Scourge of the Dragons (10 page)

“Lost in thought, are we?” A man asked as he
opened the door.

“Who are you?” The Empress asked.

“Peligrin, but that is hardly important. My
master seems to be of the impression that you will beg him for
mercy. He and I are not in agreement on this topic. As you may have
guessed, his bark is worse than his bite. However, he only has so
much patience.”

“You are here to convince me to join
him.”

“Not at all. I am in my master’s service
because I made a foolish pledge to serve him until his dying
breath. My plan had been to kill him or even just serve him until
time did the dirty work for me.”

“How is that possible?” Melisandre
asked.

“I’m not certain that I could explain it to
an elf. To put it simply, my people live thousands of years. By
their standards, I am not even middle aged. My master is something
of an anomaly. I don’t actually know if he’ll live as long as I
will, but he certainly won’t die anytime soon. Not by natural
means.”

“You are here for me assistance in defeating
him.”

“Not exactly, no. I don’t expect you to be
able to do much considering that he has you in your former dungeon.
However, being an Empress, you must know of people that can assist
me in ridding the world of my master. In exchange for a meeting, I
could leave a door or two unlocked.”

“You’ll need to do better than that. The
only people who can stop your master are the night elves. Their
night dragons are a match for the sun dragons. I can get you a
meeting with their leaders.”

“I knew my master was foolish to
underestimate you. Our discussion must come to an end, but I will
return tomorrow. You will be free of this dungeon before the week
is out.”

Hadrin kept his hand on the hilt of his
sword as he watched the forest elves whispering to each other. He
glanced over at Alandra and realized that she had her sword drawn
and was ready for a fight. The forest elves looked equally prepared
for a fight. Wrotan looked far from ready to fight, but Hadrin knew
that the hunter would be the first to draw blood in the event of a
confrontation. The forest elves continued to whisper and
occasionally glance at the small party. Hadrin was unsure whether
Wrotan’s presence caused them more or less pause. One of them
turned back to the forest and began shaking his head. The other elf
turned and started coming closer to the three of them.

“Please, we aren’t looking for a fight,” she
said.

“Nor are we, but don’t think that means we
will shy away from one if necessary,” Alandra answered.

“We wish to pass through your lands and into
the human lands. There is no reason that we should come to blows,”
Wrotan said.

“There is a matter that must be dealt with
before we can grant you this wish.”

“What matter?” Hadrin asked as he stepped
forward.

“You will soon see, Prince.”

The forest elves stepped forward to take
possession of the group’s weapons. Alandra finally consented after
Wrotan and Hadrin encouraged her to do so. The hunter had given up
his weapons without even the slightest pause. Hadrin asked to keep
his knife, but the forest elves wouldn’t allow it. Once they were
certain that the three travelers were unarmed, they lead them
deeper into the forest. The Prince attempted to keep track of the
path, but the elves used such a roundabout way that he soon found
himself unable to remember the intricacies. They came to a large
clearing and the leader of the elves motioned for the others to be
blindfolded. Alandra protested once again, but Hadrin convinced her
that it would be fine. The second half of their trek was even more
difficult and the Prince found himself with no idea as to where
they had been taken.

“You may remove the blindfold now,” Hadrin
recognized the voice of Lothrin, King of the forest elves.

“It is a pleasure, your majesty,” the Prince
said as he stepped forward and held out his arm.

“If only we were meeting under better
circumstance, Prince Hadrin,” Lothrin and the Prince clasped
forearms and pulled each other in for a one armed hug.

“These are my friends and traveling
companions, Alandra and Wrotan.”

“Your majesty,” Wrotan said as he gave a
slight bow.

“Welcome to the woodland realms,” Lothrin
said, ignoring Alandra’s defiance.

“Something is amiss?” Wrotan asked.

“Yes, allow me to introduce Kade, Mariah,
Amber, and Julian,” the King motioned to the side as he spoke.

