Here was his grenade. Just like the stone he’d used to kill the abomination under the garrison tower. He could send it into the enemy force, push that last bit of mana into the gem, and loot the larger bits of whatever was left after the explosion.
But again, he couldn’t go help. Growling in frustration, he shoved the stone into his inventory and got up from his chair. His thoughts were on the captain, who was clearly seeing action on the wall. And Prince Edward, who was likely on that same wall with his light cannon crews.
Not able to get out of his own head without some distraction, he went back downstairs. The orcs and minotaurs were joining the other citizens of the keep for the evening meal. There were too many to be fed in the usual dining area, so the larger kitchen and dining hall inside the mountain had been put to use as well. Alexander spotted one of the orc elders and approached him. “Good evening. You may have heard from Molgo and his people already. But I’m going to allow a small group of citizens to join us in the drow stronghold. We’ll be leaving tomorrow. If you’d like to choose ten-”
He stopped talking as the elder chuckled at him and ten orc warriors got to their feet in unison. The elder said, “We heard. Warriors already chosen. They will serve you well, king.”
Alexander nodded respectfully at the orcs. He wasn’t surprised. “Then I will see you in the courtyard at sunrise. Be sure to get one of the dragon pins if you don’t already have one.”
When the meal was through, citizens began to drift from the dining areas out to the courtyard and gather ‘round the obelisk. Alexander smiled to see the dragonling’s banner hanging from a nearby tree branch, fluttering in the slight breeze. He took his place close to the monument, the face of which was now much more crowded with the names of sixty-one additional heroes.
He laid a hand on the monument and channeled his Light spell into the stone until it glowed slightly in the darkening evening. Not sure he had the right words, he took a few deep breaths, keeping his hand on the stone and his eyes on the ground. One last breath, and he began.
“We’ve been gathered here too often lately. Though we all knew this would be a dangerous place when we came here, and knew that some of us would perish, still, it is a hard price to pay. These heroes gave their lives for all of us. They were friends, brothers, cousins, neighbors. Elysians, one and all!”
The gathered crowd cheered or roared, fists and weapons thrust to the sky.
“I promised each of you I would do my best to keep you alive. And every day I strive to keep that promise. But I am not all-powerful. And I failed these Elysians today.” He paused for a moment, his voice threatening to crack as tears formed in his eyes. “So I… we… will remember these people. These Elysian heroes! We mark these names in stone today, not because there is any danger of us forgetting. No, we mark these names for the grandchildren of our grandchildren! So that they might know the courage and the sacrifices of those who helped us create this nation!”
The roar of the crowd was louder, more fervent. Alexander shouted over them. “Tomorrow, we take the fight to those responsible for stealing these warriors from us! WE will invade THEIR home and teach them the price owed for these lives!”
He waited as the crowd shouted agreement and encouragement. He waited even longer for them to grow quiet in anticipation of his next words.
“But for tonight, we remember. Let us drink and share our memories of the fallen. Then drink some more!”
The crowd didn’t need to be told twice. They quickly dispersed back to the outdoor dining area, where kegs were already set up. Mattie and the staff from the Ogre II were manning the taps, passing out mugs of ale and spirits.
Alone with the obelisk, his hand still resting on the glowing stone, Alexander felt a gentle shift in the breeze. Kai and Lia stepped out of the darkness of the grove. Lia placed a hand on Jules’ banner and sobbed once. Kai put an arm around her for support. He bowed his head slightly to Alexander.
“This is lovely,” Lia whispered. “Please, thank Lady Jules for me.” She didn’t take her eyes from the little green dragon in the center of the banner. Kai smiled slightly as he too gazed at the hatchling. Tears streamed down the human faces of both dragons.
Alexander felt a tug on his leg. Looking down, he was thrilled to find Fibble gazing up at him. The little goblin was crying as well. He looked from Alexander to the banner and back again. “Baby dragon is gone. Was Fibble’s friend. Bad monsters took him, killed him. Worse than demons.”
