“ When I freed the city from Handson rule I had never expected that within the month I would be entertaining the old council.” Ingaild said sitting at the head of the tabletop model of Neeska. He was actually honored to be at the table surrounded by so many powerful people. There were stories of times before the Dragons came, before even the humans occupied the continent of Neeska that far overseas the first of the races met in councils much like the one Ingaild headed today to settle peace in the world. To think that Ingaild now took part in such a ritual was empowering but he would not have long to bask in its magnificence as with each passing hour the time left before the Dragons return shrank. Gathered around the table were the most powerful faces in recent years. William Boatswain, the pirate king whom represented the White Flags. He had been freed from his debt and prison and his finery returned to him so that Ingaild could count on the many blades of the pirates to aid in saving Neeska. Sat next to William was Erin Cleat. She would not have normally had any reason to be a part of the council but fate had crossed her path into that of the Dwarfs and when they had rolled into the city they had been escorted immediately into the castle grounds bringing her with them. Once inside the walls of the Handson castle Erin had spotted William instantly and had not known what to expect but he had been pleased to see her, even through her failings. Erin didn’t understand why but William had been so forgiving. He had not left her side as they had been led inside the keep proper. Opposite Erin sat glaring at the rest of the crowd was Joani the Queen of the Goldhorn Dwarfs. She had not been happy about being manhandled by the Pole guards and led into the castle. She had come to help the city only to protect the Dwarfs of the mountains she had left behind and as far as Joani could see all they were doing now was wasting time that could be spent bending the ore she had brought into weapons. Sat to Joani’s right was a still weak looking Harvey Handson. He had been more than lucky to survive two attempts on his life and a beating that would have shattered most men’s souls but he was a husk at best. His only reason for being kept alive was to banish any chance of a rebellion until all this was over with. Ingaild had not wanted to make Harvey a martyr. At the foot of the table sat both Fintan Flynn and his Queen Cadeyrn Silverleaf to represent the peaceful yet powerful Elvin of the Alienage. The last seat taken at the head of the table was that of Calvin Drake, he represented the mages, unbeknown to the rest of them. Calvin was going to make a decision for the tower and none of the mages living inside it probably even knew he had left or that this danger was being pushed upon them, but as the only magic user to openly admit it within the city he had been proclaimed the Towers spokesmen. To Calvin’s side was Ingaild himself who completed the table and represented the united humans of Neeska, both Iron Giant and Neeskmouthain born.
“ You freed nothing.” Harvey said retaliating to Ingaild’s opening speech. He obviously was feeling uncomfortable in his old throne room. He knew he was only there to make proceedings easier. It would make things smoother if Ingaild could be seen as a fair leader and not for the ruthless brigand that he was. Harvey felt like death. In fact he felt worse than death. Death would be a respite from the agony he felt. His insides burnt with the lack of food and his head ached but he had been dressed up like a prize peacock to be dangled out by Ingaild like a centre piece for the table. That did not mean he would have to play along.
“Please Harvey this will not help anyone now.” William said understanding the loss Harvey was feeling but this was not the time. Things like that could be dealt with later if any of them survived. William didn’t like being a puppet in Ingaild little play any more than Harvey did but he had more to lose. Even more since Erin had been poured into the mix. William would do whatever Ingaild wanted if it meant getting Erin out of the city alive. He had put her in danger once chasing down the mythical Dragons heart and would not do so willingly again.
“Look I couldn’t care less which topsider stakes claim to this city. All I am here to do is set up the explosive powder and stop the Dragons reclaiming Neeska.” Joani added to the conversation. Growing more and more annoyed with humans in general the longer she spent topside. She found it ridiculous that they would waste time like this bickering on about who owned the city when in a matter of days the Dragons would turn it all into dust anyway.
“And risk blowing up half the city and my men. We tried a similar tactic when Ingaild invaded and look how that panned out.” William said remembering back to the failed attempt to filter down the enemy through the dockyard. If it didn’t work for an army of humans that had no choice but to walk the streets, what hope would they have with Dragons that would just fly over them? William had not wanted to upset the Dwarfen queen anymore than she seemed already but his men had laid down their lives once in the maze of buildings and William did not think they would do it again.
