by Vic Broquard
She opened a Mystical Door and the three stepped through it, arriving in another huge meeting room, where her husband Dusan took her aside to chat. The room was fifty feet square with a high ceiling. Twenty small windows located ten feet above the ground allowed light to filter in from above. Several tapestries covered one wall, while on the opposite wall, Zoran had mounted his precious maps. One showed details of the known world of Adapazan; the other showed what was known of the other fifteen worlds of the Federation. Additionally, he had accumulated more detailed maps of these other worlds and had them arranged on a third wall. Chan and Wen guessed this was likely Zoran’s War Room.
In the center of the room three, plain but huge oak tables were arranged in a giant U-shape and dozens of practical chairs sat around them. Nowhere did the two see a fancy chair suitable for a baron. In fact, all of the chairs were identical. Apparently, Baron Zoran thought of all here as equals, Chan concluded as they entered, just as Archmage Zdenka finished conjuring pitchers of water and glasses, which appeared at strategic locations around the tables.
Chan observed this baroness and Archmage. She was forty but still looked youthful, wearing a simple sky blue cotton dress which matched her husband’s eyes, Chan noted. Strange, Baroness Archmage Zdenka certainly did not look like the many other baronesses whom she had seen — a total absence of fancy court finery and pretense. Her mellow alto voice spoke volumes of her infinite patience with her many magic students.
Baron Zoran entered and quickly chatted with their daughter, Archmage Nadia and her husband, Dusan. The nineteen year old woman had her mother’s facial features and blond hair. She also wore a light blue, simple dress. “I agree, dad, a fine mess we have,” she was responding to something he’d said out of earshot of Chan.
Dusan grinned. He had long black hair like his father, Mage Bernard. Both he and Baron Zoran wore dark cotton pants and a loose fitting white cotton shirt. Each carried a short sword in a belt sheath, so unlike the other barons who carried huge swords. Dusan was a few inches taller than Zoran and thinner. Baron Zoran, Chan thought, looked like the middle aged man that he was. Again, nothing in his demeanor and clothing would suggest that Baron Archmage Zoran was the most powerful man on Adapazan and perhaps on many other worlds. Dusan’s arm was around Nadia’s. Chan grinned, young love, she thought.
Mages Jarka and Bernard, both forty-two, followed them into the room, along with a small dog, which Bernard was training. Jarka’s piercing dark eyes missed nothing; Chan saw that Jarka noticed her noticing her and gave a barely perceptible nod towards Chan. Jarka was the shortest woman here, but extremely deadly. Chan had heard all manner of wild tales about this fiery woman who was both an accomplished thief and a powerful mage. Rumors suggested that she had killed some twenty assassins through the years, and yet she had made the healing potions which had saved Chan’s life. Still, she felt Jarka’s eyes on her from time to time during the meeting. Bernard looked positively bored, contenting himself to giving his puppy sit commands and ensuring the dog obeyed.
Archmage Karel and Mage Chika came into the room walking at a good clip; both were slightly out of breath. Chan felt his cold stare on her as the tall, black haired man entered. He wore a leather fighter’s suit and had several weapons on his person. His wife, Chika, also wore a man’s leather suit and carried a pouch of papers. She too carried several weapons around her waist. Both looked a bit harried. “Sorry for being late, Zoran. We just brought the grain wagons through from Gladno,” she explained, adding, “I got a good deal this time.”
Zoran chuckled, “When, my dear Chika, have you ever not gotten us the best of deals?” She flushed and smiled broadly. “You’re not late. Everyone’s gathering still. Thanks for handling the grain for Tratky.”
“Well, it is still too darn dangerous for you to be making these commerce runs,” Karel pointed out, a hint of hostility in his voice. Chan was momentarily distracted as Mage Dana entered, looked about, spotted her and Wen, and came over to sit beside them.
“Hi, not too pooped from our practice sessions, I see,” Dana teased the two women. Before either could reply, Dana called out, “The other barons and the dragons have just arrived, Zoran. They’ll be here directly.”
