in time for the dwarves. Korinn completely trusted Thelvyn to gather the dragons and come to the aid of Rockhome, but he still had to wonder if even that would be enough. The Ethengar had been forced to flee before this new enemy, and they had no idea of the full size and strength of the invading force. Korinn wondered how many dragons there were in all his world to respond to the Dragonking's call. Surely no more than a few
thousand at most.
For that matter, he had to wonder just how soon the Dragonking would be able to gather his army of dragons and bring them to Rockhome. A few days at least, and Korinn was no longer certain they had a few days to wait. The defense of the Styrdal Pass was a hopeless effort, he realized now. He might be able to delay the invading army for a while, but the Masters would inevitably prevail. The gemstone dragons could descend upon Fort Denwarf and leave it in ruins in a matter of minutes if they chose to. He was beginning to agree with the king that the only hope for the dwarves would be to secure themselves in their underground cities and do anything they could to keep the invaders out until the dragons came to their rescue.
Korinn spent the day thinking of anything he could to slow the invasion of Rockhome, but he couldn't come up with anything special. His enemies simply had too many advantages. His only real hope now was that the Masters would be delayed in securing their domination of the steppes before they pushed on into Rockhome. They might not even push on to the south but turn eastward instead, into the Flaemish realm, reclaiming the people who had once been their slaves. But he had no real hope of that.
They didn't reach Fort Denwarf until well after nightfall, although Korinn was pleased to have made the ride in only one day. The sentries at the gate recognized him before he had the chance to identify himself, and the commander of the fortress hurried out to greet him. Korinn requested supplies and accommodations for the Ethengar and fodder for their horses, turning over his own mounts to the garrison stablehands.
Korinn stood in the lamplit yard of the fortress while he explained the situation quickly to the commander of the fortress, a solid older dwarf of the Torkrest Clan, Balar, son of Balic. After riding all day, Korinn needed to walk around for a time before he tried to sit down to dinner.
'We really haven't learned anything new,' General Balar told him. 'The clans have continued to retreat in our direction, and some have even reached the mountains by now. I was loath to permit them to cross over our border unchallenged, and I'm not completely at ease with the king's decision to grant them safe passage into our lands.'
'It suits our purposes,' Korinn told him, answering in a manner that the general would appreciate. 'Right now no one hates these invaders more than the Ethengar, who have already lost their land and herds. If the invaders try to avoid the Styrdal Pass and slip through the mountains, they'll have to answer to the Ethengar.'
The preparations to make Fort Denwarf ready for battle had already begun. The fortress had taken only light damage during the first attack of the gemstone dragons several nights earlier. The highest tower was still missing its top, since the height of the tower made repairs difficult. Korinn wished there were more catapults at Fort Denwarf, remembering that those were the only weapons proven to have any effectiveness against dragons during the assault on the Highlands the previous year. Everything about this fortress had been designed to discourage invasion by more conventional enemies-particularly raiding parties of Ethengar warriors. The gemstone dragons, however, would be nearly impossible to fight.
Early the next morning, Korinn went through the pass to a high rise, where he could look out from the mountains across the rolling hills of the steppes. A shroud of dark smoke lay over the plains for as far as he could see, as if the Masters were trying to burn off all the steppes in a single vast wildfire. The clans themselves had apparently already reached the safety of the foothills, since he could see no movement out in the steppes anywhere along the southern border. There was also no clear sign of the enemy to the north, although Korinn wasn't sure whether he saw glimpses of the distant forms of gemstone dragons through the wall of smoke.
That seemed to suggest that they had a couple of days before the invaders reached the mountains of Rockhome. The first of the additional supplies and warriors being sent to reinforce the border fortress arrived later that same day. Unfortunately, there were few catapults or heavy crossbows that might have the power to penetrate a dragon's hide. Actually, he had no idea whether the gemstone dragons had the same armor as the dragons of his own world. The dwarves had many cleverly designed ballistae and similar devices for hurling stones and heavy weights, but such things were unlikely to hit a dragon in flight.
