Omensent: Wrath of a Dragon God (13 page)

"What's Snowfeather have to say?" Raven a
sked curiously. She had her bow and several quivers of arrows at the ready.

"They're not expecting us." Damion smiled, slipping down from Storm's broad back.

"How many are there?" Dar asked, his face anxious.

"More than he could count." He handed
one of Bativa's warriors the great warhorse's reins, then turned to leave.

"Where are you going?" Bativa asked in bafflement.

Damion stopped. "I'm going to take care of their horses. I'll be back in a moment." He quickly shifted into the form of a panther, then slipped off into the darkness.

"By the gods!" Bativa exclaimed, staring out into the darkness after him. He turned to look at Raven, his eyes slightly wild. "Does he always do thing
s like that?"

Raven nodded with a laugh. "You get used to it after a while."

They all turned to stare out into the night, impatiently awaiting Damion's return.

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

Damion quickly made his way through the night towards the dark plantation. He easily located the extensive corral, which was filled mostly with ponies and weary old plow horses, and quickly made his way towards the fence forming the large enclosure.

He froze suddenly
as a pair of Faldor's men, who were patrolling the area with torches, appeared from behind an outbuilding and started in his direction. He slowly retreated back into the shadows and waited for them to pass, then once they were out of sight, he crept forward on silent paws until he reached the corral.

He sat down for a moment while he considered
his options. The fence surrounding the corral had been constructed from heavy timber harvested from the hardwood forests that dotted the valleys throughout the neighboring mountains, and completely encircled the horses. The only gate leading in and out was located on the far side of the pen, directly next to the area a number of the mercenaries had decided to set up camp.

After
thinking it over for several moments, he finally shifted back into his normal form, and laid one hand upon the fence. Drawing in his magic, he focused it heavy wooden beams, which instantly began to crumble into dust.

He turned, shifting into the form of a panther once again, then quickly made his way back through the darkness to others.

Bativa let out a muffled yelp of surprise as he suddenly materialized from the night and resumed his normal form. "Good gods, man! Can't you warn us before you do things like that?"

Damion chuckled as he climbed back into his saddle.

"What's happening with the horses?" Raven asked quietly. "Why didn't you frighten them off?"

"There was a heavy fence around the corral that I had to remove before I could deal with horses." He nudged Storm
into a walk, leading everyone slowly forward until the edge of the corral was in view.

"The fence is still standing!"
Bativa exclaimed in surprise. He turned to look at Damion. "I thought you said that you had taken care of it."

"Don't worry." He assured the clan chief. "You may want to tell your men to keep a tight rein on their horses, though."

The huge tribesman stared at him suspiciously. "You're about to do something... unnatural, aren't you?" He asked in an accusing tone.

"
Aye, you can say that." He replied with a mischievous smile.

The huge Deolan shook his head helplessly, then sent an order through the ranks for everyone to keep tight control o
f their horses.

Once he was confident that everyone was prepared,
Damion looked at Raven. "Do you think you can hit that fence from here, my love?"

"Of course." She pulled
an arrow from one of her quivers, then notched, drew, and fired it in a single fluid motion. The arrow traveled in a flawless arc, and struck one of the fence posts. The entire fence suddenly disintegrated into a cloud of choking dust, causing the mercenaries nearby to leap up from their bedrolls in surprise.

"Here we go!" Damion drew in his magic, then placed two fingers to his mouth and blew an ear shattering
whistle that could be heard for miles.

The horses and ponies in the corral suddenly began to rear and buck in fright, trampling several of the mercenaries that had rushed forward to try to keep them from escaping, then
, still in a panic, they disappeared off into the darkness.

The tribesmen hesitated for a moment, stunned by what they just witnessed
, then the first wave of tribesmen charged in from the darkness, their swords flashing.

The fight was short and ugly. Once the first wave of warriors struck the unsuspecting mercenaries, chaos erupted throughout the plantation. Shouts of pain and fear echoed through the night, and several fires erupted as a number of Bativa's horsemen began to set the dilap
idated buildings aflame. The second and third wave of horsemen appeared from the night to join in the fray, slaughtering many of the men in Faldor's army before they could raise any resistance.

"Shall we go join
the party?" Bativa suggested, an eager glint in his eyes.

"It sounds like fun!" Damion laughed, spurring Storm forward.

