Omensent: Wrath of a Dragon God (15 page)

"Are you
sure that they're not still here in Sevria?" Damion asked, his mind racing. "You have searched everywhere?" He felt the overwhelming urge to race off in a blind search for his daughter, but he knew that would just be a waste of time. If he wanted to have any chance of rescuing Leia, he had to keep his wits together.

"We've
searched every inch of this city." Sly assured him. "They are not here. I still haven't figured out
how
they managed to escape."

"They probably used magic to slip past the gate guards before the city was sealed." Damarius commented, brushing his
brow lock from his eyes absently. "It would have been an easy thing for that hooded man to accomplish if he is half as powerful as I suspect."

A pair of servants appeared carrying trays of food and drink,
which they placed on the meeting table and hastily left, obviously fearing Damion's displeasure

N
one of them had much of an appetite, but they each took a drink to help calm their nerves.

"Did you send out any riders to the north in search of them?" Damion asked Sly, his mind
still whirling.

The little man nodded.
"As soon as we realized they had slipped our grasp, we sent out riders, but they haven't found any sign of the pair so far. We still have people scouring the various remote valleys nearby, and we've sent word to Fedrio and alerted him to the abduction. He has all of his people out searching the docks to make sure that these people don't try to flee with Leia across the sea to avoid being caught."

"We can be fairly certain they didn't head south." Shirk pointed out shrewdly.
"We passed the occasional caravan along the way, but none of the men we saw fit the description of the two mystery men."

"They wouldn't have went south." Damarius told them knowingly. "If the caravans full of weapons were meant to draw Damion away long enough for them to snatch Leia, they wouldn't have fled right towards him when they tried
to escape. They probably went north towards Sierra, or ventured deeper into the mountains."

"
We have to do something!" Raven cried, jumping up from her chair with wild eyes. "We have to find my Leia!"

"We will find her," Damion assured his young wife, hurrying to her side and gently placing a restraining arm around her to prevent her from sprinting off in a panic. "
but we have to try and stay calm. It won't do Leia any good for us to go rushing off blindly. We need to figure out where those two men fled."

A soldier suddenly appeared at the office door, his expression apprehensive. "That one armed shadowspawn has returned, milord." He told Damion
, clearly ready to bolt at the first sign of the huge warrior's displeasure. "It seems quite agitated. It's never tried approaching the city gates before, but it suddenly appeared a few moments ago and told the soldiers guarding the gate that it needed to speak with you." He shook his head in amazement. "I never even knew that those creatures could talk!"

Damion gently guided
Raven back into her chair, then glanced at Dar and Shirk. "Keep her here until I return." He looked to Sly. "Let's go find out what Slither has to tell us. He may have seen something that could be useful in finding Leia."

Sly
made a face. "I hope it's not just another warning about the dragon god. We have enough worry about right now."

They quickly made their way through
the city and found Slither, surrounded by a dozen armed soldiers, impatiently awaiting Damion's arrival.

"Mas
sster!" The shadowspawn hissed, dropping to its knees. "Massster, I must ssspeak with you!"

Damion waved the so
ldiers away irritably. "We are having a crisis right now, Slither. Please make it quick."

The huge crippled beast rose to its feet. "It is
ss about thisss that we need to ssspeak."

"You saw the two men responsible for abducting my daughter?" He asked, sudden spark of hope
igniting.

Slither nodded once. "SSSlither heard the
sssoundsss of ssscreaming coming from the keep, and moved clossser to invessstigate." Though the shadowspawn were known for be especially vicious, the beast spoke with an earnest concern in its voice. "Two humansss appeared in a flasssh of light in the clearing outssside of the city, mere feet from where SSSlither ssstood. One of the humansss carried a sssmall bundle, which SSSlither realized wasss a child when it cried out. SSSlither retreated, knowing you wissshed the ssspawn to avoid humansss, and they hurried off to the north, following the game trailsss through the foressst."

"What did these two humans look like?" He asked quickly,
although he already knew the answer.

"The male wasss asss
big asss SSSlither. He was hairlesss, and wore leather ssskin. The human female wasss sssmaller, about the sssize of thisss one." The scaly beast gestured to Sly.

"Female?" The little man exclaimed in surprise. "You're saying the smaller of the two was a woman?"

Slithered nodded once again. "SSShe wore a hooded robe that hid her featuresss, but it could not conceal her ssscent. It wasss ssshe who carried the child."

"That was my daughter!" Damion nearly shouted,
suppressing the urge to charge off in search of Leia.

