Dragons, Power, Courts, And War (Book 2)

by Vic Broquard

  Jarka, on the other hand, was waiting for Zoran in his private study right after breakfast. “Boss, we have a major security problem on our hands. Since we now have proof positive that there are dragon spies in Brn, we cannot allow the women to wander the streets of Brn on their day off. At any time, a dragon could snatch up one of them and take off through the Shadows!”

  “I know, but we cannot keep them locked up all of the time. You and I both know that they have to have at least one day to relax and get out of the cramped tower rooms. The married ones have to have family time. I am open to suggestions, Jarka. If I let Brn know that there are dragons walking among them, I will only be causing panic and witch hunts.”

  “Quite true. How about establishing the policy that no woman goes out alone? She always must be in the company of another or several. We ought to try to identify the dragons and keep an eye on them, don’t you think? Or would that raise their suspicions?”

  “Yes, it would. Right now, I would like the dragons to think that we are not aware of them. Then, I can ‘feed’ them the information that I want them to have.”

  “Oh, you are getting as devious as me,” she laughed and returned to helping the students with their spells. Zoran then issued orders that none of the magic students were allowed to leave the towers or fortress alone and why.

  As always, October was a busy time, harvest time. Loads of grains and many other necessities poured into Brn. Some were distributed to the town granaries, some to the fortress-towers complex. Additionally, a good deal was also packed into air tight caskets and stored in the subterranean supply pantries. He was kept busy with overseeing the emergency supplies and their proper storage. Zoran disliked this aspect of his position, but could not avoid it. All his mages and Duskas were already overworked dealing with the many magic students and the off-world transport of even more supplies coming into Brn.

  Near the end of October, his daughter, High Priestess Jarmila came to see him. “Dad, we’ve finished going over every darn one of Bandar Zar’s journals. That was quite a chore.”

  “I’ll say, he was quite the documenter.”

  She continued, “Yes, he was. Anyway, Miroslav and I came across one strange page that we’d more or less skipped over before. We still don’t know what to make of it. Part of it is damaged by water, part, by mold. We’ve Cleaned the mold off, but still can’t make much of it. We think it might be some kind of code. Have a look.”

  V~~~ ~~stor~ ~our~~~~

  Pacov ~~rtr~~~

  Sublev~~ 5

  A52C96

  Vols: A-~ (T maybe)

  “That last bit might be T, we think, dad.”

  “Looks pretty garbled,” Zoran replied.

  “Well, true. However, dad, knowing that Bandar was a stickler for writing everything down in his journals, surely he did not start doing that when he came here to our worlds. It only makes sense that he wrote journals of everything he was doing before he came here,” Jarmila suggested.

  He replied as she anticipated, “Well that is an assumption that I would make. Yet, we’ve not found any of his writing which seem to predate his arrival here.”

  “True. Either we have yet to locate that secret stash or it is stored elsewhere. Now what Miroslav and I find particularly interesting about this page is that last line: Vols: A- and then probably a T, we think. All of his journals that we have are numbered from 1 to 26. Perhaps he originally designated them by letters. That last line could mean volumes A through T.”

  “Reasonable assumption. Then this might be directions telling where he stored them,” Zoran suggested.

  “Precisely our thinking, dad. We both believe this is a map to his earlier writing, predating the founding of the Federation. However, we can’t make anything out of the rest. V, stor, our, rtr. It is indecipherable. I mean, dad, rtr? What can that be?” Jarmila was quite frustrated at her inability to truly decipher the message.

  “You want me to have a look at it?”

  Relief gushed out, “Oh would you dad? Please? It could be important, well, maybe. It sounds really interesting.”

  “Okay, leave it with me and I’ll see what I can do with it. Yes, rtr? Strange indeed. Pacov sounds like a town’s name. I think we even have a Pacov up in one of the northeastern provinces. Probably not the right Pacov though. Let me see what I can work out.” She hugged him and gave him a kiss on his forehead. He patted her rear as she left and then stared at the cryptic page. “At least I have something to occupy my mind besides barrels of wheat,” he said to his walls.

