The Half Dwarf Prince: 02 - The Dwarf War (4 page)

Rundo shrugged. He slid his pants and his vest off and set them on the table. He was getting very comfortable with his nakedness. It had been very awkward that first time in the woods, when he was learning how to turn into a hawk, but now he had been naked in front of
most of these people already. He stood there in his smallshorts and a shirt.

Anwar sprinkled some diamond dust over the clothing and used his magic to make them indestructible and magic
-resistant. He handed them over the table to Rundo.

“Those will help protect you against magic as well. I have one more thing for you
, though. Hand me your belt.”

Rundo picked up his belt and set it on the table. Anwar reached out
with his magic, using heat and pressure to melt the buckle of the belt. Then he pulled a black stone from the pouch hanging from his own belt. He set the stone in the molten metal of the buckle and then used pressure to reshape the buckle around the stone. He sprinkled a little diamond dust on the buckle and made it indestructible. It wouldn’t do to have the buckle not be able to withstand the power of the magical item it held.

“That will absorb magical attacks that come toward it.
As Grundel discovered, though, it has to be between you and the magical attack to be effective. If someone fires at your back with magic, you will have to rely on your vest and trousers, but the exposed parts of your body will be vulnerable.”

“That’s a black diamond!” Frau said in shock.

Anwar nodded his head. “Yes, it is, but most people don’t think that they are even real, and no one who does would believe he’d find one in a plain belt buckle like this. Anyone who notices it will assume it is just an opal, onyx, or zircon. The black diamond is one of the best items to retain magical properties. This belt can absorb four to five times the amount of magic as Grundel’s belt.” He handed the belt over the table to Rundo. “Well, I think you are as protected as you are going to let me make you.”

“Thanks
, Anwar.”

Anwar nodded, then turned toward Grundel. “Your turn.”

“No, you should do my mother first,” Grundel argued.

“Ah, I don’t think your mother would appreciate me putting all her undergarments on display for the rest of you. I will take care of her items later. We need to protect you, and not with metal this time. I hear you were nearly cooked alive in your armor. I didn’t think you would go for the undergarment idea so I had that brought up,” Anwar said
, pointing to the dwarf standing at the door with a roll of black leather. “I figured I’d make you a light leather jacket. The black will look good enough that you could wear it to more formal gatherings in the city. It won’t meet their human standards, but they will accept it as a dwarven style, I think,” he said, turning to Anna for confirmation. She nodded her head approvingly.

Anwar looked at Rundo. “Would you mind making the jacket? It will look a lot better if you do it
than if I do. I have seen your ability to make clothing. Look how good that snakeskin vest looks!”

Rundo looked at Grundel and then back to Anwar. “I will need a couple of hours.”

“Fair enough. I can go take care of the items for Anna, if that’s okay with you,” he said, looking at Grizzle’s wife.

She nodded. Grizzle stepped out in front of everyone. “Al
l right, show’s over, everyone. Grundel, stay here with Rundo and get your new clothes or armor—whatever we are calling it—made. The rest of you go about your business. We will meet up tonight and discuss the final details about them leaving in the morning.”

Anwar followed Grizzle and Anna out, leaving Rundo to work
with Grundel on his jacket. He noticed that Frau stayed behind as well. Once they were in the apartments that Grizzle and Anna shared, Anwar waited in the front room with Grizzle while Anna went to get the clothing.

“Thanks for coming back
, Anwar. I know you can’t stay, but it is good to know that you’re okay. Thanks for all this, too.”

Anwar looked at Grizzle. He wasn’t
meeting Anwar’s gaze. Grizzle had never been big on expressing himself; neither had Anwar, for that matter.

“It is hard not to be here. I know everyone might not make it through this, but I understand why
The Father won’t let me get involved. I am going to do everything I can to help, though. Just wait ’til you see what I’ve got planned for tomorrow. Even you will see some magic you have never seen.”

Grizzle smiled
excitedly.

Anna
emerged with three different undergarments that would cover her from her shoulders to her knees. One of them wouldn’t cover her chest, and Anwar assumed this was for more revealing formal wear, but he didn’t mention it. This was a bit of an awkward situation. He laid each of them out on the ground and sprinkled diamond dust over all three. His magic flowed into the garments, dissolving the diamond dust and imbuing them with indestructibility and the power to ward off magic attacks. He looked up.

“Th
ese are the most now the most expensive undergarments in all of the five cities,” he joked.

Anna shook her head, and then she hugged him. “Thank you
, Anwar. We really miss you. I miss her, too.”

Anwar nodded to her. “Thank you. I don’t know if it is starting to hurt less or
if I am just getting used to the pain. I still think about her all the time, but I am starting to be able to get through the day without always wishing I had died, too.”

“We are here if you need us. You have given everything for us. We will always be here for you,” she said as she let go of him.

“Thank you, Anna. I think it helps right now that I have so much to focus on, so much to learn. The things I have learned in just the last few months are unreal. The Father keeps me going nonstop. I don’t know if he is trying to keep my mind occupied or if he is just training me hard, but either way, it is helping,” he told her.

Anna patted him on the arm, and then went and retrieved her clothing. “Leave it to a woman to spoil the mood,” Grizzle said as Anna carried her clothing back into the other room. Anwar just chuckled.

“I have one more thing for you,” Anwar said as Anna walked back into the room.

“Oh
? What is it?” she asked.

Anwar slid a bamboo tube out of his sleeve. He held it up to Anna’s arm. I
t was about an inch shy of the wrist and forearm.

