Elven Star – The Death Gate Cycle 2. Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman

“No!” cried the old king, slamming the walking stick against the floor. The thatched walls quivered at his wrath. “Never will there come a day when the One Dwarf are divided! Never will come a day when the body sheds the blood of itself!”

“Forgive me, Father. I did not think.”

The old king sighed, his body shriveled and collapsed in upon itself. Tottering, he grasped his son’s hand. With Drugar’s aid and that of the walking stick, the old dwarf resumed his chair. “Keep the flames in check son. Keep them in check. Or they will destroy all in their path, including you, Drugar. Including you. Now go, return to your meal. I am sorry I had to interrupt it.”

Drugar left and returned to his house, but did not finish his meal. Back and forth, back and forth he stumped across his room. He tried hard to bank his inner fire, but it was useless. The flames of fear for his people, once kindled, would not readily die down. He could not and would not disobey his father. The man was not only his father but also his king. However, Drugar decided, he wouldn’t let the fire die completely. When the enemy came, they would find scorching flame, not cold, dark ash.

The dwarven army was not mobilized. But Drugar privately (and without his father’s knowledge) drew up battle plans and informed those dwarves who believed as he did to keep their weapons close to hand. He kept in close contact with the dwarven scouts, followed through their reports the progress of the giants. Thwarted by the Whispering Sea, the giants turned to the est, traveling overland, moving relentlessly toward their goal-whatever goal that was.

Drugar did not think it was to ally themselves with the dwarves. Dark rumors came to Thurn of massacres of dwarves in the norinth settlements of Grish and Klag, but the giants were difficult to track and the reports of the scouts (those reports that came through) were garbled and made little sense.

“Father,” pleaded Drugar, “you must let me call out the army now! How can anyone discount these messages!”

“Humans,” said his father, sighing. “The council has decided that it is the human refugees, fleeing the giants, who are committing these crimes! They say that the giants will join us and then we will have our revenge!”

“I’ve interviewed the scouts personally. Father,” said Drugar with rising impatience. ‘Those who are left. Fewer and fewer come in every day. Those who do are scared out of their wits!”

“Indeed?” said his father, eyeing his son shrewdly. “And what do they tell you they’ve seen?”

Drugar hesitated, frustrated. “All right, Father! So they’ve not actually seen anything!”

The old dwarf nodded wearily. “I’ve heard them, Drugar. I’ve heard the wild tales about ‘the jungle moving.’ How can I go to the council with such elf-krat?”

It was on Drugar’s lips to tell his father what the council could do with its own krat but he knew that such a rude outburst wouldn’t help matters any and would only anger his father. It wasn’t the king’s fault. Drugar knew his father had said much the same to the Council as his son had said to him. The council of the One Dwarf, made up of the elders in the tribe, didn’t want to hear.

Clamping his mouth shut so that no hot words might escape him, Drugar stomped out of his father’s house and made his way through the vast and complex series of tunnels carved through the vegetation to the top. Emerging, blinking, into the sunlight, he stared into the tangle of leaves.

Something was out there. And it was coming his way. And he didn’t believe it was coming in the spirit of brotherly love. He waited, with a sense of increasing desperation, for the arrival of the magical, intelligent, elven weapons.

If those two humans had double-crossed him, he vowed by the body, mind, and soul of the One Dwarf that he would make them pay-with their lives.

CHAPTER 16

SOMEWHERE ELSE, GUNIS

“I HATE THIS,” SAID REGA

Two more cycles’ traveling took them farther down into the depths of the jungle, down far below the top level, far below bright sunshine and fresh air and cool rain. They had come to the edge of a moss plain. The trail dropped off into a deep ravine that was lost in shadow. Lying flat on top of the moss cliff, peering down into the depths, they couldn’t see what was below them. The thick leaves of the tree branches above and ahead of them completely cut off sunlight. Going below, they would be traveling in almost total darkness.

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