Seth took a step toward the Kesh wizard and offered a hand. Damien shook it and Seth said, “I appreciate your service Kesh.”
“The feeling is mutual,” Damien said.
“I’m afraid I bring bad news,” Seth started. “I hate to start our conversation this way, but I feel it needs to be disclosed so we can move onto other business.”
“Other business?” Diamedes asked.
Seth nodded, “Zokar informed me of your current plan to travel to Tyniria and consult with your king.”
“Yes, that was my intent if we are to stop this war and prevent the possible destruction of our realms by the dragons.”
“Well, you should know then that your King has died.”
Murmurs arose from the men on board as this wasn’t commonly known news. Diamedes asked, “When?”
“Hard to say,” Seth began, “A week, maybe less. The news was brought to us the day before your companions arrived in Balax.”
“So it’s only a few days old,” Diamedes stated, referring to the news.
“Yes, and I felt you needed this information now as we consult on your next course of action,” Seth said.
Diamedes took a deep breath and turned away for a moment. He crossed his arms and after a minute turned back to Seth who was prepared to give the historian as much time as necessary to digest this turn of events. “Thank you for letting me know. This could change things for everyone and we’ll need to proceed with caution then. Does anyone know how?”
Now it was Seth’s turn to take a deep breath. “It wasn’t us, meaning my realm or my guild. News is particularly scarce out of Tyniria these days, so the cause of death is not known to me at this time.”
Diamedes nodded, “Then perhaps that should be a part of my quest, to ascertain what happened to my king.”
“Aren’t you Ulathan?” Dour asked, not caring in the least for what emotions the man may be feeling at a time like this.
Diamedes understood and was patient with the death worshiping cleric, “I’m Ulathan by birth, but my allegiance and citizenship has been Tynirian for quite some time. The king’s passing saddens me greatly.”
“Understood,” Dour said.
“Now that I’ve delivered my news we should move on,” Seth said.
“Right,” Diamedes agreed.
Stepping back Seth motioned for his companion to step forward. The figure was dressed in black with a hood hiding its face. The figure and build of the individual were slight and lithe. Seth spoke, “Diamedes, you’ve been a difficult man to locate the past few months and I wanted you to explain your absence to my companion.”
“I was holed up in Moartown over the winter which was brutal,” the historian explained, looking over Seth’s companion but not recognizing the individual.
“I’ve been informed,” Seth said. “I want to reintroduce you to someone.”
The other figure stepped forward. “I’ve been looking for you,” a female voice said.
“Alyssa?” Diamedes asked.
“Yes,” the figure pulled back her hood and likewise embraced Diamedes who was surprised to see his old companion. “Have you been in Moartown all this time?”
“Most,” Diamedes said. “I left there a month ago and made my way to Ulsthor where I met up with these fine gentlemen.” A slight murmuring of humor came over those in attendance which contradicted the recent news, as the term that Diamedes used wasn’t one to first come to mind when detailing the character of Diamedes’ companions.
“I searched for you there and in Ulatha this spring,” Alyssa said. “I couldn’t find you, so I came here.”
“I almost didn’t follow,” Diamedes said. “Zokar had to talk me into it.”
“Well, I’m glad he did,” Alyssa said, following her words with a smile.
Zokar intervened, eager to move the conversation forward, “Perhaps we still have time to prevent the destruction of our world?”
“I’m beginning to lose hope,” Diamedes began. “After my investigations, I was able to conclude that the existence of the legendary dragons was real. The one that openly attacked your realm was proof enough of that, but there were many others, my own king included, who doubted the veracity of the sightings and the testimony of witnesses. Now I fear that we will collectively pay the price for this.”
“You have a plan then?” Seth asked. “Especially after the news I shared with you?”
Diamedes nodded, “Since last fall, there is no longer a need to alert anyone. The transit of Dor Akun is imminent, and with it my research demonstrates that there will be a serious increase in the number of dragons that will appear once it occurs. At this point, I believe we have only two options left to us.”
“Pray tell,” Seth prompted the man.
“The first,” Diamedes began, allowing his gaze to leave Seth’s and roam around at the audience that had collected around them, “is to unite the realms and fight them off one by one.”
“How many dragons are we talking about?” Zokar asked from behind Seth.
Diamedes scratched his head and thought for a moment. Azor was impatient and asked, “Dozens?”
“Hundreds,” Diamedes ventured, “if not thousands.”
This time the murmur from everyone, companions, crew and leaders, was evident. It took a moment before Seth could raise a hand and get everyone’s attention, “Quiet, please. Do go on, Diamedes.”
“Wait a minute,” Dour intervened, ignoring Seth’s request for silence. “We’ve already seen what, a hundred dragons already? Why the big surprise?”
“I don’t think it’s been that many,” Zokar said. “Probably more like a few dozen concentrated mainly in Kesh with some lone dragons in various part of Agon.”
“Has no one kept count?” Damien asked.
“How do you count a group of dragons?” Zokar asked his companion.