Slither nodded once again. "SSSlither
noticed the commotion later when they sssealed the gatesss. That isss when SSSlither heard the humansss ssshouting about Massster'sss child being misssing. SSSlither immediately ssset off after the two humansss, knowing it must have been Massster'sss child they carried. The ssspawn caught up to the humansss that night when they pausssed to ressst, and tried to ssstop them, and recover Massster'sss child, but the human female usssed magic to dessstroy them."

"What happened then?"

"SSSlither did not wisssh to endanger Massster'sss child any further, ssso SSSlither merely followed. The humansss continued north until they reached a sssmall encampment built near a hidden cove, not far from the large city at the edge of the sssea." The crippled beast looked at Damion pleadingly. "The humansss immediately boarded a ssship which ssset off into the night. SSSlither could not stop them!" He dropped to his knees again. "SSSlither hasss failed, Massster."

"No," Damion told the beast, his mind work
ing quickly. "You did well! Now we have a bit more of an idea of what we're up against!" He grasped the trembling shadowspawn by its one good arm and hauled it to its feet. "Tell me, Slither," He asked almost desperately. "Did you see which direction the ship sailed off?"

The scaly b
east thought for a moment, then shook its head. "The ssship vanissshed into the fog. SSSlither could not sssee which direction it wasss heading."

"They jumped on a ship
?" Sly scratched his head thoughtfully. "That's going to make figuring out where they took Leia a bit more difficult, wouldn't you say?"

"You have done well, Slither." Damion told the shadowspawn gratefully. "Once we have gathered everything we'll need, you'll take us to where you last saw this ship."

"Asss you wisssh, Massster." The shadowy beast retreated into the shadows, obviously relieved that Damion had not been displeased with its actions.

"W
hat are we going to do now?" Sly asked, hurrying to keep up with Damion as he quickly made his way back to the castle.

"
We'll go and let the others know of what we discovered," His expression was calm, but his eyes burned red with anger. "then we're going to find my daughter."

************

"What did Slither have to say?" Raven demanded the instant Damion and Sly returned.

"He saw the abductors as they fled the city." Damion told her, unable to contain his excitement. "He followed them until they reached a
n encampment near a secluded cove, not far from Sierra. They boarded a ship that immediately sailed off."

"Why didn't he try to stop them?" The young
woman asked angrily. "Why didn't he try to get Leia away from those monsters?"

"He did. He sent a group of dragonspa
wn in to try and eliminate them, and liberate Leia, but the woman used magic to obliterate them. When he realized he would just be placing Leia in danger if he were to send in more dragonspawn, he decided to follow them instead. Once they boarded the ship, he hurried straight here to alert us. We only came back so we can fill everyone in and gather a few things, then we're going to follow Slither to the secluded cove. From there we'll move on to Sierra. With a little luck, we'll find a ship captain willing to help us take up the search."

"Woman?" Dar asked in confusion. "What woman?"

"Slither told us that the person hidden beneath those grey robes was a female." Sly told them, pouring himself a goblet of wine. "He seemed quite sure of himself. He said that she could conceal her features, but she couldn't conceal her scent."

"A woman, huh?" Damarius did not seem to take this information well. His face turned pale, then became bright red as
he started to become angry. "We'll see about that!"

"Who will be
accompanying you in your search?" Lady Skie asked, her expression still grief stricken.

"I'll take Shirk,
Dar, and Raven, of course. She wouldn't stay behind anyway." Damion glanced at the fiery young woman, who gave him a firm nod.

"I'll not be left behind this time!" Sly suddenly roared,
his expression outraged. "You left me here to take care of your chores last time, I'll not do it again! I'm going with you!"

"And I as well!" Damarius declared, brushing his brow lock from his eyes.

"What are you saying, father?" Lady Skie asked in confusion. "You're not thinking of running off with Damion, are you?"

"You bet I am!" None of them had ever seen the old wizard so angry. "I'm not too old for one last adventure! I'll help Damion track down these scoundrels
, and I'll show this...
woman
, she should have never messed with us!"

"
I can't take everyone with me." Damion said, shaking his head. "Some of you will have to remain behind to look after the affairs of the castle."

"I'll remain here with Lady Skie." Dar volunteered. "I don't think I would be much help anyway."

"I'll stay." Shirk grunted, glancing at Lady Skie and blushing beneath his scruffy beard. "I'll not see Lady Skie left unguarded. It's obvious that there are still some out there that are insane enough to try and face the Dragon Lord. I'll remain here and deal with any that decide to pay a visit during your absence."