by Joe Jackson
“A pacifist, eh?” Aeligos said, rubbing his chin. “Kari, how good are you at apologizing? We may have to ask your old friend Fireblade for help.”
“Most inadvisable!” Peri objected, apparently missing Aeligos’ sarcasm. “The Mistress of the Fiery Sky is volatile at the best of times. Given your history with her…” She paused, and Kari realized she had almost said Lady Vanador. Though it was possible anyone listening in on them would know who Peri was speaking to, it was best to be cautious anyway. “Well, let us just say that should you go to her to beseech her for help, you likely will not have to worry about Annabelle or Zaliskower any longer.”
“Trust me, I have no intentions of asking that one for anything,” Kari said with a chuckle. “We can at least talk to Alamarise. The worst he can say is No, and all it costs us is a bit of time. Our time is valuable, but not so much that we should pass up the opportunity to recruit a dragon to our cause. That just leaves the trouble of getting up to his home to see him, or calling him down here to speak to us. I don’t suppose you could…”
“I am afraid not,” the druidess answered preemptively. “However, there are tales of a portal that leads to his cloud-borne home. Normally I would never speak of such a thing to an outsider, but you are an elf-friend, practically a daughter of Laeranore in your own right. I will share what we know, but I can make no guarantees that you are admitted to his home, much less that he will grant you the aid you need.”
“Just point us in the right direction, that’s all I ask,” Kari agreed.
“This portal is located somewhere among the DragonFire Mountains, as your people call them. It is within sight of the lair of the Mistress of the Fiery Sky, but remains hidden within a shallow cave. I wish I could tell you more, but these are considered little more than tales among our people; if any possess specific directions to the portal or have personally met with the great silver dragon, I know nothing of it. I hope this is of help to you. Now, would you like me to forward a request to the Queen for the aid of the Spearguard or the Arborean Guard in fighting Annabelle?”
“I’d appreciate that, but I have to think there will be too much…politicking between your people and your neighboring kingdoms for them to get to Fort Sabbath in anything like a timely manner,” Kari said.
Aeligos chuckled, and after considering the demonhunter’s words, Peri did so as well. “You are likely quite right on that,” she agreed. “I will pass along the request nonetheless. At worst, you lose nothing.”
“Thank you,” Kari said.
“Let us then see to your logistical needs, that you may get on the road again as soon as possible. Give me until the morrow to arrange for an outfitter to agree to do the work on the account of the elven people. If the Queen cannot aid you militarily, then she will be only too happy to do so financially.”
With the new information and a plan in place, they broke up their meeting. Peri left to return to the keep, where she could arrange for Kari and Aeligos to be equipped. The rogue and the demonhunter shared a filling dinner and a couple of drinks, then retired to their room. As she requested, the servants refilled the tub with fresh, steamy water, and Kari set to washing her undergarments and armor as best she could for the following day. Aeligos joined her, kneeling across the tub from her.
“So, tell me a story,” he said, and Kari looked up at him. “You keep hinting at all these adventures you’ve had with dragons. So tell me about one of them. Better yet, tell me about Fireblade and how you ended up tangling with her.”
“She’s a great fighter, I’ll tell you that much,” Kari said with a sigh. “You know I used to travel with Saint Bakhor and her group, right? Well, Fireblade and her brood started to get out of hand when her young were coming of age. They were attacking travelers, flocks, just about anything that crossed the plains too close to their mountains. It wasn’t that unusual, but the attacks were happening a lot more frequently as she trained her young to hunt.”
“We studied them for a long time before we tried attacking. I knew a good deal about dragons and fighting them from Suler – but I don’t know where he learned, so I can’t tell you. We had a young ranger in our group as well, and waited out their winter cycle before we made our move. Dragons are most commonly active in the warmer months, and sleep more during the winter. So when spring came around, we were ready to put our plans into action.”
