The Half Dwarf Prince: 02 - The Dwarf War Read online

  The

  Dwarf

  War

  © 2013 by J.M. Fosberg

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or distributed by any means without prior permission in writing from the author.

  Dedication:

  I dedicate this book to my children: Mariah, Logan, and Dominic. They are my greatest achievement, and a constant source of entertainment and inspiration.

  Acknowledgments:

  First I would like to thank God for my imagination and passion.

  A big thanks to Brent Markee, Penny J. Wills, and Stuart Bohnet, who saw a much rougher version of this book and helped me shape it into what it is now. Your feedback and encouragement was invaluable.

  I would like to thank Jodie Young from www.rooftopcopy.com for the painstaking job of editing my work. As always s he did an amazing job, and I am extremely grateful for her efforts and insight .

  A huge thanks to Toby and Camille Neighbors for their work on the cover. I am very grateful for the time they spent during a very exciting time of their own.

  Finally I would like to thank you, the reader , for all of your feedback. I love hearing how much you love — and even how much you hate — some of the things that happen in these books . I am excited that for a short while I can bring you into my world.

  Books by J.M. Fosberg

  Rising of a Mage Trilogy

  Rising of a Mage

  Gods and Magic

  A Mage Risen

  The Half-Dwarf Prince Series

  The Half-Dwarf Prince

  The Dwarf War

  Dwarves of Chaos

  (Estimated release Jan 2014)

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One: The Arrival of Kings

  Chapter Two: Going to Patria

  Chapter Three: Dwarves of Chaos

  Chapter Four: An Unexpected Visitor

  Chapter Five: Magically Equipped

  Chapter Six: An Alliance of Greed and Chaos

  Chapter Seven: Defenses Prepared

  Chapter Eight: New Recruits

  Chapter Nine: Rundo and the Druids

  Chapter Ten: The Road to Patria

  Chapter Eleven: Last Days in Portwein

  Chapter Twelve: Patria

  Chapter Thirteen: Parades and Parties

  Chapter Fourteen: Marching to War

  Chapter Fifteen: No More Waiting

  Chapter Sixteen: Recoveries and Preparations

  Chapter Seventeen: A Meeting of Kings

  Chapter Eighteen: Choosing Sides

  Chapter Nineteen: Rundo’s Warnings

  Chapter Twenty: Marching to War

  Chapter Twenty-One: Springing the Trap

  Chapter Twenty-Two: Aftermath and Introductions

  Chapter Twenty-Three: Dressing the Wounds

  Chapter Twenty-Four: Delvidge Dwarves

  Epilogue

  Chapter One

  The Arrival of Kings

  The threat posed by the Tiefes Loch dwarves was too grave to be taken lightly. All of the other dwarven kingdoms, together, needed to decide how to deal with this. If the things that Verrator said were true, they could all be in real trouble.

  Grundel closed his eyes, remembering Verrator’s words. Grundel was lying on the ground with Verrator’s sword in his stomach, but he had heard every word Verrator had said. He had replayed them over and over in his fevered dreams afterwards. They were burned into his mind now.

  You dwarves are not our kin. You have all grown weak. You follow the old ways. No dwarf can birth more than two dwarves, you work so hard to make the humans happy, and you depend on them for everything. Over the last three hundred years Tiefes Loch has made its own rules. The rest of you have treated us like we don’t matter. We have tripled our population since Bergmann took the throne. Tiefes Loch will not answer to Evermount any longer. We will rule all of the kingdoms. You will all bend the knee or fall. Our kingdom had more than the rest of you before the fall of Shinestone, and none of you had a clue. Now you will know. It is a new age for the dwarf. Today is only the first day. You have fought for hours—look around you. Your dwarves are exhausted and they have thousands of orcs to fight yet. The dwarves of Tiefes Loch wait at the entrance. When the fighting is done they will take Shinestone. Give yourself over to Tiefes Loch now. Submit to our rule and you will live through the day.

