for the other guard posts to figure out what is happening.” After glancing at the now freed Cero, Seeroth returned to the upper floor.
“What is going on?” Cero was confused by a number of things. He was surrounded by a race thought to be extinct. On top of that they seemed worried about an attack.
“There are some people that are offended by your presence here. Nothing for you to worry about.” Roild tried to reassure Cero and could tell by the frown that he hadn’t helped much.
“Do you work for Reigns?” Cero felt certain that he would still be in the cell if his captors had worked for Reigns, but he wasn’t sure of much right now.
“Who is Reigns?” Taric was shushed by Roild who was trying to listen at the blockaded door. A moment after, they heard shouting from the men upstairs, something impacted the door. They heard the wooden outer door give way while rust flew from the inner door hinges. Seeroth appeared at the stairwell and watched as another impact shook the stone slab.
“Roild, get the human upstairs now! Taric, help me reinforce the door.” Both the young dwarves sprang to do as they were ordered. The last Cero saw as he was pulled up the stairs was Seeroth moving everything he could get his hands on against the stone slab. Another smashing blow broke one of the hinges loose just before he lost sight.
Roild led the way into the upper room, but they had to duck as a rock from below was slung through a damaged and enlarged window. The guards that were at the windows responded with a hail of their own rocks on those below. From the metallic clanging, it sounded like they were protecting themselves with shields over their heads.
“Get them away from the doors! We can’t take much more of this. They will be inside within a couple units otherwise.” Seeroth appeared with Taric and began clearing the area on the side of the doorway at the top of the stairway. They managed to clear the barricade at the same time that a massive crash came from below. It took both Seeroth and Taric to loosen the latch, but their efforts were doomed to failure when it was discovered that the latch was the only thing that had been holding the slab in place. Without the latch holding it, the entire slam simply fell to the floor and shattered with a terrifying explosion of dust and shrapnel. Fortunately, no one was injured beyond the ringing that filled their ears and the miscellaneous scrapes and bruises.
“To the door men. They have to fight uphill to get through to us.” Seeroth took the forefront with his mace and knocked the first rebel to appear back down and head over heels. The rest of the guards took their places at his sides a moment later to battle the stream of dwarves attempting to take the upper floor.
“Cero! This way quickly.” Roild shook Cero from his shock and dragged him to a door in the wall.
“What about them?” Cero resisted when Roild tried to shove him into the dark chamber behind the door.
“Don’t worry about us. You just need to stay safe.” The door was closed before Cero could respond and he heard something heavy being shoved into place in front of the door. He was able to hear the fight raging beyond the barricade, but couldn’t really tell what was happening. A minute or so later, he thought that he heard Seeroth yell something then the fighting got louder then it became muffled again.
“Where is the human?” A strange voice greeted Cero’s straining ears.
“They took it with them when they retreated sir.” Cero’s heart nearly stopped.
“Don’t just stand there! Go after them.”
“They are holding us off at a choke point, but we outnumber them so it won’t be long.”
Cero didn’t recognize any of the voices outside. He was able to glean that the friendly dwarves had been forced to abandon the upper floor. Where they had gone was a mystery. On the other side of that door were people that clearly meant no good. It would only be a matter of time before he was discovered in his hiding place.
Backing up, Cero tripped and landed on his tail bone. Biting his tongue, he only just managed to refrain from making a sound. When the shock had subsided, he began feeling around the pitch black and discovered that he had tripped over a stair step. As