Chapter 9
This Way to Battle
The darkness of the mine gave way to a radiant glow of light from the inner chambers in which the Mole was heading towards. He was being drawn to it and the innocence of his mind could not keep him from it. It tantalized him and he could not help himself from it.
The closer he got to it the more he could sense its desire. What he felt was abhorrence, corruptness, and the existence of it was pure evil. Those feelings had brought him back to when he was much younger and in the presences of his own mother, an evil that he had always lived with and recognized.
The Mole covered his eyes just like he had always done when the cellar door opened and the flicker of light descended down onto the wooden steps and into his darkness. But this time was going to be different, this time he was going to go into the light rather than hiding and shielding himself away from it.
The Mole lowered the large bag to the stone floor that he had taken from the federation soldiers at the last check point before entering this section of Cullinan's mine. He had put into the bag gifts for his children to take back home with him. There was a soft worn blanket and filthy towel. He found a shiny chain bracelet and broken wooden comb. Setting this next to his feet, the Mole smiled thinking how happy his children would be with their new found gifts. He wiped the sweat from his brow and a feminine voice began to echo in his mind and then through his lips.
"The sweet Mole can do this. The sweet Mole can do this for us," her voice lightly whispered and then becoming much sterner. "The Mole must stop her!"
"The sweet Mole is afraid of her, she will hurt the Mole. She will hurt us," his voice whispered, sputtering from his fearful lips. He crouched down upon his heels, cowering in the darkness and shielding his eyes away from the glow of the light coming from the inner chambers.
"The lovely Damson can do it," her voice gently spoke to encourage him. "If the lovely Damson can do it, the sweet Mole can, too. We can both do it together."
"Yes, lovely Damson," his lips bent in a blossoming smile just thinking about her. "You should have spoken to her, you know. You always make me tell her what you want to say to lovely Damson."
"You know I do not speak to anyone, but the sweet Mole."
"You're much too shy, my dearest one, and much too bossy, too. The children tell this to me often," Thinking of their stuffed teddy bears, bunny rabbits and worn out old rag dolls, that they called their children.
"And you're much too timid of her," the Moles eyes darted toward the glow of the light from the chamber directing his attention to the evil in which she spoke about.
"She wants the lovely Damson, you know," the Mole spoke to her. "The sweet Mole can sense her desire."
"But the sweet Mole will not let her. We will not let her take our lovely Damson."
"No, we will not let her! She will not get her filthy hands upon the lovely Damson!" the Mole growled through his clenched sharp teeth.
"Come sweet Mole and let us stop her together."
The Mole hoisted the bag upon his shoulder and rose to his feet. He could feel her entity almost pulling him along. He shielded his eyes as he rounded the carved-out doorway and entered into the full light of the diamond in which Cullinan has brought forth from the kimberlite. Cullinan's diamond sparkled and illuminated, casting brilliant colors against the rock and stone cavern and then descended its energy upon the Mole. The Mole screamed with guttural cries as he clutched himself hissing and spitting. He sunk to his knees and fell to the stone floor crying out, "Lovely Damson, come help us!"
The Mole felt the power of Cullinan's diamond hesitating for just a moment from the two separate halves that existed within the Mole, trying to latch down and spilt to seize both entities. In that moment, his she half surged through the Mole and grasped the Mole's hands around the diamond and forced it into the bag that they carried. But the malignant presence had already grasped the Mole's male-half and dominated that spirit. But in the darkness of the bag the diamond's radiance could not be seen and it lay dormant within the bag. The heinous diamond seeped deeper into the mole, feeling in the darkness for the other entity it knew was hiding there.
The female half.
However, the irrationality of the Mole's mind could not comprehend the vileness of the one that now immersed him and it absorbed all his thoughts and his memories.
A white glow beamed in the Mole's eyes and began to sing, "Come out, come out, wherever you are!" The Mole called to his other half. "The mole is lonely, the Mole needs you. Please, come back to me."
The more the Mole called to her, she never came to him as she had always done in the past and he could no longer feel her presence. He began to cry, "She's gone…gone…..gone!"
He crumbled to the floor sobbing. "It's your fault, you did this to her! You made her leave me, mother! You killed her, she is gone. I hate you!"
The drumming began to echo in his mind, a drumming of malevolence that further sent his mind deeper into madness. While the drumming pounded in his head, images of Damson began to appear, images of him bringing Damson to the diamond within his bag. He clutched his bag in both his hands trying hard to choke the life out of it. The drumming became louder and louder. The Mole hoisted the bag on his shoulders and pressed his hands tightly to his ears and he began to scream.
