by Vic Broquard
“Yes, Aldrick, somehow we must. I will continue to try to keep the mages in check. As far as the Federation’s Strike Force One, while it has killed a few dragons, my man in it has been keeping it from doing much more than that.”
Later that day, Aldrick summoned Dario and Werner before him. His summons carried an enormous weight and the two decided to play along with the human-lover gold. “So what do you want? Have you seen reason now? They have fighters out hunting down and killing us dragons now,” Werner, the black, fired the opening salvo.
“Minor, Werner, hardly worth mentioning. No, I want to talk about you two breaking your pledge to stop abducting human females and breeding them. I know all about your latest attempts back on Voss. Who do you think found your secret caverns and got those poor women out of there, eh? You believed there was some kind of incompatibility with Voss that made the women seem to dissolve and vanish. Clever of me, eh? We golds are not to be trifled with!” He bellowed, causing both smaller dragons to involuntarily jump nervously.
“What? You? You stole a hundred of our women with our babies inside them?” Dario exclaimed shocked. Until now, neither dragon had even considered that Aldrick, the gold, would ever interfere with them. He was a dragon, after all, not a human.
“Yes, with a little help of my fellow golds. We dropped the women off in Brn, Adapazan. Zoran’s people are now caring for them. When I told you I wanted this stopped, I meant it!”
Werner’s mind raced to absorb this new and startling revelation, which cast an entirely different picture on everything. Dario, the red, was merely befuddled, trying to grasp the significance of it all. “Well, it’s stopped now,” Werner, the black, decided to speak the truth.
“It had better stay that way. Do you two realize what you have done with your ill thought out plans?”
“Yes, we are trying to increase our dwindling populations,” Werner, the black, replied, wondering if Aldrick had become senile. It was obvious that they needed to increase their numbers. So many had died of starvation on Voss and here in these new worlds many had died.
“Fools! Utter fools! Your idiotic attempts have nearly brought the total destruction of all dragon-kind upon our heads!” Aldrick, the gold, bellowed.
Now he has lost it! Werner, the black, thought. “What in the world are you talking about, Aldrick? These petty, weak humans can easily be wiped from any planet.”
“You are fools then! Your impregnating of these normal humans has infused their bodies with huge magical energies, which is allowing them to learn magic which otherwise would have been completely beyond them. On top of that, they are learning spells at triple the normal rate. Those women who Zoran rescued from you last November have already become full mages and are about to master Disintegrate spells! Within perhaps a year or so, thanks to you two, Zoran will have trained up over two hundred mages and Archmages out of those women! Can dragon-kind withstand an attack of two hundred Archmages?”
Werner and Dario turned pale. They had no idea this was happening. “Two — two hundred, you say?” Dario, the red, muttered, visibly shaken.
“Yes, every one of those women who has been rescued and who you had impregnated is now rapidly becoming fierce mages and Archmages!” Aldrick exaggerated, of course. “My guess is that within a year or two at most, these petty humans as you call them will have the power and ability to slay us all. Furthermore, thanks to you two, they will also have the motivation and drive to do just that! Revenge for what you’ve done to them.”
Werner, the black, wanted to say, “But we didn’t know,” but he thought better of it. Instead he simply said, “Oh. I give you my word that we will not pursue this any longer.”
“It had better stop. If I catch you doing this even one more time, I will personally kill you myself. I hope and pray that I can talk sense into the humans who are now out to get revenge. You have all sixteen planets seeking revenge for what you have been doing. I have my work cut out for me to cool down this hatred before we all get exterminated. Now get out of my sight!”
Werner and Dario made a fast exit, Shadow Walking to Werner’s cavern. Once there, both dragons calmed down. Dario, the red, asked, “Do you believe him? I mean about Zoran making those women into Archmages? I mean so many of them cannot even use their arms. How can they even cast spells? I think he is bluffing us.”
