Dragon Alliance: Rise Against Shadow (60 page)

“He did not fear anything save Tiamat herself, or the Usurper Five, and I am surprised he was serving under that Morgathian sorcerer. While he was a Talon sorcerer, he was not powerful enough to subjugate a dragon of that strength. There must have been something else motivating him. A possible pact with the Talon Council in exchange for the ritual of his demonization process with the dark crystal,” Gallanth surmised
.

“Yes, this with what Vorgalla told us at Handsdown lends to a great deal of intrigue with the list of recent events. We will have to see what the General’s Council’s advisors and the Wizard Council of Thirteen can piece together, as well as Eladra if she is willing to help,” Mkel theorized.

“It will also make this month’s senate gathering interesting. Now let us see what Thurex used to guard his treasure, Gallanth said. As he hovered closer to the landing, a force wall spell repelled him.

“Simple but effective; let us see how powerful his legacy spells are,” Gallanth said as he backed off and fired a sunburst beam from his golden eyes and followed it up by a plasma fireball. Mkel fired an exploding-tipped bolt at the same time. The magic shield glowed and shook from the combined impacts and then gave way as its magically derived light disappeared. Gallanth then landed on the outcropping and furled his wings. He walked into the large cave, in which he barely fit, being slightly larger than the vanquished red dragon. Dragons can cast legacy spells that will remain intact with their power by using a drop of their blood to give it energy.
Stay mounted, my friend. It is not uncommon for chromatics to place multiple traps in their lairs.

Mkel lowered the mithril alloy crystal visor on his helmet, which also allowed him to see in the dark, as it was powered by a small dragonstone, and made sure the two spell shields from his dragonstone weapons were at full strength. The cave was scarred with several scorch marks on the walls and littered with hundreds of blackened bones on the ground. Mkel guessed they were sacrifices given to the red dragon as tribute, for they loved the taste of human flesh, especially young maidens and children. All of a sudden, Gallanth’s head and neck were engulfed in flames. His quick reaction, magic shield, and tough, almost fireproof hide kept the flames from causing him any injuries, but it would have killed or severely injured a chromatic dragon. Mkel’s shields from both Markthrea and Kershan protected him from being burnt. Gallanth backed away from the wall of flame and raised his left talon, invoking a freezing ray spell. The icy beam extinguished the flames, and he then proceeded deeper into the mountain.

The cave opened up to a larger chamber, approximately one hundred fifty yards across, with a roof that rose fifty yards above the floor. A huge mound of gold and silver coins was piled in the middle of the chamber, along with various artifacts and precious gemstones. Gallanth scanned the hoard quickly and was just about to step into the chamber when he backed off.
Mkel, fire a bolt at the treasure,
he said telepathically. Mkel quickly replaced his exploding-tipped bolt with a standard one and fired. Just as the projectile streaked into the large room, an icy beam shot across the chamber entrance and was reflected multiple times throughout the cave. It finally subsided and froze the whole inside of the cavern.

“Clever Thurex, he had the ice trap focused from one side of the cave and reflected it off the mirror polished opposite side to strike an intruder multiple times if they entered and did not know the command to nullify it. This was meant for a rival red dragon in particular, not very trusting of their own kind,”
Gallanth surmised. “I estimate just over a half a million gold, silver, and platinum coins, and at least one hundred fifty good quality gems. A sizable hoard, but not quite what I expected him to have. If you look over here, there are marks in the stone floor that indicate he removed over half of his treasure very recently, which doesn’t make sense for a red dragon. Especially a demon red, for they do not part with their hoard easily; this is curious.”

“Well, in any event, the remainder is the Alliance’s now, save several of those gems for us and Silvanth. What do you say about giving that fortress at the entrance of the valley a little visit, my friend?” Mkel asked.

“I think a small dose of retribution is in order. We’ll make one pass to give them something to think about and then return with the treasure.” Gallanth perked up, liking the idea. He walked back through the cave to the flat rock outcropping and spread his wings. “We will strike them hard and fast, coming in low, flying only a few dozen yards above the river.”