“I did not invade Master William. I reclaimed.” Ingaild said shooting William a look that confirmed his freedom was a fleeting thing and William should watch what he said a little more closely. “But you’re right. It would be pointless to fill the city with explosives.” Ingaild said reclaiming control of the conversation. It was clear from his demeanor that he would try to stake entitlement over the council after the battle if they did win against the Dragons. Ingaild’s hunger for power really did not know any end. He had set out from the Western Reaches with the sole purpose of reclaiming the land that he believed was rightfully his, now he had done that. The rest of Neeska suddenly looked appealing and he would have to put himself at the head of the race for power.
“These ideas seem futile. My people have been driven from our homes once before. My father united a continent to push back against a dark force much greater than the Dragons we face.” Cadeyrn said standing up to get the full attention of the council. “ Let me lead the people into battle and we will claim a victory as great as that.” Cadeyrn said confidently. She believed what she said with all her conviction and she had right to. The Elves had almost managed to stop one of the seven seals being broken in the Whispering Woods. They had directly opposed the demon responsible for it and then after months at sea they had landed in Neeskmouth. If they hadn’t things in Neeska might have been very different. The Elves had been the pivotal difference that had won the Great War against the Dragons last time.
“My Queen if I may. We did do as you say but this is different. The city is divided at best. The Dragons built this city to serve them. We would not have the blessing of the Earth Mother and we do not truly understand what we face.” Fintan added thinking on just how far he had come in just a month. He had been so nervous of his queen before when she had, with the help of the wind, burst into his hut but after all he had seen now. He felt her equal, if anything he knew better than anyone other than Calvin just what the Dragons’ danger would mean. They were bickering and making plans but none of them had faced a Dragon like Fintan. He had felt the fear paralyze him if anyone was to make a plan it should be himself or Calvin.
“ We’re missing something that won us the victory once before.” Calvin added. He was scared to suggest it but it was true. Dragons were beasts of the old world, from the time of the creators. It would take magic to win this fight.
“ You speak of mages yes?” Harvey said struggling to lift his head from his hands. “Look what good you did me.” Harvey said dropping his head back down. There was a shaking to his hands that was barely noticeable but it was there. It showed he was angry or nervous, maybe both. The man had been through so much and his wounds sang of the torture he had endured. Ingaild’s plan to parade him out to calm people was backfiring as it was obvious to all Harvey had already resided himself to death.
“Harvey what has happened to you. You were my enemy for so long but looking at you now pointing blame. You seem so weak.” William asked looking across the table. Harvey hadn’t lost because the mages failed him. He’d sent them out after a magic item that didn’t even exist, much like William had done with his daughter Erin. He could not blame her for not returning it
to him. He had to blame himself for putting her in danger and if William had to blame himself then it infuriated him that Harvey sat there with a clear conscious blaming everyone else for his mistakes.
“ He looks half starved and as crazy as a hare.” Erin said speaking for the first time which was unlike her but she had been being quiet with purpose. She knew that she did not belong in the council but it did not mean she would not make use of the opportunity. She was after all a pirate at heart too and when would she ever get a chance to see the wealthiest and most powerful people in Neeska around one table again. No Erin had been taking in those around the table while they all flapped their lips. Erin might have been young but she was not as naive as some would think her to be. William had shunned her once too often and his sudden forgiveness of her failings on returning showed a weakness that the king of the pirates could not show. He had lost a lot of holding on the White Flags since the battle ravished its numbers. When this was all over Erin planned to take them as her own. The faces around the table would be those who would oppose such a move so she had sat quietly waiting, watching, and learning.
“ May-haps you’re right.” Harvey muttered sinking ever lower in his chair. At one time he would have had to outspoken Erin thrown into chains for speaking out about him like that but he had fallen so far from power now that he could not even lift his head to face her. “So what then, you would have us send word to the mages and they would get here Duwek of next week at the earliest. By then it would be too late.” Harvey said looking down at his once beloved table in dismay. He believed in his heart that they were right. He had read his father’s hidden diary and knew it was magic that had banished the Dragons the first time but there was no way the mages could be in the city before the Dragons, Not now, everything had been left too late. It was because the city had been too busy fighting among itself to see the signs, the warnings and that was purely on his tired shoulders.
