The Half Dwarf Prince Trilogy

by J. M. Fosberg

  “Gruedor Bergmann, Your father and his army failed. They were defeated at Shinestone. You are the King of Tiefes Loch. The other dwarf kingdoms are uniting against you. I will give you the weapon you need to defend against them. Gather your one hundred best fighters in the King’s Hall. Have them in full armor with their weapons in hand. When there are one hundred in the room, leave the room and close the door behind you,” the ominous voice told him.

  “I will do as you command,” Gruedor said, without looking up. The overwhelming fear faded. Delvidge was gone. The fear was replaced by anger as the weight of Delvidge’s words settled on him. The dwarves of Bordin had killed his father. Gruedor got to his feet and ran out of his room. He ran as fast as he could down the halls of Tiefes Loch to General Moglin’s room and banged on his door. Not waiting for an answer, he burst into the room.

  The general was still rolling out of bed. “Prince Gruedor, what is it?” he asked sleepily.

  “I am King Bergmann now. My father fell at Shinestone. The army was defeated. Delvidge has promised us a way to defeat Bordin’s dwarves. Gather the hundred best warriors in Tiefes Loch and have them in full armor with weapons in hand in the King’s Hall. Those were Delvidge’s exact words, in full armor with weapons in hand. I will be waiting in the King’s Hall.” Gruedor turned and walked out of the room before the general could even respond.

  General Moglin was up and running to find the Tiefes Loche’s strongest warriors within seconds.

  Thirty minutes later, Gruedor stood outside of the King’s Hall, counting the dwarves as they arrived. The first dwarf arrived not even ten minutes after him. Now there were eighty-three dwarves in the hall. Each of the dwarves had come in full armor with their swords, axes, or hammers in their hands. Sixteen more warriors trickled in, bringing the number to ninety-nine. Finally, General Moglin came down the hall in his armor with a sword in each hand.

  “General Moglin, what are you doing?” Gruedor asked.

  “You said our hundred best, King Gruedor, and there is no question, I am among that number. We cannot deny Delvidge one of the best because he is the commander of the army,” the general said.

  “I agree, General. Go into the King’s Hall and prepare to receive Delvidge’s blessing,” Gruedor said.

  The general saluted him, bringing his gauntleted fist to his chest, and then walked into the King’s Hall. Gruedor closed the door behind the general.

  General Moglin stepped into the King’s Hall and surveyed the other ninety-nine dwarves he had chosen. They looked fierce in their armor with their weapons in hand.

  Suddenly pure fear swept through him. He was frozen in place. Nothing could move him. His body wouldn’t respond to him, and all his mind could process was fear. Then something happened. His armor melted and melded with his skin, causing immeasurable pain. He wanted to run, to rip the armor from his body before it killed him. He wanted it to kill him, anything to stop the pain. His swords melded with his hands, and soon his arm was wrapped in metal, going straight into the sword that was a part of it. His helmet melted around his head, melding with his skin and attaching to his skull.

  It felt like an eternity, but then it ended. The fear dissolved. The pain remained, but not in the unbearable way it had come. Now it was just a constant burning pain. Somehow he knew that that pain would be with him until he died.

  “You are my creation,” thundered the voice of his god, breaking the sudden silence of the room. “Bordin may have birthed the dwarves, but I created you. You are the Dwarves of Chaos. You do not need to eat or drink. You are made to fight. You will not grow tired, and you will no longer need sleep. You will be able to outlast your enemies, and your bodies are now your armor. The pain you feel now will be with you always, but when you are injured you will be able to ignore it, because you will no longer fear pain. No pain can ever be greater than what you just felt, and you will become one with your pain. You are my children. Bordin’s children will come to claim what is yours. You will destroy them and then you will convert or kill all of Bordin’s children.” After that, the voice was gone.

  The dwarves all looked around at each other. They had just become the most dangerous warriors in the world. Looking around, General Moglin realized that the tattoos that had covered their bodies now showed in black against their steel skin. He turned around and opened the door.

  King Gruedor stared at him in disbelief. “What happened in there?” he asked.

  “King Gruedor Delvidge has just granted you the most fearsome warriors in Gegend. We do not need food, we will not tire, and we do not need sleep. The Dwarves of Chaos do not fear pain or death, our pain is a part of us and our death is our freedom. Bordin’s children will fall before us.”

