Rise of the Serpent (Serpent's War Book 2) (20 page)

Chapter 22

Namitus blinked the glare out of his eyes until the room came into focus. He was in a small room, but on a proper bed. His clothes had been washed and folded and placed on the small table beside the bed. His leathers were resting beneath the clothes. His belt, weapons, and pouches were the only things missing.

He rolled on his side and pulled the blankets back. Whoever had tended to him had stripped him bare and washed him clean. So clean that he couldn’t even spot any signs of bruises or any of his cuts. He twisted and looked at his side where his first serious injury had been. He was smooth and untouched. His other cuts and punctures were gone, leaving him with no excuse for feeling exhausted and weak.

The rogue rolled up and move to a sitting position on the side of the bed. He had to pause and rest, catching his breath and fighting the wave of dizziness and pressure in his head. Namitus squeezed his eyes shut until the room stopped spinning.

He reached over and grabbed his clothing to get dressed. It took him several minutes before he felt well enough to stand. He moved to the foot of the bed and saw the trunk resting near the footboard. He was about to open it when the clouds outside parted and let a beam of sunlight in through the window.

Anxious to feel the sun on his face, Namitus stepped to the small window and looked out. From his view, he guessed his room was on the third story of the palace. He could see over the edge of the wall and over the roofs of the houses and buildings in town. The water was rippled with small whitecaps that broke in the harbor. The harbor was full of ships, some at dock and others heading in or out. People moved to and fro across the docks and into the streets of the town.

The people, he noted, didn’t have any tails.

Namitus turned away and opened the trunk. His missing equipment was tucked inside. He grinned and finished getting dressed. A glimmer drew his eye back into the trunk where he saw a coin lying on the bottom. He scooped it up and stared at it, wondering if it had escaped his belt pouch. His breath caught in his throat and a chill slid down his spine.

The coin was made of bronze, not gold, and stamped with a crown on one side and, when he turned it over, the head of a dragon on the other.

“Ever vigilant.” Namitus repeated the wizard’s words when he’d flipped the coin to him. It wasn’t a coin after all; it was the mark of the Order of the Dragon.

Namitus clenched the mark in his palm and turned. He strode to the door and found his heart pounding in his ears by the time he reached it. He paused to take a few breaths and found his hands and legs trembling. He shook his head; he didn’t have time to be weak. The Order was back in full force and he had proof. Proof that Alto needed to see.

Namitus opened the door and stepped out into a hallway in the palace. A clean rug ran the length of it and windows mixed with lamps in the wall gave the passage a light and fresh feel. A pair of figures sat on a bench placed along the wall next to his door. Both women, one elven and the other human, leapt to their feet and turned on him.

“You’re awake!” Amra gasped.

Jillystria stood still and watched him, her entire body on edge. “You look good,” she ventured.

Namitus nodded and forced a smile on his face. “Thank you, I am. How long has it been? The city seemed busy.”

“The splisskin fled north, to the swamps and the Asatra River,” Jilly said.

“Lariki went with them,” Amra added.

Namitus nodded. He took a deep breath and let it out, hoping it looked like he was disgruntled and not struggling to catch his breath still. “Lot of people in town.”

“Gor offered the Vultures a place to stay. Ramesh is acting as his aide and some of the others are acting as the new city guardsmen. Word spread to Easton and people are coming to investigate and help out.”

“Help out?” Namitus asked. “Some, maybe—others are seeking opportunity.”

“Namitus, you’ve been asleep for two days. A lot has happened,” Jillystria said.

“Two days? That explains why I’m so hungry.”

Amra gasped. “Of course! Come, let’s get you something to eat.”

They started walking down the hallway and had to slow for Namitus. Instead of drawing attention to it, Jillystria asked, “Are you pleased with your clothes?”

Namitus looked at his grandmother and then down at his clothes. “Yes, I suppose. Clean is nice. They’ve been mended too. Feel as good as new.”

She smiled. “Good. I couldn’t hide the cuts but I did my best.”

“You did this?” he asked. “I forgot you were a seamstress.”

She blushed and nodded.

Amra smiled. “She’s the best I’ve ever seen. I’ve learned a trick or two from my dad, but even he couldn’t do the things I’ve seen her do the past two days.”

The elven woman blushed again and fell silent. They walked on to a wide staircase that led down. Namitus took them slowly and found his heart hitting his chest hard enough it reminded him of Mordrim fighting with his hammer.

They finally reached the bottom and Namitus struggled to keep his breathing under control and his knees from wobbling. Amra noticed and held her hand out to him. “Jilly, stop; he needs to rest.”

“Just…half a moment,” Namitus panted. He put a hand on the wall and leaned forward to try to catch his breath. After nearly a minute, he straightened and nodded. “Sorry, guess I need another nap.”

“Stop it. You’ve been through a lot, to hear them tell of it,” Amra insisted.

Namitus smiled and let them lead him to the kitchens. He took a seat at a table off to the side and waited while Amra hurried to find him some bread and cheese while one of the Vultures was fussing over a large pot on the cookfire. The man turned and saw them and waved a large wooden spoon.

“Any of that stew ready yet?” Amra asked him.

“If you don’t mind a little crunch,” he said.

“I’ll take it,” Namitus mumbled.

Jillystria relayed his words so Amra could return with the simple meal and then fetch a cup of water for him. “No ale or wine yet, sorry.”

Namitus shook his head but couldn’t talk; he was already chewing. He wolfed the food down and ignored how hot the stew was. He finished by draining the cup of water and leaning back to let a belch slip out. His hand flew to his face and he smiled. “Pardon.”

Amra giggled and Jillystria glanced away.

