by Vic Broquard
“If there is even a remote chance, we must make the attempt to rescue the women. I’ve pledged my life to protecting my people,” Baron Arcangelo replied. Stefan and John backed him. “Do you think that we can possibly take on that many in the mines?”
“We have to try,” Stefan countered. “If Archmage Karel has more of his Rods of Dragon Slaying, we would have a good chance against that many of them.”
“He has made ten of them so far that are operational. Okay, then let’s get this rescue going as swiftly as possible. I believe that we should get to the women even today, if possible. No telling how much time they have left. I suspect resistance there should be minimal,” Zoran advised.
“Right. Tomorrow we can organize a major strike force to go after the enslaved men,” Stefan proposed. “Give us an hour to get ready. Shall we meet back here then?” The barons agreed and promptly left.
Zoran then summoned all his people to the Great Hall. “In an hour, we are going to help the other barons launch a rescue of the captured women. Tomorrow, we will join with all of their forces and make an attempt to rescue the enslaved men. That means going after some forty dragons possibly. We’ll need everything we can throw at them and all the protections we can get. Karel, I think that the remaining rods would best be used by the Archmages, who stand the best chances of delivering killing blows, if they are not distracted by the dragons’ attacks.”
“Right. I will dole them out. Ours get them first, though,” he replied.
“Okay, go make your preparations. The Duska who are not Archmages will be primarily responsible for Shadow Walking the women out of harm’s way as fast as possible. We are going to use our infirmary here as the initial arrival point. We have the most experience with this situation. We will examine the women and make recommendations to the other barons. Make sense? Any other ideas?” he asked.
“What we need is a suit that can withstand dragon slime a bit,” Verushka commented. She still saw the hideous face of Jie in her mind. That gave Karel yet another idea, but it would have to wait until he had time alone in his lab.
Promptly an hour later, the other three barons arrived with their forces. They brought their baronesses with them, primarily to help evacuate the women. That made nine more couples. Additionally, they brought along their Archmages, another nine. Zoran left the four northern Archmages in charge of Adapazan, though Jakob insisted on coming along. Zoran’s group numbered twenty, as Dana insisted on coming along with Chan and Wen.
Stefan had his precious Rod of Dragon Slaying. Karel loaned one to Barons John and Arcangelo. Zoran, Zdenka, Verushka, Nadia, Marek, and Karel had the others, plus Chika loaned hers to Ivana so that all their Archmages had a rod and could withstand ten slimes while delivering their killing blows. Also Jakob wore his gem and could fight with impunity as well.
Since Chan and Wen both knew where Xiaosheng was at, Zoran allowed them to handle the large Shadow Walk. However, tomorrow, old Chen would have to take them to the secret mines; his daughters had never known of their existence. Five minutes later, the large group stood in the Shadows just above the solid ground which held the small fortress of Xiaosheng. They surveyed the area for a few minutes, but saw no signs of life. A small town ought to have been here with people going about their daily lives. It appeared deserted, but they knew better. Somewhere inside the stone fortress women were being held captive. Just where and how many dragons remained a mystery. At last, the large group materialized on the outer ramparts near the main entrance doors.
Chan whispered, “We are familiar with the city, though we haven’t been here in years. Let us go invisible and scout things out. We’ll maintain a constant Mind Link with you.” Zoran agreed and the two cast their spells and vanished. However, Zoran could just barely hear their footsteps on the stone floor and hoped that would not give them away.
Once inside the two women split up to cover more ground more quickly, Chan taking the left side while Wen, the right. The others grew impatient. As the women pronounced these outer rooms clear, the large party moved in after them, leaving Jakob to act as a rear guard in case some greens arrived here. While he didn’t like this idea, he saw its wisdom and didn’t protest his assignment. Kitchen. One dragon. Wen sent along her observation. Apparently, the greens were doing the cooking for the women. This one was called Philomena, Wen later learned.
Dragon blocking the hall. Can’t get past him. Chan sent. There ought to be many rooms down there that could well be housing the women, she suggested. Chan added, Say, the space is very narrow for a dragon. If there are more further on down, they will have to be in human form.
