Omensent: Princess Of Dragons (Book 5) (22 page)

"Do you think that this was a goblin hollow?" Leia asked in a slightly nervous voice. This was the first time that she had ever tried something so foolhardy, and she was beginning to have second thoughts on the matter, but she knew that she needed to press on.

"Almossst certainly." The huge shadowspawn whispered. "Thessse tunnelsss are not natural."

They continued to slowly make their way through the dark tunnel, then stopped once more when they reached a sharp bend.

"I can see a light." Leia whispered, noticing an orange glow that emanated from around the bend.

They pressed on cautiously around the bend in the tunnel and found themselves standing in a long corridor that had a number of crude torches lining the walls to light the way.

"We ssshould turn back." Slither hissed worriedly. "It isss too dangerousss to continue."

"We've come too far to turn back now." She told him, nimbly slipping around the huge beast and hurrying along the corridor.

She slowed as she approached each torch and drew in her magic, which she focused onto the torches, causing their flames to sputter and die, casting the corridor into darkness. She repeated this as she reached each torch, until she finally neared the end of the long corridor. "It looks like there is a chamber ahead." She whispered as they drew closer.

"Wait a moment." Slither warned her. "Let SSSlither make sssure that the way isss sssafe." He poked his head around the corner and looked into the chamber, then let out a grunt of surprise.

"What is it?" She cautiously peeked around the corner, then gasped. "Uh oh. This can't be good."

The corridor opened up into an large cavern which was lit by a massive fire pit that dominated the center of the uneven floor. A huge fire burned inside of the pit, revealing numerous crudely constructed platforms that had been built along the cavern walls, providing walkways to the dozens of smaller chambers that had been carved into the dense stone. Hundreds of dragonspawn were kneeling around the bonfire, while several shadowspawn stood before the gathered crowd, hissing and snarling in an almost ritualistic rhythm.

"What is all this?" Leia asked Slither in confusion.

"The ssspawn are praying to the Dragon God." Slither hissed in a tense voice. "Thisss isss sssomething rarely done by the ssspawn."

They watched as the dragonspawn continued to hiss and snarl rhythmically, then one of the beasts suddenly caught Leia's attention.

"What, in the name of the gods, is that thing?" She asked Slither, who let out a startled grunt.

The dragonspawn was unlike any Leia had ever seen. It was considerably larger than the other dragonspawn around it, with a thick scaly green hide, and a thick ridge of sharp horns running from the back of its dragon-like head, all of the way down to the tip of its whip-like tail. The most unusual feature about the beast, however, were the thick leathery wings which sprouted from just behind its broad shoulders.

"SSSlither doesss not know." The huge shadowspawn hissed, staring at the new beasts appraisingly. "SSSlither hasss never ssseen sssuch a creature before."

They noticed several more of the winged dragonspawn scattered among the creatures around the fire, each just a large and vicious looking as the next.

"Do you think they are planning on launching an attack using these new dragonspawn?" Leia asked, a feeling of dread forming in the pit of her stomach.

"It'sss hard to sssay," Slither murmured in a worried tone. "though SSSlither doubtsss that the Dragon God would have created them without having a purpossse for them."

"What would that purpose be?"

"War." The huge shadowspawn grunted grimly.

"War with who?"

"Everyone." Slither growled, watching as the dragonspawn continued to chant and sway rhythmically. "If the ssspawn isss gathering in preparation for war, no one will be sssafe."

"What are they waiting for then?"

The huge shadowspawn held out his claw tipped hands helplessly. "SSSlither doesss not know. Perhapsss the Dragon God isss not yet ready to ssstrike."

"At least it gives us a bit of time to prepare ourselves, and warn everyone of what we've discovered." Leia murmured, still watching the mingling crowd of dragonspawn with a worried expression.

"Come," Slither hissed nervously. "We ssshould leave before we are dissscovered."

Leia nodded, and quickly turned to leave, but suddenly stumbled, dislodging a bit of loose gravel. "Aw, damn!" She cursed as a number of the dragonspawn whirled around to stare at them in surprise. "Time to go!"

Both Leia and Slither turned and dashed back along the tunnel, moving as quickly as they could in the darkness.