The pathetic little goblin’s voice trembled as he spoke. Alexander couldn’t resist. Dropping to his knees, he gathered their tiniest guild member into a hug. “Very bad monsters, yes. And tomorrow we’re going to go and kill them. We could use a good protector.” His guts twisted as he made the offer and he prayed that Fibble would decline. But he couldn’t exclude the valiant little goblin without breaking his heart.
Fibble nodded his head slightly, his ears barely making one flap. “Fibble heard. Not sure what to do. Sasha and other pretty ladies need protector! But sad dragon mama and dragonlings need protector too.” His face fell as he watched Lia cry softly nearby. Alexander could feel his own eyes welling up.
“You do what you think best, Fibble. You are right, the dragons need you just as much as we do. Whichever you choose, I will be proud of you.” He patted Fibble’s shoulder and stood back up. Pointing to the crowd, he said, “Lugs is over there. He has dwarven spirits. And he’s been worried about you. You should go let him know you’re okay!”
Alexander expected the easily distracted goblin to tear across the courtyard and launch himself at Lugs. The two of them were usually the life of any party. Especially when they’d been drinking.
But the little goblin healer just nodded his head and gave Alexander a half-hearted smile. “Okay. Not want Lugs to be sad too. I go help,” was all he said as he walked slowly toward the celebration.
Alexander was still watching him when Kai’s hand came to rest on his shoulder. He turned to find both dragons standing in front of him. Lia reached out and gathered Alexander into a hug. “We want to thank you. For trying to save our little one. Kai told me what you did. And that you gave your life trying to free him.”
Alexander shook his head, the tears that had been forming earlier now falling freely. “I fear my actions may have caused his death. When I hurt the gargoyle, it squeezed harder, and…” He couldn’t finish the sentence. His soul ached as he admitted to the prince and princess that he was the reason their hatchling died.
Lia sobbed once, then took a deep breath. Kai answered, “No. I saw the wounds when the gargoyle snatched him. He would have bled to death slowly. Your attack on that monster only ended his pain quickly. I will be forever grateful to you, Alexander.”
The anguish eased a bit at Kai’s words. Still, the guilt pushed him to ask, “I tried my best to heal the little one even as I rode the thing’s back. My spells didn’t work.”
Kai nodded. His voice was strained as he said, “Their claws were coated with the dragon poison. Your spells had no hope of defeating that. In one so small, even if given the antidote immediately, the poison would have taken him. Damned drow and their invisible assassins!”
Alexander didn’t know what to say to that, so he stood there in silence and shared their grief. After several minutes, Kai spoke again. “I cannot go with you tomorrow.” He looked at Lia, and Alexander understood. Kai was needed in his roost to keep her from acting rashly in her grief. “But our very best warriors will join you. Each of them fought the drow wizards the last time they emerged from their holes.”
Alexander bowed deeply to the prince and princess. “Thank you. As a king, and as a friend, if there is anything I can do for you, please. You need only ask.”
“I ask that you bring me the head of the drow wizard who sent those gargoyles,” Kai growled.
“And I want his heart!” Lia’s voice was flat and icy cold. “I will feed it to my offspring to make them stronger.”
Alexander men
tally waved away the quest notifications that popped up on his UI. This wasn’t the time. “Of course. We will do our best.” He caught Kai’s gaze and looked at him meaningfully. “And this will only be the first battle. The first stronghold. There will be many more battles before we’re done.”
Kai nodded his head, understanding and accepting the offer. When Lia was more stable, he would join Alexander and the others in slaughtering the drow. Alexander did not envy any enemy that faced an enraged Kai.
Lia hugged Alexander again and the two dragons disappeared from the grove. Alexander turned to head toward the dining area, only to find Jules walking toward him with a tankard in each hand. When she reached him, he accepted one of them, saying, “Lia and Kai were just here. She asked me to thank you for the banner. It made her cry, but it made her happy as well.”