Indeed, magic flashed and a Mystical Door opened. His son, Baron Tomas, and his half-brother, Baron Jan Vavrin, stepped into the room. Tomas looked much like his father, though he was thinner and perhaps an inch taller, well-muscled. “Hey pop, you didn’t save me a seat,” he teased Zoran youthfully.
“You can sit by Mage Jarka so she can keep an eye on you,” Zoran teased his son back.
Jarka laughed, “Aye, Tomas, now you have to behave yourself.” Several laughed, as Tomas took a seat beside Jarka. Baron Jan was thirty and of all these men looked the most ill at ease. Chan guessed that Jan held his position by birthright, not by competence or skill as the others here did. Jan quickly poured himself a glass of water.
Another Mystical Door opened and the two golden skinned twins stepped into the room. Emil and Renata strode solemnly over to Zoran and took the chairs he’d reserved for the two dragons. While they both wore leather clothing, Chan could not help noticing that each had a fist-sized emerald around their necks. She fought hard to keep from casting her Detect Magic spell; she felt certain that both gems were highly enchanted. Well, both of these were Archmages and golden dragons, she thought. Their eyes were strange, large black orbs. Chan had never seen such compelling eyes, vastly different than the Green Dragons that she’d slain. She sensed great power in the room and caught Zdenka’s faint chanting and the flashing of magical energies.
“Dear, the anti-scrying spells are in-force,” Archmage Zdenka said, her mellow voice hushing the assembled group.
During this time, Zoran had quietly been studying his two guests intently. He had a knack of observing one without their realizing that they were being studied, a skill he’d honed well. Such had served him well for the past twenty years at the bi-annual High Council meetings with the other barons and baronesses. Both of these Jing women had a yellowish hue to their skin. Their faces were oval and their blue eyes quite slanted. Well, their eyes were not actually slanted, he noted, it was the skin and eye lids which gave that appearance. Both wore their hair short as befitting the fighters they had been. Renegades, both women had defied their father and their ruling brothers for nearly ten years. How had they not been caught until now, he wondered. Both he and Zdenka had already cast numerous spells on the two and found no traces of any detection spells or devices, which he had suspected they would have been carrying had they been spies from Jing.
Ten years of surviving in the harsh wilderness had hardened both women. Both were strong and fit. Gone were all traces of court finery that he’d seen in them years ago when the High Council had been held on Jing. Dana had kept him fully appraised on Chan’s progress, in particular. His observations now backed up Dana’s — Chan had indeed made remarkable progress in the rehabilitation of her fighting skills. Somehow, she’s going to need them, Zoran thought, thinking back to his own youthful flight to Brn from the assassination attempts on his life.
“This special meeting on the recent dragon attacks is now in session,” Zoran spoke solemnly. “Archmages Emil and Renata, these are Duskas from the swamp planet of Jing, Chan and Wen Meerong. Their father retired and left their three brothers as the Jing barons. Apparently, their father invited the Green Dragons to Jing and that has not gone well. These two women are exiles, having slain nineteen Green Dragons who had murdered defenseless families. Their brothers have put a price on their heads. I’ve invited them to join us and add to our discussion as they can.”
Emil’s black eyes focused on Chan, “Dragon slayers? Well, greens are certainly at the bottom of the dragon heap. Never knew anything good about a green. Still, they are dragons, our kind.” His tone was slightly hostile, as Zoran expected it would be in such a formal setting.
“I can understand your position, Emil,” Zoran intervened on Chan’s
behalf. “If some powerful creatures were slaying our peasants, we would be angry too. I believe that Chan and Wen only killed those greens which murdered their people who had not harmed the greens in any way. Similarly, I would not be opposed to your kind slaying humans who killed innocent dragons which had not harmed humans in any way.” Emil nodded, protocols apparently satisfied, Chan thought.
Renata spoke up, “Well, years ago, we told you these things would be likely to occur, Zoran, but you humans could not leave well enough alone.”
Zoran smiled, “Well, I did start it, didn’t I? I brought the Golden Dragons to Adapazan and to Terra, Cosma, Gladno, and Valtr.”