“I will hit the right tower with an exploding bolt, you hit the left tower with a fireball, and we’ll fly over the wall, knocking off anyone defending it. Maybe you can give them a spell to choke on when we pass over the fortress?” Mkel suggested as he proposed a quick plan as Gallanth leaped from the ledge and nose-dived toward the river far below. He dove almost straight down to gain speed and pulled up barely a hundred feet above the river. The speed of the maneuver forced Mkel to brace himself against his crossbow mount, but he recovered and prepared Markthrea to fire.

As they got to within a half mile from the fortress, he could see the defenders on the wall and towers finally recognize the threat that was coming their way.
Not much they can do about it now
, Mkel thought to himself as he lined the crosshairs of Markthrea’s sight on the right tower. He could feel Gallanth’s neck and body tense up as he gathered the plasma fireball together from deep in his synthensium. The large gold then unleashed the glowing fiery ball of energy, which streaked toward the left tower. Mkel waited a few seconds and fired. Both projectiles impacted within a second of each other, blowing great holes in the towers and actually crumbling the top of the left tower that Gallanth had struck.

The soldiers on the wall did not have time to load their ballista, and the archers who did manage to fire arrows either missed Gallanth or bounced them off his heavily armored hide and magic shield. The gold dragon streaked just over the parapets, sending several Morgathian soldiers hurtling toward the ground from the windblast. As Gallanth flew over the fortress courtyard, he cast an incendiary cloud spell over the barracks building. A dark reddish black cloud of sparking vapor emanated from his mouth and descended on the stone building and enshrouded it, causing it to enfilate. Dozens of Morgathian soldiers began running out choking and then succumbed to the flames. Gallanth lowered his tail, hitting the opposite wall with his rounded arrowhead-shaped plate, taking out a five-yard by ten-yard section of the blackened stone face.

“Lord Ashram, an Alliance gold dragon is attacking the fortress; you must come out and help us defend the castle.” Ashram’s apprentice sorcerer ran into his master’s bedroom chamber with Lodar close behind him.

“I am in no shape to do anything now; go and face it yourself,” Ashram screamed back to the young dark-haired sorcerer.

“Ashram, you are the cause of this attack by not dealing with it in the unsettled lands, the castle is getting pounded!” Lodar shouted back.

“Then get your cowardly men to fire the ballistae and chase it away. If it is attacking alone, it is here for a simple raid, now leave me to my rest,” the sorcerer commanded as the two hurriedly left before Ashram could cast a spell at them.

“What are we going to do?” the apprentice asked Lodar.

“You are going to face that dragon while I get my men mobilized to mass ballistae fires on it,” he scowled at the young sorcerer, who gulped in fear.

Gallanth soared away from the fortress and began to turn back for a final return strike. “I wonder if Ashram will come answer our challenge to his home fortress,” Mkel said.

“I smell his presence, but he is still deep within the castle,”
he responded. Gallanth made a lazy turn and headed back toward the fortress. A lightning bolt came from the middle of the courtyard in front of the keep, striking his shield.

“An apprentice sorcerer of Ashram, foolish to engage us,” Gallanth spoke as his golden eyes glowed in preparation to fire a sunburst beam. Mkel quickly loaded a mithril pointed bolt in his crossbow and began to acquire a good aim on the sorcerer. Gallanth fired the sunburst beam before he even flew over the fortress wall, striking the apprentice sorcerer’s shield and smashing it. As Gallanth flew over the wall, Mkel fired his bolt, which streaked toward the sorcerer. The bolt sunk into the black-robed sorcerer’s chest just above his heart. He gasped in pain and then sunk to his knees and doubled over, dead. The mithril tip also nicked the dark crystal on his staff, which started to vibrate and then erupted in a violent explosion, killing several soldiers near him.

