Dragon Alliance Dark Storm : Dark Storm (7 page)

Denar Weir had a standard legion attached to it, and they were highly integrated with the dwarven armies in the southern chain of the Ferranor Mountains. The only difference the Denar legion had from Ferranor Weir’s was that they were a part of a combined weir and dwarf army group. It was a venture conceived by both Bristurm and the dwarf prince of the southern mountains. During the last Dragon War, it was noticed that the second largest force after the Alliance Army, the dwarves under King Drekar, were often unsynchronized with their human counterparts. This did not happen because of ill will, but rather a different style of fighting. Now the legions assigned to Ferranor, Denar, and Talinor Weirs, as well as Draden’s smaller contingent trained directly beside the dwarves. This enabled the dwarves to be more effectively integrated with the Alliance Army in the case of a massive call-up of forces. Denar also had a similar complement of dragons to Ferranor’s with six bronze dragons, seven copper, and seven brass.

Of the coastal weirs, the copper dragons mostly patrolled the shorelines and a couple of miles out to sea. The brass dragons went out a little farther while the bronzes could travel great distances over open ocean, mostly because of their greater flying ability, swimming proficiency, and that fact that they could breathe underwater. The split in military commands from the regular Alliance legions and the weir legions was designed as a check and balance on the power of the central Alliance government. However, there was a great deal of cross leveling and cross assignment of officers and soldiers between the two commands to promote cooperation and standardization with them as well as developing mutual respect.

Denar Weir itself was almost a southerly mirror image of Ferranor with the weir mountain fortress totally hollowed out and reinforced by the dwarves. It did differ in that it was actually an island weir that was situated in the middle of the shallow bay that stood in front of the port city of Denar. This fair-sized city was a harbor, trade, and guild center that primarily serviced dwarven products and other goods for the southern dwarf and Alliance provinces in the region as well as human iron—and steelworks and supporting guilds.

The dwarves had also constructed a tunnel that went under the bay connecting the weir with the closest mountain along the shoreline. This was the first of the many magnificent projects the dwarves accomplished, and it allowed the weir to be freely reinforced from the land. While Denar did have a teleportation circle, its close proximity to Draconia still allowed a great amount of goods and traffic to be transported along the main road to the capital. This was easy because the road system there and all throughout the Alliance was well maintained by both dwarves and human construction guilds. The stone and dwarven concrete roads connected all the major cities and weirs in the republic. These were maintained even with the advent of the teleportation circles, for they were still heavily used and would serve as a backup in case the circles were compromised.

“One of our copper dragon pairs has also just nested an egg. The gemstones and crystals for Denar are still flowing at an acceptable rate, and our dwarf allies and our weir have conducted several exercises together with great success,” Tridenth added. “All we need is more Alliance warships assigned to the Denar fleet, so we can take the fight to the enemy. We are always up for battle, but even we can’t be in two places at once.”

“That is easier said than done, Tridenth. The funds to construct naval vessels must come from the senate, for it is their responsibility to maintain the non-weir-affiliated legions and all the Alliance fleets’ over eight hundred ships. While the sale of the heating, cooling, and lighting crystals does fund the weirs’ assigned legions, we would have to increase the prices we charge to cover the costs of building and maintaining fleets, which is also not mandated by the Articles of the Alliance for the weirs to have,” Valianth spoke over the impetuous but well-meaning bronze dragon.

“That would start a firestorm with the Enlightened senators, who want us give them away for free,” Colonel Therosvet added.

“Let them bleed for the benefit of all if they so desire more drachlars,” Tridenth growled angrily. “The POE’s activities in Denar have stretched our patience to the limit.”

“Yes, sir, it is not easy to fight an undeclared war to our front and have these politicians stab us in the back with their ranting,” Bristurm added to his dragon’s sentiment.

“Your anger is understood, my brothers, but these are the issues we are challenged with. We must have faith that common sense will prevail, but we must also be prepared if it does not,” Valianth commented in a commanding tone, as if to tell the bronze and his rider to be calm. Mkel knew that Denar’s Weirleader and senior dragon were strong in their beliefs. He agreed with them for the most part, but he and Gallanth were not Capital Weir leaders.