Pantry clear. Nothing else down this way. Must be on Chan’s side, Wen sent, heading over to where she thought Chan must be waiting.
Chan, wait for us. I have an idea, Zoran sent. The Archmages with the rods went invisible and headed to meet up with Chan. Following his orders, the two women quietly laid down on the floor as they heard the soft steps of the approaching small group. “Now,” Zoran’s voice broke the silence. Simultaneously, seven Archmages cast their Disintegrate spells aiming for the head of the green, that suddenly lifted up its head at the sound of Zoran’s voice. Of course, the Archmages immediately became visible to the dragon, but that was only momentary. Taken by surprise by seven ultra-powerful Archmages, the green lost all seven battles. Its head completely disappeared; the rest of its snake-like body slumped lifeless to the floor. “Okay continue,” Zoran whispered. Chan and Wen got up and continued their silent movement down the hall.
At last they arrived at the doors, ten on each side of the hall. All were closed. Now came the moment of truth. They would have to open them one by one. If dragons were inside, the battle would be on. Zoran whispered again, “Let’s play it safe. A couple of you go back and take out the dragon in the kitchen first. We don’t want it wandering in on us. Then, let’s have those with the rods open the doors. Safer that way. Verushka and Karel headed off to take care of the cook. They returned a couple of minutes later; smiles told of their complete success.
Nine rod holders moved to the first nine doors. On Zoran’s signal, they opened them together and looked inside. Several of them called out, “Women in here.” “Clear.” After checking on the last five doors, no further dragons were located. All told they uncovered fifty women. Ten from Cosma, ten from Terra, thirty from Jing. While the Duska-non-Archmages proceeded to Shadow Walk the fifty women to Zoran’s infirmary, the rest fanned out to thoroughly search the fortress. One other dragon was found sleeping in the basement, surrounded by ten newborn baby greens. These were quickly dispatched!
“That ought to set them back further. I bet these came from our women,” Zdenka speculated. “Come on; we best get to the infirmary and see how far along the Cosma women are. Could be a long night for us.”
Satisfied the place was dragon free, the large group returned to Brn and followed Zdenka to the infirmary, where the baronesses and Jarka were already working with the women. They were filthy beyond belief, starving as expected, terrorized, and emotionally numb. Those from Cosma were very pregnant and were in a good deal of pain from the movements of the baby dragons in their wombs. Quickly, the mages worked their magic, giving the women the first relief they’d had. They were due any day now. “It’s going to be a long night,” Verushka commented to Zoran.
The thirty women from Jing were in worse shape and in various days of their enforced pregnancies. A few were also due within a few days. Most had lost all sense of time, having given up all hope of living. After the women were cleaned up and fed, Chan and Wen worked with their fellow countrywomen to figure out when they were due. With some coaching, each woman was able to fairly accurately tell them the day that they were abducted and how long after that they were raped by a green. The two then worked out the due date for each woman, placing a card with her name on it beside her bed. “We’re going to be constantly busy for over a month,” Wen pointed out. Verushka made sure that plenty of Duskas and mages would be on
duty at all times of the day and night for the next month, establishing doable schedules for the women helpers. Men could be called in if the task became too much for the women to handle.
“What do you want us to do?” asked Baron Arcangelo.
Verushka and Zdenka began instructing them on what needed to be done. While she would have preferred that only women handle these poor victims, there were too many for them. A bit reluctantly, she allowed the barons to lend a hand as well. Certainly, their Morph Others spells would be needed soon. However, they did get one break. The ten women from Terra had not yet been raped and impregnated. Gang’s attack on the secret mines had forced Axelrod to postpone the breeding night. Had they waited another day, these ten too would have been impregnated. Baron John breathed a huge sigh of relief. However, now Baronesses Rayna, Zusa, and Kamila would get firsthand experience in handling the birthing process with the Cosma women. They’d be prepared for the future.
