Elvenshore: 01 - The Dwarves of Elvenshore (24 page)

“Just a bit of bad luck really,” he said when he saw Sarchise had spotted him. The healer cut off his blood soaked tunic, and then started stitching his wound up.

“It was near the heart, but not in it.  He should be just fine,” the healer said. He then packed it with mud. The healers had restocked their supply of herbs in the Mountains of Iron, but the herbs grew even more abundantly here.

They laid Dolgren against the cliff wall, under the overhang.  Sarchise came up to him. “How bad is it?”

Dolgren smiled, “There were about a hundred of the enemy there.  They surprised us by rushing us; I always lead from the front so I was the first one they got to. Usually, they will retreat from a superior force.  We slew them all, but they took a few of my men with them.  Ermort arrived in time to help us finish them off.”

“There was no opening there?” Sarchise asked.

“No, not that I could see.
  The dwarves in these hills are very crafty in hiding their openings.  All dwarves are good with stonework, but these are the best. We are going
too
fast to find them any openings.  The gremlins must have forced an opening somewhere,
or
else they are just laying siege to the mountains.”

“Which one do you think it is?” Sarchise asked.

“I think the gremlins have dug themselves a hole into the tunnels.  They have
certainly been here long enough to do that.” Dolgren answered.

Sarchise waited all day for the reports of the patrols.  Each patrol came back carrying wounded.  They all reported the same thing, no entrance, and many gremlins.  Based on the reports Sarchise had wondered if he had the forces to rid the mountains of gremlins.  He slept against the inside edge of the overhang that night.  Around midnight he was awakened by a cracking sound.  There was a light that came from where the cliff was and two dozen dwarves came out. They held spears against Sarchise’s throat, and they dragged him into the tunnel along with some of the men and dwarf warriors under Sarchise’s command.  Before the rest of the army could react, the tunnel entrance closed back up.

Sarchise and the other captives were dragged at spear point down to a small hall. Torches lit the hall and a very tired looking dwarf set on a makeshift throne.

“What type of army camps at the entrance to my Kingdom?” asked the gaunt dwarf
King.

Without hesitation Sarchise answered. “Sarchise, adopted sixth born of the King under High Mountain, Prince to the King of the Mountains of Iron.”

The tired dwarf King
’
s eyes opened wide. “What is the meaning of
this,
men now pos
s
es
s
the mountain kingdoms? Are these dwarves your slaves?”

One of the dwarves answered. “Our prince here saved the life of the King’s son, so he was adopted as a dwarf prince.  We are high dwarves from the halls of High Mountain.  Cazz the fifth born has retaken the Iron Mountains from the gremlins and now sits as King of that throne.  We have come out of there as commanded by the new King. We are to protect this man, who once saved the life of King Cazz.”

“So why do I have an army camped on my doorstep?” The King asked.

“We drove the gremlins before us and have come to finish them off,” a hopeful Sarchise answered.

The gaunt King leaned his head back and laughed.  “You will need an army ten times the size as the one you brought with you to destroy the gremlins that are here. But none the less, we will welcome any and all the help we can get. It has been a terrible onslaught.  We saw them coming from afar and knew that they were up to no good. We barricaded ourselves in our tunnels thinking that we were safe, until they started digging.  We heard the digging and sent out warriors to stop them.  The digging didn’t stop and none of the warriors returned. They dig and dig and every time they break through into a chamber they rush in and kill everyone there.  They broke into the great hall and killed my father as he sat on his throne.  I fled with some of my people to the old halls.  They do not connect with the new ones and the gremlins have not figured out that we are down here yet.  I fear it is only a matter of time.

“Still I cannot have that army of yours spend the night on the surface.  There will be so few of them left once the gremlins find the camp.  I will open my main gate, you must bring them in.”

With that the guards relaxed their spears and allowed Sarchise to go back up to the gate and usher in the armies of dwarves and men. 

The dwarves of the Lonely Mountains were starving after months of siege.  Sarchise took his provisions and had his warriors make a bonfire in the small hall before the King.  Good food and strength of arms raised the moral
e
of the besieged greatly.  

Still that did not end the problem.  Sarchise and Ermort met with the King to discuss the situation.  They left Dolgren to rest and heal.

“How man
y of the enemy do you think
there are here?” Sarchise asked.

“When they started up the mountain we counted about twenty thousand.  But we know that they have received more strength recently.  We keep watch as best as we can.  Another force came up into the mountains just a week or two ago. They seem to be in a bigger hurry to finish us off since the new group came.”

Sarchise said, “Yes, the leader came with them this time, his name is Tabor, Tabor II to be exact. He is in a hurry to take the mountains and build a breeding pit in them.  He lost his breeding pits in the last battle so he has no way of adding to his forces.”

“He will be might
ily
disappointed in his quest.” The King said
, “
My forefathers told me that there were breeding pits under the other mountains but there would never be one
here, which
is because we do not have an underground river through these mountains.  He will need an underground river of pure water to breed gremlins.  We have always had to go topside for our water.”

Ermort looked at Sarchise and then back at the King. “Do you think that he will have found this out by now?”

“I suppose he has captured some of the dwarves alive and questioned them. He must know by now,” the King responded.

“You don’t suppose that he will try to head back to the Mountains of Iron and build his breeding pits there do you?” Ermort asked.

Sarchise answered, “I don’t know what he is capable of. We will send runners back to King Cazz just in case.”