"You will not get your filthy hands on the lovely Damson. The Mole will not let you kill her! We will bury you so deep in the ground that no one will ever find you!"
He ran screaming from the cavern where Cullinan's had brought up the largest diamond ever found.
XXX
Coll slid upon the loosen rocks and reached his hand out to grasp Par's fingers that held onto the embedded rock while he dangled on the edge of the crevice. Within that split second, Coll saw Par's fingers slip from the rock that he had held onto and his brother was gone from his sight. Morgon, at the same time, lunged towards Coll to save him from sliding off the edge with his brother.
Walker Boh forced a weave of his magic so rapid that he knew his finger tips were burning with its release. The power raced out of him like a whip being released with such a vigor the sound of it boomed and echoed within the cavernous space. The strength of it grasped Par from mid-air and held him with such force it took what breath he had left. Then just like a whip being recoiled, he flew upon the wind until he fell crumbled at the feet of his uncle on the solid cavern floor.
Taking in his breath, he felt Walker Boh's hand clenched about the front of his coat and being hoisted to stand. His voice was indignant and his eyes heated as coals upon a fire.
"Why didn't you use your magic, Par, it would have saved you!" Walker shouted at him.
"I didn't have time Walker, it happened all too fast," it was all that Par could say before he noticed Walker's eyes suddenly gentle.
"You could have……" Walker Boh stopped in mid-sentence knowing if he was not there that Par would have died; that fact alone is what brought him first to his angry and then to his compassion for his nephew.
He released his hold of Par and walked a couple of steps away to collect himself and then turned back to him.
"What we face in this mine, Par, is far faster, equally deadly as your missed step. The magic that you possess is all that can save you and perhaps save them. Keep your wits about you, Par and trust your magic."
With that said, Walker Boh turned around and he was making his way up the ledge and out of this section of the cavern.
Coll's arms reached around Par and held him in a masculine hug holding him until he stopped shaking. Par patted his brother's shoulder, "It's all right, Coll. I'm all in one piece."
Morgon also placed his arms around the two, joining their relief that Par was still with them. "Come, if we lose sight of Walker, we'll all be lost in this forsaken mine."
No sooner than they had left the entrance of the mine when it became illuminated once again on the farthest side of the cavern. The torches held by thousands of dwarves in a well-formed line, all fraught with weaponry and gaunt faces written with retribution aimed at the Federation now under seize.
Xxx
The walls of the mine echoed with the hammering of the boulders from the catapult of the Free-born Fighters and Damson knew she ran out of time.
"Griffin, gather your dwarves and lead them out of the mine. The Free-born Fighters need your strength of arms to drive the Federation out of this valley."
"It's all ready done, Lass or have you lost count with our numbers of freed dwarves?"
Damson had lost count how many caverns they entered, how many federation guards that they had assaulted and captured. With Griffin leading his dwarves they had proven the strength of the dwarves was everything that her father had said them to be. Their diminutive height held nothing back from the skill that they possessed with the weaponry that she brought. Swiftly they had gone through endless caverns after caverns freeing thousands upon thousands of dwarves. Padishar now had his army that he wanted.
Griffin grinned at Damson knowing how hard that she was pushing herself to free all the dwarves. She had organized them and planned out strategies to capture the federation soldiers that guarded sections of the mine. They all but had them completely contained.
She stood up and wiped the beads of sweat from her brow and knuckled her back. Damson handed the keys over to the dwarf that she had just freed from his chains to allow him to free his other comrades.
"Once these dwarves are freed, we'll send them out as well, but we'll need my group to enter into Cullinan's cavern. His group of dwarves is the ones heavily guarded. There, in his mine the strikes are the largest. We'll be hard pressed getting past those guards."
Griffin looked onward to the next level of the mine.
Cullinan's level.
Thinking of seeing Cullinan again almost brought a smile to the old dwarf. It had been years since he last laid eyes upon his good friend. He knew Cullinan as he knew himself. There was not a kinder dwarf in all Callahorn. Freeing the dwarves in this section of the mine was going to be his pleasure. Griffin grasped the hilt of his short sword in a firm grip and waited while the others were doffing off their chains and organizing themselves in groups to be lead out of the mine and fight for the Free-born Fighters.
