I’m going to send Tom ahead to report.”
“Good idea. Our dwarf friends are starting to tire out.” Ermort replied. Dwarves were good for short marches but they had been on the march for five days now and the dwarves were not used to it like the humans were. It’s hard to find a place that requires three days to get to inside of a mountain.
Tom was given a piece of paper with Sarchise’s seal on it and sent to report to the post commander. He didn't make it two miles up the road when he suddenly stood face to face with two archers, arrows drawn and pointing at him. He stopped in his tracks. Ives came out from behind a bush.
“State your purpose here!”
Tom just held the paper towards him. Ives recognized the seal of the Royal Scouts and opened it up. After he read a little of it he suddenly tossed back his head and let out a laugh. “Prince.” He muttered then laughed again. He signaled his archers to relax their bows. Turning to Tom he said, “Will you tell Prince Sarchise that he is welcome to come through and report, but that I cannot allow a foreign army any closer to the city.” Then to the runner he said, “Tell the Magistrate to ignore the last message. Dwarves are friendly and not coming through our outer defenses.” As a second thought he said, “Wait, give him this too.” He handed over Sarchise’s letter. Tom and the runner left in opposite directions.
Two hours later, Tom, Sarchise and Ermort showed up at Ives command post.
“Welcome, my friends, come in.” Ives said,
“That is a lot better welcome than I received the first time,” Tom complained.
Ives let out a laugh. “Last time I was sure that you had stirred up trouble with the dwarves and they were chasing you to South Fort. I was going to turn you back over to them rather than fight four hundred angry dwarf warriors.”
Sarchise broke in, “Five hundred actually.”
“Oh,” Ives said; “Even better. So what are you going to do with your little army, Prince Sarchise?”
Ermort made a motion towards Ives, “We don’t call him that.” Rubbing his scalp he said, “Not a good idea.”
“Oh.” Ives got the signal.
“I will have to go back to the High Mountain to return the army, but I will report to the governor first.” Sarchise explained.
The humans slept in comfort that night and in the morning started the final trek into South Fort. They traveled fast into the city not having to wait for a whole army to follow them. They arrived outside the governor’s mansion around suppertime.
Governor Welch welcomed them. “Sarchise, you do have some interesting adventures. Won’t you join me I was about to sit down to my supper.”
“Be most happy to,” Sarchise said.
With a salad of green lettuce and honey barbecued ham, the wanderers ate well, but it was time to answer some questions.
“So what are you going to do with your army?” Asked the governor.
“I will return them to High Mountain, but I think that the King will let us place an outpost there. It will save a five-day march to and from the southern part of Westwood every time we end a patrol. We can send runners back and forth in only a few days from High Mountain to South Fort.”
“A good plan,” The governor agreed. “But I don’t know if we will have the manpower for it. The Kingdom of Ril has asked for men. There is a growing threat coming from the Mountains of Iron.”
“Are they being attacked?” asked Ermort.
“No not yet,” said the governor, “But bands of gremlins roam the foot hills in open daylight. They are amassing an army, and the Kingdom feels threatened.”
“Governor,” Sarchise cut in, “I think my plan will work for both sides. The dwarves want the Mountains of Iron back. If I can put an outpost at High Mountain and help the dwarves cross the Westwood then instead of sending a thousand men away to the Kingdom of Ril, we can attack the Mountains of Iron from the south with thousands of dwarves.”
“I cannot afford to send an arm
y to the Kingdom of Ril. I have not told them that yet. The enemy has a habit of attacking where we least expect it. I need my army here. They would not reach there anyway. The King’s road goes too close to the mountains. I would lose my army to a series of ambushes on the way to the kingdom. Man is too weak to go it alone. This is the work of the Minotaur I feel. They are up to their old tricks.” The governor shook his head. “I will approve of your plan for now, Sarchise. We will station fifty men at High Mountain and I will tell the King of Ril that we can go one better. We can try to take back the mountains.”
“Thank you,” Sarchise said.
“There is one condition,” the governor said. “I will expect you to lead this expedition since you are a friend to the dwarves.”
“Yes Sir, thank you Sir.”
They ended the meal with fresh fruits and wine.
“I want you to head back tonight. I know they are friendly, but an army of dwarves that close to my city makes me nervous.” The governor said, “Before the second message arrived from Ives I was gathering my army. Caused quite a stir in the streets, the war gong hasn’t been sounded in years. Men were running to man the gates.” He laughed. “Anyway, wait for the fifty men and then you are free to head back to the High Mountain. Next time you bring an army with you; please send a messenger ahead, won’t you?”
“Yes Sir,” Sarchise said as he headed out.
“Well, Sam and Ermort,” Sarchise said after the door closed behind them. “I guess this is goodbye. You will get a deserved rest and then some other assignment I suppose. You have been great scouts, and have done all that a master scout could expect.”
“Thank you.” They watched Sarchise leave to go back to the camp.
Ermort turned to Sam “Do you think that this prince thing will go to his head?”
Sam didn’t hesitate, “without a doubt.” They both laughed.
It was early morning when Sarchise stumbled back into the dwarf camp. The sentries had spotted him, but recognizing him, they let him pass. “Welcome back my prince.” Was all that they would say. This was encouraging to Sarchise it meant that the watch was doing its job. He slept for a few hours and then crawled out of his blanket and went to find Hemlot.
