Elvenshore: 01 - The Dwarves of Elvenshore (25 page)

“Yes, Sire, that would be possible.” Sarchise said, although he said in his heart, ‘Are you daft? We’re having a little war here.  Do you mind if I stick to the task at hand?’ But none of that ventured out of Sarchise’s lips.

The King then made Sarchise tell of all that had happened to his forces since he left the Kingdom of
Ril
.  The King worried a lot when he got to the part where Dolgren was wounded.  He related the words of the healer, “Near the heart, but not in it.  He should be just fine.”

The King perched on the edge of his throne list
en
ing to the story.  He took in every word, asking questions at the appropriate time.  He almost fell off of his throne when Sarchise told him about Dawn and the
valkyries
, and how they came to rescue them.

“I thought they were only a myth.” The King said, “Did their horses have wings?”

“No Sire, not that I could see, but I was having a hard time looking at the horses when the riders were so beautiful.” Sarchise answered. “Anyway, that is how we came to be back here. Thank you for allowing us to stay.”

“Not a problem.” The King said, “I have been gathering my forces here.  It took a long time for the governor of South Fort to release any men unto me.  But I have finally convinced him.  Now that we have no fear of an attack from the Mountains of Iron we can consolidate our forces to prevent the enemy from leaving the Lonely Mountains. I have men from the Middle Kingdom and the Kingdom of
Myr
here also. Tabor is quite trapped in the mountains.”

“True, Sire, but so is the King of the Lonely Mountains along with two of my armies and one of yours,” Sarchise added.

“Yes, that is true, that is why I’m sending you back up there to see if you can get them out.  You took them up there after all.”

With that Sarchise said, “I see,” bowed and left.  He didn’t want to wait around for a time frame for the King’s last command.  Under his breath Sarchise muttered, ‘Too many Kings in my life.’

Sarchise rested his men for a week and then started preparing for the march back up into the mountains.

The few men that were with Sarchise while he was in the mountains, opted to stay in the Kingdom.
  Sarchise took with him those dwarves that were well enough to move, about half of his original strength, leaving behind many of the best stone masons to work on the King’s pillar. 

On the eve of their departure, an old friend visited Sarchise. 
Amlius
the elf greeted him warmly. “So these maidens did not have horses with wings I hear. So swift was the ride through the Westwood, I could have sworn
they
did.”

“
Amlius
, it’s good to see you. What brings you to this part of the world?” Sarchise asked.

“When I was driven out of the Westwood by the
valkyries
, I wandered to South Fort.  There I heard the call to arms, that there was a hornet’s nest stirred up, and armies of men were being sent up to the Kingdom of
Ril
. I thought that my healing arts would do well here. I was able to use some of my medicine on your troops that
came out wounded off the mountains.  They are doing better.”

“That is good to hear.  I am glad you came.” Sarchise said.

“I have one more task.  I have also brought some arrows and my bow and I am going up to the mountains with you.”
Amlius
said,

Sarchise stared at the old elf, sizing him up.  “We have a lot of gremlins to kill up there.  You are old; it is not the place for the old.
Sorry, my friend.”

Amlius
laughed.  “I know that I am old, but I am also an elf and will live a lot longer than you would expect.  I know there are a lot of gremlins up there, but you do not have to kill all of them.  There is only one person that you have to kill and he is not a gremlin. None of your dwarves or men can shoot as far as I can with my long bow and my perfectly straight arrows.”

Sarchise relented. “Pack your things, we will head out soon.”

Marching only at night the army approached the mountains with caution.  They had taken only dried meat and bread and cheese, so there was no discussion of cooking the food. As they left the armies of the Four Kingdoms w
ere
slowly advancing on the mountains.  Tabor had no hope of escape, which he probably knew already. The King of
Ril
had no pressing need to rush headlong against the enemy.  He was using the dwarves to thin them out and that suited him just fine.  He would narrow his death grip slowly around the enemy by a few miles a day.

It was the third day before they came to the foot of the mountains where the fort was.  To their surprise the fort had been finished.  There were men and dwarves on the parapets.  Trumpets sounded and cheers were heard from the walls as the dwarf army was spotted approaching. The gates swung open and Sarchise and his warriors rushed in.

Ermort went down to greet him. “I thought you were dead.  When we came out to look for you there was a pile of dead at the base of the cliffs.  We did not search through it because the gremlins had set it aflame, but we saw some battle-axes and swords in the pile. What happened, and where have you been?”

Sarchise explained again how they were trapped out in the open by his decision to try and hide. 
Ermort’s
eyes got wide when he explained how the mythical
valkyries
had saved them.  He told him how they had retreated down to the Kingdom of
Ril
and how they came back. 

Sarchise continued, “Now that I have told you my story, I want to know what has happened here since I have been gone.”

Ermort obliged. “We waited a day for your army to return, and when they did not, I and my men
went
out to search.  We found the pile of dead and assumed the worse.  I sent back to have the dwarves send out some more stone masons
.
The
y
finished the fort working day and night.  The gremlins came upon us but Tabor was with them.  He did not approach so we couldn’t get a clear shot off, but he is learning how to conserve his forces. He refused to come against us in our stronghold.

“He had us surrounded for a week, but
Dolgren’s
men came out and attacked them.  They fought back but he pushed their armies close enough to the fort that our archers had the range and started firing down on the gremlins.  They fled from before us.  He was able to re-supply us with food and water.  Seeing it was safe he reentered the tunnels. Both the dwarf King and us are starting to run low on food however.”

