Omensent: Rise of the Shadow Dragons (30 page)

"I also lost my mother when I was young." She told him
, her face calm, but her eyes filled with pain. "When I was six, my father got roaring drunk and beat her until she wept blood. She lingered for several weeks, but never recovered. I can sometimes almost remember what she looks like."

"I did not think I could dislike your father any more than I already did.
" Damion growled in an harsh voice.

"Aye
, I feel much the same way, but he
is
my father, and what's done is done. I grew up learning not to cross my father, who only really cared for my brothers. As soon as I was able, I left to join one of our roving patrols which guard the trade roads and help to deal with any bandits which trouble travelers." She smiled sadly. "Mainly, it was a way to escape him and my spoiled brothers. My other sisters had all been married off to other clansmen, but I managed to escape before he was able to marry me off too. I returned six months later and laid the ears of over twenty men that I had killed at his feet to prove to him that I was a true warrior." Her eyes clouded with the memories. "It was the first time he looked at me with any interest. He actually laughed about the fact that I held more ears than all of my brothers combined. My brothers all hated me for that! I returned to protecting the roads at head of my own patrol." She shrugged. "That's pretty much my entire life story!"

"I would like to tie the long hair on the back of his head to the short hair on his arse!" Damion growled, his temper flaring up once again.

Raven laughed. "I would like to see that!"

The
ir attention was drawn to Snowfeather, who had returned from his flight.

"That was a short hunt
!"
Damion commented in surprise.

"There are a number of large creatures wandering through the sands nearby. They appear t
o be some sort of giant centipedes, with armored bodies and tails similar to that of a scorpion. When they rear up their heads and forearms emerge from beneath the armor. I didn't see any eyes, but they seem to somehow take in their surroundings all the same."
He fluffed his feathers in disgust.
"Nasty looking creatures, they are!"

"Have they caught our scent?"

"Not yet,"
The owl hooted.
"but they're heading this way. It's only a matter of time before they pick it up!"

Damion rose from his bedroll.
"Snowfeather says there are some giant insects moving this way."

"Insects?" Raven jumped to her feet, her face alarmed. "What do they look like?"

"Like enormous armored centipedes."

"Damn!" She cursed, jumping to her feet and grabbing her bow. "
Tremblers!"

"Tremblers?" Veren asked, jumping to his feet. "What are Tremblers?"

"Tremblers are something that we do
not
want to encounter." Her face was worried. "They are huge armored creatures that travel in swarms. First, a few scouts will appear, then more will follow until there are hundreds of the beasts overwhelming everything in sight!"

"Is there any way to drive them off?"
Veren asked, his face grim.

The young woman shrugged. "Not that I have ever heard
of. Their armor is remarkably tough and resilient, and it takes quite a bit of effort to penetrate. They are blind, but they can detect things moving from miles away just by feeling the vibrations in the ground. The sting from their tail means a slow agonizing demise from its deadly venom. Their only weak spot is their unarmored heads, which they keep tucked inside of their armored shells. They only reveal them occasionally, and never for very long."

"They must have been miles away when they felt Damion's lightning display."
Veren surmised, looking out into the cold night. "It must have drawn their attention."

Snowfeather disappeared back into the darkness to keep
an eye on the tremblers and soon reported back that there were many more of the creatures now, and they had drawn much closer to the campsite.
"They're multiplying in numbers alarmingly fast! There are nearly a hundred of them now!"

"There is an entire swarm gathering nearby an
d moving this way!" Damion warned the others. "Anyone have any ideas?"

Both
Veren and Raven shook their heads.

"Can't you use your magic to drive them off?"
Veren asked desperately.

"You said they're attracted to the vibrations in the ground?" Damion asked suddenly, his mind working.

"They can feel a foot step from over a hundred yards away!" Raven nodded, her eyes scanning the night.

Damion scanned the area and spotted a huge boulder a few hundred yards from their camp. "I think I may have an idea."

"Uh oh." Veren looked to Raven. "I think we may want to back up!"

"The main swarm is less than a half mile from camp now!"
Snowfeather reported, still monitoring the insects.
"But there are a couple of scouts just outside of the camp!"

"Hang on, I've got an idea!"
Damion replied, drawing in his magic and focusing it on the half buried boulder.

At first
, nothing seemed to happen, then the enormous stone suddenly shuddered, shedding a fine coat of dust as it slowly began to rise into the air.

"Whatever you are doing, it seems to have drawn their attention!"
The huge owl told Damion in a worried tone.
"They have all stopped and stood up, revealing their slimy little heads!"

Damion ignored him and continued to focus his magic on the stone. The boulder suddenly lifted
completely from the ground, and slowly began to rise into the air.