"This way, Lass!" Griffin gestured with his sword pointing to the lowest level of the mine. His group of dwarves stood behind him and raised their torches to light the entrance of the lowest section. While Damson joined Griffin at his side, he turned to her saying, "Just on the other side of this stone stands the federation soldiers. This should be one of the best fighting that you'd put eyes too."
Griffin all but glowed with the excitement to engage in another battle with the federation. "There's lads down there that I need to settle a score with and no time better than now."
Griffin all but cavorted his steps down the stone ramp and rounded the corner to enter Cullinan's cavern.
There hard faces turned sullen taking in the sight that met them. Federation soldiers lay out upon the floor in a bloodbath of decapitated heads and bodies. Not only did he see federation soldiers, but dwarves he had known his entire life. This was just not a battle of the soldiers and dwarves, this went far beyond that. This was veil in iniquity. The cavern held gibbering terror and smelt of death.
Griffin tried to pull his wits in place trying to make sense of what he saw. Walking further in the cavern, he saw a dwarf hunched over a bloodied body and it rose to greet him.
Griffin's eyes popped when he instantly recognized Cullinan or what he thought was Cullinan. He lowered his sword for only a moment and immediately raised it again. Cullinan's eyes were white awls of glowing light and those eyes were upon Damson. He could sense death looming.
Griffin only had a moment to shout, "Get her out of here!"
Before those haunting eyes gleamed with a ray of light that hit him full force and his life fell away from him as he hit the stone floor.
The Dwarves standing behind Damson grabbed her and hoisted her upon their shoulders and turned running out of Cullinan's cavern.
Damson fought and kicked at the dwarves shouting, "Put me down you stone-heads!"
One of her feet hit a dwarf square upon his nose and he yelped letting go of her leg. Damson swung around and belted another dwarf with her fist and he too let go of her shoulder and fell back holding a large welt growing on the side of his cheek. The other dwarves holding her immediately let her go not wanting what the others got from her.
"Griffin is dead by that thing in the cavern and you all just leave him there!" she spluttered shouting at them.
The dwarves stood huddled together staring opened-eyed and shifting there gaze upon Damson and then to each other.
"That could not have been Cullinan!" one dwarf stated.
"Why would Cullinan kill Griffin?" asked the other.
"No dwarf could do what my eyes saw," added the white-gaunt faced dwarf standing closest to Damson.
"That's more than what sword nor arrow can kill, my lady," added the red-headed dwarf who stood on the other side of her. The rest of Griffin's dwarves all nodded in agreement.
The entire group of dwarves seemed confused, disheartened and shaken by what they had just been through. Damson who had lived her life with her father and had seen more battles and planned strategically precise maneuvers against the federation soldiers and commanded the Free-born Fighters, now took control over them. They had no time for commiseration for the loss of Griffin or the others who had fallen at the hands of that thing. She had to rally them before their courage faltered.
"You there, get behind the stone! You three on the other side him! The rest of you follow me!" Damson shouted and began organizing the dwarves for the assault she knew that was coming. That thing was now coming after them and she was going to stop it. She had to or they were all going to die.
The white glow in the eyes of Cullinan dimmed and he turned from the stone entrance and the woman he intended to capture for the diamond that possessed him. He felt her call to him when the Mole had placed it in total darkness. He began to move fast, back through his section of the mine and the cavern where she had rested.
XXX
The ground shook with each catapult that was released as another boulder went sailing through the air. Wren slowly opened her eyes and felt another shuddering of the ground.
She kicked off her blanket and rolled to her feet and her head felt like it was still on the ground. Her vision tilted trying to take in the sight of the Rovers running and the Rock Trolls hoisting large boulders into the catapults. Her knees felt weak and unstable and would buckle if she tried to take a step. Her feet were planted firmly on the ground while she waited for her senses to clear. Then she felt a familiar tap upon her chest and she looked down between her breasts. There was her bag of the elfstones and she clutched the bag in her hand. Wren immediately knew if Walker Boh had given them back to her, then her oath to him was no longer warranted. Her eyes rose from them and she knew that there was dark magic within this war and her elves needed her more then their military commanders.
Triss bounded to his feet from where he was sitting with Tiger Tye and raced over to Wren's side. "My lady!" his voice raised in a pitch with excitement at seeing her awake and standing before him. Tiger Tye was paces behind him.
"Triss, what is happening here?" Wren rubbed her temples trying to clear her head.
