Order Of The Dragon (Omnibus 1-4)

by Jason Halstead

  Tristam nodded. "That's what I was hoping, Your Highness. Let us have a dinner and, if you're of the right mind to do so, we can discuss rates and opportunities."

  "Dame Aleena, you will join us?"

  "Yes, Your Majesty," Aleena said with a deep bow of her head.

  "Excellent. I have little for lodging at the moment, but you have your choice of the field to set up your quarters."

  Tristam chuckled. "We'll make do, and thank you, Your Highness. I'll see to it immediately. Give us an hour to have things prepared?"

  "An hour it is," Rosalyn said. "Until then, I shall have things prepared for us."

  She turned and strode back to the mountain with Grack at her side. She smiled more and more as she walked away. "This just might work," she mused aloud.

  "Grack want that human," the ogre reminded.

  Roslyn nodded. "Ketten is searching for him as we speak, my friend. Rest assured, you will get your chance."

  Grack grunted and started to turn away. Rosalyn stopped him with a hand to his hairy arm. "Grack, could you see that some food and water is brought to the tent they make? A lot—I've many men to feed."

  Grack grunted again as he walked away to fulfill her requests.

  "Vengeance, my own kingdom, and an ally that requires my goodwill and well-being in order to survive," Rosalyn whispered. She chuckled to herself and nodded. Perhaps Therion hadn't ruined her life after all.

  Chapter 20

  "Patrina!" Alto warned her.

  "No," she said without taking her eyes off the rogue. "This man isn't who he claims. He doesn't fight like Namitus and he's a coward. Namitus may be many things, but coward is not one of them."

  "Reckless," Alto agreed. He drew his sword that he'd recently sheathed and looked at the man. "Something hasn't sat right with me either."

  "Alto!" The man sputtered. "Look at me! How could I not be?"

  "Tell me about the fire?"

  "The fire? What fire? The one you said you nearly started in the tunnels? I wasn't there for that."

  "No, in Portland," Alto said.

  Namitus hesitated. "I don't remember the merchant's name," he said with a shrug.

  Alto turned to Patrina but kept his mouth shut when she gave him a curt shake of her head. He sighed and turned back. "What else about it?"

  "What else is there? It was a fire. You and I saved them."

  Alto raised his eyebrow. "How many of them were there?"

  "The merchant and his family."

  "What else?"

  "What else?" Namitus asked. "What else was there?"

  Alto felt the twisting in his stomach grow heavier. "We brought out something else—what was it?"

  Namitus searched his eyes and glanced at the others. The rogue's gaze went to Alto's sword before he guessed, "The merchant's pet!"

  Alto followed the imposter's line of sight and noticed the green glow coming off his blade. He clenched his teeth and then snarled. "Where's Namitus?"

  The false rogue saw that he'd been surrounded. His back was to the wall of a building and he had no escape. "Taken by the Order," he snarled. "Don't worry, you'll be joining him soon."

  Patrina tightened her grip on her axe and demanded, "Taken where?"

  "Throw down your weapons and I'll show you," he said.

  Garrick and Mordrim snorted at the same time. The two warriors looked at one another and shared a smirk.

  "You first," Alto insisted.

  The false Namitus said nothing but reached for the sword at his side. He smiled as he drew it and then let it fall to the ground. He shifted as it happened, his body blurring before their eyes and growing. In the time it took to draw a full breath, Namitus had changed into a being that stood half a head taller than Garrick, without the barbarian's girth. The new creature had a mottled brown and tan appearance and instead of hair and flesh, he was covered in scales.

  "Demon!" Garrick cried out.

  "Splisskin!" Mordrim growled, correcting his tall friend. The dwarf raised his hammer and took a step forward. "Wizard too, by my guess."

  The snakeman chanted a few arcane syllables, confirming the dwarf's guess. He clapped his hands together but the sound was lost as a blast of concussive air swept over them and knocked them back. Mordrim and Carson kept their feet while the rest were driven to their knees or onto their backs.

