The Broken Council (The Guardian Chronicles 1) (28 page)

“Fellow
outcasts, we are ready!” she declared boldly.
 
“We will march over the next three days, and then we will surround our
unsuspecting neighbors.”
 
Cheers and shouts
of goblin vulgarity filled the air as she finished her second sentence.
 
The soldiers were ready for payback, and they
were eager to move out toward their destiny.

“Crush
dwarves!” bellowed one of the rock trolls.
 
The ground shook slightly as he yelled into the cool night’s air.

“Indeed
you will.
 
We will go by night so that we
give our brethren below us ample time to arrive and begin the assault.
 
By the time we reach the towering fortress of
King Jarvis, their guard should have been lessened.
 
We will take the topside quickly and kill
everyone and anything that breaths on the surface!” she screeched.
 
More shouts of profanity rose from the goblin
ranks.
 
The rock trolls merely smiled at
the prospect.
 
Anyone who had ever seen a
rock troll smile had never been able to tell another soul about how chilling
the sight truly was.

“Crush…
Smash… Bash…” began the chant of the rock trolls.
 
They began to cadence their chant, and the
rest of the army responded by beginning to march in place.
 
They were all waiting for the order to move
out.

General
Yuki raised her arms into the air and screamed, “Move out!”
 
With that chilling declaration, the army
began to march in beat with the rhythm of the rock trolls’ chants.
 
The army below the mountain had instigated
their march at the same time, and the effect this had of the areas surrounding
the Sheldon Mountains was significant.
 
The ground shook violently like a natural quaking of the earth.
 
The only difference was that this continued
for days, not minutes.
 
Kana’s war
machine rumbled toward the dwarves while she prepared the orcs and high elves
for their siege of the Black Forest.

***

As
a messenger hurtled toward his king, he could tell that his majesty already
knew what the problem was.
 
The unusually
tall dwarf came to a halt right in front of King Jarvis and bowed down to the
ground.
 
Jarvis looked at the prostrate
soldier and impatiently kicked him to rise and give his report on the prolonged
quakes.
 
As the messenger stood erect,
sweat and dirt obscured the part of his face not covered by his beard.
 
He had the look of someone who had run all
the way from the deepest reaches of the mountain kingdom without stopping.
 
The dwarven leader tried to keep this in mind
as he waited for the panting figure to speak.

“My
lord, the quakes…are…not...naturally…created,” stammered the spent dwarf.
 
He was shaking uncontrollably from the effort
of running the extreme distance coupled with the fact that his trek had been
entirely uphill.

“Obviously
these quakes are not natural; continue,” he urged the messenger a little
impatiently.
 
He motioned for water to be
brought to help calm the overexerted dwarf.
 
The poor soldier took the water gratefully with his shaking hands and
downed it instantly.

“Thank
you.
 
My lord, our spies have determined
that the noises that started a day ago are being made by an army,” he
explained.
 
Chills ran down the spine of
the stout leader as he stood there silently.
 
“We have been able to catch a glimpse of a massive army of goblins and
rock trolls heading directly for us.
 
We
estimate that they will arrive in two days’ time.”

“What
is the reason for the rumblings being less intense during the daylight hours?”
asked the king in a forced calm.

“We
have determined that the goblins and rock trolls above the ground are traveling
by night only.”

“What
do you mean by the goblins and rock trolls above the ground?”
 
The king felt his heart sink down to his
nether regions.

“We
sent several spies through the tunnels leading from Mount Carrick into the
Sheldon Mountains.
 
They ran into an
innumerable army of goblins and rock trolls making their way through the escape
tunnels we had created.
 
They appeared to
be making no effort to hide their approach.
 
Only one of the spies returned to report their findings.
 
The rest were pulverized by rocks.”

“Summon
General Havrak at once.
 
Also, fetch Lord
Kromnög to join the general and me in my quarters.
 
After you have completed these tasks, you may
rest for a while.
 
I will have further
need of you in a few hours.
 
That is
all.”
 
King Jarvis smiled to show his
appreciation for the information and the diligence his soldier had shown.

“Yes,
my king,” snapped the dwarf as he came to attention and did an about-face.
 
He bolted as soon as he had turned away.
 
He knew that haste was of the utmost
importance in this situation.
 
His body
screamed at him to stop, but he would not slow until the tasks were completed.

As
the messenger ran off to find their general and the warrior druid, the king
turned to look to the west from his secluded balcony that was on the highest
point in the mountain city.
 
He had
placed his hands behind his back as he stared out across the green slopes of
the Sheldon Mountains.
 
Smoke filled the
air where the king knew that this above-ground army was camped.
 
What
have we done to provoke this attack?
 
Their banishment came from the gods, not us.
 
We have tried to make peace with them over
the years and have had an unspoken agreement not to interfere with one
another’s affairs.
 
What changed this?

As
the king stood on the balcony, his thoughts continued to whirl with
unanswerable questions.
 
He shook his
head sternly to stop this barrage; he needed to focus on what his people would
need to do to be prepared for the impending assaults from above and below
ground.
 