  King Gruedor looked into the King’s Hall at the Dwarves of Chaos; the weapons his god had promised would defeat Bordin’s dwarves.

  Chapter One

  Abandoning Chaos

  Flucht Longblade ran as fast as his legs would take him. He had left Tiefes Loch after the God of Chaos had warped his body. He had never truly followed the god. His family had been devout followers of Bordin, the true god of the dwarves. They had pretended to follow the God of Chaos, as many of the other dwarves in Tiefes Loch, who had been imprisoned for centuries, did in order to stay alive. Many still prayed to Bordin. Only the most devout followers of Delvidge ever left, and any who spoke out against the god or spoke of Bordin were executed.

  Flucht’s mother had been his only living family member, and she had died three months ago. When Delvidge transformed Flucht and the other ninety-nine dwarves into super dwarf weapons, Flucht knew he had to go to the other dwarves. He had to warn them.

  Two other Chaos Dwarves pursued him. They had to be Chaos Dwarves like him, because there was no way any other dwarves could have run this long. It had been night when he left Tiefes Loch, and he had run through that night, the next day, and into the next night five times without stopping. He could see the sky starting to change again. He was about to start his sixth day of running. The Chaos Dwarves were keeping pace with him, but they weren’t gaining on him. He had debated stopping and fighting them. When he got to the dwarves of Bordin, he knew that they would have to fight the Chaos Dwarves. He would help them, but some of them would die. The Chaos Dwarves had already been skilled warriors and now, with the blessing of Delvidge, they were nearly indestructible.

  He didn’t know if he could beat them both by himself, and this news was worth the lives it would cost the dwarves. There was a good chance that he would be killed by the dwarves before he had the opportunity to explain what had happened. If the dwarves at Shinestone killed him and the others at least they will have an idea of what they will be facing. That would be enough to at least give them an idea of what they would face. He continued to run through the day. He didn’t get tired, and he didn’t get hungry. He pushed the constant pain to the back of his mind. It was nearly dark when he came to the wall around the mountain of Shinestone.

  Grizzle stood on the wall around Shinestone, staring out at the trees to the south. Somewhere, days away, the dwarves of Tiefes Loch were preparing for them. They were preparing traps and defenses that would kill the dwarves he would lead into them. He was going to be the king of dwarves, who led an army against a clan of dwarves. His mind was wandering so much that the armored dwarf sprinting across the field was more than one hundred paces out of the tree line when he noticed him.

  As the dwarf got close to the wall, two more armored dwarves burst through the tree line. The dwarves on the wall aimed their bows down at the dwarf running toward them. The dwarf stopped at the entrance to the walls and turned. He looked up at the dwarves and shouted something. Grizzle headed that direction, but all he was able to make out was Tiefes Loch.

  “What did he say?” Grizzle asked the dwarves on the wall.

  “I think he said he is running away from Tiefes Loch, King Grizzle,” the dwarf said.

  “Let’s get down there. Whatever is going on, we need t
o be down there.” The two dwarves followed him as he ran around the wall and gave orders not to let these new dwarves inside the walls. The other dwarves were only about a hundred paces away when Grizzle approached the first dwarf, who was standing in a defensive posture facing the other two dwarves.

  “I am King Grizzle Stoneheart. What is going on? Who are you and who are they?” Grizzle asked.

  “King Grizzle, you must get inside. Leave me a couple dwarves to fight these two. We all have the curse of Delvidge. We are not dwarves any longer. We are only weapons,” the newcomer replied.

  All three of the dwarves who just arrived had the black marks of Delvidge on their armor. “When this is done, if you turn on us, we will send you to Delvidge,” Grizzle said, turning to face the charging dwarves. There was no time for argument, and they all took up defensive positions with the two dwarves Grizzle had brought out with him on the outside.

