by Vic Broquard
“It’s to their advantage to attack at night, er, I mean mine, if I am the dragons. Humans don’t see well at night, especially to coordinate defenses and such. So I would not attack during the daytime, only at night. After delivering such a blow, I think that I would wait and see how the barons react. With the exception of Wen, none of the barons was attacked directly, and none of the fortresses were attacked. That tells me that they are either afraid or very leery of them and the rods, naturally. As long as the barons and Archmages stay concentrated in a few locations, they will be tough targets to take without heavy dragon losses. I’d guess that they will wait and see before launching more attacks. However, they will undoubtedly raise more towns,” Jarka suggested.
“That is a good point, Jarka. If we stay concentrated, we have a chance. Thanks. I have to deal with fifteen or more barons. I will relay that advice. Don’t spread out. I think that it may be time to move as much of our populations into the subterranean cities as we can, just to be safe,” Zoran concluded. She left and Zoran took a deep breath and then began constructing a large Mind Link to one baron on each of the other fifteen planets.
Okay. Don’t all talk at once. We have all suffered at least three dragon attacks on towns on our worlds. We have a new baron for Maeve with us, Conchobar Ahren. Now then, my advice — which you don’t have to follow necessarily. I believe that the dragons will take a wait and see what we do next approach and will not attack us later today. Jarka and I think that they will continue to make nighttime attacks, because we are far less defensible then. She and I think that the dragons want us to send out our forces to other towns and cities so that they can pick us off more easily. So here on Adapazan, I am keeping our forces in our three key fortresses for the time being, lending aid of course for brief times when needed. Thus, I am recommending that we begin to get as many of our people into our subterranean safe houses as we can.
Thanks to Archmage Ivana, the dragons lost two during their attacks. Jarka and I now put their number of attack dragons at around five hundred twenty-six more for us to kill. For now, let’s focus on getting as many of our people into safe quarters as we can and worry about going after the dragons a bit later. I know that we are not going to have enough underground room for everyone, but let’s do our best and then see where we are at. If your fortresses are attacked directly, message me, and I’ll see if I can get to you in time to help repel the dragons. Let’s all Mind Link each day say around this time to coordinate our efforts.
Remember, that is one thing that we have that the dragons do not — our ability to Mind Link and thus coordinate our actions. We must make use of this as much as we can. Okay, questions?
Baron Leo here. What are we going to do to protect those whom we simply cannot get below ground?
I don’t know yet. Perhaps we can bring them into the fortresses, at least until our fortresses fall, Zoran suggested. Hey, I have to go. Aldrick the Gold Dragon is here. Maybe I can find out from him what the devil is going on. I’ll get back to you in a bit. He broke the link.
“Welcome old friend. Sad, sad day,” Zoran rose and shook Aldrick’s hand. He’d morphed into his human form to visit the baron. Bernard had brought him in, passing by the security forces. Aldrick looked old, Zoran thought. This crisis was taking a toll on him as well.
The gold sighed. “Yes, it is the saddest day ever. We golds have been out-voted, seven to one. The others have gone to war against all you humans. Alas, at this time, there is nothing that I can do to stop them.”
“That’s what I figured, Aldrick. You and I, we’ve done our best, but it just wasn’t enough in the end. Still, I am keeping the barons from making retaliatory strikes at the moment. I don’t want to kill off your species either. Have a seat.”
After sitting down, Aldrick sighed and said, “We golds are in a terrible position, Zoran. We have two choices really. One, we can side with the others and help wipe out the human race. Two, we can join you and help wipe out our own race.”
“Three choices, Aldrick. You can sit back and not participate on either side. That way, you will not be party to either genocide. Plus, you and I may yet find a way to end this war on peaceful terms that does not involve genocide of either of our races. I’d prefer this choice, old friend,” Zoran replied, hoping that the gold would seize this alternative.
“I don’t like doing nothing, but if we can find a way to stop this, then I wouldn’t be doing nothing, would I?” Aldrick mulled over his suggestion, finding a part of it that he could accept. “Is there really anything more that we can do?”