The four humans were brought into the room
in chains. Hadrin looked to the others to see if he could garner
any information out of his allies’ reactions. Alandra scowled at
the sight of the shackles, but quickly recovered her look of
defiance. Wrotan raised an eyebrow as he looked over at his fellow
humans before looking back at the King. For all Hadrin knew, the
hunter was merely curious at the appearance of these four. He
looked to the four. Mariah’s expression was nearly the same as that
of Alandra. The Prince shuddered at the thought of facing either of
them in such a mood. Amber had a look of sadness to her. Julian
seemed to be the only one of the four that didn’t care about being
in chains in front of a room of elves. Kade looked terrified as he
looked around the room.

“What does this have to do with us?” Wrotan
asked.

“The one they call Kade has shown signs of
the scourge,” the King answered.

“Impossible, he isn’t even an elf,” Hadrin
replied.

“So we thought,” Lothrin paused and motioned
for the guards to bring Kade closer, “but we were wrong.”

“Take the shackles off of this young man
immediately,” Wrotan said as he looked from the mark on the back of
Kade’s hand up to the bandage on his eye.

“You have no authority here, hunter.”

Wrotan pivoted forward and hit the nearest
elf with a palm strike to the nose. He grabbed the elf’s sword and
then disappeared in a small cloud of darkness. Dozens of forest
elves rushed into the room with their weapons drawn. Hadrin looked
to Alandra in bewilderment. The forest elves were advancing on
them, and she looked as frightened as he did. Wrotan came diving
out of the shadows and skewered two forest elves before
disappearing once again. King Lothrin ordered his soldiers to bring
more torches into the room. The Prince felt a strange feeling come
over him as he was compelled to use his magic. His arms rose into
the air as the spell came to him. A quick burst of air and the
torches in the room were blown out. The darkness closed in around
them and the sounds of a massacre become louder.

“Enough!” King Lothrin shouted as he used
his own magic to fill the room with light.

Hadrin could scarcely believe his eyes as he
looked around the room. Wrotan stood at the far side of the room
with a sword in each hand. The dozens of elves were either dead or
dying on the floor. There were several smaller wingless dragons
whose scales and skin were so dark that they almost looked like
they weren’t truly in the room. The hunter sheathed his swords and
the creatures melted into the light. He strode forward and
shattered the shackles around Kade’s wrists using only his hands.
Another two dozen forest elves entered the room and looked to the
King for instruction. Lothrin motioned for them to put away their
weapons as he used his magic to relight the torches.

“Quite a display,” the King said.

“The shadow dragons do wish harm to come to
this young man,” Wrotan replied as he held his head.

“I hadn’t known that you too were a pawn in
their game.”

“A willing pawn, but a pawn none the less.”
The hunter took his hand from his head.

“The dragons have long been benevolent
masters. It is a shame I had to lose so many of my soldiers to this
misunderstanding. We will give you provisions and speed you along
your way. I assume that you will be taking the prisoners with
you?”

“The boy, yes. As for the others, they are
free to choose.”

“Right then. One last word of warning, do
not make enemies of those who are servants to the dragons.”

“Wise words. I have a warming of my own, it
comes from the shadow dragons. They say that the sun elves are no
longer to be trusted and that the sun dragons are corrupted from
within.”

King Lothrin nodded as he took in the words.
Hadrin was unaware of what the two were discussing, but there was a
soft voice in the back of his head that promised he would
understand in time. It repeated Wrotan’s warning, adding that even
some of the shadow dragons could be susceptible to this new enemy.
He looked to the other four humans and saw that there were equally
as confused as he was. Despite their hesitation, all three decided
to accompany Kade.

*

“What happened back there?” Alandra asked as
soon as they were far enough away from the forest elf
stronghold.

“The shadow dragons decided to send a
message to the forest dragons,” Wrotan replied.

“I thought they were allies.”

