The Darkness of Old; The Ancient Crown; The Winged One

by Hans Bezdek

  Pointing this out wouldn’t help us any, so I shelved it for another time.

  “Keep in mind we’ll have the defenders at Jiezvall,” mentioned Kiera, mistaking Dmetri and my’s staredown as concern. “If I remember correctly, they are quite the warriors.”

  “Aye, nothin finer than dwarves in battle!” laughed Braun, raising a fist to the sky.

  “The Shadows will also be sending our own people,” added Gerard.

  “Thank you,” said Cassandra. “How many can you spare?”

  “Markus told me 50,” said the half elf. “I know it isn’t much, but every little bit counts.”

  “Thanks,” I said to Gerard, before turning back to Dmetri. “Are the Tumblers able to spare any people?”

  “I suppose we could spare a few…” nodded Dmetri, stroking his chin. “I can give you 51.”

  “Seriously…” muttered Gerard.

  Helpful, if a tad childish.

  I risked a glance over at the large troll, who was now inspecting his long, yellowed fingernails.

  “Um, excuse me, Fulco,” I said.

  “Mmhmm,” said the troll, not bothering to look up at me. I was okay with that.

  “Do, uh, do you think Xerath could send any of his people to help us out?” I asked tentatively.

  “It’ll take forever to reach him, so I have no idea,” said the troll, finally lowering his hand. He sighed and looked around at all of us. “I don’t think anyone else in the city in our association will be willing to fight the Dar’Ka. We have no beef with them.”

  “I… I see,” I said. I contemplated trying to explain that Ulrich was unlikely to show the organization mercy if he managed to take over Yaerna, but my fear of the troll trumped my desire to have any of them fight with us. “Well, sorry to have wasted your time.”

  “Oh, you didn’t waste my time,” he said, shooting me a wicked smile with many, many pointy teeth. He must’ve spent a fortune on toothbrushes.

  “W-Why’s that?” asked Dhot.

  “Cause I’m comin with you,” he declared, stretching out again. “I haven’t gotten to kill anyone in a couple of days, and this sounds like a good opportunity to sharpen my skills.”

  “We’re happy to have you with us,” said Cassandra with a nervous smile.

  “This works out for everyone,” added Fulco. “I’m worth at least as much in battle as the Tumblers and Shadows combined, but you only have one mouth to feed.”

  That was both frightening and comforting at the same time.

  “Now we just have to figure out how to transport everyone in a timely fashion,” reasoned Cassandra. “There will be too many to ride on the dragons safely.”

  “We came prepared,” said Kiera. “Since we last saw you, we’ve been working on putting something together that’ll allow us dragons to carry a hundred or so of you while we fly.”

  “Really?!” I said. “That’s incredible! And it works?”

  “We’re about to find out!” smiled Kiera.

  Several of us gulped audibly.

  “Maha!” laughed Dhot. “I love the way you think!”

  While I wasn’t sure if this was exactly going to be safer than having everyone cling to a dragon for dear life, I was okay with it. This would mean not all the dragons were needed to carry people, and that meant I could stay in my human form. I knew my days were numbered, but it gave me a bit more time before having to show Dmetri and everyone who I really was. Besides, being on transportation duty sounded lame.

  I turned to Dmetri. “Hurry and go tell your contacts that we need Durnskeep’s army out on the north side of the city as soon as possible.”

  “You’re leaving tonight?” asked the surprised gnome.

  “We don’t know how much time we have until the black and reds attack,” I said, shaking my head. “We have no choice but to leave immediately.”

  “I’ll see if I can hurry them along,” grumbled Dmetr as he went back towards the city. “Probably going to cost me a few more favors at this rate.”

  Dmetri could be as unhappy as he wanted to be, but that didn’t change the reality of the situation. Jiezvall would realistically fall without us, and still could even with our help.

  “I’ll go ready my people,” said Kiera. “We’re all excited to be fighting alongside you four once again.”

  “We didn’t really do that much fighting last time,” I pointed out.

