Order Of The Dragon (Omnibus 1-4)

by Jason Halstead

  "They said another dwarf was here."

  "Hah! See, there you go. Proof that these creatures are savages. No better than dogs or sand crawlers, I tell you! They turn on their own and then run and hide."

  Mordrim ground his teeth together and locked the platform once it was halfway down before quickly shifting the weights to force it back up as soon as he released it. The dwarf rigged the open bottle of lamp oil on the platform and then grabbed the cloak he'd worn into the shop from where he'd tossed it on the ground and tore a strip off the bottom of it.

  "Hold! Did you hear something?"

  Mordrim scowled and placed the strip of cloth on the platform so that the end of it hung over the edge.

  "Over there, by the dwarf!" another voice answered. "Is that a hole in the floor? That wasn't there a minute ago!"

  Mordrim opened a small cask of oil and threw it up through the hole into the shop above him. He put a spin on it, spilling oil in every direction as it flew through the air, bounced off a wall, and then crashed to the ground and cracked open. Some of the oil spilled back down through the hole and onto the platform and the dwarf's arms.

  "What was that?" the second man asked.

  "It must be the other dwarf! Go get him!"

  Mordrim tipped his lantern so he could light the hanging end of the cloth with it just as a shadow fell over the hole from above. One of the men, no doubt the second man to speak, was staring down at him. "Ha! I knew it. Dirty little ground mole. I'll show you the justice of civilized folk!"

  The man leapt down on the platform as the flames raced up the strip of cloth towards it. His eyes widened as he squatted down and saw the fire heading towards the flask of oil he'd knocked over.

  Mordrim pulled the release on the lock and, when the platform didn't rise fast enough, he threw both hands under it and pushed. The man cried out as the upward movement made him stagger and fall back. He hit his back and head on the hatchway of the room above him and rebounded, and then cried out as the flames met the oil and spread across the platform and onto his boots. Mordrim kept heaving until the platform was too high for him to reach. It continued up slowly and then blocked out the light from above again.

  Mordrim smiled as he saw the latch lock into place. He glanced down at his lantern and then cursed when he saw a spot of oil burning on one of the plates on his arm. He swatted it out with his hand and shook his head before picking up the lantern and his hammer.

  "That's for you, Snord," Mordrim said. "Rest well, my friend."

  He turned to the doorway out of the cellar and hoped it led to more than just a privy.

  Chapter 15

  "Thork can't help me this time," Patrina hissed after Alto's rage-induced scream stopped echoing through the dungeon.

  "Leander's gift just goes around the wound. It restores her health and replenishes that which is lost, but I can't close her wound," Karthor said while he stared up at the grief-stricken face of his friend.

  Alto scooped Patrina up in his arms, causing the woman to gasp and cough. "Alto, stop!"

  He shook his head. "We've got to move," he said.

  Garrick moved to the door with Caitlyn over his shoulder and peered out. "Still clear," he said. He nodded at the hunter standing in the doorway at the end of the hall and announced, "Carson's looking at me like we're mad."

  "Beyond mad," Alto muttered as he squeezed past the barbarian. "We've got to get out of here and get help."

  "Help from who?" Karthor snatched up the discarded dagger and asked as he followed them back into the guard room. The two living guards lay slumped on the floor next to each other. "What happened to them?"

  "Didn't want to worry about them," Carson said with a shrug.

  "You killed them?" the wide-eyed priest asked.

  "No, just knocked them out."

  Karthor shook his head and stumbled. He looked at the bloody dagger in his hand for a moment and then held the other one out. "Alto, wait. Please."

  "I can't wait," Alto spat as he turned on the priest. "I've got to find somebody to help Patrina!"

  "But who can help her?" Karthor asked him. "I can keep her alive, I think, but her wound is like nothing I've ever seen! There may be better healers out there than I am, but they won't be found near Mira."

  "Thork gave me that knife and said to be careful—it would cut anything. I used it to kill Beck and then I gave it to Caitlyn to use to protect herself. I didn't even know she still had it."

