The cook had dinner prepared for them shortly after they returned, including a haunch of venison from the market. Like all dragons, Kharendaen preferred elk. Since there had not been time for her to hunt since her return, she had no opportunity to indulge her taste for her favorite food. Thelvyn's own dinner was brought out to the table kept for him in Kharendaen's lair, while the dragon reclined in her bed of immense leather cushions.
"Your visit to Thyatis seems to worry you, but you have not yet spoken to me of what you learned," Kharendaen said after several minutes.
"It's very much what you seemed to expect," Thelvyn told her. "Captain Darius witnessed an attack by a band of dragons upon a fleet of Alphatian warships. They seemed to search the ships before sinking them. Darius recovered quite a few survivors, who said that the dragons have been harassing the larger Alphatian settlements in the north for some time now, although they either did not or pretended not to understand why."
"I did not know that the issue had become an open conflict," Kharendaen said. "I have been aware of the situation, so I was able to guess the nature of the trouble when we first received the summons to Thyatis."
"You do not need to explain yourself to me," Thelvyn insisted. "I'm aware that you are often caught in a difficult position due to your conflict of duties to myself, the Great One, and your own people. I've always been willing to allow the dragons to keep their secrets, and I wouldn't ask you to betray your confidence to others no matter how desperate the situation."
"I appreciate that," she assured him. "But to speak candidly, I am rather annoyed with the parliament for their failure to include me in their confidence in this matter, knowing how volatile the situation could be. Even if they are right, the dragons cannot expect to go to war without dire consequences. If they expect me to protect them from the wrath of the Dragonlord, they must keep me informed of such things."
"I told Emperor Cornelius that I believe that the dragons have been provoked into this war," Thelvyn continued. "Considering how unpopular the Alphatians are, he was willing to accept the fact that the Alphatians are only getting what they deserve. I told him that I am inclined to stay out of it and allow the dragons to solve their own differences with the Alphatians, provided their vengeance is not unjustly extreme and the war is not likely to expand into other lands."
"Perhaps that would be best," Kharendaen agreed. "I expect Marthaen will handle the matter swiftly and justly."
Thelvyn nodded. "I'm sure that the dragons won't want to continue this conflict any longer than they must. I'm aware that they don't want to be involved with the outside world, if for no other reason than to protect their secrets. But I'm still concerned about the fear that could result when others begin to learn that the dragons have gone to war. I feel I need to send you to speak with your brother. You can tell him everything that I've spoken about to you. I don't expect him to reveal any of the secrets of the dragons, but I do need assurances from him about the intentions of the dragons, so that I can relate those assurances to others if I must to maintain the truce. Explain to him that I am doing this for the sake of the dragons, to protect them from undeserved retribution."
"That is fair."
"You might remind him discreetly that the dragons violated the truce in going to war without consulting me," he added. "I don't expect Marthaen to answer for that. I only wish to remind him of the wisdom of avoiding possible misunderstandings. If the dragons have a just complaint with anyone, I am required by the terms of our truce to take their part, and I am still willing to do anything I can
for them."
Kharendaen looked doubtful. "I do not think that the dragons are ready to take you so fully into their confidence."
"No, I don't expect they are," Thelvyn agreed. "I just want them to understand that I will be supportive of them when they have been wronged. I need to build all the trust I can between myself and the dragons, and in this case, I thought it best not to interfere in their affairs."
"Then I will depart in the morning," she said, shaking her head when he seemed about to protest. "I will be rested, and the matter is urgent."
"More urgent than you may know," he told her. "Jher-ridan might finally get his alliance against Alphatia. Cornelius immediately saw the possibility that the trouble the Alphatians are having with the dragons could leave them vulnerable to invasion. If that happens, the best thing that Marthaen and I could do is to insure that the dragons are not involved. While you are away, I'll be busy making certain Jherridan understands my position in this matter."
"What do you mean?" Kharendaen asked, cocking her head inquisitively.
"I had an informal talk with Emperor Cornelius," he explained. "The sum of it all is this: I had always assumed that King Jherridan had little hope of finding foreign support for his war against Alphatia, and that my errands on that matter were wasted. Now I'm told that Thyatis would be supportive of such an effort. More than that, Cornelius says that he and I together could gather the necessary forces if we were to ask for support."
"The Dragonlord commands a high degree of respect," she said.
"And a certain degree of fear," Thelvyn added. "I've always been determined that Jherridan will not get his way, either with his own people or with foreign leaders, by using me. However, I never considered that there is an implied threat, that others might be concerned I might withhold my protection from the rogue dragons from any land that does not defer to the Highland king. The matter is hardly relevant. Whether war with Alphatia is desirable or not, I honestly feel I dare not involve myself. I am certainly not about to ask for the support of the Nation of Dragons."
Kharendaen made a derisive noise through her long nose. "If Jherridan tries to involve the dragons, he will find trouble that makes his complaint with Alphatia look tame."