Damien’s response was quick and pointed, “I counted twelve in Keshtor on the night that we were there. They can be counted.”
“How many are here now?” Seth asked, looking directly at Diamedes.
“This is a difficult question to answer,” Diamedes said. “I believe the dragons that are currently on Agon are leftovers from the last transit. They hibernate over two centuries and awake when Dor Akun arrives or its arrival is imminent.”
“So the worst is yet to come?” Seth asked.
“I’m afraid so,” Diamedes answered.
“So why aren’t they hibernating?” Alyssa asked.
“Dor Akun has awoken them,” Dour said.
“I think it was the Kesh,” Zokar contradicted the small cleric and looked at Damien. “It’s their fault, present company excluded of course.”
“Of course,” Damien said.
“What say you, Diamedes?” Seth asked.
Diamedes sighed, “Most facts point to some type of action or involvement with the High Mage himself disturbing the slumber of the great beasts. It is this that I most attribute to their premature awakening.”
“Understood,” Seth said. “What about our second option?”
“The High Mage mentioned a portal that I have read about in the ancient texts,” Diamedes began. “Once Dor Akun arrives, this portal will link our world with theirs. We must be there at that exact time and place in order to close this gateway and prevent the draconus species from leaving their world and entering our world.”
“How hard can this be?” Dour asked.
“The High Mage will want it open as will the dragons, so we’ll have to fight both of them,” Zokar said looking at Diamedes for confirmation.
“Correct,” Diamedes said, “not to mention getting me through the gauntlet of bounty hunters in order to make this all happen.”
“You are correct,” Zokar said sarcastically.
“Powerful High Mage, lots of dragons, blood thirsty mercenaries hell bent on killing Diamedes… sounds good to me. Count me in.” Dour said, finishing their conversation.
Chapter 12
Mar
auders
The group decided that time was becoming a factor and the ship left early at dawn at high tide. Seth returned with his escort to Balax while Alyssa would accompany the quest to Tyniria. They decided to travel due west and land south of the main Tynirian port in order to skirt customs and prevent spies and scouts from any realm that wished ill will upon Diamedes or his quest. Later they would come to find that it would not have mattered.
“So you managed to talk to the High Mage himself, eh?” Alyssa asked, sitting high on a perch above the bow structure allowing her and Diamedes a great view of ocean in front of them. They were still a good way out from shore and the crow’s nest was occupied with dual lookouts as a new procedure. One looking forward for land and the other to the sides and behind for other ships.
“I did,” Diamedes said, pleased to have the Balarian thief’s attention again.
“Tell me more about this portal,” Alyssa asked.
“There isn’t much more I can say,” Diamedes began, having explained this now more than once to his companions at various times. “I think the High Mage took it as a matter of common knowledge when in fact only a handful of people at most even know about this.”
“He knows so much, yet he has no idea what others don’t know,” Alyssa said, temporarily confusing Diamedes. “Do you think he will be successful?”
“I hope not,” Diamedes began. “From the ancient texts I’ve read and from what he has said himself, I venture that he intends to use the portal to travel from Agon to Akun while the draconus want to use the same portal to travel in the opposite direction.”
Alyssa sighed, “I’m not even sure I can wrap my head around the idea that these creatures live on that thing there.” She pointed at Dor Akun on the horizon which was a crescent glowing shape the size of the twin moons but visible only in daylight.
“I don’t think a year ago anyone believed that a dragon was real.”
“I doubted until one nearly killed me,” Alyssa said, remembering in vivid detail her near brush with death at the claws of a blue dragon. “When did you know or suspect?”
“Decades ago,” Diamedes said matter-of-factly. “I did a lot of research in my younger years… now don’t go frowning at me like that, I was a young man once upon a time.”
“I’m sorry if I offended you,” Alyssa said, trying to control her facial expression and dismiss the prior look of surprise and shock that Diamedes had interpreted negatively.
“No, I’m sure you were in disbelief with the idea that I was once a wee lad,” Diamedes lightened the mood with a smile and wink at Alyssa. “Anyhoo, I read about the beasts from much more reliable sources than the simple wives’ tales that everyone had heard since they were old enough to babble or stand upright.”
“You kept this to yourself all these years?” Alyssa asked.
“Not exactly,” Diamedes tried to explain. “Whenever I broached the subject, I would be soundly ridiculed from all quarters. I almost gave up my profession altogether.”
“What changed your mind?”
“The king,” Diamedes said.
“How so?”
“During the course of my studies I came upon a history involving his grandfather and great-grandfather which clearly set forth not only the fact that they had founded and settled Tyniria itself, but that they had gone to battle with the great dragons during the last transit.”
“The king liked this?” Alyssa asked.
“It gave his rule a sense of not only legitimacy, but also great renown for their acts against the creatures.” Diamedes looked up and closed his eyes as if remembering something and allowing the sea breeze to flow over his body.
“I thought everyone doubted you about the dragons,” Alyssa’s confusion was evident.