  But it hadn’t happened that way. The dwarves had fought off the orcs. When the Tiefes Loch dwarves came to finish them off, Rundo had collapsed the entrance tunnel of Shinestone on top of them. Those were the first casualties—two hundred of them—of the first dwarf war in thousands of years. It had been so long since the last dwarf war that no one even knew how much time had actually passed. But they knew it had nearly extinguished their race: history told that the last war had left so few dwarves that they had all merged into one kingdom. The Stoneheart king of that time had won the war and received all of the other dwarves into Evermount.

  Grundel couldn’t help but have doubts. If Verrator was telling the truth, this war could end very differently. The entire kingdom of Shinestone had been destroyed—a city of nearly ten thousand dwarves. If Tiefes Loch had truly been overbreeding for three centuries, it was possible that they were as numerous as Verrator had said. That would make this war very hard to win. His father and Kraft would be here soon. Together with Frau they would come up with something.

  A dwarf had arrived yesterday informing them that Grundel’s father, King Grizzle Stoneheart, would be arriving at Shinestone today. Frau had sent word to Evermount and Haufen the day after they had retaken Shinestone, informing them that they had taken the mountain back, and of the betrayal of the Tiefes Loch dwarves. She included Verrator’s declaration of war, and requested a council of kings at Shinestone.

  It had been two weeks since Hellen had come and stitched Grundel up. Once the fever broke, he began healing quickly. He was able to get up and walk around some. Hellen said that it was amazing how quickly he was healing. She had expected him to be barely able to stand on his own for more than a few minutes at this point. It was still very painful for him to move, but he dealt with it. He walked with Jerrie through the tunnels of Shinestone toward the King’s Hall—well, it was the Queen’s Hall now. He leaned heavily on his cane.

  One day he had actually ridden his axe through the halls. His two axes were magically connected, and as long as he had physical contact with one of them, he could control them both. He had gotten very good at throwing one axe in battle and then controlling it as it returned to him; now he could throw one axe and then hold on to the other, thereby traveling to his thrown weapon. Grundel asked Jerrie to carry one axe through the halls while Grundel held onto the other. It had taken a little practice, but Grundel learned to carefully control the flight of one axe moving toward the other.

  Frau had not approved of his floating around behind Jerrie, though. By itself, the look she gave him would have been enough to prevent him from doing it, but Hellen had also put in that his moving around on his own strength—not floating—would help keep his wounded gut from tightening back up. It had taken this long already for him to be able to move around, and he didn’t want to lose that, so he walked to the hall with the aid of the cane Rundo had made for him. There were two dwarves standing in front of the single stone door that opened into the Queen’s Hall. One of them moved out of the way as the other stepped through, opening the door for them.

  Grundel walked through the doorway, followed by Jerrie. This was the first time he had ever been in this room and he stopped after a couple of steps. He stared around the room in awe. It was like something out of the st
ories. Everything in Evermount was very practical. All of the stone was all meticulously worked to perfection, but nothing was done extravagantly; it all had a simple elegance. Shinestone had been mostly destroyed, and many of the repairs that were done by the humans and orcs had been very crude, but this room had survived. The walls were perfectly carved into scenes of old battles with kobolds, goblins, and orcs. The scenes were accented with crushed gems. The skies were blue with crushed sapphire encrusted into the wall. Wounds bled rubies, and the diamond-encrusted weapons reflected the light around the room. He didn’t even realize that he had stopped until he heard a familiar voice.

  “You trying to catch something in that mouth, boy?”

  Grundel turned to see his father standing next to Frau in front of the throne. He fought the urge to stare at her. He looked at his father and then his mother. He could see she was fighting the urge to run to him. Her metallic blue eyes were glossed with tears that she was barely keeping from falling. He straightened up, fighting against the pain in his stomach. He handed the cane to Jerrie and made his way across the room. He stopped in front of his father. He felt his lip curl and his eye twitch at the pain as he went to a knee and brought his fist to his chest, saluting the king. His father reached down, sliding an arm under his, and helped him to his feet. He controlled his reaction better this time and did not flinch at the pain.