  The splisskin wizard began another spell but he was thwarted by an arrow that pierced his forearm and made him hiss in pain. He spun on Carson, his reptilian eyes promising a cold and unpleasant fate. Carson fitted one of his last arrows to his string and let it fly, but the creature stumbled back two steps from the impact of Mordrim's thrown hammer.

  "Watch out!" Alto cried out as he rose to his feet. His fall had given him the accidental chance to see the end of the alley where the Stalkers had come from. Several hooded figures approached, each of them tall like the wizard they faced.

  Garrick turned and saw the reinforcements. He brandished his sword and started towards them. Karthor trailed after him, one hand on his holy symbol and the other carrying his mace.

  "Hold, you fools!" the wounded wizard shouted. He climbed to his feet and glared at them. "Against men you might prevail, but fighting my people will earn you a painful death."

  "Where's our friend?" Alto asked again. "Tell me this time or you'll all die, even if you've brought a pack of dragons hiding under those robes."

  The snakeman hissed for several seconds before he said, "He has been honored. It will be the greatest honor one of your kind could ever know."

  Alto realized it was laughter and it made him angry.

  "Surrender and you will have the same honor given to you," the snakeman said.

  The wizard's head jerked to the side from the force of Carson's arrow slamming into it. The splisskin crumpled to the ground. Garrick shouted in surprise, and then spun around in search of the hooded figures who had disappeared before his eyes.

  Alto spun and looked at Carson. The man frowned when he found no more arrows in his quiver. He looked back at Alto and shrugged. "I never liked snakes," Carson offered.

  "He could have told us where Namitus is at!" Alto protested.

  Patrina shook her head. "No, he wouldn't. He would have shown us but we would have been in chains."

  "I could have made him talk," Alto growled.

  "He was a believer," Karthor said as he walked back to join the main group. "Nothing would have made him talk."

  Alto shook his head. "So was Jakar."

  The priest frowned and then disagreed. "A believer, yes, but this creature was more than that. Every torture inflicted would only entrench him deeper in his beliefs. Death would be his release and salvation."

  Alto glared at the dead splisskin wizard. "Consider yourself saved," he muttered.

  "Where'd the other ones go?" Garrick demanded from the mouth of the alley.

  "Illusions," Karthor called out to him. "A ruse this creature used to sway us. Remember the bird my father summoned?"

  "Bird?" Garrick asked.

  "Blackwing?" Alto asked, equally confused.

  "No, when the wasps came after us," Karthor said. He snapped his fingers. "I forgot, Garrick hadn't joined us yet."

  The barbarian grunted.

  "Well, they weren't real, just illusions. Like reflections in a mirror."

  "Ghosts?" Garrick gasped.

  "Something like that, except ghosts are said to be able to harm the living. Illusions cannot."

  Garrick circled a final time and glared at the ground. Mordrim snickered and picked up his hammer. "Just as well," the dwarf consoled the large man. "Without me, you wouldn't have had a ghost of a chance."

  The barbarian's brows furrowed.

  "Come on," Alto said, ignoring the two warriors.

  "Where are we going now?" Patrina stopped him. "We don't have Namitus and we don't know where he is!"

  Alto nodded. "Kar," he said. "We have to hope he found something."

  Patrina frowned and asked, "Bu
t what if he didn’t?"

  Alto stared into her eyes and said, "Then I go back into those tunnels and start a fire that can't be put out."

  * * * *

  Without the fake Namitus guiding them, the companions wandered through the city of Mira with little in the way of incident. By the time Mordrim was able to get them back to the eastern parts of the city, the sun was cresting the ocean.

  "You look tired," Patrina said to Alto as they made their way through the fish markets set up near the docks. "When did you last sleep?"

  The leader of the company shrugged. "Not all of us can take naps at the drop of a hat."

  Patrina's jaw dropped. She narrowed her eyes and shook her finger at him. "That's not fair, I was poisoned!"

  "So was I," Alto reminded her.

  "Mine was a sleeping poison!"

  Alto let a brief grin slip through, letting her know he was kidding. Patrina's eyes narrowed even further. "I'm going to pay for that, aren't I? I thought the kelgryn people could take a joke?"

  "Oh, we can," Patrina said with a smile. "Almost as good as we can give them."