  “True,” smirked the blue dragon, her eyes piercing through mine. “I guess I’m looking forward to our first time.”

  I was overcome by a coughing fit as Kiera disappeared behind the boulder.

  “Maybe Dmetri was right,” said Dhot, feigning concern. “Are you getting sick?”

  “Shut it,” I said between coughs, turning back towards Durnskeep.

  Chapter 9

  It took several hours for everything to come together. The Shadows were well organized and joined us outside the wall in less than an hour, the Tumblers coming shortly after. I didn’t recognize any of the Tumblers and they seemed young and inexperienced. I should’ve expected Dmetri wouldn’t have sent his best. I knew I couldn’t be picky, and accepted the help without too much of a fuss.

  Braun spent some time catching up with a few of the blue dragons while the rest of us worked on coming up with the logistics of how the dragons would carry several hundred people. The blues brought a few dozen giant leather straps. I had no idea what animal they came from, and more importantly, didn’t want to know. Supposedly, an individual dragon could carry one of these straps with around thirty people in them, or two dragons could work together and carry around a hundred people of average build.

  Men and women that comprised Durnskeep’s army made their way out of the gate over time, all of them keeping a wide berth from the dragons. It took nearly another hour of prodding and convincing the fighters that this wasn’t a trick by the blues, and none of them would be eaten. It didn’t help matters when they saw how they were going to be carried. Through some light exaggeration, I told them all the blue dragons used these giant straps to transport the smaller races all the time. They seemed to buy it.

  We divided up the army into groups of around fifty, keeping the Tumblers and Shadows in their own groups. This helped us pair them up with dragons, and also allowed us to see how many soldiers we were dealing with. The total came to around five hundred.

  “I was hoping for a bit more,” I said, frowning at the last group.

  “We’ll make do,” said Cassandra. “The Dar’Ka might not have much more than this, and you’ve got to remember we’ll have the dwarves of Jiezvall helping us.”

  “True,” I conceded. It wasn’t like complaining about it would make new fighters magically appear anyway. “Let’s all load up!”

  The various groups walked towards their assigned dragons. This left the four of us, Fulco, and Gerard.

  “Should we split up and fly with the others?” I asked my group.

  “What, are you gettin sick of us already?” asked Braun.

  “No, I just-”

  “Oh, you’re probably scared of Fulco,” said Dhot, not bothering to keep his voice quiet.

  “That’s not it!” I said quickly, glancing at the troll and painting on a smile.

  Fulco shrugged. “I’d be scared of me, too.”

  “Why do you want us to go to separate carriers?” asked Cassandra, raising an eyebrow.

  “I’m just not sure if we need to bother more dragons to carry us,” I explained. “We could all tag along with a different group and it wouldn’t put any other blues out.”

  “Nonsense,” said Kiera, taking a few steps away and transforming into her dragon form. We waited for her to make the full transition so she could continue. “I’ll carry you six.”

  “Are you sure?” I asked, looking over at the other blue dragons. “Isn’t that something one of your underlings should do?”

  “Is that how you view me?” asked the dragon. “You think I wouldn’t want to stoop down to helping
carry people just because I’m the blue’s leader?”

  “You made that sound way worse than I meant it,” I said.

  “Maha!” laughed Dhot.

  “What’s so funny?” I said, shooting the goblin a glare.

  “Oh, nothing…” grinned the goblin. “I was thinking maybe you want us to split up so you can have some alone time with Kiera?”

  My face turned red as everyone laughed at me.

  “That’s not it!” I protested, confused how this was all going so poorly. All I was trying to do was make it easier for everyone.

  “Then everyone hop on,” said Kiera, gesturing to a leather strap nearby. “We’re in a hurry, aren’t we?”

  I hung my head low as we all got onto the leather strap. So much for being helpful.

  Kiera grabbed both ends of the strap and flapped her wings a few times. We suddenly shot up into the sky, rising higher and higher as Kiera tried to get to a safe height.

  “A-Are we sure this was a good idea?!” squealed Cassandra, clutching the side of the strap with all her might.