It turned out to be one very long night. The baby dragons had to be re-morphed into human form nearly every hour. Around one in the morning, the first woman went into labor and the others were not too far behind her. At this point, the spells had to be recast nearly every twenty minutes and the greatest of care taken. One false move and the dragon would begin ripping the woman apart from her insides out.
As one baby green was born, either Zoran or Karel used a Vanish spell on it, depositing it near the sun. The last woman delivered hers around nine the next morning. All ten women survived and began the long road to recovery. At last the group headed off to bed, dead tired.
When they arose the next evening, Verushka and Zdenka began examining the ten, looking for the latent magical energies that they had discovered in their seventeen young women. They found the results intriguing and triple checked their findings, then conferred. “While there is that same residual magical energies in their bodies, it is nowhere near as strong as it is in Danika, for example, drastically smaller, I’d say,” Verushka stated. “I wonder why?”
“Well, the greens are the least magically inclined of all the dragons. Perhaps that’s why. Still, we are going to have to tell Baron Arcangelo about this phenomenon. We’ve not mentioned this to the other barons before now. Guess we owe it to the women to do so now,” Zdenka declared.
“What? They are magically energized somehow?” Baron Arcangelo gushed when Zdenka explained what she and Verushka had found.
“That’s not the half of it,” Verushka grinned. She began telling the barons about their rescued seventeen women and their incredible propensity to learn magical spells at a phenomenal rate. “These women are highly likely to be able to pick up magic spells rapidly. My advice is to get them all into magical training with one of your Archmages immediately. You may well end up with ten strong mages as a result. Besides, it goes a long way to help them regain their lives and self-respect.”
“I’ll do it,” Archmage Bianca volunteered. She didn’t want the women to study under Alfredo, who had learned under old Biagio. She would use Zdenka’s techniques, which were far gentler on the student and, she thought, far more productive. As expected, the ten women were quite surprised that they were going to be given the chance to study magic under Archmage Bianca. Their road to recovery was assured, Verushka concluded, wondering just how the ten would take to learning magic.
Months later, Bianca told her that the ten were some of her brightest students. However, they did not progress any faster than her normal students, quite unlike the seventeen. Verushka began to wonder what would happen to a woman if she were impregnated by a Gold Dragon, but quickly put that thought out of her mind.
Now all thoughts turned to the massive assault on the mines to free the enslaved men. As they group discussed ways and means, Karel pointed out that the rod’s protection was a sphere twenty feet across, of course centered on the wielder. “Look, if another person stands to the right of the wielder and a third stands to the left, they will be protected as well. That gives three spell casters unlimited freedom of action for around ten slime attacks. We should take advantage of that.”
“Archmage Karel, you are a genius!” declared a most impressed Baron John.
“Right! Thirty of us can be protected and cast our spells or fight them. That does give us a chance, if there are fifty of the beasts there,” Baron Arcangelo added, growing more confident by the minute. Chan smiled, thinking maybe there was some hope after all.
“Okay, then let’s work out our trios of attackers,” Zoran suggested.
Chan spoke first, “Jakob, Jarka, and I will make one team. Wen, Dana, and Karel can work together. Dana insists on going with Wen.” She made darn sure that Dana was included. Wen and Dana were now lovers and she wanted to keep them together and safe.
Old Chen said, “I’ll go too. I’m the only one who knows the mine’s layout. I may be all crippled up, but this is the least I can do. I want to be a part of cleaning up the hideous mess that I created. I brought these vile creatures to Jing and I never listened to my daughters. Please, I must do this.”
“Okay, Chen, you’re in. You tag along beside me. Bernard, you are with me. We have eight more trios to arrange,” Zoran replied.
Archmage Verushka took her husband Baron Tomas and her brother Evsen with her. Archmage Nadia took her husband Dusan and Milan with her. Archmage Zdenka took Baron Jan and Baroness Reina with her. Archmage Marek took his wife Akira and Chika with him. Archmage Ivana took Valtr’s Zdenk and Zusa Pavel with her. Baron John took his Archmages Ben and Lisa with him. Baron Arcangelo took his Archmages Bianca and Alfredo with him. Baron Stefan took his Archmages Chesna and Patrik with him.