“The rights to the first hunt go to the eldest male, which was Fireblade’s mate. As far as we had figured out, their brood consisted of Fireblade, her mate, and three young. When her mate came out for his first hunt, we ambushed him near a lake in the mountains, assuming he would go there to drink after his first kill of the season. And our ranger friend, Suzette, was correct. One of my friends, dressed like a mining prospector, lured the dragon under the trees, where his ability to take flight would be limited, and that’s where we ambushed him.”
“I severed his hamstrings on the left flank, and Carly’s mate, Hrothgar, severed the ones on his right. He nearly ate Carly, but…well, you should have seen it. She wielded this sledgehammer she called Mallet, and crushed the end of the dragon’s snout with it. I’ve never seen anything like it again. That woman was beyond fearless. When the dragon recoiled, his attention on the wrong person, I groined him. He tried to run, but he lost so much blood in the first minute, it turned the shore of the lake red. Hrothgar drove a spear through the dragon’s eye while it lay dying, but then the others arrived.”
“How did you deal with four dragons at once?” Aeligos asked, enraptured, his loincloth hanging limply from his hand in the water while he listened.
“Well, like I said, three of them were young. We used the elder dragon’s corpse as a defensive structure, hiding from fiery breath under his wing and forcing the others to attack from only one side. Fireblade was crafty, and a great fighter, but Carly channeled the Beast’s power to deflect that fiery breath, and after taking a solid hit from that sledgehammer, she thought twice about fighting the priestess. There was something special about that hammer, though I never knew what it was, exactly. But between her divine power and that hammer, Carly was a force to be reckoned with.”
“Hrothgar, Suzette, and I managed to kill one of her young, and after bellowing out a cry that promised revenge, she took her other young and fled. We didn’t go to their lair, though. It was hard enough to fight a dragon under the best circumstances; to go fight Fireblade in her lair would’ve been a mistake. We fell back into the shadows for a time, and it became clear they weren’t going to be as much of a problem anymore. So we left well enough alone, and moved on to other things.”
“No wonder she hates you,” Aeligos said.
Kari shrugged. “She brought it on herself. There’s plenty to eat in the mountains and on the plains without attacking people. You eat a cow or a bison, the herd’s going to miss them, sure, but that’s part of their life, and they accept it and move on. But people? You kill people, and more come to see what happened. And if you kill those, even more come to put a stop to you. It’s why I don’t understand someone like Taesenus; what’s his ultimate goal? To die?”
Aeligos grunted at the mention of the Demon Prince’s name, but he nodded. “Well said.”
“And that’s what I told King Koursturaux,” Kari said as they returned to their washing. “She can conquer our world in theory, but we’re never going to stop fighting against her.”
They finished their laundering, and Kari got undressed and slipped into bed. Aeligos got in beside her, kissed her chastely on the side of her snout, and lay on his side facing away from her. Something tugged at her mind, and though Kari trusted him, she found she already couldn’t look at him the same way, knowing he loved her in more than just a brotherly sense. And that made her quite sad.
Peri made good on her promise. The next morning, Kari and Aeligos were able to work with an outfitter’s shop that had an attached smithy as well. There they purchased quickly-tailored undergarments, fixes to the armor, proper belts and scab
bards for their weapons, and all the sundries they needed for a trek. It was going to cost a decent amount of money, and Kari was tempted to ask the local temple of Zalkar to pay for it. She ultimately decided against that; for one thing, it might announce to her enemies where she was, and it might also come across as insulting to the elves after they volunteered their aid.
Kari and Aeligos were able to leave the city without any substantial attention, and they headed westward toward the Dragonfire Mountains. It was going to take some time to get there, but Kari figured it couldn’t be helped. They needed to make sure they were fully prepared to go back and take the fight to Annabelle and Zaliskower again. That meant getting a dragon to help them, or at least give them some way of driving off his distantly-related, undead kin.
