D& D - Mystara 02 Dragonking of Mystara

by Thorarinn Gunnarsson

  "Does anyone else hold you in especially high regard?"

  "The Ethengar have always been fond of me," Thelvyn j' said. "I'm sure they would send warriors, for what it might be worth. The emirates hold me personally in high regard, but Thyatis and Alphatia are already fighting for possession of those lands, and they don't much like either side. The elves of Alfheim and I are on uncertain terms, since there is some question about whether or not I might be the legendary half-elf. But if Darokin commits itself, Alfheim may send some support."

  "And what about the dragons?"

  Thelvyn had never considered that question. But at that moment, a messenger entered the garden and waited anxiously at the door. The emperor turned his head and nodded, and the messenger approached quickly and bowed his

  head.

  "My lord, the harbormaster sends word that the storm surge will be approaching some three or four hours after nightfall," the messenger explained. "The tide will follow shortly afterward, and he is concerned with the possibility of flooding. He says that preparations should be made at once."

  "I could attend to this matter for you if you wish," Captain Darius said, rising. "I need to check the condition of my own ships."

  The emperor nodded. "If you would."

  Darius saluted smartly and departed at once with the messenger. Cornelius sat in silence a moment longer, deep in thought. Then hailstones began to ratde against the glass panes of the dome. He glanced up briefly, having noticed that Thelvyn had done the same. "It hasn't broken for as long as I can recall, and we've had worse storms than this."

  Thelvyn smiled. "I was just wondering what it must look like after a snowfall."

  "We rarely get snow," Cornelius explained. "As to my question about what part the dragons would play in this matter, I am keeping in mind that the dragons have already demonstrated their anger toward the Alphatians, although they were equally annoyed with the Flaem five years ago. Could they be persuaded to commit their strength to a war with Alphatia? Or perhaps more to the point, could the Dragonlord demand that of them?"

  Thelvyn was appalled at the idea. "I suppose that I could knock their heads together until they submitted to my demands, but that would violate the conditions of our truce. I believe that they would be far more likely to commit themselves to war with me than submit to such a demand. I cannot guess whether or not they would consider war with Alphatia to be in their own best interest, but I would never attempt to force them."

  Cornelius nodded. "Perhaps it would be more to the point for me to ask if Jherridan understands that."

  Again the question caught Thelvyn by surprise. "I have an agreement with King Jherridan that defines what I can and cannot do for him."

  "And I suppose that he must understand your relationship with the dragons better than anyone," the emperor said. "But keep in mind that Jherridan has been trying to forge an alliance against Alphatia for years. I think you should not underestimate your part in this, nor should you underestimate just what Jherridan might privately expect of you in his obsession over defeating the Alphatians. He is in a position to believe that the Dragonlord is subservient to his will, and he might expect you to fight his wars for him as long as you have allies to consolidate your victories. The Dragonlord has the power to fight dragons; he certainly has the power to defeat nations."

  "Yes ... I see what you mean," Thelvyn agreed. "I never believed King Jherridan could convince other nations to support his plans, and I can see that I've only taken for granted that he understands my position in this matter."

  "Which is not to say that he does hold such expectations," the emperor insisted. "I feel that I am interfering in Jherridan's affairs, but this matter is too important. The Dragonlord may be giving his service to the Highlands, but his duty is to the world. The dragons are a far greater danger than Alphatia will ever be. While I have much to gain by involving you in a final conflict with Alphatia, I would not wish that at the risk of destroying your truce with the dragons."

  "My first duty is to maintain peace with the dragons," Thelvyn said solemnly. "Indeed, my duty is to the dragons themselves. In some way, I am to be the key to their future."

  "Then perhaps it would be wise for each of us to attend to those problems we are best able to manage," Cornelius said. "I will deal with Alphatia, and you deal with the dragons."

  "That would be best," Thelvyn agreed, pausing as a servant came to the door to announce dinner.

