Dragon Alliance: Rise Against Shadow (41 page)

“Yes, let’s all go to Colonel Sheer’s temporary headquarters in the keep, so we can solidify our plans,” Mkel said after embracing Ordin and shaking Tegent’s hand in a lion’s grip. Just as he turned, Gallanth looked skyward and let out a greeting roar.
Talonth and Strikenth arrive,
Gallanth told Mkel telepathically. “Good,” Mkel said, “I am looking forward to seeing Colonel Lordan and Lieutenant Padonan,” referring to the respective riders of the large silver dragons that had just teleported in.

“The biggest gold and two biggest silver dragons in the Alliance gathering in one place at the same time; I feel much safer now and see the workings of a good song in the making,” Tegent said with his normal lively smile. The two silver dragons had teleported in close to each other, but they were coming from very different locations. Their combined roars echoed across the plain as they returned Gallanth’s salute. The glimmering silver hides of the pair showed brilliantly in the early evening sun. The two big metallic dragons quickly matched their flight pattern and circled around the village, eventually landing on the east side to minimize the amount of debris and dust they kicked up with their mighty wings.

The two riders slid off of the silvers’ necks and onto the waiting forearms of their dragon mounts. Mkel knew the rider on the left was Colonel Lordan right away, from both the slightly larger size of Talonth and his couple of inches over Padonan. Lordan also carried his characteristic dragonstone-imbedded lance, a very powerful weapon in his hands that sent many a foe to their doom. The mithril-tipped tribladed head could pierce any armor or dragon hide and fire deadly bolts of energy for incredible damage.

Padonan was a nimble but resolute fighter. He wielded a glaive, a unique weapon that was a star-like mithril alloy disc with six fingers, each ending in a pure mithril blade. The central mounted dragonstone gave it the power of guided flight, like Ordin’s hammer, but it could fly much greater distances and slice through almost any armor, including dragon hide, with ease. It could also block unfriendly spells and smash magic shields. He also was equipped with a small mithril alloy dragonstone-powered shield, given to him by Strikenth, that could project a powerful magical defensive field that enabled his dragon to have the shield strength of a gold. Padonan utilized this defensive weapon to protect himself and Strikenth when he threw his glaive. He also had a backup short sword, just in case. Overall, this made Padonan a formidable character, and with Strikenth the second largest silver dragon in the Alliance, it was no wonder that Valianth chose them to be one of his wing seconds.

Lieutenant Padonan saluted Colonel Lordan after they both dismounted and greeted each other with an arm grasp, and then they walked over to Mkel and the Keystone Weir group. Mkel saluted Colonel Lordan a hand salute bringing his right hand to his eyebrow out of custom.

“From the heart, Dragonrider,” he said with a smile as Mkel slid his right hand from his head to a fist over his heart. Dragonriders saluted each other with this gesture, since they knew that being a dragonrider was a matter of the heart and of the soul.

“Yes, Colonel, sir,” Mkel said with a smile in return, and then they reached out for Colonel Lordan’s hand as they grasped each other’s forearms in a lion’s grip, putting their left arms around each other and touching the right sides of their heads.

“
Onaba haam,
good to see you, laddy, and how is the mighty Gallanth?” Colonel Lordan asked, using the sacred Draconic word meaning “greetings” to an honored friend and comrade who was dedicated to fight evil, a standard dragonrider greeting.

“A bit worse for wear, for today was a tough fight; is Talonth up to wing?” Mkel answered.

“He’s fine, but we heard about your battle today. Very interesting, this blue and black you two fought, as well as this entirely new breed of talon dragons, as I understand them to be called,” Lordan exclaimed.

“Yes sir, they are. Good to see you and Strikenth, old friend,” Mkel answered Colonel Lordan and gave Padonan the dragonrider embrace. “I still see you carry that little pinwheel of yours,” Mkel teased Padonan about his dragonstone-imbedded glaive.

“You still shoot that mutated crossbow, sir,” Padonan quipped with his normal mischievous smile.

“Worked for me today there, Capital boy!” Mkel teased back.

“All right, enough with the Weir/Capital wing rivalry bit; what is the plan for tomorrow?” Colonel Lordan asked with his usual humor-laden brevity.

