“Shamir, will this work?” one of the Scarab assassins asked his leader.
“The residual power of the chromatic dragons still present in these pieces is hopefully enough to fool the gold dragon’s foresight, Kallysh willing,” he whispered back as they then continued to move toward the long, winding staircase that led up to the senior dragonrider’s quarters. All eight men stealthily crept up the many flights of stairs to where the map indicated that Mkel’s quarters were and then waited outside the entrance to get into position and draw their curved scimitars and daggers.
Drake lifted his head and let out a low growl, and his fur immediately turned black from its normal tan brown color to camouflage him fully. Gallanth woke at the distress the elfhound was feeling and saw him looking toward the entrance to their chamber. “Mkel, wake! There are assassins at your door!” the gold dragon roared out loud. Mkel immediately shook his head to wake himself up, hearing his dragon’s concerned message both verbally and telepathically and sat up reaching his right arm toward the landing. Markthrea flew from the wall and into his hand. He jumped out of bed and leveled the crossbow at the door while cocking it. The Scarab assassins then burst into the room and started to fan out, weapons drawn. The second man took Mkel’s bolt in his chest, which lifted him off his feet and sent him flying back into the main living area knocking down the man behind him. The first assassin moved slightly to the left as he ran into the bedroom and toward Michen’s chamber.
“Drake, defend our son!” Gallanth roared, upon which the large elfhound let out a deep bark and jumped up, grabbing the assassin’s arm, catching him by surprise, and brought him to the ground. With a sickly crunch, the canine’s powerful jaws snapped the bones of the Black Scarab.
Mkel fired and hit the fourth assassin in the head, killing him instantly, and then dropped his crossbow on the bed and grabbed the waiting Kershan, which had been hovering beside him. He quickly moved to engage the third assassin, who had a drawn black-iron scimitar at the ready, as he told Annan to run to Gallanth for protection. As he and the assassin exchanged blows, the sorcerer in the group moved around the room to get to Mkel’s back as he prepared a death spell with his dark-crystal-embedded wand. The Black Scarab sorcerer missed Annan before she ran to Gallanth, and just as he attempted to cast the spell, the gold dragon’s roar thundered through the chamber from just outside the entranceway. This both took the sorcerer off guard and dispelled the evil magic he was about to cast. The startled necromancer turned around only to be caught in the gold dragon’s telekinetic pull. Even as he tried to parry the dragon’s spell, he was hurtled through the air to Gallanth’s outstretched claw. The enraged dragon lifted him up and growled, “I will see your black palace utterly destroyed!” before he crushed him to jam in his claws and tossed the broken body over the landing.
Mkel brought Kershan down in a left angle blow and blocked the assassin’s thrust and then moved his blade up and sliced the assassin through the rib cage and into his heart. Gallanth had lowered his head down to be able to peer into the room and fired a magic missile that struck the fifth assassin in the upper chest, flipping him over. Mkel thrust Kershan forward and ran the sixth assassin through as he was pushed off balance by his comrade, whom Gallanth had just shot. Drake then leaped forward knocking down another Black Scarab as he tried to stab Mkel from the side with his dagger. The two-hundred-and-twenty-five-pound canine pinned the bearded man down and sank his jaws into the assassin’s neck, crushing his larynx, but not before he weakly stabbed the dog in the shoulder with the poison dagger.
The last assassin stopped his advance as he realized he was the last of his group still standing, and a scowl came over his bearded face. Mkel moved to the center of the room to draw him away from Michen’s chamber, for Annan was now beside the entrance to Gallanth’s landing and under his protection.
“What is the matter, insect? Have you lost your courage? So much for the famed ferocity of the Kallysh holy warrior,” Mkel insulted his opponent.
“Infidel, you and all your dragonrider dogs throughout your cursed land will die tonight!” he shouted and lunged at Mkel swinging his scimitar down. Mkel quickly blocked it as he parried the next two swings from the Scarab assassin. Mkel then gave a return swing; Kershan’s mithril blade sliced through the air and took a chunk out of the Shidanese tempered-steel curved sword. Mkel then took another quick swing at the assassin, who parried it, but with the lighter weight of the mithril blade and his natural speed, he beat the assassin to his parry and the silvery sword cut deep into his opponent’s left leg.