  "We will speak more of this later," the emperor said as they strolled together toward the door. "Other nations will be looking to Thyatis in this matter, gauging their responses according to my own. Perhaps it would serve all of us best if I had more specific statements for you to report when you return to the west."

  CHAPTER TWO

  A cool, heavy rain was still falling steadily when Thelvyn came out to the patio the next morning, and it seemed likely to rain for some time to come. He had been disappointed when he had seen the rain out the window of his room, because he felt there was a great deal that needed to be done at home. Kharendaen was lying at ease along the far half of the patio so that she could look out down the steps and across the garden. Small branches and leaves had been ripped from the trees and vines by the force of the storm to litter the paving stones of the court.

  "Are you finished with your business here?" Kharendaen asked, lifting her head as he approached.

  "I am," Thelvyn agreed. "Are you ready to leave?"

  "I would prefer to leave, if you do not mind. The rain is irrelevant to me, and you can wear your armor until I climb above the clouds."

  Thelvyn could imagine that Kharendaen was rather bored, being forced to crawl within the shelter of a covered patio during an endless torrential rain. This place did not compare to her own home, which was large enough for her to move about and where she had books and other diversions.

  He hurried to get Kharendaen into her saddle. Because of the confining space, she wasn't able to help him much, and the massive leather saddle was difficult for him to lift all the way up to her shoulder. Once the straps of the saddle were tight, Thelvyn teleported himself into the enchanted armor of the Dragonlord, including the helmet. Kharendaen moved slowly out into the court, obviously more annoyed with the rain than she had admitted. Thelvyn pulled himself into the saddle, and the dragon spread her wings and leaped into the dark sky. She descended at a steep angle with long, quick sweeps of her wings.

  The rain through the helmet's crystal visor was so heavy and the sky so dark that the city of Thyatis disappeared quickly below them. Kharendaen reached the bottom of the low clouds almost at once, but then several long minutes passed as she ascended steadily up through the dense mass of storm clouds. The bluish gray mist was so thick he couldn't even see her head or most of her wings, and he could only wait patiently until they came into clearer air. Kharendaen's sense of direction was flawless; she could fly blind for miles and still go straight to her destination.

  Thelvyn had been flying with Kharendaen for years and his trust in her was complete, and so he remained unconcerned even when he couldn't see where they were going. For the time being, he was too occupied with his own thoughts even to notice. His discussion with Emperor Cornelius had given him a great deal to think about.

  Thelvyn was reminded uncomfortably of his first days as Maarsten's new captain and advisor, when the archduke had subtly intimidated the dukes into surrendering much of their own authority and independence. Thelvyn had been concerned then that his own presence was being used as an unspoken threat, suggesting that the powers of the Dragonlord might be used to enforce Maarsten's authority. Jherridan had questioned his loyalty at the time, accusing him of being ambivalent in his duty. Thelvyn realized now

  just how shocked and hurt he had been by that accusation, so much, in fact, that he had felt the need to prove his loyalty to the king. Now he began to realize that he might have made a mistake, trying entirely too hard to prove his loyalty. In doing so, he may indeed have appeared to make himse
lf subservient to the king and therefore a very powerful weapon under Jherridan's command.

  This was all disquieting in some vague manner. Thelvyn realized that he had begun his service to King Jherridan with these same concerns, but then he had put such worries from his mind and had quietly done everything that was asked of him. The king had always seemed to recognize that there were limits to the terms of his service. Now Thelvyn wondered if the only one with a mis- . taken impression of these matters was himself, in the erroneous belief that everyone understood that he could carry out his duties without being personally or politically involved.

  As Emperor Cornelius had pointed out to him, the problem now was that such misunderstandings may have been allowed to grow until Thelvyn's perception of the limitations of his duty and Jherridan's expectations may have become two entirely different things. Thelvyn had thought of himself as a defender without political ties, his duty to the king nothing more than a matter of 1 running messages and acting as a diplomatic arbiter during a time in his life when there was little call for his primary duty as the Dragonlord. Now he had to admit that, intentionally or not, the king had been using the prestige of the Dragonlord to persuade and subtly intim- : idate his neighbors.

