Dan Parkinson - The Swordsheath Scroll

By placing his own troops south of the pass, Lord Kane intended to stop any such venture before it began. The one who held Tharkas, he reasoned, would control access to the land the dwarves called-or had once called-Kal-Thax. Lord Kane had been assured that, in return for his services at Klanath, the emperor would grant the mountain lands to him to govern. He intended to have those lands thoroughly within his control when that occurred.

With the brigade on its way south, Lord Kane assigned the rest of his army to garrison and retired to the citadel that was being completed for him. He entered, followed by his servants, porters, personal guard, and attendants, and had the great gates closed. The dozen or so other nobles who had arrived with him, he left to find their own accommodations.

When he had dined and been entertained by musicians and dancers, he sent runners to find the Master of Klanath Mines, the chief of guards, and other local functionaries to command them to attend him. Then he retired to his private quarters.

Within the hour, every local notable in Klanath would be gathered in Lord Kane's great hall, awaiting his pleasure. He would let them all cool their heels for at least a day, pacing and fretting. It would remind them of who he was. Then, when he was ready, they would report to him individually. After that he would personally conduct the usual formal inspection of the mines. It was a tiresome routine, but the emperor commanded that it be done.

Lord Kane did not look forward to the inspection. The mines were dirty, stinking holes and did not interest him. But they were the public reason for Lord Kane's being here. The private-and primary-reason was to establish a base for a general invasion of the central plains to the east.

The assault had already begun, of course. It had been under way for nearly three years, but it had been a covert, scattered incursion so far. Small units of the armies had escorted hordes of "settlers" into various parts of the plains, driving out those already settled there and replacing them with people committed to the emperor's purposes. It was preparation for a full-scale invasion in force, that would carry the banner of the empire as far as the Khalkist realms and the elven forests.

The "quiet" invasion had gone very well, indeed. Vast areas east of the Kharolis mountains now were populated by the faithful. Only in two areas had there been real trouble. Those "settlers" entering the lands of the Cobar nomads had met fierce opposition. The Cobar tribes-barbarian horsemen mostly-had united against the intruders, and had literally driven them away, again and again. What should have been a simple taking of lands had turned into an all-out war, and it was still going on.

And far to the southeast, the emperor's subjects had come up against another kind of force. Elves from Silvan-esti had come out of their beloved forests, and were scattered throughout the rolling lands of eastern Ergoth. And the elves neither welcomed nor honored the empire's presence. Led by an elf called Kith-Kanan, the western- or "Wildrunner"-elves had stopped the emperor's "settlers" far short of their goal.

Privately, Lord Kane doubted the empire's ability to win a war against the elves, if it came to that. But that would be someone else's problem, not his. He had his own assignments and his own plans.

He would conduct his inspection of the emperor's mines and prepare supply lines for the armies that would soon be coming through, heading east. Then he would set about securing his hold on Tharkas Pass and the mountain lands beyond.

For days, nothing much had happened in the vicinity of the big underground cell behind the first soft-ore pit. Within the cell, some two thousand dwarves ate, slept, stood guard on their fortified gate, and waited. There had been some fighting right at first-companies of guards slipping into the outer corridor to try to direct attacks on the cell-but the dwarves had turned the attacks with swarms of missiles hurled or fired through the grating. And then, the soldiers had withdrawn. Now there was a strong guard on the corridor itself, but no assaults on the cell. The dwarves could tell by the sounds echoing in from the great pit that work was proceeding there. Other slaves had been transferred from other pits, and the mining went on.

It was Tap Tolec who first realized what was going on. "The inspections," he said, with good Theiwar intuition. "Those trumpets we heard before, they meant the inspectors have arrived from Daltigoth. I think the deputy is trying to keep us secret until the nobles leave."

Vin the Shadow crouched beside him. "Why would he do that?" he asked.

"He has been plotting against the Master of Mines," Tap surmised. "That's why the rich ore was hoarded in the seventh and ninth shafts. Shalit Mileen planned to bring it out at inspection and disgrace the old man. But then we barricaded the cell, and the guards couldn't reach us. For that, the disgrace would fall on Shalit Mileen. I think he's hiding us and using the hoarded ore to make it seem that the pits are in full operation so no one will know that a fourth of his slaves are in revolt and barricaded in their cell."

"It could be." Vin nodded. "Such a thing would truly disgrace him if it were known."

'Trobably cost him his head." Tap grinned. "Maybe we should get the word out that we're here. I'd like to see the pit boss beheaded."

"They'd behead us first," Vin pointed out.

"Well, yes, there is that," Tap agreed. "Of course, after the inspection, Shalit Mileen will have plenty of time to do with us as he will. My guess is, if we don't surrender then, he'll set delvers above and bury us alive."

"That bowl said help was on the way," the Daergar reminded.

"I know what the bowl said," Vin grumbled gloomily. "And I find myself wondering if we're all crazy, believing something a bowl told us."

Distantly, then, a trumpet sounded, followed by others. Around the dark cell, dwarves listened and glanced at one another. They had all heard that particular call before. It was evening call, but much more. It was inspection call, telling everyone in Klanath to prepare.

"Whatever that bowl has in mind," Tap said darkly, "it had better hurry. The inspection begins at first light tomorrow."

Vin the Shadow jumped to his feet. "Hush!" he said. "Listen!"

The distant blaring of trumpets had become a mighty chorus, with every caller in the city joining in. The blast of sound almost drowned out other, lesser noises… but not quite. Good dwarven ears heard something else, as well. Somewhere very near, weapons rang, and deep war cries — dwarven war cries-echoed the cries of frightened, surprised men.

Arriving on tbe heights above the Klanath mines, Derkin Winter-seed waved his followers into cover and crept forward to survey the scene below. For a moment, the sight staggered him. He had never seen Klanath from above, and the sheer sprawl of the settlement shocked him. It was a fair-sized city, spread out on the flatlands and low hills below the mines. On a central knoll stood a grand stronghold-a palace rising among scaffolds, surrounded by walled courtyards. All around the central compound were clusters and rows of all kinds of buildings, many hundreds of them stretching downward and away toward the distant forests beyond.

At first glance, Derkin's impulse was to call the whole thing off. There were humans down there by the thousands, and among them armed patrols carrying the pennant of the empire. Even in evening shadow, as the sun of Krynn went to its rest beyond the western ranges, the task looked impossible. How were two hundred dwarves- more or less-ever going to slip unnoticed through such a place, to even reach the pit mines, much less free the dwarven slaves there?