  "Why—?" Patrina asked before she had to stop and suffer a coughing fit. She spat out more blood and forced a ragged question out. "Why is it always me who gets hurt?"

  "The saints are testing me," Alto answered. He squeezed his eyelids shut for a brief moment and then opened them to reveal how red-rimmed they were.

  "Then why didn't you get stabbed?" Garrick asked.

  "Excuse me, what happened?" Carson wondered aloud.

  Patrina ignored the ranger and looked up at Alto. "It's not always about you," she said with a smile that turned into a wince. The color drained from her cheeks and she had to squeeze her eyes shut to deal with the pain. "Saints, it hurts," she hissed.

  "Karthor!"

  The priest hurried over and started to reach for his holy symbol when he realized he held the dagger still. He frowned and turned to Carson. "Can you hold this? We might want it later, if there is a later."

  "Um, okay. Is this the dagger that, uh—"

  "Yes," Garrick said while Karthor called up on Leander to bolster the bleeding woman's health again. "Caitlyn came up with it after Patrina unlocked her and she stabbed her with it. She wasn't talking right. Seemed out of sorts or confused or something."

  "So this is Alto's sister," Carson mused as he stared at the woman slumped over Garrick's shoulder. "Where could she hide a dagger like this? Or was it a trap?"

  "A resourceful woman has many tricks," Patrina said, her voice stronger for the time being. Karthor backed away from her but his eyes stayed on the wound in her belly that continued to ooze fresh blood.

  Carson opened and then shut his mouth. He nodded. "So now what? If you can't be healed, how do we, uh, help you?"

  "Kar," Alto said.

  "He can't heal," Karthor snapped. "Wizards don't understand the workings of vitality and the living spirit."

  "Maybe he can tell us why the wound won't heal."

  The priest frowned but kept his mouth shut.

  Patrina winced and looked down at the blood that seeped past her hand. "We're to meet him on the other side of Mira. That's a long ways."

  Alto nodded. "We'll move fast," he promised her.

  "Alto," Patrina's said as her eyes bored into his. "I'm scared. I don't want to leave you."

  Alto nodded and smiled even as the muscles in his cheeks flexed and twitched. He took a ragged breath and looked at Karthor. "Ready?"

  "We need to cross the entire city carrying two women and do it quickly?" Carson asked.

  Alto set his eyes on the man and nodded.

  Carson let out a breath and returned the nod. He walked up to Alto and then slipped around him and pushed the door all the way open. "Okay, let's get going. These lazy women aren't going to carry themselves."

  "If I get better, I'm going to make you pay for that," Patrina whispered.

  "When, not if," Alto growled.

  "I'll hold you to that," Carson said to her and smiled. He turned to the open passage and let a curse slip from his lips. Guards wearing the crest of the royal family stood in the far doorway. "Uh, Alto?"

  "Put me down," Patrina hissed.

  "You're wounded!"

  "Wounded, not dead," she said. "Now put me down."

  "Trina—"

  "By the saints, put me down!"

  Alto lowered her to the floor while the guards watched and backed up so they were on the far side of the doorway. Patrina grimaced and reached for the wall with a hand soaked in her own blood. She swallowed and reached back to grab her axe.

  "Trina, you can't fight," Alto hissed a
t her.

  "I love you," she said in a low voice.

  "Patrina, stop!" Alto demanded.

  She blinked back tears from her eyes and shook her head. "Go," she hissed before she started forward.

  Alto heard a soft grunt behind him but ignored it. He pulled his shield off his back and reached down and drew his sword. The drying blood on his hands made his grip sticky. "She's right," he said with a glance at Carson, Karthor, and finally Garrick where the large man stood next to his unconscious sister. "Pick Caitlyn up and go!"

  Before they could respond, he turned and broke into a charge down the hall. Patrina stumbled as he passed her and fell against the wall. She slumped to her knees and struggled to regain her feet while she watched Alto break the sword of the first guard with his magical blade. He crashed into another guard and was swallowed up by the press of bodies.

  "Alto!" she wheezed, reaching out for him. Someone was there, grabbing her and hauling her to her feet. She looked up and saw Karthor but only for a moment. She stared ahead again and tried to spot Alto through the combatants fighting and her own friends who ignored them both and charged down the tunnel.

