Dragon Alliance Dark Storm : Dark Storm (60 page)

“This operation was very costly to Morgathia, Hasseir. Your scarab assassins better deliver what you have promised and kill many of the dragonriders,” Ashram chastised the Black Scarab guild master as they dined at the fortified structure in the northern province of Shidan. The black banner with its scarab outline over the two crossed curved daggers blew in the strong northern desert breeze outside the top level of the curved keep.

“Sorcerer, my silent holy warriors are well versed in their art. They are moving in place at all the Alliance’s blasphemous fortresses and will strike at the unholy dragonriders in the night. All the diversions have worked, and they are in place. Kallysh willing, their poison daggers will pierce the hearts of the infidel demon servants,” the gray-bearded, black-robed assassin guild master explained.

“They had better or there will be ramifications, assassin. We lost a whole army group and your fellow Kallysh men lost many ships in this diversion. We wouldn’t want your northern protectorate city suffering the same fate as Hasera, would we?” Ashram stated.

“No, my sultan, we wouldn’t, but my martyred brothers are enjoying the pleasures of paradise now,” the elderly Black Scarab replied with the typical acquiescence of the Kallysh, who were forced to deal with a stronger force until they felt they had enough strength to defeat them. Until that time arrived, they would play the dutiful servant or ally against a common enemy, and then when the opportunity struck, they would slit their friends’ throats. That was the Black Scarab way, the Kallysh way.

Caraeyeth had just started to rise from Eladran Weir in the cool late-fall night air over the water. The moon was full, and the air was very crisp, almost too frosty. The copper dragon slowly gained altitude as she flew away from the weir over Eresta Lake, she and her rider enjoying the beautiful night. The air grew colder as they leisurely soared over the water and whipped through Heathiret’s long blond hair. She felt a chill, so she tapped her heating crystal on the back of her riding jacket for warmth and activated her weapon’s shield to stop most of the cool air from hitting her. She looked down on the rippling waters of the grand lake and the moon’s reflection as light bounced over the small waves. However, the wary dragonrider then spied two patches of ice on the water. She knew it was cooler than usual but not cold enough for a lake to start to freeze.

“My rider, I am a dragon of the earth and cannot smell things in the water very well, unlike our bronze dragon kin, but there is something foul in the lake below us,” Caraeyeth said. Heathiret knew that while her dragon was not a gold or silver, with their powers of foresight, or even a brass dragon that had limited talent in this skill, she trusted her sense of things. She then felt Caraeyeth slightly tense and maximize the power of her shield from its normal minimal level, which enabled the dragons to slip through the air with ease, to full strength, and grasped the hilt of her sword. Just at that moment, the ice below cracked, and a frost-blue beam streaked from the water and partially struck the copper dragon’s shield. Caraeyeth immediately veered hard to the right as three more deadly icy beams fired out from the water trying to hit their mark. Only one glanced off her shield as the other two just barely missed. Four white dragons and two black dragons then emerged from the water, loudly roaring in their challenge to the copper dragon and Eladran Weir in general.

“What is with our luck today, Caraeyeth? I thought we now work for a gold dragon, which is supposed to be good luck!” Heathiret half joked, half shouted to her dragon.

“Fear not, my rider, I have already told Fieranth of this ambush attack and they are mobilizing as we speak,” the copper dragon answered.

“It looks like they are anticipating that, for four of the chromatics are moving to attack the weir,” Heathiret observed. The weir’s sentinel started to fire powerful beams of energy that drove off the four dragons with moderate damage to its magic shield. Fieranth and Baranth were the first dragons to fly out of the weir to engage the foolish chromatics, followed by six other dragons, and very soon, the chromatic attack was silenced. A caravan and several boats had fled into the weir as frightened locals sought safety from the unusual attack.

“Colonel Lordan, how did these foolish chromatics enter Alliance territory undetected?” Heathiret asked her former commander.

“They must have slipped in during our campaign in the Fire Mountains. It doesn’t make sense though, for what did they think they would gain? But they might not have known of their kin’s defeat,” Lordan half answered her. He too was puzzled by this action and tried to answer his own question. “Well, it could be just that they were young and stupid; at least the local villagers are safe and the weir is secure. The sentinel helped see to that. Now you’d better get back to Draden, or Captain Mkel will think I stole you back,” Lordan told the young rider with a wink. Caraeyeth thanked them and teleported away in a brilliant blue flash.