  “Give your mother a hug. She has been worried out of her mind ever since we heard about your wound,” Grizzle said.

  Grundel turned to his mother, Anna, the human woman who had given him his unusual height, blond hair, and metallic blue eyes. She stepped up to him and wrapped her arms gently around him. He held her in his arms for a minute and then kissed her on the forehead. Dwarves weren’t known for their public displays of affection, but his mother wasn’t a dwarf, and this was a special circumstance. Even a dwarf mother was expected to show a degree of emotion when her child suffered a severe injury or illness. He waited until she reached up and wiped away the tear that had fallen before releasing her. “I’m fine, Ma, nuthin’ to worry about.”

  Before anyone could respond, someone else entered the hall. “Am I late?” Kraft asked as he walked across the room toward them.

  “Aren’t ya always? What took you so long to get down here?” Grizzle asked.

  “I ran into the halfling. I wanted to hear his side a the story. He wants to pretend like he was barely involved, of course. I guess it’s a good thing we sent him with your boy,” Kraft said jokingly.

  “I would say so,” Grizzle responded.

  “I didn’t know Kraft was still with you,” Grundel said to Grizzle.

  “I wasn’t, though, was I? I left two days before the message got to Evermount. The messenger just happened to run into us along the way. When I heard what happened I turned right around and went back to see your father. I never did like that Bergmann,” Kraft said, making a disgusted face when he mentioned the Tiefes Loch king.

  “Well, we’re all here. I say we take a day to get settled and hear what has happened. We can have our council tomorrow when we are all more informed,” Grizzle said.

  “Sounds good to me. All this traveling is making my bones feel old,” Kraft said.

  “That’s ’cause they are old,” Grizzle joked.

  “I have one thing you need to hear. You can think on it and we can discuss it tomorrow if you want,” Frau said.

  They all turned to her. She looked at Grundel and then over to the other two kings. “There is something between me and Grundel. I don’t know what it is or where it is going, but I intend to find out. I know this isn’t the time to deal with this, but I thought you should know.”

  Grizzle looked at Grundel, who was staring with his mouth open again. Apparently he hadn’t been expecting that. “And if the council votes against you ‘finding out,’ will you give it up?” Kraft asked.

  Frau didn’t even look at Grundel; she looked straight at Kraft without hesitating.

  “No.”

  Kraft actually burst out laughing. “Well then, I don’t see any point in bringing it to a council. You are going to do what you’re going to do. We have enough to worry about now anyway. If you decide to bond, then we can address it. The way things are going, though, I say that we might have been stuck in the old ways too long now. I think no matter how this whole thing works out, change is coming.”

  Grundel looked from Kraft to Frau, who was smiling at him. He looked around and noticed everyone was looking at him and smiling. His mother had tears in her eyes again, but this time she was smiling through them.

  “All right, why don’t you give us some time? Queen Frau is going to go over everything that has happened so far. I am sure we will have questions for the rest of you later,” Grizzle said.

  Grundel waited for his mother to pass him and then he followed her out of the room. Jerrie followed them.

  “Queen Stoneheart,” Jerrie said, “I think Grundel needs to rest. He is healing quickly, but he shouldn’t push himself too hard.”

  “Thank you, Jerrie, for taking care of him. It was nice to meet you. Would you send for me later when he has rested?” Anna asked.

  “Of course, Queen Stoneheart,” Jerrie answered.

  Anna turned to one of the dwarves who were waiting outside the room. He saluted Grundel and Anna, then he turned and walked down the tunnel. Anna followed him to the room she would share with Grizzle.

  “Thanks for that,” Grundel said.

