Omensent: Wrath of a Dragon God (6 page)

"Then
He intends to take revenge upon me?"

Tempest thought about his question for a moment. "I find it highly doubtful that
He has returned to take revenge. That could cause more deaths among His children. I'm not exactly sure what He is planning, but I doubt that it involves seeking your death."

"That's something, at least."
Damion said, breathing a silent sigh of relief. He hadn't fancied the idea of being forced to contend with a god. "Do you have any suggestions?"

Tempest shrugged her massive shoulders. "There is really nothing you can do, but sit back and wait to find out if He truly has plans that involve you."

Damion snarled. "I hate just sitting around waiting for something to happen."

"Try not to think about it." She suggested with a toothy smile. "Just return home and concentrate on making some more children."

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

Damion found Damarius, Dar, Sly, and Raven awaiting his return in the comfortable office
where he usually conducted his day to day business of running of the castle.

"Was you able to discover anything useful?" Dar asked eag
erly. Tempest was one the childlike sprite's oldest and most dearest friends. He had searched for over four hundred years for a way to free the scarlet dragons from their prison inside of the Dragon Gem, and had been instrumental in aiding Damion in recovering and joining the gem and the Dragon Sword, releasing the scarlet dragons into the world once again. "Was Tempest able to shed any insight into why the dragonspawn are convinced that their god has returned?"

"She had a few ideas, but nothing solid to go on." He walked over to the oversized chair that had been placed behind an enormous desk, both of which he had been forced to have specially made to
accommodate his massive frame, then paused to allow Snowfeather to hop down from his place on Damion's shoulder. He finally collapsed into his chair with a tired sigh.

"So the dragon god
hasn't
returned?" Raven asked, a confused look on her face.

Damion shrugged. "
Tempest wasn't sure. She felt the same dread that I felt when the constellation vanished from the heavens, but she told me that there wasn't any way to find out where Draco actually went." He gave Damarius a curious look. "Did you know that there is actually two dragon gods? The dragon god, Draco, and the serpent mother, Estheryal?"

"Really?" The old wizard looked surprised. "I had never heard of
Her before."

Damion nodded. "Tempest explained that for every god that exists, there is a rival god that
moves to counter every move they make. It had something to do with keeping the balance in the universe."

Dar frowned. "I guess I have never thought about it like that before. The Alena pray to Lily,
Goddess of the Forest, and her mortal enemy is said to be Rot, God of Death and Decay."

"Some of the elves worship the god Petra, while others worship his rival,
Hetris." Sly pointed out, his eyes narrowed in thought. "And the dwarves have Grod, the God of Stone, and Throth, the God of the Forge."

"What does Tempest think this serpent mother will do now that Draco has vanished?" Raven asked, walking around the huge desk, and settling comfortably in
Damion's lap.

"She thinks that
Estheryal will merely continue to watch from Her place among the heavens. From what I could understand, the gods never take a direct hand in shaping the events that mold our world. They almost always use a mortal to carry out their will."

Damarius frowned. "Didn't you say that the rumors spreading through the hord
e was that..."

"He would use me to achieve
His goals, yes." Damion finished for him in a grave tone.

Everyone fell silent.
Finally, Damion's stomach gave a loud growl, breaking the silence, and causing everyone to laugh, easing the tension in the air.

"I'm guessing that means you're hungry,
again
." Raven laughed, placing her hand gently on his stomach.

"It was a long trek to reach Tempest's lair." He grumbled defensively. "I didn't want to take the time to stop and hunt down a rabbit."

The young woman looked faintly nauseated. "How about I ask some servants to bring you something from the kitchens instead?"

"When was the last time you looked in on Leia
?" He asked the young woman as she slipped from his lap to go in search of the nearest servant.

"About an hour ago. Lady Skie is with her right now." She hurried from the room to find a servant.

"What are you planning to do about these rumors?" Sly asked curiously, idly sipping at a goblet of spiced wine.

"There's nothing I really can do."
He answered helplessly. "There no way of knowing if Draco has actually returned or not. We can only wait and see what happens." His expression grew quizzical. "Where is Veren and Shirk? I'm surprised they're not here to find out what I learned."