The mountains could be seen from some distance, which played tricks on the pair as they kept thinking they were getting closer. It was almost as if the range was avoiding them, taunting them like a young child. The plains were peaceful and quiet, awakening in the strong spring sun. Kari pointed out various herds to her brother-in-law, some of the great ones coming to feast on the fresh spring grasses. Aeligos was nervous that the presence of the herds might draw out the very red dragons they were hoping to avoid, but Kari doubted they’d come this far for food so early in the season.
After several days, they spotted a party of gnolls crossing the plains as well. The hyena-folk noticed them from a distance and reacted defensively, but made no hostile moves toward the pair. Kari was leery of interacting with the gnolls after her last encounter with the hyena-folk, but she realized these ones might have further information on things she had been hearing. She hailed them from a good distance, making a gesture of open hands, and they stood their ground and allowed the demonhunter and rogue to approach.
As she drew closer, Kari could see these gnolls were different. While they still had the same body styling as the ones farther north, including the canine shape of their legs, they were wearing hunters’ outfits. They looked cleaner, more civilized, and their weaponry was efficient sets rather than haphazard. Each had a bow across its back, a sword, a knife on each thigh, and used a spear as a walking staff that they leaned upon while waiting for Kari to come speak to them. Their outfits were well-tended, and their fur didn’t appear matted or mangy like their northern cousins. They could have almost passed for mallasti but for those legs.
One of them called out in their tongue, which still sounded a bit guttural like the others’, but perhaps more intelligent at the same time. It regarded its companions, then tried again in the common trade tongue, “Keep your distance, travelers. What business have you with us?”
Kari was impressed with its speech. It still had a bit of a snarling accent in the common tongue, but its diction was pretty accurate. Not to mention that it could speak her tongue, but she couldn’t say the same of its language, which she appreciated. “We’ve heard talk of gnoll attacks in the north,” she said, leaving out her actual knowledge of it. “We wanted to see what news you might have here in the south.”
The gnolls yapped back and forth in their language for a minute. “Yes, something in the north is said to be capturing and enslaving our people. Our tribes in the southlands have been taking in refugees, but their numbers are increasing, and we must expand our hunting grounds to properly provide for them. It would not do to anger our luranar and kwarrasti neighbors, and our leaders seem hesitant to impose upon them.”
That’s interesting, Kari thought. Have the gnolls in the south found peace, or something like it, with the wolf- and cat-folk?
“Where do you go, travelers?” one of the other gnolls asked.
“We’re headed to the mountains to speak with a dragon,” Kari answered.
The gnolls erupted into howls and laughter, and Kari wondered at their mirth. “The only thing one says to a dragon is Ahhhhhhh,” one gnoll said, pantomiming running in terror.
Kari and Aeligos both laughed, but Kari considered what the gnolls had told her before that. Something in the north was capturing and enslaving their people, but Kari was certain it wasn’t Annabelle or Zaliskower. Something large and foul was afoot on Terrassia, and Kari believed it had to all be connected. Someone or something planted the seeds of unrest, and they were sprouting from Aurun Ch’Gurra all the way across the continent to Dira Ch’Tori, from the badlands in the south as far north as Fort Sabbath, at least. Defeating Annabelle and Zaliskower was Kari’s first duty, but she thought of something else.
It may be that you find your presence here in this place at this time is not simply to do the work of your deity, but to witness his divine influence in some other area. Keep your wits about you and do not overlook anything, Lady Vanador. The ways of the gods are yet a mystery to us. The words of the elven druidess rang in Kari’s ears again, but she made an effort not to get lost in thought with the gnolls before her.
“You do not really go to meet with the fire lizards of the peaks, do you?” they asked after the silence.
“Not the reds, no,” Kari answered. “There is supposed to be another dragon that way, and we go to ask his help, or at least his advice.”
More chatter from the gnolls. “There are no other dragons in the mountains that we have ever heard of.”
“Well, we were told it might be a fool’s errand, but we’re duty-bound to try anyway.”
The gnolls nodded with Kari’s assessment, and Aeligos addressed them. “Don’t suppose you have any fresh game you’d be willing to trade?”