“They are allies, but the shadow dragons
wanted the forest dragons to know that they are not to be taken
lightly.”

“You just let them use you as a weapon?”
Kade asked.

“It is possible that I could have stopped
them from killing the forest elves, but I wasn’t sure that was the
best option available. I had been unaware that the shadow dragons
could even exert any amount of control over me prior to this
happening. They may have just killed me on the spot. Even now, I’m
not entirely certain I could stop them if I wanted to.”

“That doesn’t sound very comforting,” Mariah
said.

“Imagine what they would have done to their
enemies,” Wrotan said.

Alandra shuddered at the possibility of
something worse than what they had witnessed. There was a nagging
sensation that kept pushing her to consider what the night dragons
were capable of. She ignored it as best she could, not wanting to
face the fact that they could use her in a similar way to what the
shadow dragons had done with Wrotan. The others seemed equally
distraught over the new development. She fell back to where Hadrin
was walking at the back of the pack. He forced a smile before
looking back down at the ground.

“What’s the matter?” Alandra asked.

“The shadow dragons. They were once
considered a part of the same hatchery, but they seem much more
vicious than Ungaroth,” the Prince replied.

“I’ve been thinking about that myself. Could
it be that over the years they’ve changed or has Ungaroth held back
his darker side.”

“Can we really know what the dragons want?
They’ve been a large part of why we’ve fought with the humans in
the past. Do they really seek the best for the elves?”

“Even if they only seek glory for
themselves, can we do anything about it?” Alandra asked.

“Perhaps so, perhaps not. We are all in this
together now. The best we can do is make certain that our small
group is as prepared as can be,” Hadrin answered.

“How can we do that?”

“Each of us must push ourselves harder.
Daily training in all manner of skills. We may not have time to
become proficient at everything, but we can certainly improve on
what skills we already possess.”

“Do you think the others would be willing to
do so?”

“We can only hope.”

*

Erlkan watched as one of the dragons circled
the main gate of the city. They had either joined with this
sorcerer or were being controlled by him. He turned back to the map
that they had laid out near the fire. They were close to the
southern entrance into the system of caves and tunnels that led to
numerous locations throughout the town. It was the only way inside
the palace that could guarantee them a way around the dragons. He
ran his finger along the path that he wanted the first group to
take. They nodded as he looked up at them. The sequence repeated
until he had directed each of the four groups. They only had one
copy of the map, meaning that three of the groups would need to
memorize their path as well as the layout of the tunnels and caves.
The sun King rolled up the map and handed it to one of the
Captains.

“Are we all in agreement on our course of
action?” He asked.

“I may not like it, but I’ll stand by it,”
one Captain replied.

The other two nodded their assent. Erlkan
let out a sigh of relief before dismissing the others. He checked
his pack one last time before covering the fire with dirt. Each of
the Captains gathered together their small group of soldiers and
set off toward one of the two entrances to the abandoned unground
portion of the city. The sun King nodded to his group before
setting off toward the entrance. A wave of nostalgia washed over
him as he entered the cave entrance. He remembered the hours and
hours he had spent exploring the underground passageways. A sense
of calm came over him as he continued further through the tunnels.
He watched as the group ahead headed off down their predetermined
path. Their own route continued onward into the tunnels below the
palace.

Erlkan stopped when they reached the second
set of stairs. He drew his sword and headed up the steps. His men
followed closely behind, ready to spring into action at any moment.
They continued on their way and reached the dungeon. The sun King
ordered his men to split into two groups so that they could check
lower level before circling back and heading to the other level.
They both met back at the stairs, neither group having found any
sign of their opponents. Erlkan took a deep breath as he headed up
to the upper level of the dungeon. Based on the information given
to him, the Empress would be located in this portion of the
palace.

“State your purpose,” a voice called out as
he opened a door to the upper level.

“Stand down or feel the wrath of your King!”
Erlkan yelled as he jumped through the doorway.