by Vic Broquard
Bandar and Ari did not leave with the first wave. The barons insisted that they wait until temporary dwellings had been constructed.
“The safety of our two saviors is of paramount importance.” Well, now Ari and I are saviors. Still, she thinks this is a wise move on their part.
The two continued their study of the journals, though only four more volumes remained. In Volume S, they came across some fascinating entries, wholly unexpected. The two read over each other’s shoulders.
Had a most surprising visit today. We have been staying at Kazimir’s Pyramid. It is defensible and isolated from habitation centers which have so far been the targets of dragon attacks. The Gold Dragon Tereza came to visit us today, canceling my defenses neatly and causing us a bit of a scare. She brought along her son, Kazimir. I learned that he is their son, as incredible as this sounds. Tereza named him after her human husband and great mage.
She confided some very interesting secrets to me. Dragons dearly love magic. Apparently, on their native worlds, magic is at a premium. On Voss, we humans command vastly more magical powers than the dragons. Initially, that provided the impetus for the original crossbreeding of the two species. Some of the dragons hoped that a merger of the two blood lines would create dragons that have a much higher ability to learn powerful magic. According to Tereza, this has come to pass rather significantly. Her son knows more spells than she does.
“That humans also make vastly superior teachers of magic is now proven,” Tereza told me, adding, “that jealousy is the driving motivation behind the reds and blacks attacks on the humans of Voss. While they too have benefitted from interspecies breeding, they cannot stand the simple fact that you humans command more magical powers than they do.” We had a long chat about this.
At last, she brought up the reason for her surprise visit. She wants me to try to teach Kazimir three spells: Magically Enchant an Item, See True, and the ever useful In Case Of Emergency spell. It seems that his previous teacher was killed by the blacks three days ago. Tereza said, “If you will do this for my son, I will tell you the great secret behind Mage Kazimir’s machine here in the Pyramid — how it was able to bring dragons to Voss in the first place. I encouraged him not to document that feature in his writings.”
Okay, I bought it. My curiosity was roused. Was there more to this machine than searching the Shadows for worlds? Tereza certainly knows how to play me. I spent several days with Kazimir and found him a most willing student. What surprised me was both Tereza and Kazimir respect me and even Ari too, quite unlike the other dragons who are ravaging Voss. He picked up two of the three spells. He just could not get the hang of the In Case of Emergency spell. At last Tereza accepted her son’s limitations with this spell. Both seemed extremely pleased that he was able to Magically Enchant items around the interior of the Pyramid. Of course, none of his enchantments were permanent. No, that would require a far more powerful spell, Make Permanent.
As they were leaving, I overheard them talking and finally figured out why she had taken this unprecedented step to have her son learn these spells. She could cast Make Permanent but had failed repeatedly to learn how to enchant items. Now between the two of them, they could create magical items. Note to self: I wonder what new troubles I have inadvertently unleashed upon the worlds?
What did I get out of this? A most intriguing fact: Kazimir’s machine had a secret feature. Once it was focused upon one of the dragon home worlds, by using a special hidden lever, he could activate his Power Attraction spell. Tereza explained that he used it to pull the unsuspecting dragons from their worlds to Voss, dragging them through the Shadows, whether they desired it or not. At first, they did not desire to be abducted, but once here, Tereza explained, they then accepted it. Personally, I cannot wonder if this was also partially why the dragons were now attacking us humans on Voss for having brought them here against their wills? However, I am not going to ask a black or red this question, obviously.
I respect old Kazimir even more now. However, I also sense that his own ego got in the way of his logic. A wise man would have studied the dragons before bringing them here to Voss. I, too, would have brought the golds, but certainly not the reds, greens, or blacks. Isn’t hindsight just perfect? Ari is chuckling as I log this entry.
As the end of January came, Miroslav and Jarmila finished Volume T. Both hated to read the last entry, for their connection to their ancient lineage was ending. There were no more “volumes,” no more revelations of Bandar Zar.