Zoran shrugged his shoulders. “At this instant, I don’t even know why all of a sudden they decided to go to war.”
“Three things finally pushed them over the edge. First, your Seventeen all became Archmages. Is this true? They all did?” Zoran nodded. “Interesting. Perhaps they need to worry! If the other hundred plus also become Archmages, then they have signed their own death warrants. Anyway, they saw that your people have been gathering up enchanted blades from grave sites on Voss.”
“Correction. We found them in various homes and keeps. We’ve never dug up any graves that I know of, Aldrick. Yes, we need them to help protect ourselves, obviously. What’s the third?” Zoran had anticipated these two, he did not the third.
“The blacks are claiming that you uncovered a super-weapon of the ancients on Voss and brought it to Brn to use against dragon-kind. That, I find hard to believe.”
Zoran threw his hands up in disgust. “Aldrick, we went to Voss in search of twenty ancient journals of one of our founders, Bandar Zar. We hope that it will illuminate our ancient history. Did you know that all of the original sixteen founders came from Voss?”
“What? Voss? No way!”
“Yes, we found a mural in a temple that said Voss was originally the Democracy of the Sixteen. The map showed sixteen areas of the planet with names like: Republic State of Anwyn and the Republic State of Adapazan. Every one of our worlds’ names was there as Republic State of such and such. All of them. Our ancestors came from Voss millennia ago, Aldrick. Incredible. Anyway, we humans thought that was interesting and that Voss may contain some clues, since all of you dragons also came from Voss, albeit a millennia later on.”
“That is most interesting, Zoran. Yes, I always knew that there were ancient ruins scattered all over Voss. There has never been a human there that I know of, not in my long lifetime nor that of my father. I’m sure that he would have mentioned it if there were. So no super-weapon?”
“No, right now, I kind of wish there was one, if you take my meaning. Three towns destroyed on each of the sixteen worlds, nasty business. I can show you the volumes if you like.”
“No, I am not interested in human history. I am more worried about the other golds, though. Emil wants to stay on the sidelines. Renata wants to go to war on your side. A few want to join the other dragons if only to end the war quickly. I will take your suggestion to heart and see if I can convince the other golds to do nothing at this point and yet be ready to help out if we can actually figure out some way to handle this mess. I have no doubts now, old friend, that this will get much worse for both our races before it gets better.”
“I wish with all my heart that I could disagree with you, but you are probably right. Many more will die on both our sides before we can end it. Somehow, someway, we must get the war stopped before either race is wiped out,” Zoran replied.
The two shook hands and Bernard escorted Aldrick out of the Brn fortress. Just then Evsen made contact with him from Voss. Hi boss. Say, the others in Strike Force One have been getting messages from their home worlds. Their barons are asking that they return and help fight the dragons. Neither I nor they want to disband the Strike Force. Suggestions? What do you want us to do? We’ve found another dozen weapons.
Right now, the dragons are attacking in masses of thirty-three, far, far more than your Strike Force could possible handle at one time. Coming back right now will serve no real useful p
urpose. Having more enchanted weapons is. So my suggestion is to continue your searches for the next few days. Let’s see what the dragons do next. Honestly, if thirty-three attack us here, it will take all of our Archmages to defeat them. Swords are really only effective one on one, not against an aerial assault of this magnitude. Long range spells are our only real hope, unless you want to jump onto a dragon and fight like Chan and Wen do.
Okay boss. I’ll relay your ideas to the group. I think they will see it your way, especially if you send for us if an attack comes. We all want to fight the dragons, that’s why they all volunteered for the force.
I will message you if an attack comes where we can actually fight back. So far they have randomly struck small towns and then only late at night. No chance for us to fight back. Evsen broke the link and Zoran sat back thinking. More blades would be useful. Perhaps he ought to ask the barons to supply fighters to man up a second strike force that would be able to respond to an attack on a moment’s notice, coming to their aid. Of course if he did that, who could he send as the Adapazan representative? He was running out of Duska fighters.
