had left the day before. He wished now that he had left the previous day, slipping out with a pair of courier horses before the invaders besieged the city. Now he would be required to walk, and he couldn't hope to reach Dengar before the end of the next day no matter how hard he forced his pace.
The hidden passage leading east from Stahl toward Dengar was one of the most remarkable tunnels in all of Rockhome, and one of the most difficult feats of engineering the dwarves had ever attempted. The passage ran for nearly eight miles beneath the northern end of Lake Stahl, buried a hundred yards deep in bedrock in a clay- lined tunnel to prevent flooding. Korinn had never taken this tunnel before, and he found the thought of passing beneath the lake itself to be a bit daunting, but in the two hours he spent in that part of the tunnel, he found it the same as the rest of the passage.
He didn't emerge from the tunnel until it ended in the rugged, forested land more than a dozen miles east of the lake, where a small passage brought him up through a hidden door in a rocky outcrop. The secret path led him quickly to the top of a low, moss-covered cliff where he could look back toward the west through an opening in the trees. It was now the middle of the day, and he could see that a brisk batde was being fought over the city of Stahl many miles across the lake. He was too far away to see much detail, and so he could only judge from the dark haze and the trails of smoke that rose from the city.
Looking closer, he saw that an army was moving along the main road, having already passed the bridge over the Styrdal River. Indeed, their vanguard was now hardly more than a couple of miles northwest of where he stood. When the invaders had prepared their siege outside Stahl the evening before, he had assumed that they meant to capture that city before they pressed on into Rockhome. Instead, they had divided their forces, sending perhaps half of their army on toward Dengar. His decision to leave Stahl had been the correct one, since he would now be bringing news of the attack to Dengar only a day or so ahead of the invaders.
With an army following him, Korinn knew that every extra hour he could gain in reaching Dengar ahead of the invaders was important. Dengar was far more defensible than Stahl, and the upper city might hold out for days against a conventional army, but not against an attack of gemstone dragons. Following the trail south through the woods just below the mountains to the east, he marched as rapidly as he could through the rest of that day and well into the night. Reluctantly he gave up the race a couple of hours before midnight, when the night became so dark that he was having trouble finding the trail at times.
Korinn hurried on again early the next morning, just as the sky was beginning to grow light before the rising of the sun beyond the mountains to the east. He walked only another hour before he slowed, looking about when he came into a land he recognized from past visits. After a short time, he found a tumble of gray, mossy stones almost hidden in a steep fold of the wooded hills. He realized he never would have found it in the darkness of the night before. He had to take off his pack before he could push back behind the stones, but he found the hidden door and the dark, narrow tunnel that ran as straight as an arrow beneath the mountains to Dengar. The underground passage cut more than a dozen miles from the overland journey around the southern spur of the mountains at Evemur.
Because the underground passage was so straight and level, he was able to move along at a quick pace. All the same, many long hours passed in the deep darkness of the tunnel, lit only dimly by the pale silver light of his lamp. When at last he came up through a hidden door into the back passage of Lower Dengar, night had long since fallen in the world above. He was careful to secure all the hidden traps as he approached the door and opened it cautiously. A trap or two was always set in the secret ways, even in times of peace, in the unlikely event that an old enemy or a band of thieves found the tunnel. Even then, only commanders of the highest rank knew the secrets
for setting the traps and opening the doors.
The city itself was relatively quiet, with few people about, so that he passed unnoticed as he made his way to the palace. Dengar hadn't been besieged within living memory, but he thought that the city seemed unusually tense, as if no one dared to speak loudly or show themselves. As he passed through the silent streets, he began to see people peering out at him out from windows and from behind narrowly opened doorways.
The palace itself was especially dark and quiet, as if it were the middle of the night. The hour was indeed a bit late, but Korinn thought that someone should be around. He wondered if the siege had already begun. While he was certain the invading army was still behind him, other forces could have approached Dengar from a different direction. He was beginning to wonder if he should make the journey to the upper city when he saw Dorinn emerging from their father's chambers.
'Korinn!' his brother exclaimed, surprised to see him. 'Have you just returned?'
'I just arrived through the hidden tunnel,' Korinn explained. 'Is the city under siege?'
Dorinn nodded grimly. 'Three days ago, an army of about fifty thousand came through the pass of the Hrap River. They moved into the valley below the city earlier today, but so far they've been content to remain there. What about Stahl? The troops you sent here finished coming through the tunnel only hours ahead of you, which was why I hadn't expected to see you back so soon.'
'I've had to hurry,' Korinn said as they walked slowly toward his room to stow away his gear. 'The invaders- their western army, I should say-laid siege to Stahl two nights ago. When I left yesterday morning, I fofind half of their forces following me.'
Dorinn frowned. 'Were they headed here, or to Evemur?'
'I assumed they were coming here,' Korinn replied, pausing a moment while his brother held open the door to his room for him. He slipped the straps off his shoulder and set down his pack just inside the door. 'Of course, with fifty thousand invaders already here, they might be headed for Evemur instead. The battle has already begun in Stahl. I could see smoke rising from several parts of the upper city. Of course, Stahl isn't very easily defended against a large force, and there isn't much of a lower city. Whether or not the upper city has fallen by now depends largely upon whether or not the gemstone dragons have attacked.'
'My greatest concern about our situation here is that the invaders are waiting for the Masters to crack open our defenses,' Dorinn said. 'That's what I would do in their place. An army of fifty thousand seems large, but they could suffer enormous casualties trying to reach the gate of the upper city.'
'If the Masters attack, they attack,' Korinn said philosophically. 'There's nothing we can do about it. We can't hold the upper city for very long against them in any event. My hope is that the dragons will come before the Masters attack, or soon after. They should be here any time now.'
'Yes, the dragons,' Dorinn said, staring at the ground uncomfortably. 'I should warn you that our people have no faith in receiving help from the dragons. The senate has forced Father to shape our policies on the assumption that the dragons will never come. I've been told that the upper city must not be taken at any cost.'
'That's foolish,' Korinn declared hotly. 'The dwarves have always been ready to close the inner gates and wait out an attack underground, where our greatest safety lies.'
'The assumption is that we cannot hope to wait out the Masters,' the older dwarf explained. 'Most people fear that, given time, the Masters can simply dig us out like a hound after a rabbit. And no one believes that the dragons are going to help us. You'll find yourself very unpopular if you insist that the Dragonking will keep his word. I think that even Father no longer has any hope of that.'
Korinn had to retire for the night, in order to be rested enough to face the next day and the coming battle with all his strength. But he was dismayed by what he had learned. When he considered it, however, he had to admit that he wasn't surprised to find that the dwarves had no faith in the word of the dragons. Nothing had ever happened to make them believe the dragons would come to their defense. The one point that disturbed him most was that the dwarves seemed to have lost faith not only in the dragons, but also in their once unshakable belief that they could always hold their own in the underground.
When he thought about it, he had to face the unsettling truth. He knew the enemy as well as anyone. He had seen the burning of the steppes, and he had seen the Masters at Fort Denwarf. And he had to admit that the dwarves could never hope to win this war on their own. The only difference between him and the other dwarves was that Thelvyn Fox-Eyes was his friend, and he trusted the Dragonking.
Korinn donned his armor and gathered his weapons before dawn the next morning. After speaking with his father, he began the long climb to the upper city. His brother Dorinn had gone up before dawn, in order to be on hand if the enemy began to move against Dengar. King Daroban would remain below, trusting the defense of the upper city to his sons, and ready to assume command of the defense of the lower city if they did not return.
Korinn found his brother standing on the wall over the gate. The sun was still behind the mountains to the