Thelvyn shook his head. "That's not the problem. What does concern me is the terms of my duty to Jherridan, or, more precisely, what the king has come to expect of my duty. I'm afraid a large part of the blame must be my own. Perhaps I've tried entirely too hard these last five years to prove the loyalty I promised when I accepted Jherridan's offer to bring me here. Now I'm no longer certain just what he might think he can reasonably ask of me. The only thing that I can say in my defense is that a great deal of power and importance was thrust upon me without warning, and I was never prepared for such a life. The good villagers who raised me expected to make a smith of me."
Kharendaen nodded. "Stating your own position firmly and holding to it is the best answer for a variety of problems. You have not said so, but your concerns imply that you suspect Jherridan will try to involve you deeper in this affair than you can allow. What I wonder is whether I should warn the dragons of this, with the understanding that we only suspect that the king may wish to involve them in his war with Alphatia."
"There is one other point I have to keep in mind," Thelvyn added. "I can't forget for one minute those weasely Fire Wizards. You can be sure they'll be scheming and plotting something to suit their own desires and ends. They want power for the king, they want it for themselves, they want to destroy the Alphatians, and they want a Flaemish empire. I'll have to be careful that Kalestraan isn't filling the king full of ideas about what I or the dragons could do for him."
Kharendaen departed early the next morning, leaving Thelvyn with the promise that she would return as soon as possible. He suspected she meant to have some very stern words with her brother Marthaen about his failure to inform either the Dragonlord or herself before the dragons had undertaken actions that might have vast and dire consequences. Thelvyn meant to go to the palace early that morning to speak privately with the king before the day's business began. He hoped Mage Kalestraan wasn't there to meddle in matters meant to remain between the Dragonlord and the king.
The archduke's palace was a sprawling structure of cold gray stone on the western side of the city. Indeed, like the School of Magic on the east side of Braejr, its massive back wall formed a long portion of the outer city wal
l. Like most other Flaemish designs, it was solid, functional, and rather plain compared to the palaces and mansions of other lands. The larger halls and chambers were located in the center of the palace, where the main doors opened from the enclosed court. The king's private residence and chambers for the aides, officials, and servants who dwelled within the palace were located on either side, along with suites for visiting dignitaries.
Thelvyn had hardly stepped inside the door when he was intercepted. The archduke's own valet, Taeryn, a young boy with the deep red hair of his Flaemish ancestors, had obviously been waiting to greet him. The boy was barely in his teens, eager to please and possessing an openness and lack of duplicity that reminded Thelvyn rather uncomfortably of himself when he was younger. Such simplicity was a welcome delight in a personal servant, but it could be a fatal shortcoming in the Dragonlord.
"The archduke sends his greetings," Taeryn began, the usual polite introduction to the verbal correspondence he bore. "He begs you to come to his private chamber as quickly as you can."
They moved quietly along the wall, avoiding the crowd that already thronged the entrance hall. Soon they came to the corridor leading north into the private residences. Taeryn hurried along, his boots echoing through the empty passageway. His pace would have been far too quick for the dignity of most of the lords and wizards of the realm, but he knew that Thelvyn wasn't concerned about such things.
Taeryn led him directly to the archduke's private chamber and opened the door for him. The room was large, paneled in dark wood with many bookcases, with a massive desk for the archduke and chairs for his visitors. Maarsten wasn't there, but the senior Fire Wizard, Byen Kalestraan, was seated in one corner reading his spellbook. Like all wizards, he was required to spend every free moment consigning his spells to memory.
The Dragonlord hesitated for a moment as he entered. He couldn't forget that Kalestraan had conspired to send Thelvyn and his companions to what had seemed certain death, giving them a false artifact of power to use against the dragons. Yet politics now dictated that he must pretend such an event had never occurred. He took one of the other chairs, almost far enough away from the wizard to be impolite.
"The archduke says to tell you he will be here very soon," Taeryn insisted, bowing respectfully to the wizard. "Is there anything I might get for you, Master?"
"Thank you, no, lad," Kalestraan said kindly, much to Thelvyn's surprise.
Taeryn bowed once more before he withdrew and closed the door carefully. In the next moment, the echo of his boots could be heard running along the stone floor of the hall. The wizard paused to listen before he looked down at his book with a fond smile. Then he glanced quickly at the Dragonlord, as if he were embarrassed to have been caught entertaining a kind thought.
"You shake things up rather badly around here when you take off like that without explaining yourself," Kalestraan began sternly. "Under the circumstances, I hesitate to say that I hope that you haven't worried us for nothing."
"The dragons are at war," Thelvyn told him plainly, to satisfy his own curiosity about how the wizard would react. "But it seems that they're only defending themselves, and I'm not inclined to interfere."
"But no one can hope to fight dragons . . ." Kalestraan began, looking confused and even a little frightened.
"The Alphatians are invading their land."
That caused the wizard to fall silent. The prospect of the dragons going to war was a frightening one, and Thelvyn was encouraged to see that even Kalestraan recognized that, even though the Fire Wizards had used dragon attacks as a part of their political ploys in the past. The thought that the Alphatians might be getting trounced by anyone was appealing to anyone of Flaemish descent. At that moment, the door opened, and they both glanced up as the king entered.
