“They should be here sometime tomorrow. The bird came back this morning, letting us know that they were on their way,” Master Brennin told Captain Thompson.
Captain Thompson nodded. “Good. They still have all the guards on the building, and we have had men watching the building ever since we discovered it. It looks like they still have her. We have seen men that we believe to be Black Dragons moving in and out. They only leave at night and they return before the sun is up. There is no movement from the building during the day. I am keeping guys ready. We will need to move as soon as they get here. I am pretty sure she is still alive, but I don’t like thinking about what they might be doing to her in there. The Raches are ruthless, and if they are taking revenge on her for what happened with Queen Priscilla, it can’t be good.”
Master Brennin put his hand on Captain Thompson’s shoulder. “I promise you this is as hard for me as anyone, but we have to make sure that when we go in to get her they can’t get her out. We need them to help stop the Black Dragons from taking off with her.”
“We will be ready when they get here,” Captain Thompson said.
Chapter Ten
Everyone Wants the Queen
Rundo and Evelyn landed in a field a little more than a mile outside Patria. Grundel and Jerrie climbed down. By the time Rundo and Evelyn had transformed back into their natural forms and redressed, Flucht was standing next to the others.
“Ok, we aren’t going to be able to get anything done tonight. That early start got us here early so we have plenty of time to rest. We will get a couple hours of sleep and then go into the city while it is still dark. I don’t want the city knowing we are here,” Grundel said.
“Why don’t we just fly straight to the palace then?” Rundo asked.
“Flucht can’t fly,” Grundel said.
“It’s not far. We can drop you off and come back and get him. Even with all of his armor, he can’t weigh more than you,” Rundo said.
Grundel looked at Flucht, who just stood there saying nothing. “Flucht, what do you think?”
“If it is what you think we should do, then I will do it,” Flucht responded.
Grundel looked at Rundo then back to Flucht. “Ok, we will fly to the palace before the sun comes up then. Let’s get some sleep. They will have something to eat for us when we surprise them at the palace. Flucht, make sure to wake us up once the moon moves halfway across the sky. The last thing we need is for everyone in Patria to see a huge hawk with an armored dwarf riding on its back.”
The Black Dragon wizard Demarco stood at the small cottage a few miles south of Patria. The first rays of sunlight were just coming over the horizon, but he could already see the reflection as the light hit the armor of the three approaching dwarves, who were running as fast as horses.
Demarco stood there waiting until the three dwarves ran up to him. They were covered in steel armor that had black designs all over it. “Welcome, dwarves. I am Demarco—”
“Where is the queen?” one of the dwarves cut him off.
“She is in the city. We will need to wait until night to move you into the city,” Demarco answered them.
“Why? What are you scared of?” the dwarf in the middle asked.
“It is not that we are scared. We are being cautious. I understand that you are very powerful, but even you can’t take on the entire army of Patria, which is what you would be facing if you were discovered with the queen,” Demarco told them.
The dwarf stared at him for a minute then looked at the other two dwarves. “We will move into the city as soon as the sun goes down.”
“Of course,” Demarco responded, stepping to the side and waving his other arm toward the door of the cottage. The dwarves filed in.
Flucht flew through the air on the back of Rundo’s huge hawk form.
He looked down and could see the light from the torches in the city. He wasn’t scared of heights. He had grown up in a mountain. Flying made him uncomfortable though. It seemed unnatural. He wasn’t afraid of what might happen if he fell. He wasn’t afraid to die. He wanted to die, but something about falling scared him.
They landed on a balcony and Flucht climbed down off of Rundo. Jerrie, Grundel, and Evelyn were waiting inside the room. Flucht walked in and waited for Rundo. When they were all ready, Grundel opened the door. There was a guard at the end of the hall. “Go get Master Brennin. Tell him I want to see him in my room.”
“Yes, Your Highness,” the man said before taking off down the hall.
Grundel waited, sitting on the end of the bed. Rundo and Evelyn sat in a big chair in the corner. Flucht stood next to the window. Jerrie stood next to the door. It wasn’t long before Master Brennin and Captain Thompson came running down the hall with a half dozen soldiers following behind them. Master Brennin came through the open door and gave a short bow to Grundel. “Your Highness, I am so glad you are here.”