By the time Caraeyeth and Heathiret had returned to Draden Weir and were debriefed by Mkel and Jodem about the attack against Eladran Weir, as well as news of a similar attack on High Mountain Weir, it was late. Mkel had asked Silvanth to tell the weir sentinel to be extra alert for any more chromatic attacks, especially coming from the river. Mkel knew this was highly unlikely since Dekeen’s elves were always on alert and Jennar was at one with the waters around Draden. There would be warning of any external attack long before it happened, and now that he had another dragon to depend on, he and Gallanth did not need to be constantly ready to some degree for trouble that might arise. He wanted to let Gallanth rest as deeply as he could and didn’t believe that there were enough chromatics left in the area for any type of sizeable attack. He and Gallanth, along with Eladran Weir, had slain dozens of their chromatic enemies. With that thought, he checked on Michen, who was fast asleep, petted his elfhound, and went to sleep.

Well past midnight, the Scarab assassins started to wake from their poison-induced deep sleep. As masters of venomous concoctions, they all had timed the dosage for an eighteen-hour comatose sleep and were pretty much on the mark. They quickly but silently gathered all their weapons and equipment from the hidden compartments in their wagon after they quietly dispatched the lone assistant healer who was resting at the healing hall. The assassins quickly restudied the map that Howrek had supplied them of the weir interior, so all knew of their destination, which was Mkel’s living quarters. They turned their clothes inside out. They were now wearing the color of the grayish stone that made up much of the inside of the weir as their camouflage. The Black Scarabs crept quickly along the sides of the landing to make sure that they moved close to the chromatic hides and body parts that were delivered to the weir that day, which was carefully monitored and timed by the assassins. They quickly rubbed small pieces of the hides on their clothing to hide their intent from Gallanth, who could detect evil at quite long distances.

“Shamir, will this work?” one of the Scarab assassins asked his leader.

“The residual power of the chromatic dragons still present in these pieces is hopefully enough to fool the gold dragon’s foresight, Kallysh willing,” he whispered back as they then continued to move toward the long, winding staircase that led up to the senior dragonrider’s quarters. All eight men stealthily crept up the many flights of stairs to where the map indicated that Mkel’s quarters were and then waited outside the entrance to get into position and draw their curved scimitars and daggers.

Drake lifted his head and let out a low growl, and his fur immediately turned black from its normal tan brown color to camouflage him fully. Gallanth woke at the distress the elfhound was feeling and saw him looking toward the entrance to their chamber. “Mkel, wake! There are assassins at your door!” the gold dragon roared out loud. Mkel immediately shook his head to wake himself up, hearing his dragon’s concerned message both verbally and telepathically and sat up reaching his right arm toward the landing. Markthrea flew from the wall and into his hand. He jumped out of bed and leveled the crossbow at the door while cocking it. The Scarab assassins then burst into the room and started to fan out, weapons drawn. The second man took Mkel’s bolt in his chest, which lifted him off his feet and sent him flying back into the main living area knocking down the man behind him. The first assassin moved slightly to the left as he ran into the bedroom and toward Michen’s chamber.

“Drake, defend our son!” Gallanth roared, upon which the large elfhound let out a deep bark and jumped up, grabbing the assassin’s arm, catching him by surprise, and brought him to the ground. With a sickly crunch, the canine’s powerful jaws snapped the bones of the Black Scarab.

Mkel fired and hit the fourth assassin in the head, killing him instantly, and then dropped his crossbow on the bed and grabbed the waiting Kershan, which had been hovering beside him. He quickly moved to engage the third assassin, who had a drawn black-iron scimitar at the ready, as he told Annan to run to Gallanth for protection. As he and the assassin exchanged blows, the sorcerer in the group moved around the room to get to Mkel’s back as he prepared a death spell with his dark-crystal-embedded wand. The Black Scarab sorcerer missed Annan before she ran to Gallanth, and just as he attempted to cast the spell, the gold dragon’s roar thundered through the chamber from just outside the entranceway. This both took the sorcerer off guard and dispelled the evil magic he was about to cast. The startled necromancer turned around only to be caught in the gold dragon’s telekinetic pull. Even as he tried to parry the dragon’s spell, he was hurtled through the air to Gallanth’s outstretched claw. The enraged dragon lifted him up and growled, “I will see your black palace utterly destroyed!” before he crushed him to jam in his claws and tossed the broken body over the landing.