“Good idea,” the King agreed, “Now back to the matter at hand.  How do I get these gremlins out of my Kingdom?”

“An all out assault on the enemy in the open will only lose us men.” Ermort said. “We must attack only when we have superior numbers and retreat when we do not.”

“We can build a fortified enclave in front of your gate.” Sarchise said.

“No, that will only alert the diggers to where we are.  You must build your fort at the base of the mountains and only come in here when you are sure that no one is following you.  If you have to retreat in a hurry because you are being pursued, then you must retreat to your fort. We cannot allow them to know that we are here.  We will not survive an attack.”

It was settled then, in the middle of the night a group of dwarf stone masons and three hundred warriors crept out of the gate and down to the base of the path.  Away from the ridgelines that the gremlins had used to pelt them with rocks, they laid the foundations of a fort.  They would hide in the rocks during the day and work as quietly as they could during the night.  Still, with all of their secrecy, they were discovered after a few days. A group of thirty of the enemy attacked them during the night.  They were quickly dispersed. The walls were just going up at the time.  They worked feverishly into the daylight hours to finish.  The enemy sent an army of about five hundred to drive them back.  With a mad rush, the gremlins came forward.  Arrows slowed their progress, but did not stop them.  They tried to scale the walls, but arrows, stones and battle-axes drove them off after each wave.

The enemy retreated only to come back in greater numbers.  The commander got a message off to Sarchise telling him of the predicament during a lull in the fighting. While the enemy was concentrating on the fort that was under construction, Sarchise was able to sneak an army of high dwarves out of the mountain.  Coming upon the enemy’s rear they attacked and again set the gremlins into a headlong retreat.

The commander of the fort came up to Sarchise and said
, “
It is no use.  They will just come again, and in greater numbers until the fort is theirs.  It needs two more days to be completed.  It is not yet ready for the full strength of the army.”

“We will march out into the hills and abandon the fort for now.  If they see we are no longer working on it they will let it be. In a few days we will go back and finish it.” Sarchise said
, with
that, the army marched out of the fort and hid themselves in the rocks. 

A large enemy army came off of the mountain and swarmed the fort. Seeing that there was no longer anyone in it they began sending out patrols in all directions to find where the dwarves and men had gone.  One of the patrols stumbled onto the army but was wiped out before they could report their position.  Soon, however, mo
r
e patrols found them.  They killed as many as they could but they had been spotted.  Sarchise formed a defensive line and awaited the attack. It was not long in coming.  By now an even larger force of gremlins swarmed down the mountain.  They were
discouraged somewhat in their quest to destroy Sarchise’s troops by a hail of arrows. The men and dwarves stood firm, although outnumbered by about ten to one.  They cut down the waves of enemy attackers as they came on.  But they were starting to lose ground and warriors.  Just by the mass of gremlins pressing against their front, were they starting to give way.  The gremlins started to come around their flank so they had to back up against the cliff. 

Sarchise’s group had nowhere to go, so they determined to make the enemy pay dearly for their inevitable victory.  Dwarves and men began to drop all around him but Sarchise was resolute. Then the impossible happened.  They heard a noise like thunder in the distance, only it was a steady sound and grew louder and louder. The gremlins disengaged from Sarchise’s group and turned to see what was coming.  In a cloud of dust a hundred horses and riders appeared and assailed the gremlin host.  The riders were taking their steeds right through the middle of the enemy.  The gremlins, which had no experience fighting against mounted hosts scattered in every direction. Most of them got away, but a lot did not
, r
un down and killed by the newly arrived cavalry.

The horses regrouped from their pursuit and came and stood in front of Sarchise and the survivors.

“I am Fawn of the
Valkyries
, you are not safe here, we have scared off the gremlins for now but they will soon see that we are small in number, only about a hundred. They will regroup and attack you again. You must retreat off of the foothills and down to the cities. I have seen a large army of men in the valley down by the Northwood. You should go that direction.  We will cover your retreat.”

Sarchise could only stare at Fawn.  He had never seen a woman so beautiful. She had long blonde hair and was seated on a white horse. She wore gray leather over her chain mail, which looked like it had seen many battles. One of the dwarves gave him a small push down the hill; apparently they were not as smitten with her beauty as the men were.  Soon Sarchise and his troops were in an orderly retreat down to the cities.

It took three days for the tired hungry army to come down off the mountain into the Kingdom of
Ril
.  Almost all of the men and dwarves were carrying wounded with them.  There were no healers with them so that
their
wounds were starting to get infected.  When they came into the land, there was a large army of men camped out and blocking any exit off of the mountains. 

As they came near, a captain of the men said, “Welcome back to the Kingdom of
Ril
. Is this all that has survived?”

Sarchise answered, “No, we were cut off from the others. We had to retreat off of the mountains.”

The commander responded, “Come the King will wish to meet with you.”

“Can I have food and water for myself and my
men
?W
e
have not eaten for three days. I also need medical care for my wounded,” Sarchise pleaded.

The commander did as requested and Sarchise met with the king only after he and his men had eaten.

The King leaned forward anxiously when Sarchise was escorted in the room. “I don’t suppose some of those dwarves that you have with you are stone masons?”

“Yes
,
King
,
there
are
several; we were endeavoring to build a fort when we were driven off of the mountain.” Sarchise answered.

“It would be wonderful if you could have some of them start on the sculpture of my father while your army is resting,” the King stated.  It was actually a hidden command.  Sarchise knew better than to go against a King that had just lent him one thousand men.