Dragon Alliance: Rise Against Shadow (73 page)

Most of the Covenant that arrived began sitting in the one-hundred-yard-diameter stone circle located in the large center of the fortress that surrounded Tiamat’s personal lodging. The immense dragon queen lay curled up asleep in the center of the large chamber, her bedding of broken and crushed bones lay neatly underneath her, and all five of her colored heads rested on the floor. Her actual lair was underneath this meeting chamber, where she had her immense pile of hoarded treasure. The resting place here was for gatherings only. She was still recuperating from the wounds she received from her defeat by Michenth at the last fight at Battle Point during the Great War. She, like the mithril dragon and her formal mate, would only wake to feed and for Covenant gatherings and the like.

“Well, our queen mother is still in slumber,” one of the death knights said in a loud and boisterous manner as he walked into the chamber.

“Hold your tongue, talking monkey, or I will do it for you,” Uthrex, the red dragon of the Usurper Five, answered in his normal angry but now even more irritated manner.

“Uthrex, my dear dragon, in a good mood as usual,” the Morgathian overlord said with a smile on his ruddy, scarred, and weathered face.

“I warn you, warlord, I will not tolerate insolence,” the red dragon growled.

“Well, demon dragon, a little demanding considering your fellow Thurex was felled by a metallic as of recent. I guess this means that you dark crystal-enhanced hybrids are not the war gods that you proclaim to be. But since he has been vanquished, it does ensure you will remain here as Tiamat’s senior dragon handmaiden.” Uthrex let out another deep growl at the death knight.

“We should not wait anymore for these overgrown lizards to grow in numbers. Ashram’s defeat on the plains told us not that the Alliance is strong, but they had to get Capital dragons to reinforce them. They are spread too thin, their numbers are still small, and the time to strike is now. Tiamat is either dying or too weak to control the chromatics, for more and more are defying our plans and going on independent quests for treasure and conquest,” the warlord shouted out as he walked about the gathered group.

“The defeat at Handsdown was just a temporary setback. The master plan in still intact,” Yveshra, the drow countess, weighed into the argument.

“Ha, your kin didn’t do much better than the chromatics. I heard that the Alliance wizard and a gold dragon wiped out a whole company of spider-mounted drow, killed one of your more powerful sorcerers, and captured a queen court priestess. I think you’ve been underground too long!” the death knight quipped back. “The fleet and the army are ready now; we must strike, or maybe we should seize control from our five-headed dragon god and her minions. The giants are ready, along with dozens of chromatics and the growing armies of orcs. We can bring the Alliance to its knees now, but not by waiting.”

“You will take your place now!” Stalenjh stood up, shouting at the errant dark knight; the dark crystal skull-shaped head of his sorcerer’s staff was glowing in an eerie purplish color, indicating he was angry and possibly ready to cast a spell.

“Hold your tongue, sorcerer!” he shouted back. “Your leadership has been knuckled under by your obedience to these lazy lizards here at Aserghul and their weakened queen.”

“Enough, your lead dragon puts too much ambition in you empty head!” Uthrex roared back.

“Go kneel before your master, Uthrex, so much for our living god!” he yelled back and spit in Tiamat’s direction. With this, the demon red dragon roared and moved toward the warlord, who drew his dark crystal sword and prepared to defend himself. Faster than the eye could see, Tiamat’s scythe-bladed tail struck out and pierced the knight’s black iron armor back plate and emerged out of his chest. He dropped his sword and grasped the blade-like tail as blood poured from the wound. Even if he could have survived the injury, he would not have been able to cure the incredibly potent poison delivered by her tail stinger. Tiamat lifted him off of the ground as she raised all five of her heads.

“The only one to kill in my house is me! Enough of this trivial nonsense!” her blue head roared as she flung the impaled knight against the far wall of her chamber, killing him. Uthrex lowered his head and moved back to his place in the room. “If there is any doubt to my power, anyone else is welcome to challenge me!”
Tiamat shouted with all five heads as they scanned the gathered crowd and her dragon minions.

