by C. E. Swain
The great stone road came into view, almost two months after leaving Avren and the camp behind, and there the group turned south. The solders did not know it at the time, but they were being watched as they traveled. Darik, on the other hand, had seen the man twice, but said nothing to Finor. He knew that the man followed them, and had been since they reached the great road.
They were still at least two months from their destination when the solders spotted the man who shadowed them in the trees. They searched the area but could not find him, and soon gave up and returned to the road. Darik had cast a spell to hide the man from the solders, and make them believe it was no more than shadows they saw. When Finor ordered the men to reassemble and continue south, Darik followed. The man who shadowed them must not be from Avren's camp, or he would not have tried to hide, he thought. He looked into the eyes of the stunned man and smiled, as he guided his horse forward to follow Finor and his men.
Two nights later a voice spoke to him from behind a tree as Darik was gathering wood. Two of the solders were watching him, so he continued to gather wood, and showed no sign of his visitor as he talked to the man. The man was not a servant of Kath, but was not from the Great Empire, either. He despised Arnoran, and would do anything to thwart his plans. Darik told him of the ambush planned at Glansford, and of the camp in the north that was responsible for the brigands that flooded the empire.
The man disappeared as fast as he had appeared when the two solders walked in Darik's direction. Darik turned just before they reached him, and walked passed them to his camp that was set aside from the others. After looking around the place where Darik had been gathering his wood, the two solders returned to their campfire.
Darik thought about the man he had talked to, and what he had to say. The man always kept his face hidden in such a way that it looked almost accidental, but Darik knew better. Come to think of it, he had never seen the man's face. Even when he looked into the man's almond shaped, eyes, while they were on the road, his face was still covered.
There was something about the man who shadowed them that put Darik at ease. He had a smooth way about him and his speech was flowing and graceful. He had the intelligence in his eyes of an old man, but could not be more than in his mid twenties. Darik did not know who he was, or from where he had come, but he trusted the stranger more than he trusted the men he was with. After all, the men he was with were ordered to kill him when the ambush was over, and their objective was retrieved.
The road was beginning to show signs of use, as people traveled to the towns along it. Finor had to hide his men whenever his scout reported that people coming their way, and it was happening more as they traveled farther south.
By the end of the fifth day on the road, the group was hiding more than they were traveling. Finor decided to leave the road, and ride through the trees far enough to the side to go unseen, but the way was hard, and they made slow progress.
When the ambush party turned from the road and headed east, the men were grumbling. Finor had to try and find an easier route, but they were still six weeks away from their destination. The road was busy in this part of the empire, because the brigands had not made it this far to the east, or into the northern realm. Finor worried that they would not reach the ambush site in time, and pushed the men harder. It was important to get there unseen, and Finor was determined to accomplish it.
Darik rode in the back of the group, and lagged behind the others as they made their way through the rough and overgrown countryside. He looked around him at the thickness of the brambles, and the trees that seemed to close in around them. The wild lands of the empire did not extend much farther east than Glansford, but it was difficult to travel in them. The northern realm was populated more on its eastern side, but the western side was mostly wilderness.
Finor would have to use the bridge on the great east road to cross the Imlador River. It would not be easy to do it and go unseen, but if they
went across in one's and two's, maybe it could be done.
They were still more than a month form the main crossroads, and another week to the bridge from there. Darik hoped they would not make it without being noticed, but he made no effort to draw attention to them, for fear of having to fight all of Finor's solders by himself, and at the same time. He had the time to plan his escape, and the death of these vile men, but he needed some help to do it. The ghost who shadowed them was still there, and Darik hoped the man had friends who would end this ambush before it began.
Another week went by before the trees began thinning out, and the way became easier for the group to travel. They were less than a mile from the road once again, and making much better progress than in the days before. Finor pushed the men harder than usual, to try and make better time, but they were getting tired. Darik used magic to slow them down and make the men wearier, but was careful not to use more powerful magic than that. If Finor suspected him of anything, he would have a hard time surviving. Twenty-one solders were just too many to fight up close, even with his powerful magic, and the protection spell in place.
That night as they camped, the stranger reappeared, and told him the information he had given them had been relayed, and the dragon-man would be ready. Darik went to sleep that night, with hope of escape for he first time in over a year. There was a chance he would make it through this nightmare after all he thought, and then he would find a way to make the evil mage king pay for his crimes. Once he unleashed the power of the Staff of Dragons that he carried, the full extent of his abilities would be reveled, and the forces of evil would feel its wrath.