  Alto grimaced and pushed on, wondering what it was that Patrina might do to him. He realized after a moment that she'd taken his constant worry for his sister and Namitus away from him. Sure, she'd replaced it with a different worry, but it had lightened his mood. He turned and caught her gaze, and then offered her a smile. Patrina returned it and reached out to give his hand a squeeze.

  "Get your head out of the clouds," Mordrim barked at them. "The docks are crawling with guards."

  "Guards?" Alto jerked his head back to look beyond the tents and carts that were set up to see the docks beyond. His eyes landed on a group of guards wearing loose-fitting yellow brigandine. He searched and soon found another, thanks to their bright uniforms. Alto continued to scan the docks and counted several groups moving about or guarding key positions.

  "We don't know they're after us," Patrina reasoned. The challenging looks she received from the others made her sigh. "Well, where's Kar then? Has he made it past them or is he still doing whatever it is that wizards do?"

  "Not all of them are wearing armor," Carson noticed. He nodded towards a man with a similar yellow uniform without the metal rivets and plates sewn into it.

  Alto studied the man and turned to pick several other men out who were dressed the same. "Corporals or sergeants?" the warrior wondered. "I'd think they'd be in armor, though."

  "Wizards or priests then," Karthor said. "Probably wizards. They don't seem to be a very religious lot down here."

  Garrick scowled and turned to Carson. "Kill them first."

  Carson winced. "I'm out of arrows."

  "Let's get close to the Kraken before we approach them," Alto said. "It's farther north."

  They followed Alto through the markets, winding back and forth between the booths until they began to recognize the stalls set up by the merchants. Alto brought them near the edge and paused. A large group of guards, more than twenty of them, had gathered at the edge of the docks.

  "That's a lot of guards," Carson observed.

  "We been over this before," Mordrim reminded him.

  "Yes, but they have archers and wizards. We have neither."

  "I wouldn't be so sure about that," a one-legged beggar who had been kneeling next to a chipped wooden bowl said. He stood up, shocking those around him as he stood without leaning even though his left leg ended just above the knee.

  Karthor sighed. "How long have you been sitting here?"

  The beggar glanced down at his bowl and frowned. "Only a few stray bits of copper. Not long enough, it seems."

  "Kar?" Alto gasped, putting it all together at last.

  The wizard nodded and smiled, revealing a mouth void of several teeth. His dirty and crippled appearance rippled and changed, much as the splisskin wizard's had earlier. The Kar they knew appeared before them just as quickly.

  "What have you seen?" Alto asked.

  "Guards. Lots of them," Kar said. "Their wizards aren't much. Apprentices, at best. They can't even think to see through a simple glamour, let alone have the power to do so."

  "Are they looking for us?" Patrina asked.

  "They haven't found anybody else yet," Kar said. "I heard something about a fire in the city last night. Was that you?"

  Alto sighed. "There was no fire. Well, there was, but we put it out before it could spread."

  Kar chuckled. "No merchant daughters needed saving?"

  "No, but funny you should mention that," Karthor said. "We found a splisskin wizard pretending to be Namitus. Used an illusion, just like you'd just done."

  Kar and Alto both frowned.

  Alto leaned forward and stared at Kar. "Are you really you?"

  "Depends," Kar replied. "Are you really the foolish farm boy who turned down a beautiful paladin for a fiery kelgryn wench?"

  Patrina gasped but it was Alto that narrowed his eyes. He nodded. "I believe you," he said. "But don't ever speak of Patrina like that again."

  Kar chuckled. "I had to make sure you knew it was me."

  Alto pushed the matter aside and said, "Let's get to the boat. Can you make the guards disappear?"

  "About the ship," Kar said. "That's going to be a problem. The Kraken set sail at first light this morning."

  "It did what?" Patrina's voice raised and caused several people to glance at them.

  "Hush, fiery princess," Kar said with a wink. "It hasn't left completely. I've been keeping an eye on it."

  "How are you doing that?"

  "Blackwing," Kar said.

  Karthor interrupted and asked, "When did you summon him?"