As if in answer, though later he figured Evsen was behind it, Dusan Dragon came to see him. He was Archmage Nadia’s husband and Evsen’s older brother, Jarka and Bernard’s eldest boy. “Say, if you are planning to man up a second strike force, how about letting me be Adapazan’s representative? I’m doing very little at the moment. I know that Dana is tied up training everyone he can. How about it?”
“Well, I was just considering it. We have accumulated enough weapons for another one. However, I don’t want them going out hunting for dragons. Rather, I would like them to be ready to respond instantly to any ongoing dragon attack on any world. They could come to the rescue as soon as they were notified that dragons were attacking somewhere.”
“Hey, I like that even better. Bet Evsen would too.”
“Okay, I have to make you do the same as Evsen. You have to get your folk’s permission before I’ll consent,” Zoran replied.
An hour later, though Jarka and Bernard had misgivings about both their boys being on the front lines of the war, so to speak, they agreed. Zoran promised to see that Dusan also had one of Karel’s rods with him as well. Then, he contacted the other barons. As expected, they were delighted with the prospect of having two Strike Forces that would be ready to come to the aid of anyone of them who was being attacked.
Next, he went to check on how the populating of his subterranean city was going. The Seventeen Archmages were handling this operation. Why? They wanted to guarantee that no dragon spy attempted to sneak in along with the worried citizens of Brn. Thus, far, none had.
“So far so good, Zoran,” Archmage Danika reported. “Most are all right with this move. It is winter and so little commerce happens. Most are worried about their homes or businesses getting damaged, but when I tell them that you’ve promised to replace them if that happens, they stop fretting. I hope that they don’t get cabin fever down there. We’ve got a whole lot of Permanent Light spells set up, so it ought to be nice and bright. Of course, we also provided leather bags to put over them when they want to sleep.”
“Excellent, Archmage Danika. Excellent. I have a feeling that we will soon be taking on many others from other worlds too. I don’t think it is possible to house everyone on all our worlds in underground safe houses. We’ve not had time enough to make that much space. I best go check on how Baron Jan is faring.”
“Tell Eliska hi for me. She’s with him making sure no dragons enter his complex as well,” she replied. As he headed over to Castle Dorumova, he began to worry about just that. So many people lived in small hamlets and villages. How could these be protected? They had no underground safe houses available, only the larger towns did. He just did not have enough mages around to handle the constructions via magic spells. Using miners to dig them would be impossibly slow.
Chapter 35 The Ordeal of Milena Dezda
Milena Dezda turned twenty-one in November and now had a thriving business going — Dezda Operations. Overly tall at six-five, or so she considered, only recently had her thin frame begun to fill out in all the right places. She attributed the sudden interest of men in her to just that. As a young girl living in Orlovia Province, she always had been taller than all the boys that she knew. Her parents had fled the invasion of Sholov Province some twenty-four years ago, living in exile until ten years ago when Baron Zoran began the rebuilding of the Province and his son took charge of the new Circle of Ascension there.
Among the exiles from Sholov was an old mage, Kamil. He’d taken an interest in this tall, skinny girl and began teaching her to use magic. Milena had quickly learned all of the many useful spells and had been officially given the Adept badge. From there, Kamil continued to work with her, though they only did so of an evening. Still, Milena continued to learn. “One day if you study hard and practice lots, Milena, you may become a mage like me,” he’d often tell her. Well, that all ended five years ago when the old man had died of natural causes.
Shortly after that, her own parents moved into new quarters in Velin, Sholov Province, some twenty miles from Baron Tomas Vladislov’s new Fortress and Circle. Here, she began to put her spells to work, quickly finding work for an Adept. Soon, she discovered that her “real spells” could make her even more money, and she’d set up her small business, Dezda Operations. Stone masons now frequently hired her to levitate heavy stones up to their places on the buildings that they were constructing. It saved them scaffolding time, which saved them money as well. One thing was certain, under Baron Tomas, new constructions were sprouting up nearly everywhere in Sholov Province. Milena was doing quite nicely for herself as Yuletide approached and the stone masons ceased work until the spring thaws came.
