CHAPTER TWENTY LORD GRIMDALL’S REFUGEStanding on the shore of The Dwarven Mountains, Lord Grimdall stared across at The Barren Wastend. The almost lifeless isnd had been his home for a year. Now it was all behind him. Literally and figuratively.

  “Are you missing that cursed isnd already, Lord Grimdall?” spoke a voice in his head. The demigod Agmon was always just a whisper away. “You should be happy that your enemy is weakening.”

  The man who was Landon Rosser, former general to King Gideon Brock’s army, gave a quick ugh as he looked at the dead nd. He took in its sparse vegetation, its drying pools of water, its hard soil and its volcanic rock. Then he slowly turned around and viewed the vast mountain range before him.

  “We will take this mountain kingdom from Dormir Ironhearth. I have no doubt of that,” spoke Lord Grimdall, confidently. “But I know the dwarf king. He is stubborn and fierce, as are his people.” Then he crossed his arms. “We will be on this ground longer than you think.”

  After a few seconds of silence, Grimdall continued. “But no matter, first Ironhearth will fall. Then Brock. I will get my revenge.” Then Grimdall’s hands went to the weapons at his sides. His left hand went to his dagger and his right hand to his sword. “Of course, I have two bdes, one for each of them, if they are strong enough to stand before me.”

  “I agree,” spoke Agmon, calmly. “But if we are to be here for a time...”

  Lord Grimdall continued to look at his forces, taking pces in the lowest portion of the mountain range. Suddenly, there came a sound of rock breaking behind him, far off in the distance. Then he smiled, knowing the demigod was up to something.

  The sound of rock breaking behind him ceased, and within moments he looked up to see pieces of volcanic rock that had covered parts of The Barren Wastend begin to fall and stack around him. As the stack of rocks became higher and higher, Grimdall walked forward, toward an opening in the building that was currently forming around him. After he walked through it, the rge warrior took a few more steps and turned around to look. A second ter, Grimdall watched as the final piece of volcanic rock fell to finish not only the roof, but the building as a whole.

  “This will suffice for the time being. It is no pace. That will come ter, and far away from here. However, a great general needs a safe pce to strategize and command,” announced Agmon, in a low, but confident voice.

  Lord Grimdall began to walk around the dome of volcanic rock. It was crude, yet it was powerfully strong and imposing, even for a small structure.

  “You have mixed the nd that represented my greatest defeat upon the nd that begins my grandest victory,” replied Lord Grimdall. Then after returning to the front of his new refuge, he procimed something that made the demigod smile.

  “This creation is well done, Agmon,” began Lord Grimdall. “When we take these mountains, it will become the first monument to our rule...” Then he pced his hands on his sword and dagger and finished.

  “... After we conquer all of Danaria.”