Omensent: Princess Of Dragons (Book 5) (6 page)

"I have less confidence in him." Brody stated bluntly. "I have never trusted his motives. He has tried multiple times in the past to convince our queen to open ourselves up to the outside world and embrace the lesser races, ignoring the fact that it would surely spell the end of elven society as we know it."

"Dar is one of the most wise and honorable people that anyone could hope to meet." Leia defended the tiny Alena, staring at the elf challengingly.

"I'm sure that your many years of life have gifted you with the ability to read a person's true character," Brody murmured to her condescendingly. "but
I
still have doubts about his advice. We have never looked to an outsider for help in the past, and I do not believe that should change."

"What is this problem that you keep alluding to?" Damarius asked, his eyes narrowed in suspicion.

The two elves exchanged a long look.

"The time has not yet come to speak of such things." Delilah said after a long moment. "We still need to confirm that the Dragon Lord truly is the person that friend Dar has described to our queen before we reveal the purpose of our visit." She looked to Damion, her green eyes speculative.

"You're welcome to stay as long as you wish." Damion told them after exchanging another look with his wife. "I'll be at your disposal whenever you are ready to discuss this problem of yours. Until then, feel free to enjoy our fair city."

"That's very gracious of you, Dragon Lord." The elven woman nodded in thanks.

"Please," The huge warrior held up his hand. "just call me Damion. Dragon Lord is a name that others gave to me. It wasn't really my idea."

"Has anyone seen Slither this morning?" Leia suddenly asked, her expression curious. "He is supposed to start training me on how to move about in the darkness without being detected."

"During the daytime?" Sly asked skeptically. "Isn't that something that you should train for at night?"

"Slither says that if I can learn to remain unseen during the daytime using only the shadows around me, remaining undetected at night would be easy. Now that I have my new armor, I thought it may be a handy skill to have."

"That's my girl." Damion nodded approvingly. "Any skill that could help you survive is invaluable. But don't you have your lessons with Sly this morning?"

"Not since she stabbed me in my backside a few weeks ago." The scruffy little man gave Leia a hard look. "She's a dirty fighter, like her father."

"You should have parried instead of lunged." The young girl shrugged unapologetically. "You presented me with a huge target."

"She is almost as good as you were at her age." Sly informed Damion, who smiled proudly. "The sword that she uses is quite a bit lighter, so her style is a bit different than yours, but I doubt she would have much problem defending herself in a pinch."

"So has anyone seen Slither?" Leia asked again impatiently.

"SSSlither isss here." The huge shadowspawn appeared in the doorway leading to the dining hall.

"Dragonspawn!" Brody suddenly yelled in a frightened tone, knocking over his chair as he scrambled to his feet in panic.

Delilah looked equally as frightened, but somehow managed to resist jumping up from her seat in terror.

"Calm yourselves, friends," Damion told them with an amused expression. "That's just Slither. He is another member of our odd little family."

"You allow this savage to run freely through your halls?" Brody demanded incredulously. "Are you completely mad?"

"Watch who you call a sssavage, pointy earsss." The huge shadowspawn hissed, calmly walking around the table to take a seat next to Leia, who snickered in amusement at the look of fear on the elf's face.

"It can talk?" Delilah asked in astonishment. "Remarkable!"

"Slither is a shadowspawn." Damion explained as he piled more fried potatoes onto his plate. "They are larger and more intelligent than regular dragonspawn."

"Did you tame it and teach it to talk?" The elven man asked, slowly returning to his seat, though his eyes remained locked on Slither.

"Of course not." The huge warrior laughed. "The shadowspawn are the servants of the shadow dragons, who reemerged into the world a decade or so ago and began wreaking havoc throughout the northern kingdoms. Slither was with a group of dragonspawn who had been ordered to find and kill us, but we managed to kill them instead. Slither was the only one that survived. In return for his life, he pledged his loyalty to me." He nodded to the shadowspawn approvingly. "He has since proven to be a true and loyal friend."

"Slither is one of my closest companions." Leia told them proudly. "We go everywhere together. He knows more about these mountains than all of the local hunters and trackers combined."