  The Highlands had certainly prospered in the past five j years. Other nations had deferred to Jherridan, and Thelvyn now began to wonder if he had been too inexperienced to realize that they might be fearful of being excluded from the protection that the Dragonlord gave them from the attacks of the rogue dragons.

  It wasn't his place to judge whether or not war with Alphatia was a good or necessary thing, but he did have a duty to be certain that neither the dragons nor the Drag-onlord became involved. The fate of the dragons, whatever it might be, was such a volatile matter that the involvement of either himself or the dragons could easily spell disaster. I le had to be certain that he wasn't becoming too involved in these matters.

  Kharendaen broke through the cloud cover at last, moving through a wild landscape of deep canyons and towering peaks of dense storms. Thelvyn could see that they were very high indeed, perhaps as high as they had ever flown together. He waited a minute more for the dragon to dry out in the wind after her passage through the clouds, then teleported out of his armor. The air this high was cold and thin, so thin that most folk couldn't have endured it for long. The fact that Thelvyn didn't find it much of a bother proved that he had come from a remarkable race indeed. Even dragons preferred not to stay at such a high altitude for very long.

  Kharendaen glanced back at him briefly. "You seem in a hurry to return home."

  "I have something important to think about," he answered. "I've discovered something that I never anticipated, but which I should have expected."

  "Then I suspect that I know what the problem must be."

  "A most astute dragon," Thelvyn commented. "And why are you in such a hurry to return home?"

  She glanced back a second time. "I am a gold, a dragon of the mountains and the northern lands. Warm, wet weather penetrates inside my armor."

  It was a rather succinct way of admitting that she had been literally itching to leave. Thelvyn had heard a good deal about dragon "scales," yet all the dragons he had ever met were in fact protected by large plates, like hardened leather armor.

  The thought led to other misconceptions about dragons. Kharendaen never talked much about her past or about how most dragons lived, having once explained to him that there were many secrets that she could not yet reveal. Even so, Thelvyn knew enough to be aware that the image of a dragon sleeping in a cavern amid its hoard, coming out only to feed and pillage and to do battle with an occasional

  hero was a rather simplistic notion. Only the renegade dragons—mad, violent creatures who were forced to exist in exile from all other dragons—lived that way. Thelvyn had been required to fight half a dozen renegades since becoming the Dragonlord, according to the terms of his truce with the dragons, and Kharendaen had been his ; companion in battle each time.

  Still, he was aware that the dragons possessed a vast, i ancient, and complex civilization, with a history of collected wisdom stretching back into the depths of time. They had been ancient even before the coming of the first nation of men or elves. They had faced destruction once before, long ago, in the time of the first Dragonlord during the age of Blackmoor, and Thelvyn had no idea how they had fared during the Rain of Fire and the destruction of Blackmoor. But he was determined that they should not face destruction again, and they were already in a desperate state over the apparent disappearance of the Great One, their only patron Immortal. Thelvyn knew something that even most dragons did not—that the Great One was not gone but had only withdrawn for a time as a part of a greater plan known only to himself.

  Thelvyn was fearful of what would happen when the | Great One either failed to return or decided to set his plans j into motion. Although he was only guessing, Thelvyn sus- | pected that the real reason he had been made Dragonlord 1 was to protect the dragons, even from themselves, during | what would surely be a very dangerous time for them. And ' he was certainly not about to allow Jherridan Maarsten or the Wizards of the Flaem or anyone else to involve them in some war in which they had no part.

