She heard him start to curse, but it was about the sword left in his side and not about her. Where is Leldeif?

  A groan and she heard her blade clatter to the floor. More flashes of magical light and she had to peek for just a second. She slowly, at ground level, poked her head around the side of the monolith.

  He is healing himself. She was shocked as he magically melded his skin together. He pulled his head up and looked right at her. Then he looked back from where he had come, a sense of urgency coming to his stance. He glared back at her and snarled before sprinting away.

  Tia was up and moving for her blade instantly. It had become her blanket of security over the last few weeks and she felt exposed and naked without it. She spun as a form emerged from the smoke beyond. Leldeif slowly pulled himself from behind the columns with an expression of…bewilderment? He looked at her, half of his clothing gone and the rest still smoking. His sword was nothing but a pommel with a melted slag of steel on the front.

  “Are you alright?” she asked and rushed to his side. She handed him her sword so she could use both hands to hold him up. He took it and let out a long sigh.

  “Leldeif, what happened?”

  “I’m not sure, I remember leaving you and the first one I killed…I think I remember killing him.”

  “It sounded to me like you killed one or two right away,” Tia affirmed.

  “But then…everything is nothing but a flash of light until right now. I lost several moments, I think. I…I think that I might have…died but then something wouldn’t…” He paused in shock before pulling open his ragged shirt and vest to expose a blackened patch of skin right over his heart. A perfect circle three inches in diameter. “I saw her,” he said, his voice barely a whisper.

  “Who?” Tia asked and he looked at her blankly for several long moments. “Who did you see, Leldeif?”

  “My wife, she’s waiting for me.” His voice…wistful, yet a smile played upon his lips.

  “You can’t fricking die, Leldeif, I would be so screwed.”

  “Really? I just died and you’re worried about what could happen to you?” He looked at her incredulously.

  “Damn right, one of us has to survive,” Tia shouted back before turning away in embarrassment. There it was in a nutshell, she didn’t want Leldeif killed, but she sure as hell would prefer it over her being killed.

  “Give me my sword back.”

  “No, I need it,” he replied and smirked at her. He wasn’t upset, he was actually beginning to smile.

  “So, are you alright?” Tia asked meekly, curious.

  “Yeah, pretty good actually, almost recharged, how about you? How did he spot you?”

  “He didn’t. I ambushed him and buried my blade through him right here,” she said and pointed a few inches down from his ribs and halfway right of center. “I even forced it down a few inches before he backhanded me. Then I crawled back behind the columns as he blew some things up.”

  “I think that’s what woke me; he’s wounded then, good,” Leldeif said.

  “No, I mean not really. He kind of welded himself back together, he limped when he left but it didn’t seem all that bad bad.”

  “Welded? He’s not steel.”

  “Whatever, the point is he is fixed and moving on, that’s what we should do, and find you another sword,” she said and moved to snatch her blade from his hands. He saw it coming and blocked her.

  “I have a sword; we have to find you one.”

  “That’s my sword.”

  “Was your sword.”

  They continued down the widened trail of pillars, still heading in a north easterly direction as far as she could tell. They were getting close and past the inverted apex of the river’s bottom when they heard whispers. These weren’t the voices of evil machinations, but more the sounds of guards alerted to something. That something could be them. She felt drawn to the voices like there was a type of connection or energy that she should know. Then she recognized one of the voices and remembered what he had been assigned to.

  “Uncle Rowen, it’s me…Tia.”

  “Come in so I can see ya to be sure. That spidery witch has already tried some games with us so you might be just another trick.” Tia stepped from behind a monolith revealing herself. He smiled and relaxed his sword. “You might be fake, but there is no way to fake an elf as ugly as him,” Rowen said, never really having ever warmed to Leldeif.

  “How goes the battle?” Leldeif asked.

  “Not good, Frodeg is systematically getting his ass handed to him, there are just too many for his few to stand against. Wood elves have arrived, but no word of any others jumping in,” Rowen said doubtfully.

