by Clark Graham
Cazz was now completely bogged down. The gremlins had slowed him down enough to allow the armies to take side passages around his rear guard and get in front of him. He was now strung out between the first and second forts, both of which he occupied. Lucky for him there was no side passages in the tunnel between the forts so he could put his wounded in the middle. The number of wounded was growing rapidly. Cazz had no way of knowing if Sarchise had broken through or not. He did not know it the breeding pits were destroyed or still standing. Every time he tried to advance he could not move forward. It only caused the number of dead and wounded warriors to increase. He gave in to his fate and fortified his position to give Sarchise all the possible time that he could just in case he was still alive. Every time one of the forts was attacked, Cazz would reposition the bulk of his forces to protect that fort.
The gremlin dead were piling up. They had stopped Cazz, but could not make any headway against the fortifications. Tabor finally thought it was wise to wait the dwarves out. He pulled back his army away from the forts and their arrows. He had sent runners down several times to see if his breeding pits were alright, but they never returned. He didn’t know if there was another large group of dwarves in his caves or not. He also sent some runners to the surface to see what was going on there; he heard rumors of another battle from his gremlins. He could not always understand their gibberish. Those runners did not return either. All was in confusion and he kept wondering where to turn. He had lost all of the men he had started out with except for the two in the breeding pits. The intelligence of the gremlin was poor, so he had to do all of the thinking. If he left to find out what was going on elsewhere the battle could go sour and the dwarves escape. He had was a large group of dwarves trapped so he contented himself with believing that he had the only group of dwarves captured and was going to wait them out.
Sarchise had made it out of the breeding pits alive but now gremlins were everywhere. Two times a group of them had come down the tunnel. They had managed to kill all of them before they could report back. But now Sarchise saw that the direct tunnel was full of gremlins and that there was no sign of Cazz. He could still hear the din of battle up ahead but had no way to cut through the enemy with the small group he had with him. He was able to skirt around the main body of gremlins and, by using other passages get back to the third fort. It was empty, and it did not look as though Cazz had gotten that far for there were gremlins rushing past the fort. He again left by a different passage. The clamor of battle had died down, Sarchise thought that it meant that Cazz had been defeated, which meant death, but there was still a glimmer of hope in his heart. He had to know for sure so he tried to get close to the other two forts. He found this impossible, the enemy got thicker every time he closed in on the forts.
He had not been detected but it was only a matter of time. Sarchise determined to try and fight his way through to the fort in hopes of saving some of the dwarves who could be there. He was about to attack when he heard the sound of a large battle coming from behind him. He turned his band around and raced towards the fighting. The gremlins were being hard pressed when he arrived. They scattered when Sarchise started attacking the rear of the enemy column. To Sarchise’s surprise he was not facing a dwarf army, but a human one.
“Greetings, from South Fort and the Four Kingdoms.” said one particularly blood soaked human soldier. “We were told by the people of Zor that you might be down here and we have come to rescue you.”
Sarchise recognized the voice. “Ermort?” he asked.
“Ermort of the Royal Scouts, Master of the Governor’s guard, on special errand of the King of Ril, at your service.”
Sarchise went up and hugged Ermort. Ermort let out a groan. “Watch the arm; I took a gremlin knife in it.”
“Sorry,” Sarchise said. “How many are there of you?”
“Five hundred. We have cleared the enemy off the surface, but we need to get you out of here before they regroup and trap us in these tunnels.”
“The main group of dwarves is missing. I don’t know where they are or if they are still alive,” Sarchise said.
“We will go back up on the surface and retrace their steps from there. I want an escape route open to my rear; there are too many gremlins around here,” Ermort commented.
So the human army with a small group of dwarves broke through back up on the surface then went back to where Cazz and Sarchise had first entered the tunnels. It was starting to get dark on the Surface when they headed back down, using the small torches that both the dwarves and the gremlins use in the caves.
Ermort stationed men at every cross tunnel so that they would not get cut off. At first they met light resistance, but the deeper in they got, the harder it was to make headway. When they were just around the corner from the first fort, Sarchise and his dwarves led the way with a charge. Gremlins were screaming and fighting. Pinned between two armies the gremlins fought ferociously, but it was only a matter of time before they were overcome.
Cazz had heard the battle going on by the first fort so he moved the bulk of his army in that direction. He did not know who was coming to his rescue, he did not care, as long as someone was. When he saw Sarchise break through with an army of dwarves and men, he was overwhelmed.
“Do we need to attack deeper into the mountains or are the breeding pits destroyed? Where did the men come from? How did you get on that side of the tunnel, I thought you were in front of me?” Cazz asked without taking a breath between questions, or letting anyone answer.
There was a deep long painful howl from deep inside the mountain. The men and dwarves did not know the meaning but it did not seem like a good omen.
“The pits are destroyed, “ Sarchise answered, “There is still a massive gremlin army to deal with, and if we don’t get out of these tunnels now, we never will.”