  He looked at it off and on for a couple of weeks but really hadn’t made any progress in deciphering it. He wanted it to start off saying Voss. That would fit, but then so would Veca, Vela, and many more possibilities. Wishful thinking, he acknowledged.

  Mid-November, while staring absent mindedly at it, Jarka entered to report on the progress of the women that she was helping learn magic. “Say, what’s that you’ve got there?”

  “Oh a partially destroyed page of Bandar Zar’s early journal. Jarmila wanted me to see if I could make out what is missing. It is possibly a map to his journals written before he came to our worlds here. Who knows?”

  “Can I see it?” He handed her the page. “Oh, I do love maps and mysteries. Can I hang on to it a while and see what I can make out?”

  “Sure be my guest. I’ve spent a couple weeks on it, getting nowhere really. I’d like the first word to be Voss.” Both chuckled. “Well, that would be interesting,” he added.

  “Sure would be. I’ll let you know,” she stated. Then, she gave him the report. All ninety-six women were well into their grade two spells now, making very rapid progress. “I wish it had been this easy for us way back when we were studying.” Both laughed, recalling their endless hours of studying under Archmage Oldrich.

  Jarka worked on the page at night in her spare time. There were two kinds of damage to the page. One was water damage; the other was caused by mold, probably the mold resulted from the page getting wet, she theorized. The water damage was in the upper left corner only impacting that first word and part of the second. She decided to see if she could bring out the washed out ink. Under a magnifying glass, she detected that there was still a tiny residual ink present, just not enough to make out the letters.

  She conducted some experiments on ordinary paper and ink, unwilling to touch the actual document until she had the procedure worked out. If she damaged it, the message could be lost to them forever. A week later, she exclaimed, “Eureka! It works.” She’d applied a special dye to the affected area and now the dye reacted with the residual ink and she read:

  Voss H~stor~ ~our~~~~

  “Now we are getting somewhere!” She summoned Zoran to her lab.

  “What’s up? Got it all figured out?” he teased her.

  “No, but look at this! Voss. You are right, it is Voss. And I can guess at the next word, History. Voss History, then something.”

  “Excellent work, Jarka. Jarmila is hoping this is a map to the whereabouts of a bunch more of Bandar Zar’s earliest journals. Makes sense, Voss History.”

  “Hey, journals. That third word could be Journals! Voss History Journals,” Jarka stated formally.

  “I do believe that we are definitely on to something that may well be fantastically interesting. Don’t know if it is really important, but could be interesting to know our ancient history, Jarka. Keep on it.”

  “Oh you couldn’t pull me away from this with a herd of dragons!” she replied, exaggerating a bit. One dragon could pull her away from it. Both laughed.

  It took her another week to work develop a moldy paper on which to experiment. However, after only another two days, she applied an acidic solution and turned the invisible writing back to a dingy yellow, but it was readable. She sat back and said, “Duh. It’s obvious. I should have figured this out weeks ago!”

  Voss History Journals

  Pacov Fortress

  Sublevel 5

  A52C96

&nbs
p; Vols: A-T

  She summoned Zoran, Miroslav, and Jarmila. When they arrived via Mystical Door spells, she said, “Ta da! Your old Mage has done it again. Care to read the full page?” All three dove for the page.

  “We did it! We found the map to his earliest writings! Yahoo!” Jarmila exclaimed.

  “This is interesting,” Zoran added, “our ancestors originally came to the Federation planets from Voss, where the dragons are also from — what an interesting fact. This raises far more questions than it answers!”

  “We absolutely must find those journals, Zoran. I bet they contain tons of useful facts,” Jarmila broke in, still excited about the discovery. “Maybe they will give us some ideas on how to handle the dragons, dad. We have to find this place.”

  “Okay, okay. I can take a hint. We will have to visit Voss, but don’t get your hopes up too high, Jarmila. It is likely a large planet about which we know nothing. Finding something millennia old, this Pacov, may not be possible. Besides, Voss may be dragon infested as well. Still, we have to try.”

