The Grieving Tree: The Dragon Below Book II

by Don Bassingthwaite

  The Hall of the Revered lies below the Spires of the Forge.

  Enter the door above the tangled valley.

  Look neither left nor right. The riches there are not for you.

  Hold to the path that leads to the Hall and find what waits in the shade of …

  THE GRIEVING TREE

  THE

  DRAGON BELOW

  Book One

  THE BINDING STONE

  Book Two

  THE GRIEVING TREE

  Book Three

  THE KILLING SONG

  With thanks to Mark for encouragement

  and to Ole for patience above and

  beyond the call of duty.

  The events of The Binding Stone

  On the western edge of the Eldeen Reaches, Geth and Adolan rescued Dandra, and brought her to the tiny hamlet of Bull Hollow at the same time as Toller d’Deneith and Singe arrived in the lonely community. Singe and Geth had served together during the Last War in a Blademarks company called the Frostbrand, a company destroyed nine years before, during an infamous massacre at the Karrnathi town of Narath. Once friends, they were now bitter enemies—Geth had been hiding from his past in Bull Hollow while Singe had been hunting for him at every opportunity.

  They were forced to put aside their differences, however, when Bull Hollow was attacked by Dandra’s pursuers: savage hunters of the Bonetree Clan, followers of the Cult of the Dragon Below, accompanied by four-armed aberrations called dolgrims. In the attack, Bull Hollow was devastated. Toller was slain by Hruucan, a vile dolgaunt who almost killed Singe as well before the wizard drove him off with a blast of magical flame. Adolan was cut down by a Bonetree hunter as he defended Dandra.

  Geth, Singe, and Dandra made a break for the wilderness, using Dandra as a lure to draw the Bonetree hunters and the dolgrims away from Bull Hollow so the survivors might have a chance to flee.

  In the aftermath of their escape, Dandra revealed why the hunters and the dolgrims pursued her. Although she appeared to be a kalashtar, she was in fact, the spirit of a psicrystal—an intelligent tool created by kalashtar psionic powers—inhabiting her creator’s body. The true kalashtar, Tetkashtai, was now trapped in the psicrystal, their spirits exchanged as part of a terrible experiment by Dah’mir, a charismatic priest of the Dragon Below and the leader of the Bonetree clan. The only survivors of a group of three kalashtar trapped by Dah’mir, Dandra and Tetkashtai had survived because Dandra had found the strength to claim Tetkashtai’s crystal during an unguarded moment. Working together to use their psionic powers, Dandra and Tetkashtai had been able to escape and flee.

  Knowing that the Bonetree hunters would not give up their pursuit and determined to avenge the deaths of Adolan and Toller, Geth, Singe, and Dandra decided to confront Dah’mir. Pushing hard, they reached the ancient port town of Yrlag in search of passage for the long trip around the coast to Zarash’ak in the Shadow Marches. An elemental galleon of House Lyrandar, Lightning on Water, provided speedy transport, but a few days into the voyage, they discovered that Ashi, one of the Bonetree hunters, had managed to catch up to them and board the galleon as well. They captured her, but found that she was in contact with Dah’mir and that the priest now knew their plans. Dandra, however, determined that the crystal headband Ashi had used to contact Dah’mir actually belonged to Medalashana, one of the other kalashtar who had been abducted along with Tetkashtai.

  Upon reaching Zarash’ak, the captain of Lightning on Water, Vennet d’Lyrandar, revealed himself to be a follower of the Dragon Below as well. Seeking power, he betrayed them and freed Ashi. Geth, Singe, and Dandra were able to escape, but Vennet used another passenger, a half-orc merchant named Natrac, to bait a trap. Unwilling to abandon Natrac, the three attempted to rescue him. Thanks to the unexpected aid of an orc druid, they were almost successful—until Dah’mir arrived, mesmerizing Dandra with his very presence and apparently killing Geth with a spell of disease. Captured by Ashi and wracked by the mental powers of Medalashana—now mad and renamed Medala by Dah’mir—Singe could only watch helplessly as Dah’mir rewarded Vennet and promised to call upon his services again, then commanded his other servants to make preparations for a return to Bonetree territory.

