Omensent: Princess Of Dragons (Book 5) (5 page)

"
Lesser
races?" Leia's face had grown red with anger. "I..."

"I think it's about time you headed off for bed, young lady." Lady Skie declared, cutting her off before she had a chance to express her outrage. "It's getting late, and you need to be up early for your lessons."

"Your mother and I shall be up to tuck you into bed in a little while." Damion told her as Lady Skie led her from the room.

Leia cast Etha Brody one last dark look, then allowed herself to be led away.

"Your daughter has spirit." Ava Delilah smiled. "The fire of youth burns bright within her."

"She takes after her mother." Damion stated with a smile, winking at his wife playfully.

"But she has her father's temper." Raven countered, grinning back at the huge warrior.

"As Lady Skie pointed out, it's getting rather late." Shirk started, rising to his feet. "I'm sure that you must be exhausted from your travels. Allow us to provide you with suitable chambers for the duration of your stay."

"That would be most generous." Ava Delilah nodded in acceptance. "It has been some time since we slept in a proper bed."

"And I believe a nice long bath is also in order." Etha Brody added, sniffing the sleeve of his traveling cloak and wrinkling his nose with displeasure. "It has been so long since I was properly bathed that I've begun to smell like the sailors that manned the ship that brought us here."

"I'll have the servants begin warming the water immediately." The bearded bandit assured him, hurrying to the doorway to stop a passing servant. "If you need anything, all you have to do is ask."

Damion and Raven watched as Shirk led their elven visitors to suitable chambers.

"I wonder what could be so serious that it would drive the elves to look for outside help to solve their problem." Damion pondered with a frown.

"I don't know, but they must be desperate." Raven murmured with a troubled expression. "I've heard stories about the elves, and most would rather die than associate with humans."

"Leia certainly didn't seem to like them very much." The huge warrior noted. "I've never seen her act like that before. She's usually quite good when it comes to dealing with visiting dignitaries."

"Do you really blame her after the way that Etha Brody was sneering at her?" Raven defended her daughter. "He didn't even attempt to hide his disdain for her!"

"Leia can take care of herself." The huge warrior assured her with a knowing grin. "She's more than capable of dealing with him."

"It's not Leia that I'm worried about." Raven told him pointedly. "You know how Leia can get when she's angry. If Etha Brody continues to treat her with such contempt, he's going to find himself dangling by his pointy ears a hundred feet above the city!"

"I don't think she'll go
that
far." Damion disagreed with a chuckle. "She knows better than to do something like that. She has other ways of getting her point across to people. Give it a day, maybe two, and I guarantee that she will take steps to put him in his place."

"Let's hope so." Raven told him in a doubtful tone. "I'd hate to go to war with the elves because Leia decided to turn their ambassador into a toad."

Chapter 3

"I know what you're going to say," Leia started when her parents appeared to tuck her in for the night. "I shouldn't have let that condescending blowhard get under my skin." Her face was still blazing red with anger. "But did you see the way he was looking at me?"

"We noticed." Damion assured her. "I thought you handled yourself well, considering the circumstances."

"He was lucky that Aunt Skie stepped in when she did." The young girl muttered, gesturing to Lady Skie, who was sitting calmly in a nearby chair. "One more sneer and he would have found himself hanging upside down by his toenails."

"I've been trying to explain to her that she can't allow such people to get to her so easily." Lady Skie said with a weary sigh. "She will be forced to deal with such folk often when she gets older and takes over the responsibility of protector of Sevria, but, unfortunately, she has her father's temper."

"Told you." Raven snickered to her husband.

"These people have come from another land with different traditions than you are accustomed." Damion reached down and lifted the young girl up into his arms. "I need you to be on your best behavior when around them. They have come to us seeking our help, and it would be wrong of us to turn them away in their time of need."

"You expect me to just sit there and smile while he insults me right to my face?" Leia asked incredulously.

"Of course not, but there are ways of getting your point across that doesn't involve dangling people by their toenails."

"Says the man who once sealed another man in stone alive." Lady Skie commented innocently.