  His thoughts came back to the hidden identity of his own patron. For five years, he had been trying to figure out which one of the Immortals would find the Great One's secret plans for the destiny of the dragons important enough to become so deeply involved. His research into the matter had only shown him that there were many more Immortals than he had ever suspected, many of whom apparently had no cleric followers. Some apparently hadn't involved themselves in the affairs of the mortal world for

  centuries, and may have even gone on to other worlds and planes.

  With such thoughts to occupy him, Thelvyn discovered that they were home again sooner than he expected. Kharendaen descended into the court just past midafter-noon, and Thelvyn hurried to help her out of her saddle. The dragon stretched from her long neck to the end of her tail, then lumbered slowly toward the door of the warehouse.

  "Do you mind if I join you for dinner?" Thelvyn asked.

  She looked back over her shoulder. "Dinner? How romantic!"

  "There is something that I need to talk about," he explained quickly.

  Although she had implied no criticism, Thelvyn still felt guilty for not spending more time with her. She endured a good deal for the sake of her duty to the Dragonlord, not the least of which was being exiled from companionship and conversation with other dragons. Her older brother, Marthaen, had once told him that Kharendaen, as a senior cleric of the Great One, was loved by all dragons. Thelvyn didn't know anything else about her friends or family, even whether she had left a mate for the sake of her present service. Dragons of legend were said to be fiercely solitary, but he had often found legend to be inaccurate on many points.

  He could understand her loneliness very well, for it was something he shared. He had been raised as a ward of the village of Graez when his mother had died within an hour of his birth, leaving him an orphan of unknown race and origin. His features were vaguely elvish, yet he was too tall and powerful of build to have been an elf, taller even than most men. He had black hair and large, dark eyes, which were blue where they should have been white, although most people failed to notice that oddity.

  There had always been a possibility that he was a half-elf, since he obviously was neither human nor elf but seemed to possess the best qualities of both races. Of course, there was no certainty that he was indeed a half-elf, especially considering the fact that no such thing had ever been known to exist. There remained the possibility that he was descended from the lost race of Blackmoor, which might explain his being chosen to be the heir of the Dragonlord. His mother had died when he was born, and she had spoken no known language, so she had been unable to tell anyone of his true heritage. Thelvyn suspected that the true story of his origin would remain a mystery until he was finally reunited with his own people. He didn't
expect that to happen any time soon.

  Thelvyn wished Sir George were there to advise him, but the old knight had been gone for weeks now and was unlikely to return soon. Now that his responsibilities as Dragonlord were again becoming more pressing, he found that he missed his old friends more than ever. Sir George still shared Thelvyn's large house in a wealthy neighborhood of Braejr, but the old knight was on the road most of the time. Solveig White-Gold was now more Sir George's partner than merely a hired sword, although she hardly ever came to the Highlands but held up her share of the business from Sir George's residence in Darokin. Korinn had long since returned home to attend to his duties as King Daroban's younger son, but Thelvyn's responsibilities took him to Rockhome periodically, and so he saw the young dwarf fairly frequently.

  Despite the absence of so many of his longtime friends, Thelvyn didn't lack for either companionship or guidance. Kharendaen had been his friend and advisor for as long as she had been in his company. She seemed to do everything she could to be all the companion he could need. She gave her affection and devotion fully and without hesitation, as if she could never want for a better friend. He had often wondered about that, recalling that she was a dragon, a race with a fierce and aloof reputation. Completing the unlikelihood of their friendship was the fact that he was the Dragonlord, making him the most feared and hated enemy her people had ever known.

  Thelvyn did not fault Kharendaen for not warning him earlier about the state of affairs between the dragons and the Alphatians. In her service as a cleric of the Great One, she had been assigned as his companion. Politically, her relationship to Thelvyn was more that of an ambassador, an intermediary between the Dragonlord and the Parliament of Dragons. Her task was to assuage the fears her people had about the Dragonlord. She was obliged to keep her secrets, and Thelvyn had never expected nor wanted her to betray her own kind. Indeed, his impression had been that she may have transgressed the bounds of her trust with the dragons in telling him what she had.