  Unknown to both Singe and Dah’mir, though, Geth had survived. After several days of fevered delirium, he woke in the village of the Fat Tusk orc tribe, rescued along with Natrac by Orshok, the druid who had aided them in the fight against Vennet. To his amazement, Geth discovered that Orshok and his aged teacher Batul were Gatekeepers, the same sect of druids, enemies of the Dragon Below, to which Adolan had belonged. Geth begged for their help to rescue Singe and Dandra, but Batul was reluctant to place the Fat Tusk tribe in conflict with Dah’mir and the dangerous Bonetree clan. To secure the orcs’ aid, Geth and Natrac faced the task of proving themselves by passing through Jhegesh Dol, a ghostly fortress from the long-ago Daelkyr War. They survived and emerged from Jhegesh Dol carrying two long-lost artifacts: a Gatekeeper amulet and a sword forged by hobgoblins of the Dhakaani Empire during the ancient War.

  With a raiding party of orcs, including Batul and Orshok at his back, Geth raced to intercept Dah’mir, but the priest and his captives reached the heart of Bonetree territory, a great earthen mound, ahead of them. During the journey, Singe discovered that Dah’mir was much older than he appeared and that his experiments with kalashtar were intended to create a new line of servants for the powers of the Dragon Below. Upon reaching the Bonetree mound, he was also confronted by Hruucan, the dolgaunt he had injured in Bull Hollow. Hruucan demanded the chance for a rematch duel with Singe, and Dah’mir granted his request. Singe had, however, struck up a friendship with Ashi, discovering that she actually carried the blood of House Deneith and that she had a deep sense of honor that was unsettled by Dah’mir’s activities and the worship of the Dragon Below. As he prepared to fight Hruucan, he appealed to her honor, begging her to use the distraction of the duel to try to rescue Dandra.

  Dandra, meanwhile, had been taken into the Bonetree mound and woken by Dah’mir. In the shadow of the device that had exchanged her and Tetkashtai—a construction of brass and crystal with a huge Khyber dragonshard at its heart—Dah’mir’s illithid servants and Medala used telepathy to lay bare Dandra’s secrets. Dandra learned Medala’s secrets as well, though. She had escaped from her crystal prison by using her strength of will to return to her body and murder the spirit of her psicrystal, an act that drove her mad and put her in Dah’mir’s power. The third kalashtar, Virikhad, had not had that strength of will and had remained trapped in his psicrystal as his body died.

  Dah’mir wanted to conduct further experiments on both Dandra and Tetkashtai, but was furious to find that Tetkashtai’s crystal was actually in Geth’s possession. Dandra’s connection to the crystal showed that Geth wasn’t actually dead, however. Already alerted to the orc raiding party by strange black herons that served him, Dah’mir reasoned that Geth was making an attempt to rescue his friends. Leaving Dandra trapped, he and Medala departed to prepare an ambush.

  While Singe dueled Hruucan—and was given a severe beating by the dolgaunt’s speed and skill—Geth and the orcs attacked the mound, falling into Dah’mir’s ambush. The confusion gave Singe the chance he needed to launch a last attack against Hruucan, however. Grappling the dolgaunt so he could not flee and protected by his own magic ring, the wizard cast a fiery spell that immolated Hruucan. Geth and his allies fought clear of their attackers and rallied around Singe, only to find themselves surrounded once more. Dah’mir used the full weight of his dominating presence against Geth, demanding that the shifter give him Tetkashtai’s crystal, but Geth resis
ted with the aid of a collar of black stones, a Gatekeeper artifact that had once belonged to Adolan. Enraged by Geth’s resistance and by magical attacks from Batul and Singe, Dah’mir transformed, revealing his true identity as a dragon!

  As orc raiders and Bonetree hunters fled, dolgrims turned on enemies and allies alike with new ferocity. Dah’mir took to the air, attacking fleeing raiders with gouts of acidic spit. Knowing they had no individual weapons or spells capable of harming a dragon, Batul proposed a desperate plan to Geth. The Daelkyr War had been won by the combined might of Gatekeeper magic and Dhakaani weapons like the sword Geth had claimed from Jhegesh Dol. The two of them might be able to sacrifice themselves to beat back Dah’mir long enough for the others to escape. Geth agreed, but before they could put the plan into action, Medala attacked them all with her formidable psionic powers.