  “There will be a few elves and dwarfs joining up soon if they can. There are also some piners mopping up North Gate Seven. Other than that, I don’t know where more help will come from. Where is Tic set up?”

  “In the work shop, I don’t know why, but he says it’s important that he avoid the direct confrontation.” He held up his hands. “I don’t know how it works, he told me he was some sort of conduit, whatever that means.”

  “I never know what that kid is talking about half the time anyways, so it doesn’t matter. He seems to hit the mark most of the time so I just let him go,” Leldeif said then froze as another guard came in and went right to Rowen, a look of angst upon his brow.

  “It’s more of those things that got Drexler,” he said.

  “Drexler’s dead?” Leldeif asked, having known the Dwarf for several years with both having lived in the same general area of the House.

  “Yeah some of those goblins got him,” Rowen replied, it was the manner in which he said “those goblins” that caught the elf’s attention.

  “Slave riders,” he said, and the dwarfs looked at him realizing that his knowledge of them meant that there were more than just a few. “We need to get Tia armed, where is Drexler’s short blade?” Leldeif asked, Rowen materialized it from behind an outcropping.

  “So do they know where you are and what you guard?” Leldeif asked, knowing that if the women and children were found it would be an absolute slaughter. Dwarfs had women warriors, but just like men, there were a lot of whom were simply not suited to battle and had to be kept in a secure space.

  “No, we go out and meet them and leave the Martel brothers as a rear or final guard,” Rowen said and started to move in the direction his scout had indicated.

  This particular spot was in an incredibly difficult area to get to. If Leldeif hadn’t already known they would be here, they never would have come near this area. It was a huge cavern that easily accommodated the couple thousand beings that now occupied it. The downfall is that there was no escape, if someone was hiding down here it was their last bastion of refuge and they would die here if the House fell.

  “We will help,” Leldeif said, knowing that this was as important as any other battle they may face today. They followed the scout out to find a force of fifteen dwarfs waiting for instructions, all of whom looked grateful for the extra help, especially from the elf.

  “Are you okay?” Tia asked her uncle as they walked.

  “Yeah, really great actually. Seeing you still fighting feels like it has lit a spark under me. I can’t explain it but I feel almost giddy.”

  “I know, seeing you has given me a boost too,” Tia said and patted his arm. Strangely, she too felt energized, not giddy as he had put it but…charged.

  Tia looked at the short sword that she now carried. It was so unlike her rapier in that it lacked grace as well as balance. It was a thick heavy piece of dwarven steel, designed to break through lesser blades and bones as well as plunging through plate mail. She instantly saw the benefits to such a weapon, especially in combat. In the back of her mind her sleek, slightly curved sword was designed more for dueling and training, where this blade was designed for battle.

  “That’s a good blade, you’ll want to fight more flat footed than you usually do, but that, that will serve you well,” her uncle said to her.

  She swung it in a quick slashing movement and felt the grip which was sized for the stubby hands of a dwarf, which fit her smaller hand much better than the blade Leldeif had, which had been designed for a man.

  “I like it,” she said with a smile.

  “I recommend that you engage with a two-handed style intermittently until your wrists get used to the weight,” Leldeif said below his breath as they approached where the scout had indicated.

  “That makes sense,” she whispered and sheathed her long knife.

  Men, lots of men stood behind a maze of columns swearing at each other, calling each other such vile names and offering lewd suggestions. Now and again they would hear the sound of meat slapping together as they struck each other with heavy blows and slaps, there were a lot of them.

  “We…” Leldeif indicated he and Tia with his finger. “Have to get them to chase us…that way. You can lay into them from behind if the opportunity presents itself or you can stay on post.”

  “The kids are what are important,” Rowen said and signaled that half of them should go back. “Eight of us will hit them from behind.”

  “Alright, we’ll turn and fight in three hundred feet. Remember the goblin is in control, kill him and the slave becomes a mindless beast.”

  “Ya, an enraged beast, but a beast nonetheless,” one of the dwarfs added sarcastically.