Finally, the remaining barons and baronesses from Valtr, Cosma, and Terra, all Duska, also came. Their tasks were primarily twofold: act as rear guards and evacuate the injured or rescued men to Baron Stefan’s infirmary. Zoran’s was already too crowded with the women. Further, these were entrusted with the numerous healing potions that the barons brought with them, though they hoped and prayed that they would not need them.
Around ten on the 15th of April, the large band of rescuers took a deep breath and began their Shadow Walks to Jing and the secret mine of Baozhai. Following Chen’s lead, the group hovered just in the Shadows high above the low circular entrance of the mine. Chan saw that he was right. The twenty-five foot circular wall only reached three feet above the marsh waters. However, the sight was anything but serene. For over a mile around the small opening that led to the subterranean mine, dead and rotting bodies of men and dragons floated on the shallow waters. Many were bloated. Gators were active around the perimeter and ten greens were mechanically moving the bodies further out into the nearby marshlands.
Zoran sent, First, we ten attack groups take out the ten dragons. Let’s get which group is attacking which dragon straight. We will attack simultaneously. Use silent spells so we don’t alert those within the mine. This took some doing and several minutes passed until Zoran was sure that everyone knew who was to attack which green. At last, he gave the order and the ten groups stepped out of the Shadows and into the incredibly foul smelling marsh waters. All thirty nearly gagged from the awful stench of slime-rotting and decaying bodies. No wonder the ten dragons were trying to disperse the dead.
Taken by total surprise and being attacked by so many Archmages at the same time and with such powerful spells, the greens had no chance whatsoever. It was totally lopsided. Sixty seconds after they materialized in the foul waters, the ten greens were dead, their bodies adding to the surreal mess around the entrance. Less than forty to go, Chan sent to Wen and Dana, encouraging them.
As the remainder of their party materialized into the reeking waters beside the circular stone entrance, only one person here knew the layout of what lay far below them, old Chen, who was being supported by Zoran. He could barely walk because of his throbbing leg and hip, but he was determined to see this through.
“This shaft goes straight down a hundred feet to the floor of Chamber One. It is octagona
l in shape, at least a mile across. There are some thirty shafts that lead down to lower smaller chambers and the working ore face,” Chen explained.
“Okay, the strike forces will go down, while the rest stand guard here. Message us if more dragons arrive. We’ll Message you when we have men who need to be rescued. Cast Invisibility and then Levitate. We’ll float down in eleven groups, spaced a minute apart. Once you land, each group fan out so that the others coming down don’t land on top of you. Let’s maintain our element of surprise as long as we can,” Zoran ordered. His group headed down first.
Below, Zoran saw an incredible sight. The Chamber One’s ceiling rose some fifteen feet overhead. Every twenty feet, a three foot square column of bedrock supported the ceiling. High atop each side of these columns a pair of Permanent Light spells had been cast. The illumination was as strong as daylight, though they were a hundred feet below ground.
Far off to the right, he could see rows and rows of squalid bedding. Perhaps here the slaves slept, he guessed. None were in sight. To the left, he spotted over a dozen greens, many were organizing a vast pile of gemstones. He headed his group towards the unsuspecting dragons. He heard the soft footsteps of others arriving and hoped that the dragons would not hear them. In the extreme distance, he could hear the sounds of picks on stone, probably the men mining down the many tunnels further underground. Sounds really echoed in here, he also noted.
Suddenly, a green looked up and stared at them. “Intruders?” he said questioningly. Although he couldn’t see them, he heard them and smelled the unmistakable scent of fresh humans, not the foul smelling slaves working far below. Several other greens looked up. “Now,” Zoran called out. Spells began to fly. This time, they didn’t have time to coordinate who was attacking which dragon. As a result, during this first volley of spells, several dragons were double and triple teamed and several were not attacked at all. The battle for the mine began in earnest. Rotting slime flew from those who were not attacked. However the eleven groups flinched as the wicked slime came their way, but the rods worked perfectly. The slime dripped off the spherical shells surrounding the eleven groups.