Dragon Alliance: Rise Against Shadow (65 page)

“Enough! I will talk to you later when sense has returned to your head. I missed you greatly and look forward to holding you,” he spoke back and made the crystal go blank, ending the conversation.

“I will have Silvanth talk to her. She is just worried, if not a little tired,” Gallanth interjected.

“I understand, but she can be a little trying at times; lady dragonriders,” Mkel explained.

“We should be getting back soon. I’ll drop down to the small farm east of the Weir and quickly void, to not make you a liar, and then circle back. Michen is a little cold,” he added.

Mkel reached down to the back of his son’s neck and tapped the heating crystal on his jacket twice to make it warmer, as Gallanth banked and flew east. He didn’t even touch the ground to void, and they flew back over Draden Forest, hugging the mountain base of the Weir, and darted into the large entrance. Michen was laughing and talking the whole time.

“He does like flying,” Gallanth said with a warm tone to his deep voice. Mkel knew how fond his dragon was of his son, which made him feel more relaxed. He was glad to be home.

CHAPTER  VIII

The Arrival of Lawrent
and the Raiders

T
he sound of a ranger’s griffon’s cry woke Mkel a week after the Weir council group returned from Battle Point. He had spent the last several days trying to relax and spend time with Michen and Annan. Gallanth mostly slept, only rising to make a large batch of heating crystals, since he was behind in his production quotas. They both needed a little time off. Now he wondered what was going on to make the griffon give an alarm screech; had the fire giants started to move? He hoped that there would be at least several weeks before another battle.

Nothing to worry about, my friend, the griffon and his rider were on patrol and sighted Lawrent and his ships slowly heading up the Severic River. They must be heavily laden, for they are apparently moving at a crawl pace,
Gallanth told Mkel telepathically.

“I thought you were supposed to be asleep, my friend,” Mkel replied to his dragon through their mind link.

You know I have different levels of slumber. I am asleep to a point, but I wanted to maintain a certain level of awareness, for I knew that the raider was coming soon. I have also been concerned about the gathering in the fire giant lands with Lupek and Deless telling of chromatics. Just making sure my power of foresight was still on alert,
Gallanth explained.

“You’ll need your strength both to control Lawrent’s berserkers and for a possible fight with the chromatics, so go back to sleep, my friend,” Mkel scolded Gallanth.

I slept at my deepest level the last two days, in which I do my fastest healing. I would like to greet the good pirate and his raider ships, and maybe give them a little boost getting up river to the Weir,
Gallanth stated to him with an unusual mischievous hint. “All right, Gallanth, as long as you promise to get more rest this week, only being available to converse during the evening meal and the laudations that will follow with this crowd,” Mkel conceded.
As you wish, my rider,
Gallanth answered almost sarcastically.

Mkel smiled and said, “Let me get ready.” He quietly got out of bed and went into his bathing room. He quickly bathed, shaved, and dressed, then gave the sleeping Michen a kiss in his crib as well as Annan, but gently so as to not wake her up. As he walked out of his chambers onto Gallanth’s landing, he asked, “Will Silvanth join us?”

“She actually will, even she likes the barbarian,” Gallanth answered. Lawrent, while brash and sometimes obnoxious, was a very humorous and personable individual.

“Excellent, my friend,” Mkel answered as he pulled his seeing crystal and called the watch tower to sound the horn to announce that Gallanth and Silvanth would be exiting the Weir, warning others to clear the airspace in front of the entrance.

They both heard the resonating of the warning horn from outside the Weir’s guard towers, and then Gallanth launched off of the ledge. Silvanth was right behind them from the adjacent ledge. Mkel tipped his riding helmet to Silvanth as they sailed above the Weir lake and into the large tunnel opening. They emerged into a gorgeous late summer morning with the sun just above the Gray Mountain chain. The air had just a tint of autumn as Mkel tapped the heating stone once on the back of his riding jacket by his neck to warm him. He would not need this soon, as it would get warm quickly but didn’t want to power one his weapon’s shields, for he wanted to feel most of the wind in his face.