"And you're not afraid that he may turn on you someday?" Brody asked, still staring at the huge shadowspawn with distrust. "He is still one of the spawn."

"SSSlither is no longer one of the ssspawn," Slither growled in irritation. "SSSlither isss of SSSevria now."

"As I said," Damion shrugged. "He's part of our family. He has proven himself time and time again. We would all trust him with our lives."

"Slither keeps the dragonspawn here in the mountains in check, and makes certain that they avoid the caravans traveling on the trade road." Raven explained, giving the massive beast a fond look. "He has also gathered forces and helped the people of Sevria to defend the city while it was under siege, a move that secured his place in the hearts of the people. He even escorts Leia wherever she goes. In fact, if it wasn't for him, we may have never been able to rescue Leia from her abductors. He was the one that discovered their trail, and he was able to lead us to where the abductors boarded their ship."

"We always assumed that the spawn were nothing more than blood thirsty savages who delighted in feasting on the flesh of men." Brody murmured with a frown.

"That'sss repulsssive." Slither grunted, stuffing a fist full of bacon into his gaping maw. "The ssspawn do not feassst upon men. They prefer deer, or rabbit, or pig." He gave the elven man a sidelong look. "Although SSSlither hasss never tried elf before." He ran his forked tongue over his razor sharp teeth suggestively.

"How quaint," Brody murmured, seemingly unfazed, although his face was dangerously pale. "It even has a rudimentarily sense of humor."

"What's on the agenda for the day?" Damion asked as he shoveled another bite of potatoes into his mouth.

"We have a number of caravan leaders that have gotten together and formed a new guild independent to the Merchant's Guild." Shirk grumbled sourly. "I think they're planning on demanding that you lower the taxes on their caravans, or they will start bypassing Sevria altogether."

"Let me guess," Lady Skie said in a knowing tone. "Each of these caravan leaders have been caught attempting to sneak out of Sevria without paying their taxes."

"Good guess." The old bandit grinned. "Most of them have been caught multiple times. Two of them were even banned from trading in Sevria for a short time because of their multiple offenses."

"Just tell them that we'll make sure to wave to them as they pass by." Raven told him dismissively. "I remember those men. They were the same merchants responsible for all of those shoddy gnomish goods that flooded the city a few years ago."

"We won't be losing out on much if they decide to pass us by." Damion agreed. "We don't need them trying to foist anymore of their inferior goods to our citizens." He glanced back to Shirk. "Anything else?"

"Let's see," The old bandit grumbled, pulling out a piece of parchment from his vest. "There's a problem with the work crews that are charged with maintaining the trade road. Ever since the battle that took place in Sierra, a number of goblins have been seen skulking around. In the last few months, they have began harassing the work crews as they pass. There haven't been any actual attacks as of yet, but it's probably only a matter of time before they begin ambushing our people."

"SSSlither will look into it." The huge shadowspawn promised with a hiss. "The ssspawn will run them off before they caussse any problemsss."

"That would be helpful." Damion nodded to Slither approvingly.

"We also have a trade proposal from Kainpre." The bearded man continued with a smile. "Those few who survived the city's destruction discovered that they were sitting on a large gem deposit when they were clearing away the ruins. They are all well on their way to becoming very wealthy."

"I'm happy to hear it." Damion smiled. "They deserve it after everything that they have been forced to endure."

"You'll be even happier to hear that they wish to open a market here in Sevria to sell their stones. It's their way of thanking us for the aid that we have provided them for the last few years."

"That's good to hear." Lady Skie said happily. "A gem market here in Sevria would be certain to bring in more caravans. More caravans will mean more taxes."

"Is that all there is for the day?" Damion asked Shirk curiously.

"Let me see," The bearded bandit quickly scanned the piece of parchment for a moment. "The stable hands were complaining about Storm again. He has apparently taken quite a shine to one of the mares, and refuses to let anyone near her."

"I'll go look in on him." Damion chuckled. "He's probably just feeling a little cooped up, and is just trying to amuse himself."

"That's about it." Shirk shrugged. "That's all that we had scheduled for the day. I guess things are finally beginning to run smoothly around here."

