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

by Hans Bezdek

  She sighed.

  Chapter 8

  Our group followed the orc through the burning city. I was excited that there was still a chance we could learn where Ulrich was, but nothing was guaranteed. The survivors might have been hiding before Ulrich announced his intentions, or the half dragon might not have said where he was headed at all.

  The orc came to a stop as we entered what must have been the town square. Most of this area was still in one piece, only a few tents to the side were torn down. A group of Greeners and humans were sitting cross legged on the ground, roughly thirty of them altogether. Several of them had cuts or black marks on them, but none looked too serious. A crowd of The Republic’s soldiers were watching the prisoners from some distance, while the main guards were a dozen gray creatures.

  “W-What are those?!” cried Braun when he saw them.

  The beasts looked like they were made of stone, but would occasionally pace around. They had humanoid bodies but sharp claws on their hands, along with dragon-like heads.

  “I think those are gargoyles,” I said slowly.

  “I thought they weren’t real,” muttered Cassandra.

  “They are when I make them!” came a squeaky voice.

  We turned to see Beatrix, our gnome summoner friend. She ran up and gave each of us a quick hug.

  “I’m in charge of watching the prisoners,” she explained. “I didn’t want to summon elementals who might accidentally hurt them, so I summoned these guys. To be honest, they aren’t the best at fighting, but they sure do look intimidating!”

  “Aye,” nodded Braun, still eyeing the gargoyles nervously. “That they are.”

  “Have any of them tried to escape?” asked Dhot.

  “Nope,” shrugged Beatrix. “I heard they were found pretty spread out in the northern part of the city. None of them put up a fight when they were captured and they hardly speak. They won’t even talk to one another, outside of a little small talk.”

  “I take it you haven’t heard them mention anything about Ulrich, then?” I asked.

  The gnome shook her head. “Some of the humans tried asking them questions, but they were ignored. We didn’t want to try and do anything more before Laurinaitis and Antonius were notified of the capture.”

  “They’re not answering questions, hmm?” said Laurinaitis, crossing his arms behind his back. “We could always force them to talk.”

  “Someone’s feeling a bit bloodthirsty,” I mumbled.

  “They’re our enemy!” insisted the golden dragon. “I can promise you they haven’t shown us any mercy, why should we do the same to them?”

  “None of these people are our enemy,” said Cassandra. “They’ve gone into hiding so they wouldn’t have to join Ulrich and fight us.”

  “Yet they won’t answer our questions,” said Laurinaitis. “Doesn’t sound like something allies would do. If we were the Dar’Ka, we’d be doing whatever it took to get the information out of them that we needed.”

  “But we aren’t the Dar’Ka,” I countered. “What good is it stopping one genocidal maniac if we ourselves become one?”

  “That’s very true,” nodded Antonius. “I refuse to follow orders to execute those that haven’t raised arms against us.”

  “I’m not saying we kill them,” shrugged Laurinaitis. “I think just roughing them up a bit could get the job done.”

  “I’m not sure about the other races, but I know goblins don’t typically reward their captors for beating them up,” said Dhot.

  “That’s an idea,” said Cassandra, looking down at the goblin.

  “Not beating them up?” I asked. “Yeah, I think that’s a good one.”

  “Not just that,” said Cassandra. “What if we had Dhot try and win over the goblins? They might not want to talk with us because they’re worried we’ll kill them once we know what they know, but they might trust another goblin more.”

  “We want to risk sending Dhot into the midst of the enemy, alone?” asked Laurinaitis. “You can’t be serious.”

  “They aren’t our enemy,” I repeated.

  “Actually, Laurinaitis has a point,” said Antonius. Laurinaitis looked thrilled that he was finally being agreed with. “While they might not mean to join in this war, they will want to preserve themselves. If they’re worried we’ll hurt them, they could take Dhot as a hostage and then use that as leverage to escape.”

  “They could try,” scoffed Dhot. “I’d blow em all up!”

  “Remember what happened at Vorova?” asked Cassandra. “You were taken by a troll. If we hadn’t chased after you, I doubt you’d still be alive.”