"Just try your best to put up with him while he's here." Damion murmured, ignoring Lady Skie's comment, and kissing his daughter gently on her forehead. "Don't allow him the satisfaction of seeing that he got to you."

"That's easy for you to say." Leia muttered sourly. "He isn't throwing all of the veiled insults in
your
direction."

Damion walked over and gently placed her onto her bed.

"What are they doing here anyway?" The young girl asked, scrambling beneath her blankets. "He said it himself. The elves don't associate with the lesser races." She said this in her best imitation of the elf. "Why would they need our help?"

"We were wondering that ourselves. I guess we'll find out eventually." He gave her another kiss on her forehead. "Get some sleep. You have to get up bright and early for your lessons."

"But it's my birthday!" She whined, staring at her father in disbelief. "You can't make me train on my birthday!

"You know the rules." Damion told her firmly. "We train everyday until I am satisfied that you can control your magic. No exceptions."

The young girl sighed in exasperation, then gave both of her parents a kiss goodnight, and burrowed deeper into her blankets.

Damion, Raven, and Lady Skie started to leave, but Damion suddenly paused, a suspicious expression crossing his face. "No sneaking out. Snowfeather will be keeping an eye on you to make sure that you don't decide to go for another midnight ride."

A muffled swear came from beneath the blankets, and Leia's face suddenly reappeared to scowl at her father.

"Goodnight, little one." Damion smiled back at her, knowing that she had planned to sneak away as soon as their backs were turned.

They gathered in the huge dining hall early the next morning for Leia's birthday breakfast.

"Good morning, my friends." Damion greeted their elven guests as Shirk led them into the hall. "I trust you slept well?"

"Quite well, thank you." Ava Delilah replied as she took a seat across the table from Damion and Raven. The elven woman looked much more relaxed now that she had washed and changed from her traveling clothes. She now wore an elaborate emerald green dress that was accented with white fur, and knee high boots made of a soft supple leather. She had removed the braid from her long blond tresses, allowing her golden hair to cascade down around her shoulders, softening her rather sharp features. "It was nice to sleep in a proper bed after spending a month on the road. I did not find sleeping aboard a cramped ship on a swinging cot very pleasant."

"I found the beds to be a bit too hard for my taste." Etha Brody commented, taking a seat across the table from Leia, who glared at him momentarily before returning to her bacon. "We elves make our beds from the juafa plant, which produces a fiber that is even softer than silk. It's almost like sleeping on a cloud." The elven man had also discarded his traveling robes and was now wearing a tight fitted brown shirt and vest, dark green leggings, and calf high boots similar to those of his companion.

"What is the weather like on the Elven Island this time of year?" Lady Skie asked them curiously, taking a sip of her tea.

"Much as it is the rest of the year," The elven man shrugged. "Sunny and mild. Aside from the occasional tropical storm or hurricane, the weather rarely changes on the island. As I have said, it is as close to paradise as one could hope to find."

"The weather here in the mountains isn't quite so pleasant." Shirk commented, taking a seat next to Lady Skie. "It's not uncommon for it to snow in the summertime. Sometimes I..."

He was cut off as Sly and Damarius suddenly came stumping into the dining hall, followed closely by Axel, who had an amused expression on his face.

"I don't care if you've found enough mercenaries," Damarius was telling Sly in an irritated tone. "I'm not going hunting for a shadow dragon just so you can harvest the scales for armor."

"I'm not just interested in the scales." Sly objected with a scowl. "Axel needs the bones for his carvings, and we even have buyers lined up for the meat."

"The answer is no." The old wizard shook his head firmly. "There are only a handful of shadow dragons left in the world. I'm not going to spend the few years that I have remaining trying to track one down. Besides, locating one would be nearly impossible."

"I have a few ideas on where we may find one," The scruffy man told him quickly. "but need to move fast if we want to have any chance of catching it."

"You must be daft." Damarius muttered, shaking his head and causing his long brow lock to fall into his eyes. "Even using mercenaries, you don't have a chance of bringing down a shadow dragon. It would be suicide." He brushed the brow lock from his eyes absently. "Have you even bothered to run your plan past Damion?"