Gallanth roared, and a billow of searing hot dragon fire emanated from his open jaws, engulfing the stables, dozens of Morgathian soldiers, and several wagons on the riverside of the courtyard in flames. The remaining Morgathian soldiers on the wall had managed to ready two ballistae and fired as Gallanth streaked over the wall. The first spear missed altogether, and the second managed to strike him in the upper tail but barely penetrated his tough hide and fell out. It only was able to get past his shield because it was fired at extremely close range. He gave two flaps of his great wings to gain altitude above the range of the remaining Morgathian ballistae, and then he roared an insult, calling them cruel cowards and headed back to Thurex’s lair to gather the treasure.

Mkel swung his crossbow around, took aim at one of the ballistae, and fired an exploding bolt. He hit it just left of center, blowing it apart and sending its crew flying. “That will keep them thinking for a while,” Mkel said with pleasure.

“It will serve as a reminder that their lands are still susceptible to our attacks. Hold on, my rider,” Gallanth added as he inverted in flight and sent a meteor swarm spell, with its six fiery projectiles hurtling toward the fortress wall. Each struck the side of the fortress, blowing three large holes in the wall. This coupled with the structural damage already done to the two towers collapsed a good section of the castle wall. Mkel grinned at the results as they flew back up the steep valley.

They landed back on Thurex’s ledge and walked into the cave and the red dragon’s treasure chamber. He stood in the middle of the pile of gold, silver, and gems, and spread his wings.

“First I’ll make it hard for another chromatic to use this lair,” he said to Mkel, casting a shatter spell through an enhanced roar on the cave entrance that likely echoed down the valley. The spell caused the rock over the entrance to shake and begin to crack. He and Mkel then focused on the plain by the fresh battlefield. Gallanth could see no one was in the vicinity through the general’s seeing crystal, and in a flash, they and the treasure were gone.

They emerged back at the rear of the battlefield, surrounded by the demon dragon’s treasure. General Daddonan’s chief of staff ordered guards posted around it immediately, so as to not tempt the legionnaires. Talonth emerged almost beside Gallanth, with a slightly smaller pile of booty.

“Good strike on the sorcerer’s fortress, my brother. We would have joined you, but I sensed at least two wings of chromatics inbound to challenge us for their kin’s treasure, the silver dragon said to Gallanth.

“We have seen enough killing among dragons today, but there is always tomorrow,” Gallanth replied with the best sense of humor that a dragon could muster. Both dragons then leaped into the air and disappeared simultaneously, just at Strikenth appeared with another pile of treasure. Within time, all thirteen chromatics’ treasure hoards were returned, with Strikenth and Padonan dripping wet from the last mission.

“Get a little wet, Lieutenant?” Mkel yelled over to Padonan.

“The black dragon had his hoard underwater, vile chromatic stench,” Padonan replied with a smile, as he tried to wipe the swampy water off of his dragon hide riding armor. “A bath we will need, my friend,” he told his dragon.

“I agree,” Strikenth replied.

“How much do you think you all collected?” General Daddonan asked as the dragonriders dismounted.

“Gallanth estimates that there is over three and a half million coins, of which a tenth are platinum, a third are gold, and the rest equal amounts of silver and copper. He has also sensed over eight hundred gems of worth,” Mkel conveyed his dragon’s assessment. “The dragons will consolidate the piles, and they want each legionnaire to grab one hundred drachlars, or the equivalent of that amount,” Mkel explained. “Plus we still must collect the treasure from that demon blue dragon, along with the black and green that we killed over Handsdown. That will only add to the booty we have gathered.”

“Captain, I understand that, but do the dragons realize that there are over three thousand soldiers on the field, and several hundred more back at Handsdown and on the support corps wagons heading here now?” General Daddonan inquired.

“Yes sir, they do, and they estimate that it will take almost four hundred thousand drachlars to give that amount out, which will leave roughly three million or more for us of to divide four ways. As for the gems, we will also divide them in four parts as well, sir,” Mkel explained, although he could clearly see that the general was not overly excited about this new plan for the redistribution of the booty. But since the dragons had fought for it, and collected it, he did not have much choice. Mkel knew that this was like giving the soldiers a year’s pay as a bonus, which after this fight; they all felt they deserved.