  “Oh yeah, they’re angry but they are erratic and can be killed easier.”

  Tia ran behind the elf feeling a little frustrated. People were just making decisions left and right involving her and she hadn’t even figured out what was going on yet. Her mission to get the piners had morphed into something much bigger, spiraling way out of her control. She couldn’t help but think it would have been easier if they had just let her do it on her own. Then she remembered the initial fight on the mountainside and the creatures underground as well as the fact that the piners weren’t home. She realized then that she didn’t have a clue as to what she could have done without Pomen or Leldeif. She would have been dead before she ever got off the mountain.

  In just that short amount of time though, I have grown. I am stronger now, smarter and better trained. I also have so much energy coursing through me I can hardly contain it, it’s almost unnatural.

  She barely had time to catch her breath before Leldeif was pointing at a slave rider and whispering, “Take the driver first.” She nodded and rushed in knowing that they were trying to call attention to themselves. Her new, thick blade plunged through the goblin’s rib cage before it even knew she was there. Bones separated or broke from the violent impact of heavy steel, which she didn’t believe to be very sharp, at least not by the standards of her old sword which Leldeif now carried.

  She ripped the blade out and in a very utilitarian manner brought it up and down across its neck, decapitating the foul miscreant. There was no spin for momentum or long set ups, just straight to the point. Her downward slash left her in perfect position for a killing thrust upon the slave who was only now starting to curse at her.

  Without hesitation she thrust forward with two hands on the pommel, feeling it go into the soft throat, through the cartilage, membrane, and muscle to finally chip off a piece of his spine. It collapsed sliding off the unceremonious blade into a quiet lump.

  She looked at Leldeif as he attacked his second rider. They had been noticed and another slave rider came out to help his beleaguered friend.

  Tia took him from the side, instantly dispatching the rider with a clean decapitation that sank deep into the back of the slave. It collapsed, but keep cursing and writhing on the ground. She left it and ran back from where they had come with Leldeif on her heels. Neither one had seen how many they were dealing with, more than likely a squad.

  She could hear the thundering of feet almost right beside her as she ran, but she waited until Leldeif stopped at three hundred feet like he said he would.

  “Down!” he said and she dropped. The spear struck from behind where her head would have been. She hacked across the slave’s misshaped arms causing him to fall on his face, it rolled before she could kill the rider. It was too late, she missed and she already had another one bearing down on her.

  Tia realized then that it was very hard to get the rider first when any animal is charging you.

  61

  Misery

  Frodeg started working in tandem with Juil to some success. He was able to protect his men as well as the gnomes and other fair folk who had arrived while the princess went on the attack. He could feel the percussions of compressed air and energy sent back and forth as well as the pure ripples of power neutralizing each other in mid path. Fireballs screamed from both women, blue from Juil, red and even black from Dyanna whose pigment was now shifting erratically, devoid of any control.

  Juil on the other hand was a vision of magnificence, sitting astride a horse so perfect in shape and form, her ice blue hair streaming out from the concussive blasts of wind. Power etching her visage into the minds of friend and fiend alike. A vision that would be portrayed in story and painting alike for many years to come, her face set in a trance like state devoid of rage or hate showing the depths of her focus.

  Projectiles of dirt, rock, and discarded weapons started flying toward one another, deflected harmfully into this troop or that. They were in a stalemate; neither was going to do any damage to the other unless something broke. Whole masses of Dyanna’s army felt the devastation from the battle while Frodeg kept his few remaining fair folk relatively safe. The battle had finally begun to turn their way however Frodeg felt that it might be too late, he was starting to feel the power coming through Tic starting to wane. He couldn’t even imagine what the damage the pure power running through the boy was doing to him physically or mentally.

  From nowhere came a blast of lightening that struck Juil dead center in her back. She lit up like a torch so bright as to send the flash miles down the tube, Frodeg believing that he could see the bones beneath her skin.

  Both she and Ice King collapsed into an immobile heap.