“We all should move to Colonel Sheer’s temporary headquarters at the wooden keep to ensure everyone is keyed into the plan, gentlemen,” Mkel replied. “I’m sure Gallanth, Talonth, and Strikenth have a lot to talk about.” He looked up to the two large silver dragons that had now walked up behind the group and were in telepathic conversation with Gallanth.

“Those three always did get along well,” Colonel Lordan said as he leaned on his upright dragonstone lance. “Captain Mkel, I have heard that your rangers found a major gathering in the southern chain of the Smoking Mountains just southeast of my Weir.”

Mkel looked over at Lupek, who had a guilty smile. “Sir, my Weir’s lead ranger will inform us all of his findings when we go over the plan for tomorrow,” Mkel answered.

“We should get over to the keep, sir,” Toderan spoke up.

“Yes, I think Colonel Sheer will be expecting us, for he likely knows that Talonth and Strikenth have arrived. It’s hard to hide two silver dragons,” Jodem stated. Strikenth and Talonth walked up to Gallanth and lowered their heads in a sign of deference to the gold dragon. Gallanth acknowledged the salute from the two large silver dragons and began their dialogue in Draconic. Mkel and Jodem ushered the two dragonriders and the Keystone Weir council to the wooden keep. As they walked up to the side gate, Colonel Sheer met them.

“Dragonriders and Draden Weir council, welcome to my temporary home,” he said with a slight sense of sarcasm. “Come in; we have much to discuss.” They all walked into the hall, where hours earlier Jodem had interrogated the drow priestess. All of his officers and senior fighters were already gathered there.

“Gentlemen, let us begin with an update from my ranger commander, Captain Decray,” Sheer stated.

“Yes sir,” the lanky but tough-looking ranger started as he placed his seeing crystal on the large table in the center of the room; his brown eyes possessed both a fierce determination and a subtle kindness at the same time. “You’ll see the enemy encampment at the base of these small hills in the scrub. They have been getting a steady stream of reinforcements all afternoon. A wide variety of forces that include three battalions of orcs, one grummish, one gnoll, a Morgathian infantry regiment, and a Morgathian heavy cavalry battalion are gathering for a total of at least five thousand in strength. We have seen at least a wing of manticores and hymenoids landing. There is also a strange new land dragon type of creature, somewhat resembling a blue dragon but looking like a snake as well.”

“They are behirs, sir,” Lupek spoke up. “Myself and my comrade had an encounter with them earlier this morning in the Smoking Mountains.” Mkel’s expression indicated that he was slightly irritated but still approving of his actions. “They seem to be some type of offshoot of a blue dragon and snake. They have a blue dragon’s lighting breath weapon, but not nearly as powerful, and their hide is less than half as strong as a blue.”

“How many did you encounter?” Colonel Sheer asked. “Since you are still here, I assume you either killed them or escaped.”

“My elven counterpart killed one of them with one of his more powerful spells,” Lupek answered, “for they weren’t very magic resistant, but they seemed to be able to recuperate their breath weapon quickly. A land dragon would not have too much trouble handling this creature on a one-on-one fight, but I would recommend that you take as many as you have available for the battle tomorrow, to counter their power.”

“The two of you killed it by yourselves?” inquired Colonel Sheer.

“Yes sir, myself and my elven ranger friend have a bit of experience in handling matters like these sir,” Lupek answered.

“Our rangers are well trained Colonel,” Toderan spoke up.

“I have faith, my good senior Weir sergeant. I know General Daddonan has at least half a battalion of land dragons on their way here as we speak, and they should arrive anytime now. They will be utilized heavily as they always are, but this time we have three of the most powerful metallic dragons in the Alliance fighting with us,” Sheer stated.

“We must be cautious, Sheer,” Lordan spoke up, “this new enhanced chromatic dragon threat has me somewhat concerned.”

“We don’t know how many chromatics have successfully completed this ritual, but the drow priestess’s memories indicated that there weren’t very many,” Jodem explained, following a roar that by the deepness of the bellow they knew came from Gallanth. All eyes focused on Mkel.