"Hurry!" Slither hissed urgently. "They are coming!"

Leia glanced back down the long corridor and could just make out the dark silhouettes of several dragonspawn that had scrambled to pursue them. She sprinted around the bend in the tunnel, then spotted the entrance they had used to enter the goblin hollow. She dashed through the opening, followed closely by Slither, then slid to a stop and turned, her bow already in her hand. Her hands moving faster than the eye could follow, she fired three rapid shots back into the darkness, and was rewarded with three heavy thuds. An instant later, one of the dragonspawn that had been in pursuit suddenly tumbled out of the entrance with all three arrows lodged in its chest.

A second dragonspawn appeared from the fissure and leapt over its fallen brethren, charging directly at Leia with bloodthirsty eyes, but Slither, with a roar of rage, slammed into the beast with bone crushing force, and began tearing at the creature with his razor sharp talons.

Three more dragonspawn appeared from the goblin hollow, but two instantly fell twitching to the ground with Leia's arrows lodged deep in their throats. The remaining beast, one of the strange winged dragonspawn that they had spotted in the cavern, charged directly towards her, forcing Leia to retreat several steps to avoid a wild swipe of its vicious talons. She attempted to notch another arrow and take aim as she continued to retreat from the crazed beast, but the heel of her boot caught a large stone, tripping her up, and sending her sprawling to the ground.

The winged dragonspawn let out hiss of triumph, and then lunged towards her, its razor sharp talons poised to kill.

Leia screamed, throwing up her hands to shield her face, and instinctively released a pulse of energy from her palms that caught the beast full in the chest, sending it hurtling back into the tunnel's opening, and crashing into two more dragonspawn who were just emerging into the fight.

"Collapssse the entrance!" Slither roared, ripping the throat out of the beast that he had tackled, and then focusing on yet another dragonspawn which emerged from the goblin hollow and charged towards him with a roar of rage.

Leia scrambled back to her feet in a panic, then drew in her magic, which she focused into a bolt of pure energy. She sent it streaking through the air towards the face of the cliff, where it struck a shadowspawn full in the chest as it emerged from the tunnel's entrance. The resulting explosion blew Leia, Slither, and the remaining dragonspawn clear off of their feet, and reduced the entire cliff face to rubble, burying the tunnel entrance beneath tons of stone.

Leia struggled back to her feet and looked around, her ears still ringing from the deafening blast. A sudden growl drew her attention to Slither, who was slowly climbing back to his feet with a dazed expression. "Are you okay?"

"SSSlither sssaid collapssse the entrance, not blassst the mountain to dussst!" The huge shadowspawn shook its head to clear the cobwebs away, then walked over to the only surviving dragonspawn, who had begun to stir weakly. He snatched a firm hold on the beast's throat and hauled it to its feet, then dragged it over to stand before Leia.

The dragonspawn stared at Slither with hate filled eyes as it struggled weakly against the shadowspawn's unbreakable grip, then it snarled something in a harsh tone which trailed out into a pathetic whimper.

"What did it say?" Leia asked, noticing Slither's eyes widening in surprise.

"It sssaysss that we are doomed. It sssaysss that they are preparing to dessstory the mortalsss of thisss world, and that there isss nothing that we, or the Dragon Lord, can do to ssstop them."

"Ask it what those new creatures are, and if there are many more of them."

Slither growled at the dragonspawn in a deadly quiet tone, their snouts mere inches from one another, but the dragonspawn merely bared it teeth and snarled.

"It will not sssay." Slither informed her, still maintaining a vice-like grip on the struggling creature's throat. "It would rather die than betray the ssspawn."

"That's unfortunate. What do you think we should do with it?"

"We ssshould kill it. It will only rejoin the ssspawn, and tell them what transsspired here."

Leia stared at the dragonspawn for a moment in thought. "No," She decided, her mind working quickly. "Don't kill it. Tell it that I want it to take a message back to the rest of the dragonspawn for me."

Slither gave her a dubious look, then hissed something to the dragonspawn, who glanced over to Leia nervously.

"Tell it that the daughter of the Dragon Lord, the Princess of Dragons, demands that they disperse, or suffer the wrath of her children."