  “That was a lot of posturing to make your mother think you weren’t hurt. You really think she didn’t notice how bad it is?” Jerrie asked.

  “Oh, she noticed, but imagine how bad she would have thought it was if I hadn’t pretended I was fine.”

  Jerrie held out the cane, but when Grundel reached for it he pulled it back. “Give me one of the axes,” Jerrie said.

  “I’ll be fine, just give me the cane,” Grundel answered.

  “Oh, I don’t doubt that you could make it, but I know that there will be more fighting in the near future, and I want you as healed as possible when it starts. I don’t need you hobbling around next to me. You pushed yourself far enough. Give me one of the axes,” Jerrie demanded.

  Grundel looked at Jerrie for a minute before finally conceding. He reached over his shoulder and slid one of the dark red, nearly black, double-bladed axes off his back. Jerrie took it and started walking. Grundel reached back again and grabbed the other, which caused extreme pain in his stomach. It felt like he was being stabbed all over again. Dwarven constitution notwithstanding, severed muscles were a painful business. He pulled the second axe free. He slid the axe handle between his legs and sat on it like a toy horse.

  He couldn’t just raise the axe straight up into the air; it had to pull toward the other axe. He was able to adjust the axe’s trajectory as long as he was still pointing it in the general direction of its twin. Grundel moved the axe he had between his legs toward the one Jerrie was carrying, using his mind to activate the link between the two weapons. Once activated, the magic imbued in the weapons did most of the work. All Grundel did was think about what he wanted to happen, and as long as he was touching one of the axes, they would both respond to his will.

  Grundel started speeding down the hall toward Jerrie. He pictured the axe slowing down in his mind, and he concentrated on it moving at a measured pace toward the axe Jerrie carried. Once they were in the hall where his room was located, he released the link between the two axes, and his weight immediately pushed the one he had been riding toward the ground. He landed on his feet. He stumbled a step and used the wall to brace himself. Jerrie handed him his cane.

  Grundel walked into his room and lay down. He was planning on waiting for Frau to come back. He wanted to talk to her about what she had done, but he had exerted himself more than he realized. As he lay in the bed, he was dimly aware that Jerrie was saying something, but he didn’t hear him. Grundel was asleep in seconds.

  Chapter Two

  Going to P
atria

  Grundel woke silently to the sounds of an argument at the foot of his bed. He kept his eyes closed and listened.

  “He would help. He needs to meet them,” he heard his mother say.

  “He needs to be here. He needs to heal up before the fight. He is worth a hundred dwarves, especially with his axes,” Grizzle said.

  “He could bring thousands of soldiers to fight for us. His being there could be the thing that persuades them. They need to see him. He could be the foundation of an alliance,” his mother argued.

  “He’s not going. We will need him here,” his father said.

  He opened his eyes, expecting that to be the end of the argument, but Frau was there, too. “With respect, King Grizzle, that is not your decision anymore. That decision is now mine to make. I am his Queen now, and I say that this decision is up to him. You can both explain why you think he should stay or go, but in the end both of your arguments are good. He will be extremely helpful to us either way. It is up to him.”

  “What is it that I am supposed to be deciding?” he asked.

  They all turned to him, but his father spoke first. “Son, your mother wants you to go with her to Patria. It is the city of her birth. She wants you to go with her to try to enlist their aid. I would like you to stay here with us in case the fighting starts.”

  He looked to his mother. “How would I get Patria to help us?”

  She looked at the ground for a second, then she looked into his eyes. “Grundel, my name before I married Grizzle was Anna Patria.”

  He tried to figure out what she was trying to say. “You mean your family rules that city?”

  He watched her change into the calm, controlled woman she almost always was. “Yes, my cousin is the current king of Patria. It would have been my younger brother, but he drowned when he was eight years old, and my father died a few years ago. My cousin Paul was the next male in line, and he became the next king. He is a good man, Grundel. My family would like to meet my son, and together I am sure we could convince them to come to our aid.”