Two centuries later, during the War of the Lance, the dwarves, mainly Neidar, had held Pax Tharkas against the onslaught of the dragonarmies, allowing many thousands of refugees, including humans and elves in great numbers, to escape southward, evading certain and horrible death. Following that war, the Neidar had for the most part returned to their villages, leaving Pax Tharkas, again, to the mountain dwarves of Thorbardin.
Key to the fortress’s imperviousness was the ingenious defense mechanism that had closed the gates against Verminaard’s dragonarmy: the interior of the Tharkadan Wall was hollow, penetrated by only a single massive gate in the north face of the wall and an equally large, lonely gate in the south. The space within the wall, and above the two gates, had been filled with many tons-a small mountain’s worth-of heavy boulders. When the enemy had threatened to breach the defenses, those rocks had been released and fell into the gap between the gates, forming a solid and intractable barrier.
That fill thwarted the attackers, and it had remained in place for many decades, blocking passage from north to south, a sturdy reminder of the darkness that had befallen the world with the coming of the Dark Queen’s legions. Nearly a century after the War of the Lance, the world had finally changed enough for a reopening to be considered.
The lone dwarf on the rampart felt a thudding through his boots and knew that the important work never ended. Another ton of rocks had been cleared from inside the gates and carted upward to arm the great trap again. His workers, those of the day shift, were already busy after relieving their colleagues who had labored through the night, for it was a task that continued, under the orders of Thane Bellowgranite, around the clock.
Tarn Bellowgranite felt the vibration, heard the rumble of rock, and he was pleased. His was a life that had been occupied with many vital tasks, but he had convinced himself that none of them were so crucial as that, the job that he would see completed in the twilight of his days. The road through Pax Tharkas would reopen, and it would be Tarn-well, the dwarves of Tarn’s clan, more accurately-who would make it happen.
They called him the Tharkadan Thane, his loyal dwarves did, even though the title was vaguely embarrassing. He had once been a true thane, leader of the Hylar clan in Thorbardin-an unusual and exalted post for him because he was an exotic blend, descendent of a Hylar father and a Daergar mother. Both of his parents were long gone, killed during the Chaos War. For a time, the son who bore their legacy had seemed to have exceeded even the promise of his twice-noble birth: indeed he ascended to become the high king of Thorbardin, the highest-ranking noble in all dwarvendom.
But that seemed a lifetime ago, even though it had been only a decade. Jungor Stonespringer’s revolt had overthrown him, and he was exiled. At first he had come with merely three hundred others, including his pregnant wife and their infant son. A mixture of Hylar and Klar dwarves and a few Daewar-those who had not journeyed east with the Mad Prophet-joined him. In the following years, other mountain dwarves had come along until he ruled a population of a thousand or so able-bodied adults, together with their young and elderly dependents. They called themselves a clan, though they were really refugees from three true clans, and they called him their thane, though he was really just the leader of a band of refugees.
Still, he was a sort of leader, and they were a sort of clan, and their home was important: Pax Tharkas. It was their position in that great fortress, more than anything else, that gave them a sense of identity and continuity in dwarf history. Even more, it provided them all with a purpose, for Tarn had vowed to see the Tharkadan Pass reopened before he died. He deemed the task of reopening the pass so important that many nearby fields lay fallow since the farmers who would have tended them were otherwise busy in fulfilling their thane’s commands. That goal gave him the strength to rise and face each new day.
To be sure, he very much wished to see his children grow to adulthood and prosper, but his years suggested that might not happen. He had married late, to a much younger dwarf maid, and though she had borne him two wonderful offspring, his age made him feel more like their grandfather. He was glad they were there with him, but as he often reflected privately, he often acted as father to a nation more than father to his two children.
Long had he spurned trade with the hill dwarves, the Neidar whose settlements dotted all of the surrounding lands. His intransigence had not sat well with his wife, who was of Neidar blood, but he understood the ancient rivalries of his people better than he had when he was younger, and he knew that a mingling of populations would inevitably hurt the mountain dwarves in Pax Tharkas. He nursed the idea that his “clan” would one day return to Thorbardin to oppose and defeat Jungor Stonespringer and his fanatical followers. That narrow-minded despot represented everything Tarn hated about dwarf stubbornness, rigid thinking, and mindless obedience to authority.
Tarn Bellowgranite’s life had already been marked by too much disappointment and tragedy. He had known love only once; his true beloved-a Hylar warrior named Belicia Slateshoulders-had died in the residual destruction of the Chaos War, and after that he had thought himself destined for a life of loneliness.
His marriage to Crystal Heathstone had been a political arrangement, but even as they took their vows, he had hoped that it might signal a thaw in the long enmity between the dwarves of the hills and the mountains. He and Crystal had become fond of each other, even learned to love each other in a limited way, but at the same time the fractures between their two peoples had seemed to grow deeper. Eternal wars, betrayal under the mountain, and lingering clan hatreds had all cast their pall over the life of the thane and his wife. Only in their two children had they found a focus, and a hope, for the future.
Tarn completed his circuit of the wall, looking up as he approached the east tower. The sky was clear, but the sun had not yet risen high enough for its rays to penetrate the steep-walled valley. Even so, he could detect the first signs of bright daylight limning the crest of the ridge overhead, and he paused to admire the daybreak for a minute before approaching the door to the tower. A Hylar guard snapped to attention, holding his battle axe at port arms as the thane approached then quickly opening the door for his thane.
Tarn nodded his thanks and entered the large, open room that served as a rallying point and ready room for garrison troops. It was currently empty of dwarves, but the rows of benches and the racks of weapons and shields lining the walls gave proof of its martial purpose. A single stairwell spiraled through the center of the room, leading both up and down.
The thane would soon descend to his living quarters, but there was another part of his morning ritual that he needed to complete first. Climbing the steps to the next level, he reached the fortress’s command center. The level was divided into four large rooms, connected by a central hallway, and he headed to the farthest of those rooms. The door was open, and he strolled into the office of the garrison commander, Captain Mason Axeblade.
Axeblade was seated at his desk, talking to his former commander, retired general Otaxx Shortbeard. The two Daewar started to get to their feet as Tarn entered, but the thane waved them back to their chairs and took a seat for himself.