Elvenshore: 01 - The Dwarves of Elvenshore (4 page)

Surprised at the King’s ability to spot a leader, Sarchise blurted out. “Why, yes I am, you are correct, most noble King.”

The King smiled, “The twins have told me the tale of how you saved my son’s life.  That makes you his brother, and the brother of my son is also my son.”

At this the dwarves in the room got a momentary look of surprise on their faces, even the guards, but only for an instant. They quickly regained their look of indifference. Sarchise shrugged it off.  He didn’t understand all this dwarf lore.  He
understood that if you save a dwarf’s life that they owe you a favor.  He didn’t know how big a favor it was and what all of this brother thing was all about.  He did have the good graces to thank the King.

The King turned to one of the guards.  “Send for the healer, I want to know how my son is.”

Sarchise piped up.  “I could probably tell you more than they could, unless they have experience with spider bites. I spent the last two days carrying your son.”

The King nodded.  “Go ahead.”

“He was not deeply bitten.  He will sleep for days but then should awaken.  When his blood starts to circulate better, he will start to bleed from his abdomen wound.  It must be sewn up soon, before his blood stirs. This is true for the others too,” Sarchise explained.

“And
Glowin
?”
Hemlot
asked.

“He was deeply bitten.  There is not much hope. If his blood does not stir within the week, he will die,” Sarchise said with a sad voice.

“You have all fought hard. Get some rest and tonight there will be a feast in your honor.  A grand feast, the likes of which have not been seen for a generation, for my son was lost, but now he is found!” declared the King.

One of the guards ran down the stairs to tell the cooks to tend their fires while the other one went to tell the butchers. The Captain of the Guard led the weary group of warriors to sleeping quarters.  Each bed was a carved stone platform with pillows tossed onto them, except for the dwarves.’ All they had was a single pillow for their heads.

The Captain of the Guard looked at the humans and said “Sorry to treat brave warriors so softly but the King said that you would be more used to the soft ground than you would hard stone.”

“This will work just fine, thank you, Captain,
”  Sarchise
said.

“Yes, my Prince,” The captain gave a deep bow.

Sarchise shrugged it off and lay down on the pillowed stone bed.  His journey to the Tall Mountain had been long and sleep was soon in coming. All the travelers slept while the feast was being prepared. Cooks, butchers, and maidens all made ready.  Long tables were brought and positioned around the fire pit in the Great Hall. Plates and knives placed at each spot.  Bread was baked and goats were slaughtered.  Barrels of ale were rolled up from the cellar. Two large logs were brought in,
then
laid beside the fire pit.  All of the dwarves were talking about the happenings of the day. 

Caspin came in from the gates.  He was hard to please and often grumpy.  He was unhappy that
the his
father the King let in the ‘intruders.’ He was one of the many shamed at the King for not letting the armies go to the aide of men and thought that having men in the halls of the dwarves would bring further shame to his people. Men had had to save dwarves, not once, but twice in the three days that they ventured out from High Mountain. When he heard the full story of how man and dwarf fought and fell shoulder to shoulder, he was pleased.  He had even managed a rare smile. His warrior blood burned within him.  He longed for battle that had been denied him for years and years. 

He was angry with his brother for not taking him along to the Mountains of Iron.  When he realized that Cazz could not be the King under the mountains if the older brother came along he was no longer upset at him.  But then he was angry with himself for not thinking of it first.  Then he was relieved that he had not done it, for he too knew nothing of the world outside and would have been easy prey for the spiders as his brother had been. 

He came in to help with the preparing of the feast, or rather order around those who were preparing the feast. He was then told the story of the meeting between Sarchise and the King.  He tilted his head back and laughed aloud. 
A deep throaty laugh that he had not had in a long time.
“The humans had no idea of what had actually just happened,” he said and laughed again to himself.   He made his way up to his father’s chambers to talk.

Sarchise had a fitful time sleeping.  His hips kept finding their way through the pillows to the cold stone below.  He had to readjust himself every few minutes.  Finally he gave up and sat up.  Ferdin was just coming in the room.

“Sarchise, the fifth son is running a fever. The healer is worried about him.”

“That is a good
sign, that
means his blood is starting to move better and the body has found the poison in his system and is trying to get rid of it. After the fever starts it usually takes just one to two days for the person to awaken,” Sarchise explained.

“Oh,” Ferdin said, looking down. “My father has no fever. I thought that it was a good sign.”

“I would not hold much hope in your heart for your father,” Sarchise said gently.  “An angry spider bites harder than a hungry one does. Very few that have had hard spider bites live to tell the tale.  The elves had a potion made from a red flower that grows only in Northwood that was supposed to draw out the poison and could cure all but the hardest spider bites.  They made a tea of these flowers and fed it to the stricken ones.  It’s called Elf’s Blood.  But I am afraid that it, along with other secrets of the elf’s medicine, left with them.”

“What will happen to my father?”

“If he does not recover after a week, the poison will slow his body to the point that it will stop altogether,” explained Sarchise.

“
Harn
also lingers, though they said he was dead after the battle,” Ferdin questioned.

“We have seen many men fall to the bite of the spider and know not which will make it and which will not.  Without
elvish
medicine it was plain to us that
Harn
, as well as your father had no chance,” Sarchise said.

