by Vic Broquard
“My god! The wall is giving way!” Wenceslas screamed! “We have to abandon our position now!” He grabbed a hold of Wen and Shadow Walked her into her private study, deep within the adjoining palace complex. Finding herself alone, Ivana teleported into the safety of her tower, where fifteen of her rescued students were standing looking out of the first floor window, stark white and shaking with fear. Ivana continued to act, casting her protective spells on the Archmage tower, including Force Walls over the windows. At last, she too stopped to view the attacking dragons and watched as the entire wall of the keep crumbled, bringing down much of the roof and three floors with it. Many more people who were still fleeing the keep were crushed by the tons of falling stone. At last, the dragons circled overhead and then disappeared from the sky. Ivana knew that the attack had ended, but she saw the brilliant flickering glows of many fires set throughout Nanchan by the reds.
“My god! It’s really happening,” she finally muttered to herself.
“What — what — what do we do?” asked one terrified student.
“Okay, we can help put out the fires. Students, with me. Use your Make Rain spells. Let’s work together and pull down some heavy rains on the burning buildings. Come on; we have to help.” She latched onto all the women in one long line and teleported them out into the main streets of Nanchan. At once, the women began their chants, forcing the clouds to open up and deluge various small areas where homes and buildings were blazing. Once they had one block of fires out, they moved on to another street, repeating their actions. Around two in the morning, they finally returned to their tower, exhausted, but they’d put out all of the fires.
Wen and Wenceslas had recovered from their shock and began using the remaining soldiers to begin to search for survivors. When Ivana returned with her students, she had them cast numerous temporary Light spells to assist the men searching the rubble. Around three, word reached Wen of the near destruction of two other towns and she sent two of her new mages to check on the damage there. They returned shortly, grim faced and Wen knew that her worst fears were true. The reports she’d received had been accurate; two towns were virtually destroyed. She sent a dozen soldiers back with the two mages to search for survivors.
At last, she sat down and Mind Linked to Baron Zoran, reporting what had happened here in Nanchan and on Jing. Several days later the final totals were complete. Between the three attacks, around twenty thousand people had died and another thousand suffered injuries, many of those were trampled in the panicked exodus.
On Asami, Bolivar weighed his targets carefully. This world had two hundred thousand six hundred and five islands scattered around the blue ocean waters. Most were very small and held only a few inhabitants, hardly worth attacking. The largest island was a hundred miles long and fifty miles across, rising a whopping fifty feet above the sea level. Here was their largest city and fortress and primary Circle of Ascension, Paru, where Baron Goro lived. Following Werner’s orders, he could not attack the fortress there. However, there was a huge harbor nearby where many of the yachts were docked. Since these humans depended upon their large fleet of yachts, Bolivar attacked them, having the reds set them all on fire. He destroyed half of the Asami fleet that night. The attack shocked Baron Goro and sent panic waves across the island.
Their second largest island Shima Yubi housed another fortress and Circle at Tesaki, located on the eastern end of the island. Again, he dare not attack the fortress. However, at the western end of the narrow width island was Ma-meido, a secret and heavily guarded pearl collection site. This he attacked, destroying the entire above ground facility there, sending a hundred mermaids fleeing underwater to escape the destruction.
He then attacked and destroyed their main fish factory on the third largest island. This totally crippled Asami’s second largest export business, fish. All told, a little over three thousand died on the water world that night. Unfortunately, Baron Goro was unable to keep the secret of his mermaids any longer. Besides having to frantically rescue them, would be rescuers who rushed to Ma-meido discovered them, floating helplessly in the shallow waters. Their shallow beach home was completely destroyed and they had no place to come ashore, let alone eat and sleep. Those who always provided them their meals were now dead.
Some of these mermaids had recently been relocated from their home island of Orochi, which he ceded to Bolivar, the blue. All told, on Asami, Baron Goro had some three hundred-fifty mermaids. With Ma-meido gone, he had very serious problems to handle, to say nothing of the furor that arose over the discovery of the secret mermaids.