As the Black Scarab backed up, Mkel pressed his attack and swung from his opponent’s left, which caused the assassin to reach across and lean on his injured leg to parry. While he did stop Mkel’s sword, his balance was affected, and he stumbled, enabling the dragonrider to spin and come down on his right side. The blade cut into the Kallysh man’s upper right arm and chest. As the assassin tried to retreat from Mkel’s deadly blade, the enraged dragonrider swung low and from the right and cut deeply into his opponent’s right thigh. This caused him to buckle to his knees. With one powerful downward stroke, Kershan severed the scimitar and split the assassin’s nose in the process.
“Finish me, infidel. Give me a martyr’s death, so I can join my brothers in paradise,” the Black Scarab spat out with blood pouring from his nose over his mouth.
“No. You will not get such a reward from me. Not yet. Not before my weir wizard and dragon extract any and all useful knowledge you have. This will be very painful, and before you are reduced to a drooling idiot, you will be lathered in sheep entrails and cast into the otyugh pit,” Mkel said coldly to the assassin, knowing that this action would prevent his ascension to heaven according to their beliefs. For all who practiced the Kallysh religion looked at lamb meat and any mutton product or body part as vile. “A price must be paid for threatening my family,” he added. At this, the Scarab had a true look of fear in his eyes. He raised his hand and bit into his ring. Before Mkel could rush toward the assassin to get the ring from his mouth, he had already started to convulse and within seconds was dead.
The assassin whose arm Drake had severed started to crawl toward his missing limb to get to his ring. The large dog moved in between him and his arm as Mkel rushed over and kicked him in the side of his head, knocking him over and away from his poisonous relief. A dozen of his soldiers with Toderan and Lupek burst into his quarters with their weapons drawn, ready to aid their commander. Mkel looked over to them and nodded, “Thank you, but almost all are taken care of,” he said. He was still breathing a little heavily from the fight and fear for his family that had finally gripped him as his adrenaline started to subside.
“Senior Sergeant Toderan, have the men bring the wounded assassin to me and see these other bodies are searched then sent to the otyughs,” Gallanth ordered with an unusual irritation in his deep, booming voice. They immediately obeyed his commands, but then Drake started to shudder and partially collapsed.
“Mkel, the dagger that the assassin stabbed him with was coated in poison. I’ll need to get an antidote in him fast or he will die,” Jodem quickly stated as he walked into Mkel’s chamber from the landing entrance with Annan right beside him rushing to get to Michen.
“He is suffering from a combination of wyvern poison and death shade extract. Bring him here immediately,” the gold dragon ordered. Four of the garrison soldiers nearest to the large dog dropped the assassin bodies they were carrying, picked up the large elfhound, and carried him to Gallanth. Mkel followed them and knelt beside his faithful canine as he went to put his hand on the wound.
“No, my rider, the poison concoction is very virulent and any small break in your skin could risk an infection in you as well,” Gallanth stated as he raised his left talon and shallowly pierced his opposite pad with his one claw. He placed a small drop of his blood onto the dog’s wound.
“For you who protected
what is most precious to me and my rider,” Gallanth spoke out loud. Drake was bathed in light as the dragon blood absorbed into the wound. Within seconds, he raised his head and looked at Mkel with a low whimper. Mkel hugged the big dog’s head and helped him up. He shook himself and looked up at Gallanth, who nodded his head, and then he walked back into Mkel’s chamber.
“Thank you, Gallanth,” Mkel said.
“The least I could do for him. He is a good and loyal companion to us. Now, assassin, we will deal with you. Gimbelon, raise his wounded arm,” Gallanth’s tone changed as the lanky soldier lifted the assassin’s severed and bleeding stump. Gallanth breathed a narrow and focused jet of flame onto the stub and cauterized the end. The Scarab screamed in agony but was then silenced by Gallanth. “It is not time for you to die yet; take him to the weir’s detention cells and bind him on the outside wall. I will be down there soon. Jodem, we have work to do tonight,” the gold dragon almost ordered of the wizard, who nodded in a quick acknowledgement.
