What had once been foreseen as a quick, simple campaign to extend the empire of Quivalin Soth V-or Ullves -entirely across southern Ansalon, now had become protracted war as the human invaders met stubborn resistance far beyond their anticipation. Not only had the elves proved to be masters of strategy and tactic, and truly formidable fighters, but they were increasingly reinforced by the free tribes of humans on the central plains. Under theleadership of the fierce, implacable Cobar tribes, hordes of nomadic Sackmen and Baruk warriors, stealthy Phaerots, and men of a dozen other tribes had joined forces to counter the empire's aims.
Often, in recent seasons, empire units had found themselves fighting desperately against consolidated armies of humans and elves, all with one common goaclass="underline" to keep their people and their lands free of the yoke of the empire.
But still the armies came, marching out of Daltigoth, reinforced at Caergoth, and provisioned at Klanath as they streamed eastward, season after season, to fight and die at the pleasure of the Emperor Quivalin Soth V.
And though the emperor's commanding general, Giarna, led each campaign, there was often another with him-the dark, enigmatic man known only as Dreyus. It was whispered that where Dreyus went, no enemies survived the battles.
Each winter brought a lessening of hostilities, simply because travel was difficult in the cold season. But now it was spring again, and the armies of the empire were again on the march. By regiment and brigade, by company and platoon, the empire's units advanceed eastward, toward the lesser ranges and the plains beyond, to press again for conquest.
A key to the assault strategy was the fortress of Lord Kane at Klanath. Located at the mouth of Tharkas Pass, the fortress not only stockpiled supplies and provisions for the final marches into the plains, it also provided a safe zone, a midway place where travel-weary soldiers could rest and regain their strength for the assaults ahead. Lord Kane's forces held a wide perimeter here, with regular patrols along the fringes of the enchanted forest where elven rangers and guerrilla units lurked, and into the mountains south of Tharkas, to guard against any attack from that side.
For a time, after the slave revolt at Klanath Mines, dwarven raiding parties had harassed and tormented the empire's armies and supply trains. In a span of months, there had been hundreds of scattered attacks, always sudden, always unexpected, and almost always successful. Small, deadly parties of armed dwarves had seemed to come out of nowhere, slashing and killing, looting and pillaging, then vanished as quickly as they had come.
The horses, weapons, supplies, and equipment they had taken in these raids would have outfitted and fed a sizable army.
But then the raids had stopped. For almost two years now, Lord Kane's scouts and patrols had not seen so much as a single dwarf. It seemed as though the dwarves had tired of their raids and withdrawn completely from this part of Ansalon. Many of Lord Kane's advisors assumed that the wild dwarves had retreated into the vast mountain wilderness of the distant Anviltop Range, far south and west of Tharkas. Others suspected that they had withdrawn southward, to that mysterious and impregnable subterranean fortress that they called Thor-bardin. A few even suggested that the dwarven raiders had migrated into the frozen lands.
But wherever they had gone, they had disappeared. And though the human patrols still had to range far into the mountains of old Kal-Thax, the lord's task of holding Klanath was easier now that they no longer had to deal with the short, fierce people whose mountains these had once been.
Part III
Master of Tharkas
12
A Cobar Outing
Had Sakar Kane been a lesser man, the disgrace he had suffered some years earlier-when thousands of dwarven mine slaves had revolted, murdered their overseers, and escaped into the mountains beyond Tharkas-would have ruined him. The Emperor of Ergoth was not a forgiving man, nor one who tolerated failure. The Wall of Skulls in Daltigoth was evidence of that.
The Wall was seven feet thick and higher than a tall man could reach. It surrounded three sides of the formal garden abutting the east wing of the emperor's palace. And it was built entirely of the bleached skulls of those who had displeased Quivalin Soth V and his imperial ancestors.
Another man in Lord Kane's situation-having lost most of his best slaves, thus compromising the production of the emperor's mines-would have suffered recall to Daltigoth, inquisition by the emperor himself, subsequent prolonged tortures, and death. And his skull would have become part of the Wall of Skulls.
But Sakar Kane was no ordinary subject of the empire. Without waiting for recall to court. Lord Kane had acted. He immediately sent armed patrols to find and arrest all of his subordinates and bring them to the inner hall of his Klanath fortress. When they were all gathered there- everyone from old Renus Sabad, the Master of Mines, down to his deputies, chief warders, and even his accounting clerks, most of them still in their sleeping gowns- Sakar Kane gave orders to fifty of his most trusted field troops. On that morning, the only people who left the inner hall alive were those fifty blood-soaked men.
Then, with the brigades at his command, Sakar Kane swept eastward through Redrock Cleft, the final mountain portal to the vast plains, and launched a lightning sweep northward, striking camp after camp, village after village of the barbarians who roamed the arid plains beyond the Cobar steppes. With the several thousand slaves taken in this raid, Lord Kane had the mines in operation again long before the emperor's spies reached Daltigoth. And with the additional slaves he was able to purchase at Xak Tsaroth-nearly depleting his personal coffers-he had actually expanded production by the time the emperor's wardens reached Klanath.
He had a stroke of luck, as well. In one of the pit mines, his guards found a large stockpile of fine, already mined ores, obviously hoarded by some overseer for his own purposes.
Lord Kane was recalled to Daltigoth, escorted by the emperor's wardens. He went not in chains, but riding proudly at the head of the procession, followed by the empire inspectors who had just seen the bustling mines and rich ores. And he returned some months later, not in disgrace, but as Prince of Klanath. Quivalin Soth V was a cruel man, and a ruthless one, but he was not stupid. He understood both what had happened at Klanath-the successful revolt of dwarven slaves-and what Sakar Kane had done so expeditiously to regain favor.
Such a man would serve him well, the emperor knew, as long as he could serve himself in the process. In making Lord Kane Prince of Klanath, the emperor gave him a free hand as concerned the old dwarven lands south of there… and an excellent reason to do all in his power to build and sustain a mighty empire presence at the mouth of Tharkas Pass.
In the years since, Klanath had become a powerful seat of the empire. Not only was the fortress strengthened, but wide perimeter walls had been erected around it, and the sprawling, ungainly mining camp of before had become a walled city-a city that served and defended the southern road of the empire, where marched the armies, reinforcements, and supplies required by General Giarna in his eastern campaigns.
For a time, both the outlying areas of Klanath and the road approaching it were plagued by those wild dwarven raiders, striking swiftly and fiercely from the dizzy heights south of the road. Many hundreds of horses had been stolen by raiders from herds being driven eastward. Supply trains had been attacked-often in the dark of night-and large quantities of supplies, consigned to Klanath's stores, had disappeared. Countless weapons had been taken, and the number of drovers, drivers, handlers, and guards killed by rampaging dwarves had risen into the hundreds over a few seasons.