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Devahammer by Allen Stover

For Roxanne, Kacie, Jeff

Prelude
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Epilogue

Chapter 2

Roxilandra was sitting at a small table in the corner of the lobby. She was in a calm and peaceful meditation, channeling Mishakal's divine energy as she prayed for her spells.

There seemed to be nothing that could disrupt the cleric's concentration-except a bony finger that began tapping on her shoulder.

She tried to ignore it at first, but the tapping became more irritating. Finally she snapped her eyes opened and turned her head, seeing Timber standing there with a smile on his face. "I hope you have a good reason for interrupting me while I was praying," she said with her arms at her hips.

Instead of answering Roxi's question, Timber looked over at the two empty ale mugs at the bar. "You didn't watch over my ale."

Roxi shrugged her shoulders. "You shouldn't just leave your ale lying around. Now seriously Timber, what's going on?"

Timber shook his head and placed the empty mugs in his newly acquired brown bag. "There were some dark knights just outside harassing some dwarves," the elf responded, staring at a finely crafted silver spoon. "So Dorm and I went outside to help them."

"Which would explain your hasty retreat," remarked Roxi as she watched Timber moving over to a nearby table.

"Hey that kender has my fork," shouted a customer from across the lobby.

"But I didn't..." Roxi stopped, and looked over at Timber, who wore a not so innocent look on his face.

"Dorm went to follow the dwarves," Timber whispered "I suggest we leave and catch up with him as soon as possible."

Timber and Roxilandra quickly left the Elven Dagger. The cleric ran behind the rogue.

Her ears picked up the sound silverware rattling from his bulgy back pocket.

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Dexter had the dwarves tied up and kept Borowin's map in his back pocket.

Vash was wounded pretty badly, but Dexter made sure that the bodyguard's wounds were attended to.

Borowin cursed Reorx and cursed himself. If the god that the dwarves revered so much had chosen him for this quest, then why had he let him be captured by these dark knights.

Brunhilda and Vash were napping quietly. The mystic suggested to them both to get some rest while Dexter kept them tied up. Borowin watched the blond dark knight sitting at a table, looking over the map.

The Lily Knight studied the map intensely, closely examining each location. Dexter looked up from the table, seeing Marcus standing in front of him. "What do you report Marcus?"

Standing the same height as his superior officer, Marcus bowed to Dexter and replied," Sir, Commander Unther is back at the camp, awaiting your report."

Dexter looked at Marcus. "Go and tell Commander Unther that we have the dwarf and will be waiting for his orders."

Borowin's ears picked up every word of the conversation between Marcus and Dexter. He wondered who was this Unther Swordbreaker and what did he want with him. "Could he be after the Devahammer?" the mystic whispered under his breath. What would Knights of Nereka want with an artifact meant for Reorx? Was there something in the temple that Cole didn't mention to him before?

"What does it matter?" Borowin muttered under his breath, watching Marcus walk away from Dexter. "Sooner or later, these dark knights are going to kill us anyways."

"Now I wouldn't give up just yet," a familiar voice whispered to Borowin. The mystic quickly remembered the owner of the voice.

"You're the human who helped us back in Hopeful," Borowin answered softly.

"The name is Dorm Silverfalcon," Dorm whispered. "I figured you could use some help. Knights of Nereka don't usually travel down the East Road. You must be important to have them be chasing you all this way."

"If you get me and my bodyguards out of here alive, then maybe I’ll tell you" the dwarven mystic responded.

Dorm emerged from the shadows, drawing Silverwind and cutting the ropes that bound Borowin's hands. The ranger then stepped over to Brunhilda, cutting her bonds, then finally cut Vash's ropes. "Now we have to get out here," the ranger said quickly, but he stopped moving as the sharp point of a sword touched his back.

"I was hoping I'd run into you again," Dexter mused as Dorm turned to face him. "I was ordered to keep the dwarves alive, but I'll just kill you."

Dexter thrusted his sword forward, piercing the ranger's shoulder. Dorm grunted in pain, but raised Silverwind forward. Dexter made another thrust attempt, this time at the ranger’s chest, but Dorm parried the dark knight's attack, then made a hard lower slash across Dexter's stomach.

Dexter felt the ranger's sword break though his plate armor, ripping into his skin. The dark knight signaled his men to attack.

Vash and Brunhilda charged at two of Dexter's men while Borowin channeled divine energy from within.

After successfully casting a summoning spell, Borowin saw three dark knights standing there with their weapons drawn. He watched as they took a step forward, ready to attack, but they stopped as three stout azers appeared in front of him.

Azers were dwarves, native to the Plane of Fire. They had bronze colored skin and flames around their heads where their hair and beards would normally be. Borowin grinned as the Azers waved their war hammers in the air and charged at the dark knights.

