The Phantom Dwarf Read online

  The

  Phantom

  Dwarf

  © 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.

  Acknowledgments

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

  I would like to thank Tracy Seybold for her work editing this book. Her input has been invaluable.

  I also have to thank Camille Neighbors for her work on the cover. She always does an amazing job.

  Dedication

  I dedicate this book to my fans. This is for everyone who has continued to read my stories and provided feedback through email, Facebook, and posting reviews on Amazon. This book is also for everyone who has critiqued my writing, helping me to improve.

  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

  The Forgotten Dwarves Saga

  The Phantom Dwarf

  The Forgotten Kingdom

  (2014)

  Kings and Assassins

  (2015)

  Prologue

  Bergmann had been the King of the dwarf kingdom of Tiefes Loch until a few days ago, when the dwarves of the other three kingdoms had attacked. In his last seconds of life, he had called out to Delvidge, the God of Chaos, asking to sacrifice his soul and grant him an opportunity for revenge. His body had immediately dissipated as his soul was vanquished, leaving just his spiritual presence. It had taken him a day just to get over the shock of having his mind abruptly torn from his body and his soul.

  Once he got over the initial shock of not having a body, it took him another day to figure out how to make his mental presence move. He hovered over the site of where he would have died, constantly trying to move. He tried to move legs that were no longer there. He constantly attempted to move, but there was nothing for him to move. Once he figured it out, it was easy. He was able to move through walls and even through other dwarves. No one could see him.

  However, the most useful part of being a phantom he discovered accidentally when he was moving through a dwarf soldier. He passed through the dwarf’s head and found himself hearing the dwarf’s thoughts. The dwarf noticed his presence, and it didn’t take long before Bergmann was able to control the dwarf’s mind and body. He used the dwarf soldier to walk around.

  A few days after Tiefes Loch was taken, he watched as a huge monument representing the fall of the Chaos Dwarves and the dwarves who had followed Delvide, the God of Chaos was raised over the collapsed main entrance. He drove the dwarf’s dagger into his chest at the base of the monument. He no longer had a physical or spiritual presence. Seeing the monument made him even angrier. He decided it was time to start making good on the last promise he had made before he died. He made his way through Tiefes Loch, looking for his first target.

  The dwarves of Bordin would pay, but not before those who had betrayed him. The smiths of Tiefes Loch had been the ones to lead the uprising, and he had made them a promise before his death.

  Putsch had led the dwarves to King Bergmann, and now he was in charge of Tiefes Loch until a king could be appointed. He woke up with a weird feeling. He looked around the room for someone, but no one was there. He was about to lay down when something happened to him. He heard the voice of King Bergmann in his head, and then the Phantom of Bergmann fought for control of his body. Putsch wrestled to keep control of his body, but the essence of the King was stronger than his mind. He was forced into the back of his mind where he was aware of his actions, but no longer able to control them.

  Bergmann searched the mind of the smith Putsch. The dwarf was four hundred years old and had no family left. They had all been executed over the last two centuries. The dwarves he cared most about were the smiths he had trained from apprentices.

  Bergmann made his way through Tiefes Loch in the body of the smith. Dwarves greeted him as their leader. He ignored them, making his way to the home of the first smith. The dwarf inside was the youngest. He had come to Putsch when he was twenty years old, asking to be taken on as an apprentice. That had been thirty-two years ago. He had been made a full smith two years ago and married his wife last year.

  Bergmann opened the door of the apartment and walked inside. The dwarf and his wife were asleep in their bed. He walked to the bed and drove his sword into the stomach of the young smith. The dwarf’s eye’s shot open as he screamed in pain. The wound was fatal, but wouldn’t kill him immediately. The smith’s wife leapt out of the bed, turning toward her husband. Bergmann walked toward her. Her eyes darted from him to her husband and back with confusion and fear. He drove Putsch’s sword into her chest.

