The Half Dwarf Prince (20 page)

It had taken Bergmann a month to make it back to Tiefes Loch, on the southern end of Gegend, the continent that the five cities were on. When he returned he found the king and the leader of the Black Dragons in Portwein waiting for him. He had sent Gurbed to meet with them when he left for Evermount.

Portwein was the largest of the five cities
and sat on the southern border of Gegend. It was the only city that actually sat on the water. Bergmann had no desire to deal with the humans. He felt that dwarves were the superior race. That is why they were stronger, smarter, and lived longer. The humans did, however, serve a purpose. He was going to take all four of the dwarven kingdoms, and it would be better if he could use the humans to do it—the fewer dwarves he lost, the better. Humans were naturally greedy. He knew he could feed that greed to get them to sacrifice their own people for him. He had been back for two days, but he had made the humans wait. When he walked into the room, the humans were waiting with Gurbed and four other dwarves.

“Gentlemen
, I assume you have been comfortable.” When neither of the humans answered, he continued. “I am Bergmann, king of Tiefes Loch. I asked you to come so that I might propose something to you. I am going to take over all of the kingdoms of dwarves. I would like you to help me.”

The king of Portwein was the first to speak. “Why would we do anything to help you? Tiefes Loch has isolated itself. You do not trade with us. We cannot get metal or weapons or armor from you. You have never done anything for us. The other dwarves
will at least trade with us.”

Bergmann stared at the human until he shifted in his seat. “Tiefes Loch has isolated itself in order to grow its power. We have more dwarves
than the other three kingdoms combined. We are stronger and we are warriors. The other kingdoms have held onto old beliefs that would have eventually led our race to extinction. Once I have taken control of the other kingdoms we will openly trade with Portwein, and Portwein only. Any of the other cities that want dwarf goods—any metal, any weapons, any gems—will have to trade with Portwein. On top of that we will give you five hundred thousand gold plugs. We will give you one hundred thousand of that up front and the rest when we take the other dwarf kingdoms. We will also help arm the army that marches with us. My dwarves started making weapons and armor for your people a year ago. We will offer you ten thousand pieces of chain mail, one thousand sets of plate mail, and thirty thousand swords. The swords we made are the curved sabers that your men use now. They are dwarven steel and won’t break on dwarven armor like many of your weapons might. It will be a decent weapon to fight with in tunnels. Big, long, heavy weapons aren’t effective under a mountain.”

Bergmann saw the light in the king’s eyes. Five hundred thousand gold was a fortune. The armor and weapons he was offering were worth another. The king
knew that this would make his city greater and more powerful than all of the other cities combined. “Two hundred thousand up front,” the king said.

Bergmann stared at the king
for nearly five minutes. Finally the king broke. “Fine, one hundred thousand up front. When I have the money and the weapons and armor I will send my men to you. My generals will answer directly to you, but my men will answer to them. I want the weapons and armor of the fallen returned to the city, though, when this is all over.”

Bergmann
had him. The greed of man was the most powerful weapon against them. This king was willing to sacrifice thousands of men for money when he already had more than he could spend. Humans were pathetic creatures.

“Why should the Black Dragons help you
?” the wizard, Dirigente, asked.

“What is it that you and your wizards would like? Gold,
gems, weapons?” Bergmann asked.

“Do you know that all of your dwarves in Shinestone are dead
?” the wizard asked nonchalantly.

Bergmann looked at the wizard now. “How could you know that? How do you even know they were there?”

“Calm down, dwarf. I played no part in the death of your dwarves,” Dirigente said.

“Then how do you know they are dead
?” Bergmann asked.

“
I had associates in Shinestone when your dwarves arrived. Two of my wizards were at the entrance when your dwarves finally made it there. You see, your dwarves were supposed to take the entrance while the others fought the orcs from the top down. The dwarves beat the orcs, and the Black Dragons that were with them, as they fought their way through the mountain. The two Black Dragons at the entrance traveled away when the dwarves came from behind them. But just before they did, they saw the dwarves defeat the orcs in the entrance, with the help of a halfling druid, and then saw your force enter the tunnel after all the orcs were defeated. When the Tiefes Loch dwarves began to charge the other dwarves, the halfling collapsed the tunnel on them. All of them.”

Bergmann tensed. He
immediately knew the story was true. The description was too close to the plans that he and Verrator had come up with, plus the wizard’s mention of the halfling druid meant that too many of the facts added up.

“Then you should help me to avenge the
Dragons you lost,” Bergmann said.

The Black Dragon wizard laughed. “Those lives are not important to me. They died because of the decisions they made. I attack those that attack the Black Dragons to keep others from trying. Some Black Dragons who died fighting beside orcs in some distan
t cave will not have any effect on perceptions here.”

Bergmann balled up his fist. “You would associate with orcs?”

Dirigente smiled. “No more than you would associate with humans. Don’t look at me like that, dwarf. I am not the greedy, blind king over here. I know that you hate humans. I see your play and I understand it. The question for me is, does it benefit me, and how will it benefit me more if I help? Right now I see a dangerous war in confined spaces against dwarves that have at least a few in their number with the ability to battle wizards. You haven’t yet given me a reason to join your war. If anything you have only helped persuade me to stay out of it.”

Bergmann stared at the wizard for a long time. He couldn’t thing of anything he had to offer that the Black Dragons couldn’t get on
their own. He only had one option. He took off his armor. He undid his leather vest, and then he slid his shirt over his head. In the center of his chest was a circle with dozens of black tendrils coming out of it across his chest. It was the mark of chaos. It was the mark of Delvidge. Even the Black Dragon wizard was shocked.

“The dwarves of Tiefes Loch are the children of Delvidge. This is the task he has given us. For three hundred years we
have been preparing. Now we will take control of all of the kingdoms of dwarves. Any dwarf who will not convert to chaos will be sacrificed, as they were in Tiefes Loch.”

He looked around the room to the other dwarves
, nodding at each one. Each of the dwarves took off their armor and clothing, revealing heavily tattooed bodies. Each had the circle of chaos in the center of his chest. The symbol was never exactly the same—that was the embodiment of chaos—but the general idea of the symbol was a small circle with black tendrils of different lengths going in every direction. The other dwarves were covered in the black tendrils from the neck down.

Dirigente lifted his sleeve and looked at his own symbol of chaos tattooed on his forearm. “The last army sent against these dwarves was destroyed. Why should I join you? How will you beat them?”

Bergmann knew he had him now. “They were defeated by a wizard with the power to challenge the gods. That wizard was taken away by the Father. His power is too great to bother interfering in the affairs of mortals. The Father had to step in and stop him during the last battle to keep him from continuing his reign of destruction. He will not interfere. If we take one kingdom at a time the other dwarves will have no choice but to convert or die!”

Dirigente looked around at the heavily tattooed dwarves. They had abandoned their old laws. They had a huge army, and they were committed to Delvidge. How would he be able to justify not assisting in creating chaos? This was specifically what the Black Dragons were created for. He looked up at the dwarf king and nodded.

Bergmann looked at the other dwarves. “We prepare for war!”

The king of Portwein screamed in fear when the dwarves
pulled out their knives and dragged them across their chests, drawing lines of blood that began to run down their stomachs. Bergmann walked over to them. He stopped at the one whose cut had drawn the least blood. The cut was deep, but he was the only one that did not have blood pooling on his pants yet. The dwarf handed his king his knife.

“Your sacrifice to chaos will guarantee our victory,” Bergmann said, and then he buried the blade in the chest of the dwarf.

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