Free The Wealth of Kings by Sam Ferguson Page A

hand out. Threnton shook the nobleman’s hand and then pointed to a door on the far side of the room. A dwarf opened it, revealing a steep stairway leading down.
    “Then come into my office. We can plan our assault,” Threnton said as he left the table and made his way for the dimly lit stairs.
    The nobleman and the assassin followed.
    Threnton led them down into a musty room, where they were greeted by a dozen well-armed dwarves. They saluted Threnton as he walked beyond them and pressed a section of brick wall. It swiveled open to reveal a well-lit tunnel. The dwarf walked the two men through the tunnel and into a chamber shooting off from the left of the tunnel some fifty yards in. In the center of the chamber stood a table with a model of Roegudok Hall sitting upon it. There were a few cots and small desks in the room as well.
    Threnton stepped in and waved his arms out to the side as he turned to show off the chamber to his guests. “This has been my home since my exile began,” he said. “It is simple, I know, but it is hidden well and has kept us safe despite all the action happening up there,” he said with a jab of his finger to the ceiling.
    The Blacktongue was the first to stop and take notice of the two severed heads set in large jars of amber-colored liquid. “Servant who failed you?” the assassin asked.
    Threnton laughed. “Something like that,” he said. He turned back and looked upon his cousins’ heads as he laughed once and shook his head. “They were my cousins, once.”
    “What did they do?” Delmecian asked as he moved to stand near the table with the model of Roegudok Hall.
    “They betrayed me,” Threnton said evenly. “After my brother exiled me from my own throne, those two false dwarves took it upon themselves to deposit my unconscious body in the forest deep within the mountains to the east. They left me with only the clothes upon my body.”
    “What did you do?” the Blacktongue asked.
    Threnton shrugged and turned back to Delmecian and the assassin. “I hunted them down and beat them to death with my bare hands,” he said. That last bit wasn’t entirely true. Threnton had woken before his cousins left. They had given him a knife and provisions as well, but that wasn’t the kind of story he needed right now. He needed Delmecian and the Blacktongue to believe he was a very capable warrior in his own right. Anything less might force them to rethink their involvement in this plan, and he knew he needed them.
    “Seems a bit cold,” Delmecian said as he turned and pointed to the model. “This is the mountain, yes?”
    Threnton moved to it and pointed to the eastern slope. “Near the top, high above the cliffs that make up the bottom third of the entire mountain, there is a balcony. It opens directly into the king’s chamber. That is where you will attack,” Threnton said as he pointed to the Blacktongue. “Are there any others who can go with you? My brother is a tricky fighter.”
    The Blacktongue nodded. “I have one brother who will go with me.”
    “One?” Delmecian echoed sharply.
    “One Blacktongue is worth five dwarves. My brother is worth two Blacktongue assassins, and I am better still.”
    “Good, good,” Threnton said as he nodded and moved around to the northern slope. He grabbed Delmecian’s arm and pulled his attention to a small ledge high up on the mountain. “There is a secret door here,” he said. “My father never told me about it, but this is how my brother gained entrance into the mountain. You and I will use this entrance to make the secondary assault.”
    “Won’t it be guarded?” Delmecian asked.
    Threnton shook his head. “No,” he said flatly. “When I caught my brother, I knew there must have been a secret entrance. He and one of the other traitors had just appeared in the hallway a short way off from my bedroom. The guards said that my brother and the traitor had emerged from a mirror in the wall. After a day of searching for