  “That was a freak accident,” said Dhot, shifting uncomfortably.

  “What if we split up and talk to a bunch of them separately at once?” I offered.

  “So they have more hostages to take?” asked Laurinaitis with a humorless laugh.

  “The opposite,” I said. “We can go in pairs and talk to different groups of them. We could fight our way out more easily if they try anything, and we’ll also separate their numbers.”

  “I could see that working,” said Antonius slowly as he turned the idea over in his head.

  Our group broke into several pairs. I ended up going with Dhot, while Braun opted to sit this one out. We approached the prisoners, veering off from one another to divide the group into thirds. Dhot and I took a section that had more goblins than the others.

  “How’s it goin?” Dhot asked three of the goblins sitting at the front.

  The three of them glanced at Dhot, then me, then looked away.

  “More the silent type, eh?” chuckled Dhot uncomfortably. He glanced back at me and I nodded for him to keep trying. “So… what happened out here?”

  One of the goblins snorted and spat off to the side. There was no other response.

  “Probably a pretty crazy day,” said Dhot, glancing around. “Seems like a bummer.”

  The goblins continued to ignore him. I pulled him back slightly.

  “What are you doing?!” I whispered.

  “It’s been a bit since I’ve talked with goblins, okay?” he whispered back. “I’m sort of rusty.”

  “Could’ve fooled me…”

  Dhot stepped forward to talk with them again. “You all lost your homes and families, didn’t you?”

  The goblin in the middle looked up for a brief second, then down at the ground again. It looked like Dhot might have found an in.

  “Same thing happened to me,” said Dhot. “I grew up in a small town called Tu’Wun. It was near the coast in eastern Gorland.”

  “Been there,” mumbled the left most goblin. “Place has pretty cheap fish.”

  “We did,” smiled Dhot sadly. “That was until a group of reds came and burnt the place to the ground. Everyone died but me. They didn’t leave anything left for me to try to rebuild, so I had to move on.”

  “Sorry to hear that,” mumbled the goblin. “That’s the way things go, though. We figured we’d be safe living among dragons, but clearly we were wrong.”

  “Yeah,” nodded the middle one. “Turns out nowhere is safe.”

  I fought back a smile. This was working! My eyes flickered around the prisoners, stopping on a woman that was staring hard at me. She was nursing her left arm, which I assumed was broken, but her brown eyes were focused on mine. I looked away self consciously and tried to focus again on the goblins.

  “Would you mind saying what happened here?” asked Dhot. “I’m curious if it’s the same thing that happened to me.”

  The goblins exchanged nervous looks, then they each nodded.

  “It was a normal morning,” said the middle one. “Grabbed some breakfast at Freida’s Gruel, threw some rocks at a wall, the usual stuff. Then a swarm of black and reds flew in.”

  “It’s not uncommon to see some dragons flying in and out, but this was different,” added the right one. “They were roaring like crazy, getting everyone’s attention. Plus there were so many of them…”

>   “I ran and hid immediately,” said the left one. “I knew nothing good would come of it. A few minutes later and they started flying all around, breathing their fire on people’s homes. I heard a lot of fighting, and then it just stopped. Was too scared to come out. Next thing I know, a bunch of humans show up and point their swords at me. Now I’m here.”

  “Did any of you see or hear what happened beforehand?” asked Dhot.

  “I heard some of the dragons yelling at one another when I went to go hide,” said the middle one. “I even saw a black dragon fighting a red one. That was enough for me, and I didn’t look back.”

  “Saw somethin like that, too,” nodded the right one. “Three dragons ganged up on one and killed it. Never seen something like that before.”

  “Thanks for sharing,” sighed Dhot, who took a few steps back to talk with me.

  He and I both knew we weren’t going to be getting any more information out of them. I didn’t blame the goblins for running and hiding, but they didn’t know anything that could help us out. I was getting concerned that this would be the same story with any other goblin we talked to.

