Dragon Alliance: Rise Against Shadow (33 page)

Jodem fired a frost ray at the drow, whose shield took the impact but then buckled. The dark elf fired a barrage of magic missiles at Vatara, as the giant eagle passed and was climbing to gain altitude. Vatara flew an erratic pattern to dodge the small glowing projectiles. One hit Jodem’s shield, which was weakening, but it still held. Mkel took a careful aim with a standard bolt and fired. The small arrow streaked out of Markthrea with blinding speed, spinning in flight. It was a long shot, over six hundred yards, but Gallanth was holding steady as he was getting ready for an attack run. Amazingly, it hit the dark elf wizard in the abdomen, knocking him off of his black elf horse steed and killing him instantly.

“Need any help, old friend?” Mkel called Jodem through his seeing crystal.

“Hardly, we were just finishing up here, if you don’t mind,” Jodem replied with a small tone of sarcasm in his voice.

“Good, then you won’t mind if I burn a little trash,” Gallanth shouted as he gave his battle roar and began to dive. The drow that were still fighting the paladin cavalry now broke and began to run. Most were mounted on their traditional black and gray steeds they bred, but a few were on giant spiders.
Disgusting creatures,
Mkel thought to himself as he cocked his crossbow with an exploding-tipped bolt and fired at one of the spiders. The impact blew it and its drow rider to pieces. Gallanth breathed out a billowing plume of fire, incinerating at least ten drow and their mounts as he cursed them in Draconic, and then he flew back upward after the run.

“You are all weak cowards, shadow elves; I will burn you into extinction!” Gallanth shouted with his deep booming voice. Referring to a drow as a shadow elf reminded them of their fall from grace and also implied that they were mere shadows of their high elf counterparts.

Gallanth demonstrated his particular dislike for the dark elves after their part in the Great War, and he showed them little mercy. The paladins were making chase now as the drow scattered. Gallanth fired a sunbeam burst at two spider-mounted drow, almost vaporizing the pair and their arachnid mounts.

“Mkel, there are two drow escaping to the southeast on spiders. One is a powerful high priestess. I almost had her down, but she retreated before her shield was depleted. She would be very valuable if captured alive,” Jodem explained with earnest.

“We will track them down. Gallanth, do you have her scent?” Mkel asked.
Yes, she and her bodyguard took a more southern direction. Likely she sent the others more easterly, so they could mask her escape,
Gallanth added, for in the drow culture, females were the dominate gender, like the spiders they worshipped.
She will not escape us,
he added as he banked to the right to catch up to the fleeing priestess.

Within minutes, they sighted the pair on their giant spiders, moving as fast as they could toward the mountains far to the southeast. Gallanth bellowed out his challenge roar to let them know he was coming and thwart any attempt to teleport away. He also wanted them to feel as much fear as he could inspire. He then dove on them as Mkel sighted in on the priestess’s spider and fired a regular bolt, which struck its hairy abdomen, punching a fist-sized hole all the way through the arachnid. The hideous creature reared up from the impact, raising its front two legs. The priestess had another dark elf riding on her spider, likely a bodyguard.

As Gallanth passed just over their heads, the resulting wind draft flattened the male drow’s spider to the ground. The drow priestess fired a death ray at the gold dragon, which his spell shield took with ease, in spite of the previous fight with the chromatics. She should have known that gold, silver, and bronze dragons were immune to death magic, but she seemed flustered at having to contend with such a powerful opponent.

Gallanth swung around slowly to start another run at them; there was no need for haste because they could not outrun the flying dragon. He started his dive, aiming at the drow fighter, who had just recovered from the cyclone of air from his first pass. He first fired a sunbeam burst ray at the priestess, which shattered her shield. Mkel immediately fired another bolt at the spider, this time hitting it square in the head segment, killing it instantly. She and the male drow tumbled off of the giant arachnid, rolling onto the ground, her white spider silk robes tasseled all around her, but she still managed to clutch her black iron death staff.

