Dark Thane

Alone dwarf strode up the earthen ramp to the towering outer gate of Pax Tharkas. The night was dark as the deep earth, with not a star in the sky, and the warriors guarding the ancient dwarven fortress had set up dozens of torches along the ramp to illuminate anyone approaching in the night. Huge stone walls rose more than a hundred feet in the air before him, bone white in the light of the torches lining the ramp. The walls stretched away in a gentle curve on either side of the ramp, disappearing into darkness long before they reached the stony slopes of the mountain pass that Pax Tharkas guarded.

The dwarf wore a ragged assortment of plate and chain-mail armor, heavily weathered. He stopped just inside the circle of the torchlight and lifted his hands palm up to show they were empty. He couldn't see the gate's defenders because of the glow of the torches, but he knew they were watching him, probably down the length of a cocked crossbow.

After a few moments, he pushed back the chain-mail hood covering his head, loosing an unruly mass of greasy black hair and a jutting nest of beard. Flecks of some white substance clung to the ends of his beard hairs, while the deeper crevasses of his weathered face showed white with the same substance.

He thrust out his chest and shouted, "Open the gates!"

"Who are you, and what do you want?" a harsh voice answered from atop the battlements high above him.

"I am Mog Bonecutter, captain of the High Thane's personal guard. The thane desires entrance," Mog answered.

"If the king is with you, why doesn't he show himself?" the voice asked sharply.

"He doesn't want to be shot by accident in the dark by you night-blind Daewar dogs. I know your voice, Mason Axeblade, and you know me better than you'd like. So open this door before I hew it down!" Mog roared.

"It'll take more than one motherless iron-throated Klar to breach the gates of Pax Tharkas," the voice shouted in answer. "Open the gates! Wake up, you sluggards. The king has returned. Open the gates for your king, blast your hides!"

As Tarn and the remainder of his guards climbed the ramp to the outer gate of Pax Tharkas, one of the massive, ironbound valves slowly and silently swung open on its well-greased hinges. Torches appeared in the gap, held aloft by grim-faced dwarves dressed in mail. Half held loaded crossbows at the ready, the others clutched spears, and they all formed a lane to welcome Tarn into the fortress.

Mog led the way through the towering gate and into the first outer courtyard. Here between the first and second curtain walls, they were met by a hawk-faced dwarf bearing an enormous, two-handed warhammer. His meticulously groomed beard lay in a profusion of curling copper ringlets across his broad steel breastplate. As Tarn approached, the dwarf stamped down a narrow stair leading down from the battlements of the first wall.

"It is good to see you, Captain Axeblade," Tarn said wearily as he gazed around, taking in the arrangement of the fortress's defenses with a quick glance. Dwarves lined both outer curtain walls and stared down into the courtyard. Strict discipline held their tongues, but Tarn knew they were waiting to hear the results of the battle. He was not yet ready to speak openly of the disaster, though.

The outer defenses of Pax Tharkas consisted of two curtain walls that completely blocked the mountain pass. The two outer walls were too far apart to bridge, but narrow enough to provide a killing field for any attackers unlucky enough to become trapped between the first wall and the defenders on the second wall. The first gate was reached by a ramp leading up from the valley below. The second wall was higher than the first, as the road into the main fortress climbed up into the mountains. Beyond the second wall, the two massive square towers of Pax Tharkas rose majestically into the night sky, looming like black bulwarks with their narrow windows winking with torchlight. A third wall, taller and broader than the first two, was pierced by a massive iron gate and defended the pass between the towers.

The fortress was one of the wonders of Krynn. It had been built to guard a narrow valley through the Kharolis Mountains, which connected the high plateau of the elven woodlands with the wide plains lying before the dwarves' mountain home of Thorbardin. Dwarves and elves had built and garrisoned it together as a sign of peace between their two peoples, but that was long ago in another time. Now Pax Tharkas was a fortress on the northern frontier of dwarf lands, a buffer between Thorbardin and the troublesome north.