Yuletide night, nearly everyone was packed into the Moose Lodge for the annual party. In Velin, like most all towns, Yuletide was the party event of the year. Besides marking the end of one year, it ushered in the new year full of hopes which under Baron Tomas’ leadership stood a good chance of being fulfilled. For the first time in her life, Milena found herself being the center of romantic attention from young men, instead of ridicule. She was so tired of “how’s the weather up there” comments that she’d heard all her life. True, she had a thick skin by now, but she was having a harder time with the men’s sudden change of viewpoint and all because the rest of her body finally caught up to her height. She had not considered that her bit of magic spell use and that she now had a small profitable business going had anything to do with all the young men asking her for a dance. In spite of her confusion over the why, she enjoyed the attention that she was getting tonight.
Everything came to a sudden, violent end when the dragons swooped down on Velin. Two browns came smashing through the roof, ending the festivities in a blink. Surprise shouts turned to screams of terror, as all eyes in the packed room gazed upwards at the swarming mass of multicolored dragons circling overhead. As the dragons began sending down death and destruction, Milena, unwilling to go down without a fight, cast her single Magical Missile at the nearest brown dragon. She found herself even more confused. Now she was no longer in the room of panicking people, many of whom were dying from the searing flames and streams of acid covering their bodies. No, she was on a featureless grey plain. Worse, there was the dragon that she tried to attack, glaring back at her.
This is so strange, she thought. Oh well, fire another one. She tried to get off another of her Magical Missiles, but immediately found herself back into the chaos with the Moose Lodge. Screams of pain and terror swamped her hearing. Heat, foul smoke and the odor of caustic acid deadened her olfactory senses and threatened to choke her. Dense smoke from the fires and acid fumes blocked her vision as much as the swarming mass of people, pushing to get out of the giant room.
Strength! She cast the spell on herself to avoid being pushed hard into the wall by the throng forcing its way towards the exit. Milena pushed back and slipped over the wooden ba
r, falling to the floor behind it. Just as she felt free of the mob, another blast of flames reddened the already smoke filled room. The mass, which had been pushing her, now shoved the bar over on top of her. How long she was stunned, she didn’t know, but at last the heavy weight on her chest brought her back to the present. She pushed upwards, but only moved the heavy bar a little. “Levitate!” Now the bar slowly moved up off of her. The smoke was clearing. She felt the cold from outside coming into the room from where the roof had been. Charred bodies littered the floor like embers of some giant’s fireplace’s half-burnt logs. She got to her feet and stepped over the fallen and piles of caustic acid to get outside the huge hall.
She stepped out into the cold and snowy ground only to come face to face with a black dragon, who was counting a few terror stricken survivors! The dragon made a noise that sounded like “Hum.” Then she recognized the spell that it was casting, Sleep.
No, I don’t want to go to sleep! Fight it, Milena, fight it! She thought to herself. Movement, yes, she was moving through the air. She opened her eyes and found herself hanging from the claws of an enormous beast, flying through the air. Is that Velin far below me? What’s happening to me? “Let me go!” her weak sounding voice broke the stillness of the night, barely audible above the flapping of the huge wings as the dragon sought to gain altitude.
She had to get away. Strength! She again cast her spell and struggled to break free from the powerful claws of the dragon. If she could, she had just the spell ready to break her long fall to the ground far below. If she could just break free. No luck, even with her enhance strength, she could not force the powerful claws open. Mentally, she went through all the spells that she knew, trying one here and there. Shock, Scare, Spook, Burn. Nothing worked on this powerful beast. At last, she stopped trying. Something strange was happening to her. A grey-blackness swept over her. She was disoriented, falling and yet not falling, the claws still held her in a vice grip. Milena felt nauseous and would have vomited only she couldn’t figure which way was down.