Valentýn has told us that it is time for us to depart Voss forever. He and his men have suitable accommodations for us awaiting our arrival on Adapazan. This is for the best, as Ari is expecting our first child in four months. We cannot bring up our son or daughter here on Voss; we cannot hide from the ravaging dragons forever.
Ari has convinced me to leave these journals here on Voss in my private room and to start afresh on our new world. I hate to part with these, but I can see her reasoning. We are leaving Voss behind forever and starting a new life on New Adapazan. Besides, I can always return to Voss and retrieve them if I ever need them. Still, it is hard to part with these twenty volumes. In a way, they are sort of like my own child. Okay. Ari can be most persuasive — new life so new journals. Besides, ahead of me lies my greatest magical challenge yet: how to magically tie the sixteen worlds together and to keep the Duska training to those who can best use it for the benefit of the common man.
“Well, that does it,” Jarmila sighed. “The last one. So much makes so much more sense now.”
“Yes, it does. I wish that we had known all of this all along. Perhaps we would have made far wiser choices,” Miroslav suggested, referring to the many barons who made ill-advised bargains with the other races of dragons, particularly the reds, blacks, and greens. “We best go relate our last findings to Zoran. I hope this helps him in some way.”
Chapter 38 Weather Plays a Role
December’s foot of snow had been hard packed on the streets of Brn. With the population now underground deep beneath Zoran’s fortress, the mild January weather had not been noticed much, as all attention had been on the dragon war. A howling blizzard marked February’s arrival, not only in Brn, but across most of the main continent of Adapazan.
“How can we fight in weather like this?” Baron Tomas asked his father. The two braved the whiteout conditions to survey Brn from Zoran’s fortress rooftop. Archmage Karel had long ago moved his falcons inside to his laboratory. Both men wore heavy parkas, thick boots and mittens. Scarves wrapped their faces leaving only their eyes exposed to the howling winds and biting snow.
“We can’t, son. I can’t even see out outer walls. If the dragons hit us now, we might as well just head for the safety below ground. Let’s get inside while we still can just barely see the door,” Zoran suggested. Bent low against the fifty mile an hour wind, the two snow encrusted men moved slowly to the door and safety. Once inside, they shut the door but it took their combined strength to do so, pushing the foot of snow which had blown in against the door in just the few minutes that they had been outside.
“Warm! Clean!” Both men cast spells rapidly, removing the layer of snow that covered their parkas, pants, heads, and boots. “Worst start of a February in a long time, son. I doubt that even the dragons can fly much in this weather. We’ve got a breather. Let’s put our heads together and see if we can get some bright ideas.” They briefly checked on the Archmage towers and watched the many students filing in from breakfast, ready to learn new spells. Zdenka and Verushka paused to give their husbands a quick kiss before following after their students. At least the hundred plus students would not have to worry about being interrupted by dragon attacks today, Zoran thought.
The two men walked the nearly deserted halls to his private study. It seemed so strange without the many staff present, going about their daily duties. All non-essential personnel were now safely below ground. All across Adapazan, the dead of winter was mostly a quiet time. Families were fo
rced to stay indoors. Little commerce took place and then only the essentials such as another load of coal or firewood. While not ideal, the accommodations in the subterranean towns were working out for the twenty thousand plus Brn residents. Rest and relaxation gave way to boredom broken by games of cards and darts.
From the distant fighter training room, the clanks of steel upon steel filtered into the study. Strike Force One members were training up Strike Force Two members on the tactics that they had found more workable. Dana was also training up more men to join the fortress guards in the event that the dragons attempted an assault of the fortress. Zoran whipped up a pot of hot tea and the two men stared at the huge map of Adapazan, sipping their tea.
“I like your little flags, dad. Looks like we have all of the towns and cities over ten thousand covered with some kind of subterranean habitations,” Tomas pointed out. “Trouble is, not everyone chose to evacuate. Hope that they don’t pay a steep price because of that.”
“True, but son, over half of our people do not reside in these larger towns. How the devil can we possibly protect a hamlet of a hundred? A lone farmstead? A small mine or smelter? They dot the provinces.”
“What are the other barons doing on their worlds?” Tomas asked. Although he suspected that he already knew the answer, he hoped his dad would have some new news.