  Dandra, however, had been freed from Dah’mir’s laboratory by Ashi. Unable to access her own powers fully without Tetkashtai’s aid and threatened by the devastating fascination Dah’mir wielded over kalashtar, she was forced into a desperate plan. Acting swiftly, she caught Medala by surprise and put Virikhad’s psicrystal into her hand. The imprisoned and thoroughly insane spirit was unleashed on Medala and she was destroyed in a burst of silvery light. Freed from Medala’s influence, Batul and Geth made their move. Batul invoked nature’s own fury in a punishing storm that kept Dah’mir off balance while Geth closed to attack him. Dah’mir took wing, but Geth clung to him and was able to spot a point in his chest where a Khyber dragonshard was embedded in his scales. Swinging his Dhakaani sword, he struck, piercing Dah’mir’s chest and shattering the shard.

  Although the blow was not deep, Dah’mir writhed and fell out of the sky. His black herons rose to meet him and as the dragon and the shifter fell through the flock, Dah’mir somehow vanished, leaving Geth to fall alone. He splashed into a river from which his friends were later able to pull him, but neither he nor Batul could offer any explanation for how a single blow could injure a dragon so badly.

  Elsewhere, however, Vennet d’Lyrandar woke to the panicked fear of his crew and found a black heron in his cabin. A heron that spoke with Dah’mir’s voice.

  CHAPTER

  1

  Karth raced down the narrow hallway below the deck of Lightning on Water and slid to a stop outside the captain’s cabin. He pounded a fist against the door. “Captain! Captain!”

  Vennet d’Lyrandar’s response had the edge of someone just roused from sleep to an alarm. “What is it, Karth?”

  The sailor choked, trying to spit out his message. “Birds, captain!” he said. “Dozens of them!”

  The words were nothing compared to the sight that waited above deck—an entire flock of eerie black herons dropping out of the dawn-pale sky to take up roost all over the ship—but Karth heard Vennet spit out an exclamation and begin to stir. He sagged against the wall with relief. The captain would know what to do.

  The sudden yelp of surprise that came from inside the cabin sent fear stabbing through Karth’s guts. Already on edge, he didn’t stop to think—he just reacted, lowering his shoulder and slamming his weight against the cabin door. “Captain!” the sailor shouted. “I’m—”

  He was a big man and the cabin door had been built for privacy, not security. The force of his impact flung it wide and sent a hail of splinters flying through the cabin.

  “—coming.”

  Two pairs of eyes looked at him. One pair belonged to Vennet and were wide with shock. The captain crouched atop his bed, still in his smallclothes, his bare chest heaving in surprise.

  The other pair were bright acid-green and belonged to the tall black heron that stood in the shadows of the cabin. Thin bars of light fell through the shutters of the cabin’s windows, striping the bird’s feathers. Its eyes betrayed no surprise at all. Like the other herons that had burst out of the dawn to alight on the ship, it seemed utterly without fear. Even Karth’s sudden and loud appearance didn’t seem to have startled it.

  If anything, it looked annoyed. It cocked its head at him and its eyes glittered.

  “Leave us,” it said. Its voice was as rich and smooth as oil.

  Karth’s guts clenched again. “Lords of the Host!” he whispered. He swallowed and glanced at the captain.

  “Do it, Karth,” said Vennet. The captain slid out of his bed, his expression softening from shock to amazement. He rose to his feet and stretched out an arm to gesture for Karth to leave. The dawn light flashed on the complex pattern of the dragonmark that covered the back of his neck and shoulders. Karth saw him glance at the heron before he added, “And tell the crew not to harm any of the birds.”

  “That,” agreed the heron, “would be wise.”

  Instinct and long service more than anything else sent Karth backing out of the cabin. He couldn’t quite manage to get an “Aye, captain” out of his mouth, though Vennet scarcely seemed to notice. As Karth stepped out through the doorway, he reached back inside, seized what was left of the door, and pulled it closed. The latch was broken. He settled the door against the frame and started to turn away.

  But not before his gaze fell through one of the cracks that had opened in the wood.