On Maeve, Baron Ailfrid and Baroness Breana were at Cullen, a nearby town from their fortress, performing the age old Maeve tradition of welcoming in the new year. Ever since the founding of Maeve a millennia ago, the ruling baron was required to officiate at this celebration of life and subsequent dance. Dense forests covered the habited portions of Maeve, and they were famous for their finely crafted hardwood furniture. Most of the buildings on Maeve were, naturally, wooden structures, which only aided the dragons in their attack of devastation. As always, Ailfrid carried his precious Rod of Dragon Slaying with him at all times now. He was petrified of the beasts.
At ten that night, Baron Ailfrid was thoroughly enjoying the pomp and ceremony being heaped on himself and his wife as the official rulers. Official — in that he had inherited the original Circle of Ascension from his father, the late Bran Ahren. His brothers were also barons and controlled the two recently built new Circles of Ascension. The festivities ended as half of the outside wall of the large wooden building came crashing down, compliments of four dragons joining forces. As utter panic swept over the thousand plus who were dressed in their finest for the celebration, Baron Ailfrid grabbed his wife’s hand and Shadow Walked them out of the stampede of human bodies trying to get out of the way of the falling walls and out of the building. They stepped into the snow covered street.
Unfortunately, three dragons were standing there; two reds were in the process of belching forth cones of their deadly fire into the panic stricken masses. The coward froze, staring up into the cold black eyes of a Black Dragon. Instinctively, Ailfrid raised his Rod of Dragon Slaying high before himself, while still holding onto his wife. He knew that the dragon’s acid would not be harming him, the rod was his protection.
Unfortunately for Ailfird, the black also knew about the rod. Instead of belching up his acid, he simply leaned over and bit the man’s head off. Baroness Breana shrieked in shock and terror. The black burped and exhaled a small amount of acid over the woman, whose skin began to dissolve. Her terror screams turned into those of extreme pain, but she died seconds later.
Standing in the shadows was Conchobar Ahren, a bastard son of the late Baron Bran Ahren. Conchobar hated his father, but the baron had at least given Conchobar his rightful Ceremony of Ascension when he turned fourteen. Beyond that, the baron had abandoned Conchobar to his own fate, for which his bastard son never forgave him. Left to his own devices, he’d practiced sword fighting with anyone who would teach him. His style was a conglomeration of more than a dozen fighter types. Later when his father finally died and Bran’s three legitimate sons took the thrones, Conchobar had acted on his own behalf.
Seeing that Bran had left him nothing when he died, Conchobar decided to help himself to an inheritance. His father had a prized enchanted bastard sword. While everyone was attending the funeral pyre and ceremony, Conchobar slipped into the fortress and stole the sword. No one ever found out how the sword had disappeared. Years of street life had taught Conchobar well.
This evening, he had come to Cullen to watch his half-brother make a pompous fool of himself. Security was tight and he’d not yet found a way into the building when the dragons swooped down on Cullen. He stepped back into the shadows of a nearby building to watch, his hand on his sword. Before long, he saw his foolish brother appear and hold the rod up before the huge black dragon. Conchobar knew all about the rod. It was now common knowledge that
Ailfrid possessed one of Baron Zoran’s magical rods which would protect the wielder. Of course, only a few actually knew of the rod’s true powers.
Conchobar saw the utter foolishness of Ailfrid and watched the young baron and baroness get killed by the black. Even though he had no love for Ailfird, Conchobar acted. He saw his chance. He raced from the shadows, dove for the rod now lying on the snow covered ground, grabbed it, and rolled back onto his feet. Now he was facing the three dragons. The three beasts were taken by surprise, giving Conchobar time to draw his blade, thus negating any chance that the black could attempt to bite him as it had his half-brother. A red belched fire onto Conchobar, and to the young man’s surprise, the rod activated and the searing flames swept past him, leaving him untouched. Conchobar acted.