  “I’m going, dad. Miroslav too,” she insisted, not waiting for him to begin to organize an expedition there.

  “Of course, unless your mother objects,” he replied, putting the final decision onto Zdenka for the moment.

  “Damn!” Jarka exclaimed.

  “I know, you want to go too, but you are really needed here helping with the training of the women. Tell you what, if and when we actually find this place, we’ll come get you. I would not think of entering a strange fortress without my thief with me. I don’t want to get crushed in some diabolical trap, now do I?”

  Jarka laughed and relaxed. He was precisely right. “Thanks, you know I am your best trap detector and finder of secrets.” He grinned, for she certainly was that and more. “So who can you get to go with you?”

  That was his immediate problem. Nearly everyone was quite busy. He certainly could not pull any of those teaching the hundreds of magic students off their positions. Yet, going to Voss and exploring necessitated bringing along members who could handle tough situations. At last, he decided upon Archmage Karel, though he would have to pull him off of his magic item fabrication projects. If they had to fight dragons, he wanted at least two Archmages present. Thus Karel would have to come along. Duskas were crucial. Yet, who was left that he could ask?

  Since this was likely an uninhabited planet, that is, sans humans, they would either have to bring along their own food supplies or gamble on finding edible food there. Since he had no idea what was there or what might be poisonous to eat, he opted to bring along food. Were there strange wild animals? So many variables had to be considered. Certainly the living conditions would be rather primitive at best, unless they opted to return to Brn each night, limiting their searches to the daytime only.

  He wanted to bring his son Tomas along, but that would leave only Baron Jan on Adapazan. Should anything happen to them, Jan was ill-equipped to run the whole planet’s affairs. Besides, Tomas was swamped with overseeing all the construction in Sholov Province and the northern provinces as well. He thought about asking his off-world friends, Leo and Stefan. Both might be interested, but they were dealing with their own world’s problems. Besides, the two were devising a scheme to try to find their planet’s missing women by catching the dragons in the act of snatching more women and then following them. Since they now each had one of Karel’s Rods of Dragon Slaying, both men felt more comfortable going on the offensive. No, he’d best allow them to do their own independent actions instead of relying on him. Who to take?

  Honani had heard of the message and its implications. The group of Star Dancers drooled over the prospect of seeing first hand a new world, though they were not much interested in ancient history. He caught Zoran in the hallway as the baron headed to his study after breakfast. “Excuse me, baron. Rumor has it that you are planning an expedition to the dragon world of Voss.”

  “Morning Honani, yes, Jarka’s translated what appears to be a map to some ancient writings of Bandar Zar. They are on Voss, so we’ve decided to see if we can possibly find them.”

  “Well, we Star Dancers would like to join you in your search. Kachina will remain behind and watch over the children during the daytime, but we’ll bring her to Voss for a brief time each night so she can see the Star Universe too. We five will lend you a hand, if you’ll have us,” Honani suggested.

  “Hum, not a bad idea, Honani. Help accepted. I’m bringing Archmage Karel along so that we have at least two of us in case we have to deal with dragons, but he’s not Duska. I need to make sure that, if something happens to me, Karel has a way back home and doesn’t get stranded on Voss.”

  “Thanks, we will make our preparations. We are good at surviving off what the lands have to offer us. We will not need much in the way of supplies,” he suggested.

  “Okay. I’ve just not worked out yet who else is coming, so it will be a few days yet. I’ll keep you posted.” Later in his study, he smiled. Honani and his group would be perfect — all Duska and excellent trackers. Still, this could be very dangerous, if there were still dragons on Voss. Sitting back in his chair, he thought of Evsen and Strike Force One. “Brilliant! Why didn’t I think of them before? They would be perfect for this, fourteen strong, able fighters. Besides, then they would not be aggravating the dragons by killing a few of them this winter. Defuses a sore point with Aldrick.”