“Worse than we, I’m afraid. Most have either larger populations or fewer mages to deal with the underground constructions. What about sending out our mages to some of our smaller towns and having them build some underground safe houses? Is that too risky? Jarka seems to think so.”
“I agree with her, dad. I have a feeling that the dragons are just waiting for us to spread our Archmages out. As long as we stay grouped together, any dragon attack will meet with very heavy losses on their side. At the moment, that is our best defense.”
Zoran sighed. What could he do to protect his people? Outside, the weather was doing what he couldn’t.
The dragon strike group of thirty-three swooped over Adapazan, fighting the howling winds. While the whites loved the weather, all of the other dragons despised it. “We can’t see a thing, not even the roads! This is utter folly!” a red complained bitterly. Reluctantly, the black leader agreed and the group returned to their respective worlds and caverns.
Three days later, the sun finally appeared. Brn was hardly recognizable buried beneath drifts some ten feet deep. Bundled up against the bitter cold, Zoran and Tomas Shadow Walked around the continent checking on the situation. Everywhere, enormous snow drifts sculpted the landscape into something one might see in a desert. Instead of sand, here it was snow. Whole villages were nearly buried. Both men had a most difficult time locating any of the more remote villages. Gone were all their familiar landmarks, replaced with snow dunes. All traces of the winding roads were gone.
“Well, dad, if we can’t find the villages, then certainly the dragons cannot either. It looks like our weather is protecting our people,” Tomas pointed out the obvious. Zoran smiled and they gave up their reconnoitering mission. It was hopeless.
Two days later, the weather turned bad again, dumping another two feet of snow in and around Brn. The weather patterns continued all throughout February — two or three days of very heavy snow followed by a couple of days of sunshine and bitter cold. In the far north, the warlord reported at least twenty foot snow pack with villagers making tunnels to get around between buildings. In the milder Dorum area, the snow pack was nearly record breaking at ten feet. As expected, Adapazan had no dragon attacks during February.
Werner, the black, and Dario, the red, huddled in the warmth of Dario’s lair. “Damnable weather is defeating us, Dario. It is almost as if these Archmages are now controlling the weather!”
“They very well could be doing just that!” growled Dario, the red. “We can still attack on Asami, but what’s the point? The desert worlds, Anwyn and Chana, are ripe for the pickings as is the swamp world of Jing. Adapazan, Rehor, and Gerde are buried under huge snow packs. Even the forest, hills, and plains worlds are deep in snow this winter. I guess our war will have to be postponed until the spring comes to the many worlds.”
“Hum, maybe not. So far, Zoran has refused to disperse his Archmages out so we can get at them and with this dismal weather we cannot even find their villages to attack. Maybe a different strategy is needed just now. Perhaps it is time that we pool our resources and begin taking out the barons in their fortresses. Say we attack Anwyn. If Zoran come to their aid, we have a chance to take out some of his Archmages.”
“You are assuming that these barons will come to the aid of their fellow barons,” Dario, the red, sneered.
“I expect that they will at least send along a token Archmage or two for us to kill. Let’s send for Donatello and get his input on which fortress would be the best target for us to strike,” Werner suggested.
These sixteen new worlds that Bandar discovered and to which the beleaguered folks on Voss fled were not wholly devoid of sentient life forms. Adapazan had its Yellers, banshees, megalowolves, slithers, and paleowasps. The desert planet of Anwyn had its own unique dwellers, the sand sprites. Solitary creatures except during mating season, these highly magical beings dwelled within the endlessly shifting sands. They did not appreciate the sudden arrival of the thousand from Voss.
When Tudyr Anwyn, Duska-trained and a brother of the first baron Padrig Anwyn, attempted to build a stone fortress around the oasis of Fair Wyn, the sand sprites reacted with deadly force. Unknown to the new arrivals, Fair Wyn was the Holy Site of the sand sprites. Three quarters of the small force under Tudyr perished during the two day battle. Tudyr himself was captured and brought far beneath the surface of the sands to face the wrath and justice of their Monarch Betrys, the Fair.
