(Dragonkin) Dragon Rider (24 page)

   "If you think you can tame her boy, you are welcome to try. I hope to see a lot more of you, or a lot less of her."

   This brought more cheers from the people, and even Valiny laughed at the proposal from her father.

   "Be careful sir." Valiny said to Thadric. "I may take you up on the offer, and then you would have several granddaughters instead of just one daughter."

   That brought the southern regent's laughing to an end, but received even louder cheers and laughter from the people. After several minutes the hall quieted down once again, and waited for the regents to continue.

   "I intend to open a school for those children who have the aptitude for magic." Menimeth said. "It will not only make the empire a better place to live, but a stronger one as well."

   "And what will it cost us to send our children to this school." One of the onlookers asked.

   "It will not cost the parents to send their children to the school." Menimeth replied. "But whoever completes the school, will be required to spend time in the service of the empire."

   "How much time would be required to pay for the years of school?" Falendor asked.

   "We have enough time to decide that later." Menimeth said. "It will be years before anyone can obtain that level at the school."

   "That is true." Falendor replied. "And it will keep some of our children out of our way for a while."

   "And grandchildren." Thadric added quickly, and looked at Valiny

   That started the regents laughing again, and Valiny laughed at the look Thadric gave him. They discussed the school and its uses, and agreed it would be good for the empire. It had advantages beyond protection, and it would allow the empire to grow richer.

   "I will be opening Glansford again to conduct the business of the empire." Menimeth said. "But Corlindum will still be used for the business of the realms."

   "But how will you conduct the business of the empire, if you are not here?" Valiny asked. "You will need to be in the west if you are to eliminate the threat to the realms."

   "Brylen, the prince of Davinly will be speaking for me while I am gone. He knows what it is I wish to accomplish, and will do what is necessary to achieve it."

   "And what of Corlindum?" Borlund asked. "You said it would be used for the business of the realms, what did you intend?"

   "I expect each of you to have someone assigned to Corlindum who can speak for you, or send a messenger to you with a letter." Menimeth told the regents. "The business of the empire must move at a faster pace, and your decisions will be expected to be made quickly."

   "Another expense for us to go along with the ones we have already." Thadric said.

   "With the fifteen percent less in taxes you will be paying from what you paid in the past, you should have no problem granting my demands." Menimeth said. "But if the coffers are not empty, I will try to help with the expense for as long as I can."

   After some discussion, the regents agreed that it would not be necessary to give them aid. The money they saved by not sending an army of servants to the city every time there was a council, called, would cover the expense. Their realms would benefit from the faster responses, and the regents would grow richer from the reduced taxes.

   The day was growing old when the council meeting ended for the day. No one would leave until the king was gone, so Menimeth walked from the hall, and to his suite. He now had an idea of the combined forces of the four realms, and there were already twelve men who enlisted in the army. Captain Brannor assigned his most experienced solder to the garrison at Corlindum, and he was to begin training the new recruits by tomorrow morning. Some of the army Menimeth built would not be ready to fight in the west, but they would be ready for the war.

   The council meetings lasted for several more days, and much was accomplished. A plan for ending the route, which the solders of the mage king used in the north, was to begin when the regents returned to their castles. Two months would pass before the last of them arrived, and another to get the forces in place. Three months to set the trap from today, and another to get the solders back home, and then he had to assemble the solders he needed from the regents, and get them to Glansford.

   Six months was what it would take to get to Argnon, and he hoped he would make it in time. It would take the last of the solders no more than three to reach the camp in the west after the way was closed in the northeast, and then Chidren would know that the time had come to begin the attack. They would need luck to pull this off, but Menimeth believed it could be done.

   Two days after the council was over, the regents began to depart for their castles. Before the western regent departed for Argnon, he approached Menimeth and gave him the box from the chapel. It belonged to the king of the empire, and not to a regent, was his only explanation. Menimeth sent Javen and Kyler with Falendor, to protect him and locate Feran. He would be arriving in Argnon soon, and Menimeth did not want him riding the road alone. He was the best with a sword of the three friends from Alenvale, but when all three men were together, they were almost unbeatable. They would train his armies, and lead them in the future, but he needed them soon to prepare for the coming battle in the west.