By that night, the reddish glow of the fires marching southward across the steppes could be seen clearly from the fortress's higher towers, and all through the next day the great wall of dark smoke grew steadily larger. The wind was from slightly west of due north, driving the flames before it and carrying a great curtain of black smoke southward over the mountains of Rockhome. Smoke scuttled like storm clouds overhead, casting a deep shadow over the mountains, broken only occasionally when the sunlight penetrated fitfully through rents opened by the wind. The smell of smoke was thick and heavy.
More troops and supplies arrived during the day. Recognizing that his plans for the defense of Rockhome had changed, Korinn elected to send a part of the new troops and most of the supplies back to the south, where they would be needed more. He sent with them written orders stating his reasons why nothing more should be sent. Once the gemstone dragons attacked in earnest, Fort Denwarf would have to be abandoned, no matter what the strength of the defenders or their weapons.
By that night, the fires that were consuming the steppes seemed to march steadily like an incoming tide toward the foothills of the mountains of Rockhome. The angry light of the flames flickered on the bare stone of the peaks and ridges, and on the walls of the fortress. When dawn came, the black wall of smoke stretched across the horizon from east to west and loomed higher than the mountain peaks of the nearby Altan Tepes. Fires flared in many places as the line of flames began to push into the bracken and stunted trees of the lower foothills. But there was still no sign of the invaders. Apparently their army marched hidden somewhere behind the wall of flame and smoke, fanning the line of fire and driving it before them.
Korinn ordered the defenders of Fort Denwarf to don their armor and make ready their weapons, for the invasion of Rockhome could come at any time now. Their only hope was that the invaders would turn aside at the last minute. The line of fire began to push upward into the foothills, feeding greedily on the lightly wooded lower slopes and almost as quickly breaking into many smaller fires and dying away. The mountainsides were too rocky and barren, the stands of wood too sparse and stunted. There had been a great deal of rain in the mountains that spring, even along the northern slopes, and the trees were reluctant to burn.
The wall of dark smoke grew thicker, like a dark cloud that hung over the mountains. Finally the smoke began to lift grudgingly as the last fires faded. Now the dwarves had their first look at what the flames had done to the steppes. They were shocked to see a dead, barren land, the gently rolling hills black and bare where there had always been a sea of grass. A dull gray haze of smoke hung over the devastated land. Near at hand, several small armies were gathering into a single invasion force of great size and strength along the banks of the Styrdal River, obviously preparing for an assault on the pass.
Korinn went down beyond the pass for a closer look, to try to get some estimate of the size of the force that he would soon face. Four separate companies of soldiers, each some five thousand strong, were approaching from the west with their supply wagons and siege weapons, and at least five more companies were strung out in a line to the east for as far as he could see. He was even more alarmed to discover that their forces were assembled from many different races, some unlike any he had ever seen, not even vaguely human.
At least Korinn now had answers to all his questions. The invasion of Rockhome had become a certainty, and he knew now that an invasion force of perhaps fifty thousand was being directed at this pass alone. He felt reasonably certain they would not be attempting to storm the pass that day, and possibly not the next. The enemy forces were still scattered, and he could imagine with grim satisfaction that they must be in poor condition after marching the breadth of the steppes in all that ash and dust and choking smoke. Korinn also felt reasonably certain he could keep them from taking Fort Denwarf for many days, as long as the Masters themselves did not take a hand in the assault on the fortress. But the gemstone dragons
remained curiously absent.
Korinn was concerned about those missing dragons, fearful that they had already passed secretly over the mountains and were raiding with impunity in the cities and settlements of Rockhome to the south. His question was answered later that night, when gemstone dragons began to fly swiftly, alone or in small groups, through the center of the pass, just beyond the reach of the weapons of Fort Denwarf. Their business was obviously to the south, and for now they seemed content to completely ignore the border fortress.
This was Korinn's first opportunity to actually see the gemstone dragons. He had been wondering how much
