Chapter 7: Kings Grief

During the last week since his son, Prince Jacobs kidnapping in the palace, King Leo had been very busy. He sighed as he finally slumped down in a chair. He buried his face in his hands with a deep groan, his elbows sat on his knees. He really just wanted to forget about the court and focus solely on finding his child, however he had a responsibility to his people. It was a constant struggle within him. The stress and anxiety was slowly eating away at him. 

To think he would have probably lost all his family in this attack if the dwarven king had not sent his hammer to him. He shuddered at the thought of what was coming. The dwarves will slaughter everyone to find what they were looking for. As he thought of this, he heard a knock at his door. 

" Enter," he said solemnly as he brought his face out of his hands. A man entered in jet black leather armour and a grim expression on his young looking face.

" My lord, I came with news about how the assailants left the town." King Leo nodded and gestured for him to continue.

" Several of the outer walls contain traces of stone magic. We have gathered all the mages who are capable of creating holes within our walls. Thankfully, mage's of that caliber are few in number." The man paused while shuffling his feet back and forth with an uncomfortable expression on his face.

" Do you need to use the restroom Harrald?" King Leo asked. The man turned pale and shook his head no. " Ummm..... I am just uncertain on how to give the next piece of news." King Leo frowned and gave the man a hard look.

" All the people with the power and knowledge to open up the outer walls happened to be dwarves." Harrald replied quickly.

Silence echoed through the room. King Leo closed his eyes and inwardly cursed. As if the kingdom needed another reason for the dwarves to attack.

" Please tell me that you did not force any of the dwarves to come answer your questions?" Harrald winced, " I tried... however they all refuse to speak to me or any other human for that matter."  

King Leo glared at Harrald. " I see....." He stood up slowly, his eyes full of determination and resolve.

" Where did you put them all?" Harrald frowned, " My lord....." Leo moved out of the room and started walking toward the interrogation room. Harralds voice went up another octave, " There is no nee..."

" You clearly have no idea the problems you have caused me by even bringing dwarves in for questioning at this critical time. Not only that, but you clearly have no idea on how to properly speak with the race of stone." Leo chided, " I will handle this and hopefully we can all survive this mistake."

" But....." King Leo sliced his hand through the air and said, " No buts.... This is not the time for words anymore. Only action matters."

King Leo could now hear the sounds of fighting coming from the biggest room in this sector of the castle. As he moved towards the door, two of his guardsmen in full plate armour were thrown out the door at the same time, hitting the wall with a loud thump.

King Leo was not surprised by this, though the same could not be said for Harrald. Leo just walked right past the guards and bellowed as loud as his lungs would allow him too.

" By the stone, be still!" The chaos stopped and before it could resume King Leo took charge. He quickly scanned the room, noting the twenty dwarves and three times as many of his guards scattered around the room, most of which were a bloodied mess. 

" All guards leave this room immediately. Pick up the injured on the way out. As for you dwarves, you will finish your complaints with me since I am the head of this household." 

Shocked expressions showed on every face, though the dwarves quickly covered their shock with scowls as they stepped away from the humans they were previously in combat with. This surprised the humans even more. They kept eyeing the dwarves as they started carrying out injured men. The dwarves simply watched with grumpy looks on their faces.

Once every guard was out, King Leo spoke harshly to his men, " Do not enter this room." His face turned grim, " Any man who disobeys this order will be deemed a traitor and will be banished henceforth." He knew that his guards were completely surprised and dismayed by his actions. He also knew that they had no understanding of dwarf culture. This was a courtesy to the dwarves, one that he could tell that they were not expecting to receive. 

King Leo moved into the room and shut the doors behind him. He then faced the dwarves. He was nervous, it had been a long time since he faced any dwarf in combat, let alone twenty angry male dwarves. It was possible he would die here. However he did not allow his feelings to show. " Alright, who wishes to go first?"

A burly dwarf with dark hair and in full plate armour stepped forward with a long sword in hand. As the dwarf was preparing to attack, one of the others yelled in dwarven, " Why do you think you get first crack at this human leech?" King Leo ignored the insult. Soon the other dwarves were arguing with the first to act and within moments, the dwarves were fighting each other. King Leo just let them while avoiding getting hit himself. It was an hour later before everyone in the room slumped down, nothing but ragged breathing could be heard.

King Leo leaned heavily on one of the walls near the door. "Ok, now that the combat portion of this meeting is done, can someone explain why any of you would even want to open the outside walls to a bunch of humans?" Grunts met the king's question.

" There is no point in wasting our time explaining dwarven ways to you." Many nods of agreement went around the room. King Leo snorted and spoke clearly in dwarven, " I have spent half my life living by the stone in the great mountains." He paused for effect, " I am just trying to understand your motives. I know the honorable dwarves of the mountain would never act without a reason."

" Well now, this is a surprise." Stonefist cried as he picked himself up. He ignored the other dwarves as he moved towards king Leo.

" I never thought that the human king would be so willing to do honorable combat with the likes of us." This statement caused all the dwarves to study king Leo. As for Leo, he was trying to remember if he had met the dwarf who called him out as king somewhere.

" This is the king?" A red haired dwarf asked. Stonefist nodded.

" How do you know this?" The dark haired dwarf in full plate armour grumbled.

" Our king sent me to deliver his own hammer to him in order to declare a blood feud between kin." Stonefist pointed at Leo, " Apparently he is a sworn blood brother to his royal grumpiness."

Leo chuckled, " I almost forgot how dwarves show affection for each other. Honestly, I am glad you brought me that hammer. Otherwise, I would have no clue as to the illegal activities of some of my nobles."

" Then why are you asking about why we opened the wall. It seems pretty clear to me that one of your nobles is behind our actions a week ago." 

Leos eyes narrowed as he thought about this statement. " The slippery b**** leaves no trail to themself. I can't even figure out if it's a bloody male or female doing all the bloody scheming." Stonefist said while running his fingers through his hair. 

" What was stolen from you all?" King Leo said softly.

Several voices responded at once, " My heart." " My heart and future." " My family's shield passed down from the first of the line." King Leo frowned as he thought to himself, ' it's no wonder why my blood brother declared a blood feud with me. I failed to protect the dwarves in my lands. Just as I have failed my son.' He closed his eyes as his heart stung with these thoughts.

Leo pushed off the wall and bowed his head to the dwarves in the room. " I am eternally sorry for this happening to each of you within my lands. I will do everything within my power to help you retrieve what you have lost." He then stood and opened the door to the room. He saw his wife outside, along with several guards. He forced a smile for her and then turned to Harrald. 

" Harrald, I want you to get a complete description of every dwarf that is missing from their families, as well as every dwarven artifact." He looked at the rest of the guards, " As for the lot of you, go back to your posts." 

Queen Jessica moved into the room without a word. Harrald followed after her. Leo  introduced the two and they began the process of getting all the information from the dwarves, including which way they saw the attackers of the castle leave.