Mkel brought Kershan down in a left angle blow and blocked the assassin’s thrust and then moved his blade up and sliced the assassin through the rib cage and into his heart. Gallanth had lowered his head down to be able to peer into the room and fired a magic missile that struck the fifth assassin in the upper chest, flipping him over. Mkel thrust Kershan forward and ran the sixth assassin through as he was pushed off balance by his comrade, whom Gallanth had just shot. Drake then leaped forward knocking down another Black Scarab as he tried to stab Mkel from the side with his dagger. The two-hundred-and-twenty-five-pound canine pinned the bearded man down and sank his jaws into the assassin’s neck, crushing his larynx, but not before he weakly stabbed the dog in the shoulder with the poison dagger.

The last assassin stopped his advance as he realized he was the last of his group still standing, and a scowl came over his bearded face. Mkel moved to the center of the room to draw him away from Michen’s chamber, for Annan was now beside the entrance to Gallanth’s landing and under his protection.

“What is the matter, insect? Have you lost your courage? So much for the famed ferocity of the Kallysh holy warrior,” Mkel insulted his opponent.

“Infidel, you and all your dragonrider dogs throughout your cursed land will die tonight!” he shouted and lunged at Mkel swinging his scimitar down. Mkel quickly blocked it as he parried the next two swings from the Scarab assassin. Mkel then gave a return swing; Kershan’s mithril blade sliced through the air and took a chunk out of the Shidanese tempered-steel curved sword. Mkel then took another quick swing at the assassin, who parried it, but with the lighter weight of the mithril blade and his natural speed, he beat the assassin to his parry and the silvery sword cut deep into his opponent’s left leg.

As the Black Scarab backed up, Mkel pressed his attack and swung from his opponent’s left, which caused the assassin to reach across and lean on his injured leg to parry. While he did stop Mkel’s sword, his balance was affected, and he stumbled, enabling the dragonrider to spin and come down on his right side. The blade cut into the Kallysh man’s upper right arm and chest. As the assassin tried to retreat from Mkel’s deadly blade, the enraged dragonrider swung low and from the right and cut deeply into his opponent’s right thigh. This caused him to buckle to his knees. With one powerful downward stroke, Kershan severed the scimitar and split the assassin’s nose in the process.

“Finish me, infidel. Give me a martyr’s death, so I can join my brothers in paradise,” the Black Scarab spat out with blood pouring from his nose over his mouth.

“No. You will not get such a reward from me. Not yet. Not before my weir wizard and dragon extract any and all useful knowledge you have. This will be very painful, and before you are reduced to a drooling idiot, you will be lathered in sheep entrails and cast into the otyugh pit,” Mkel said coldly to the assassin, knowing that this action would prevent his ascension to heaven according to their beliefs. For all who practiced the Kallysh religion looked at lamb meat and any mutton product or body part as vile. “A price must be paid for threatening my family,” he added. At this, the Scarab had a true look of fear in his eyes. He raised his hand and bit into his ring. Before Mkel could rush toward the assassin to get the ring from his mouth, he had already started to convulse and within seconds was dead.

The assassin whose arm Drake had severed started to crawl toward his missing limb to get to his ring. The large dog moved in between him and his arm as Mkel rushed over and kicked him in the side of his head, knocking him over and away from his poisonous relief. A dozen of his soldiers with Toderan and Lupek burst into his quarters with their weapons drawn, ready to aid their commander. Mkel looked over to them and nodded, “Thank you, but almost all are taken care of,” he said. He was still breathing a little heavily from the fight and fear for his family that had finally gripped him as his adrenaline started to subside.

“Senior Sergeant Toderan, have the men bring the wounded assassin to me and see these other bodies are searched then sent to the otyughs,” Gallanth ordered with an unusual irritation in his deep, booming voice. They immediately obeyed his commands, but then Drake started to shudder and partially collapsed.