“I don’t know. He seemed serious enough. We should put a spy in Brn and have him see if he can find out if this is true or not. No, what bothers me is that the golds are now siding with the humans and not with their fellow dragon-kind. Most unsettling, Dario, most.”
“Well, yes, I suppose so, but are we really going to quit? I mean this breeding program is really working, if they stop stealing our pregnant women that is.”
“For now, we best put it on hold. Not because Aldrick said so, but because he knows where we have been holding them. We’ll need to figure out a fool proof location before we resume. Next time, we simply cannot allow Aldrick or the humans to steal away our unborn babies before they are born. Let’s find us a spy, shall we?” Werner, the black, suggested.
A week later Rolf, the black, returned from his mission to Brn, Adapazan. His news startled both Werner and Dario. “Yes, boss, these women are being trained and rapidly so. It is the talk of the town. Their useless arms have been cut away for the most part, but even armless, seventeen have already become full mages. I saw some with my own eyes around the city on Sunday. Rumors say they have two hundred women there training to be mages or better. The humans claim once that happens, Brn will be invincible.”
“Oh my, this is most unfortunate,” exclaimed Werner, the black, thoroughly shaken up. He had not anticipated this. Perhaps Aldrick was right about this unexpected side effect of the breeding program. Well, it would not have happened if the humans had not been allowed to steal back those women, he thought. But what to do now?
He knew a direct attack on the fortress at Brn was out of the question. They had tried just that last year and lost far too many dragons and accomplished nothing. There were just too many mages and Archmages there and now with so many more present, it would be suicide to attack it again, not without marshaling a huge army of dragons. What to do?
The two discussed the situation for a while. Presently, Werner, the black, said, “It is becoming clear to me, Dario, that we have two choices really. If we do as Aldrick says, sit back and do nothing, in a couple of years, they will have an army of two hundred mages and Archmages. At that point, we dragons are doomed. We will become second-class citizens, slaves to whatever the humans demand of us. How can we hope to stop two hundred of them? We can’t. I say that path leads to the subjugation of all dragon-kind. It is even worse than this. Every month that we delay, their Archmages make more of those evil Rods of Dragon Slaying and Gems of Dragon Control. In two years, heck, they won’t even need their Archmages to wipe out dragon-kind. Their weapons will be able to do just that!”
“We could always go in search of another uninhabited planet,” Dario suggested.
“Why? These here are perfect for us. No, I have no intention of becoming a second-class species! A slave to human demands, never! There is only one real choice, Dario.”
“What’s that?”
“We must strike first — now, before Zoran gets those two hundred women fully trained as Dragon Killers. We must take control of these worlds before he can take over all of us dragons. We have to act before he can get those women fully trained. It’s that simple.”
“But they are too strong for us — you just said so,” Dario, the red, protested, growing concerned.
“Yes, for merely we reds and blacks. But what if we had all the others except the golds on our side? Let’s not attack the Brn Fortress. Rather, let start wiping out their villages all over the planets. That will force them to spread their mages out far and wide and then we can kill them, reduce the number of their mages until Zoran is so weak that we can take his Fortress and win this war,” Werner, the black, expl
ained his reasoning.
“Ah, brilliant. Pull their mages out of one big group, thin them out, and then we can overpower them all. I see. But how? How will we get the foolish Neutrals to join us? They were not about to do that at the last council.”
“We will just have to be more persuasive this time, Dario, that’s all. I believe that we can, thanks to Aldrick. He may have just given us the ammunition that we need to sway the Neutrals to join us! Come on, we have dragons to meet!”
Chapter 26 Jarka Makes Waves
For a week, Jarka mulled over all that she’d learned about the presumed neurotoxin that the reds had used to deaden the women’s arms. True, she was kept busy assisting Archmage Marek with the training of his new students. She marveled at the wisdom of Zdenka who had very cleverly organized these new ninety-five students.