  “Nope!” shouted Dhot over the sound of the wind. “That’s why I love it! Maha!”

  I understood Cassandra’s concern, but there was nothing to worry about. I was sure I’d be able to transform into a half dragon in time to grab everyone if the strap broke.

  Well, pretty sure.

  A few minutes passed and we all grew accustomed to the rocking of the leather strap and the sound of the wind gusting over us. I looked around and saw the other dragons behind us, many of them carrying straps between them. A few of the dragons that were free of any burdens caught up to us and flew out ahead.

  “This isn’t so bad,” said Gerard, looking down. “I’ve never flown before.”

  “Pretty exciting, huh?” I asked. I loved flying, but didn’t get much of a chance to do so. My transformations were few and far between before I bumped into Cassandra, and I rarely risked flying too high even when it happened. I didn’t think it was worth the risk of someone spotting me and hunting me down.

  “What’re ya carrying?” Braun asked Fulco roughly a half an hour into our flight.

  The troll, who had been casually leaning back the entire time, leaned forward and raised an eyebrow at the dwarf. “Why do you want to know?”

  “I always love seein what people be fightin with!” exclaimed the dwarf.

  Fulco narrowed his eyes. “I don’t like people knowin what I’ve got with me. Gives em too much info. Never know when the time might come to stab someone in the back.”

  I shared a look with Cassandra, or rather tried to. The elf was hardly moving. Apparently, she didn’t enjoy flying as much as the rest of us.

  “What a reassuring thing to say,” mumbled Dhot.

  “Oh, come on!” insisted Braun. “I’ll show ya mine if ya show me yers!”

  The troll didn’t respond. Braun took that as a yes.

  “Check this out,” said Braun, pulling out Grimkell’s Mace. “This be a legendary weapon. It’s able to crack near about anything.”

  Fulco inspected the Mace, suddenly curious. “That wouldn’t be Grimkell’s Mace, would it?”

  “Aye!” beamed Braun. “Good eye!”

  “Impossible,” said the troll, shaking his head. “You must be lyin.”

  “He’s not,” said Kiera, pulling her head down to speak. “That’s the real one.”

  Fulco thought about it for a moment, then nodded. “Alright, I can buy that.”

  “Well?” asked the dwarf expectantly.

  The troll sighed. “Since you showed me a legendary weapon, I suppose I owe it to you to show you mine.”

  Fulco pulled out his two weapons, holding them out towards us. Everyone turned to get a look, even the petrified Cassandra. The weapons had black hilts, dark wrapping around the base of each of them. Each weapon had a long, pointed rod in the middle, with two smaller ones on each side of it.

  “What are those?” Cassandra managed to get out.

  “These are called sai,” said Fulco, pulling the weapons back and sheathing them on his belt again.

  “Never seen anythin like em before,” said Braun, nodding his thanks to the troll for showing the dwarf. “You like em?”

  “Well enough,” shrugged the troll, leaning back once more. “They’re easy enough to conceal, but also deadly enough for almost any job. Most people have never fought against them before, making it harder for them to defend against.”

  “I’d like to spar with ya sometime!” smiled Braun. “Could be fun!”

  The troll let a grin slip briefly before hiding it. It seemed like the two were making a weird connection. I wasn’t sure if I liked it or not.

  A couple of hours passed without much talking as we kept towards the border of Brumark and Truska. Mountains kept to our left while the right was open forest. The blue dragons flew in perfect sync, and none of them seemed to be having much trouble holding onto the leather straps. The darkness of night was helping us keep a perfect cover as we traveled, not that it probably mattered much. Still, there was no telling if there were any Dar’Ka agents hiding out in the Truskan wilderness.

  “What’s that?” asked Cassandra, pointing up ahead after some time.

  A dot of light could be seen far in the distance.

  “Could that be a Dar’Ka camp?” I wondered, straining to see better but failing. We were too far and it was too dark to make anything out besides the mountains we flew over.

  “Unless they’re quick builders, I don’t think so,” said Dhot, messing with his Goggles. “It’s a large stone building.”

