Gerard.
“Are you ready?” King Jarrek asked General Diamondeen.
“We’ll know in a moment,” the dwarf pointed to another of his kind who was approaching.
Jarrek greeted Oarly with a smile and a slap on the back. “Are we ready, Master Oarly?”
“As ever we will be,” Oarly nodded. “The relay is set. Just give one of those torch bearing dwarves on the hill the signal when it is time.”
“It’ll take some patience to draw them in,” Jarrek said.
“I hope it takes till dawn,” said the dwarven general. “I want to see the looks on their faces.”
“What of the tunnel? Is it cleared?” Jarrek asked.
“Since supper call,” Diamondeen answered proudly. “We’ve been sending a few through since then, but most of my dwarves are already at the far end.”
“Good,” said Jarrek giving the two dwarves a nod of appreciation. “I don’t know how to thank you.”
“When the battle is over you can get us drunk,” said Oarly with a grin.
“Why wait until the battle is over?” General Diamondeen asked seriously. “Everyone knows a dwarf fights better when he’s drinking.”
“If you can find it, you can drink it,” Jarrek laughed. “I have to get to the front.” With that he strode off to find a horse.
As everyone expected, the Dakaneese came hard. The Seaward forces under Jarrek’s command held them for a long time, but finally, around midnight, the call to retreat rang out. After that it was all about fighting on the run. The Dakaneese swarmed into the passage and pushed with mighty force. By dawn they controlled the position completely. The Choska demon came tearing through the ranks and the bald-headed wizard riding its back was strangely trying to keep King Jarrek and his troops from retreating. In between attacks, the wizard reined the Choska around, flying low over the Dakaneese and calling out to them. Soon they too began trying to retreat out of the passage too.
King Jarrek saw what was happening and cursed in disbelief. Somehow the wizard knew about the trap. Still, several thousand Dakaneese infantry were in the passage. Jarrek knew that it was now or never.
“Retreat! Full retreat!” he called out to his men. He turned his horse and charged back toward Low Crossing. As he went, he commanded the attention of the torch bearing dwarves on the ridge. “Let it go!” he ordered as loudly as he could scream.
The dwarf waved a flaming brand in a certain motion. Another dwarf up the way repeated it, and so on, until Oarly’s group, who were positioned underground, saw the signal and went to work.
For a long time, nothing happened, but then a great rumbling shook the earth. The Dakaneese hadn’t been expecting the sudden lurching of the ground beneath them. In the seconds of their initial fear and confusion, King Jarrek’s men broke from all engagement and charged away from the battle with breakneck fury.
From overhead, Flick tried to stop the retreat. He knew he couldn’t save the Dakaneese troops, but he figured he might cause quite a few of the enemy to get caught up in the trap.
The earth shook again, and this time the passage collapsed right out from under the Dakaneese fighters. Huge chunks of rock and earth fell away beneath their feet. Cracks shot across the earth that grew and shifted until it seemed the whole world was caving in. A loud roar filled the morning. Horses and men screamed and scrabbled but to no avail. As the ground beneath them was crumbling and falling, water from the mighty river was rushing in to fill the void. Armored men sank away and horses thrashed in the flow. King Jarrek and his Seaward soldiers had to fight through rows of thorny vines and treacherous thickets that hadn’t been there before. Flick also hindered their way by sending great exploding blasts into the earth in front of them, causing the horses to rear up or balk. A wall of fire erupted, cutting about half of the retreating force off before they could get away.
Those that kept themselves and their horses calm were able to leap through the flaming obstacle, but many were lost as their animals turned and ran into the expanding hole that was forming where the passage had just been. Jarrek went back, his horse leaping through the wall of flames as if it wasn’t there. He took the time to urge many of the men past the burning barrier, but soon he could wait no longer.
The caving pit had collapsed into the Leif Greyn River’s deepest channel and a wall of water and churning muck was rushing in with alarming force. Jarrek charged his horse straight back through the flames and up to higher ground as swiftly as he could. To his surprise, Bzorch and his dragon gun crew were there. They said they hadn’t been able to cross back into Westland because their ferry was destroyed. Streaking spears, followed by uncoiling lengths of rope filled the air and the Choska was forced to carry Flick away from the area.
Jarrek surveyed the scene. He took his time, letting his men catch their breath as he did. The bottleneck passage, and most of Seareach, was gone, as was most of the land that stretched from there up toward Low Crossing. It was all under water now. A great lake now blocked the southern border of Wildermont from Dakahn. The only way between the two countries now was over the Wildermont Mountains, and they were far too steep and craggy to allow any sort of sizable force to pass.
The first part of the plan had mostly worked. They could have drowned twice as many of the Dakaneese soldiers, had Shaella’s wizard not caught on to the plan. Considering this, Jarrek decided that the mage had to have been informed. There was no other way their movements could have given away what was going to happen.
Either way, it was time to start the second phase of the dwarves’ brilliant idea. King Jarrek was glad to see Bzorch and their big heavy weapons. When his forces came out of the earth on the other side of the secret mountain tunnel he was sure the dragon-guns would prove to be useful. If they moved swiftly enough, the breed might be able to catch up with the dwarves and the Highwander men who were already trying to come up behind what was left of Ra’Gren’s force. It would be a rout if they could pin them against the new body of water.
Jarrek glanced to the west. Already the Shark’s Tooth and a few other vessels were moving into the new lake from the river. As much as Jarrek didn’t like sell-swords, he’d grown fond of Maxrell Tyne and Grommen. The ships under Tyne’s Command were to spend the day transporting archers into the mountains, where the dwarves had cleared positions overlooking the confused Dakaneese.
Jarrek nodded to himself that he was ready, and went to round up and count the survivors of his Seaward front. Once they were regrouped they’d have a long ride underground and a few more battles to fight. As much as he hated to, he broke up the reprieve and ordered them to move. He found the troops eager to comply. None of them forgot how the Dakaneese had trapped and killed their kinsmen. In moments, they were following the breed giants into the dwarven tunnel.
It was time to take the battle to Dakahn.
Chapter Forty-Nine
“I can’t help you get around out there without getting caught,” Phen said. “You’re invisible, I’m not.”
Hyden sucked in a deep breath and let go of the boy. Standing on his own, he had to reach down deep to muster the strength to stay upright, while doing his best to block out the pain. “Where’s Mikahl?” he asked through gritted teeth.
Phen peeked out the door and Spike shot between his legs into the grassy garden area. The lyna found a thick shrub and hid beneath it. From there, Phen watched through his familiar ’ s eyes. The sun would be setting soon, and the bailey was already bathed in shadow. The garden was bustling with people, though. The red-robed priests were lighting torches and candles, and making preparations. Queen Shaella was standing amongst four white clad men-no, they were statues. The statues from outside her bedchamber, Phen realized. She was speaking to them with closed eyes and making subtle hand gestures. She was in the middle of some sort of spell, he guessed.
Beyond her in the gazebo, he could see one of the red-robed priests lifting the Silver Skull from its podium. He recognized part of Rosa’s dress on the floor nearby.
“In their temple,” said Phen. “I can see Princess Rosa lying there. Surely they’re together.”
Hyden peeked around the edge of the door and used Phen’s shoulder to hold himself steady. “Where will the