"Not yet." Sly admitted with a frown. "I wanted to get everything together before I told him."

"No." Damion said in a flat tone, not bothering to look up from his plate. "You're not going hunting for a shadow dragon. They're all in hiding right now, and I don't want you doing anything to drive them all back out into the open where they can begin wreaking havoc again."

"I was just thinking that it was time that we finished what we started." Sly said innocently. "We don't want another brood mother to rise and start the chaos all over again, now do we?"

"Nice try, but the answer is still no."

"What happened to you?" Sly complained sourly, dropping into a chair near the far end of the table. "There was a time when you would have jumped at the chance to go hunt down a shadow dragon."

"You just want Damarius to build you another suit of armor out of shadow dragon scales." Raven laughed in amusement at the look of disappointment on the scruffy man's face.

"That's not true." Sly grumbled. "Axel also needs the bones for his carvings."

"Finally used up the last of your supplies?" Damion asked the young man, who had taken a seat between Damarius and Sly, who were still casting one another dark looks.

"For the most part." Axel nodded. "I still have a bit of scrap that I use to accentuate certain pieces, but even that is running thin. On the plus side, it makes the few remaining pieces I have worth even more now that the supply is gone."

"What are you using for your carvings now that you have run out of dragon bone?"

"I stumbled across a rare wood that grows in the north that makes a wonderful material for my carvings." Axel smiled. "And using some of the skills that I developed while visiting the dwarves, I've been able to produce some of my best pieces."

"Dwarves." Etha Brody snorted in disgust. "Wretched creatures, the entire lot. Any respectable elf wouldn't even be seen in the same room with dwarf."

"Who are our guests?" Damarius asked in surprise, noticing the pair of elves for the first time.

"Allow me to introduce Ava Delilah, High Priestess of the Elven Island," Raven gestured to the elven woman, who nodded her head in greeting. "and Etha Brody, Head Ambassador for the Elven Queen." She gestured to the elven man, who nodded to them stiffly, a faint sneer on his face. "This," The young woman continued, gesturing to the new arrivals. "is Lady Skie's father, Damarius the Wizard, Gabriel Quickhand, master swordsman, and our local artisan, Axel of Sevria."

"You may just call me Delilah." The elven woman smiled, nodding to them each in turn. "Ava is the title I use among our people, as is the Etha before my companion's name. It refers to my station as high priestess."

"So your name is actually just Brody?" Leia asked the elven man, who frowned.

"At one time I was known merely as Brody, Elder of the House of Maple," He informed her stiffly. "but I have since risen among my people to become Etha Brody, Head Ambassador to the Queen of the Elves." He gave her a rather stern look. "I prefer to be addressed as such."

"Whatever you say, Brody." The young girl rolled her eyes, then stuffed another strip of bacon into her mouth.

"What are the High Priestess and Head Ambassador to the Elven Queen doing so far from the Elven island?" Sly asked bluntly, filling a goblet full of spiced wine. "I was under the impression that your people never left their homeland."

"We have traveled to Sevria upon the advice of someone with whom you reportedly have the utmost trust and respect." Delilah informed them, appearing to choose her words carefully so not to reveal too much. "A cousin, and trusted friend to the elves, Dar of the Alena, has advised our beloved queen to seek you out."

"Dar?" Damion asked in surprise. "He advised your queen to seek us out?"

"He did." Etha Brody confirmed with a disapproving expression. "He managed to convince our queen that the threat to our people is so great that we needed to seek outside assistance."

"And you disagree?"

"I believe it is... premature, to go seeking the aid of outsiders." He told the huge warrior. "I'm not sure if I believe that the situation is as bleak as Dar seems to believe it is, but he has convinced our queen to seek you out to request your aid. He has assured us that the Dragon Lord would be the only person who would be able to aid us."

"If Dar thinks that you need our help, then I'm inclined to believe him." Damion said, glancing to his wife with a troubled look. "I've never known him to exaggerate."