Grundel cut him off. “Let’s skip the formality, Master Brennin. What do we know?”
“Someone saw where they took your mother. We have had soldiers watching the area. It seems the Rache family is aiding the Black Dragons. They are the richest and most powerful family in Patria. They are the family of Queen Priscilla,” Master Brennin explained.
“It’s a trap,” Jerrie said. “They wanted to get you into the city. They want to punish you both. We will have to do this quickly before they know Grundel is in the city.”
“I agree,” Captain Thompson said.
Grundel looked around the room. Everyone was looking at him to give them direction. “We will go tonight then. Captain Thompson, wait as long as you can to gather your men. We don’t want anyone getting any idea that we are coming. We will stay in this room. We will go in followed by a group of Captain Thompson’s men. Captain Thompson, your main goal will be to keep anyone from leaving. Once we get there, no one comes or goes.”
Captain Thompson nodded his head. “We will hold everything for a block in every direction. How many of my men do you want to come in behind you?”
“Send in a half dozen men. We just need enough men to keep anyone from coming out behind us.”
Master Brennin looked at everyone. “Well, it appears that we have a plan. Your Highness, may I ask who your friends are?”
“Oh, you all know Jerrie and Rundo. This is Evelyn, she is also a druid, and this is Flucht. He was a dwarf of Tiefes Loch who had terrible things done to him. He is helping us in the fight against Tiefes Loch.”
Grundel saw the suspicious looks everyone gave the dwarf. He couldn’t blame them. He had given him those same looks just a couple of days ago, and he did look menacing. “We can trust him,” he reassured them. He was still suspicious of the dwarf, but he had decided to trust him and so he would back him up.
He saw that everyone was going to accept Flucht, but they would all be uncomfortable around him. He understood the feeling. He had made others uncomfortable his whole life. With his huge size, his bright blue eyes and nearly white hair, he stood out no matter where he went.
They stayed in that room all day. No one knew they were there, except for the few members of Captain Thompson’s palace guard and Master Brennin.
Anna had fallen asleep. She woke to the sound of arguing at the top of the stairs. The door opened and someone came down the steps. When they got to the bottom, she realized that it was a dwarf. Well, it used to be a dwarf.
“What did you do to her?” the dwarf demanded.
“I did whatever I want. She is my prisoner. I do not answer to you,” Gweneth Rache said. Anna knew that her entitled attitude was going to make things much more difficult.
“She was your prisoner. Now she is our prisoner,” the lead dwarf told her.
“She is my prisoner. You all are just here to help capture her son,” Gweneth yelled at the dwarf.
“She is now my prisoner. She will be delivered to King Bergmann, where she and her family will be punished for their crimes against Tiefes Loch.”
“Over m
y dead body,” she yelled, stepping forward. She barely took that first step before a sword slid into her stomach. The Chaos Dwarf raised the sword that was part of his arm, cutting up through her lungs and heart, barely even slowing as it cut through the ribs. Even in the dimly lit cellar, Anna saw the look of complete shock followed by a look of fear, and then her eyes glazed over. The dwarf tilted his sword arm down toward the ground, letting the lifeless body slide off and down to the ground.
The dwarf turned to the Black Dragon. “Now let’s go. We will take her out of the city. Once we have her in Tiefes Loch, King Bergmann and General Moglin will make the plans to set a trap for the others.”
Grundel followed Captain Thompson through the city. Jerrie, Flucht, Rundo, and Evelyn followed behind. Captain Thompson pointed the building out to Grundel.
Grundel looked back at Jerrie, who nodded, and then they both took off at a sprint. Two guards who were standing just inside the door stepped out to stop them, but before Grundel or Jerrie got to the guards, Rundo’s enchanted daggers buried into the guard’s chest. The daggers had magically returned to their sheaths before the men’s bodies ever hit the ground.