Gallanth then breathed a huge plume of fire, engulfing the other bodyguard and his spider, turning them into ashes. Gallanth back winged and landed with an extra hard thud, knocking the pair off their feet again. His victory roar was ear splitting, for he took great pleasure in the killing of dark elves. Mkel quickly unbuckled the flying straps and slid off Gallanth’s neck to his forearm. He left his crossbow mounted on the flying rig and drew Kershan. As he walked toward the evil priestess, she quickly stood up and prepared to face him.

As he moved to within thirty yards of her, she waved her staff and fired a sonic blast at him. He raised his sword, its shield easily taking the impact of the disruption beam. Mkel kept walking toward her, and she fired another blast at him, which was again stopped by Kershan’s shield. Mkel could feel the sword almost pulling him toward her, as if it wanted to taste her blood.
It has a good memory
, he thought to himself.

The drow fighter finally moved in front of his master after she yelled at him in the dark elvish dialect; he drew a black iron long sword to challenge Mkel. He raised Kershan to take the drow’s down stroke and quickly whirled around, leveling his blade with a swing at the dark elf’s midsection. The drow parried it, and Mkel quickly switched angles and delivered a short strike to the drow’s right shoulder. Again the black iron blade blocked the mithril sword, but Mkel slid Kershan down the drow’s blade, slicing through the pommel guard and cutting into the dark elf’s right arm. The drow priestess conjured a death ray and initially attempted to fire it at Mkel, but Gallanth projected his shield in front of his rider, blocking the deadly black ray.

“Make it a fair fight, spider priestess,” Gallanth spoke over the combatants. The drow cleric looked up at the gold dragon with a disgusted expression on her face. The elf backed away and flexed his arm to see the extent of his injury, but Mkel quickly pressed his advantage. He attacked forward with a downward stroke, which the drow blocked, but Mkel quickly inverted his sword, pushing his opponent’s black blade to the left, and then he sliced down into the drow’s right leg, severing it below the knee. As the drow went down, Mkel quickly swung Kershan in a tight circle coming from his right and cut the dark elf’s head clean off. The ruby dragonstone on Kershan’s pommel glowed more intensely than Mkel had ever seen it, obviously almost happy to taste drow blood.

As Mkel got to within striking distance of the priestess, she raised her black iron staff, which had a dark crystal mounted on its pointed tip, and swung it at Mkel’s head. He quickly parried with Kershan, and when the dark staff hit the mithril blade, the energy of both magically powered weapons flashed in brilliant sparks of light. The power of the impact was so great that the drow priestess was forced to take several steps back to keep her balance. Mkel moved toward her, and she again swung her staff, which Mkel once more repelled.

“This game is getting old, priestess, and my sword wants to taste your blood,” Mkel said coldly to the drow cleric.

“Don’t be so confident, rider of Gallanth the destroyer,” she hissed back at him, thrusting the staff’s pointed tip toward his chest.

It is time to end this game
, Mkel thought to himself, but she knew Gallanth’s name, and that was a curiosity. He dodged to the right of the thrust and whirled around, bringing Kershan down in a powerful downward thrust, which severed the hollow black iron staff just behind the dark crystal-mounted tip. A flash and a loud crack emanated from the staff as the black/purple crystal stone assembly was sent tumbling away. She was thrown backwards and landed on her side, unconscious. Mkel walked over to her to investigate.

“Be careful, Mkel, she is still alive. Don’t underestimate her trickery,” Gallanth told him as he walked over and looked down at her. She was still unconscious as Mkel stood over her. Her spider silk robes and shiny gray dress accented the jet black skin of her smooth, slender legs. Her features were still very much elven, from her thin nose to her pointed ears, all pure ebony in color, almost obsidian-like, not similar to the brown shades of the people of the southern island chains or Canaris Twin Islands, but a true midnight black. She was rather attractive in a dark, seductive way, Mkel thought to himself, in spite of his intense hatred of their race.

Suddenly, she quickly sprang up to her feet. “You are Captain Mkel,” she said with a thick sharp accent.

“You know my name, drow witch?” Mkel asked in a commanding manner.