*****
Donderan's pony plodded along the road, and he was lost in thought, while Brylen followed silently behind. The land had changed as they rode south, and farmlands begin to appear on the east side of the road. The west side was where the wild lands of the northern realm started, or ended, depending on which direction you were going, and was the wild nut harvesters domain. The men who combed the wild lands of the northern realm, stayed within the boundaries of their realm, to harvest the trees of their bounty. In the past, the wild pecan and the wild walnut were common in the markets all over the empire. Men still sold them in the markets of the west, but now it was harder to harvest them, and get back alive. The eastern merchants paid three times more for the nuts when they could get them, but that was not often.
It was close to midday when the two rode into Haverton, and stopped in front of the Red Fox inn. The pair had not seen a town in more than a year, and wished to eat food they did not have to kill and cook themselves. Brylen tied the horse and pony to the rail, while Donderan shoved his head into the rain barrel beside the corner of the building. The dwarf was too short to reach the water in the barrel, so he jumped up on the rim and thrust his head in while he held on with both hands to the rim. The sight of the dwarf upside down in the barrel was more than Brylen could take, and he burst out laughing.
When Donderan had dried the water from his head, the two went inside, and found a table by the fire. It had rained on them for several days after they saw the dragon, but they only had to camp for two days while the hardest part of the storm passed. They were lucky and found an old abandoned farmhouse with a good enough roof to keep them dry. They had gathered enough wood to last them for several days, and they were glad that the fireplace worked well, because it had grown colder with the rain.
Donderan ordered his ale two pints at a time, while he ate the meats and cheeses offered by the tavern. Brylen had not eaten food like this since he began this whole nightmare so long ago, and he attacked it with reckless abandon. He wanted to stay in a room for a few days, and sleep in a real bed, and Donderan could see no harm in that.
Over the next two days they heard the rumors of bandits from the patrons at the inn, as they sat in the tavern during the day. There had always been highwaymen on the roads of the empire, but what they heard was far more than that, and Donderan thought about the incident at the stream where Brylen had acquired his armor and sword. The
men there were dressed like bandits, but were in fact solders, and it was no coincidence. Trouble was coming, but Donderan had been preparing for it for a long time.
On the third day, the two travelers packed their bags and loaded them on the packhorses. They were sitting in the inn as the morning light began to fight back the darkness, drinking Blackbeer, and thinking about the road ahead. It was just before daylight when Donderan and Brylen made their way to the table by the fire, and the inn was already busy. The farmers had already been working for several hours, and now they were coming into town to get supplies, and meet at the tavern to talk. Brylen listened to the men as they talked, and heard stories of a warrior in dragon armor, and of his accomplishments in Argnon. He thought about the cove, and the statue on the island, and wondered about the warrior and his armor, but he had never heard of Argnon, and did not know where it was from where they now sat. They did not notice the man in the back of the room who watched them as they sat by the fire.
The sun was peeking over the horizon when they rode from Haverton, and on the road south again. Brylen was impressed with the farms they passed, and asked many questions that Donderan could not answer.
"Dwarf's are not farmers." Donderan said. "We are miners."
"Don't you eat vegetables?" Brylen asked him, curious about the habits of the dwarfs.
"Well of course we do, lad, we just don't grow them."
"Then how do you get them?"
"We buy them, lad, we buy them."
Brylen shook his head, and rode beside Donderan in silence for a while, then looked at the dwarf, but did not speak. Brylen thought about the life of a dwarf, but had some trouble with the length of time compared to that of men. He knew that the dwarfs lived much longer than men, and he understood how one hundred years could pass before they may pass through a town again. However, to work at a single task for two hundred years before completing it, was beyond his comprehension. He had difficulty working on something for a week, and often left things undone that took longer than a day to complete.
The unlikely pair stopped for the night in the walled city of Venteno, the seat of the northern regent. The Wayward Traveler was the best inn in the city, and that is where they went. Donderan had been here before, but doubted if the innkeeper would remember him. He was not even sure the man still worked here, but asked for the man anyway. The younger bartender walked to the back, and a short round man in his fifties emerged a few minuets later. He smiled at the dwarf and clapped his hands together.
"My but it has been a long time, master Donderan." The man said, as he guided them to a table by the fire.
"Yes it has my friend, yes it has." Donderan replied.
"It has been twenty years since you were here last, and a lot has happened since then." The man said, as he looked at the dwarf with a smile. " I own this place now, and the young man behind the bar is my son. He was just a small child then, do you remember him?"
"I do remember the wee lad, no bigger than my knee he was. And you know how short that is." The dwarf said, and the two started laughing uncontrollably.
"What brings you here to the Wayward Traveler, master dwarf?" The proprietor asked Donderan, after they had calmed down enough to speak.
"We are on our way to Glansford." Donderan told his old friend.
"Now what could be in that old ghost city that would draw such a curious pair as yourselves?" The proprietor asked.