   Menimeth watched his friends as they followed behind Falendor, and smiled as Javen and Chrisanna rode together from the city. After several minutes, Menimeth turned from the road west, and looked at the empty city of Glansford. The time had come to find out what it held, and unlock the secrets of its depths. Tomorrow he would enter the city, and the gates would be open again. After five hundred years of magical preservation, the Great Dragon Empire would truly be reborn.

Chapter Eighteen

   Menimeth walked from the rooms of his suite in Corlindum, and made his way to the marketplace. The sun was not yet up, but it was hard to break old habits he thought. He may be king, but he did not have to like it.

   The aroma of Blackbeer pulled him onward, and he soon arrived at its source. He started his day with a mug of the strong bittersweet liquid, and thought about the city across the great road from Corlindum. Today he would enter the long unused city, and open the way to a new start for the people of this land.

   "Today we will see what the old dragon rider capital has for us." Menimeth said to his dragon.

   "It has many of the old ways in it." Danorathin replied. "And you will have to use magic to enter."

   "I do not know how to use the magic yet my friend."

   "I will put the words into your mind, and you can speak them." His dragon told him.

   "That sounds easy enough." Menimeth said.

   "First you must speak the words correctly." Danorathin said. "If you say them like you think them, it will work."

   "Yes, that will be the hardest part, I think, but I will just have to learn, if I am to be a proper dragon rider."

   Litlorn walked into the small shop, and smiled at the man who had become his closest friend. Walking to the small table, he pulled up a chair and sat across from his friend, while Menimeth sat drinking from his mug.

   "Kings do not sit in small shops sipping Blackbeer." Litlorn told him.

   "Then you be the king, and I will sit here and sip." Menimeth replied smiling.

   "I cannot be the king here." Litlorn said with a mock look of shock. "Besides I will be king of the western lands of the Elves someday, and I do not want to be the king of it."

   "It looks as if we are both out of luck in that area my friend." Menimeth said, and both men laughed.

   They sat at one of the three tables the shop offered, and in the corner of the small space provided. It was not big enough for a city like Corlindum, since men from each realm would occupy it from now on, besides it did not have a fireplace. An inn was needed to house weary travelers, and those people who were here to conduct business with the empire, but who were not placed in rooms while here.

   There were many empty buildings in Corlindum, and Menimeth intended to find out what they were either used for, or could be used for. He planned to use these two cities as the center of the empire, which it almost was, and run the four realms from here. The great crossroads was the center of the four realms, and these cities were only a few days ride east. Besides, there was a garrison that had been used by all four realms when they held a council, but now it would be the first garrison of the new empire.

   "I am going to go hunting. I will return soon." Danorathin informed his master.

   "I will see you at Glansford." Menimeth replied.

   "You will open the city today?" Litlorn asked. "All of the regents are gone, and there is no reason to delay it."

   "I thought that also, and I am to meet my dragon there when he has eaten."

   "You should consider taking the mage with you." Litlorn said. "He can translate some of the older parchments."

   "Yes, and I would like you and Donderan to come as well." Menimeth said. "You both have been here before, if I remember correctly, and you can show me the buildings used the most in the past."

   "Yes, we have both been here before, but Donderan is older, and was an adult when last he was here."

"I can use you all, to help me find the items I need."

"You can count on us." Litlorn said. "We will do what we can."

   "I must retrieve an item from my suite. You find Donderan, and I will locate Darik, and we will meet in the great road." Menimeth said, as he finished his Blackbeer, and stood from his seat in the shop.

   Twenty minuets later, the four men along with Chanry, stood before the gates of Glansford. Danorathin had returned from his hunt, and sat on the battlement above the gates, watching his master.

   "Grav-fohr-Drathin." Menimeth said the words as they came into his mind.

   "Open in the name of the dragon." Darik said, repeating the words of the spell where everyone could hear him.