“No one challenges your power, Queen Tiamat,” Stalenjh quickly stated. “He was just a fool drunk with power and overly ambitious.”

“For all of your sakes, I hope you are correct,”
her green head commented as she started to set herself back down.

“My queen, if I may, we should discuss our plans,” Stalenjh interjected to regain control of the Covenant gathering.

“You may proceed, sorcerer,” Tiamat’s blue head replied.

“Thank you, Queen Tiamat. We all know of Ashram’s defeat on the plains. While we knew they would have been pushed back anyway, the complete destruction of his northern army’s excursion force came as a surprise. The eradication of the two wings of chromatics and the death of two demon dragons also was unexpected. Thurex fell without even killing a metallic, as they were taken off guard. Our informants within the Alliance have had their families executed for their failure to warn our forces,” Stalenjh explained.

“He and his wing were ambushed by two large silvers and a huge gold dragon. There was also an Alliance wizard of considerable power with a group of strong warriors with dragonstone weapons,”
Uthrex spoke up, defending the efforts of his rival.

“The three metallic dragons had dramatically increased magical power as well as very short recovery times for their breath weapons. Their antimagic shields were also extremely strong, much more so than we encountered during the Great War,”
Zythor, the demon blue dragon, added.

“The Battle Point legion appeared out of nowhere, as if from thin air, or they teleported in all at once, which is impossible, and there was not supposed to be any metallics at Battle Point at all,” Xylest, the male sorcerer/fighter accompanying Yveshra, explained. “We should hold off on our planned attacks until we can ascertain the source of both the metallics’ increased power and the new mobility of their legions. So much for the information we are supposed to be getting from our enlightened spies in the Alliance.”

“No, we must keep the pressure on the Alliance, to keep them off balance, or our grand scheme will be compromised. Besides, our allies in their senate will falter if we back away now,” Stalenjh stated strongly.

“Ashram and Lodar lost half their northern army in just this small fight alone, when they were supposed to roll over the garrison at Handsdown and then ambush the reinforcements. I also understand that adding insult to injury, the three metallic dragons even teleported into our lands and took the slain chromatics’ treasure hoards. The gold dragon actually had the audacity to attack their fortress and inflicted heavy damage,” stated Tbok, an overlord sorcerer of one of the western provinces of the empire.

“Lodar and Ashram still have the majority of their army left, but if they need a little reinforcement in their province, I would be happy to send over troops to maintain order. At least until poor Ashram heals, of course, or until you repair your damaged fortress,” offered Dreadleg, a death knight overlord of the Eastern province; he had an impetuous grin across his black and gray bearded chin, in a very sinister but poignant expression.

“Our fortress only suffered minor damage before we drove the gold metallic off. We still have most of our army intact and several more wings of chromatics, vermin,” Lodar spat back as he began to stand up and grasp his dark crystal vampire sword in a show of force against Dreadleg.

“Their dragonriders are the key,”
stated Rexkald, the green dragon of Tiamat’s court. “When attacking a metallic you not only have to deal with a dragon’s normal breath weapon, spells, fangs and claws, but they strike you with a dragonstone weapon or powerful spell from their rider that hits you from where you can’t defend yourself. Again, their riders are the key, their familiars, and their focus of magical power. We must separate them first, but the metallics guard them like a treasure hoard.”

“There is a plan to address this soon,”
Tiamat’s blue head said. “As for your forces, you all can lose half or all of your armies if I see fit. The time for our revenge is coming. Stalenjh, Uthrex, contact the fire giants and the dragons we have reinforcing them, and tell them to attack with undue haste. Wvythresher, have the ice giants prepare for their attack in the north as well. Tbok, I want the Shidanese fleet to increase its attacks on all non-Morgathian-aligned ships heading for trade with the Alliance to force them to disperse their navy to a greater degree. We must also pull more dark crystal and giant longnecks lizards from the Canaris Islands to power our fleet with weapons and feed our growing numbers of chromatics and orcs. I demand more gemstones from Shidan and Ariana, as well as more strikes against Southland and Freiland.” The demon, berserker white dragon, and sorcerer nodded an acknowledgment.