  “What do we do now?” asked Dhot. “Should we keep making rounds with the other goblins and see if any of them saw anything before they hid.”

  “I don’t know,” I mumbled. “We could try-”

  “Prisoner!” shouted one of the humans. “Get back on the ground immediately!”

  I looked past Dhot to see the woman with the broken arm approaching us. Two of The Republic’s men pulled out their blades and walked toward her as they continued to shout for her to sit back down.

  “It’s okay!” I said, waving them off. She clearly wanted to talk. Also, if the two of us couldn’t handle someone with a broken arm, we kind of deserved whatever beatdown we received.

  “Thanks,” smiled the woman as she joined us.

  “How can we help you?” I asked.

  “I overheard you talking with those goblins,” she said. “I wasn’t sure if I was going to say anything, but what are the odds of a human with green eyes working alongside a goblin? You’ve got to be that green half dragon.”

  “Er, I, uh,” I stammered.

  The woman’s eyes shifted from brown to red.

  “It’s okay,” she giggled. “I’m a dragon, too.”

  Dhot tensed up, but I put a hand on his shoulder. If she meant us harm, she would’ve attacked us before talking.

  “We met up with some black and red dragons down in Khu’Mul,” I said. “They said they didn’t want to join up with Ulrich, and mentioned we’d find him over here. We’re not looking to hurt anyone here, we just want Ulrich.”

  “I like the sound of that,” grinned the red dragon. “Unfortunately, you just missed him by a little over an hour.”

  “I pieced that together,” I sighed. “Mind saying what happened?”

  “Ulrich and around sixty dragons showed up this morning, just like that goblin mentioned,” she began. “He announced that he was the heir of Ludek and that everyone must follow him. I wasn’t around for the First Dragon War, but from the stories I heard, it wasn’t a fight I wanted to get involved in. In fact, a lot of us in Zundif felt that way. Those that wanted to join Ulrich had already done so weeks ago.”

  “Makes sense,” nodded Dhot.

  “Almost immediately, a couple of goblins I didn’t recognize ran up and whispered something to him. He looked angry, and said that they didn’t have time to persuade everyone. Those that wanted to join him could do so, and everyone else would die. Judging by the fact that the humans showed up shortly after he left, I take it he found out they were coming.”

  “Too bad they couldn’t get here sooner to help you fight,” I said.

  The red dragon laughed. “As if the humans would fight alongside black and reds. Much like Ulrich thinks our race is better than the others, the humans and their dragons think we’re scum.”

  I didn’t respond. On second thought, after hearing Laurinaitis’ initial thought to just kill any Dar’Ka prisoners, maybe she wasn’t wrong.

  “Maybe things can change once Ulrich is killed,” I offered.

  “Unlikely,” she said. “But still, I want him to pay for what he did here. I lost friends and my home. He’s got to pay.”

  “Do you know where he went next?” I asked.

  “He called out to his dragons at the end to follow him to his home,” she said. “He knows you all are here now, and he’s trying to make final preparations.”

  “Where does he live?”

  “Supposedly in some castle up on one of the highest mountains in Ra’Chok,” she said. “A place called Chundar in the middle of the island. I’ve never been there, myself.”

  “You’ve been incredibly helpful,” I smiled. “We’ll make sure you and the others get treated well, and once Ulrich is defeated we’ll let everyone go.”

  The woman’s eyes flickered back to brown. She gave me a hard look, like she was trying to read my face. After a minute she smiled and nodded. “I believe you.”

  Chapter 9

  I woke up to an old man dressed only in thermal underwear doing squats.

  “Make it stop!” I screamed, backing up into the wall of the cave and rubbing my eyes frantically. It didn’t matter how hard I rubbed, the image wasn’t going away. I was going to have this nightmare on repeat whenever I closed my eyes for the rest of my life.

  “Twentynine… Thirty!” I heard the Great Oracle announce.

  “Let me know when you’re done!” I groaned. It wasn’t worth the risk to see if he had finished yet.

  “Sorry, Reimar,” said the cheery old man. “I assumed I had some time to bust out my nightly exercises before you got here.”