  Grizzle stood to the right of the Tiefes Loch dwarf. The dwarf on his left jumped out ahead of the Tiefes Loch dwarf, but his head was separated from his shoulders before he could even finish his swing. Grizzle immediately realized that whatever was happening, the God of Chaos had to be involved. There was no way that these dwarves should still be this fast after sprinting more than a mile from the tree line. The dwarf on his right attempted to jump out ahead of him, but Grizzle tripped him. The dwarf charging at him missed his swing, due the dwarf falling unexpectedly. Grizzle was already coming over the top of the fallen dwarf, clipping the enemy dwarf on the shoulder with his hammer, which had been enchanted by Bordin. It folded the enchanted armor of the enemy dwarf and spun him away from the dwarf on the ground. The enemy dwarf turned and focused on Grizzle.

  Flucht was already moving as the other dwarf fell. He blocked the axe with his sword. The other dwarf was already off balance, so he kicked his inside shin. It wasn’t enough to make him fall, but it caused him to stumble backwards. Flucht spun around, dropping his weight and bringing his sword into the back of his leg. It would have cut clean through any other dwarf, but this one was made of armor. The impact caused the other dwarf to fall, and Flucht jumped on top of him. His sword immediately went to the other dwarf’s neck. The neck was the only place where the armor was weak. Before he could push his sword down, the other dwarf’s axe hit him in the head. It knocked him to the side slightly, but he was still on top. He reached down, grabbing his blade with his other hand and pushed with all of his strength. The axe hit him again. The hit was softer than the last one, and he barely registered it. He pushed with all his might on that blade, and then the armor gave way and the blade cut through. Flucht didn’t even wait to make sure he was dead, he leapt to his feet and turned toward the other fight.

  One of the dwarfs with the marks of chaos stepped toward him, but stopped when the dwarf on the ground grabbed hold of his leg. He looked down, and Grizzle took advantage of the distraction, swinging hard with his hammer. The other dwarf was incredibly fast though, and he got his axe up. Grizzle’s hammer hit the axe and the axe smashed into the dwarf’s head, causing him to stumble. Grizzle moved in to finish, but the other dwarf didn’t even seem dazed as he spun around, swinging his axe. Grizzle was barely able to get his hammer up in time. The first dwarf came toward them. He took a chance. He swung his hammer at the dwarf’s legs. The dwarf brought his axe down to block, leaving his head exposed. The first dwarf came up behind him, and cut halfway into the dwarf’s neck with a swing that could have cut through a rock. Grizzle brought his hammer up on the opposite side of the dwarf’s head and finished the job. The dwarf’s body fell to the ground as his head rolled away.

  Grizzle turned to face the other dwarf. The dwarf he had tripped at the beginning stood to the side with his weapon ready.

  “If you really didn’t come here to fight, then drop your sword,” Grizzle told the dwarf.

  “I can’t, King Grizzle,” the dwarf replied.

  The other dwarf with Grizzle raised his weapon a littler higher, but Grizzle waved him off. “What do you mean, you can’t?”

  “My armor and weapons were fused to my body by the God of Chaos,” he said, looking down at his hands.

  Grizzle realized to his astonishment that what he said was true. Having the weapon fused to the body like that would greatly diminish maneuverability, but with his armor fused to his body and the incredible speed he had seen in all three of the dwarves, it wouldn’t impede them too much. He couldn’t imagine how painful this whole ordeal must have been for him. “What is your name?”

  “I am Flucht Longblade, one of the Tiefes Loch dwarves who still follows Bordin.”

  “So it is true. The dwarves of Tiefes Loch have abandoned Bordin for Delvidge,” Grizzle asked more than stated.

  Flucht lowered his eyes to the ground in shame. “For over three hundred years, the Bergmann Kings have been converting the dwarves of Tiefes Loch to Chaos. Any dwarf who doesn’t follow the Chaos God is executed, and only the most devout followers are allowed to leave Tiefes Loch. There are still many dwarves who follow Bordin in secret. No one would attempt to escape. If you leave Tiefes Loch without permission, your entire family will be executed.” Flucht recognized the look of concern that appeared on King Grizzle’s face. “My family is gone now. I would have left a year ago when my father went to Bordin, but I never would have been able to escape Tiefes Loch.”

  “How did you escape? What did they do to you?” Grizzle asked.

