Kindle Edition
Amazon
davidpauly.com/Fourthage
Category:
Fantasy
Publisher: Kindle
ISBN-10: B01N3OY6D4
Type: Fiction
Pages: 160
Copyright: Nov 6, 2016
Price: $2.99 (eBook)
The hunt for the assassins expands into the realms of the Dwarves and Elves, where Bruno the Dwarf and Lithir the Elf face terrible dangers, while encountering wondrous magic.
Bruno the Dwarf and Lithir the Elf are dispatched to investigate the Dwarven and Elven connections within the plot to kill Prince Alfrahil. Centuries of distrust between their races must be overcome if they are to be successful in their mission. Journey with an unlikely duo as they penetrate into the Dwarven mines of Nerea; where they are confronted by a maniacal religious sect. The Flame Priests’ lust for power threatens to consume all Dwarves with their racial hatred towards Elves and Men, and they vow to stop Bruno and Lithir at any price. Later, the North Forest Elves seem inviting at first, but Bruno and Lithir soon learn that it is an elaborate ruse and treachery soon stalks them at every turn. Desperate to learn the secrets of an ancient seer our duo travels deep into the wild forest where they face their most dire challenges yet.
How will they escape the traps set for them by their own people to bear their hard won secrets back to their lords? Conspiracy, the next episode in the Shadow Wars series, is filled with innovative magic and takes the reader on an epic journey into the realms of Dwarves and Elves, where Bruno and Lithir must rely on each other to survive if they have any hope of fulfilling their mission.
Excerpt
Bruno nodded and helped Karl replace the cushions. Completing this small task, Bruno and Karl proceeded ahead. Bruno counted his steps and thought they had gone a quarter mile as the tunnel ran on before them, low and uneven, sloping ever gently downward. The air grew hotter with each step. Bruno did not look forward to his climb up the tunnel back to the chambers of the Dwarves. As the heat grew, a faint sound could be heard from in front of them, a deep, irregular rumble with other sounds just on the threshold of hearing. Steadily the heat and sounds grew louder, the rumble nearly drowning out the higher-pitched sounds of Dwarf voices and an unfamiliar high-pitched whistling sound punctuated by cracks and pops.
Bruno began to see a red and orange glow ahead of him. It pulsed rhythmically. The odor of sulfur and phosphorus and burning meat overwhelmed his sensitive nostrils, and he had to fight off the urge to cough. Karl closed off the lamp completely, so its glow could not be seen; the orange glow ahead provided sufficient illumination to see.
Karl drew to halt and opened the bag he had earlier pulled from the entrance to the tunnel. He took out a dark gray thick woolen mask wet with some foul unguent, similar to animal urine, and gestured for Bruno to put it on. The mask covered his face, leaving only a thin strip bare between his forehead and his hairline. The eye holes were large enough to see through; Bruno's eyebrows jutted from just under the edge of the mask. The liquid that was on the masks allowed Bruno to breathe easier, reducing the chance that he would cough and be heard. Karl donned a similar mask himself. Then the two Dwarves continued forward.
Just past a sharp turn, Bruno saw a rough-hewn aperture a few feet wide that descended at a sharp angle through many layers of rock to open onto a vast chamber below. The blast of heat through the window was incredible, and Bruno felt his skin redden. Pain shot across the small unprotected strip of his bare forehead, and his eyes were nearly burned out of his sockets. He was about to withdraw his gaze, when Karl handed him a flask of water. Pouring some across his face, he was able to gaze a while longer upon the most wondrous scene he had ever beheld in his life.
A large bowl-shaped chamber lay forty feet beneath him, with a smaller depressed pit in the middle of the rough-hewn room. Molten rock bubbled and heaved at the center of the pit as if it were the primordial cauldron of liquid stone from which the very bones of the earth had been forged; the air above shimmered as if it were melting. As the molten rock cooled and hardened, the multitude of small cracks of cooling stone resonated with one another, creating a crescendo of sound wholly unfamiliar to Bruno. Along the edges of the pit were Dwarves dressed in tremendous thick cloaks, their faces protected by Platina masks, the red hand of the priesthood clearly marked on their outermost cloaks. These figures poured water from leather hoses that were attached to great bladders secured from the cavern walls. The water instantly turned into steam as it made contact with the outer edges of the pit. The molten rock cooled rapidly, creating the relentless cracking and grinding sounds so unfamiliar to Bruno. Through the billowing curtains of steam, he could make out the fissures and tunnel ruins that Tillo had mentioned, and he found himself wondering if the Hammer of the Dwarves might really be lying down there somewhere.
