The Demon King's Hero Of Light 146 Chapter 146 Princess Of The Dwarves

"How long did it take for your people to carve out the entire mountain?" asked Frederik, sounding just as impressed as she felt.

"It's been several generations of work," answered one of the other dwarves. "We started with a small cave, and went from there."

As torches flickered around them, they reached a large platform that led up to a large throne. Two dwarves that were discussing something, turned as they approached.

"Your Majesty, your sister has been summoned. I'm afraid it may be several more minutes before the generals can get here. They were in the middle of discussing the issues with the orcs in the mountains," said one of the dwarves.

The other bowed slightly and said in a slightly higher pitch, "Brother, you summoned me?"

Aella gaped at the dwarven sister, taking in the fact that she had a full beard, just as the prince did, and tried to see what about her was feminine. Maybe the cheekbones where higher?

"This is the demon king, and she wishes to buy a s.p.a.ce to build a bar for Bob," he said with a grin.

Aella watched as the look of curiosity disappeared behind a look of disbelief and annoyance.

"We discussed this several years ago. I thought we had decided not to allow that magical being s.p.a.ce in our kingdom?" growled the sister.

"Our reasons were mostly based on the fact Bob refused to build his own bar. The king here says she is willing to build one."

"The king?" she said, turning to eye Aella. "What kind of agreement could you possibly have with Bob?"

"That's information I'm not willing to share," said Aella with a small smile. "I was told I need to purchase a spot through you, for the construction of his bar?"

"That is how we normally do things," she growled, glancing at her brother, who seemed to be enjoying her discomfort. "s.p.a.ce for any type of construction typically runs around a hundred gold pieces in price."

"Wonderful, do you want me to pay you now, or after we discuss the moving mountain?" asked Aella.

"What?!" exclaimed the sister, swinging towards her brother, the prince, who was holding his hands up in defense.

"I was going to tell you when the generals got here," he said quickly, as she raised a hand to punch him.

"Tell her what?" gasped one of several heavily armored dwarves as they rushed onto the platform.

"Ah, General Orcsword. So good of you to be able to join us so quickly. I hope the orc invasion isn't causing you any problems?" asked the prince, quickly stepping away from his sister to greet the three new dwarves.

"The orcs are nothing we can't handle, Your Majesty," puffed the dwarf, catching his breath.

"Then, we shall precede with the reason I summoned you," said the prince, looking grave. "The demon king has just informed me that the moving mountain, that the human church captured a thousand years ago, may be close to breaking free of its restraints."

They all turned to Aella, who nodded. "I spoke with some of the church leaders before their demise, and they confirmed their concerns of the crumbling condition of the restraints. I believe they had intended to reinforce them using some king of sacrificial magic, but that will not be happening now."

"If the mountain is released, it will go on a rampage!" cried one of the generals in horror.

"Our entire kingdom is at risk from this!" said another general.

"What shall we do?" asked the princess, glaring at the prince.

"My father had a plan in place, in case the humans attempted to release the monster. I will carry through with that plan, but it is very dangerous and requires the use of the Earth Hero," said Prince Silvermane, turning to Aella. "May we use the Earth Hero?"

Aella smile and turned back to the sister, "What was that you were saying about a bar for Bob, prior to the general's interrupting us?"

The dwarves gaped at her in shock.

"You can't be serious!" exclaimed the sister. "If this thing gets free, it will be the doom of all races in the whole realm!"

"I am aware of that," said Aella, glancing at her fingernails and picking imaginary dirt from under them. "But I have the Earth Hero in my kingdom, not to mention, I've moved all of my people far from here. How do I know this monster won't calm down before he reaches my kingdom, and is able to be dealt with easily with the hero by then?"

The prince and princess both frowned.

"I thought you were here to develop relations between our people, not blackmail us!" growled the prince.

"Other than handing over the sculpture I originally wanted, and was probably taking up precious storage in your treasury, I have seen no signs of developing relations between us from your side. In fact, the one or two things I have mentioned other than the sculpture, have been met with disdain and amus.e.m.e.nt, as if I am not a true king here in person. I could easily have sent a servant to speak with you, but I felt these things I wished to speak with you were too important."

"What things do you speak of other than the bar for Bob?" asked the sister.

"I mentioned the issue between your people and the elves, and thought the prince would spit at me for a moment," said Aella, eyeing the glare he was giving her.

"Ah, that is because the elven prince refused to accept my offer of marriage to right the ill will between our two races," laughed the princess. "Our fathers hated each other, and only dealt with each other in a political way. Now that both of our fathers are dead, and the thrones had fallen to the princes, that ill-will is resurfacing. A lot of the agreements that had been made between the two fathers have fallen to the wayside, and the two princes refuse to meet in order to discuss them."

"Sister!" growled the prince. "You should not be discussing such things with another king!"

"And why not!" shouted the princess. "You two have our kingdoms on the brink of war just because neither of you can swallow your pride and come to an agreement on anything! If she is willing to be the go-between, and smooth things over, then I say we take advantage of that! I do not want our people to be struggling with a war with the elves when we have more pressing concerns to deal with!"

The prince gritted his teeth, but finally nodded. "I need a drink. You figure out what to do about the blasted elves and that bar. We'll discuss the mountain in that tavern."

The generals quickly followed after the prince as he stomped off, talking softly about whether he was paying or if they had to pay for their own drinks.

"So, you're actually the king of the demons?" asked the sister as soon as they were gone.

"I am," said Aella with a nod.

"I had heard it was a position of t.i.tle, not actually of gender. Is there a position for queen?"

"No," said Aella, shaking her head.

"My fool of a brother is to be crowned the new king in a week's time, but I may step up and declare an interest in the position. I don't think he paid nearly enough attention to our father's words as I did, and it's showing in the way he is dealing with those elves."

"What exactly is going on with the elves?" asked Aella. "The only thing the elven king would tell me was that the dwarves were cutting down trees that you shouldn't be, and that you were refusing to speak to him about it."

"Well, that is the gist of it, I suppose," nodded the princess. "There was an agreement between the dwarves and the elves, that all of the extra lumber the elves had, after cleaning up their forest, would be delivered to us, to deal with the small amount of wood we had need for. Most of our needs are satisfied with coal and stone, but we do need a bit of wood here and there for shoring up the mines and putting handles on our picks. In return for the wood, we would deliver unrefined ore to the elves, for the small needs they had of it. Occasionally, they would ask for some stone, and we didn't have a problem giving that instead."

"Ah, I think I see," said Aella, nodding in understanding. "Neither side is wis.h.i.+ng to hand over goods, now that there are new leaders, and thus the trades have stopped. Yet, you still have needs of wood and are cutting the nearest trees to satisfy that need."

"You're pretty smart for having fought your way out of a pit," said the sister with a grin.

"I just had to be smarter than the other guys in the pit," laughed Aella.

"It helped that you were smaller and faster than us, too," added Frederik with a grin of his own.