"This young lad needs to learn about dragons." Donderan told him as he slapped Brylen on the shoulder, "And I thought Glansford was the place to go to teach him."
"You are right about that, my friend. No place in the empire has more to do with dragons than Glansford." The proprietor replied.
The two men and the dwarf sat at the table by the fire, and drank their ale while they talked. Brylen learned many things about the land he was now in, but he still had no idea where he was, or to where he was going. He would go to this Glansford with his new friend the dwarf, and learn about dragons, but he had no idea where to go from there. He missed his home and his family, but did not know if he would ever see any of them again.
The man walked into the inn, and sat at a table across the room from Donderan and Brylen. The room was filling up with patrons for the evening, and the man went unnoticed as he sat and drank his ale. He watched the dwarf without looking at him, and he listened to what was being said by the three as they talked. When Brylen noticed the man, he did not pay much attention to him at first. He would not have given the man another thought, but he seemed out of place in the inn. He was dressed well, but not so well that anyone seemed to notice, and he wore a cloak with the hood pulled down. Brylen noticed how his face was always covered, even though it seemed almost accidental. He did not give it much thought until the man finished his ale, and walked from the inn.
The next morning, the two rode from Venteno and left the walls of the city behind. From here they turned west, and following the road as it wound its way among the small farms, they soon came to the bridge that crossed the Imlador River. They were north of the place where the river split into two parts, and the river was its narrowest here, but it was still very wide.
The bridge was very old, but well built, and it was wide enough for a road four times larger than the one they were on. It was the last bridge built by the Great Dragon Empire before the Great War, but the road was never constructed. The bridge separated the farmlands of the central region of the northern realm, from the wild and mostly uninhabited west. Donderan decided to take the shorter route to Glansford down the old path through the west, and it was not so overgrown the last time that he came this way, but he knew it well.
The man stepped from the trees just as the two travelers reached the west side of the river, and Brylen recognized him as the man from the inn in Venteno. He relayed the information to Donderan as he drew his sword, and the man removed his hood and looked at them before turning and walking in their direction. Donderan stood and watched the man advance and said nothing until he stopped in front of them.
"Put your sword away lad, do you not know an elf when you see one?" The dwarf said.
"I have never seen an elf, so how could I know what they look like?" Brylen said to Donderan, as he replaced the sword in its scabbard.
"Well now you have my boy, now you have." Donderan replied.
"Hello Donderan, I heard you were here, but I had to see it for myself." The elf said.
"Hello Eoavin, you are a long way from home my friend, what brings you to the lands of men?" The dwarf asked.
"We were sent by Loren to spy on the mage king's forces." Eoavin told the dwarf, as he guided them to his camp. "They have crossed the lake, and gather in the west."
"How can they cross the whole empire without being challenged?" Donderan asked the elf; surprised at the news he gave.
"The empire is not what it once was." The elf replied. "They cross in small groups of no more than three or four men, and they dress like brigands. It will take a long time to gather enough men to build an army, but they have been at it for close to nine months."
"Have you warned the regents of this threat from the mage king?" The dwarf asked.
"We tried, but you know the regents." The elf replied. "Three of them would not see us, but sent a messenger to receive the news.
"Which one did you talk to?" Donderan asked.
"Falendor of the west." Eoavin said. "He listened to us, and asked us questions, but was unsure what to do."
"Does the man have an army that is able defend him?" Donderan asked, but knew the answer already.
"He recruits new men as fast as he can, but I fear it will fall far short of what will be needed. Litlorn is in Argnon and the man he was sent to find as well, but what can two men do?"
Donderan jumped from where he sat, and became very excited. The look of concern vanished, and a huge smile dominated his face.
"The dragon rider is in Argnon?" He asked.
"Dragon rider!" Eoavin exclaimed. "I said n
othing of a dragon rider."
"Did you not say the man Litlorn was to meet was in Argnon?" Donderan asked, as he stood in front of the elf with his fists on his hips.
"Yes, it is true." The elf said. "The man Litlorn was to meet was there when he arrived."
"The man he was to meet, is the dragon rider, and his dragon passed over our heads just days ago." The dwarf said, as he danced around the campfire.
Brylen watched the dwarf as he danced around the fire, and wondered if Donderan was injured. The dwarf made the worst noise that he had ever heard, and jumped and jerked as he went round and round.
"There is one other thing." Eoavin told them. "We spotted a group of twenty solders and their commander, traveling south on the great road. A mage of great power travels with them, and they are to ambush the dragon warrior at Glansford. The regents have called a council, and will be summoned soon as well."
"How did you find out this information lad?" Donderan asked, and stopped his dancing to listen.
"The mage that travels with the outlaws told us of the ambush." Eoavin replied.