  Karth froze, staring like a butler at a keyhole. Inside the cabin, the heron stalked out of the shadows and as it moved, it changed. It grew taller and broader, its legs thicker, its neck shorter. Its wings became arms, its beak a face. The bird became a man with pale skin, black hair, and eyes the same acid-green as the heron’s. What had been feathers blurred and merged, becoming robes of fine black leather. Crystals were set down each sleeve, half a dozen polished dragonshards that glowed a soft red against the black leather. Or rather, five shards that glowed red and one that was dim and scorched, as if it had burned from the inside out.

  At the center of the man’s chest, his robes were torn. The raw, bloody flesh of a deep wound showed through, though the man moved as if it caused him no pain at all.

  Vennet fell to his knees before him. “Dah’mir,” he said. “My lord, command me.”

  Karth jerked away from the broken door. Something wasn’t right. He darted silently down the narrow corridor and back up onto the deck.

  The crew of Lightning on Water stood clustered together, all of them staring at the herons that clung to the ship’s rails and any other horizontal surface. With a chill, Karth realized for the first time that all of the birds had the same acid-green eyes. He tried to slip around the clustered crew, but someone noticed. “Karth! Is the captain coming?”

  “What did he say?” called someone else.

  “Does he know what’s going on?”

  “He’s coming! He’s coming!” Karth fought past the other sailors, then turned back. “He says not to hurt the birds.”

  “Can’t anyway,” said one of the men in a nervous voice. “Whenever you try, they just fly up out of the way, then settle back down, bold as halflings!”

  A chill shivered along Karth’s back. “Well, stop trying!”

  He hastened to the stern of the ship. Mounted on huge beams behind the ship, the great elemental ring that drove the galleon roiled like storm clouds. Just enough wind escaped the ring to keep Lightning on Water moving and on course. Vennet’s junior officer, Marolis d’Lyrandar, stood at the ship’s wheel, his hands clenched on it. Like Vennet, he was a half-elf and carried the Mark of Storm that enabled him to command the ship while the captain slept. Though it had only been a short while since the herons had appeared—the sun had barely cleared the horizon—Marolis’s face showed the strain of crisis. He glanced at Karth. “Where’s Vennet?”

  “He’s—” Karth found his words sticking in his throat.

  The three passengers that had taken passage with them on this run—a trip from Sharn in Breland to Trolanport in Zilargo, a departure from Lightning on Water’s usual routes along the southwestern coast of the continent of Khorvaire—had joined Marolis rather than clustering with the common sailors. One of them, a pompous little gnome wom
an, spoke up. “Speak up, sailor! What did the captain say when you told him what was happening?”

  “He—he said that he’d be out shortly, mistress Feita,” said Karth.

  “Shortly?” demanded one of the other passengers, a young Brelish man named Tomollan. “Shortly?” His voice rose and cracked.

  Marolis turned to look at him. “There’s no need to panic, master,” he said tautly.

  “Indeed.” The third passenger was Cira, a beautiful woman and apparently a seasoned traveler to judge by the way she was keeping her head. She folded her hands. “If there was reason to worry, Tomollan, the captain wouldn’t be so casually taking his time. If it makes you feel better, though, stay close to me. I have some skill in magic that could be—”

  Marolis let out a hiss of relief. “There’s the captain!”

  Karth spun around. Vennet had emerged onto the deck. He wore his shirt open, hastily donned, but he had buckled on his sword belt and his cutlass hung at his hip. He strode past the gathered sailors without a word, making his way quickly toward the stern.

  “He … uh, he seems to be in a hurry now,” said Tomollan.

  “Who’s that?” asked Feita. “Boldrei’s blessing, he’s wounded!”

  Dah’mir had followed the captain up from below. Where Vennet was hastening along the deck, however, the green-eyed man was strolling, nodding and smiling to the crew. All over the ship, the herons turned their heads to follow his casual progress. Strangely, the clustered sailors were dispersing in his wake, calmly returning to their duties.

  “Captain d’Lyrandar!” Tomollan said as Vennet mounted the aft deck. “What’s going on?”

  Vennet ignored him. “Marolis, come about.”

  The junior officer stared at him. “Captain?”

  “Come about, Marolis!”