Bruno saw fiery shapes stretch up from the molten rock, though there was nothing to burn or catch fire. Instead, the very air roiled and twisted as if tormented by the heat, casting shadows and shapes that flickered in and out of existence like dreams hovering on the edge of reality. Bruno realized that some of these shapes resembled Dwarves, with heads, torsos, and two arms, though they lacked legs, their elongated bodies rising snakelike from the glowing stone. Bruno's heart leapt with joy and exhilaration as each creature emerged from the fire, and in this crude way, Bruno felt the magic of Parsifal displayed here.
A rush of wonder filled his being. These could only be the Flame Dancers.
The beings had many different colors, ranging from the deepest red, bordering on black, to hues of orange and yellow, green and blue, even violet. All of the colors of the rainbow were present in these forms as they swirled above the fires. Some appeared for just an instant, while others lasted for long moments as they moved in a wonderful yet terrible dance of power in the air above the pit.
Among the bundled-up Dwarves standing closest to the edge of the pit were other Dwarves wearing the same thick cloaks and clothing but no masks of any kind. Their faces were blistered and burned, their eyebrows singed away long ago, their eyes boiled out of their sockets, their hairless heads like open wounds. Jets of water were directed upon them continuously, cooling their bodies so that they did not perish from the flames.
Bruno watched a dark red Flame Dancer approach the nearest of these Dwarfs. The Dancer reached out with an arm that seemed more like a tongue of fire and touched the face of the Dwarf, who screamed in agony. The Flame Dancer held its contact for what must have been ten or perhaps fifteen seconds, than vanished. Released, the Dwarf collapsed to the hot stone floor. Quickly another Dwarf from the edge of the pit approached the fallen Dwarf . . . but not to offer aid, as Bruno had expected. Instead, this Dwarf leaned close to the mouth of the other and began scribbling notes upon a piece of slate with white chalk. When this Dwarf retreated, handing the slate to a third Dwarf, who exchanged it for a fresh one, the fallen Dwarf struggled blindly back to his feet and stood trembling at the edge of the pit, steam rising from his body as he was bathed in a fresh torrent of water.
Despite his deep fascination, and liberal application of the water that Karl had given him, Bruno was ready to retreat after fifteen or twenty minutes. His forehead was blistered from the heat, his nose felt like it had been stuck within a candle flame, and his eyes stung from a lack of moisture. But just then, a dark blue Flame Dancer emerged from the pit. The magical power radiating from this Dancer was palpable even at this distance by Bruno. Completely encompassing a different mask less and blinded Dwarf than the first, the blue Flame Dancer maintained its contact for nearly a minute before sinking back into the pit. The Dwarf collapsed and would have toppled into the pit had not the lurking priests rushed forward to grab him and drag him to safety. One of these priests knelt beside the injured Dwarf, who was speaking rapidly in words that Bruno could not hear over the roar of the steam. Suddenly the blinded Dwarf pulled himself to his feet and, darting past the outstretched hands of the priests, threw himself headlong into the pit. One last piercing cry and a violent gust of flame were all that marked his passage from the world. All the attending Dwarves bowed in unison in prayer perhaps, Bruno thought.
After all he had seen in his travels, Bruno had imagined that the ability to feel shock had been ground out of him. But he soon realized that he had been wrong, for in the next moment, a young Dwarf, his bare and sweating face unscarred, advanced from the edges of the cavern to take the place of the Dwarf who had flung himself into the flames. The joy of his dedication shone visibly upon his face. Immediately, a small green Flame Dancer reached out and caressed the young Dwarf's face almost lovingly. The initiate screamed in pain as the skin of his face blistered and his eyes bubbled in their sockets. The Flame Dancer vanished, and the initiate was doused in water even as another priest appeared at his side to record his words on a fresh slate.
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