His sword struck the red, piercing its hide. The startled beast let out a cry of pain and surprise. The other red backed away, recognizing the man was wielding an enchanted blade which could well slay him. Conchobar moved forward and successfully landed a strike on the black, wounding it as well. Now all three backed off and took flight, the reds then belching fire onto nearby buildings. Conchobar raced after them, but was unable to physically injure any other dragons. Once the dragons left Cullen in flames and ruin, Conchobar was hailed as a hero for driving the beasts away. Many had seen him dashing about trying to attack the dragons. After that, he found his horse and rode to the fortress, where he relayed what had happened and laid his claim to the throne. None dare defy him, since he had Bran’s famous sword and the Rod of Dragon Slaying. Later on, his other two half-brothers arrived to survey the destruction, and they too had little choice but to acknowledge Conchobar as the new baron, though both began scheming to find ways to get that rod from him. It was Conchobar who later Mind Linked to Baron Zoran, introducing himself, proclaiming he was the new baron, and told Zoran what had happened on Maeve. All told, three towns were burned to the ground and around ten thousand on Maeve perished during the three separate attacks that night.
By the time that Zoran received the final reports from the Night of Terror as it was thereafter known, each of the sixteen planets had lost around ten thousand people, on the average, some more, some less.
Yuletide evening around ten there in the Stodgy Inn, Brn, one of the musicians called out, “Okay ladies. It’s that time again. Here’s your chance to dance a few steps with your baron!” This was a long standing tradition that Zoran always insisted upon doing — allowing anyone who desired to dance a bit with their baron. “It does wonders for everyone,” he once explained to Tomas, who had asked why he did it. After all, it was a security risk. One of the women could be an assassin from Rehor. Nevertheless, Zoran always went ahead with it. As the women giggled and stepped forward to get their turn, suddenly Zdenka screamed loudly, along with five other women. All eyes turned to the six who screamed. Zdenka, shaking visibly, called out to a hushed room, “Dragons have just attacked several towns on Adapazan!” Their Premonition spells had detonated, taking the six Archmages by complete surprise.
“Party is over!” Zoran’s Magnified voice echoed in the large pub’s room. “Everyone, head home. Begin packing what you need. After we find out what is going on, I may issue the order for everyone to enter our subterranean safe house. At least get yourselves prepared for that. Gang, everyone back to the fortress! We have to get to those towns as fast as possible!”
As Zdenka opened her Mystical Door for herself and Zoran, she whispered, “The dragon war is beginning, isn’t it?” Zoran’s face looked grimmer than she’d ever seen it before and she had her answer.
Within minutes, Baron Tomas arrived with his forces, followed within minutes with a terrified Baron Jan and his forces. Zoran ordered, “Chika, Akira, you stay here, up on the roof please. Message us if you detect any sign that dragons are heading to Brn. Jan, you take a third to Zavis near Dorum. Tomas, take a third to Velin, Sholov Province. I’ll take the rest to Zelen, Zovou Province. Stay alert!”
Zoran noted that the three towns that were attacked were scattered across the continent. From Zavis in the far east, to Zelen in the far west, and Velin in the middle, the dragons had spread their attacks out widely. He suspected this was on purpose, drawing his forces to extreme distances from Brn. He anticipated further attacks, though none came this night.
“Light spells — someone cast them from high above so we can see what we are doing!” Jarka called out as soon as they landed outside the small town of Zelen, an iron mining town. Here most of the houses were made of stone boulders with a limestone mortar holding them together. Roofs were often thatched and most were in flames when the group arrived. “Careful! Watch where you are stepping! Slime rot here and acid there!” she quickly advised the others. Karel grumbled again, these were plainly obvious to him.
Heavy snow added to their difficulties and at last, several Archmages began using their spells to lift large sections of the snow up, dropping them on the fires in an attempt to rapidly extinguish them. They met with some success. Meanwhile, Jarka, Zoran, Zdenka, Karel, and Danika began searching for survivors. Danika found the first of the seven survivors, a brother and sister, hugging each other. They were outside in the cold snow with only their long underwear on. She quickly took them inside the remains of their home but regretted that move. Their parent’s bodies lay on the front room floor. Nevertheless, she got the two numb children to their rooms, now smoke filled, and got them dressed warmly. A few spells removed the smoke. At least their ceiling had been spared. The melting snow had put out the fire on their roof, though it had collapsed onto the attic floor.
