dwarves and surveyed the battlefield. They were outside the city in a widened section of the tunnels and they hadn’t been able to gain ground since the clash had begun. Both sides were about equally matched. Seeroth’s men were better trained, but the Purifiers had greater numbers to compensate for the fact that most the men had little weapon training.
A flash caught the old dwarf’s eye when Taric’s armor began shining. At first, seeing the way Taric faltered, he feared that the young dwarf had been injured until he howled in rage and dashed into the thick of the fighting. A dwarven women under his command began muttering in the ancient tongue before she too rushed forward. He caught sight of her eyes and found them to be glowing a deep green instead of the blue that he had seen in Taric’s eyes in the past.
Seeroth watched in astonishment as the two dwarves, moving faster than he knew possible, decimated the rebel forces. Both seemed imbued with super dwarven strength. Rebels were flying indiscriminately whenever they found themselves in either’s grasp. Taric’s armor reached a blinding intensity a moment before it burst into flame. The flame wreathed figure danced through the confused Purifier ranks spreading chaos as he went. The dwarven woman was no less impressive, but more graceful in her movements. At times, she would plow through a mass of soldiers with her shield and at other times would engage in an elaborate dance like sequence of pirouettes, evasions, and attacks fitting for someone half the stocky woman’s girth. Seeroth could see streams of what looked like fog following her movements. He thought they were steam until a dwarf, struck in the breastplate with her mace, landed at his feet. The dented breastplate was covered in frost leaves growing outward from the impact point.
With a terrible roar the two dwarves charged the last line of rebels. The one whose footsteps were painted in frost and the other aflame. The rebels were rightly intimidated and promptly broke and ran, but found that the two pursuing dwarves could move at speeds far faster than they could hope to attain. Seeroth’s remaining dwarves had been watching in astonishment as their battle was won by the two of their number. At the retreat of the rebels, they came to their senses and took up pursuit. Their work was done for the most part. The battle was won and the rebels in Underheim were defeated. It was a few minutes before Seeroth managed to catch up with the two dwarves that had won the day as they looked in confusion around at the rebels strewn about.
***
Urake was pleased to note that the midnight conversation had drawn his group together. Only Arken had been absent from the gathering. Niman’s Gift seemed to have alleviated the feelings of exhaustion and reduced the amount of sleep that was required by those that actually seemed to need sleep. Torroth had appeared a short time after Niman and Aleest had joined them a few minutes later. They had shared stories until the morning began to break on the horizon, were far more comfortable in each other’s company, and seemed overall to be in good humor. This might have been partly due to the jovial mood that Niman settled into as soon as he had gotten comfortable, but whatever the reason, Urake was sure that no longer was anyone in abject terror of his reputation.
When the sun had risen enough to continue, they had packed up and eaten a little dried food before setting out again. Kosovo knew of a tunnel that circumvented the steepest and most dangerous of the high peaks. It took a couple hours to traverse the cave but with Cero’s magic glowing rock leading the way, they didn’t have any difficulty. Exiting the other side of the mountain was a surreal experience. There were sheer rock walls that climbed up to razor thin ridges far above. The very sight was daunting. Of course, it was possible to find a valley that allowed one easier passage through the rocky profiles rather than simply climbing over. It would have taken days perhaps to find the valley in the wastelands of perpetual winter so the knowledge of the cave was invaluable. Urake resolved to include directions to its location in his next correspondence with the Princess’ men.
While they were still in the cave, a mysterious malady had overtaken both Cero and Inadar at the same time. They had apparently