"So there you are," Jherridan said as he hurried to his desk, obviously eager for news of Thelvyn's journey. "Your message was rather vague."
"I had no idea of what the problem was myself until I arrived there," Thelvyn said.
He quickly explained what he knew of the war between the dragons and Alphatia. He also repeated Emperor Cornelius's speculations about the possibility of an alliance against Alphatia. He would rather have left out any mention of that last part, knowing how eagerly both the king and Kalestraan would leap upon such a possibility, but he thought it best to make them aware of his posi-tion on the subject from the first. The wizard sat motionless in his chair and listened in silence, almost as if he found none of this alarming or surprising. But Jherridan grew increasing excited; he began to pace nervously in his growing enthusiasm.
"Of course, Cornelius was only speculating about such possibilities," Thelvyn reminded them both pointedly. "He gave me this message, which he wished for me to relate to you. He says that Thyatis is already committed to containing the expansion of the Alphatian Empire. Alphatia's own aggressions require that of Thyatis, for the reason of their own security if for no other. If other nations were willing to commit their strength to a war against Alphatia, then Thyatis is willing to join such an effort. But he wishes to remind you that he is not willing to make war against Alphatia simply because of hatred, and by no means will he be a part in the utter destruction of the Alphatian race."
Kalestraan looked offended at that statement of conditional support, but the king apparently found it agreeable and nodded. "That is fair enough of him."
"I must disagree," the wizard interrupted. "War with Alphatia is a cause of the highest honor, and I wish his commitment were more complete. I cannot believe that it is wise to trust an ally who is not willing to give his absolute loyalty."
Jherridan remained unconcerned. "I can appreciate that Cornelius does not want to commit himself to leaping into an invasion of Alphatia unless he is certain that the dragons have weakened them enough to leave them vulnerable. A man who speaks his mind is telling the truth."
"But why would his commitment be less than absolute?" Kalestraan asked. "I must insist that we know whether Thyatis or any other ally fears Alphatia, for such fear may undermine their support at some desperate time."
"That is expecting more of your allies than you expect of yourself," Thelvyn said. "I was under the impression that your reason for fighting the Alphatians in the first place is that you have reason to fear them. Otherwise you have no just complaint with them. Keep in mind that, to some degree, Thyatis has been at war with Alphatia for centuries before your people even came into this world."
Kalestraan looked at him as if he were a child who had spoken out of turn; his expression was more of surprise than anger. Still, Thelvyn was determined that he would not allow the wizard to force him to consider himself wrong or out of place.
"That is fairly stated, I must agree," the king said. "Did Cornelius have anything to add, rather than just a general statement of intent?"
"There are certain practical matters that concern him," Thelvyn added. "When we discussed it later that night, he pointed out that if a combined force of allied nations should gain control of Alphatian lands, then we must determine in advance just who will then claim those territories. He said that fighting Alphatia together is one thing, but we must not fight among ourselves."
"The Alphatians are our ancient enemies," Kalestraan declared immediately. "Their lands and property rightly belong to us."
"That would be asking a great deal of our allies," Jherridan replied. "I've considered the matter myself, and I already came to the conclusion that the problem of what to do with Alphatian territory is almost as complex as knowing how to defeat them in the first place. We cannot hold a nation as large as Alphatia ourselves, and I would never expect our allies to simply give it to us. My proposal would be that an allied force would continue to manage the Alphatian holdings in trust for the foreseeable future."
The wizard looked perplexed. "What would be the value of that? I say we should take the most we can and hold it ourselves."
Jherridan made a hopeless gesture. "I cannot ignore that we happen
to be the weakest nation of the west in military terms. We can't very well hold any part of Alphatia from here. But if Alphatia is open to us, would we necessarily want to stay here? As long as no one else is claiming Alphatia, we can begin to quietly send groups of settlers to establish colonies before anyone else is aware of it. That seems to be our best hope to claim Alphatia as our own."
Thelvyn elected to say nothing; he had always known that the Flaem were a scheming lot, often as impractical in their schemes as they were grandiose. He even wondered if it might actually be a good thing to have the Flaem and the Alphatians move in with each other. Then they could proceed to destroy each other without involving the rest of the world, although he still doubted that matters would ever proceed that far.
"Well, that's getting ahead of ourselves a bit," Jherridan continued as he began pacing the chamber. "Right now I'm most concerned about acquiring allies who will help us in our war with Alphatia. Did Emperor Cornelius have anything to say about that?"
"As a matter of fact, he did," Thelvyn said, choosing his words carefully. "He relayed what is possibly some very encouraging news in that regard. He believes that his influence would be enough to encourage several other nations to join the alliance against Alphatia. He said nothing about actually doing so, but I doubt that he would have said it if he weren't considering it seriously."
"That is encouraging," the king agreed. "I wonder if we might be able to exercise any influence of our own. ... I don't flatter myself that I am held in especially high esteem in other lands, but the Dragonlord is."
Thelvyn tried to hide his immediate sense of guilt. It was time for him to take a stand, but he realized now that he had been hoping to avoid this issue.
D& D - Mystara 02 Dragonking of Mystara Page 6