Into the Wastelands: Book Four of the Restoration Series (26 page)

“He was shaken?” Flare repeated with a smile. “How does he think I feel?”

Belgil ignored Flare’s attempt at humor. “Listen very carefully to me. I advise you to be humble and respectful in the presence of the king. Emlin has, undoubtedly, been whispering how arrogant you are into the king’s ear. Don’t do anything to confirm it, all right?”

Flare smiled but did not answer directly. If they were foolish enough to put him in the same room as Ossendar, then he intended to give them quite a show. It might be arrogance, but he intended to
demonstrate to
them what a fully trained sorcerer could do.

Flare’s audience with the king did not happen for several more hours, during which time he received instruction from Belgil on how to interact with the king. Flare only half-listened as he had his own plans.

Shortly after the evening meal, there came a soft knocking on
his
door. Belgil, who had taken his supper in Flare’s room, got up
and opened the door. “Holgar!” h
e exclaimed in surprise.

A dwarf that Flare had not seen before stepped into the room. He, like all the other dwarves, wore
a leather tunic, belted at the waist. His hair, though, was a bit unusual in that it was a dark brownish red. All the other dwarves that Flare had seen to this point had dark black hair. This Holgar grinned at them from behind his thick bushy beard. Surprising Flare, the two dwarves hugged. He had not seen such displays of emotion from the other dwarves.

Flare smiled at the new arrival and waited on Belgil to introduce him.

After a moment, Belgil seemed to remember himself and he stepped back. He was smil
ing as he motioned at the dwarf,
“This is my cousin Holgar.”

Flare inclined his head, “It’s a pleasure to meet you.” He wasn’t sure exactly how the dwarven communities worked but he assumed that calling the dwarf a cousin meant he was actually related by blood.

Holgar pointed his finger at Flare, “You’re causing quite the stir amongst the
royals
.”

The dwarf
said it in a jovial enough manner that Flare didn’t take offense.
“It’s certainly not my intent. In fact, I would like nothing more than to just walk out the main gate.”

“Really?” Holgar asked, “because I believe that is what the king is going to offer you.”

“You’ve heard that?” Belgil asked looking astounded. “They’re just going to let him go.”
His astonishment turned into a smile. “That’s good then.”

“And Ossendar?” Flare asked, fearing he already knew the answer. “What is to become of my sword?”

“Uh, yes. Well, the king thinks the sword should remain in Az’ha’rill’hadell, until the Dragon Order is restored anyway,” Holgar said. His tone had gone from emphatic to more reserved. “I suggest you accede to the king’s wishes. I don’t imagine you would like the alternative.”

Belgil no longer looked happy, he was frowning now, looking back and forth between his cousin and Flare. “Flare?” he asked cautiously, “how will you respond?”

On the outside Flare was calm but on the inside he was seething. He was just about through with everyone trying to kill him or steal from him. “I cannot answer until I have heard from the king,” he said. A sinking feeling was settling in and he was afraid the dwarves would not be stupid enough to bring Ossendar to the meeting. He endeavored to hold out hope though.

“Speaking of which,” Holgar said, “we should be going.” He turned and led the way out of the small room.

Belgil followed his cousin out, but he cast a worried look back in Flare’s direction.

They were escorted through the tunnels by six guards and Flare felt reasonably sure that these were either Belgil’s or Holgar’s men. Two guards led the way, followed by Holgar, Belgil, and then Flare. The remaining four guards brought up the rear.

Like his earlier trips into the tunnels, Flare was not impressed at first. The tunnels were
cut through the rock and dirt and here and there wooden supports held up the ceiling. But after nearly half an hour, the tunnels took a noticeable upturn.
First the wooden supports became stone pillars and gradually the whole tunnel was transformed. Gone were the dirt floors and rough walls, they were replaced with worked stone flooring and sculpted walls.

Shortly before they exited the tunnel, Flare felt a change in the air and then they stepped forth from the tunnel into an enormous cavern. His mouth fell open as he saw, for the first time, the splendor of the dwarven city of
Az’ha’rill
’hadell. “I can’t believe it,” he said almost in a whisper.

“It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” Belgil asked from beside him.

The city was situated in an enormous cavern. The ceiling could not be seen in the deep shadows way over their heads despite the glow coming from the
fungus along the walls. The fungus did not exactly make it bright, but it seemed almost like dusk. In front of them the cavern stretched on for a mile or so until the far end of the cavern was also hidden in the shadows. The dwarven city was made of the most beautiful stone buildings, with each one more glorious than the last. The buildings were covered with hand carved reliefs and statues. The buildings closer to them were shorter but farther away, as the cavern opened up, the
buildings
reached up into the darkness.
Dwarves were moving about doing a variety of different tasks.
He didn’t see any females, or if he did then he couldn’t tell they were female. Those that saw them stopped and stared and Flare felt his guards draw closer around them.

“Where is the king’s palace?” Flare asked, wondering how far into the city he would have to walk.

Belgil pointed over to their left, along the edge of the cavern. It seemed the cavern floor was uneven and that particular area was pushed up higher. The affect was that the king’s palace appeared to look out over the city.
Unlike in human kingdoms, there wasn’t a wall surrounding the palace. Instead, there were steps leading up to an open area that would have been the palace grounds in a human city. A handful of guards watched them climb the steps and cross the grounds to the double doors.
At their approach, the guards did not move and Flare thought it felt like a challenge of some sort.