Archmage Karel added hostilely, “That’s one thing, Zoran, but the other barons brought their own dooms down upon themselves by inviting the other races of dragons to their worlds! Now we got reds, whites, greens, browns, blacks, blues, and grey dragons scattered across all the other worlds of the Federation.”
“Well, Voss is devoid of food and they had little choice but to flee our home world,” Renata justified. “They were all starving to death. Wouldn’t you leap at a chance to avoid starvation?”
“Of course, Renata. It’s just that some of races of dragons do not get along well with humans,” Zdenka added, conservatively.
“And vice versa,” Zoran added. “That’s why I have asked both of you to come today. First, let me summarize what our situation is here on Adapazan today. Only Golden Dragons are legally allowed to be on our world. However, as you know, over the years, we have had a few visitors, particularly reds, and blacks, who have raided us, killing and stealing from our people before leaving Adapazan.”
“Of course, that is to be expected, Zoran,” Emil pointed out. “As we said long ago, once dragon-kind knows of a world, it is likely to be visited by just about any dragon. We’ve also seen whites and browns dropping by as well, though we know of no deadly encounters they had with humans.”
“Yes, and we thank you and your friends for your timely interventions on our behalf,” Zoran added diplomatically. He knew that the Golden Dragons had sent over fifty visiting dragons home already, most during the last ten years.
“Yes, but it is not random anymore, Emil,” Jarka interjected. “Look,” she conjured her massive diagram. A huge chart some twenty feet tall and forty wide suddenly appeared hanging in space in such a way that it was clearly visible to all present. Across the bottom was a time line, each tick indicating a day and covering the last six months of time. Black dots representing a dragon attack appeared above the ticks. Only a few were present six months ago. It was plainly obvious from the more frequent clustering of dots that the number of attacks had gone from three a month to now over a dozen so far this month. A vertical line ran from the dot upwards to a balloon caption which held the details of the encounter. The lettering was so large that everyone could easily read it.
“You see, the frequency of the raids is escalating big time. It’s gone beyond mere reds and blacks and now is including browns and blues and whites,” Jarka pointed out rather snidely. “I call your attention to just what the raids attacked. Within the last two months, hardly anything but gem shipments have been attacked. Now don’t you think that is more than a bit unusual? I certainly do.”
She didn’t wait for anyone to respond before adding, “Of course, you know what this means, don’t you?” Bernard gave a fake groan; Zoran figured he’d already heard a lot about this from his wife. “Spies. We’ve got spies on Adapazan who are telling the dragons where and when to strike!” She had that smug look on her face that said, “See, I know that I am absolutely right on this one.”
Chika spoke up, “We’ve been making up their losses, Jarka. All told, we’ve covered about two hundred fifty thousand in gemstone losses by the other warlords and miners.”
“That much? Wow. I didn’t know. I should have added up the losses,” Jarka commented.
“We haven’t made it public knowledge, Jarka,” Zoran added. “I’ve kept it low key, making up the financial losses that others are suffering.”
“But you can’t make up for the lost lives,” she retorted.
“We must put a stop to these incursions!” Karel declared vehemently.
“Aye, we must. That’s why we are here today,” Zoran took charge of his meeting once more. “I think the first thing we must do is to work out where each species of dragon now dwells. Let’s take the reds first.”
“They love hills, mountains, forests, and plains, to say nothing of hating you humans,” Emil pointed out. Zdenka began taking notes — well, actually her spell did all the writing as she paid close attention to Emil. “We believe that they have settled on Rehor, Gerde, Maeve, and Alta. Zdenka, since you are documenting this, for the record, the adult red bodies are often fifty feet long and they breathe out fire. At least the reds listen to reason and follow their leader’s orders, unlike the greens, who will do so only if hard-pressed.”
“The greens are more like a snake, similar to the blues. Greens hate humans as much as the reds and blacks and breath out a rotting slime. They favor swamps and forests where there is easy access to lots of water. Green adults have been known to reach seventy feet in length. As far as we know, greens are only on Jing and Maeve.”