There were only a few pockets of resistance left, mostly battle hardened mercenaries that had been near their weapons when the first wave of warriors struck, but they were quickly cut down, or simply ridden into the ground by churning hooves.

"Damion! Look!" Raven pointed to a
n overweight man dressed in garish clothing mercilessly flogging his horse in a desperate attempt to escape the carnage.

"That's Faldor!" Shirk exclaimed, crushing the side of mercenary's head with his mace. "He's trying to make a break for it!"

"I'll take care of him!" Damion spurred Storm through the carnage, trampling several mortally injured mercenaries as they gave chase.

"Don't kill him!" Dar called after him. "We need him to answer some questions first!"

Damion charged on, not giving any indication that he had heard the childlike sprite's words.

The garishly dressed man was squealing in fright as he continued to whip his horse
forward, until the poor beast suddenly stumbled, throwing the man from his saddle. The terrified horse scrambled to its feet and ran off into the darkness.

The gang leader was wailing in panic as Damion approached, and was
struggling franticly trying to get to his feet. "You must be Faldor." The huge warrior said in a offhand tone."We've been looking for you."

"Please, don't kill me!" Faldor squealed in terror as he caught sight of the enormous warrior bearing down on him.
"I yield! Show me mercy!"

"Good lord, man!" Damion stared at the pathetic man in disgust. "Grow a
pair, will you?" He leaned back in his saddle and kicked the cringing man square in the face. The man's eyes rolled up into the back of his head as he dropped into an unconscious pile at Storm's hooves.

Damion bound the man's hands and feet firmly together, then returned to the ruined plantation, dragging
the unconscious gang leader behind Storm the entire way. He found the others impatiently awaiting his return.

"Faldor's army has been completely wiped out
." Bativa said in satisfaction. "We won't have to worry about them anymore."

"Here is the source of all your problems right here." Damion jerked a thumb at the
unconscious man that he had bound and dragged back to the others.

"
Oh, ho! It seems our tormentor is now at our mercy!" The clan chief exclaimed in delight.

"Slow down, Bativa
," Dar told the huge tribesman, walking over to the unconscious man and peeling back one of his eyelids. "We need him to answer a few questions first,
then
you can have him."

They gathered around the
unconscious man, and waited for Dar to rouse him back to consciousness.

The child
like Alena continued to examine the man for several moments, then finally leaned down and slapped him firmly across the face.

Faldor opened his eyes and groaned, then, realizing that he was bound up tightly and unable to move, he began to look around desperately.

"It seems you're in a bit of trouble, Faldor." Bativa told the trembling man in a fierce voice.

"M-Mercy!
" The gaudily dressed man started squealing pitifully. "S-Show mercy!"

"You need to answer some questions first." Shirk told him, grasping the trembling man by
the front of his colorful shirt, and pulling him into a sitting position. "And the quicker you answer, the better off you will be." He took out his dagger and began testing the edge with his thumb.

"I-I'll tell you anything y-you want!" Faldor whimpered, staring at the bearded thief in terror.

"Very good. Start with where you were getting the gold that you were using to buy all of those weapons?"

"
Two men appeared one evening and offered it to me." The gaudily dressed man answered quickly, his eyes still on Shirk's dagger.

"And who w
ere these men?"

"I don't know who they were,
I swear to you, I don't!" The gang leader cried fearfully. "They appeared at my plantation several months ago, and offered me a fortune if I was to cause some kind of major disruption in the area."

"For what purpose?"

The bound man shook his head. "They gave me no reason. I was just told to gather as many men as I could, have some weapons shipped in to arm them, and start as much mayhem as possible. So, I started hiring as many mercenaries as I could, paid Ickor, a merchant in Sierra, to have some gnomish weapons shipped in from the east, and planned on starting a war with one of the Deolan clans. I figured I couldn't cause much more mayhem than that."

"What did these men look like?"
Raven asked with a frown.

"The man that spoke for the pair was a large brute of a man who was completely
bald, and smelled like an open cesspool. He wore bull hide armor, and spoke with a heavy accent that I didn't recognize."

"And the other?"

The gang leader shook his head desperately. "I couldn't see his face. He wore a grey hooded cloak, and always kept to the shadows. He was a small man, though. He wasn't much bigger than that young lady there," He nodded towards Raven. "and he never said a word. He just let the big brute speak for them."