Brunhilda knocked down the dark knight she was fighting and ran to then where they were keeping her's and Vash's weapons. She quickly grabbed the axes, then ran though the camp like a whirlwind, cutting down any unfortunate dark knight she crossed paths with. When she ran past Vash, she tossed him his axe.

Catching his axe from Brunhilda, Vash used what momentum he had and slashed his weapon hard across the chest of a knight on his left. He quickly twirled around, cleaving another dark knight across the midsection.

Dorm and Dexter continued to defect each other's attacks. The sound of their blades smacking against each other filled the campsite with echoes of loud metal clangs.

Dexter made a hard right slash at the ranger's side, but Dorm stepped back and drove Silverwind's sharp edge down Dexter's chest. The dark knight stumbled for a moment, trying to keep himself on his feet. Dorm jumped at Dexter and slashed Silverwind hard across his chest once more for good measure.

With his last breath, Dexter cursed the ranger who had just bested him...then the darkness took him.

Borowin continued to channel his energy to cast his mystic spells. The dwarven mystic casted a powerful bless spell to help aid the azers who were viciously beating the dark knights. One of the younger, inexperienced knights hard tried grabbing one of the azers by their fiery beard. The end result of that, was the fire from the fire dwarf's beard burned though the dark knight's armor, scarring his flesh.

The azer who had his beard pulled roared a lord dwarven curse swung his war hammer furiously at the young dark knight, splitting the knight's skull in two. There were just some things you didn’t do to a dwarf in battle, and pulling on their beards was one of them.

Dorm left Dexter's body and joined Brunhilda and Vash. The ranger slash his sword at one of the knights, cutting off his head. Brunhilda finished off the last death knight by slicing her axe through her foe's stomach.

The azers cheered as they stood over the burned and cleaved corpses of their enemies. Then Borowin waved his hand and the fire dwarves vanished.

"There's an old saying, that dwarves appreciate nothing more than a good fight," Dorm remarked, grabbing a small piece of cloth and quickly cleaning off his sword.

Borowin looked around the camp. He quickly went over to the table Dexter was working at and grabbed his map. Dorm walked over with him. "So what's all this about temples, maps, and dark knights?"

The mystic turned to him with a sigh. "I suppose I owe you an explanation." Borowin quickly explained about his quest to retrieve the Devahammer from the Hall of Angels and the circumstances that involved his deceased clansmen.

After listening to the dwarf's story, the ranger's ears picked up a loud growling noise coming from behind them. Dorm turned his heads, seeing Roxilandra walking with Vash while Brunhilda pinned Timber to the ground.

"Brunhilda, leave that elf alone," Borowin shouted, trying not to laugh.

"But this elf stole my bag of steel," snapped Brunhilda, holding her axe blade at Timber's throat. "When you bumped into me back in Hopeful."

"I was going to give them back," Timber said in a high tone voice. The female dwarf began moving her hands in the elf's pocket's feeling for coins, which caused the elf to wiggle around and laugh.

Finding no coins, Brunhilda growled and got off of the thief's chest. Dorm walked over to his elf friend, helping him to his feet.

"Did you see that?" Timber yelled," Searching me like I'm some light fingered kender!"

"Hey!" shouted Roxi after she heard the elf.

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Back at his camp, Commander Unther Swordbreaker, Knight of the Lily, waited to hear Dexter's report.

In his late fifties, Unther still had a fit body, but his reflexes weren't what they used to be. On the top of his head, he sported thick grey hair. After receiving a vision from the Queen of Darkness at a young age, Unther had enlisted with the Knights of Takhisis, just before the Chaos War had begun. Overtime, he had risen through the ranks of the dark knights.

After the War of Souls and the death of his goddess Takhisis, Unther was a man with no god and no purpose. He and his regiment temporary traveled to the southern lands of Ansalon, waiting for orders.

Unther had no idea how he would spend the rest of his days, until a month ago when he met a cleric of Sargonnas who told him about the Tablet of Time that was hidden in a very old temple located in the regions of the Plains of Dust.

The Tablet of Time was a magical stone tablet. The cleric told Unther that anyone who could successfully read the tablet would gain eternal youth. Unther wanted to find this tablet and gain the powers for himself. It would be the first step in his goal of becoming ruler of Ansalon.

Unther thought that he would have to search all over the Plains of Dust to find the temple, but then his dwarven spies informed him that a dwarven mystic was on his way to the Plains of Dust, to find a temple called the Hall of Angels. Unther had assigned Dexter the task of capturing the dwarf and his companions.

One of Unther's dark knights, a handsome fellow named Samuel Helmfire stepped into Unther's tent. "Sir, we have word that Dexter's camp was raided."

"And the dwarves?" asked Unther.

"Dexter had captured them, but they escaped," Samuel responded, "Our spies tell us they are traveling down the East Road."

Unther smiled. "Take some men and go capture the dwarf. If anyone tries and stop you, you have my orders to kill."