An hour later, they returned to Brn with the seven survivors. There was not much else they could do until daylight came. Tomas reported finding ten survivors at Velin, while a terribly shaken Jan reported six at Zavis. This town was barely fifteen miles from Dorum and his own Castle Dorumova! That scared him.
Zoran contacted the Warlord of Zovou Province, the fifty year old Warlord Petr. After telling him about the total destruction of his outlying town, he asked him to take care of the funeral arrangements and that he would join him there in the morning. Petr was extremely upset. “Is this the start of the dragon wars?” he asked.
“Likely, I’m getting reports from similar attacks on the other fifteen planets. I’ll keep you fully apprised of the situation,” Zoran advised.
“We should be extremely careful when we are there tomorrow,” Jarka cautioned. “It could well be a trap set for us. The dragons will be expecting everyone to be at the ruins gathering up the dead. Prime time to attack us and wipe us out!”
“Yes, we’d be out in the open and could easily be taken by surprise,” Zoran admitted. “We’ll use extreme caution. Keep several Archmages Invisible and on guard watching the skies.” She felt a bit better about it now. Zoran didn’t think the dragons would attempt to attack them though. With seven Archmages in each group, they would be able to extract a very heavy toll on the dragons.
The survivors, cleaned, fed, and in some cases clothed, were then questioned. They learned two key facts from the twenty-three survivors. One, every colored dragon was represented, save golds. Two, the attack group numbered thirty-three. During the long night, Zoran received similar word from the other barons. Each world had had three towns destroyed by a large group of dragons of all colors, save gold. The exact number in each swarm varied, but usually around thirty-three.
A sleepy-eyed Jarka commented over breakfast, “Well, we know one thing for sure. We are facing an army of five hundred twenty-six dragons. Archmage Ivana got two last night. We know the enemy’s strength.”
“Hey, we know one other peculiar thing, dad,” Tomas pointed out. He had stayed here with Zoran during the night to help coordinate and stay abreast of the incoming messages. “One of Velin survivors said that they saw a black carrying one Milena Dezda away with him. I did some checking last night, dad. It seems that she has had some magic training. She’s classified as an Adept, but has mastered a number of grade one and two
spells before she reached her maximum ability to learn magic. She’s twenty and was Velin’s magic assistant, carrying out little useful things for the townsfolk. She was known for Levitating heavy stone blocks, helping the construction of new homes and additions in Velin. I wonder if she is part of the abduction of women-to-be-bred project of theirs? Or are they planning to torture her for information? If that’s the case, I can’t imagine what she could possibly know that the dragons desire to know.”
“Right after breakfast, I’ll speak with Kachina and see if she can locate her. I wonder if others were taken as well? How about re-questioning all the survivors, Tomas?”
“You got it, dad!”
A while later, Zoran met with the Isi native. He explained the abduction of the Adept Milena Dezda. “I am truly sorry, Zoran. Please don’t ask this of me right now. The whole Shadowland around us all is completely saturated with the heavy emotions of fear, terror, panic, pain, and suffering. I would be overwhelmed if I even made the slightest contact with it right now.”
“Okay, I understand. No problem. Thanks for being honest with me.” Zoran left and headed to his private study. Already other barons were demanding a conference with him. What should they do? What ought they do? What could they do? His head was swimming and he felt the onset of a pounding headache. He sent for Jarka once more.
“Yes, boss?” she said as she stepped out of her Mystical Door, teasing him a little.
“Have a seat. I want to bounce something off of you.” She did so. “Pretend for a moment that you are the dragon leader and have just launched this unprecedented attack on all sixteen worlds at the same time. Given that, would you be launching more of these attacks today, tonight, or would you be waiting for a reaction from us humans and barons?” He knew that he soon had to address all of the barons and that they would all be looking to him for advice on what to do next.