  Bergmann felt Putsch fighting to take back control, but once he had taken control it was easy to maintain. He turned Putsch’s body back around and walked back toward the dwarf on the bed.

  “Why?” the dwarf asked helplessly.

  “Because I promised I would.”

  The dwarf’s eyes shot open even wider. The voice that came out of Putsch’s body was Bergmann’s.

  Bergmann turned and left the dwarf on the bed to die a slow painful death.

  Bergmann made his way from one smith to the next, killing each dwarf and their families. He wasn’t sure if he enjoyed what he was doing to the dwarves or to Putsch more. He could actually feel the despair and hate Putsch was feeling, and he relished in it.

  Once he had killed all of the smiths who had led the Stoneheart Prince to the King’s Hall, he decided it was time to make good on his promise to Putsch. He was going to make the dwarf Putsch idolized so much kill him.

  Grizzle stood in the room of the young smith. One of the soldiers had come to him when they couldn’t find Putsch. Someone had murdered one of the smiths and his wife. As he stood over the dead body, he realized that whoever had done this had wanted the dwarf to suffer. A stomach wound was one of the most painful, and it took a while before it took you. Whoever did this had made him watch his wife die. There had to be a dwarf in Tiefes Loch who had been a true follower of Delvidge who was taking his revenge.

  He heard the soldier talking outside the room, and he went to see what was going on. Putsch was talking with the soldier. When he walked out, Putsch turned on him and drew his sword. The sword was soaked in blood.

  “Putsch, what are you doing,” Grizzle asked as he lifted his hammer off his back and held it out in a defensive posture.

  The soldier between them was torn between his allegiance to Tiefes Loch and the king who had saved them. Putsch made the decision for him by stabbing him. The dwarf was able to jump to the side, but Putsch’s blade still slid along his ribs. “I can’t be stopped,” Putsch said, but it wasn’t Putsch’s voice.

  Grizzle didn’t have a choice. Bergmann had somehow taken over Putsch’s body and was striking at him wildly. He did the only thing he could. He brought his hammer down, caving in Putsch’s head.

  As he stood over the body of the old dwarf, he suddenly felt Bergmann inside his head, trying to take control of his body. Grizzle fought back, denying him. After a few seconds, he forced the Phantom of Bergmann out of his body.

  The dwarf on the ground was unable to do the same, suddenly standing and attacking him. Grizzle tried to deal non-fatal blows, but the dwarf was coming at him so wildly that he was forced to fight back. He slammed his hammer into the dwarf’s chest, and the dwarf fell to the ground, dead. Some soldiers down the hall had heard the commotion. They came running down the hall
and found King Stoneheart standing over the bodies of the two dwarves with his bloody hammer in his hands.

  Chapter One

  The Phantom Dwarf

  Grizzle saw the confusion on the two dwarves’ faces. He looked down and realized what they were seeing. He had to dispel any suspicion immediately. “Run and get all of the leaders. Bergmann is a Phantom. He can take control of others’ bodies. I want Frau, Grundel, Kraft, King Patria, Commander Boris, and whoever is next in charge after Putsch.”

  The dwarves’ suspicion was immediately quelled. They responded how any dwarf would to a dwarf king, “Yes, King Grizzle.”

  ***

  Grundel was talking with Commander Boris when one of the soldiers of Tiefes Loch came running down the steps. “Prince Stoneheart and Commander Boris, King Stoneheart needs to see you both in the King’s Hall.”

  “What is going on?” Commander Boris asked.

  The dwarf looked at him with a vexed expression. He couldn’t believe that the soldier was questioning an order from the king.

  “Did King Stoneheart say what this was about?” Grundel asked.

  The Tiefes Loch soldier turned to Prince Grundel. “King Bergmann is a Phantom. He is loose in Tiefes Loch. King Stoneheart will see all of you in the King’s Hall.”

  Grundel patted the dwarf on the shoulder and nodded to Commander Boris.

