Dan Parkinson - The Swordsheath Scroll

"Why not?"

The old Daewar grinned wolfishly. "Do you remember the pit boss, a man called Shalit Mileen?"

"I remember him," Derkin growled. "He ordered the beatings I took… and the heavy chain."

"Well, it seems Shalit Mileen is keeping it a secret that his slaves have revolted. He was plotting against the Master of Mines, and Renus Sabad will blame him for everything. Now Shalit Mileen is plotting to try to keep his head, thanks to you. And to me, of course, and Des-paxas."

"How does Despaxas know what's going on in the pit?"

"Don't ask me." Calan shrugged. "I don't understand his magics."

"But you trust him," Derkin said, stepping in front of the old dwarf to look into his eyes.

"As much as I've ever trusted anybody," Calan assured him. "He says I saved his life once, and I suppose that's true. It was a long time ago, when I was still a trader out of Thorbardin, and before Despaxas learned his spells. A wild ogre had him cornered, without his weapons, and I happened along. I killed the ogre, but not before it bit off my arm."

"But how do you know an elf can be trusted?"

"He could have left me there to die," Calan said. "But he didn't. He nursed me back to health." The old dwarf squinted, then turned and pointed across the training field. "How do you know you can trust that human?"

"I believe his interests are the same as mine," Derkin said.

"And so are the elf's."

"I don't like magicians."

"Nobody likes magicians," Calan agreed. "But you'll have to admit, a decent one can be useful now and then."

Directly behind Calan, the air shimmered, and suddenly Despaxas stood there, his smooth cheeks drawn in an ironic smile. "Thank you," he purred.

Calan spun around, almost tripping on his own feet. "I wish you'd stop doing that!" he snapped.

"Sorry," the elf said. "But I have disturbing news. Lord Kane has arrived at Klanath to prepare for the inspections. He has ordered a brigade through the pass to fortify this compound. He intends to open all the shafts over here and build a citadel. With a presence at both ends of Tharkas Pass, Lord Kane can claim all the lands from here to Thorbardin's north gate."

"Like blazes he can!" Derkin hissed. 'This is dwarven land."

"A brigade!" Calan frowned. "When are the soldiers coming?"

"They are on the march now," Despaxas said. "Both cavalry and foot. By nightfall, they will be in the pass."

Tuft Broadland had arrived in time to hear the report. He swore, shook his head, and glared at the elf, then sighed. "Then you've lost before you begin," he told Derkin sadly. "We'll never get to Klanath now."

"We'll get there," Derkin growled. His cloak swirling, he turned and beckoned. Instantly, the burly dwarves who made up his personal guard, the Ten, hurried to him. "Let everyone prepare to travel," he told them. "We are going to Klanath."

"Aye," the First of the Ten said, saluting crisply. Followed by the others, he hurried away.

Tuft stared at Derkin and shook his head. "If s impossible," he said. "We'll never get past an entire brigade in that pass with barely two hundred fighters."

"We aren't going through the pass," Derkin snapped. "We're going over it."

The man blinked, then looked at the high, sheer walls of mountain climbing toward the sky. "No man could climb that," he muttered.

Beside him, Calan Silvertoe grinned. "We aren't men," he reminded the human. "We're dwarves."

First light of a new morning touched the mountaintops and reflected downward to light the lower slopes. Where Tharkas Camp had once stood, now there was nothing but the riven slopes, desolate ground, and feathers of smoke that rose from a place not only abandoned, but razed and leveled. Leaving Tharkas with his Chosen Ones, Derkin Winterseed left no one behind, and nothing that could benefit human intruders. Where once there had been mine shafts, now there were only tumbled slopes. The mines had been caved in and sealed. Where there had been a few buildings, now there were piles of ash. Everything that might be useful and could be carried, the Chosen Ones had taken with them. Everything that was left, they had methodically destroyed, scattered, hidden, or buried. Except for the diminishing smoke from the ashes and the scars left on the land by two years of human-directed mining, there might never have been a place called Tharkas Mines. A stranger viewing the scene on this morning would have seen no trace of life anywhere about-unless he looked upward.

There, a pair of miles away and half a mile above, a winding string of tiny dots moved on the sheer face of Tharkas Heights. In a place where no human could have gone, on a sheer, nearly vertical granite slope that no human could have scaled, Derkin Winterseed and the Chosen Ones crept upward, climbing toward the crest above the west side of Tharkas Pass. By rope and hammer, by spike and sling, by javelin and throw-line, by hand-and toehold, hoist, and piton, and by sheer, stubborn determination, the dwarves worked their way upward, doing the thing that was as much second nature to dwarves as was delving or metalcraft-climbing.

And those who could not climb-a few of the mine dwarves who were sick or injured, old Calan Silvertoe because he had only one arm, and Tuft Broadland because he was human-were hoisted, lifted, and carried in slings as baggage. For Tuft, it was an experience he would never forget. As they neared the top, he found himself swinging in space over a ledge, the nearest horizontal surface thousands of feet below him as he clung to a flimsy rope rising slowly to the tugs of a pair of burly dwarves perched precariously on an impossible slope above.

"If I ever get out of this," he swore over and over, "I hope I never see another mountain."

Just above and to his right, Calan Silvertoe lounged happily in a net sling, also being hoisted aloft. His voice rich with suppressed laughter, he said, "We've been trying for centuries to explain to you people, this land just isn't for humans. I guess now at least one of you agrees."

The journey to the crest above Tharkas Pass took most of a day. From the stony peak, the dwarves looked down into the shadowed depths of Tharkas Pass. More than half a mile below, seeming almost straight down, columns of soldiers moved, heading south. Lord Kane's expeditionary brigade was on its way into old Kal-Thax to take command of the dwarven realm.

"I'd like to drop rocks on the whole army down there," Calan Silvertoe growled.

"Leave them alone," Derkin ordered. "With them gone, we'll have fewer to contend with at Klanath." Turning away from the chasm, he got his shield and hammer from one of the baggage slings, donned his horned helmet and red cloak, and headed northwest, angling away from the deep pass. The slope on this side of the mountain wall was less precipitous, a long, rolling decline where wind-shaped trees dotted the rugged landscape, foretelling the forests that would begin lower down. It was easier travel than the long climb had been, but it was still twenty miles to Klanath, and he was anxious to be on his way. The Hylar had no illusions about how he had gotten into this venture. He had been manipulated by a magic-using elf and an old one-armed Daewar schemer. But with true dwarven stubbornness, Derkin Winterseed-once committed to a task-would pursue it with as much grim determination as if it had been his own idea all along.

Behind him, the Chosen Ones gathered up their packs, their supplies, and their weapons, and hurried to follow. Most of them had only the vaguest notion of what lay ahead, but the Hylar called Derkin had freed them from slavery, from imprisonment, and from goblins. He was their leader. He was their chieftain, and where he went they would go.

When Sakar Kane arrived at Klanath, with three brigades of the emperor's troops in addition to his usual retinue, the first thing he did was send one brigade south through Tharkas Pass. Rumors had come to his ears in Daltigoth that there were those among the secondary nobility who had designs on the former dwarven realm, now that the dwarves of Thorbardin seemed no longer to be a threat. Lord Kane had heard that at least two of his peers at court had plans of their own for the mountain lands and were gathering supporters.