“Thank you, Denar Weir; we will address your concerns to the senate as well as the Military Command Council. Rom Weir, Licanth, Keisem, what say you?” Becknor intervened to keep the meeting moving.

“Sir, Rom Weir is very busy these days. Our entire complement of dragons is almost totally engaged in convoy escort and patrols of our local waters. We even have our youngest bronze dragon chasing the occasional saragwin that slips by the sea elves into Sauric Bay. As far as crystal and stone making, we are just under our production goals and are having trouble getting quality gems for dragonstone weapons as well as for our dragons’ consumption to maintain their powers. We are not in a crisis shortage for them yet, but if we get into more fights, it might be an issue. We do not have a trading port, just docks for the fleet, so we are not as fortunate as the other weirs in that sense. Otherwise, our garrison is just below full strength and performing regular sea duty on the support ships in case of attacks by pirates or saragwin,” Keisem stated with his normal friendly smile.

“We have seen an increase in the occurrence of sorcerers on the pirate ships we are sending to the deep, as well as magic using saragwin shamans. We do have good news in that my mate is stirring and will likely rise any day,” Licanth added to his rider’s comments.

Keisem was a good-natured fellow with short but wavy black hair, brown eyes, and a naturally friendly smile. He and Mkel had also attended the university in Draconia together and frequently practiced with their crossbows on the ranges there with Jodem. Keisem, while an easygoing man, did have a fierce sense of loyalty to the Alliance and his friends. While Rom Weir was one of the two smallest Weirs, they directly supported the navy and guarded the entrance to Sauric Bay with their fleet and assigned dragons. They also manned the substantial complement of catapult and ballista batteries that guarded the choke point formed by the twin weirs at the entrance to Sauric Bay.

Keisem stood at just less than six feet tall and was of stout build. He wielded a unique type of dragonstone crossbow weapon that didn’t have limbs and mostly fired deadly lightning bolts to a range of three hundred yards. It could inflict almost as much damage as Colonel Lordan’s lance. It could shoot bolts almost as far as Markthrea, but was not as fast to reload. This capability was also effective when he had to fight underwater. Additionally, he employed a mithril-alloy long sword that sported a smaller dragonstone in it, which gave it a cold strike capability, similar to but not as powerful as Lawrent’s two-handed sword for close combat. Like all bronze dragonriders, Keisem had a helmet that when activated sealed its wearers head in and allowed him or her to breathe air from the water. This way, the riders could travel with their dragons below the depths.

Rom Weir itself sat on an outcropping on the southernmost point of the northern shore and entrance to Sauric Bay. Both Rom and Rem Weirs stood as guards to the entrance of the bay and Draconia; only the illuminated Alliance flag atop the Capital Weir could be seen from the bay entrance. The two weirs themselves were only ten miles apart and functioned as a pinch point to the entrance to the vast Sauric Bay. Any invading fleet would have to fight its way past both fortress weirs to get to the capital city. While these twin weirs were the smallest in comparison to the other eleven, they were heavily fortified with thick walls, carved parapets, and dozens of reinforced firing ports for large catapults, trebuchets, and ballista. The port for the fleet stationed there was actually tucked behind the weir on its bay side to protect it from the sea as well as any invading ships. To reach any docked vessels, enemy ships would have to pass a fusillade of catapult, ballista, and archer fire.

The largest catapults, the “long arms,” as they were called, had just under a six-mile range, so the entire entrance of the bay could fall under fire from one or both weirs. Rom Weir was only big enough to hold five pairs of dragons: two bronze, one copper, and two brass dragon pairs. Rem Weir mirrored that arrangement. Both weirs were the only two in the Alliance that had the full complement of dragons that they had before the Great War. This was mainly due to the fact that they were the busiest, both guarding the entrance to Sauric Bay and providing escort to not only their fleets, but also the non-weir-assigned fleets based at Draconia.

The garrison assigned to Rom Weir was also small by comparison. They had one infantry battalion, a reinforced catapult battalion for the fixed weapons that defended the weir, a sapper company, an aerial battalion of mostly hippogriff and giant osprey, a latouc company, a cavalry troop, and a ranger detachment.