  Boris looked down at the aching stump where his hand used to be. He was taking poppy in small doses throughout the day, but his arm still throbbed constantly. He had survived the fight with the unimaginably fast Chaos Dwarf, but he had paid for his life with his hand. If it hadn’t been for one of his lieutenants, he would have been killed. He wanted to quell the pain, but he knew that the amount of poppy it would take to make the pain go away would also put him to sleep. There was far too much at stake now for him to not be involved in what was going on. He followed Grundel up the steps.

  ***

  Grizzle sat silently, watching the others as they entered the King’s Hall of Tiefes Loch. He saw them coming in, but his mind wasn’t there. He continued to replay that last moment before his hammer came down. Gruedor Bergmann had lost Tiefes Loch, but he wasn’t done fighting. He was more dangerous now than ever. He had taken control of honorable dwarves and forced Grizzle to kill them. Grizzle tried to convince himself that it wasn’t his fault. He knew that Bergmann had done this, but he had been the one who brought the hammer down on Putsch’s head. He had lost himself, fighting with his guilt and anger. It wasn’t until Grundel grabbed him that he realized everyone had arrived and were waiting on him.

  Grundel looked into his father’s eyes. He could see the pain there. He didn’t know what had happened, but it must have been bad. “Are you all right?”

  Grizzle looked up at Grundel before standing and turning to the others. Kraft, Frau, Jerrie, Rundo, King Patria, Grundel, and two of the dwarves from Tiefes Loch. He recognized one of them, but he couldn’t think of his name. “King Bergmann is a phantom. He sacrificed his body and soul, and Delvidge made him a Phantom. Now he can take control of the bodies of others. He took control of Putsch’s body and made him fight me. Putsch is dead. We need to decide on who will take charge of Tiefes Loch, but more important than that, we need to find a way to defeat a Phantom.”

  “How do you defeat a phantom?” Kraft was the king of the dwarf kingdom of Haufen. He was nearly three hundred years old. He was by far the oldest in the room, and he had never heard of a phantom being loose on the mortal plane in his lifetime. He wasn’t even sure when the last time a phantom had been loose had been.

  “What is a Phantom?” Frau was the newly appointed queen of Shinestone.

  “Yes, what is a Phantom? Is that like a ghost?” King Patria asked.

  Kraft stepped up next to Grizzle. “Not a ghost, a spirit. S soulless, bodiless spirit. The last one was thousands of years ago. Phantoms are more legend than anything else. A Phantom is a mortal who sacrifices their everlasting soul to stay on the mortal plane.”

  “So how do we destroy him?” Frau asked.

  “Like I said, its been thousands of years. I have no idea how to defeat it,” Kraft replied.

  “You need a necromancer,” Commander Boris said.

  “A what?” Frau asked.

  “A necromancer is like a wizard or a druid, except their magic connects them with the dead. They can communicate with the spirits in the planes of heaven and hell, they can summon the dead back to the mortal plane, and they can even animate dead bodies,” Commander Boris explained.

  “You know a lot about necromancers,” Grizzle stated.

  “There is a necromancer in Portwein. Everyone is scared of him, and he keeps to himself at the edge of the city. If you want to figure out how to deal with a phantom, he is the man you need to talk to,” Boris explained.

  “Now we just have to figure out how to get into the city,” Grundel stated.

  “You are from the city. Why can’t you get into the city?” one of the dwarfs from Tiefes Loch asked, looking at Commander Boris.

  “What is your name?” Grizzle asked the dwarf with the long, braided red beard.

  “I am Captain Fhurgen, King Stoneheart. I was appointed as Flucht’s second. Until you, King Kraft, and Queen Frau appoint a new leader for Tiefes Loch, I am our leader.”