“We can attest to that fact,” Chan muttered. Zoran had her and Wen describe their last battle for the twins, who both nodded. “I see what you mean about the greens not following orders,” Chan added. “They took us by surprise. If they had worked as a team of six, neither Wen nor I would be here today.”
Emil continued, “Okay, the blacks are the other species who hate you humans. They are about the same size as the reds, some say that they are cousins, but I doubt that. They breathe out a cone of acid that can dissolve a sword in nothing flat. Like the reds, they like mountains, hills, and forests, but not plains and open spaces. Blacks have settled on Rehor, Gerde, Maeve, and Alta — the same as the reds.”
Renata took up the outline, “The other four colors are neutral towards you humans. The whites are the smallest species, growing only to forty feet. Mind you, Emil and I are giving you merely the length from head to their rears, not to the end of their tails or wingspan. These whites breathe out a cone of fierce cold, and they prefer to live in mountains and hills, especially areas where there is a large amount of cold and snow. Here in Brn, they would not settle; it is too warm for them most of the year. We know that some have settled on Rehor, Gerde, Alta, and on Dietmar. Dad believes that the largest numbers are on Dietmar at this time.”
She went on, “The browns reach sixty feet long and shoot out an electrical bolt, similar to our lightning bolt spells. They prefer hills, plains, and especially deserts. Isi, Alta, Anwyn, and Chana are where they have made their new homes, particularly those last two which are desert worlds. Now the blues likewise reach seventy feet in length, and they prefer watery worlds and swamps. They breathe out a neuro-toxin which paralyzes its prey, nasty to you humans, I’m told. They too look to you as snake-like. We know that they have settled on Asami primarily, but some are on Jing as well. Of all the species, the blues are the least likely to have anything to do with humans. Finally, the greys reach fifty feet in length and breathe out a suffocating cloud of smoke. They prefer plains exclusively. The greys are on Isi almost exclusively, though dad says that they are working out a deal to also settle on Gonda. Greys are known to have dealings with humans, mostly of a neutral nature.”
Emil then continued, “Now the reds and blacks are our worst enemies. We golds can’t stand them, or they, us. The greys also dislike us intensely, though nowhere near as violently as the reds and blacks. On Voss, the starvation crisis forced us all to set aside our racial hatreds and work together somewhat. Now that most all dragons have abandoned Voss, that truce is long gone. That’s one reason that we golds are helping repulse the red and black attacks here on Adapazan.”
Nadia asked, “Emil, I know that you and your golds love magic and large gems. Does this hold true for all of the oth
er colors?” She was quite curious, hearing more key facts about dragons than she’d been able to read in the late Archmage Oldrich’s treatise, the very one that Zoran and his friends had read so long ago.
“Yes, to varying degrees. You will find that all dragons love magic, but some more than others. All of us like magical items, though only a very few of us are able to actually make them,” he smiled and nodded to his sister. Both were Archmages and had been doing just that — making magical items, especially enchanting their large gemstones. “While all dragons love gemstones, some of the others also treasure gold and a few, silver. Thanks to Baroness Archmage Zdenka, there are more of we golden dragons who have made it to Archmage. I think that has terribly upset the reds and blacks, who have only a very few who have mastered power spells.”
“Say, can I ask how these dragons can be easily slain?” Chan spoke up at last, asking what she thought was the most important question. “No offense, Emil, Renata. I mean, is there any easy way of killing those who have killed innocent humans and those who are robbing the baron’s people?”
She saw that she had struck a nerve with Emil, who flinched slightly. Renata answered instead. “I’ve heard it said that dragons are at the top of the food chain. Yes, dragons are notoriously hard to slay. Your normal weapons are not strong enough to pierce our hides. Only magically enchanted blades can harm us. Besides, your magic spells are often not effective on we dragons.”
“I’ve noticed that, Renata. Why is that?” Chan asked most curious about her response. She’d often seen her spells detonate on a green and yet have no effect on it at all. Other times, the very same spell did harm a green. She wondered why it was hit and miss with her spells.