An agreement was reached or so the legends say. Tudyr sent a messenger to his brother telling him that the region around Fair Wyn was off limits and belonged to the sand sprites. In return, Tudyr’s life was spared, but he was forced to spend the rest of his days there in the underground lair of Monarch Betrys, the Fair. No one ever explained why Tudyr didn’t just Shadow Walk away from captivity. Legends say that he and Betrys became lovers and had seven children.
Indeed, today the oasis of Fair Wyn has a several dozen adobe homes around it and the hundred plus inhabitants trace their lineage back to Tudyr and Betrys, a merging of the human and sand sprite lines. The barons of Anwyn ignore the oasis and still know virtually nothing about the original inhabitants of Anwyn, these sand sprites. However, the villagers at Fair Wyn do provide water and shelter for human traders and passersby. Still, direct contact with the human population of Anwyn is kept to a minimum. and the barons continue to avoid this region of their vast desert continent. Most humans simply believe that this area is haunted by evil demons.
Another native life form was the sand worm. These enormous worm-like creatures loved to swim in the desert sands as if it was water. Further, they often burrowed into the bedrock far below the sands, carving out intricate mazes of tunnels and chambers. When the sand worms left, the sand sprites subsequently turned these chambers into their homes. Sand worms ignored humans and sand sprites completely. However, the brown dragons soon discovered that these worms were a delicacy delight and began hunting them for food. Of course, the sand sprites greatly disliked this and thus during the last twenty years, a great animosity had arisen between the two species, though the browns had yet to realize the existence of the sand sprites.
Early February, Donatello, the brown, now firmly behind the war against the humans, sent his browns out on regular attacking patrols. Unlike the other dragon’s breath weapons, the brown’s electrical bolt only impacted a single target. Thus, the browns needed to make more frequent raids and/or resort to physical attacks with their mighty claws and teeth. He sent out patrols of a dozen browns and their orders were to sweep the desert clean of the smaller human establishments. Anwyn had thousands of oases, each one supporting a small number of human set
tlers, usually between one and two hundred.
February 4th was an ordinary day in Fair Wyn. Dozens of barefooted children ran around the warm, packed sands of the main street that encircled the five hundred foot, clear blue waters of the life-giving oasis. They were engrossed in a game of tag while several women sat with their backs against the crude adobe walls of their homes weaving baskets or mats from the yucca leaves they had gathered the day before. While technically wintertime, the warm sun was welcome on their pale, white faces, driving the previous night’s cold from their bodies.
Megan and Rhys Seren of Fair Wyn traced their lineage back to Tudyr and Betrys, though on separate lines. In their thirties, they had four children who were out playing tag. Their eldest was nine and their youngest was four. Megan’s physical appearance was more closely aligned to the sand sprites. Her complexion was quite fair, pale white some would say. Long yellow tresses of her thick, curly hair fell to her knees, though she often kept it tied back in a ponytail. Her eyes were green. She stood six-five, a little on the short side for her people. Compared to the more robust humans of Anwyn, most would say that Megan was extremely tall and quite thin, possibly frail. In contrast, Rhys took after the Tudyr side. His hair was long, thick, and black as were his eyes. His skin, while pale, held a slight tinge of yellow in it. He stood six-eight, but was also thin, owing to the sand sprite lineage. None of the men had any facial hair, again due to the sand sprite line.
Both Megan and Rhys could Shadow Walk, but seldom, if ever, left their beloved Anwyn. Both were very able users of magical spells. Unlike the Federation, these people had no formal magical training levels or titles. They simply loved magic and it was apart of their very beingness. Here in Fair Wyn, Megan and Rhys were the undisputed most powerful casters and the pair were always experimenting and learning new ways of casting and variations of spells. Unlike the Federation, they had no formalized or ritualized methods of teaching magic. Instead, those who knew a spell simply taught it to those who did not know it. If one was unable to learn a certain spell from a given teacher, he or she tried it again with another teacher. Evenings were often spent in small groups, with one person teaching the others a particular spell or variation or perhaps handing down their verbal history to the younger children.