“Well then,” Sarchise said, “I have good news as well as some bad news. I do have food but it is all dried.”

“That will do fine,” answered Ermort, “I will see that our dwarf friends inside the mountain get some.”

“I have been sent by the King of
Ril
to withdraw the armies of his down into the Kingdoms.  I suppose that means you also?” Sarchise said.

“Yes, I would suppose so.” Ermort responded.  What will you do?”

“I don’t think our dwarf King will leave his Kingdom, so I guess that I will stay here. If I can get you to promise to try to get more food to us once in a while, I would appreciate that.”

Ermort nodded. “I will do my best. What is the King of
Ril
going to do?”

“His forces surround the mountains, each day his forces tighten their grip by moving up closer and closer, but in his heart he would have the dwarves solve the problem.” Sarchise answered.

Sarchise sent a message to the dwarf King, and to Dolgren, informing
them  the
King of
Ril
has summoned his men back.  He also sent food to those in the tunnels.

On a dark, moonless night Dolgren and his men exited the tunnels on their way back down to
Ril
.  When they came to the fort Ermort and his men fell in line. The dwarves watched them go.  It was suddenly a feeling
of
terrible loneliness and abandonment that went through the ranks. Sarchise and
Amlius
went in unto the King of the Lonely Mountains to confer on strategy.

“They are gone?” was the first thing out of the King’s mouth.

“Yes, just, we watched them until they disappeared in the darkness.” Sarchise said.

“You know, that we are all dead without them.  It is now hopeless.” The King said.

A smiling
Amlius
butted in. “It is not hopeless, indeed it is almost over.  I have a plan.”

The dwarves had a hard time letting an elf into the halls.  They did not have much choice but there were bitter complaints about it.  Then when Sarchise announced his intention of taking the elf into the tunnels the King said “NO!”

It took several hours for the King to soften his stance. Finally Sarchise convinced him.  “He is the only one
left,
who is he going to tell?”

The King finally relented.  The elf was, however stepping on toes and telling the King what he just said was true. The King glared when he said, “Some elf magic, maybe, is going to save the day?” It was dripping with sarcasm.

“Not at all, Sire.  I just need someone to guide me into the Great Hall where, no doubt, Tabor will be sitting on the throne.  I will take an arrow and slay him.” The elf said.

The King stared at him for the longest time, and then said, “What do I have to lose, an elf. It’s a good plan.  There is an old servant’s entrance that leads into the old kitchen just outside the Great Hall.  By this route many of us escaped the onslaught of the gremlins. I will send
Thador
to show you how to get there.

Tabor sat on the throne and declared himself the King of the Lonely Mountains. It was an empty conquest.  He knew that he would die here.  He was trapped.  He had hoped that the defeat that he handed the dwarves and men in the Mountains of Iron would have kept them away from that place
for
a long, long time.  It would have given him the delay he needed to start building his breeding pits here.  It was not to be.  He had searched and searched for an underground river.  There was none.

He had killed a lot of dwarves.  Even the King lay dead.  He had tortured others until they told him where a river was.  They all said the same.  It does not exist.  They all died saying the same thing. 

His plan had been a good one.  It had been going very well.  He had destroyed the Minotaur. He had killed a lot of the dwarves.  It was this human dwarf prince that was causing him all the grief.  He had destroyed the breeding pits under High Mountain.  He had defeated the army that Tabor had sent out after him in the Westwood.  He had captured the farms from him in the Kingdom of
Zor
.  Finally Tabor had managed to set a trap for him in the Mountains of Iron, but he, with help of his human friends escaped the trap. In the process he had lost his breeding pits in there.

Now Tabor himself was trapped.  He had been attacking the Lonely Mountains and thought that it would be a better place to rebuild his army since he had seen that man was now against him also.  He did not know that there were no underground rivers in these mountains.  His force was still massive, but every gremlin he lost was one he could not replace.  He had wanted to destroy the human dwarf prince to finish his revenge, but the
valkyries
had prevented him.  He did not even know that they were still alive.

So he sat on his ill gotten throne and planned his next step.  He now knew that some of the dwarves of these mountains were still alive.  He had seen the tunics of the dead at the base of the mountain. They were different than the tunics of the dwarves of High Mountain. The dwarves of High Mountain had their mountain embroidered on the sleeve.  The dwarves of the Lonely Mountains had the picture of five mountains embroidered on their chest.  Otherwise the tunics were the light green or brown cloth that the dwarves seem to prefer.   The dead were wearing both styles of tunics. 

So he would start digging again and uncover more of these dwarves and kill them in their halls.  Then, as a last gesture of defiance, he would throw down the fort at the foot of the hills and kill the human dwarf prince.

That thought made Tabor smile.  The human dwarf prince would die while his own people slowly closed their ring around the mountains. Indeed, Tabor would wait to attack until the other humans were close enough to see the battle, but not close enough to help.  He was chuckling to himself at this thought.

His servant brought him some meat.  He didn’t know what type of meat it was or how the servant kept finding food when his army was almost out.  It could be dwarf or human or gremlin, Tabor didn’t care, and as long as he was still eating and not starving like his army.  He called for his commander.  When he came in Tabor ordered, start digging, “I don’t care where.” The commander left.

A gremlins scout came up to Tabor and reported.
“Human army marching out, leaving mountains.”