Archmage Marek was male and had not taught before and these were women who had undergone a massively traumatic experience and were still fighting its consequences with their “dead arms,” many of whom held onto little hope that they would even be able to keep the severely atrophied appendages. She’d given him the women from their enemy planets to teach. He had nine from Rehor, nine from Dietmar, and seven from Anwyn, the desert world. She also gave him six from Chana, the other desert world. She’d assigned Jarka to Marek so that she could keep an eye on the women. After all, most came from their enemy planets. Jarka smiled as she realized this and that Zdenka was giving their allied planet’s women and the neutrals the two female Archmages with Zoran’s two baroness sisters as their helpers. Biased? You bet, Jarka grinned.
Archmage Kate Zimir and Rayna were teaching the eight women from Adapazan and six each from Gladno, Terra, Valtr, and Cosma. Archmage Marjeta and Lida were teaching seven women from Gonda, seven from Isi, and six each from Gerde, Alta, and Maeve. Jarka felt that the allied and neutrals were getting the better deal, but then that was as it should be, she felt strongly.
After the first week, she and Marek had the women heavily embroiled in their beginning studies, the broad survey of what magic is all about, its history, what it could and could not do, and so on. Even though these were going to be super-fast students, all this reading would take them a fair number of days. Now she could afford to take time off to research a cure for their arms. Sixteen women were getting quite desperate, though she doubted that even if she cured them today, that their matchstick arms would ever be really usable again. She got Marek’s sixteen year old daughter, who was about to have her birthday, Milena, to fill in for her for a few days.
Armed with every weapon she had and two dozen healing potions, Jarka was ready to set out on her expedition. Goal: discuss the neurotoxin with a Blue Dragon. Her problem: blues were found only on Jing and Asami, the swamp and water worlds. Off-world. She had to go through the Shadows and thus needed a Duska to take her. Who should she ask? With so many women to train and help with their daily needs, everyone was quite busy. Then inspiration struck.
“Honani, I need a little help and I hear you are just the man,” she said coyly, having tracked him down. He and his male companions were standing on the roof of the Manor House both admiring the view of the towering mountains to the north and Karel’s fine collection of falcons housed on the roof.
He bowed, “I am known for helping others acquire what they need,” he replied just as mysterious as she sounded. Both grinned.
“I have need to either speak with a Blue Dragon or to examine a recently deceased blue. I understand that they are to be found on Jing and Asami. I am not Duska and have no way to get to those worlds,” she admitted.
“Ah, yes, we have only seen the blues on those two worlds. Their bodies are quite long, much like a snake, and they are fabulous swimmers. We’ve seen them mostly on Asami, where the waters are deep and pure, though we’ve always kept our distance from them. Burns, acid, cold, and shocks — these we can deal with and usually cure, but not their paralyzation spray,” Honani replied.
“Indeed, no!” Askook added. “Once we saw one of their fishermen trying to pull in a fish that a blue had decided was its. The man was sprayed by the blue and was completely paralyzed. He lived but he could not move his arms, head or legs after that. Grim.”
“Yes, we think he purposely fell overboard to end his life after that,” Cheveyo added. “Grim. We’ve heard the stuff doesn’t wash off. Once you’ve been sprayed, man, that’s it. You are done for, much like these women you have rescued. Oh, I see where you are going with this!” His eyes brightened up and a coy smile creased his lips.
Honani caught it as well and grinned. “So you think there is a connection between these women’s dead arms and the blue’s spray weapon?”
“Yes I most certainly do. That is why I need to talk to a blue or examine a recently dead one,” Jarka replied. These men were sharp on the pickup, she thought. They’d make excellent thieves. She grinned back. “Can you assist me with either?”
“Well, as far as we can tell, both worlds have about the same number of blues living there. That is, in our explorations, we’ve seen about equal numbers on either world. Jing, however, is nastier to explore. Its swamps are filled with snakes and ‘gators and foul smells. We prefer Asami with its vast oceans of pure waters. Of course, you’ll need a yacht to get around. There are almost no solid land masses on that world. We know where you can rent one, for a price. The captain will take you anywhere you desire, for a price,” he hinted. “There are even mermaids on Asami, bet you didn’t know about that?”