Grundel slammed his huge body into the door, tearing it off its hinge. In the room behind the door were two Black Dragon assassins and a Black Dragon wizard. The assassin swung his sword at Jerrie, who slid on his knees, throwing up his arm to deflect the attack. His magically enchanted bracer deflected the blow with an enhanced rebound that sent the assassins swing even more off course and forcing the assassin next to him to jump to the side. Jerrie ran his dagger along the inside of the assassin’s leg. Blood sprayed. Grundel brought his axe down on the other assassin’s head as he tried to avoid the sword of his companion.
Flucht ran into the room behind Jerrie and Grundel. Ignoring the two assassins, he moved forward toward the wizard. A stream of black energy flew from the wizard’s fingertips and slammed into his chest. Strands of black energy rebounded off his body. He didn’t even slow down. The wizard had a magical shield up. Flucht stabbed out with his sword. The magical shield provided a slight resistance before his sword arm cut the wizard from his left shoulder to his right hip.
“You ok?” Grundel asked Flucht.
“Fine. I told you my body is resistant to magic now,” Flucht answered.
Grundel nodded and looked over at Jerrie, smiling. “Nice move.”
Jerrie just shrugged his shoulders. Rundo and Evelyn came in behind them and they turned and headed down the hall. The soldiers filed in behind them, blocking the exit. They made it to the end of the hall just as the door to the cellar opened.
* * *
Anna tried to stand on her own but her legs were too weak. One of the dwarves picked her up and held her over his shoulder. Her body ached as her muscles were able to stretch for the first time. She welcomed the pain, anything to get her off that wall. She couldn’t see ahead of her, but she heard the door open. The dwarf in the front of her yelled something back to the others and the dwarf carrying her leapt down the stairs and dropped her on the ground.
Rundo’s daggers went flying past everyone at the Chaos Dwarf who had just opened the door. The daggers bounced harmlessly off of the steel skin of the Chaos Dwarf. Grundel swung one of his axes at the dwarf, but he leaped backward, rolling down the stairs. Grundel ran down the stairs after him.
Anna laid on the ground, watching as one of the Chaos Dwarves rolled backward down the stairs. The other two stood at the bottom of the stairs at the ready. The other dwarf rolled past them. Anna watched as her son ran down the steps, knocking the long sword of the dwarf on the left out of the way. The dwarf on the right swung his hand axe up at the back of Grundel’s neck. Jerrie leaped from six steps up, kicking out at the dwarf’s wrist. The dwarf was strong but the kick forced the blow down. The axe slammed in to the back of Grundel’s enchanted armor. Grundel got knocked forward a step in response to a blow from the dwarf’s hand axe.
The dwarf with the hand axe turned toward Jerrie, who had rolled, turned and leaped straight back at the dwarf. Jerrie’s magically enchanted daggers met the dwarf’s god-imbued armor. The enchantments countered each other. The daggers had the same affect they would have on normal plate armor. Jerrie’s hand moved with unimaginable speed and he abandoned his attacks on the armor. The dwarf with the hand axe swung down with a blow that would have split his head down into his neck, but he rolled to the side. The dwarf advanced on him. Jerrie looked up the stairs and saw Rundo looking at him. He nodded at the halfling and rolled straight toward the dwarf. The Chaos Dwarf charged forward.
Rundo was watching the fight. He had thrown his daggers a half dozen times, but they couldn’t penetrate the armor. His eyes locked with Jerrie’s just us he came up out of his diving roll. Instantly they knew each other’s thoughts, or at least Rundo hoped they were thinking the same thing. He linked with the air between him and the dwarf. He isolated that air and forced it all to the back of the dwarf, knocking him forward.
Jerrie rolled forward into the dwarf’s legs as he tried to stay on his feet. The dwarf tripped over him, sprawling forward. Jerrie came to his knees at the dwarf’s feet. He brought each of his daggers down hard. The dwarf’s entire body was covered in steel skin, but it was thinner at the joints. His left dagger buried into the joint behind the left knee at the same time as his right blade contacted the back of the ankle. The dwarf yelled, jerked and rolled away, swinging wildly with his hand axe. Jerrie came to his feet, and to his surprise, so did the dwarf.