"They decided to return to the highwaymen's hidden camp to be sure that Slither and the dragonspawn run all of the
bandits off."

Damion cursed. "Are they trying to get themselves killed? The d
ragonspawn won't be able to tell the difference between them and the bandits!"

"They'll be fine!" Sly waved a
hand dismissively. "You worry too much. Sometimes you're like a mother hen."

"Someone has to be the responsible one
around here." Damion snapped unhappily.

"Thank the gods that it's not me!" The scruffy little man snorted in amusement. "We'd all be doomed!"

Damion laughed in spite of himself. "When did they leave?"

"About an hour or so after you did. They seemed to know that you would disapprove of such a foolish venture, so they waited until you were well away from the Sevria before they set off towards the south."

Damion sighed heavily, then shook his head in resignation. "I don't know what those two were thinking. They both know how dangerous the dragonspawn can be."

"
I think Veren was interested in making sure that the bandits are all driven off," Sly laughed again, spilling half of the contents of his goblet in his mirth. "but I think Shirk's main motivation was looting the valuables left behind by the bandits!"

"I can't believe you just let them go!"

"They were going to sneak off no matter what I said." The little man said defensively. "I figured it would be easier to just let you deal with them when they got back. Besides," He smiled greedily. "I made Shirk promise to split whatever he found with me."

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

Veren and Shirk returned three days later leading a wagon and several horses that were packed with goods that they had recovered from the bandit's camp. One of the soldiers that stood watch on the wall alerted Damion and the others to their return, and they all gathered down in the castle courtyard to meet the pair.

"What do you two idiots think you were doing running off like that?" Damion bellowed at them as they came to a halt in front of the castle livery.
"You could have gotten yourselves killed!"

"You worry too much." Veren
laughed, climbing down from the wagon. "We needed to be sure that Slither and the dragonspawn were able to run off all of the highwaymen. There were quite a few of them, and we wanted to be sure that they wouldn't just try to return later and reestablish their camp."

"And?"

"And your pet shadowspawn sure takes his job seriously." Shirk laughed. "Nearly a hundred of the snarling creatures fell upon the camp and chased the entire group out of the mountains."

"Was anyone killed?"

"There was just one casualty." Veren chuckled. "One of the highwaymen panicked and ran straight off the edge of a canyon." He shook his head in disbelief. "His legs were still pumping the entire time he fell."

"
They took one look at the dragonspawn and high tailed it out of there." Shirk snickered in amusement. "Most of them didn't even bother to grab their horses."

"We waited for a while to make sure the
bandits weren't going to reappear, then we decided to burn the camp to insure that they never return."

"You mean
after
you looted it of every single thing of value, right?" Sly snorted, wandering over to the wagon to see what was inside. "I still want my cut, by the way." He lifted the tarp covering the wagon, then let out a low whistle. "Damion, I think you had better take a look at this."

Damion went to the back of the wagon and peered
under the tarp. Inside he saw several neatly stacked piles of poorly crafted crossbows, dozens of bundles of crossbow bolts, and several hundred crudely forged swords.

"We found these
while searching the camp." Veren informed him with a grim expression. "It seems some of the caravans moving through the mountains are carrying large amounts of weapons with them."

"Why would anyone want
a bunch of shoddy weapons like these?" Raven asked, giving the poorly crafted arms a disdainful look. "There are plenty of skilled armor and weapon smiths throughout the continent. Why bring in such low quality weapons?"

"The only reason to bring in such cheap weapons in such large quantities would be the need to arm a large number of people in secret." Damarius commented, taking one glan
ce at the contents of the wagon, and then nodding knowingly. "It appears that someone in the region is trying to raise an army without alerting anyone to what he is doing."

"Which means that there
is
also
someone out there that is trying to stop them." Sly pointed out, examining one of the crudely forged swords. "Whoever hired those highwaymen to waylay those caravans is obviously trying to prevent these weapons from arriving at their destination."

"We need to figure out where these weapons were bound." Damion told them grimly.

"I'll take Shirk and start snooping around through some of the villages in the foothills to the south." Sly volunteered, tossing the crudely made sword aside disdainfully. "We may be able to discover where they were heading, or at least identify the person that is attempting to stop the caravans that are carrying them."