Jarka grinned, thinking of their rescue of Chika and Akira well over twenty-one years ago. “Of course I do. I know two of them quite well.”
Honani grinned, “Well, I’ll be! Is there anything that you don’t know, Mage Jarka?” She knew that he’d make an excellent thief, a man right up her alley.
While Chan and Wen would be glad to help her, Jarka knew that those two were already overwhelmed with the process of regaining control of Jing. Besides, she hated marshes and the dense mosquitoes there. “Asami will be perfect. I’ll need the yacht and need to find a blue willing to talk to me. Can that be arranged?”
“Yes, leave that to us. Consider it our contribution to the cause,” Honani replied. “First, let us visit with Kachina and get her advice in this matter. This way. She has taken the children out to the pine forest south of the city where there is at last Nature underfoot.” The four teleported, arriving at Needle Crest, a favorite hangout for Brn lovers. Here the ground was dense with the soft needles, an ideal spot for picnics and other romantic interludes. The odor of pine was strong and the gentle breeze played songs through the dense evergreens. Kachina and the nine children were playing running games, though she was mostly watching them.
“Hello Mage Jarka. Come to play? This is such a lovely spot amid all that harsh stone of Brn,” Kachina said, welcoming her with a wave of her arm. “Come, sit a spell.”
Jarka sat down on the soft needles. Kachina then said, “So Honani tells me you need to speak to a blue or examine a dead one on Asami. Is this so?”
“Yes, I think that somehow the reds used some of the blue’s neurotoxins to cripple up the women’s arms. I need to find out if what we’ve found inside the women’s arms is the same stuff or if the blues know anything about it,” Jarka explained.
“I will see the best path for you to follow then, Mage Jarka,” Kachina replied. “Cheveyo, you watch the children for a while.” Her husband moved over closer to the nine youngsters dashing madly among the trees. Tag was their game.
Kachina unrolled her deer hide mat which she had strung across her back and sat down on it. She crossed her legs, held her hands out before her, palms up, and began chanting in her native tongue. Jarka was about to cast a spell that would translate what Kachina was saying, but thought better of it. Soon the woman’s eyes took on a distant look, as if one could see the stars of the whole universe in them. Her voice fell away and only the wind’s song and the laughing of the children could be heard.
Jarka finally
sat down, her legs grew tired of just standing there. How long had she been in the trance-like state, she didn’t know, a half-hour? Maybe more. Almost as suddenly as she had gone into the trance, Kachina’s eyes returned to the present location. She spoke, “The one you seek is called Bolivar. He will not speak with you unless you get Baron Goro’s permission first. Blues on Asami have little dealings with humans. You may get that which you seek but there will be a price to pay. Baron Goro may not wish to pay. You will have to choose. I cannot say more, but I sense much hangs in the balance. I can say no more.”
“Thank you, Kachina. We will speak with Goro first. Okay, then, Honani, I’m ready whenever you are. Please, don’t get me lost in the Shadows. I hate Shadow Walking — makes me sick.”
Honani chuckled, “As it should, Mage Jarka. I will not lose you. I give you my word. Kachina, who should go with Mage Jarka?”
“Only you, Honani. The blues will not speak with her if there are more than two. They see more humans in a party as threatening,” she replied. Jarka wondered just how Kachina could possibly know all these things. Still, she had little to go on if she didn’t follow Kachina’s advice.
“Since you are ready to go, wait here. I’ll get my things and be with you in a couple of minutes,” Honani advised and teleported away.
Kachina saw that Cheveyo was still playing with the children and decided to speak with Jarka. “It is a miracle, you know — these women that you’ve just rescued. Ordinarily, I would have expected many to have jumped.”