  Karthor pulled the axe from Patrina's weak fingers and guided her back to where Garrick had laid Caitlyn down. He checked the unconscious woman and then turned to Patrina and checked her wound. He snorted and shook his head, and then put his holy symbol against it and bowed his head in prayer.

  With a fresh wave of Leander's warmth chasing away the chill of the dungeon, Patrina picked up her axe and climbed to her feet. She winced but continued up the hallway.

  Karthor grabbed Caitlyn and hefted her limp body over his shoulder the same as Garrick had. He staggered until he shifted her into an almost comfortable position and then hurried after Patrina.

  The priest caught up with her just as she stepped into the doorway and saw it wasn't a room so much as a large hallway. She swung her axe with one hand into the side of a guard's neck who faced the other way. The guard fell like a stone but Patrina nearly joined him. She grunted and gasped as the contraction of muscles pulled at her belly wound and caused fresh blood to run across her armor and skin.

  Alto saw her from where he'd pushed himself into the room and paid for the distraction. One of the curved swords of a Miran guard slid across his shield and sliced along his upper arm, wetting him with his own blood. Alto grunted and turned, gutting the guard who had struck him, and then was clubbed in the back with the hilt of another sword.

  Patrina forced herself forward and ignored the burning in her belly. She took her axe in both hands and let the blood flow freely, distracting the next guard who turned to face her. He stared at her wound and then raised his eyes up to her face in time to see her axe cleave his helm. He fell and Patrina stumbled forward over him.

  She heard Alto cry out as she went down. She struggled to climb to her feet again, amazed she still held on to her axe with her slippery fingers. She tried to tighten them but they felt so numb and weak, she wasn't sure she could hold anything. Somehow she clung to the axe and made it to one foot before the flat of a blade smashed into the back of her head and dropped her back to the ground.

  When she could see past the stars and colors, she tasted fresh blood and bile. Her body felt like it was tearing itself apart from the inside. Bloody spittle dripped from her lips into the puddle that she'd already vomited up. She tried to pick her head up but instead of the circlet on her head, it felt like she wore a jousting helm. Someone grabbed her and hauled her up, their cold metal-clad fingers digging into her shoulder and neck.

  "Hold!" A powerful voice rolled across the room, causing everyone to check their swings or stand ready for a blow that didn't fall.

  A man wearing ornately decorated and loose flowing pants and a shirt stood in the doorway. A scimitar hung at his hip and he wore a golden crown with a black gemstone set in the middle of it. The jewel matched the man's eyes.

  "Throw down your swords. You are defeated," he demanded.

  Alto was looking around and taking stock of the room. There were piles of bodies and gore scattered about the room. Carson was picking up one of his swords he'd dropped while Garrick used the pause to wrench his sword from the spine of a guard he'd killed. Karthor stood with his mace in hand, straddling Caitlyn's sleeping body. Everyone was wounded and bleeding, but only a handful of guards remained.

  The guards, upon seeing the companions had stopped, fell to a knee and bowed their heads respectfully to the man.

  "Looks to me like we're winning," Alto challenged.

  "Does it?" he asked. On cue, more guards rushed into the wide hallway from behind him. They were outnumbered again in seconds.

  "We won't surrender," Alto spat at him.

  The man's eyes swept across the hall and fell on Patrina. Blood ran down her chin and her belly. She squirmed against the guard holding her up but she had no strength left to fight. She was sweating but felt cold. The room was drifting in and out of focus and her throat ached for a drink.

  "Maybe your woman doesn't need to die?" he asked.

  Alto's eyes narrowed. "Your healers can't help her."

  "No, they can't," he admitted. "But that hardly means she can't be helped."

  "Who are you?" Alto hissed.

  The man laughed, a deep and oppressive sound. "I am the reason all of this exists. I am Lord Shazamir. King and ruler of this realm."