“The lead elements of the Battle Point legion are arriving. That was Gallanth’s greeting roar to the land dragons,” Mkel explained; the roar was soon followed by the more distant and less bass roar of a land dragon. The senior dragon in a group was always the one who gave the challenge or greeting.

“Excellent; gentlemen, our reinforcements are arriving,” Colonel Sheer said as he started to walk out of the room toward the entrance of the keep. All in the room followed him and walked out of the front gate. The lead land dragon platoon, flanked by cavalry, was just outside the village, entering from the west. A long column of infantry in wagons were trailing them, with more land dragons and supply corps wagons intermixed in the train. The sky was filled with at least half a battalion of hippogriffs crisscrossing above the length of the column, providing flank security. A hippogriff accompanied by two griffons flew ahead of the column and landed in front of the keep. Mkel could tell it was General Daddonan and his personal guards. All present except for Jodem rendered a hand salute, which he returned as he dismounted.

“Gentlemen, well done, I monitored the fight on my crystal. Mkel, congratulations to you, Gallanth, and Master Jodem, for without you this village would now be burnt to the ground,” General Daddonan said with an appreciative smile. “My welcome to the Keystone Weir council; Colonel Lordan and Lieutenant Padonan, your presence and help is most appreciated,” he continued. “Now we have much work to do in preparation to repatriate our fellow soldiers from their bondage and torture.”

“Sir, my executive officer will see to the stationing and camping of the legion,” Colonel Sheer stated.

“We only have about half of the legion, Colonel. We are spread too thin to bring all of them here with the limited time we had. There are two land dragon companies, two hippogriff wings, two cavalry troops, and one reinforced battalion of infantry. This is all we could spare and muster for this fight. This is why we need at least one dragon,” General Daddonan explained as he looked to Mkel, Lordan, and Padonan.

“Point taken sir,” Mkel acknowledged as he gave Colonel Lordan and Padonan a quick side glance.

“All right, let’s get this plan together. We have a lot of work to do,” General Daddonan said as he walked into the keep, quickly followed by all present. As they assembled around the central meeting table, Colonel Sheer and Captain Decray placed their crystals down in the center of the table and uttered several commands. The stones projected the image of the terrain and the current view of the enemy encampment as conveyed through the rangers who were on their reconnaissance mission.

“Sir, I will let my ranger commander give you the latest update on the enemy situation,” Colonel Sheer exclaimed. Decray thoroughly explained the scenario, including the most recent enemy troop breakdown.

“General, Colonel Lordan and I have surmised two possible courses of action,” Mkel said. “I’ll address my portion first, followed by the senior silver dragonrider. We will insert my council team and Captain Decray’s remaining rangers with Gallanth at this point here, roughly a mile from the encampment in this draw. Jodem will camouflage Gallanth, and the team will approach from northeast of the camp. The Battle Point rangers will skirt around to the southeast to this position that offers us both the maximum cover and concealment. We will attack when your forces draw out and fully engage the majority of the enemy from the west along this field. Both our groups will then move in to repatriate the captured soldiers, with the rangers taking them back to safety as fast as possible. My team will take any prisoners we can and wait for any enemy reinforcements or chromatics to arrive to ambush them from the rear. Colonel Lordan, sir.”

“Sir, Lieutenant Padonan and I, with Talonth and Strikenth, will teleport your forces approximately to this location,” Lordan explained, “roughly two miles from the encampment in this lowland, to hide our dragons and the entrance of the legion. You can align your forces with your two land dragon companies on line forward of the infantry, flanked by the cavalry.”

“I will need to keep at least a platoon of the land dragons as a reserve,” the general said.

“That is our normal procedure as well, sir, but if you put them all on line up front, the enemy will think you have a bigger force and hopefully deploy all of their behirs. As the two lines approach each other, Padonan and I will launch and knock out as much as we can until they call for their chromatics, if they have any. They will only attack after the ground forces, for that is their way. We will then engage them to keep them off of you, as you start to cut the enemy apart. We have an idea of the strength of these behirs but have not yet fought them. In the meantime, Captain Mkel and his council and the remaining ranger teams will attack and eliminate their reserve forces and cover the rescue of the prisoners, who are likely in this tent,” Lordan said, pointing.