"This is a rare treat." Damion smiled to their elven guests. "It's not every day that we find a bit of time for ourselves, let alone an entire day."

"It's much the same on the Elven Island." Delilah smiled. "Sometimes I wonder what would happen if everyone in charge around the world just decided to take the week off and enjoy themselves."

Shirk let out a snorting laugh. "The world would probably stop spinning!"

Damion finally sat back from the table patting his stomach in contentment.

"Finally had enough?" Sly asked sarcastically. "I didn't think you were going to leave anything for the rest of us."

"It takes a lot to keep someone my size fed." The huge warrior shrugged. "Not all of us are suited to living solely on ale."

"We ssshould get moving." Slither hissed to Leia. "The sssun isss ssshining brightly thisss morning. It ssshould provide usss with plenty of ssshadowsss in which to practice."

"I just need to go slip into my armor." Leia quickly hurried away, only to return a few minutes later wearing her new armor.

"Some of my best work." Damarius told Brody proudly. "I created it from the scales of a shadow dragon. They still retain their ability to absorb the surrounding darkness, giving the wearer a distinct advantage at night."

"Intriguing." For the first time since arriving, the elven man looked genuinely interested. "Was it difficult to obtain the scales?"

"It wasn't easy." The old wizard admitted dubiously. "We managed to kill a couple of the shadow dragons that attacked the city using the siege machines I designed. The rest were killed by Damion and the scarlet dragons. I have been experimenting with their remains ever since. When I realized the potential that the scales had when fashioned into armor, I set about making a set for Leia." He smiled smugly. "I'm not too proud to say that it came out better than I had anticipated."

"I still think that you and Damion are being unreasonable." Sly grumbled to Damarius unhappily, staring at the shadowy armor with open envy. "Don't you realize what kind of an advantage that armor could give a person in battle?"

"We're not hunting down anymore shadow dragons, Sly." The old wizard told him firmly. "You heard what Damion said. We don't want them reemerging and starting the slaughter all over again, just so you can have your own set of shadow dragon armor."

"But..."

"Enough, Sly!" Leia barked at the scruffy little man, causing him to jump into surprise. "They said no! Quit pouting like a child and get over it already!"

Sly sighed in resignation, then returned to his spiced wine, still grumbling under his breath sourly.

"Would you care to accompany me to the stables?" Damion asked his guests politely, rising to his feet. "Once I have looked in on Storm, I can take you on a tour of Sevria."

"I would be interested in seeing a bit more of the city." Brody agreed with a nod.

"I believe I shall remain behind with the other ladies, if I may." Delilah said, smiling at Raven and Lady Skie. "I'm still a bit weary from my travels, and it's been some time since I enjoyed the company of other women."

"We would enjoy that very much." Lady Skie said happily. "It gets a bit tiring listening to the men gripe all day long."

"I think I'll join you." Shirk murmured to Damion. "I need to stretch my legs anyway."

Damion and the others left the ladies to their women talk and made their way down to the stables in the main courtyard outside of the massive castle.

"Is it true that the scarlet dragons carved this keep out of the very mountainside?" Brody asked, looking around with a moderately impressed expression.

"It is." Damion told him with a nod. "The original keep, Castle Rosewood, was destroyed during the search for the Dragon Sword. The construction of this keep was the scarlet dragons' way of repaying my freeing them from the Dragon Gem."

They arrived at the stables to find a small crowd standing around with fearful expressions.

"What's going on here?" Damion demanded of one of stable hands, who jumped nervously when he saw them approaching.

"Storm is up to his same old tricks again, milord." The stable hand told him, holding out his hands helplessly. "He somehow managed to open the gate to his stall, and is refusing to let anyone enter the stables. He even grabbed poor old Thomas by his tunic and slammed him into the wall." He gestured to another man that was sitting on a nearby bench with his head wrapped in bandages, and a dazed expression on his face.

"What set him off this time?" Shirk asked in amusement.

"We just tried to take Lady Skie's new mare out so she could be groomed." The stable hand shrugged. "He appears to be completely smitten with her, and won't let anyone get close to her."