Page 326 of Of Empires and Dust

The man nodded and set off with that strange waddling run he had.

When Kira looked at her sister, Erani knew what she intended immediately. “We don’t need it.”

“How long will we last against elven mages with just axes and steel, Erani? If it were Hoffnar alone, I’d say one of ours was worth ten of his. But the Spark… Hafaesir wove the soul of the bersekeer into our blood for a reason. He gave us the Rockbloodfor a reason.”

“The cost is too high. Less than half survive. You said it yourself. The Wind Tunnels are still open. We can start evacuating now. Send as many as we can back to the outposts and take our chances with the Portal Heart. Live to fight another day.”

“Look about you, sister.” Kira gestured at the crowd of Belduarans and around at the city in which they stood. “We stand in Vindakur, the lost city of old. We seek to travel through a Portal Heart – a godgift. Our home is taken from us. We hide in caves and tunnels. Hoffnar leads our people to war and slaughter. Iwill notgive him this place. I will not.”

“It is rocks and ruin, sister. We can pick our battlefield more cleverly when we are not blindsided by elven mages. A good hunter takes their time. They make a plan with care. Let him have this place. We will find another way to see the Belduarans to safety. They will simply have to wait a little longer.”

“Rocks and ruin?” Kira gave a laugh that was both sorrow and anger. “This is our history. It isour people. Hafaesir gave us two gifts – the Portal Hearts and the Rockblood. I will allow Hoffnar neither.” She grasped Erani’s pauldrons and looked into her eyes. “You are my blood, and I trust you with my soul. Tell me to grab my axe and stand right here. Tell me that you want us to fight and die side by side, here. Tell me this is the end and that you welcome it. Tell me all that, sister, and I will return to the stone with a bloody smile on my lips. My axe will be like Hafaesir’s own, and we will burn ourselves a blazing glory in the fires of battle, side by side.” Kira dropped her voice low. “Tell me that is what you want, and I will do it. But I will not run.”

“Kira—”

“I will not run!” The rage that had been bubbling in Kira ever since Hoffnar had butchered Mirlak and her guards came screaming to the fore. “I watched his axe carve through Elenya’s face. I stared into Mirlak’s cold eyes when that piece of kerathlin shit threw my friend’s severed head onto my table. He carved the hair and the rings from my head.” Kira pulled at the short, ringless hair that grew from her head in clumps, breath shivering through her as her shoulders shook. She slammed her armour-clad fist to her breastplate. “I am a warrior of Hafaesir. I am thequeenof Durakdur. And I will not give him any more! Today – here – we will make the first cut. Hoffnar thinks he has trapped us in this place. No doubt he has known of your discovery for some time and used it as bait. Draw us here, trap us, slaughter us. But it will be them trapped in here with us.We will show them Hafaesir’s wrath. We will show that rotten coward the true strength of the dwarves of Durakdur.”

Kira turned to Vikmar and the three score of Queensguard that stood about her. “What say you?”

Vikmar slipped his battleaxe from the loop on his back and slammed the butt into the stone, the other guards doing the same. “We are with you, my queen.”

“And what of you, Uncle?” Kira looked to Alrick, his sons Lomak and Kandzal beside him.

“The bersekeer blood runs thick in our veins,” Alrick said. “The dwarves of Durakdur are warriors from our skin to our bones. The only certainty is that blood will wet my axe. Let them come. We will be waiting. And if I can return to the stone with the blood of the rock in my veins, then even better.”

Erani nodded slowly, letting out a sigh through her nostrils. “We all die eventually, I suppose. I would rather do it with an axe in my hand and a tale to tell when I return to the rock.”

“Will you drink with me?” Kira asked, pulling her sister closer. “Will you drink the blood of the mountain? Will you set your soul free?”

Again, Erani drew a long breath. “I will.” She swallowed. “At least if the Rockblood deems me unworthy, this place will be where I rest.”

“That will not happen.” Kira squeezed her sister’s shoulder, holding her grip for a few moments. “Vikmar, spread the word. For the first time in almost a millennium, the children of Hafaesir will wield his hammer. All those who have the bersekeer blood in their veins and are willing to drink the blood of the mountain are to assemble here. Go now. We do not have time to linger.”

Chapter 77

Hammer of Hafaesir

22ndDay of the Blood Moon

Vindakur, Lodhar Mountains – Winter, Year 3081 After Doom

Lumeera Arian heftedher shield in her left hand, her sword hanging in its scabbard at her hip. Before her stood an enormous stone door set into the rock face of the cavern, framed on either side by walls of stone and rubble piled some twenty feet high.

The riders had returned with reports that Hoffnar’s forces marching upon Vindakur numbered almost fifteen thousand, dwarves and elves between them. Over double their own number.

In all likelihood, Lumeera would die this day. She knew it, and she accepted it. Not in the wildest of her dreams would she ever have imagined that one day she would be Lord Captain of the Belduaran Kingsguard. Not ever. Tarmon Hoard had been a man cut from the cloth of the gods. She would have followed him wherever he led. And so too Baria Hawe before him. To bementioned in the same breath as souls of that ilk was more than she had deserved in this life.

The Kingsguard may have been gone – they were the Highguard now – but their purpose, her purpose, remained the same. To stand shoulder to shoulder with the men and women around her, to lead them as their Lord Captain in the defence of the last bloodlines of Belduar… There was no greater honour, no more noble a thing for which a life could be given. That thought, those very words, brought a smile to her face as she remembered what Tarmon Hoard had said the night Belduar had fallen.

“We are the Kingsguard of Belduar!”he’d roared, his hand on the pommel of his sword as he’d looked out at the assembled Kingsguard.“They sing of our deeds across Epheria! Those men and women marching on our home, they were raised on stories of our defiance. We are their legends! And tonight, we will be their nightmares! Some of us will not live to see the rising sun, and to those brave souls I say ‘thank you for the honour of allowing me to stand by your side.’ There is no greater purpose than to protect. And there is no more noble a thing than to give your life in the preservation of another. You are the Kingsguard of Belduar, and you will live in the stories told of this Age. You are immortal.”

Lumeera’s blood had been pure fire that night, and every hair on her body had stood on end. She had given her entire life to defending the people of Belduar. She held no fear in giving them her death too.

“Lord Captain!”

Lumeera turned to see Oleg Marylin pushing through the rows of Highguard. He wore an ill-fitting set of dwarven plate, an axe hefted over his shoulder.

“What are you doing here, Oleg?” Lumera looked down at the man, his scraggy beard poking through the bottom of thehelmet, the chainmail beneath his breastplate bulging. “You are the Keeper. These people will need you on the other side.”

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