  “That’s Jiezvall,” explained Kiera, glancing down at us. “We’re nearly there.”

  “That was much faster than I imagined!” smiled Gerard. “We should use you dragons all the time!”

  “We’re not a taxi service,” said Kiera, sounding unamused.

  “N-No, I-I didn’t mean it like that,” tried Gerard, but the dragon was focused on flying.

  “Don’t worry,” I said, slapping the half elf on his back. “I knew what you meant.”

  As we neared the fort town of Jiezvall, I came to realize why the Dar’Ka wanted to attack there first. The stone structure was as tall as the walls of Durnskeep, only much thicker. The walls created a large square, each point with catapults on top. Rows of torches were on top of the walls, which had been the source of light from so far away. Jiezvall wasn’t immediately surrounded by a moat, but did have one that was a hundred or so yards away. Several wide bridges connected across, each one manned by several torch bearing dwarves.

  As we circled around the top of Jiezvall, I could see inside a massive courtyard. There were some homes and shops around the edges and near the walls, but the entire middle was an open grassy area. I expected there to be more people living here, but there was no way a large amount of dwarves lived in so few buildings.

  The blues passed over Jiezvall twice, then we all slowly glided down into the middle of the grassy area. Even though we had over 80 dragons with us, not to mention the hundreds of troops, there was more than enough space for everyone.

  “That wasn’t so bad,” said Braun, climbing out of the leather strap as Kiera let the ends loose.

  “Looks like the carrying device worked after all,” said Cassandra, who looked more than happy to be back on solid land.

  I looked over to see our army struggling out of the other straps. They didn’t look particularly fierce or intimidating as they tumbled over one another in an attempt to get out. That wasn’t necessarily an indication of how they’d fight, so I tried to give them the benefit of the doubt.

  “Wonder where everyone is,” I mumbled as I hopped out. “I know it’s late, but I kind of assumed we’d get some sort of greeting.”

  As if on cue, dwarven battle cries shout out all around us, their echo off of the interior wall nearly deafening. Hundreds of stout, four foot tall dwarves ran at us with battle axes, swords, and spiked hammer raised. I risked a look back to see how
our army was handling the sudden ambush. They all had their hands up and were huddling together, some openly crying.

  At least I didn’t have to worry about them fighting with the people we came to save.

  I exchanged a look with the others and raised my hands. Fulco was the only one who didn’t, opting instead to pick at something in his ear and not even look at the incoming dwarves.

  The dwarven army stopped when they were just a few feet away from us, weapons still at the ready. Something caught my eye, and I looked up to see a wave of archers all along the top of the walls, bows pulled back and aiming at us. If this didn’t turn around, and fast, we’d never even get a chance to fight with the black and red dragons.

  “This wasn’t really the greeting I was hoping for,” I mumbled to Cassandra.

  Chapter 10

  “Don't kill us!” shouted Dhot, his hands up.

  “Calm down,” said Kiera, transforming back to her human form. “They know you're with us.”

  I looked around and saw all the blue dragons shifting into humans clad with fur armor. The dwarves around us lowered their weapons slightly, and the dwarven archers eased the pull on their bows.

  “I wish to speak with Soeren Stonechew!” declared Kiera. “We blue dragons mean the mighty dwarves of Jiezvall no harm!”

  There was some movement by the dwarves nearest to us.

  “Alright everyone!” called out a gruff voice in the crowd. “These ain’t no black and reds, everyone back to their own business!”

  The dwarves put their weapons away and began to disperse. A red bearded dwarf wearing golden armor approached us, a golden crown on his head.

  “Chieftess Kiera Mourningshadow!” exclaimed the dwarf. “It has been far too long!”

  “That it has, King Soeren,” bowed Kiera.

  “Sorry fer all this,” said the king, gesturing around us. “We’ve gotten word that the Dar’Ka have invaded Gorland and have been preparing for battle. Couldn’t tell what color ye dragons were.”

  “No apology necessary,” smiled Kiera. “We would’ve done the same.”