The Brotherhood of Dwarves: Book 01 - The Brotherhood of Dwarves Read Free

cave-ins as they are ravaged by battering rams, so sometime in the Third Kingdom all new settlements were built with only guard posts at the tunnels. However, Kireghegon was built with and still utilized metal doors that rose forty feet from floor to ceiling, and the hinges alone were taller and thicker than Roskin. The surface facing away from the city was carved with images of great leaders who had long been forgotten, even by the best scholars, and the surface inside the city was covered by mosaics of Erycke the Just as he defended the first town from cave trolls. The mosaics were made from gems and minerals and still glimmered and sparkled in thousands of shades of every color, but to Roskin the most astonishing feature was the mechanism for opening and closing the gate. One person of average size could turn the crank that stood on a two foot tall pedestal beside the main path, and the crank would wind or unwind a chain that disappeared into the ceiling and snaked through a system of pulleys that leveraged the massive doors. As the guard who was at least eighty years old demonstrated the system, pride surged through Roskin, for his ancestors had built this contraption that still functioned flawlessly after thousands of years.
    In Roskin’s time, most cities had been built by hollowing large caverns, then using the stones as blocks for new buildings. Ceilings were always reinforced with metal pillars and cross members, because they had found this system to offer more stability, yet every structure in the Kireghegon Halls was carved directly from the mountain. Many buildings were adorned with platinum, silver, and palladium ornaments, and all the doors were made of sturdy metals that showed no signs of rust. While he had seen paintings of this ancient city, Roskin found himself stopping every few steps and absorbing the grandeur of the former capital, and mapping the city took nearly two weeks.
    During that time, he grew fond of the citizens. For the most part, they were taciturn and stoic but not malicious or bitter; they simply had little to say because, as one dwarf put it, living around such history humbled them enough to keep them from thinking they had anything new to offer. When they did speak, they usually told some local legend or piece of trivia about a structure. Roskin listened to most only from respect for his hosts, but one story in particular caught his attention.
    According to the legend, the Kiredurks of this city had crafted a ceremonial figurine for the Ghaldeon king during the Second Kingdom. The sculpture was cast from platinum and portrayed two dwarves standing shoulder to shoulder in a defensive posture. The gift symbolized the Ghaldeon spirit of brotherhood after they had helped the Kiredurks repel an invasion, and it had remained in Sturdeon for over two thousand years. Rumor was that when the Great Empire captured the city, all precious artifacts were moved to a human town to the east. A group of dwarves, loyal to the fallen Ghaldeon king found the hiding place and reclaimed several pieces. After this, the remaining treasure was transferred to a fortress along the northern border for protection. The fortress had been built by the most ruthless general of the Great Empire, a man referred to by the ogres on whom he had waged war as “Evil Blade.” None who had been taken to the fortress was seen again, so no dwarf or ogre actually knew if the Brotherhood of Dwarves was there or not, but it had not been part of the recovered treasure.
    Roskin heard that story three times in Kireghegon, and it appealed to him. He had met the descendants of the displaced Ghaldeon king, who had died in the barn of a pig farm seventy miles from his palace. The farmer never knew that the king had been hiding on his farm until he noticed the smell one morning, and even then the farmer only knew that a filthy, disheveled old man had ruined a week’s worth of feed. The farmer went to his grave without sharing the story