Jules gave him a soft smile, then leaned forward and kissed his cheek. “Good speech tonight. Better than normal. Still not great, but you’re improving.”
He rolled his eyes and took a drink. “The women in my life. Never let me get too full of myself,” he sighed dramatically.
She took his free hand in hers and led him deeper into the grove. They found a comfortable spot at the base of one of the trees and sat down with their backs to the trunk. It smelled faintly of apple blossoms.
“You okay?” she asked, squeezing his hand.
“Nope. But I will be.”
*****
Alexander was awake well before sunrise. Miraculously, so was Jules. He hadn’t even had to wake her. The moment he rolled out of bed, so did she. In just a few minutes, they were geared up and headed downstairs.
They found several of the players as well as both groups of minotaurs and orcs already in the dining area. Sasha was there passing out potions and Lola was making sure every citizen had a dragon pin. Kitchen staff were passing around bowls of scrambled eggs, bacon, fruit, and biscuits. Several of them never made it past Fitz and had to return to the kitchen to reload.
Fibble was there as well, absentmindedly munching on a handful of bacon strips. He wasn’t at the tables with the others. He’d moved off to sit alone against the wall near the kitchen door. His face was scrunched up in concentration, and Alexander assumed he was trying to decide whether to join the raid. He left the little guy to his musings as he made the rounds of the tables. He spoke a few words at each table, asking after his peoples’ readiness.
More and more of the players filtered in over the next ten minutes. Even a few who were too low-level to join the raid showed up to see the others off.
Alexander felt as if he should make some kind of rousing speech, but after the memorial service, he didn’t have it in him. Sasha solved his dilemma for him.
“Alright! As soon as the dragons join us, we’re outta here! This is a raid, people! Against an enemy that wants to destroy us completely. An enemy that killed our friends yesterday! You know what that means!” She paused and looked around. Everyone was silent. The minotaurs and orcs looked confused. A few of the players snickered. Finally, Max helped her out.
“It means we kill everything that moves?” he asked in a quiet voice.
“IT MEANS WE KILL EVERYTHING THAT MOVES!” Sasha shouted back, grinning her most evil grin. There was a roar of approval from the orcs and minotaurs, and a few of the players. A small voice from the back shouted, “Gnomes rule!”
Alexander took a seat as Sasha began to break the raid members into small groups, in case they needed to split up for some reason. Each group of ten included two tanks - or a tank and a shield-bearer, at least - two healers, and various forms of damage dealers. Every group had a mixture of ranged and melee.
The dragons appeared as she was nearing the end of the assignments. One moment, they were just there. Del lead the wing of six dragons, all of whom bowed their heads in greeting. Sasha paused in her assignments and moved to speak with Del.
“How do you and your wing want to participate? I mean, I’m breaking the raid into groups. Would you like to be mixed into the groups, or a be a group of your own?”
“In the tight spaces, we would be most effective as scouts and ranged attackers. Though each of us can heal at need.” Del hesitated for a moment and a smile crept across his face. “In larger open areas where we can assume our natural forms… well, each of us will be a group of our own!”
“Ha! Then in that case, we will act as support if you get all big and snarly,” Sasha replied.
Alexander cautioned, “I don’t want any of you killed, Del. My adventurers should take the front line in any fight. Let us absorb the damage while you and your cousins devastate from a distance.”
Del growled in objection, the sound an unconscious reaction. “We shall see,” was his only response. There was a deep hatred between the dragons and the drow wizards. Even more so since the murder of the royal hatchling.
Fitz crammed a plateful of breakfast into a pocket of his robe and got to his feet. “I’ll be joining you. When we reach the wizard, he is mine. I will question him, then we will kill him. It won’t take long. I only have three questions.”
The ominous tone of Fitz’s voice made more than a few of those gathered nearby shiver.
Alexander fished the portal globe tied to the stronghold quest from his bag. He handed it to Fitz, then looked around at those gathered. He had ten orcs, ten minotaurs. Six dragons – seven including Fitz. There were twenty-two players altogether, counting Alexander himself. That added up to forty-nine. Alexander looked to Fibble. All the eyes in the dining area followed his gaze.