“We take the battle there.” Ingaild said thinking aloud. The table of faces all turned to look at him as if he was mad, all apart from one Calvin. “Yes. The Dragons will fly past the lands close to Briers Hill. The tower can cast that far and we can be there within three days. That would give time to make preparations’.” Calvin said as Rinwid gave him a premonition of the battle. The Tower was in the background and standing on it was Calvin. This would change a lot. Calvin didn’t understand how but he could sense it in the forewarning. Rinwid was hinting at a new future. That did not mean it was for the best but Calvin had come to realize that Rinwid had seen this all play out long before he had met Calvin. He had been waiting for this to come to pass and was probably the only one who actually knew how to come out of this successful. As much as Calvin hated the idea he would have to go along with the demons plans that happened to match Ingaild’s.
“That would give us a day no more to get the blast powder set up across the battlefield. It’s going to be tight but my Dwarves will get it done.” Joani said half trying to convince herself it was enough time. It would not give them time to press the ore into weapons but they should be able to arrange the barrels into some-kind of formation strong enough to catch low flying Dragons if they left now.
“Then what are we waiting for. Send word to your men retrospectively and we leave as soon as we’re ready.” Ingaild said standing and stepping away from the table. He did not plan to give the council time to start bickering again. A plan had been weakly agreed on and that would have to be enough for now. “I trust you can all see yourselves out?” He added before walking to the doorway in which Annar had been waiting. The two Pole leaders vanished into the corridor outside leaving a slightly stunned table of faces behind them. Cadeyrn was the first to break the newfound silence.
“ Fintan, my precious Fintan you must be exhausted but can I ask that you leave now to alert the mages. I do not trust anyone else to get word to them in time. While you do I will travel to the harbor and let our people know we move, but the time you save could be what wins or loses us the fight to come.” Cadeyrn asked feeling the weight of her request. She had already put so much pressure on the fresh skinned druid. She could see the change in him. The callus he had built to protect himself from all that he had seen. He was not the same man full of hope and adventure as he had been. The Scorched Lands had aged and changed him but she could not let him rest yet.
“ I am tired your majesty but if it is your wish.” Fintan said not relishing the idea of leaving again so soon. He had wanted time to rest. It felt like his life had been one long sense of rushing since Cadeyrn had first entered his hut and told him to leave for the ship. He couldn’t remember a time he had actually been at rest since then. The time with the Dwarves came close but he was dead on his feet. Feet it would seem that would have to leave the city shortly.
“I’ll go with you Elf. I can ride faster than you and might have more luck speaking to mages than your kind.” Erin said. She wanted out of the city more than anything not to mention she had started to get a soft spot for the whimsical would be hero Fintan. He was so different to any man she had met in her time with the Flags. She had promised him that she would help him find the Elves that maybe his parents and for the first time in her life she actually planned to keep her promise.
Chapter twenty two – Dragon Blight The world shifted and the tremors’ could be felt throughout the ripples of time. The temporarily united army had gathered seven miles southwest of Briers Hill in-between the surrounding fields and the mages tower. They had made ready as best they could in the short time they had been given by fate. Only hours after the majority of the soldiers begun to set up make shift tents word had come back from the mages tower that Fintan and Erin, who had gone on ahead direct from Neeskmouth, had been successful in convincing the mages to lend aid, which had been more than a small blessing. Calvin had remained silent since leaving Neeskmouth. A dark shadow had hung over him in a literal sense. To the point that even the horses that had led the caravan containing him whinnied and pulled away from the reigns making the journey rougher than the gullied roads should have. No sooner had the company stopped at the edges of Briers Hill Calvin had continued his journey and should have been arriving any moment to join with Fintan and Erin who now waited within the towers high garden walls. Calvin’s departure was well received among the ranks of warriors of the Poles and the soldiers of the many other flags who for a reason they could not place felt nothing but discomfort around the old man. With the eerie feel dissipating the further Calvin got from the battle readying men, they calmed and now they waited. The Dragons were due to fly into Neeskmouth that evening and would pass close by to the fields they waited in sometime around midday. No one had any idea how many Dragons the Dragon lord had amassed in his horde in the mountains. It could be ten or ten thousand. All the people of Neeska could do was to wait and pray to the many gods that would be watching over this moment that they had settled their squabbles in time to have retained enough strength to win. Nerves ran through the crowd like a plague, spreading from