Flucht ran down the steps. Grundel had taken the dwarf on the left and Jerrie had taken the one on the right. They had the others to help them. Flucht had to let them at least hold off the others. He charged the dwarf that had fallen down the stairs. Just as he was bringing his sword down on the dwarf, attempting to stand, something slammed into him. He was knocked off of his feet. He hit the ground, rolled and spun back on one knee. He already had his sword coming up to block. The sword of the other dwarf met his. He realized that there was a wizard over in the corner. The wizard had hit him with a large fireball. He hadn’t been hurt or burned, but the impact had been enough to knock him down. He could tell by the surprised expression that the wizard had put everything he had into that attack and he was shocked at the outcome. The other dwarf kicked out with his leg. Flucht didn’t try to move away, but instead brought his elbow down hard into the dwarf’s shin. The dwarf stumbled back a step, giving him a chance to stand. They stood staring at each other. The other dwarf was Burg. “Do you know how many dwarves died because of your betrayal?” Burg asked.
“Not enough,” Flucht said, leaping forward. Burg swung his sword up just barely fast enough to knock away Flucht’s lunge, and he was forced to take a step back.
Anna lay on the ground as the two dwarves from Tiefes Loch fought each other. When the one who had rolled down the steps took a step back toward her, she reached out and grabbed his foot. He stumbled and the other dwarf lunged, forcing him to fall back or be impaled.
Flucht took advantage of the woman’s quick thinking and lunged forward with his sword, forcing Burg to fall backward, but the lunge was really only to distract Burg from paying attention to his feet. He moved his feet forward and to the lefts so when Burg hit the ground, he was at his side. He stepped on Burg’s sword arm and thrust down with his own. Burg tried to roll toward him but the blow was already coming. His sword punched through the side of Burg’s neck and down into the ground. He yanked the blade out the back, severing the spine and leaving the head connected by a small amount of steel skin. He immediately turned toward the wizard, but the wizard disappeared. He turned toward the others.
Grundel traded blows with the other dwarf, who was incredibly fast and strong, but Grundel was winning the battle of strength. He realized he was losing the battle of speed though. After a minute of traded blocks, near misses, and minor cuts, he knew what he had to do to finish this. He let a slash to his side through, bringing his axe down. He came down so that his arm would
not be in the way of the enchanted blade. He hoped his armor would at least hinder the blade some. He felt the blade slam into his side just before his axe came down. The dwarf attempted to dodge. Grundel’s axe came down on the shoulder, cutting through the imbued steel skin and deep into the lungs. Amazingly, the dwarf, who was now lying on the ground, was still alive. He attempted to come to his knees, but Grundel brought his axe down, severing his head.
He turned toward Jerrie, who was on the back of his dwarf with a dagger in the side of his neck, forcing the dagger through the steel skin toward the spine. He saw his mother behind Flucht. He started to rush to her side when two men in black clothing with white dragons on the breast of their robes appeared next to her. One fired black energy out from each of his fingertips, each of the strands taking a different path. The other grabbed his mother and disappeared. Two of the strands hit Grundel and knocked him back a step. The wizard attempted to travel magically, but a dagger slammed into his chest, and another buried in the side of his head just as he started to look foggy. Rundo and Jerrie had both hit him with a dagger.
“He couldn’t have gone far,” Rundo shouted and sprinted back up the stairs.
Anna appeared outside in the street. She saw a group of soldiers less than a hundred paces away. They saw her too and started to sprint her way. She disappeared again and appeared two blocks further down that same street. She appeared in another location two or three more times before the trauma to her body and mind began to be too much. Her vision blurred and just before she lost consciousness, she heard someone shout, “Dad!” At least that’s what she thought she heard. Her mind wasn’t able to process anything before something slammed into her and everything went black.
Chapter Eleven
Fighting for the Queen
Grundel ran out of the building with Jabaal, Rundo and the soldiers following. He heard the soldiers shouting as he exited. He saw the wizard at the end of the street. He threw his axe. Flucht barreled past him. He held on to his other axe and called on its magic to carry it after the axe flying away from him.
The Half Dwarf Prince Trilogy Page 46