As he cleared his mind of all
thoughts, General Gideon hailed him.
 
His
general was panting slightly from running from the lower levels to this
impromptu meeting.
 
As he stood there
attempting to catch his breath, Lord Nariko walked calmly toward Jarvis as if
he had been expecting the summons.
 
He
did not appear out of breath, but that was not unusual considering his magical
abilities.
 
The warrior druid smiled
knowingly at the king and gave a slight nod.
 
The druids did not believe that they were subject to any ruler, so he
did not prostrate himself before Jarvis.
 
They believed that the guardians were responsible for nature and his kin
were the protectors of the peoples of Tuwa.

“King
Jarvis, I see that you have finally figured out what the unnatural rumblings
are,” Lord Nariko said knowingly.
 
The
general laughed heartedly at the coolness the druid displayed as he spoke to
the king.

“You
must forgive my druid friend; they have no sense of propriety,” said the
general ruefully.
 
“He probably could
have told you what the sounds were the instant they began.”
 
He gave the secretive magician a sideways
glance and a quick smile as he said this.

“So,
it was you that spied out the army above ground,” replied King Jarvis with a
widening smile.
 
He enjoyed the playful
banter with his best warrior and the most feared druid in all of Tuwa.
 
They were old friends, which made the
circumstances feel less insurmountable.
 
Between the three of them, they would be able to devise a plan that
would protect his people against this invasion.
 
They would outlast their enemies and would restore the proper order of
things in the end.

“Of
course I did,” replied the druid.
 
“There
is something you do not know yet, however.
 
The army below the ground is moving day and night.
 
They will be here tomorrow at midday unless
we delay them.
 
Their plan is a simple
one: attack from below to distract us from the army above.
 
They do not care that we know they are
coming; they believe that the assault below would draw the majority of our
army’s attention and leave our topside defenses weakened.”

“So
you believe that they will surround us above the ground while they attack us
from below?” queried General Gideon.

“Yes,
that is my contention.
 
I also believe
the army above and below the ground to be equal in strength.
 
As a result, we will not be able to leave our
defensive posture for quite some time.
 
If we hold our defensive positions, we will win this war by attrition,” explained
Nariko.

“Your
suggestion is to hunker down for the long haul and outlast these vermin?
 
How will that be accomplished?” asked the
king.
 
He agreed with the druid’s
assessment of the situation and thought his ideas were spot on.
 
However, the implementation of such a plan
would require extraordinary communication between the ranks.

“We
will have our oldest and most reliable friend, Mason Bardomli, set numerous
underground traps for our unwanted guests below.
 
This should slow the approach just enough so
that we could set traps above ground as well.
 
By doing this, we should be able to delay the assault for a couple of
days, which would allow us to be better prepared.
 
My only concern is with the channels of
communication.
 
How will we coordinate
our efforts so that we shore up the appropriate weak points?” asked General
Gideon.
 
He was a brilliant strategist
and knew that if they could not communicate well that a weak spot would be
found by their enemies.

“I
share your concern.
 
I believe that we
can use sparrow hawks for the most urgent communications, and the rest of the
correspondences will have to be run by messengers.
 
We need to organize a team of runners who do
not tire easily and can run fast,” the king explained.
 
“The hawks can also be used to eliminate
enemy spies.”

“So,
your sparrow hawk will carry the most vital messages while runners handle the
less-urgent reports?
 
I think that is the
best we can hope for,” replied General Gideon.

“I
will send an envoy to brown bears and their army.
 
They will assist us in defending our home,”
said Lord Nariko.

“Hopefully
your furry friends arrive in time to help us.
 
How will you relay your request?
 
We will need you here, so you cannot go in person,” the king said.

“You
are correct.
 
I have a reliable friend
that will convey the message for me.
 
He
will be able to deliver the message faster and with greater persuasive powers
than I could.
 
He will not fail us,” said
the warrior druid confidently.

“A
guardian would never fail us,” replied the king confidently.
 
His druid friend smiled slyly at his friend’s
ability to read his mind.

“I
always forget that it does not do any good to try and hide something from you,
King Jarvis.
 
You always know,” the druid
said with sagacious smile.
 
The king was
able to break through any mental barrier without much effort.
 
The trick was to simply mirror the mind of
the attacker and use the mental chink in the defense to enter their mind.

“Then
it is agreed; we must move quickly now if we are to avoid losing any of our
land or people.
 
We must be ready for
those foul beasts to crash upon us like a wave against a reef.
 
I will go at once to meet with our friend
Mason to begin the laying of traps, and then I will instruct the commanders and
captains about what we are planning to do.
 
I will not hold any information back from them so that they are totally
prepared,” General Gideon said determinedly.

“I
will take leave of you as well to meet with Lord Neb, and then I will return to
help finish the traps and other preparations,” said the druid quickly.

“This
mountain fortress has never fallen into enemy hands and has never even allowed
a foe to set foot inside these walls.
 
Mason has already improved the integrity of our defenses, so we must not
let him down by allowing any of these vile creatures to break down our
walls.
 
We owe it to him and to our
people.
 
We must be vigilant,” declared
the king boldly.