“So,” the guard in the front said, “this is the human?” He was an ugly brute of a dwarf. Almost as wide as he was tall, and he had a wide face that made him resemble a pig. He looked Flare up and down as he spoke, sneering the whole time. “We’re hoping the king will turn him over to us.”

Flare chuckled at the stupidity of the dwarf. “I see intelligence isn’t a requirement to be a king’s guard.”

Belgil’s eyes went wide and the guards all went stiff.

“What did you say?” t
he fat dwarf asked. He appeared to be trying to sort through the words. It looked like hard work.

Belgil tried to lay a hand on his arm, but Flare shrugged hi
m away. “I said you’re an idiot,
”
he
said slowly. “First, I’m the only one in this city that could pass for a human so your statement was painfully obvious, with one exception. I’m half-elven or did you miss that?”

The fat dwarf took a step forward. He was cut off by Holgar stepping in front. “Now Grom, you know the king is waiting on our guest.
You wouldn’t want to explain why he answers the king’s summons all bloodied and bruised, would you?”

Grom stopped and his piggy eyes narrowed. “Why are you here, Holgar?”

Shrugging, Holgar started to step around the fat dwarf. “I just came to the city to see my cousin.” He came to a stop in front of the closed double doors. Twisting around he looked at Grom. “Are you going to let us in?”

For a moment Flare thought this Grom might not let them in, but then Grom’s sneer returned and he motioned to the guard closest to the door.

Belgil led Flare around the clump of guards but Flare was already trying to push them from his mind. Unfortunately, Belgil had other ideas.

“Those are Emlin’s men that you just called stupid. I’m sure they would like nothing better than to ki
ll you,
”
h
e said in an urgent whisper.

Flare looked around to see why Belgil was whispering and then he noticed that the guards from the door had fallen in behind his o
wn escort. “So?” Flare asked, “s
urely they won’t be so stupid as to attack me in the king’s palace.”

“Maybe not, but what if the king asks them to escort you from the city?” Belgil demanded.

Flare had to admit he hadn’t thought of that, but he wasn’t overly concerned. There were much bigger things to worry about. He would not leave the city without Ossendar and he felt he already knew where the dwarves stood on that issue.

The trip through the palace was uneventful. It was the kind of place that Flare would like to have had an opportunity to explore on his own. He only saw a small portion of the first floor, but it was intriguing. The dwarves seemed to have an affinity for ancient relics and there were numerous items on display. There were several niches containing weapons of various types, but most of them were broken. The niches had descriptions carved into stone plaque, but the writing was dwarvish runes and Flare couldn’t read
it
. Not that his escort gave him the time to look around anyway. Every time Flare slowed, Belgil took him by the arm and gave a pull.

The walls were covered in reliefs that looked so lifelike that it seemed the figures were moving. He barely had a chance to look before he was being whisked along.

They approached a magnificent
rounded arch. On either side of the arch was a pedestal. On the left pedestal sat a book. It was old and looked like it would fall apart at the first touch. They had taken precautions though, the top of the pedestal was enclosed within glass. An enormous ogre skull rested on the pedestal on the right. The skull was eerie looking regardless of how long the ogre had been dead.

Even before they reached the arch, Flare could hear a low rumble and he knew what it was. It was the rumble of a large crowd. He glanced at Belgil, “
Who
’s
all in there?”

Belgil shrugged, but Flare knew him well enough now to see that he too was surprised.

Holgar was first to reach the arch, he continued on through and then began descending some steps. Belgil and Flare followed him and Flare momentarily paused when he could see beyond the archway. This wasn’t a private audience with the king, it looked like the room beyond was packed to overflowing.

Stepping through the arch, Flare got his first good look at the room beyond. Immediately in front of the arch, steps led down to a flat circular floor. All around the floor, tiered seating
climbed away from the floor
and the seats were all full
,
with dwarves standing in the walkways.
It looked vaguely like an arena of some sort.

The ceiling was a mirror image of the floor. The ceiling near the edges of the room was almost low enough for Flare to touch, but then it stepped up higher until the center of the room had the highest ceiling.

Directly opposite the arch
, across the lowered floor,
was a raised
throne
.
The seat was nearly ten feet off of the floor and the only way to reach it was from an opening directly behind the throne. An old but still hardy looking dwarf sat there, an almost dainty looking ring of gold sitting on his head. The crown looked decidedly out of place on his head, lost as it almost was in the king’s wild hair. Standing on a small perch at the right hand of the king was Councilor Emlin.

Belgil gave him a small tug and Flare moved forward slowly. They began descending the steps and he studied the king. He had thought that anyone who would listen to Emlin had to be a fool, but the king looked intelligent. More than that, he looked alert and wary.

Flare’s eyes flicked to Emlin and were already dismissing the fool when he spotted something to make his heart sing. The old bastard held Ossendar in his hands.

As they entered, the low rumble of the crowd slowly died away, leaving an eerie silence.

They led Flare to stand in the middle of the floor, directly in front of the king’s throne. Emlin’s dwarves spread out in a semi-circle between Flare and the king. Holgar and Belgil both bowed before the king, and Flare reluctantly followed their example. He had the feeling that this meeting wasn’
t going to go well, but he at least wanted to try diplomacy.

Straightening back up, Holgar spoke first. “My king. We have brought Flare as you requested.”

“Tell me, where did you get this sword?” The voice was not that of the king, instead it was Councilor Emlin. He cut off as the king raised a hand.

“There will
be
time for that, Emlin. I would know who I am entertaining,” the King said. “Tell me what is your name and where are you from?” His voice was low like most of the dwarves but not quite so raspy. It made him much easier to understand than the others.