The Broken Council (The Guardian Chronicles 1) (29 page)

“May
the Maker protect us and bless us in our time of need,” said Lord Nariko
solemnly.
 
He bowed slightly and
transformed into a massive brown bear.
 
He stood up on his hind legs and raised one paw in farewell.
 
He roared loudly as he stood there, which
inspired the king and the general to shout in unison a deafening war cry.
 
The bear then came down on all fours and
lumbered off to an unknown destination.

“We
are going to need him more than anyone else in this battle,” said King Jarvis.

“I
know. We will not be able to win the day without him.
 
He will lead us to victory; of that I am
certain.
 
However, we cannot let him have
all the fun,” said General Gideon with an infectious grin.

“Too
right you are.
 
Let’s get on with it
then; our unwanted guests approach,” replied the king as his face took on a
look of fierce determination.

Mason
Bardomli stood in the dark and damp entrance on the east side of one of the
main halls in the dwarven underground kingdom.
 
He was pondering how the traps should be set and how many there should
be.
 
He was methodical in his planning,
which meant he never did anything out of haste or urgency.
 
He had already organized his usual team of
dwarves to assist him with this project.
 
They knew that he would take time to think things out in his head first,
and they knew better than to rush him.
 
His plans had never failed them, and he had never put them in any danger
by taking time to orchestrate a complex defensive and offensive stratagem.
 
He was totally lost in his own thoughts as he
stood rooted to the spot while he tried to find all possible weak points in his
thinking.
 
He was going over several
different scenarios in his mind so that when they did begin to work they would
not have to stop or undo any of their traps.

He
turned around slowly to face his crew with a look of someone who had come to a
definite conclusion.
 
He looked at each
member of the group in front of him without revealing what he was thinking.
 
“We will have to be swift in laying these
traps.
 
We will divide into two groups so
that the traps on the topside will be finished at the same time as the ones we
lay here,” said Mason gruffly.

“Which
team will you lead?” asked one of the dwarves.

“I
will lead the group who stays here below.
 
Captain Barak, you will lead the above ground team.
 
Select who you want to go with you topside
after you meet with me so that I can tell you what we will do and when it will
need to be completed by,” said Mason in his raspy voice.

“Yes,
sir!” replied the captain.

Barak
quickly selected twelve dwarves to assist him in laying traps and sent them
topside.
 
He then returned to where Mason
was still standing so that they could discuss the strategies that would be
employed.
 
He noticed that the stout
dwarf was lost in his thoughts again, so he waited patiently for him to
recognize his return before speaking.
 
He
waited for several minutes before the statuesque figure in front of him
realized that he had returned from selecting his team.

“Captain
Barak, I am glad to see that you have not wasted time.
 
You will need to be that dutiful in the task
that lies before you.
 
Time is of the
utmost importance,” he said wryly.

“Of
course, Master Mason; what is your plan?” asked the captain patiently.
 
He did not want to rush him out of respect
for who he was.

“We
do not have time to dig pits, so we will have to disguise existing pits, or
cliffs in your case, so we can send our enemies plunging to their deaths,”
Mason began.
 
“What we will spend most of
our time doing is setting up traps that will be triggered by the hordes heading
our way.”
 
He went on to explain in
greater detail exactly what that meant.
 
After nearly an hour of detailing his plans, they parted ways and went
to work.

All
of the traps had been set and tested by the end of the next day.
 
The underground army would arrive in about
six hours and would then be led carefully to their premature deaths.
 
Mason estimated that his creations would
delay the attackers at least five days.
 
The army approaching on the mountainside would be slowed so that they
would arrive two days late.
 
This would
have both forces reaching the real dwarven defenses at the same time.
 
For the time being, they would simply have to
wait and see what would transpire.
 
While
these preparations were being made, General Gideon had finished his defenses
for a long-term siege.
 
Lord Nariko had
sent his message to the bears and had already returned.
 
He was in meetings with the general and King
Jarvis while Master Mason remained below to ensure that the approaching army
was sufficiently delayed.

***

The
goblins had disposed of their torches hours ago so the dwarves would not see
them before they attacked.
 
The goblin
captains were under the direction of Commander Jabari of the rock trolls.
 
He had sent one of the little soldiers ahead
to determine what path would conceal their approach the best.
 
They had not returned, and some thought they
heard a distant cry and then nothing.
 
While the trolls waited patiently, the rest of the army began to worry
and fret that they had been discovered and that the dwarves had used some sort
of demon to destroy their comrades.
 
Their jitters worsened when Jabari sent more scouts ahead and they too
did not return.
 
This time a sickening
thud
was heard as though there had been
an avalanche of some sort.
 
What they did
not understand was that the commander was sending the scouts ahead to clear the
traps that he knew the dwarves would have laid in anticipation of their
underground approach.

Commander
Jabari continued to send scouts ahead to spring the traps for nearly three
hours.
 
Finally, he determined that it
was safe to continue forward and commanded the army to move out.
 