“I’m a brute,” Namitus admitted. “Spent too much time with the barbarians in the north. Tell me, how are the others?”

“Eight of the Vultures lived,” Jilly said. “Corian says he owes you his life a half-dozen times or more.”

“Gor? Allie?”

Amra smiled and motioned for him to follow her. “Come, see for yourself.”

Namitus grunted and rose to his feet. It didn’t seem possible but he felt better already with a belly full of food. She led them through a short hall to a side door that led to the court. A handful of workers were busy repairing the damages done by the battle and redecorating the hall. Amra led him through and down the passage to the front of the palace.

Full stomach or not, Namitus was winded by the time they walked into the courtyard and towards the open gates of the palace. They kept moving, heading down through the city and finally reaching the docks. Gor was easily found both by his great size and the people working around him. Sweat stained the man’s tunic as he toiled to repair the damages done to the docks and buildings near the waterfront.

“Gor!” Amra cried and waved her hands. “Namitus is awake!”

Gor set the post he was carrying into a hole emptied out for it and turned to face them. A grin split his lips as he strode over to join them. “Good to see you on your feet again!”

Namitus clasped his forearm in a friendly greeting and asked, “How are things going?”

“Repairing and rebuilding,” Gor said. “The splisskin lived and toiled here, but they treated the town as a barracks, not a place for craftsmen. Chased the fish away or ate them all from nearby. It will take years to restore them.”

Namitus nodded. “Conquerors have no love for what they conquer; they only want more.”

Gor nodded. “They never learned the value of the mountains and what lies beneath them, though, and with close to a century of untended growth, there is considerable wealth to be harvested.”

“Wealth?”

“Pearls, shellfish, mushrooms, and many other resources. Enough to restart this island and turn it into a place of growth again.”

“You’ll need to guard it well,” Namitus said. “They surrendered the city but did not agree to never try to retake it.”

Gor nodded. “We needed a score of men of battle with no peers and a half-dragon to lead them.”

“A half-dragon our enemies now have working for them,” he reminded the new king.

“Namitus!”

Namitus turned and saw Allie rushing towards him. She slowed and then threw herself onto him and hugged him. She backed away and smiled. “You had us worried.”

“I’m good at that,” he said. “Mostly I do it for the attention.”

Amra frowned and earned a wink from Namitus.

“How’s your father?”

“Better than I have any right to be.”

Namitus turned and saw Gildor walking with the help of a cane. His hair had been cut and his face shaved free. That and water, soap, and a few filling meals made him look like he was human again. “Thanks to you.”

Namitus shook his head. “Don’t thank me—thank your daughter.”

“I meant that potion.”

“Oh. Thank Saint Leander for that.”

“I heard you fell near dead yourself after you gave that to me. That’s not a debt I’ll let go unpaid.”

Namitus glanced around at the men and women working to breathe new life into the city. He nodded to a nearby building. “Can we move inside? The warmth is nice but the light’s hurting my eyes.”

Gor, Allie, and Gildor shared glances and nodded. The small group made their way to the building and moved around the emptied building. Namitus glanced around and nodded before he pulled the mark out of his pocket. He held it up and flipped it around before passing it around.

“That’s the mark of the Order of the Dragon. That’s what that wizard gave me on his way out.”

“Ever vigilant,” Allie whispered. “I heard him.”

Namitus nodded.

“Was that a warning?” she asked.

“I took it as such,” he said. “They’ll be back. If not here, then elsewhere.”

“Everywhere,” Gor said. “You said it yourself: they’ve been building an army, ready to mobilize. Now they have a general. It won’t be long.”

“A general we handed to them,” Allie muttered. “That snake priest said they knew I would help.”

“We’ve played into their hands,” Namitus agreed. “We need to change things up. We’ve been reacting, not acting.”

“What’s that mean? How do we not react?” Allie asked.

Namitus smiled. “I have a friend who was once told that defense was not the thing for him. He was meant to take the offensive. He was the aggressor.”

“We retook Shathas,” Allie argued. “Isn’t that aggressive?”

“Not until after we searched for Lariki,” he said. He shook his head. “What we’ve done isn’t the point; it’s what we need to do.”

“What’s that?” Amra asked.

“I need to get word to the north…to my friends.”

“King Alto?” Allie whispered.

“It’s true, then?” Gildor asked.

Namitus nodded. “It is. They will know what to do and how to do it.”

“But how? That’s weeks away. Months, even,” Allie said.

“I need a wizard,” he said. “The closest one I know I can trust is in Mira.”

“Mira?” Amra asked. “You mean Arcturia?”

He nodded.

“I know the way,” Gildor said. “I’ll take you.”

“Dad! You can barely walk!” Allie hissed.

He chuckled. “Don’t need to walk. You said Brownie’s in Easton. There’s not a man alive who knows the roads and goat paths around these parts better than me.”

Namitus nodded. “Time matters, but I need a day or two to recover. You could use the same, I bet.”

“I’m coming,” Amra said.

Namitus sighed. “Of course you are.”

Allie opened her mouth but Namitus shook his head. “No, you’ll be needed here. Help Gor. We need an ally down here. A strong one. Rebuild this city. The other cities need to see it and understand what is needed to survive the war that’s coming.”

Jillystria handed him back the mark of the Order. He looked at it and let his eyes narrow. The Order had entrenched its members close to every ruling lord in every city. They had to find a way to win the hearts of the rulers without alerting them.

Or did they?

“Why are you grinning?” Amra asked.

Namitus wiped the smile from his face. Perhaps they could use the network of the Order in their favor, after all. “Just thinking of how I can make a story out of this tale. One that twists our enemies against themselves and makes our victory that much more triumphant.”

“This is more than just a fairy tale,” Allie attempted to scold him.