  Alto's sword twitched in his hand but it failed to let loose the green radiance that indicated fear in his foes. Alto turned to look at Garrick, his eyes taking in the man's great sword. It shone dully in the light of the lamps in the hall with no telltale blue flames that had indicated a dragon or splisskin was nearby.

  Alto turned back to the king and demanded, "Are you with the Order?"

  Patrina gasped and sagged forward as her knees lost their strength. The guard tried to hold her up but only slowed her descent. She fell in her own puddle of gore and groaned, too weak to even be sick.

  Lord Shazamir ignored Alto and said, "You should hurry, warrior, or the chance to save her will escape you."

  Alto had already taken a step towards her and was forced to stop by the drawn blades of several royal guards. He met Patrina's eyes and saw her blink slowly and move her lips. She coughed and retched, spewing more blood from her stomach in front of her.

  "Alto," Karthor pleaded. "I can't save her!"

  "Listen to the priest, Alto. You need not die in your own filth," the king said.

  Alto turned back to him. "Why? Why save her? Why save any of us?"

  "I would speak with you. I have plans and they would be better served with you alive."

  Alto tightened his grip on his sword again, seeming to pull strength from it. He stared into the black eyes of the ruler and said, "Betray us and there will be no army on this world strong enough to stop me!"

  He chuckled. "It's not my betrayal you should be bothered with. Do you surrender?"

  Alto turned to Patrina and saw her head hanging closer to the ground. She was panting and crying tears into the puddle beneath her. Alto opened his hand and let his sword clatter on the floor. He shivered as he let go and then blinked and forced himself to stand straight. He turned and glanced at the others and nodded to them. Karthor's mace hit the ground so quickly the ringing from Alto's sword hadn't yet faded.

  Carson frowned and set his swords down. "I trust you know what you're doing," he said.

  Garrick waited a moment longer, his fingers clenching and unclenching on the hilt of his sword. A fresh bout of gagging from Patrina broke through his resolve at last. He threw his sword down in disgust and ripped his axe free from his waist before tossing it away.

  "Save her," Alto said in a flat voice.

  "That's beyond my control," Lord Shazamir said. He held up his hand to delay the fire that sprung into Alto's eyes. "You may heal her and prolong her life until you learn more, though."

  Alto turned even as Karthor was pushing the guards out of the way and kneeling beside her. P
atrina shook her head and tried to push him away, causing the priest to look up at Alto. "Heal her," the warrior demanded.

  Karthor nodded and called on Leander for another blessing to aid the cursed woman.

  Chapter 16

  Jethallin shook her head and moved through the underground passage. A light up ahead looked to be getting brighter, but not because she approached it. A moment later, she saw a figure step around a corner with a lantern in his hand. She averted her eyes both to preserve her night vision and to respect the unspoken rule of the Shadows.

  They passed one another without a word or even a glance at the other. Such was the code of conduct among the Shadows. The tunnels were a shared convenience and every person who used them did so for their own ends. Loathed enemy or beloved brother, two people passing in the Shadows treated each other as just that, a shadow.

  Jethallin turned the corner and made her way farther under the city to the south as the man's light quickly faded. In moments, she was walking through the dark again, but she knew from the count of her steps how far she had to go until the tunnel branched off to the left towards the warehouse she was to meet Alto's friends in.

  Jethallin reached her turning point and stopped. She reached out and felt for the wall and the passage, only to feel cool air. She frowned and noticed a dampness in the air she hadn't felt before. Her arms felt the moisture gather on them and chill her. She shivered and reached up to tuck the sash tighter about Jennaca.

  Jethallin's hand touched her chest, surprising her. When had her daughter slid down? She reached around but couldn't find the babe. She felt her stomach and chest, frantic to find the infant girl. She couldn't even find the sling wrapped around her neck and shoulder. She raised her other hand so she could open the hood on the lantern and chase the crazy thoughts from her mind, only to find that her hand was now empty.

  A strangled sob slipped from her lips. She turned about, reaching out and feeling nothing but the damp air around her. Had she made a wrong turn? Impossible. She'd been walking straight. And she'd felt the pressure of Jennaca against her belly and breast only a few moments ago. "Jennaca!" she called into the darkness.