As they resumed their march, more traps were
sprung that sent many goblins falling to their deaths.
 
Many of the already skittish soldiers turned
tail to run away from their duties.
 
The
commander sensed this cowardice immediately and put a swift end to it.
 
Anyone who turned around to leave was grabbed
immediately by a rock troll and ripped in two.
 
This created the desired effect so that the commander did not have to
deal with any more deserters for the time being.
 
Many of the artifices were comprised of the
roof caving in, which meant that the massive army had to narrow their approach
to avoid further losses.

As
the army continued to approach their quarry, Commander Jabari realized what the
dwarves were attempting to do.
 
They were
not only trying to delay their approach, but they were also trying to herd them
like lambs to the slaughter.
 
At that
precise moment, the massive rock troll leader triggered the grand finale of
traps by brushing a secret trigger on the cavern wall, which released so many
rocks from the ceiling so that every path they were on was now blocked completely.
 
He wisely called for a complete halt and
stood back to survey the damage that had been done and began to formulate a
plan to get through this new barrier.
 
The thing that perplexed him the most was the reasoning for the
elaborate traps.
 
Why did they waste so much time in preparing these diversions when they
should have been preparing their defenses?
 
Did they really think that rocks could stop us?

Jabari
then used his special link to the earth to determine what path contained the
weakest point in the newly created rock wall.
 
After a few minutes of probing, it became clear to him and the other
rock trolls that the path directly in front of the main body of the army had
the least amount of debris in their path.
 
He immediately decided that they would open this path up and continue
their journey on this path of least resistance.
 
They did not realize that on the other side of the temporary wall was a
pit so vast that it would delay them several days while they tried to create a
bridge to cross it.
 
In fact, it would
take the hybrid army four days to construct a makeshift bridge that would allow
the entire army to cross over to the other side.
 
By the time they accomplished this, five
thousand goblins and two trolls would have been lost as a result of the traps
laid by the dwarves.
 
Instead of taking a
day and an half to reach Mount Carrick, it would take the underground army five
days.

***

General
Yuki and her army had made considerable progress during their night marches,
which put them a full day ahead of schedule.
 
They would actually reach Mount Carrick in two days instead of
three.
 
As the sun began to set on
another day, she decided to send scouts ahead to find out how much farther they
had to go.
 
When the scouts returned to
report, they had a frantic looks upon their faces.
 
They informed their general that the dwarves
had prepared a series of deadly traps that would trigger an avalanche if they
continued on the road they were on.
 
They
could not determine what would spring the artifices, but they knew that it
would be too dangerous to continue on this high road.
 
They suggested a safer route along the base
of the mountains.
 
They offered this suggestion
cautiously because it would add at least one to two days to their march.
 
The general did not take the news well at
all.

“What
are those bearded idiots playing at?” she raged rhetorically.
 
“Commander Vahe, Lord Trahern, we need to
talk right now!”

No need to scream, Yuki.
 
We can read your thoughts.
 
This is merely a diversionary tactic.
 
It appears that Commander Jabari has run into
some traps below us, and he has been forced to work feverishly to pass through
the lethal setbacks
,
explained Lord Trahern patiently.
 
He
could also sense the anger welling up within their general and knew that if she
could be persuaded to remain calm that she would devise a new plan that would
lead them safely around the obstacles that lay ahead.

“You
are right; we do need to remain calm.
 
I
think that it would be best to follow the advice of the scouts and take the low
road.
 
It would be better to arrive
intact than in disarray,” she said as she gained control of her temper.
 
There
is no point in wasting time and soldiers in trying to overcome the treacherous
barriers ahead.
 
The dwarves merely want
to delay us, and we will oblige them.
 
If
it takes us three more days to reach them, then so be it.

I agree with your thinking, General
Yuki.
 
Let us take the low road and take
our time so that we retain our numbers, which will be the deciding factor in
the end,
replied
Commander Vahe placidly.

“Let’s
move out then,” replied the general coolly.

As
the army made their way down to the base of the mountains, the sky above became
dark and did not give any light.
 
The sky
had clouded over with black threatening clouds, and the soldiers could sense
the change in the atmosphere about them.
 
This storm would slow their progress and force them to stop.
 
There was rumbling overhead that was a
precursor of the dazzling display of lightning.
 
Loud booms followed the strikes immediately after the flashes. General
Yuki had a sinking feeling that this storm was not natural.
 
It appeared to follow them as they finally
reached the plain below the mountains.

The
ferocity of the storm masked the feverish work taking place high above them on
the cliffs.
 
The dwarves were busy
setting the last series of traps as the storm continued to build in
intensity.
 
As the army far below
continued their implacable march, all of the artifices had been set and were
ready for the unsuspecting army to trigger them.
 
There was actually no real threat on the high
road following the cliff line, so the unwitting general was leading her troops
directly into harm’s way.
 
The scouts had
been fooled by what they had seen and had given Yuki false information that
would end up costing her army time and a significant number of casualties.