man to man. The clattering of steal could be heard as soldiers worriedly fidgeted while never taking their eyes of the sky. Tempers ran high and to describe it as a powder-keg would have been an understatement. Men who had been at war for as long as they could remember had to stand side by side waiting to face a mutual enemy. It would have taken little more than a look in the wrong direction to tare the make-shift peace apart and Pole and Neeskmouthain would be at each other’s throats once again. Or the prejudice comments to be carried by the wind into the Elvin camp and it could all fall apart like a badly bound parcel which string was already frail. Noon came and went, but with it came no sign of the Dragons’ shadows in the sky above. Some people even begun to think it had been a magic trick, a spell of some kind, an illusion and that no Dragons would come. Small arguments broke out between the fractions but their leaders did their best to maintain a peace. Even the new ruler of the Northern Kingdoms, Ingaild, knew that he would have to keep his men in line. Ingaild was not a stupid man an
d the tensions that ran around like the wind through rustling leafs told him of what would come even if they did somehow win this battle today. Ingaild had prepared himself for death as he could not see anyone walking away from the bloodshed that was to come but he was the lord of the Poles and could not turn his back and run like a petty Neeskmouthain dog. On the small chance that they did win, once this battle was over and the Dragons routed. It would fall to Ingaild to decide how to set the country to rest. He could guess that things were far from over in his plan of conquest, by invoking the old alliances the Dwarfs and Elves would expect recompense and no doubt it would awaken the mages to the plight of Neeskmouth. If Ingaild was not careful then his actions would cause wars to spark up just as they had at the fall of the Dragons the first time and Ingaild did not want to end up like his predecessor Harvey fighting a never ending skirmish on each front, but for now that did not matter. Ingaild swallowed and returned his gaze to the sky. Thoughts like that would be dealt with later, if they survived what was to come. For now he could not spare a place in his mind for thoughts of what came after. He had to focus on stopping the mighty Dragons that would be there any moment. Ingaild paced back and forth looking out over the fields. The Dwarfen queen was still out with a couple of others doing something with the odd smelling powder and wagons they had brought with them. Ingaild had little understanding of the technological advances that the Dwarfs seemed to prize so much but hopefully whatever they were up to would be of some use when the time came. In a stark contrast to the busyness of the Dwarfs were the Elves, Cadeyrn stood at the front of her flanks just behind the Poles. Unlike the Pole army who bickered and seemed in a permanent state of ruckus the Elves seemed silent. This was after all not their fight and it had been the second time they had been dragged into it. Ingaild had hardly any dealings with Elves but he was struck by just how beautiful they were, even clad in their golden colored armor. Maybe after the battle he would have to get to know this Cadeyrn a little better. His thoughts were snapped back to the front of the ranks as at ten minutes past two the shadows appeared on the horizon. The Dragons’ came. With wings beating so hard that they still carried a cloud of ash beneath them. At the head of the flock, for want of a better word, was the Dragon lord, his battle armor shining brightly in the low sun. He roared to the others with him as he spotted the army waiting, he remembered these lands and would not make the same mistakes that he and his kin did the last time they met humans in battle. The Dragon army numbered no more than ten strong but that would not make them any less formidable. Ingaild had expected the Dragons to speak or demand a retreat before they launched an attack but that was not how it happened. The Dragon lord remembered the pain he had felt as he watched his kin almost stricken from the world on these very fields a hundred years before. He would hold no quarter this time. The Dragon lord snarled something in an ancient tongue none left alive knew and the younger Dragons pulled in tight. The Dragons flew straight above the amassed army as if continuing on towards Neeskmouth. With their flight nearing the front of the ranks they let out swift jet-like streams of fire indiscriminately into the ranks of the Neeska army. The Dragons’ breath scorched the ranks of humans loyal to the Poles before they could even raise the sheepskin slings to return fire. The heat blistered flesh from bone and turned the earth below into a mirror of red and black. Ranks of men died as they ran screaming aflame before the Dragons reached the end of the clearing. The tight ranks that had been setup fell to chaos. Ingaild watched horrified as the Dragons cleared the men and continued on. They would reach Neeskmouth to find it defenseless. He had known the plan to march out would be a dangerous one but he had not planned for the Dragons not to even join the battle. The sudden shock froze some men as the huge beast flew above bringing the blackening cloud of ash that hit them like sea-salt. Elvin Archers stood ready but unable to fire their hands quivering on the string of their bows.
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