“They did, until it meant that the king was vindicated from his claims to the thrown and his family was cast in a new light.” Diamedes opened his eyes and looked at Alyssa.
“That was before I was born,” she said.
“Long before,” Diamedes chuckled. “I told you I was once a wee lad long ago.”
“I had no idea there was any issue with the king of Tyniria’s rule.”
“Most no one remembers,” Diamedes explained. “It was a half century ago. Back then, there was great turmoil throughout the realms and most of our history was lost or at least large sections of it were blacked out as it were.”
“I learned in school that the realms have been here for thousands of years,” she said.
“They have, only in forms that we barely understand.”
Alyssa gave him an inquisitive look, “What do you mean? What kind of forms?”
“I think most of the realms were not as technologically advanced as we are now. They lived in a simpler world much as you would expect a peasant to live far away from the hustling metropolis of a city such as Balax. I don’t think any large cities really existed, at least not for the last ten thousand years.”
“What was there ten thousand years ago?”
Diamedes gave a look indicating that she should know the answer to that, “You don’t remember the stories of the ancients?”
“Folklore and superstition,” she said firmly.
“Perhaps, but I’ve seen at least one of their ancient cities in person and I now have no doubt that they existed long ago.”
“How can you be so certain it was ten thousand years ago?”
Diamedes shrugged, “I’m not certain, but I can perform basic mathematics.”
“What is that supposed to mean?”
“It means that in the overall passing of time, there have been at least a few references to their existence once every pentium passing of Dor Akun.”
“What is that?”
“I believe that is once every thousand years,” Diamedes explained. “Actually, I say ten thousand, but from stitching together the number of passings where a portal was mentioned it’s probably more like eight or nine thousand years.”
“So you rounded up,” Alyssa said, grinning at him.
“I guess you could say so,” he answered her. “The real problem is that once every two centuries the transit occurs, but this portal isn’t mentioned as opening, being used, or even in existence each time Dor Akun approaches.”
“What do you think this means for us then?”
“I feel as if I’m missing something,” Diamedes allowed his sigh to be audible. “The historical record is incomplete and nigh to impossible to piece together especially the further I went back in time. I feel as if I’m either missing something, or it’s been lost due to the chaos and cataclysmic destruction that the transit and dragons bring every two centuries, or…”
“Or what?”
“Or some powers that be don’t want this knowledge to be known to the common man.”
“That sounds evil and wicked,” Alyssa said.
“That would describe a great many rulers over the centuries,” Diamedes agreed with her.
Alyssa allowed a frown to grace her otherwise happy face. “You know I volunteered to help you on your quest. I will do whatever is necessary to see to it that you succeed and that we put a stop once and for all to this destruction of our world whether its every two centuries or ten thousand years.”
The look that she gave indicated that she had the will to back her words with action. Diamedes could only agree, “I do believe you. Now if only we can get a few others to do the same.”
“Ahoy, sails spotted,” came the alarm from the crow’s nest.
Diamedes and Alyssa had finished their conversation and it had been yet another day of sailing uneventfully when the cry came. Diamedes and his companions headed for the stern deck which was the highest part of the ship not including the sails, masts or rigging. Looking to their rear, they caught sight of three distinct sails far away on the horizon but spaced closely together.
“Corsairs again or ships from one of the realms?” Zokar asked Captain Crimson, looking for a professional opinion.
“T
hose lean sails with the tall masts are corsairs again,” Crimson said, turning to bark orders to his crew. “Hoist all sails.”
“Aye captain,” his sergeant at arms yelled, relaying the command across the deck.
The captain wasn’t done, “Rudderman, tack ten degrees to port.”
“Ten degrees to port, Captain.” The rudderman repeated his orders in a crisp, orderly fashion.
“Ya gotta be kidding me,” Dour complained. “Don’t these damn pirates know when to quit?”
“How many of these black ships are there?” Azor asked, pretty much out of his element and experiencing life on the high seas for the first time, though he was no stranger to water.
“We’ve seen a few last year and this year it’s as if the flood gates were lifted and every damn stinking pirate ship from the far east has set sail and decided to make life interesting for us in Balaria.” The captain nodded at a hand signal from the crow’s nest updating speed and position.
“I find this interesting too,” Azor said, taking the captain’s words too literally.
Dour was frustrated, “Turn back and let’s be done with this once and for all. Let the Father take the lot of them to the bottom of the sea.”
“Not one on one and definitely not three on one,” Captain Crimson said. “I’m built for speed, not combat.
“Why didn’t your Balarian leader give us a battle cruiser?” Dour asked, contempt in his voice.
Zokar answered for the captain, “Because most of ours sank last year, either in combat or in battle against these very same pirates. The few that we have left are guarding the harbor and the one vital lane to the coast near here. We’re lucky we have any ship at all.”
“I don’t doubt ya,” Dour said. “I’m just sick of running from these cutthroats.”
“Running has saved me more than a few times,” Diamedes said. “Our quest is too important to risk it on simple combat.”
“Simple?” Dour asked.
The Dragon War Page 15