   The gates began to pop and creak, and a shimmering light surrounded them for several seconds before disappearing. Dust fell from the top as the gates began to open slowly, and Danorathin raised his head and roared loudly. He announced that the old dragon rider city was abandoned no longer, for a dragon rider had returned.

   The great walls of the city towered above them, and were twenty feet thick in places, but thirty feet thick at the gates. There were two sets of gates to the entrance, and both sets of gates opened into the passage, which was the only way for the people of the empire to enter.

   Streets ran off in both directions just inside the gates, and Stairs led to the battlements from the streets all along the wall. The first row of buildings were no taller than the walls they were close to, but each row after was one story taller than the last, as they made their way to the center. The buildings only reached four stories at most, but the towers of the castle were much taller.

   The faces of the buildings were made of ornately carved stone, and depictions of dragons and their riders were everywhere. Some were large, and some were very small, and there were statues of dragons everywhere. Menimeth wondered what was behind the doors of each building, but it would take more time than he had to find out. That would be a task for another day, and most of the storerooms as well.

   They made their way to the center of the city, where a large plaza surrounded a tall, fortified castle. It was a castle in the center of a castle, and could be defended if the walls of the city were to fall.

   "The city looks almost new." Darik said, looking around him as he walked.

   "That it does lad, that it does." Donderan replied. "But it looked the same, the last time that I was here. Only there were many more dragons and people around then."

   "Yes, it was that way for me as well." Litlorn said. "But I was young then, and had not reached one hundred years old yet."

   "Ah, just a lad you were then, huh my friend?"

   "Yes." Litlorn said to his friend. "I was too young to be on my own then, according to my father."

   The dwarf laughed at the look on his friends face, of the memories of those days. Loren was a good man, and an even better father, but Litlorn was too adventuresome for an elf in his youth. He would disappear for weeks at a time, and show up again without any explanation. However, he grew up well, and learned the ways of his people quickly.

   Danorathin landed in the plaza beside the entrance to the castle, and watched as the group approached. Many dragons had landed here long ago, and the scars of those landings were all around them. Dragons once filled the plaza daily, coming and going, as their duties required it. However, that was many years ago, and the city was now silent.

   "This is called the 'Dragon Tower' and was the center of all activity when dragons filled the skies." Litlorn said. "It is the place that you will live, for it was built for the king of the empire."

   "Yes, but it was never fully used lad." Donderan said. "The empire was run by the council of browns. There was no dominant dragon in the empire, and they decided to rule as a group."

   "That is true my friend." Litlorn said. "But they all believed that a dragon and rider would take the throne someday. The old prophecy from the ancient race that once lived here, spoke of it."

   "Well, he is here now lad, he is here now." Donderan replied.

   "Yes, well, we should see what is inside now that I am here." Menimeth said, and looked at the dwarf.

   "Right you are, lad." The dwarf replied, and laughed as they entered the fortress.

   The group entered the castle in the center of the city, and noticed right away it was made for dragons. The space between the walls and the building were large enough for dragons to land and take off with their riders, easily.

   The Dragon Tower sat surrounded by the walls, but apart from them. Unlike most castles of the day where the battlements were accessible without exposing your solders to incoming arrows, the Dragon Tower did not. They would find out later, that all of the passages that connected the tower to the walls were underground. The group searched the tower, and learned that most of the places they looked for were in the rooms under the castle.

   The king's suite was above ground, and allowed access to his dragon from his private rooms. It was the only part of the tower that had never been used, and it encompassed one whole floor. Stairs led to it from several different places throughout the castle, and dumb waiters from the kitchens as well. Access was there for whoever needed it, but it was the dragon that carried the king to and from his rooms. Even the great hall was easier to reach from the back of a dragon, and the rest of the castle was the same.

   Menimeth found the stairs that led to the underground part of the castle, and the storerooms located there. Soon Menimeth found what he was looking for, and looked through the items he required, to learn to be a dragon rider in battle. Many books were on shelves around the room, and Darik became excited.