Janta had arranged for more skorts to come up and clean up their chambers of the blood and mess on the floor, along with a dozen other halflings to help straighten up. She didn’t want little Michen to see it and wanted to erase the memory of the encounter. She had come from her side room off of Michen’s chamber and grabbed the sleeping little boy, taking him back to her bedroom and stood there in front of him with a short sword drawn. She would have protected him with her life but was glad it hadn’t come to that. Mkel thanked her profusely.
“Mkel, stay with Michen and Annan; this will not go quickly,” Gallanth told Mkel, referring to his and Jodem’s interrogation of the Black Scarab assassin. He then stepped off of the ledge, quickly glided down to the main weir landing, and walked over to where the soldiers had secured the prisoner. Jodem joined him shortly afterward. The screams of the assassin could be heard for hours as they pried memories from his mind. Mkel ordered the weir sealed and had Gallanth tell the sentinel to raise the mountain fortress’s shield to full strength. This precaution coupled with the high alert status of the infantry company and with the dwarves and Silvanth’s presence made the weir almost impregnable.
Mkel then made an emergency call to all the Weirleaders, “Flash, flash, there has been an attempt on my life by Black Scarab assassins, and I believe that this is a wider plot targeting dragonriders in all the weirs.” Mkel sent his emergency message to all the Weirleaders. All acknowledged, upon which he quickly briefed them on what had happened. As they alerted their weirs, they discovered that the assassins had infiltrated all the fortresses. Mkel had his seeing crystal project images of the other twelve weirs to observe their efforts in dealing with the Scarabs. In the end state, eight dragonriders were murdered, a tragic loss, but Colonel Therosvet credited Draden Weir’s warning with saving dozens of others.
All of the Black Scarab assassins were killed with Eladran Weir not losing any dragonriders. High Mountain Weir had one copper dragonrider killed, Ice Bay one rider, Ferranor one rider, Denar Weir none, Rom and Rem Weirs none, Capital Weir one bronze rider, Atlean two, Lancastra one, Machren one, and Talinor one. Mostly brass and copper dragonriders suffered, and it was all the weirs’ lead dragons could do to contain their subordinate dragons’ rage. A response would come soon, for dragon vengeance was inevitable, irreversible, and absolute.
“Sergeant Pekram, I need to go outside and help patrol the exterior of the weir. We need to look for any other assassins or their accomplices,” Howrek suggested to Pekram with a slightly anxious tone.
“No, Lieutenant. Captain Mkel has ordered the weir sealed and is in contact with Dekeen and his elves, who are scouring the weir grounds and the forest all the way to Draden. The town’s constable has been alerted, and even Jennar is aiding the search. If there are others out there, they will not last long,” Pekram answered.
“I understand, but I just can’t sit here and wait. I have to do something to help,” Howrek answered getting even more agitated.
“You’ll have to see Captain Mkel about this, but I cannot let you out of the weir, nor would the sentinel,” Pekram insisted. Howrek sheepishly acknowledged and walked toward Mkel’s chambers but was met by the dragonrider getting out of the elevator platform as he was summoned by Gallanth.
“Howrek, are you all right? You look shaken up,” Mkel asked his friend.
“Just worried about you and Annan, sir. I wouldn’t have guessed that those men in the wagon were Black Scarab assassins. I would really like to go out of the weir and continue the search there,” Howrek said nervously.
“Come with me to Gallanth and Jodem, and we’ll work on that,” Mkel said to him as they walked toward the weir jail where Gallanth and Jodem were finishing with their interrogation. Howrek looked more nervous the closer they got to the gold dragon. Gallanth asked the Scarab how they were familiar with the inside of the weir. After his initial resistance, Gallanth raised his large talon a foot over the assassin’s head and proceeded to extract the information.
“One of the Morgathians’ prisoners gave the information to their sorcerers and my leader,” he screamed as he almost collapsed from the mind probe. Gallanth and Jodem looked at each other almost in disbelief. Jodem told one of the soldiers to get Toderan. As the weir’s senior enlisted soldier walked over, Jodem told him they needed to talk to Howrek. Toderan immediately issued an order to escort the lieutenant to him. The soldiers left right away to find Howrek, at which time two other soldiers walked up with the old prospector. Gallanth asked him to look into his eyes and tell him of what he knew of the men he aided and transported to the weir. Without hesitating, he recited the same story that he had told Mkel when he arrived at the weir the day before and said he knew nothing else. Gallanth was satisfied with this and dismissed the old veteran. The weir garrison soldiers met Mkel and Howrek as they were walking across the wide landing past the lake and flanked Howrek right away.