  The question now was how to get the force to veer off their assigned orders to slay dragons and come help him search Voss. Ah, that was it. Search Voss, the original home of the dragons. That would play well with all of the other barons when they discovered what he’d done with their strike force. He Mind Linked to Evsen and asked him to bring his group to Brn for a special meeting.

  An hour later, the fourteen fighters, heavily armed and well supplied, though their supplies were Shrunk, arrived on his sky blue Circle. Zoran thought these brave fighters ought to have a bit of honor shown to them. Yes, many were impressed to be allowed to actually set foot on one of the Circles of Ascension. Normally, the barons kept these under tight lock and key. This bit of honor also put them into a more acceptable frame of mind. Zoran had planned well.

  A bit later, settled into his War Room, Zoran outlined what the mission would be and why. Anwen Alun of Anwyn responded first. She said enthusiastically, “Hey, I like this. We can take the fight to Voss, where they came from in the first place.”

  “We might gain some valuable clues that we can use to defeat them,” Viktor Denek of Gladno proposed.

  “Even if there are no dragons left on Voss, we might find all manner of valuable things there which we can make use of in our battles with the dragons,” concluded Vladimir Milla of Valtr.

  “If our ancestors did come from Voss, we might find things of great historic value for my people of Chana,” Yada Shem added, taking a different approach.

  Evsen had yet to say anything. Of course, if Zoran wanted them, he would go, no questions asked, but he’d rather not have to order the group to go. Seeing the others nodding their approval, at last he said, “I think I speak for all of us, baron, count us in. We’d all love to go on this expedition. Who else is coming?”

  “Archmage Karel. I want at least two Archmages along, just in case. Plus, I will bring along a few of his rods to help you all out a bit. Honani of Isi has also volunteered to bring his band of Star Dancers along to help,” Zoran replied.

  Kaya Kasa of Isi, their tracker and archer who spoke infrequently, said quietly, “That is good. They are rogues, but highly competent in such matters. You could do far worse.”

  “How soon can we get this expedition going?” asked an impatient Bernd Hardt of Dietmar. “We have been idle too long for my tastes.”

  “Let’s get supplies together and leave first thing in the morning. I’ll get the others here now so we can meet and finalize everything. Then, you all can raid our supplies for what you think we’re going to need.”

  “Ah, Kaya, we meet a
gain,” Honani reverently addressed the thin archer the moment that he and his group entered the room with the fighters. It was obvious that he greatly respected the woman, Zoran noticed, a good sign the two groups would get along. Karel, Miroslav, and Jarmila arrived and the introductions began.

  “Okay, undoubtedly Voss is a large world. My plan is to divide us up into three scouting parties with each taking a specific quadrant of the planet to search. We map it as we go. If nothing else, let’s at least produce a map of this world. It might help us in the future. Between Karel and I, we have five of his powerful rods. He and I will each have one on us and we can protect two others if they stay on either side of us and within ten feet. They will protect us fully from around ten dragon breath attacks. I will give each leader of the three groups a rod as well, though I hope and pray that we don’t need them.”

  “Unless anyone objects, Evsen, I’ll take Kaya and Anwen with me along with Honani’s group and Jarmila. That leaves a dozen of you and Karel and Miroslav. Evsen, you divide the rest of your force into two groups anyway you desire and put Karel with one of them.”

  “Will we be coming back here each night or camping there?” he asked.

  “I’m open for opinions on that,” he replied. After some discussion, Honani and Kaya’s views ruled. They would wait and see what they found on Voss. If conditions were acceptable, camping was preferred. They then broke up to pack more supplies, on the assumption that they might be camping out.

  Evsen took Karel and Miroslav with him, along with Tom, Vladimir, Viktor, and Berndt. Karel insisted that Evsen carry the extra rod for his group. Evsen then insisted that Miroslav carry the rod. “Look you are the only person in the Federation who knows how to build Circles of Ascension. You have to be protected.” He couldn’t deny that point.

  Yada took charge of the third group that included Fino, Henri, Klaus, Federico, and Farrell with himself. He was given the fifth Rod of Dragon Slaying. On the 15th of November the explorers set out for Voss and the great unknown.