   "These books contain Dragon Lore." He exclaimed. "They give you the spells you will use in battle. Very few of these are in the great library at the school in Tharien, but they were treasured above all of the others."

   "Gather a few, and I will see what I can learn from them." Menimeth said. "I may need your help with some of it, and my dragon will help as well."

   "These books will teach you how to use the battle straps that hang on the wall." Litlorn told his friend, as he looked through a stack of books

that were sitting on a table.

   "And how to fight from the back of a dragon they will." Donderan added.

   "This book gives you simple spells, like starting a camp fire or a fireplace." Darik told the dragon rider. "It also has minor spells of illumination, and other similar spells of a non-combat nature."

   "Most of those I will not need, but it is better to know them and not need them, than to need them and not know them." Menimeth said.

   "We will take all we can to the king's rooms upstairs." Litlorn said. "It will be easier to learn there, rather than in Corlindum."

   "That it will lad, that it will." Donderan said, agreeing with his old friend.

   "I guess I have no choice in this matter." Menimeth said, as he looked at his friends. "No, I guess not."

   "This is where you belong." Darik said. "As king, you will be needed to give direction to the empire, and those who seek you should come here"

   "You are right of course, but I do not have to like it." Menimeth said with a smile.

   "No, but then I do not have to like being a teacher of children." Darik said, referring to the school announced at the council of regents.

   "I did spring that one on you out of nowhere, did I not?" Menimeth said with a devilish grin.

   "Well, I do want to teach, and children are the most fun." Darik replied with a smile. "But it was kind of sudden."

   "Where is the lad?" Donderan asked.

   "He was here just minutes ago." Litlorn said.

   Chanry was not far away, and he stood at a door with a familiar symbol on it. Menimeth stopped beside the boy, and recognized it instantly as the same symbol as the box from the chapel. The door was locked and required a key to open, and Menimeth opened the box and retrieved the key from inside, before replacing it back in his cloak. He placed the key into the keyhole, and turned it until he heard a loud click. When the door opened, all of the men stood and looked inside the room, stunned.

   Chests full of gold, and other coins, filled the room. The money needed to restore the empire was here, and had been all along. After reading the logs from so many years before, it was determined that the money was from trade with the southern kingdoms, as well as the Elves and Dwarfs. Some of the money came from taxes, but only fifteen percent of the wealth of the realms ever reached the coffers of the empire.

   Other riches lay in the vault as well, and they would get to them in time. Today was for exploring, and finding the tools he needed to fight. Menimeth closed the door and locked it, before placing the key on the chain around his neck. The time to open this door would come, but for now, it need not be.

   Menimeth began to study the ways of the dragon riders of old, and picked it up quickly. The battle straps he found in the storeroom turned out to be easy to use, and he soon mastered them. It was a simple strap that secured to his legs to the dragon, and held him in place on the dragon's back. Each day he flew farther from the city, and returned later each night. Darik taught Menimeth the spells from the book each evening when he returned, until all of the books from that storeroom had been used. Other books had been located in different parts of the castle, and in other storerooms located beneath the city, and Menimeth soon began to learn them as well. It was not long before the books grew harder to read, and Darik spent more of his time deciphering them instead if teaching them to the dragon rider. They both learned much from the books, and each became stronger for it.

   Throughout the next few weeks, the city was investigated fully, and a list of all it contained was given to Menimeth. The empty buildings at Corlindum were assessed as well, and as with the dragon rider capital, they were not all empty. That information was given to the king, along with a list of the items found inside them. The marketplace in Corlindum did not disband, but increased the variety of goods and supplies that they would offer to the people instead. Both cities were growing slowly, but Corlindum was growing a little faster than Glansford because of the servants of the regents.

   Men showed up to join the army every day, but they had no training for the most part. The instructor supplied by Captain Brannor began their training with the wooden swords used for that purpose, and some were beginning to show promise. He would rejoin Captain Brannor in Argnon once the three men form Alenvale returned, and they would take over the training of the warriors.