  "When we left the island of Britanley," the wizard answered. "I figured he might come in handy, especially if we were forced into the desert."

  Alto nodded. "Good thinking. So Blackwing is watching the Kraken. But why did they set sail?"

  "That I can't tell you," Kar said.

  "So how do we get it back?" Mordrim asked.

  "Easy," Carson offered. "We take another boat!"

  Patrina held up a hand to stop everyone. "Wait, do we even need a ship? We have Kar back and we still haven't found Namitus."

  "Good question," Alto admitted. He turned to Kar. "Well, wizard, what of it?"

  Kar shrugged. "I don't know where anyone is. I can tell you that Havara is the mountains to the east where the headwaters of the Khalalid River rest. I can also tell you it's a holy place. Holy to the people of Shazamir—or at least the ruling caste—and holy to splisskin tribes. Allegedly it's for different reasons."

  Alto scowled. "They said Namitus was going to be given an honor few humans receive. Offered us the same thing if we threw down our swords."

  Mordrim grumbled deep in his chest and then said, "I follow your thinking, but that's no easy place to get in to. Tall mountains with few trails, not like up north. There are fortresses in them, too—outposts manned by the Shazamir to make sure the dwarves don't go tunneling into them. There's splisskin in them too, deeper in."

  "Wouldn't dwarves tunnel under the fortresses?" Alto asked.

  Mordrim shrugged. "I never said the Shazamir was smart."

  "How do we get there?"

  Kar held up his hand. "Every so often a patrol works through the market looking for us," he warned.

  "How long until the next one?" Alto asked.

  "Maybe thirty seconds."

  Alto spun and saw the yellow-clad guards pushing through the fish market and searching everywhere for them. He turned back to Mordrim. "Can we sail there?"

  "A river barge, but there's none of them here," the dwarf said. "These deep-water boats won't make it fifty feet up the river."

  "Ships," Patrina muttered.

  "What?" the dwarf and human both asked her.

  "These are ships!" she emphasized. "The ones on the river are boats."

  "Okay," Alto said, shaking his head at the waste of time.

  "South of the Khalalid, there's another port city.
Not an official Shazamir port either. There are roads to the Havara Mountains from there."

  Alto watched the soldiers as they grew closer. He was about to open his mouth when the man he was watching locked gazes with him. His eyes widened with recognition. The guard cried out and gestured for the others, but never took his eye off Alto.

  "To the ship," Alto decided. "Now!"

  "Which ship?"

  He turned and searched the harbor for the closest one. "That one." He pointed at a galleon with three masts.

  Patrina opened her mouth to say something but Alto grabbed her by the arm and yanked her along with him. They ran ahead of the guards in the marketplace but the guards at the docks heard the shouting and were reacting. They drew weapons and hurried to take their positions while Alto and his company made their way closer to the ship.

  Chapter 21

  "The bird!" Alto cried out as they left the market behind and moved through the crates and wooden docks.

  "Blackwing?" Kar asked.

  "No, the bird you used to drive the wasps away. Magic it up!"

  "Magic it up?" Kar repeated. "It's not that simple! It takes—"

  "Except not a bird this time," Alto interrupted. "Make it a dragon!"

  "I can't conjure something that complicated while running and dodging soldiers!" Kar sputtered.

  Alto drew his sword as the distance to the guards halved and then halved again. "Figure out how. I'll tell you when," he said before he smashed a scimitar aside and punched the guard wielding it in the face.

  With Alto at the head of the van, he lost sight of Patrina on his right and Carson on his left for a moment. He heard Patrina's more feminine grunts as she lashed out and was struck in return. He risked a glance and saw her faring well in spite of his worst fears. Wielding an axe was an offensive tactic that left little opportunity for her to defend herself. With her armor offering so many targets, he was amazed how time and again the strikes landed on the parts protected by metal.

  Carson surged into his view a moment later, carving his way through the guards with both of his blades. Unlike Patrina, he bled from a few minor wounds, but nothing seemed capable of stopping the dual wielding warrior. Garrick and Mordrim were the final fighters on each wing of the vee that speared into the Shazamir guards, both men striking blows that the city would remember for years to come.