“My queen mother, Shidan, has been losing many ships to the Freiland raiders and the Alliance warships,” Tbok interjected, “and they do not possess the ability to build ships quickly to replace their losses.”

“Then we must give the desert mongrels a dozen or so of our ships to fly under their standard or a pirate flag and get them more timber from Canaris,”
Tiamat’s green head dictated
.
“We will also force either the Shidanese or their neighbors to attack Ian, either in concert or alone. It doesn’t matter how many of them die, convince them their false god decrees it, and send them a wing of our younger but hungry dragons to reinforce them. Tell my minions that they can have any treasure they kill for or usurp. The Kallysh infantile cult makes the desert vermin easy to manipulate. Their ignorance is our bliss, for they and their mindless devotion to their religion will allow us to make them bleed for our cause.”

“My queen, the Shidanese, while ready for battle, might not want to risk all out war with Ian. Especially in conjunction with our plan with them for the Alliance operation, and their fear of an Arianan attack from across the strait is always worrisome for them,” Tbok countered.

“Tell that spineless cleric king, Ibliss, that either he does our bidding or he faces Morgathian retribution, and he then won’t have to worry about the Alliance or the Arianans, her white dragon head countered. “Send a messenger to the Arianan king, that there will be no aggressive move against Shidan while these actions take place or we will send in wings of our dragons to seize their gemstone mines,”
her black dragon head added in its raspy hissing voice.

“Yes, my queen,” Tbok quickly acquiesced, knowing this would be a difficult task. He would have to enlist the most powerful blue dragon of his wings, with maybe the aid of Zythor, the demon blue dragon of Tiamat’s court, if necessary. He could use him to just ride herd over the wing of chromatics that were to be sent and over the ones already in that kingdom that were getting ideas of their own.

“I will be suspending the trials this turn, so we can have as many of our dragons alive for the upcoming battle,” Tiamat also added.

“Queen Mother, won’t this bring dissent among the chromatics?” Stalenjh asked.

“If there are any questions, any dragon can always bring their grievances to me,”
her red dragon head quickly responded. Every one hundred years, Tiamat conducted a tournament to determine who would represent their species in her court. Many of these contests were fatal, with dozens of chromatics killed in this event. This was a loss that the multiheaded queen dragon did not want to happen at this time. This was especially true with the number of dragons currently dying as a result of the attempted demon ritual and their melding with a dark crystal to their synthensium.

“There is also resistance growing at the increased conscription for this massive army we are building, as well as getting the numbers of experienced sailors we need,” one of the Talon sorcerers said, with hesitation.

“Reinforce to the people of your provinces that service to the queen and the empire is their duty, as well as to provide defense against the threat and oppression of the metallic dragons. You must also remind them of the penalties of disobedience,” Stalenjh replied with a smile seen through his thick gray/black mustache. “Those that continue to resist will be given the opportunity to sacrifice more of their children to our queen mother and our chromatic dragons or offer themselves as an alternative.”

Service with the Morgathian army was mandatory for two years for all men upon reaching seventeen years of age. The Empire did not believe in a strong non-noble professional soldier like the Alliance, likely from a fear of revolt. The Morgathians also did not elect provincial overlords, telling their people that they were chosen by Tiamat to best serve the empire and protect them from the Alliance and the metallic dragons, as well as from their orc allies. Despite the mandatory conscription, Morgathians were not allowed to own or practice with weapons, again another form of population control.

“In either case, we should continue to allow the orc tribes to increase in numbers, but we must provide food for them or they will turn on each other and likely attack the Northern and Western provinces,” said Reigngrim, one of the most feared and powerful Morgathian death knights.