Dan Parkinson - The Covenant of The Forge

Olim Goldbuckle stepped to the head of his legions and raised his arms. “You speak of measures, Hylar!” he called. “What measures?”

“We will show you,” Colin said. “Among us, we have the means to create a stronghold which no human horde can penetrate.” He pointed. “You, Vog Ironface! Your people have the raw materials that will be needed, in your mines. The ores to make the metals for a mighty stronghold. And you, Slide Tolec! Your people know these passes better than any. And you, Bole Trune of the Klar. Organized, your people can save themselves from the humans by helping to save all the rest of us.”

Olim Goldbuckle cupped his hands to shout, “And the Daewar? What do you think we can offer to your plan?”

Colin Stonetooth gazed at the Daewar prince and suppressed a smile. “You, Prince Olim, have the place.”

“What place?” Olim snapped.

“He’s right!” Slide Tolec yelled. “The Daewar have a great, secret cavern somewhere. I have seen it.”

“That place,” Colin Stonetooth nodded. “A place that all can share, and by right must share. The Daewar because they found it first, the Theiwar because it is in their claimed territory …”

“In Theiwar territory?” Slide Tolec demanded. “Where?”

“… the Daergar because they have the materials to build it into a stronghold,” Colin continued, “the Klar — and the Einar and any others who care to, because they can assist in its construction and in its defense.”

Olim Goldbuckle was fuming. How did the outlander know of his secret place — of Urkhan’s findings? “And what of you, Hylar?” he shouted, angrily. “You tell us all that we might offer — what we can do with our own resources — but what of you? What do you offer?”

Colin Stonetooth spread his hands in an eloquent shrug. “We know how,” he said. Then his voice became commanding as he turned toward the ranked Theiwar. “Slide Tolec, we are within your people’s borders. Do you grant us permission to go underground?”

Startled at the polite, ceremonial question, Slide glanced around at his followers, then nodded. “I give permission,” he said. “We’d like to see what the Daewar found here, too.”

Colin turned to the Daewar prince. “Olim Goldbuckle, the gate behind me, in the cliff, is of Daewar crafting. Will you honor your neighbors by inviting us through it, in peace?”

“And if I don’t?” Olim demanded.

“Then we’ll take it down ourselves!” Slide Tolec shouted.

“This is Theiwar territory!”

“I already have a company of warriors below,” Colin said mildly. “It would be better if you invited us in.”

Olim Goldbuckle, the master of maneuvering, knew when he was outmaneuvered. “We will open the gate,” he conceded.

“I call a Council of Thanes!” Colin Stonetooth announced so all could hear. “To be held in Thorbardin!”

Every eye in the crowd turned to him in puzzlement. “Where?” some asked.

Even Jerem Longslate stared at his chieftain in surprise. “ Thor … bardin , Sire? Is this the name of our Everbardin?”

“In honor of the past.” Colin nodded. “And of the future.”

Thorbardin

Beneath Cloudseeker Peak

Century of Wind

Decade of Hickory

Early Spring, Year of Zinc

By the time snows lay deep upon the Kharolis range, the mountain called Cloudseeker swarmed with dwarves, outside and in. The Council of the Thanes had lasted seventeen days, and scribes would be at work for years to come, recording and interpreting all that had been decided.

With the Ten at his back, Willen Ironmaul’s guards positioned at strategic points, and several companies of footmen at his call, Colin Stonetooth of the Hylar could have dominated the proceedings. But he was wise enough not to. This place beneath the peaks, which he had named Thorbardin, would be his clan’s Everbardin, and the Hylar chieftain was determined to keep resentments to a minimum among those who would share its space. So Colin Stonetooth had a huge, seven-sided table crafted and placed on a wide, flat ledge on the shore of the Urkhan Sea, and brought the leaders of the thanes together there.

Each prince and chieftain chose his own place at the table, and Colin Stonetooth was the last to be seated — even after Faze I, Highbulp of Clan Aghar, who was so awed by the proceedings and the presences around him that he did the only thing he could think of to do. He laid his head on the great table and went to sleep.

Olim Goldbuckle chose the bench on the east, with his back to the brightest part of the great cavern, where the Daewar already had significant delvings going on. Vog Ironface of the Daergar chose a southern seat, Slide Tolec of the Theiwar a bench on the north, with Bole Trune of the Klar on his left, and the little Aghar Highbulp snoring on his right, and two benches remained. A heavily bearded dwarf named Grist Stonemill, selected by the Einar to speak for them, took the one on Faze I’s right, and Colin Stonetooth sat down beside the Daewar prince.

The Ten stood behind him, and others moved forward to stand behind their leaders — Gem Bluesleeve and his Golden Hammer guards behind the Daewar prince, Brule Vaportongue and a dozen Theiwar behind Slide Tolec, eight masked figures behind the Daergar chief, a collection of unshorn Klar behind Bole Trune, several Einar behind Grist Stonemill, and a strange-looking little figure called Grand Notioner behind the sleeping Faze I.

“In the place from which we Hylar came,” Colin said, “we used a seven-sided table for matters of council, and none knew why, because only six sides were needed. Now I see that seven is, indeed, the proper number.” He looked from one to another of them. “Reorx attend us here,” he said. “Give us the wisdom that we must have.”

“Reorx attend,” Olim Goldbuckle muttered, and others at the table nodded.

And so began seventeen days of debate and council, during which everything from the name of the place to a list of agreements for public and private use of its resources was worked out.

The Daewar would keep and hold the easternmost shore of the Urkhan Sea, where an arm of it curved around a bend in the cavern. The quartz above made it a brightly lighted bay, the brightest natural place in the immense system. They would claim this shore and the stone beyond it, where they were already delving their city of New Daebardin.

The Theiwar would claim the northwest shore and the stone beyond it, as far as the entrance to the cavern Urkhan had called the first warren. The Daergar would own the south shore where the quartz-strata light was dimmest and would turn their rubble heaps over to the Aghar, who preferred surroundings such as rubble heaps from other peoples’ delves.

The Daewar would have preferred that both Daergar and gully dwarves be as far from them as possible, preferably clear across the sea. But Olim consented, since the bend in the natural cavern would block any view of unsightly digs from the Daewar city.

The Klar, those of them who chose to make homes in the subterranean chamber, would claim and hold the deep regions at the east end of a second natural warren where an arm of the sea had its shores.

Most of the Einar wanted no part of the caverns, preferring shallower digs. Those who did, though, were given leave to affiliate themselves with whichever Thorbardin clan suited them. For the rest, who were now beginning to adopt the name Neidar, which they had heard from Cale Greeneye and his adventurers, a pledge was made. The Neidar would remain outside to tend the fields and flocks that needed the seasons and the sun. In return for supplying the deep lairs with grains, meat, and lumber, they would have right of entry into Thorbardin any time they chose to do so and protection against their enemies by the armies within the stronghold.