  “Well, you assumed wrong,” I said, squinting through my fingers. “Who’d have thought that battling with giant black and red dragons wasn’t the worst thing I’ve ever experienced?”

  “Good to see you’re keeping your humor about you so close to the end of this war,” smiled the Great Oracle.

  I wasn’t trying to be funny.

  “Can you put a robe on, or something?” I asked. “Maybe a large sheet?”

  “But I’m completely covered!”

  “I’ve traveled all around Yaerna because of you and your dumb prophecies. The least you could do for me is throw something over yourself while we talk.”

  The Great Oracle sighed and walked over to a pile of clothing. He pulled out a purple robe and put it on. “Better?”

  “Could you tie the front so it stays closed?”

  “You’re very picky today,” complained the Great Oracle, but he tied the robe together in the front.

  “Thanks,” I said, getting up. The underground cavern looked exactly like it had last time, except for a few dirty dishes in one corner. There didn’t seem to be any water around, but I was confident the old man knew a spell to clean them when he needed to. “How are you enjoying your cave?”

  “It’s a bit chilly, hints the thermals,” he replied. “Not much to look at or entertain myself with, either. Shouldn’t be much longer until your showdown with Ulrich, however, and I’ll get the opportunity to freely move about with Roxbury.”

  “How is the kobold?” I asked. “Think one of his cousins sold me and the others some broken watches. Really lovely guy.”

  “I’ll have to let him know you ran into his family!” said the Great Oracle with excitement.

  “Yeah…” I said, clearing my throat and changing the subject. “Did you bring me here to hear how things are going, or to give me some sort of secret helpful advice for fighting Ulrich?”

  “Let’s start with the former,” nodded the old man.

  “So there is secret helpful advice!”

  “Don’t get too excited,” chuckled the Great Oracle. “It’s nothing that special. I also have a feeling you won’t value it very much.”

  “That does sound like me,” I nodded. “We landed on Ra’Chok, fought some Greeners and a red dragon. Met som
e dragons in Khu’Mul that don’t like Ulrich and told us where he was going. Went to Zundif, but showed up too late. The whole place was on fire, but luckily a few of the residents survived. One of the red dragons there told us that Ulrich was going to be-”

  “In his castle in Chundar?”

  I blinked.

  “If you knew where the half dragon was going to be this whole time why didn’t you tell me?!” I demanded. “It was a pain having to search around and ask dragons to tell me!”

  “My visions only made it clear to me this morning,” said the old man apologetically. “I would have told you if I could, but alas, I had to wait until you fell back asleep.”

  “At least we know for sure he’s there,” I pouted, crossing my arms. “Can never be too sure with the black and red dragons.”

  “But it sounds like the ones you talked to told you the truth,” he pointed out.

  “I… I guess they did,” I conceded. “Actually, I’ve got a question for you.”

  “Ask away. I’ll answer it if I can.”

  “I kind of always figured the black and red dragons were inherently evil,” I said.

  “That’s more of a statement than a question.”

  “I’m getting to it,” I growled. “After meeting some that didn’t immediately try to kill me, even after knowing who I was and what kind of reward Ulrich has on me, I’m no longer so sure about that. Are there some red and black dragons that are good?”

  “Do you need me to answer a question you already answered?” smirked the Great Oracle.

  “It’d be nice.”

  The old man laughed. “Yes. Like any other race, there are good people and bad people. The black and reds have been hated for so long by the rest of Yaerna that the good ones either stay on Ra’Chok, or hide themselves on the mainland. There are entire communities of them hidden in Truska and Gorland, and some keep the human facade up all their lives in The Republic of Hur.”

  “Interesting,” I mumbled. “That would explain why they aren’t all flocking to Ulrich, even though he has that dumb crown.”

  “There will always be some that choose to follow whoever has the ancient crown,” he said. “But not all, and not even most. The ones with Ulrich’s marking clearly want him to succeed, but as you’ve found out over the past few days, many are forced into his army.”