“Sir, our work with the sea elves has also been going very well. We have coordinated our flights with their patrols to aid them in their battles and for greater coverage of the sea lanes. While we are attempting to make our quotas on the crystals, it is difficult with our present schedule,” Keisem stated.

“We understand, Keisem. Do your best to maintain your output of the comfort crystals, but it is better the citizens of the Alliance are safe than comfortable. Keep up the good work,” Becknor stated. “Grommel, Zalenth, give us Rem Weir’s contribution.”

“General Becknor, Michenth, Rem Weir shares the same concerns that Rom Weir does with the current tempo of covering flights we are performing and our support to the navy and the sea elves. Our dragons are working for their pay, believe me. Our two garrisons have been serving on numerous excursions with the navy to give the naval infantry some rest as well. We have also conducted several exercises, which focused on defense operations from a seaborne invasion and counterattack, as well as aiding the naval infantry in an assault. Both went well in spite of several coordination issues that arose, which we are currently resolving. We could use more dragons, but we are still holding our own at present. Zalenth and I slew a large kraken two days ago. It was leading a saragwin raiding party against a merchant convoy from Southland and the Canaris Twins, approximately two hundred miles from the mouth of Sauric Bay.

“One of our brass dragons burned two pirate ships to the water level even though she gave them several opportunities to surrender. We have never seen this type of behavior with pirates before. Usually, they are cowards and will either run or surrender if pressed hard,” Grommel replied.

“Master Wizard Hestal, for your edification, the kraken were of exceptional magical ability, which made our victory that much more difficult, but they were not expecting a bronze dragon to show up so quickly. To give better news, our long-arm catapults from both weirs performed expertly in a recent training exercise, striking the practice barge targets well over half the time. However, as a veteran of the seas for over a thousand years, I must reinforce my view that my sense of foreboding is peaking. I have never seen such discourse among all creatures of the ocean as I do now. A greater war is coming, but we don’t know why. The saragwin are much more organized than they ever have been. We are also seeing greatly increased power with them and the pirates, but a curious decrease in the talon sails of Morgathian warships. Very puzzling,” Zalenth stated to reinforce his rider’s comments, his pointed snout accenting his sharp words.

Bronze dragons had a more streamlined appearance, with their scales a dull metallic bronze-green to a deep-bronze color. They had large fins on their tails, and their claws were webbed. Their frilled armored heads had two main horns on the top of their skulls and three smaller horns at the end of their cheek frills. Their mouths terminated almost in a beak, but they still had very powerful jaws for a nasty bite. They were excellent swimmers and could breathe underwater. Their wings were also adapted to propel them through the water as well as they did in the air. The webbing behind their forelimbs and rear legs also aided in their underwater speed. Overall, bronze dragons were strong flyers as well as extremely strong swimmers, feeling at home in both environments. They were the most feared and respected of all creatures who called the water their home.

Bronze dragons averaged thirty-three to thirty-six yards in length and had wingspans of fifty-five to sixty yards. While their magic abilities were water based, their repertoire of spells was impressive and could certainly give them an edge in a fight over a blue and even a red dragon. They were slightly stronger than a copper dragon, extremely agile in the air, and even more so underwater.

“This is from a fear of the Alliance Navy and a credit to the dragon and sea-elf escort, as well as our stationing of more wizards on the ships of our fleet,” Admiral Zewal stated.

“I wish to share your enthusiasm, good Admiral, and it is also a curiosity as to why there have been few attacks on our warships from vessels under the Morgathian or any other standard than that of the pirate Blood Wolf flag,” Zalenth agreed with the senior admiral.

Grommel was a man of short stature, being at least four inches shorter than Mkel, almost of dwarf height, but he was as tough as they came. His peppery black hair and thick black mustache accented his ruddy sea-worn complexion. He originated from the large northern island of Askala, which was a territory of the Alliance far off the northwest coast of the republic. His family then moved to the Ice Bay area, so he grew up accustomed to the sea and the cold.