Feeling the attention on him, Fibble looked up. Seeing everyone waiting, he pulled out his ‘stick’ and held it up. “Fibble help kill bad monsters!”
Sasha invited him to the raid group, now a nice round fifty members strong, as a cheer of encouragement for Fibble rang out. He puffed out his chest and waved his wand about like a rapier. Several of the players laughed and applauded.
With everyone ready, Fitz stepped to the center of the courtyard and set the portal orb down. Alexander motioned to Taylor, who was, as ever, close by. “Protect this keep. If there’s an attack, call us in guild chat. Do your best to hold the fort until we return.” The captain saluted with fist to chest before stepping away.
Fitz finished a long and complicated series of hand movements accompanied by a phrase, and the orb began to vibrate. A moment later, a murky purple gateway materialized above it.
Wasting no time, Brick and Lugs dove through, shields held high. Right behind them were Grumpy, Warren, Benny, and two tanks from the Antalia group. Alexander followed next, with Sasha, Lyra, Martin, and one of his healers. The others would wait for an all-clear before following.
The group found themselves in a tunnel. The feel of a great weight of stone above them pressing down suggested they were deep underground. The tunnel was pitch-black and people were stumbling into each other as they exited the portal. Alexander quickly cast a light globe to float above them.
It was a wide passage, easily twenty feet in diameter. The stone walls were nearly smooth, as was the floor. It stretched in both directions beyond the range of the globe’s light. But for a few hundred feet in either direction, there were no enemies in sight. Sasha spoke into raid chat. “Clear enough. Come on through. Scouts first. We need eyes out ahead and behind.”
Almost instantly, the dragons emerged from the portal. Del took one look in either direction and made two hand motions. A single dragon moved forward, becoming invisible as she moved. Another went the opposite direction. They waited as the rest of the players moved through, followed by the orcs and minotaurs. No one spoke. Only the occasional rattle of armor or creak of leather broke the silence.
Based on game mechanics, Alexander assumed that the direction the portal was facing when they came through was ‘forward’ – meaning it led toward the stronghold. He said as much in raid chat. Several of the others nodded in agreement.
The dragon who had gone out ‘behind’ them was the first to return. He
reported nothing but empty tunnel going back a quarter mile. Alexander, not taking any chances, faced the tunnel in that direction and used his Earth Mover skill to raise a wall that blocked the tunnel. He made it two feet thick. Something large could break through, but he and his people would hear it coming.
As he finished the wall, the other dragon scout reported in. “There is a chamber approximately one half-mile up the corridor. Looks like a way station. There were two drow. They did not have an opportunity to report my presence.”
Brick chuckled at that last bit. “Remind me not ta piss off our dragon friends here.”
With no reason to split up yet, the entire raid formed up and moved down the tunnel. The tanks were all up front, except Grumpy, who volunteered to bring up the rear, just in case. Melee fighters followed the tanks, then healers. Behind the healers were archers and casters, including Fitz. Helga had elected to walk with Grumpy at the rear.
The noise increased as the group moved, ironclad shoes striking stone, weapons shifting with the movement, but no one spoke. Each of them was preparing themselves in their own way. Psyching themselves up for the fight to come. All except Fibble, who walked next to Jules, holding her hand as he nibbled on a cookie. He didn’t seem to be thinking about much of anything.
It only took them a few minutes to cover the half-mile and reach the chamber where the scout had left two drow bodies. She was gone, having already moved ahead to scout further. Max and Beatrix each looted a body, shaking their heads to say there was nothing interesting.
Alexander looked around the room. The light from the globe illuminated the whole space. It was roughly circular, with alcoves cut into the walls all the way around. A rolled blanket was placed in each alcove, obviously meant as beds. There was an indentation in the center of the floor, burn marks around it suggesting it was a fire pit. The ceiling was only about ten feet high, and flat.
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