"The Princesssss of Dragonsss?" The huge shadowspawn asked, a note of amusement in its voice.

"Just tell it!" She ordered him impatiently. "Tell it that if the dragonspawn come against us, my children will root them out and destroy them, until there isn't a single dragonspawn left alive." She gave the beast a deadly look. "Not a single one."

Slither looked back to the dragonspawn and relayed her message in a series of snarls and growls, punctuating his point now and then with a powerful shake that left the dragonspawn's eyes rolling in its skull.

The dragonspawn finally responded in a weak whimper, and the huge shadowspawn gave the defeated beast a hard shove backwards as he released his grip, sending the dragonspawn stumbling towards the underbrush.

The dragonspawn gave them one last quick look, then turned and dashed off into the forest.

They listened as the dragonspawn crashed blindly through the underbrush in its haste to escape until it could no longer be heard, then they both turned to stare at one another.

"Well, that didn't go asss planned." Slither hissed, glancing over at the ruined cliff side, and then shaking his head in bemusement. "What happened?"

"I panicked." Leia admitted, blushing red with embarrassment. "I guess in my panic, I got a little carried away."

"A little?" Slither snorted in amusement. "They probably felt that in SSSierra!"

"Don't you dare breathe a word of this to my father." Leia warned him with hard eyes. "I'll never hear the end of it if he finds out."

They slowly made their way back to the main trail and retrieved their burlap sack full of turkeys and partridges, then they set off for the castle.

When they finally emerged from the wild and into the field on the opposite side of the trade road from Sevria, they found Sly, Juco, Captain Repheth, and Lady Skie impatiently awaiting their return just outside of the gates leading into the city.

"Thank the gods you are safe!" Lady Skie rushed to Leia and engulfed her in a fierce embrace. "We heard an explosion, and the all of the windows in the castle began to shake! We thought the worst may have happened!"

"We're fine." Leia assured her with a weary sigh. "We just ran into a bit of trouble while hunting." She quickly told them what they had discovered. "They were all gathered around a huge bonfire, swaying and hissing in a sort of ritualistic manner."

"They were calling upon the Dragon God." Slither explained as everyone turned to look at him. "It isss a very rare event which isss only held when the ssspawn are preparing for war."

"Once we found the dragonspawn," Leia continued. "we hurried back outside, and I sealed the entrance." She finished with a shrug, glancing over to Slither, who looked away with an amused expression. "That was the explosion that you heard."

"This isn't good." Sly frowned worriedly. "We could be in some serious trouble if the dragonspawn were to attack. Without Damion and Damarius here, we would be at a serious disadvantage."

"That's not the worst of it." Leia informed them grimly. "I noticed a number of odd looking dragonspawn among those gathered in the goblin hollow." She frowned. "These creature were far larger than normal dragonspawn, with dark green scales, and a ridge of horns traveling down their backs."

"I don't see how a few new dragonspawn will really help their cause." Juco sniffed dismissively. "They don't really sound all that fearsome."

"But these dragonspawn had wings." Leia informed him bleakly.

"Dragonspawn with wings?" Lady Skie shuddered. "Now that is a truly horrifying thought!"

"This is disturbing news." Sly murmured with a troubled expression. "Is there any way to know how many of them there may be among the spawn?"

Leia shook her head. "We attempted to question a dragonspawn that Slither managed to corner, and it refused to tell us anything about them. I'm guessing that there are quite a few of them, though."

"Why do you say that?" Lady Skie asked worriedly.

"Because if Draco is gathering the spawn together to start a war with the mortals of this world, He would need a lot of these new beasts to combat the scarlet dragons." The young girl pointed out reasonably. "The only thing that has kept the dragonspawn in check all these years is their fear of father releasing the scarlet dragons upon them. If they really
are
planning an attack, then they must be confident that father and the scarlet dragons pose them no real danger."

Everyone sat in stunned silence for several long moments, a feeling of dread overcoming them as they realized the enormity of the young girl's discovery.

"Well," Captain Repheth started finally. "at least now we know what happened to all of the dragonspawn,
and
why the mountains are suddenly teeming with goblins. Now we just need to figure out what to do about it."