“A couple of wild prairie chickens, only good enough for our own dinner,” the one said, turning so they could see the birds hanging from his muscular back. “No trade, sorry.”
“No worries,” Kari assured them with a wave of her hand. The gesture seemed to make them uneasy, and she wondered if they thought she was a spellcaster. “Are things fairly quiet in your homeland?”
The change of topic dispelled their anxiety. “Peaceful, but busy. Many come from the north, some with mates and pups,” said a third gnoll. “If you go and see the luranar or kwarrasti, tell them of our troubles. Our chiefs do not wish to ask for aid, but our people need it.”
“I don’t think we’re headed that way, but if we do, I’ll keep your request in mind,” Kari said. The gnolls thanked her and, seeing no further cause for discussion, they continued on in their hunt. Kari directed them back eastward toward the herds she had seen, and the thankful hyena-folk picked up their pace and departed.
Kari and Aeligos finally reached the hilly terrain around the mountains after a couple more days. Kari knew the way to the red dragons’ lair, and led Aeligos that way. They picked their paths carefully, trying to stay out of the open and not draw too much attention. The hills and the mountains were less sparsely populated than the plains had been, but there were herds of goats here and there. Kari was sure there was more animal life around, and that it was just a lot more mindful of being spotted by dragons than the goats were. She got the image of a goat headbutting a dragon in the rump in her mind, and chortled as she walked.
By the time the sun started to set, Kari found and pointed out the mountainside lair of the legendary Fireblade. There was no indication whether the dragon was home or not, and Kari couldn’t help but check the sky in all directions just to be safe. “Let’s give it as wide a berth as we can,” she said, “Peri said the portal is within sight of it. So we can start actively looking for a shallow cave now.”
They searched for a couple of hours, but turned up little by the time the light failed. Kari doubted they would find the cave with their night vision; shadows upon shadows played tricks on the eyes in low light. Instead, they made a camp on the far side of a hill, out of sight of the red dragon lair. They risked a fire, shared a meal, and chatted a bit about what direction to try the next morning. There could be hundreds of caves in these crags, or none at all; they really had very little to go on, but they trusted that Peri’s information would eventually yield something. In sight of the dragon lair in a shallow
cave was bare-bones information, but it pointed to an arc of land and a particular feature, at least.
Kari laid out her bedroll and blanket and took a long sip from her canteen. She smiled, thinking she would never take such little things for granted again. Aeligos agreed to take the first watch since Kari was an early riser anyway, and she bedded down to get some sleep. Her sleep was dreamless, which was odd for her, and she woke up when a bright light seeped through her eyelids.
“What are you doing?” she asked grumpily as she sat up.
“What’s that?” Aeligos asked.
Kari didn’t answer, sitting agape at the sight before her. There it was again, that little ball of hovering light, pacing back and forth impatiently. Kari looked across at Aeligos, and saw he was confused as to what woke her up. “You don’t see this ball of light right here?” she asked.
“No, and that’s starting to make me nervous,” he said. “This could be some sort of trap.”
“It saved us twice already,” Kari disagreed, and she turned back to the light. “Are you an angel? Can you tell me that, at least?”
She received no response. The hovering sphere continued pacing back and forth, and Kari got the impression they were supposed to follow it. She rose to her feet, folded her blanket, put away her bedroll, and got her things together. Aeligos still looked confused, but he doused the fire and got his things in order to follow Kari. Once they were both on their feet, the little wisp finally began to move away from them, and Kari fell into step behind it.
They followed the light for a while until it stopped, and Kari turned when she heard the heavy flap of wings, afraid Aeligos might have been right. She saw the heavy silhouette of a great winged reptile land on the side of the peak where Fireblade’s lair was. It looked around and then skulked into the shadows of the cave entrance, and Kari blew out a sigh of relief. In a sense, she was amused to see that Fireblade looked around for trouble before she went into her home. What sort of trouble kept a red dragon up at night?