Silvanth moved up beside Gallanth, almost on his wing tip. Both her and Gallanth’s metallic hides almost glimmered in the morning sunlight, a beautiful sight as they turned to the right and began to follow the river downstream at a leisurely pace. Mkel loved to feel the air literally pulled over the dragon’s small scales as they glided through the air. The dragons’ secret to flight was both the small scales on their hide and wings that would actually force air over them and their limited ability to manipulate gravity, making them lighter for flight. This and the fact that the dragons weighed proportionately much less than other creatures with the mithril content of their bones and musculature.

Mkel could even see some of the elves come out of their posts along the shore line with Draden Forest as they flew overhead to wave. Elves above all others had a deep respect for the dragons, recognizing that they were the source for most magic in life. It took just under a half hour to cover the thirty miles of shore line of the elven-controlled portion of Draden Forest. There was no need to teleport the short distance, and sometimes a nice, slow, lazy flight is good for the soul of both dragon and rider. The small tributary that separated Dekeen’s part of the forest with the remainder of the woods was also kept under watch by his clan. This portion of Draden Forest would end in another thirty miles. Sometimes both he and Gallanth just needed to soar, for on his mighty wings, the relaxing flight made all of life seem better.

The griffon sighted the ships on his long swing to the Draden Forest borders, at the last port town of Columbrian, that lies on the southern edge of Draden Forest along the Severic River. Many times the griffons and hippogriffs would swing north or south and fly along the river and its tributaries to catch any large fish they would spot. They liked to dive for fish in the river; they could spot them from over a mile high with their keen eyesight. Gallanth liked the occasional fish as well but needed to catch the larger oceangoing types or sharks. He did this occasionally when they visited Draconia and especially when they went to Freiland to see the raiders.

“I see their ships about a couple of miles ahead,”
Gallanth announced,
“just past Columbrian.” Mkel quickly looked through Markthrea’s sight. He could see Lawrent on the ship’s bow and his men rowing the many oars on each side. The other two ships in his small fleet were just behind his flag raider. The carved wooden dragon’s head in the image of Gallanth was freshly painted. He then reached for his seeing crystal and said with a lively but joking tone in his voice, “Hey you scurvy pirate, it’s about time you showed your ugly face.”

“Mkel, you son of dog, is that you and Gallanth bearing down on us up there, or have the chromatics been told of our arrival?” the tall barbarian answered in the seeing crystal he had been given by Mkel.

“It could be an angry red dragon that finally found you to exact revenge for stealing its treasure, but in this case you’re lucky, even Silvanth wanted to see your arrival. Still carrying that frozen ice cycle of a sword?” Mkel again teased Lawrent.

“Are you still carrying that stumpy crossbow and little curved dagger sword of yours?” Lawrent joked back.

“I’m looking at you through its sight right now, I could shave that mustache off if you want,” Mkel good-naturedly answered.

“No, that’s all right,” Lawrent answered. “I heard you both had a hard fight recently?”

“My lord, you will let him threaten you like that?” the barbarian’s young crewmen asked him in a surprised tone.

“Fool, he could put an arrow in your eye from a thousand paces, not to mention that he rides the most powerful dragon in the Alliance, which has saved this ship dozens of times,” Lawrent quickly snapped at his underling.

“News travels fast, my friend; could have used you and your crew,” Mkel told him. “We faced a formidable force of chromatics and giants, not to mention the orcs and drow. No need to talk about business now, have your men unfurl your sails and Silvanth will give you a little breeze to get you upstream and save your strength for the drinking later.”

“You are too kind, Dragonrider. Men, recover the oars and unfurl the sails, we will have a good wind soon!” In a commanding voice, he bellowed orders to his men, who immediately secured the oars and began to lower their main sail. Gallanth and Silvanth dove and circled around the ships only a couple hundred yards above the river. The raiders cheered and waved at the two dragons. Silvanth then made a strong breeze funnel over the river, which caught the raider ships’ sails and began to propel them forward at a good pace.