“My father was old and a warrior.  He would not have liked to die around a bonfire.  He fell in battle and the poets are already writing songs about him to sing at the feast tonigh
t. He would have been proud to
know that he was a warrior of song.” With that Ferdin made his way back down to the healer to tell him the good news for the prince and the bad news of his father.

Two guards came in after Ferdin had left. A smiling Caspin followed them. 

The first guard said, “The King bids you to a feast in your honor.” He then turned and walked out. 

Caspin added, “I hope you are hungry.” And then turning to Sarchise he said, “And I have arranged with the King for a surprise for you!” at that he left the room.

Fordin, who had slept while his brother watched over their father, looked at Hemlot and said, “This is upsetting to me, I have never seen him smile.”

“He only smiles when he hears or is about to hear tales of battles and war.”  Hemlot said
,  Then
added “or when he is up to extreme mischief.”

As the group of humans entered the Great Hall, they were greeted with sights and sounds that few humans have ever heard.  Instruments played, and dwarfs talked.  There were howls of laughter coming from one group or another, while all of the guests lingered around the tables, but none sat down.

This hall was twice the size of the lower hall and already had a roaring fire in the fire pit. The pillars were carved in the shape of axes.  The handle was the base and the head of the
axe
held the roof up.  Along the walls were statues that showed the great deeds of dwarves now dead. All of the tables faced the fire and there were many tables.

All the guests turned to greet the newcomers with the deep bow of the dwarf.  Likewise, the humans took off their caps and held them over their heart and bowed deep.   The travelers let themselves
be
led to a table of honor near the fire.  When Sarchise went to sit down a dwarf maiden prevented him.

“No, no, my prince!” she said, “You must sit at the King’s table.”

Sarchise looked perplexed, then shrugged at his fellow humans and went to sit at the King’s table.  There were the King and the Queen with six chairs on either side of them.  Four of the King
’
s five sons sat at his right hand side with a chair left open for the wounded prince. Sarchise sat down in the sixth chair. There were six dwarf maidens to the left of the Queen.  The King got up from his seat and announced the start of the festivities.  With that the food was brought out. Plates stacked deep with all kinds of cooked meat. 
There was p
ig, goat, wild rabbit and deer
, and others he couldn’t identify
.  Other plates had grapes on them and breads. 
Many were v
arieties that Sarchise had never seen before.  Plates of cheeses of all kinds also appeared.  As the server went by a table its occupants would grab what they wanted from the plates.  Sarchi
se took some rabbit when the mea
t tray came by.  Better to go with what you know, he thought.  Wild rabbit was a staple for the Royal Scouts.

The breads and the cheeses were heavenly in taste but a little hard in texture.  It seemed that dwarves did not like the lighter textures of food, wanting to be able to give it a good bite.  Sarchise felt sorry for old dwarves who
were losing their teeth.  There was
a round of grapes to finish it all off, and ale to wash it down.  The ale was a little
more bitter
than what
he was used to, but it was very good after a few weeks in the woods. 
Sarchise noticed that his friends were having a good time over at the table across the hall.

Feeling a bit lonely, he started talking to Caspin.  It was a bit difficult with the chair between them. Caspin was not the gruff, disrespectful, snobbish prince that he had met down at the gate, but had a devious smile and seemed to treat
Sarchise
as an equal.  His curiosity peaked and he finally asked. 

“Are those the King’s daughters I see at the table?”

Caspin let out a deep-throated laugh, and then composed himself enough to answer. “Why, no, the King has no daughters. Those ar
e the maidens that are betrothed
to the princes.”

Sarchise looked again and asked, “Why are there six of them? I thought that the King had only five sons.” Caspin could no longer contain himself. He laughed so hard that he fell backwards in his chair. He rolled across the floor for a minute.  He sat at the edge of the wall, then stood up and sat back down at the table. He then whispered to the brother next to him who also laughed, deep and loud. And so it went down the row of brothers, each laughing in turn until it reached the ears of the King.  He also roared with laughter. He then stood up from his chair. 

Holding up his arms to quiet down the crowd, the King made an announcement. “I, King of High Mountain, was going to announce the betrothal of my sixth son to Ammlee the daughter of Hightower.  But as I have just found out, my sixth son does not know who he is!” With that the whole crowd, except for the humans and Hemlot, burst out in laughter.  Hemlot had a worried look on his face, fearful that he had done something wrong.  The whole crowd was looking at Sarchise.  Having nothing better to do, and seeing that he may have just made a fool of himself, Sarchise lifted up his mug of ale and toasted the crowd.  This brought more hails of laughter.  A blushing Ammlee stood up and bowed to the crowd.  Great and fierce dwarf warriors were crying from laughing so hard.

When the laughter subsided, the King spoke something in the old dwarf tongue.  Ammlee bowed her head and Caspin reached over and whispered for Sarchise to nod his head also.  He did so before he thought of asking why.

“It is done!” the king announced and immediately musicians began to play and sing.

To tell a tale of wandering lords

Who dreamed of thrones and golden
hordes

But ended wrapped in Spiders Cords

Who went down a deeply forested
way

But through a spider’s bite now stay

And now in healer’s hut he lay.

A tall green clad man of trees

Walking through the forest breeze

From the spiders, our prince did seize.

He brought him back to our mountain

And thought he would depart again

But a new life for him began

Our dwarfish tongue, to him, makes no sense

And to us he seems a little tense

But he finds himself a dwarfish prince.