“Perfect
. You should be able to keep this up your sleeve without it impeding your movement or being too noticeable. This tube will hold a bolt just a little smaller than one used in a crossbow.” He pointed to a small circle toward one end. “If you press this spot, it will fire the bolt. He pointed at the wall and pushed the button. The wooden shaft flew out, then slammed into the wall. It chipped the stone and then disappeared.

“What happened to it
?” she asked.

Anwar handed the tube to her. “It returned to the tube. It will be pretty accurate out to about fifty feet. That bolt will punch through most armor. There is only one bol
t, and it has been magically hardened and will return to the inside of the tube once its momentum is stopped. It will likely punch right through your target, but if it gets embedded in bone or something, it will immediately return to the inside of the tube. I got the idea from Rundo’s daggers. I knew you wouldn’t be able to walk around with a weapon—that’s not appropriate for a woman—but this is easily concealed, and no one will know what it is.”

Anna held the tube in her hand
, staring at it.

“Try it,” Grizzle said.

She pointed it at the wall and fired. It hit the wall an inch from where Anwar’s had hit, chipping at a small piece of stone between the two points. The bolt disappeared before it hit the ground.

“Thank you
, Anwar, though I hope I never have to use it.”

“You
’re welcome,” he answered with a smile.

Rundo made marks on the leather while Frau held it up. It wasn’t really an easy job since Grundel was much taller than both of them. He had already cut the piece that would be the back of the jacket. It really was more of a vest with sleeves. The leather was thin and would look good. He finished making the last mark along the underarm.

“Ok
ay, that’s good,” he told Frau. She took the leather down and set it on the table. Rundo went to work with shears, cutting away all of the excess. Grundel had been very clear he didn’t want a collar. Rundo finished trimming the piece of leather and then laid it on top of the piece what would become the back of he jacket. He lined up what would be the shoulders of the jacket, then poked holes along the edges and ran a thin strip of leather through them. He did the same along the sides. Once it was all put together he cut a line down the front, then cut a small V shape at the top, leaving room for the nape of Grundel’s neck.

Then he moved on to the sleeves. He left them a little loose. He made his cuts
and poked his holes, running the thin string of leather up the inside of the sleeves. Then he connected the sleeves to the vest. On the front he attached the four small, polished-steel buttons that Frau had found. He added a small strip of leather through the other side of the opposite side of each button. The loops of leather wrapped around the buttons lined up the front of the jacket perfectly.

“That looks good,” Frau said from behind him.

“The steel buttons add character to it,” Anna said from the doorway. They all turned to look at her. She had Grizzle and Anwar with her. “I bet you’ll start a new style in Patria with that jacket. The steel over the black is going to be popular.”

“That looks good
, Rundo. Is it finished?” Anwar asked.

“It is. As good as I can do in such a short amount of time
, anyway,” Rundo said.

“You ready to finish it up
?” Anwar asked Grundel.

Grundel unhooked the buttons and handed the jacket to Anwar.

Anwar laid the jacket on the table. When he flipped it over he saw that Rundo had already put the sheaths for Grundel’s axes right into the back of the jacket. Anwar poured diamond dust over the jacket and gave it the same magical properties of all the armor he had made that day.

“Are you good on weapons
?” he asked Grundel when he was done.

“I have my axes and my knives,” he answered.

“Can I see your knives?”

Grundel took the magical dagger Jerrie had given him after the fight with the Black Dragons, and then pulled his new dagger from his boot.

“That first one is already enchanted. Do you want me to do this one?” he asked, holding up the boot knife.

“I guess so. I really just got that one to give me something to do while I was lying in bed
, but now that I have sharpened it as much as I can, you might as well. What are you going to do to it?” he asked, slipping his other knife back in his belt.

“
Well, we could just make it very hard and able to defeat magical shields. I will do that regardless. On top of that we could give it perfect aim. It would hit any target you threw it at, even if the target moved. Or we could make it so that you could turn it into a sword, or we could make it return to its sheath after being thrown, like Rundo’s daggers. Or if you have another idea I can probably make it happen.”

“It probably isn’t possible, but I always thought it would be good to have a weapon that would burn the bodies of your enemies. I think it would be really
effective against trolls or orcs if they would burst into flames when they were stabbed,” Grundel said, sounding a little embarrassed.

Anwar thought about it for a second. “It would have to be
a really powerful flame to make the whole body burst into flame. I could do it, but it would do it to anyone you stabbed with the dagger—humans and dwarves, along with orcs and trolls.

Grundel thought about it for a second. “If I am stabbing them
, then I am trying to kill them anyway. Let’s do it.”

Anwar nodded. “Everyone
, step back a little bit. This is a new one for me.”

He reached into another pouch on his belt and pulled out a small ruby
, then set the stone on top of the blade. He poured his magic into the knife, pushing his will into it. After Anwar spent a few seconds filling the blade with magic, the ruby was absorbed into the blade, and a three-foot column of fire rose up out of the dagger. When the fire fell back into the blade, Anwar sprinkled diamond dust on the knife and made it indestructible. He stared down at the knife. The blade was as red as the ruby. He picked it up and handed the blade to Grundel.

“
If you just cut someone with it, the knife will burn the area around the cut, but it won’t cause them to burst into flame. If you bury the blade inside them, they will burst into flame within seconds. If the wound doesn’t kill them, the fire will.” He held the dagger out to Grundel.

Grundel took the dagger and stared down at its bright red blade.

“What are you going to call it?” his father said from behind him. “A weapon like that needs a name,” Grizzle said.