"Great! He's going to squish all of the big bugs with an even bigger rock!"
Veren laughed a bit nervously.

"You want to do this?" Damion asked him in an acid tone.

"Not me!" The one eared jaghern replied, shaking his head emphatically.

"Then how about letting me concentrate!" He continued to focus on the boulder, which
rose higher into the air.

There was a sudden
chattering sound as two of the tremblers crawled into view. Each creature was over thirty feet in length, with hundreds of legs that propelled its armored mass along at a surprising rate of speed. They paused as their front half rose into the air, revealing their armored bellies. Their heads slowly appeared from between slits in their armor as they stood slowly swaying back and forth. Their malformed, eyeless heads were a pale pink and covered in a thick mucus that dripped down in large amounts.

Raven gasped in fear, but Damion ignored her and focused all of his concentration on the boulder
, which now hovered fifty feet above their heads. Using all of his strength and magic, he hurled the huge boulder far out into the desert. It flew for several miles before impacting with an enormous crash that vibrated the earth for miles around.

The two tremblers in view suddenly whirled
around to home in on the impact site miles out into the desert. They began chattering excitedly, then suddenly drew their heads back into their slits, and dropped to the ground. They disappeared back into the darkness, still chattering excitedly.

"The swarm is moving away!"
Snowfeather reported in a relieved tone.
"I'm guessing the boulder that flew past was your doing?"

"Sorry about that. I
guess I should have warned you what was coming."
Damion was breathing hard.

"That was
quick thinking." Veren commented as he slid his sword back into its scabbard. "I can't tell you how happy I am that we didn't have to face those beasts! Fighting one of them would be bad enough, but fighting an entire swarm..." He shuddered.

Raven was so pale that she looked as though she may faint.

Damion went to her side, and looked down with concern. "Are you unwell?"

The young girl took a deep breath, then shook her head. "No, I'm fine." She assured him in a slightly dazed voice. "I was just a bit
shocked by your... power!" Her eyes went to the crater left behind by the boulder.

After making sure the coast was clear with Snowfeather, Damion and the young woman wandered over to
investigate the huge depression, while the huge owl returned to his hunting and Veren returned to his bedroll. The crater was deep, and had appeared to have been the only obstruction to another natural spring, which had already begun to fill the void left behind by the boulder.

Raven was quiet as they watched the spring begin to rapidly fill the void. She finally sighed heavily. "It must have taken an
enormous amount of power to lift that boulder. Was it difficult?"

"It wasn't easy. Even the smallest of
tasks requires an enormous amount of effort. Most of the time its easier to do it the old way."

She stared up at him, her hazel eyes serious. "So what is it like to have nearly unlimited power at your fingertips?"

Damion snorted. "It's not all it's cracked up to be. When you have such a power, people expect you to use it, and usually for the wrong reasons." He frowned. "I sometimes wonder if it would be easier if I wasn't able to use magic."

"Well
,
I'm
glad you can," She smiled. "but I'm still going to have nightmares about those creatures for the rest of my life!"

They stood there together in the darkness for several more minutes before they finally returned to their camp.

Chapter 11

They arrived at the shanty town at the base of the escarpment as d
awn broke two days later just as the sun began to rise. The town consisted of several dozen rude huts built from dung and sand, and was inhabited by several hundred sun scorched people dressed in long flowing robes that were caked with grime. Most of the people ignored them as they slowly passed through the town, seeming not to care as they moved to finish their tasks quickly in an effort to avoid the coming heat.

They had nearly reach one of the ramps that led up the face of the escarpment when several men approached
dressed in filthy robes that were stained and encrusted with wine and bits of old food, overlaid with a fine layer of sand. They carried an assortment of old rusty weapons that looked as though they had been scavenged from a junk heap, and many of the men were behaving oddly, blankly wandering behind the others and mumbling gibberish.

"You will go no further!" One of the men bellowed arrogantly.
He was a large man, standing nearly seven feet, with huge hairy arms and long greasy hair which hung in long braids that reached the center of his back. He had the swagger of a bully that had never been on the receiving end of a good beating. "You cannot continue without paying tribute!"

"Let me handle this." Raven murmured to
Veren and Damion in a quiet voice. "And who are to demand tribute?" She asked the man in a haughty voice.

"I am Ver, son of Ler, chief of
Sun Lizard tribe!" He sneered arrogantly. "It is my tribe that control these landings, and no one passes without paying tribute!"

"And what amount will suffice?"

The burly man chuckled, revealing a mouth full of rotten teeth as he smiled. "Five hundred gold," His eyes suddenly locked on Storm, who was pawing at the ground aggressively. "
And
that stallion!"