“A little breeze for the last leg of your journey,” Silvanth said as she dove down and over the raider ships, her great silver wings glistening in the morning dawn.

“Sorry we’re late, but we were attacked by a saragwin hunting party a day’s sail from Sauric Bay,” Lawrent began to tell Mkel.

“That close to our shores? I’m surprised the sea elves didn’t find them first,” Mkel said. “I’ll have to ask Dekeen if he has heard of anything from his ocean-dwelling cousins.”

“I think their war is escalating. We’ve been noticing a lot of bodies floating about, both sea elf and saragwin as well as their mounts. It’s been disturbing the fishing and commerce in the several sections of ocean between the edge of Alliance waters to our shores and as far south as the Canaris Twins,” Lawrent explained. “Our kingdom has even lost several ships in the process, and several of our smaller coastal villages have been attacked. Our ambassador will be addressing your senate at this next gathering for assistance from your navy and the bronze dragons, as well as for information you might have from the sea elves.”

“That shouldn’t be a problem, you just have one major obstacle, and that is the Enlightened senators,” Mkel explained.

“Dogs, cowardly scum!” Lawrent exclaimed. “I should address the senate and challenge them to personal combat.”

“Your temper is what keeps you as Draden’s emissary, for I am the only one that can control you,” Mkel teased the tall raider, for he could see through the crystal that his face was turning red with anger that was immediately changed with a smile at Mkel’s joke.

“Well, I could have worse places to go. In any event, we have a lot of goods and foodstuffs for trade. I hope you have enough heating and cooling stones for barter; are your local women ready for us?” he asked with a smile.

“I don’t think they are ever ready for you and your merry men,” Mkel quickly replied.

“That’s all right, for we’ve brought some of our own, just in case,” he answered.

“You should think more carefully how you treat women, my good barbarian,” Silvanth interjected in her usual condescending tone.

“Yes, my lady dragon, and you do look radiant in the morning sunlight, Silvanth,” Lawrent quickly complimented her. He has always been grateful to her for bestowing on him the dragonstone that empowered his frost sword.

“Flattery will not get you another dragonstone, Lawrent,” she half chided, half teased him.

“Then I’ll have to try harder, my lady. I do, however, have several gems of excellent quality and several of those rare fish you and Gallanth like,” Lawrent quickly added.

“Bribery might get you somewhere, Freiland raider, but it had better be good,”
Silvanth answered.

“My lady dragon, I always deliver what I promise,” Lawrent continued to quip.

“Gallanth, my mate, I think the good barbarian and his pirate friends need a bath before we allow them into our Weir,” Silvanth told Gallanth, which made Mkel smile, for he knew what this meant. Both dragons veered away in opposite directions and started a wide opposing circle to come around and fly at each other.

“Mkel, what did she mean by that?” Lawrent asked.

“I think you will all find out in a minute,” he answered into his crystal. Gallanth did a lazy turn and took a headlong course directly at Silvanth, who was flying at him. Once they were within one hundred yards, they both unleashed their breath weapons; Silvanth’s icy beam hit Gallanth’s fiery breath head on. The two extremes struck with a continuous clap of thunder, but the result of this tremendous amount of energy colliding was a simple but heavy localized rain. The torrent immediately began to fall on the three raider ships.

“Had to open your mouth, Lawrent,” the barbarian leader’s ship second Kerlaw said as he drew his sword and commanded it to start flaming. Immediately the steel mithril blade was surrounded by flames, which he used to dry his clothes. None of his men were wearing their armor since they had sailed into Sauric Bay, no need for it while in Alliance internal waters.

“You whine like an old woman,” Lawrent said teasingly to Kerlaw with a grin. “All right, you dogs, while we have his water, clean the decks and prepare the cargo for transfer,” he bellowed, which immediately started the crews of all three ships into a flurry of activity.