With that the dwarves were off and running back up to the tunnel to the entrance. Sarchise and his small group, along with a dozen men, served as rear guard. After one last volley of arrows the second fort was abandoned. It took the gremlins a long time to realize what was happening. This was mainly due to the fact that Tabor had gone down deep into the mountain to see if his breeding pits were still intact. He had taken some of his best fighters with him. He had been given so many mixed messages from his runners that he had to see for himself. What he saw did not please him and howled a howl that shook the mountain. In his heart he vowed to kill every dwarf and not wait for them to starve to death in the tunnels. When he got back up to the army and found them guarding an empty fort, he killed the gremlin commander there with his bare hands. “After them,” he screamed and the gremlins started after the escaping dwarves on a dead run.
Sarchise paused at the first fort to see if the pursuit was catching them, but there was no sign of it yet so his rear guard continued on. When he broke the surface it was in the dark of the night, but he knew the direction the others had headed so he went after them in a trot. When he was near the bottom of the mountain he had just enough moonlight to see gremlins coming out of every opening like ants storming out of an anthill. They were running in every direction, so he knew his army had not been spotted. At the bottom of the hill he came upon Ermort and a group of about fifty men. They were going to take over the rear guard.
“I think that we all need to get out now, run as fast as your wounds will let you,” Sarchise said.
“We are all tired and have lost a lot of blood, we cannot outrun the gremlin hordes but we can slow them down for you to get away.” Ermort answered.
Retreat off the Mountains
Sarchise did not leave Ermort and his wounded but they all retreated slowly back off the mountains and toward the Kingdom of Zor. His hope had been to secure the Mountains and reclaim them for the dwarves but now he saw it had all been a giant trap. He had been outsmarted by Tabor and he vowed never to let that happen again. He had been able to get a message through to Cazz. The goal was to retreat all the way back to the people of Zor. T
hey had sent messengers ahead to inform them that they were going to need to strengthen the walls after all. Sarchise had hoped that they had obeyed him when he asked them to do that anyway. His job was to keep avoiding the gremlin patrols and if a large army was going after Cazz, to slow it down just long enough for Cazz to reach the city. They camped by day and traveled by night. Once a group of five gremlins came upon their camp but none of them ever lived long enough to tell a soul about them.
Sarchise did not have any healers with him, so his wounded men got weaker each day. They were able to shore up the wounds with the supplies the men brought with them, but they did not have the medical herbs and remedies that the healers of the dwarves had. If he could just let them rest a few days, he knew that they would get feeling better but he could not chance it so on and on they went, traveling night after night and making less distance each time. Finally they came upon the fort that Cazz had had them build while they were waiting for his army. The twenty dwarves still garrisoned it. They had received fresh supplies recently from the people of Zor, as they had runners going back and forth with regularity. There was even a healer at the small fort and Cazz had left Sarchise a message too.
“Cazz fifth born to the King of High Mountain to Sarchise sixth born.”
“We have made it safely to the city. We have found the defenses much repaired and the people in high spirits. If you are reading this letter then you and your wounded friends are at the fort. I suggest you stay there for a few days and rest. If you do not have the gremlin horde come upon you in a few days and your companions are up to the journey, come on to the city.
“There is both an inner wall and an outer wall here. They have made plenty of arrows and archer slits in the walls. There is enough food here to last a siege of many weeks and they are raising more food daily.
“I will send messengers to you and scouts to watch the fort. If I see that it is surrounded before you are able to travel I will send an army to try and relieve the siege. You have fresh water and food enough to last for many days. I hope all is well and you can continue your journey soon.
(signed) Cazz.”
Sarchise wrote back.
“Sarchise sixth born, adopted prince of the King of High Mountain to Cazz fifth born, soon to be King of the Iron Mountains.
“No sign yet of the enemy but he must know now which direction we have fled to. The healer is working with the wounded and feels they should be ready to continue the journey in a day or two. I will keep you informed of all our movements.”
(signed) Sarchise.”
After sending out the letter with a runner, Sarchise sought out Ermort. They had not had enough time to talk since they met in the halls of the Iron Mountains.
“How’s the arm?” Sarchise asked.
“Been better, I lost a lot of blood through it. Your healer put some black goo on it. Told me I was too late to have a mudpack put on. The infection is getting better but I don’t know why, usually that would have been the end of me. It is very stiff and sore.” Ermort answered.
“I never did get a chance to ask what you were doing in the Iron Mountains, and how you came to rescue us,” Sarchise said.
“It is a long story, but I suppose you have time. I wasn’t sent to rescue you, but arrest you. When we came back to the Westwood the commandant wanted your head for not obeying orders and returning with your unit. A runner from Tabor also claimed he wanted to live in peace with man and that would be hard when there was a man leading the armies of the dwarves. The commandant told the governor that you had deserted and you were causing trouble in the Westwood. The governor didn’t believe it but the commandant issued an arrest warrant anyway.