“Your sword and your pet are unmistakable,” she hissed.

“Pet? I guess your kind still remembers me, priestess,” Gallanth said to her with the best Draconic condescending tone he could muster.

“You destroyed half of our city and killed hundreds of us, including my kin!” the drow priestess yelled back at Gallanth.

“Your kind killed my former rider; you were fortunate I could not do more,” Gallanth said with anger reverberating in his deep dragon voice, which almost knocked her over.

“Now tell me why I shouldn’t kill you?” Mkel said as he leveled his sword at the drow’s slender neck.

“You can kill me if you want, but we will have our revenge,” she spat back.

“Doubtful; my dragon burned your city once, and we will see it totally destroyed, I promise you that,” Mkel said, but in spite of the rage he was feeling at confronting a member of the race that helped kill his father, he lowered his sword from her neck.

“Maybe you should think of how important your ties to the Alliance are, Captain Mkel, gold dragonrider. You could be very helpful to us, and as a high priestess, I could use a strong mate. I can sense the dragon blood flowing in your veins. Your rage at us is great, as is the sorrow you still feel for the loss of your father. I can take that anger and redirect it, Mkel. I am Vorgalla, a high priestess to Queen Lolth, and you could strengthen us,” she said in a soft and seductive voice.

Mkel stared at her pale gray eyes, which became almost hypnotic. He could hear her voice, not just in his ears, but in his head, as if her words were piercing his soul. She had also stealthily moved the robes of her dress aside to uncover her legs and her silken undergarments, accenting her intense sexuality. He could feel himself drawn to her, like a fly enticed into a spider’s web. He lost focus for a brief moment until he felt Gallanth snap him back into reality.

Mkel, she is trying to seduce you and cloud your mind,
the gold dragon said telepathically. Mkel took a step back and shook his head to clear his thoughts. He then lowered Kershan, stepped forward, and slapped the dark elf across her face, knocking her down. “Nice try,
yvonalch
[the Draconic word for witch], but love and blood are stronger than you will ever know. This is why you and all your kind will never achieve victory.”

“You’ll never know the pleasure I could have given you, Dragonrider,” she said with a slight smile, holding her chin.

“My wife is who I have come to love, you could never fill that role,” Mkel answered back, regaining his composure.

“Only a half elf? I doubt it,” Vorgalla answered back.

“Again you’ll never know, but other than that, you were not good enough,” Mkel replied just as Vatara screeched in to a landing. Jodem dismounted from his eagle and walked over to Mkel.

“Mkel, I see you have a new friend,” Jodem said with a smile.

“Jodem the Wise, you were lucky Telenkis didn’t best you,” Vorgalla said.

“Very spirited, my little spider; I assume you are talking about that lesser drow sorcerer I sent back to the underworld earlier,” Jodem replied in a coarse manner as he raised his staff and moved the dragonstone head piece just over her. The sapphire stone started to glow bright blue, which became even brighter as the iridescent light enveloped her. Mkel could see her attempt to resist the domination spell, but without her dark crystal staff, her resistance was futile, and her fidgeting soon ended with the dark elf being locked in a still and silent state. Even her natural magical resistance as an elf could not prevent Jodem’s spell from taking effect.

“She will be a little more cooperative now,” Jodem stated, very pleased with having a live drow priestess as a captive.

“I hope she will give us the information we are looking for,” said Mkel.

“We will get what we need out of her, either through magical means or by coercion, whichever works the best, in spite of the famous drow tenacity,” Jodem replied.

“Is there any more organized resistance that needs stamping out?” Mkel asked.

“I do not see any more drow or orcs in the vicinity, and all the remaining dragon spawn and other aerial mounts have been killed. I did hear that the spawn took several Battle Point soldiers hostage as well as a couple of civilians,” Gallanth said with a distinguishable amount of concern in his deep voice.

“Taken for information, slaves, or food?” Mkel asked.

“That is to be determined. We do not know enough about them yet, their motivations or masters. We will have to get a definitive head count from Colonel Sheer and the commander of the company to know who is missing,” Jodem said.