Blue Diamonds (Book One of The Blue Diamonds Saga) by R.E. Murphy Page B

wouldn't miss those irritable quarrels. He stood on a slab of stone that jutted out from the mountain about a thousand yards above the construction, absorbing the wind and view. From this vantage he had a clear view over the mountains, the ocean and most importantly the city beside the water. Staring out at the huge city in the distance he reflected on the last few months. It was hard, but very good work that his people were doing. He frowned at the grey haze that stained the sky above the city. It was not the grey of rain clouds. The unmoving mass was the culmination of the human’s excessive pollution. Though an ugly sight for anyone’s eyes, to Jevon it was a marvelous omen, foretelling the time was nearing for yet another obese city to perish, as all great cities that outgrew their resources did in the end.
    His people had seen it many times before, and not only with the fall of their own mega dwarven cities of the deep. Even the orcs, beneath their astounding irrationalities and savage ways have had a turn at dominating the world. It was the goblins before them. The desire for power and conquest is the one character trait all intelligent creatures share and feel the need to live out, and all attempt, at least once in their history.
    Needless to say, it did not work out for either the orcs or the goblins, both of which now live scattered about the wild in packs, clinging to random territories amidst the cliffs and crags of the highlands. Their once formidable races are now reduced to conquering the nightmares of children who eavesdrop on the grownup's late night conversations. The only people who’ve experienced more than his own were the elves.
    “Bah!” he said. The thought jolted him back from his thoughts. Jevon knew he’d been meditating for too long when he started comparing himself with the elves, those skinny tree lovers with their long silky hair and tight trousers.
    “Bah!” he repeated, because the first one wasn’t enough.
    He traded his daydream for a more suitable image, the vast riches they would surely gain after the mining operations began. His main argument for the big move was about how the dwarves couldn’t sell their weapons for what they were worth, because of restricting taxes that were automatically placed on any nonhuman goods sold within the walls of Somerlund. They couldn’t raise their prices either. Whenever they tried, the humans would threaten outsourcing cheaper weapons. Some dwarves accepted the strong words to be the ways of business, but Jevon took the words very personally.
    Whether the humans would actually go through the trouble of outsourcing was questionable, but it wasn't something the dwarven tribunal wanted to wager on. In rebuttal Jevon moonlighted the best of Ol’ Brook's miners to defect to Loyola, and along with them he also targeted the best weapon-smiths.
    A year prior, he discovered the mountain to have substantially better ore than the mines deep below Somerlund, nearly a whopping fifty percent more pure, and that was all they needed to hear. Better ore meant better metal, which meant better quality weapons and in the end, better pay and reputation.
    Fort Hammerheart would be much closer than any other weapons suppliers outside of Somerlund, and without paying local tariffs undercutting import prices would be easy, even with vastly superior product. He would simply price match the products from Ol' Brook, but with the same prices he would enjoy much bigger profits.
    Jevon believed wholeheartedly that Somerlund’s market would open up for them. With this in mind, he took great measures to ensure the separation from Somerlund was a peaceful one, being careful to cause no more damage than hurt feelings. He held no ill will toward the rest of the dwarves or their leader, his stepbrother Jenkin, he only wanted to do what he believed was best for his people. Jevon was fully confident that once his better weapons took over the market, the rest of the dwarves would