"It's the war, my lady. It has started."
"Triss, I can see that!" Wren stated irritably, her head pounding as loud as the boulders in the catapults.
Triss reached out his hand to steady the queen of the elves when she wobbled taking her first step. "You're not well yet, my lady. You must rest yourself."
"Non-sense, Triss," Wren stated and turned to Tiger Tye.
"Get your roc ready for flight, Tiger Tye and get us into that federation camp!"
"We cannot, my lady. As long as those boulders are pounding the federation, we can not get within leagues of that camp."
Wren's eyes narrowed at her requests not being honored. "Then you get us as close as we are able!" she shouted at them.
"My lady," Triss cringed at her temper. "The Druid has made us give our oaths not to allow you nor Llewellyn within leagues of the Dragon's Teeth."
"Since when does Druid orders or oaths outweigh those of the queen and for that matter the safety our own people! I will not stand here, Triss, and watch our elves being slaughtered and certainly not by a Druid's oath! Get your roc ready Tiger Tye!"
"Yes, my lady!"
Tiger Tye pulled Triss by his elbow and the both went scurrying away to obey her.
"Trouble, my lady?" asked Rhys casually as he strolled over to her with an indecent smile upon his lips.
"Wipe that smile off your face, you scoundrel, and do what you can to stop those catapult. I have to get into that federation camp!" snapped Wren all the while running her fingers through her hair doing her best to straighten it. She needed to look queenly and in command and she could not do that with rumbled hair and wrinkled clothing.
"Done, my lady," came Rhys quick reply as he snapped his fingers as if magically honoring her request. He already knew that the catapults were only to fire one hour after sunrise, but he did not want to tell her that part.
When Wren looked up she saw the Rock Trolls lumbering into the forest and away from the catapults.
"You're incorrigible, you know that don't you!" Wren had to smile beside her ill feelings and bad temper.
"Yes, my lady," Rhys feint an obsequious smile. "You would have me no other way!"
"Rhys, really!" Wren set pleading eyes upon him. "Do be serious, please. We have to get into that camp. The lives of my elves and the men of the four lands cannot conquer what these stones can prevent."
Wren clutched the elfstones in her hands and looked towards the Dragons Teeth dolefully.
"Then it's my honor to escort you there personally," Rhys responded and gave her a deep eloquent bow. He also did not want to tell her that is where he was heading anyway. He had hoped to go with her by way of roc, of course, verses traversing the forest land with the other Rovers and Rock Trolls.
Raymere petulant mood boomed with the shout of his voice. "Rhys, get back with your men. We've got a fast march ahead of us!"
Rhys casually brought his arm around Wren and placed an indolent stance of his feet upon the ground just to tweak his cousin's uproarious bad mood and waited for his cousin to join him.
Wren's eyes rolled knowing full well Rhys's waywardness of his character. When Raymere joined them seething with anger and ready to come to blows with his cousin, Rhys only grinned showing a dazzling rueful smile.
"I'll tell you what, Raymere. You march and I'll be waiting for you when you get there."
Raymere set back on his heels knowing the bilked character of his cousin and he raised and interesting brow. "And how will you accomplish that, dear cousin?"
"By way of roc, of course, dearest cousin."
Raymere scratched his heavy bread and nodded with a widening grin upon his lips. "Then I don't suppose you have a little room for your dearest cousin to be joining you?"
Wren elbowed Rhys to his ribs and shook her head contemptuously at him. "The both of you are impossible!"
Rhys released Wren and clutched his ribs groaning. "That is with our lady's permission." He bowed still holding on to his ribs.
Wren folded her arms in front of her and was piqued anew at the pair of them. "Just as long as you do not have any more cousins wanting to join us," she added raising her eyebrows at them.
"No, my lady," they both shook their heads and then smiled at each other knowing they did not have a long walk ahead of them.
Llewellyn doffed off her blanket and sat up yawning and Wren went over to see to her.
"Wren!" Llewellyn grasped her hands tightly. "Bless the light, you are well!"
Wren stroked Llewellyn long hair gently, "Thanks to you and your gift. May the Arborlon's blessing always be upon you."
"And upon you, my lady," Llewellyn added smiling up at Wren.
"Are you well, Llewellyn?"
"Yes, my lady, quite well."
"Then cast your blankets and rise, Llewellyn. Tiger Tye is bringing his roc and we must be off to aid our people. Your talents will be needed once again."