  The pale man chuckled as Dyanna panted, she allowed her servant the slightest of smiles and a nod of gratitude. She turned her focus to the lonely dwarf sorcerer who still held the field with nothing but defensive magic.

  Frodeg knew her tendency to flaunt as well as the pale man’s desire to gloat, but Frodeg didn’t give them the chance. He brought both hands up forcefully, palms open to the sky.

  In a mad rush, hundreds of granite spires shot up from the floor of the cavern surrounding his people as well as the princess, spires so close together that a fly couldn’t traverse between them. Ten feet, fifteen, and finally at seventeen or eighteen feet he released and fell on to his back exhausted looking up at the spires of his own making. He didn’t know if he could even lift a finger to do anything and he damn sure doubted this wall would hold them back for long but something had to happen or they were all dead.

  “Hello.” From a distinctively feminine voice was accompanied with a soft knock on the barrier of spires seeming to overlay the sounds of battle around them. “Is there anybody in there?” Her tone was gentle, mocking.

  “You bloody well know we are back here,” Frodeg snapped.

  “Well, it seems to me that we were in the middle of a battle.” A square section, a couple feet by couple feet was suddenly cut out of the barrier and pushed in to fall upon the stone floor. “Personally, I think that this… is in bad form, don’t you?”

  “No, I don’t,” Frodeg still gasped for breath. “What do you want from us?” he pleaded.

  “What do I want? I want what everybody should want. One race, pure and strong, I don’t even care which one. You see, what we have now is simply unsustainable. If we are to be able to utilize the people of this existence then we need them to be one, and pliable. Trust me when I say that the chance of it being dwarfs is very slim.”

  “Well, we’re here now, you might just want to get it over with.”

  “So that’s it, I win? You’re all done fighting or whatever you call that which you have been doing?”

  “We have nothing left,” Frodeg said defeated.

  “Then pull down this wall and kneel before me, all of you, swear to do as I bid and you may survive this day,” she said. “Not you, dwarf. You shall not survive for very long, maybe the day… but then maybe not, my soldiers are quite… unsatisfied at this point. No, I have some special plans for you that I doubt you will relish as much as I do.

  Frodeg just stared at the ground shaking his head. “I can’t,” he said.

  “You can’t? Of course you can. Reverse your spell and drop this shield,” she demanded.

  Frodeg’s laugh started as a low chuckle, but quickly built to outright belly laughs causing him to roll on the ground holding his gut.

  “What in the pits is wrong with you, man?” She was actually more perplexed at his loss of resignation than anything else. Frodeg slowed his laughter enough to utter on line. The oldest son has returned.

  Sambone in the distance let out a yelp of surprise at the very moment Dyanna screamed out in in physical pain.

  * * *

  Tic lay exhausted on the floor of his shop, wood elves protectively surrounding him. The amount of energy drawn through him via Frodeg and Juil had drained him to nothing. His body was deflated and he felt his life’s energy draining from him. The life force throughout his body had been depleted almost completely. He had known as soon as Tia left that her leaving was a mistake, but he didn’t know how. Then he blundered in sending his uncle out of reach during this critical period, his only excuse…he simply didn’t know how they were all connected, not only to each other but to this place.

  They offered him food and drink, but he couldn’t take it, couldn’t be distracted. His loss of energy was not about sustenance or sleep, it was power…raw unbridled power of a sort not wielded in hundreds of years. His focus had to stay on the battle. He felt Juil fall and the surge of energy he sent to Frodeg when he built the wall of spires and then, there was nothing left. He needed to link to someone or something to refresh and restore, but he couldn’t seem to connect with the anyone surrounding him. He needed something and it was close, but he wasn’t clear on what it was. More of his life force slipped away and he collapsed face first from his already prone position. He smashed his nose and tasted the blood. His teeth felt loose and he was covered in a layer of clammy perspiration…he was dying. He was brought across the sea to save Riverhouse by powers beyond the physical world and he had failed.