“We knew the dwarves would not easily give you up, so he sent a large army hoping the dwarves wouldn’t risk open war with the human army now that they were fully engaged with fighting the gremlins. So I have been trudging through the forest looking for you. I picked up your trail through the forest and began to follow it. We tried to go past the hidden city, but I could not get the men to go that way for fear of the inhabitants. We did not see any, but felt an awful foreboding and doom. We backtracked and followed the trail that Cazz had cut through the trees. This put us behind Cazz. We were not anxious to overtake him as his army was larger than ours was so we stayed about a day behind.
“When we got to the city of the people of Zor, we found out that Tabor was our enemy and not a friend of man as we at first supposed. I sent a runner to South Fort informing them of what I had found out. Then we heard that you were going against the Mountains of Iron, and we knew that you were headed into a trap. The people of Zor told us that you had thought that Tabor was now weak. We had been keeping an eye on him, because we didn’t fully trust him, and knew the majority of his army was in the Mountains of Iron.
“It was then that this turned into a rescue mission. I held my men back until the gremlins were distracted by the battle with the dwarf armies. We then came up the Mountain by force. I had calculated that I had one chance to rescue you and then had to get out. Come to find out that I went down the wrong entrance.”
Sarchise smiled, “We heard your fight, luckily. Thank you for the rescue.”
Just then a sentry came up and reported. “Sir, there are gremlins on the horizon.”
Both of the men jumped up and climbed up the side of the wall. There, about forty gremlins were looking back at them some running back to report their find.
“We are no longer safe here. If we stay then we will be surrounded and Cazz will feel the need to come to our rescue. He will have to risk battle on the open plain instead of behind the walls of the city.” Sarchise said, “It would be better for the army that our small group was caught out in the open and massacred instead of risking the whole army to a battle in the open.” Sarchise said.
“But there is a better way.” Ermort said, “Some of my men are unwilling to travel any further due to their wounds or their anger. Some do not want to run any longer or risk getting caught and killed out in the open. Let us ask for volunteers to stay here and delay the enemy long enough to get the rest of us out.”
Sarchise thought about it for a minute, then said, “OK, but you are going with me.”
Ermort looked like someone who had just been found out, sighed and said, “Alright.”
They gathered all of the men and dwarves into the center of the fort and explained their plan. They asked that those willing to volunteer to stay would step forward. To their amazement, the entire assembly stepped forward.
Sarchise looked over at Ermort and said, “I guess you get your wish, we are all staying. except for one. I need a runner to go to the city.” Sarchise sent a runner to tell Cazz that they had been spotted by the gremlins and they would not move from the fort. He also said not to bother rescuing them because they were most likely all dead. After the runner left the group spent it’s time polishing their weapons and preparing for the worst.
The next morning the group of gremlins was still sitting there, watching the fort. Sarchise could not stand it any longer and took twenty men with him and ran them off of the hill killing most of them. The others fled in all directions. Sarchise and the men went back into the fort to await the attack. Eight days later they were still waiting. They finally saw an army coming towards them. It was coming from the south and not the north, and it was dwarves and not gremlins. Cazz had ignored Sarchise request that he not rescue them.
There were greetings all around. The men and the dwarves in the fort were especially happy to see the army as they had resigned themselves to their fate and had not supposed that they would have lived through the week. Cazz, Sarchise and Ermort met together.
“That was the easiest rescue that I have ever done,” Cazz said.
“I don’t know what is going on. I know that they were looking for us and they did find us, yet they did not attack. They should have been here by now.” Sarchise said.
“I have had several dispatches from the High Mountain and even
one from South Fort. That one is addressed to you Ermort.” Cazz said as he handed it over. “The news out of High Mountain is that there are no gremlins anywhere to be seen. The walls in front of the main gate have been repaired. The King still does not want to send out any more forces but is happy with the reports we have sent him. He evidently has not seen the report of our defeat at the Mountains of Iron.”
“This is interesting,” Ermort said reading the dispatch. “This dispatch left a few days after I left South Fort. It says that large groups of gremlins are passing over the King’s road and going through Northwood on their way to the Lonely Mountains.”
“You don’t suppose that Tabor turned north and decided to finish off the Lonely Mountains before heading south to attack us?” Sarchise asked.
“It makes sense. He must now know that his attack on Zor has been found out and that man and dwarf both fought him in the Mountains of Iron. He is trapped between us and the Kingdom of Ril if he stays in the Mountains of Iron. The Lonely Mountains are easier to defend; you can only approach them from the south,” Ermort commented.
“That settles it,” said Cazz, “It is our chance to drive him out of the Mountains of Iron and then with the help of the Kingdom of Ril, we will finally defeat Tabor in the Lonely Mountains. We will have one last meal here and then march with all haste to the Iron Mountains.”