  Grizzle stared at Fhurgen for a few minutes before looking around the room at the others. His eyes settled on Commander Boris. “Commander Boris and his army have betrayed their king in order to help us fight Bergmann and the Dwarves of Chaos. King Merwein is not a forgiving man. The men in this army will be killed as traitors if they return. The Merwein kings have never been a forgiving lot. In order for Commander Boris and his army to return, Commander Boris would have to take responsibility and allow King Merwein to execute him. That would save the king from looking bad and allow him to keep his army. The other option is for Commander Boris to start a revolt and remove King Merwein from the throne.”

  King Patria stepped forward and turned to Commander Boris. “If it will help, I will declare you as an ally of the city of Patria.”

  Commander Boris shook his head. “I appreciate that, Your Highness, but that would make it look like we are taking the throne on your behalf. It would be better to take the city and then declare alliances. Having the support of Patria and the dwarven kingdoms will help maintain stability once we have control, but if we declare it to early, it will just create more controversy. I believe we can take the City of Portwein without a full-scale battle. I have a few ideas of how your son and his friends could help with that, King Stoneheart. I don’t want to destroy my city in order to liberate it.”

  “What did you have in mind?” Grundel asked.

  All eyes were on Commander Boris now. “There is no love for King Merwein in Portwein. He is a greedy, selfish king. I can lead the army back to Portwein. We will set up outside the city. I will send a message ahead of us to someone I trust. Once the army is staged outside the city, I will lead a small group into the city, unnoticed, with some help from inside. Getting into the palace is where I could use your help. The palace guard are sworn to defend the king. They may not be willing to die for the king, but they are honorable men, and they will die for their oath. If you could get us into the palace through one of the upper levels, we could get to the king without having to kill any of them. They are honorable men, I don’t want to kill them, and the more of them that we kill, the more support we lose.”

  Everyone turned to Grundel, who looked at Rundo. Grundel could use his axes to get him into the palace, and Rundo and his druid companion, Evelyn, could turn into huge hawks capable of carrying Commander Boris and another soldier to a window or balcony of the palace. Rundo nodded his agreement. Grundel had spent enough time with Rundo to know that they were both having the same ideas. He turned to Commander Boris. “If we help you usurp your king, you will help us with the necromancer.”

  “Once Portwein is stable, I will help you in any way I can,” Commander Boris
said.

  Grundel looked over to his father. This was a decision for the king. Grizzle turned back to Commander Boris. “Have you decided who will be king of Portwein when Merwein is removed?”

  “The men have chosen me to lead until a new leader can be chosen. The army has decided that Portwein’s next king will be decided by committee. I will lead until that king is chosen.”

  They all stared at Commander Boris in disbelief. Every ruler in history had led with divine authority or by taking his or her position by force. If Commander Boris did what he was claiming he would do, it would be the beginning of a new age.

  Grizzle stared at Commander Boris. “Prepare your men. We will leave in three days.” He turned to Kraft and Frau, the leaders. “That gives us two days to figure out who will lead in Tiefes Loch.”

  Chapter Two

  The King of Tiefes Loch

  Every dwarven kingdom had its own king, but there was always one king who ruled over the race itself. The king of each kingdom was responsible for making the decisions that would best benefit the dwarves of their kingdom, but the high king was responsible for making the decisions that were best for the dwarven race. The Stonehearts had ruled Evermount and the other three dwarven kingdoms for millennia.

  Grizzle Stoneheart had taken the throne of Evermount when his father died defending it from the largest orc army to ever assemble in the land of Gegend. It had been nearly two years since his father had fallen in that battle. In that two years, three of the four dwarf kings had been replaced. The kingdom of Shinestone had fallen to an ancient evil serpentine monster known as Miskrull.

  Frau Gemcutter was chosen as the Queen of Shinestone shortly after Grizzle took his throne. The king of Tiefes Loch had fallen at Shinestone, trying to overtake the other dwarven kingdoms. His son took the throne of Tiefes Loch and then sacrificed his soul to become the Phantom they were dealing with now.