“Gentlemen, what is the meaning of this?” Mkel asked.
“Orders from Senior Sergeant Toderan and Master Jodem, sir. We are to escort the lieutenant to them. They are with Gallanth and the assassin prisoner. Lieutenant, I need your sword,” the soldier directed.
“Sergeant Coruck, Tartelix, you know me. You don’t need to treat me like a prisoner,” Howrek pleaded.
“Sir, I am under orders. Your sword please,” the tall blond sergeant again requested and then put his hand on the pommel of his own sword. Mkel stood by silently, still stunned at what was happening. Howrek looked at him, and Mkel nodded that he should give his weapon over. He complied. They all then walked over to the detention cell area and up to Gallanth, Jodem, and Toderan. Lieutenant Paloud had also walked over to see what had happened. Gallanth looked directly at Howrek. His stare was said to be able to penetrate a man’s soul, and the lieutenant started to get very nervous. Mkel still was puzzled and asked Gallanth what was going on telepathically. Gallanth told him he would explain momentarily.
“Lieutenant Howrek, you are hereby accused of treachery and betrayal against the Dragon Alliance Republic and this weir to which you have taken an oath of loyalty and pledged to defend. What do you say in your defense?” Gallanth coldly and angrily demanded.
“I only saw the Scarab assassins during my capture; I have given them nothing,” he almost sheepishly answered.
“Look into my eyes, Lieutenant Howrek, and tell us again of your involvement in this assassination attempt,” Gallanth asked again as he lowered his head closer to Howrek’s. An overwhelming pressure came over Howrek that compelled him to tell the truth.
“Yes, I gave the Morgathians the information, but I didn’t know that they wanted the dragonriders and their families dead!” Howrek blurted out as he started to sob. He had to turn his head, for he couldn’t look at the large yellow glowing eyes of the gold dragon. Mkel stood in disbelief. Howrek was his friend, and he had taken him in when the regiment commander wanted him relieved. He cou
ldn’t believe what he was hearing.
“Howrek, how could you? After all I’ve done for you, after saving your life how many times? Taking you in after the regiment wanted your career as an officer to end?” Mkel said to Howrek, disconcerted and upset.
“I’m so sorry, sir. I never wanted you or especially Michen hurt; they promised me that you would be captured, and I could then command the weir and be Gallanth’s rider,” Howrek sputtered out.
“You are a fool then. How did you expect to bond with a dragon that would have refused you?” Jodem chastised him.
“The Enlightened agent said the Morgathians had magic that could control the metallic dragons,” Howrek continued to sob his responses.
“You should know that a metallic can’t be controlled, not even by the lost Dragon Orbs. Only chromatics can be dominated and even that is very difficult. What Enlightened agent told you this?” Jodem continued his questioning.
“I don’t know his real name, just what he offered to me if I would help the Morgathians in their attempt to capture the dragonriders,” Howrek answered.
“Enough of this prevarication, you will give me all you know now!” Gallanth almost roared out as he lifted his head and raised his taloned front foot over Howrek, who cringed thinking the gold dragon was going to crush him. Gallanth then forced the memories from the lieutenant, which caused him great pain. When he retracted his foot, Howrek collapsed from the process. “Jodem, contact the Wizards’ Council and the republic police command and see if an Enlightened Party member or agent named Starden is available for questioning. I’ll contact Valianth to get the Mithril Knights to do the same. The POE and Morgathian causes are now linked and will be addressed at the next senate gathering. All the other information I extracted from the lieutenant, I will transfer to your dragonstones, but nothing new besides a schism between the Morgathians and the fire giants that he observed. As far as the Black Scarab, he is Shidanese and originates from their northernmost stronghold. This is where we will strike them very soon, for I know the eight dragons who lost riders will want vengeance,” Gallanth explained. “Howrek, for your part in this insidious plot against the dragonriders, their families, the weirs, and the Alliance, I sentence you to death, with this sentence to be carried out immediately,” Gallanth passed his judgment quickly. “Kershan, see that justice is done.”
Dragon Alliance Dark Storm : Dark Storm Page 47