  “The hundred best warriors of Tiefes Loch who hadn’t come to Shinestone were brought into a room. We were told that the army had fallen, and that we would be given what we needed to defeat Bordin’s army. When the door closed, we felt the presence of Delvidge. It was a greater fear than anything I could imagine. After the paralyzing fear came the pain. Our armor melted and molded with our skin. The chaos tattoos that are expanded on with every year of service to Delvidge were imprinted on our new steel skin. The pain was unimaginable, and I thought I would die. If I could have done anything more than scream, I would have begged for death. Then we were released. The pain is constant, but not like it was. You could drive a sword through my stomach, and I would keep fighting. I would barely even feel the pain. The armor doesn’t pierce easily though. The armor and weapons are reinforced by the magic of Delvidge. We never sleep, we don’t need to eat, and we never get tired. I believe that most of us will be insane within a year. That won’t matter to Delvidge though. He wants chaos, and our purpose is to hold off the army from Bordin’s dwarves. After that, I imagine that a bunch of insane, nearly destructible war dwarves will be very entertaining to the God of Chaos.”

  Grizzle stood staring at the dwarf in disbelief, but somehow knowing everything he said was true. “You will come with me. The others need to see this, and we need to come up with a plan. You will have to remain under guard for now. I believe what you have said, but we still must take precautions. Maybe Bordin can release you of this curse.”

  Flucht locked King Grizzle Stoneheart with a cold stare that would have frozen the blood of almost anyone else. “I do not deserve to be released. I will die in service to Bordin. I will fall releasing as many of the others of this curse as I can.”

  Grizzle stared into the other dwarf’s eyes for a long moment, but he had nothing to say. He simply nodded his head in acceptance.

  Chapter Two

  Dwarves of Chaos

  “Ghutt and Schutt have fallen, King Bergmann,” General Moglin said.

  “What? How could you know that?” Bergmann asked.

  “I do not know how, King Bergmann, but I have some kind of connection with the other dwarves. I did not even notice it until they died and the connection was broken,” he told his king.

  “All three of them are dead?” Bergmann asked.

  “No, King Bergmann. Flucht is not dead. I can still feel the connection with him. I do not know how far he is, but he is very far north. I believe he has gone to Shinestone.”

  “He is a traitor! He has gone to tell Bordin’s dwarves about y
ou. It does not matter. Knowing about you will only make them more afraid. Find anyone who was close to Flucht. Anyone he spent time with. If there is a chance they might have known he was a traitor, they will be executed.”

  “King Bergmann, I will look, but I do not think anyone knew him. Flucht trained harder than any other dwarf. He spent all of his time training. His family is all dead, and I don’t believe he spent time with anyone,” Moglin replied.

  “If you cannot find anyone, then choose a dwarf who he trained with, and we will execute him. We must hold to the standard. We cannot allow the dwarves to believe that any betrayal of Delvidge will be tolerated.”

  A few hours later, Moglin stood in one of the assembly halls of Tiefes Loch. Behind him stood three dwarves who had trained with Flucht. Moglin had made sure to find dwarves that weren’t Chaos Dwarves. The three dwarves didn’t know much about Flucht at all, other than that he could fight all three of them on his own, and he would win nine times out of ten. He had taken one of them to the king, but the king decided that one life was not enough. The example needed to be bigger, so he had sent Moglin to find this dwarf’s two closest companions. Now they all stood behind him, unaware of what was happening. The assembly hall continued to fill until dwarves stood shoulder to shoulder, chest to back, all the way to the back of the assembly hall. The stage was the only place in the room that afforded freedom of movement when the king came in.

  King Bergmann walked into the assembly hall through a side entrance that allowed him to walk directly onto the stage without trying to squeeze through the crowd. He stood on the stage and looked out over a thousand dwarves. “Dwarves of Tiefes Loch. Today I bring you grave news. As I am sure you have all heard by now, our army was defeated at Shinestone. The dwarves of Bordin joined with human wizards, and the human army that we gave weapons and armor to betrayed us. I wish that were the only bad news, but the betrayals continued. Delvidge has granted our army a powerful weapon. He has empowered our hundred greatest warriors with strength and speed that cannot be matched. They will be our greatest weapon and will cut down the dwarves of Bordin. One of these dwarves used this power to betray his brothers. He turned his back on Tiefes Loch, using the power granted to him by Delvidge to murder two other warriors and flee to the dwarves of Bordin. The dwarves standing behind me were his training partners. If they did not know of his plans, they did not try to stop him when they found out. Whatever the cause, they will be judged for his crimes and their own.”