They rode all that day, and made camp at dusk on the gentle slope of a hill. “We do not want a fire on top of the hill,” Rolph had pointed out.
There were dark clouds on the horizon. “That storm will hit tomorrow, after noon”, said Owen. “We should be ready.” He had kept up his habit of watching the terrain through the eyes of birds or eagles far above. It was they who had known the storm would hit tomorrow.
“Stay close tonight, my friend”, Owen instructed Gander, who snickered his understanding.
By now the routines were familiar, and they quickly set up the tents. They kept the horses and mules close on a staked tether that circled the camp. There was plenty of grass. Owen walked all around the camp area placing a ward this time. It would keep unwanted visitors from reaching them or the horses, and would alert him if activated. He was suddenly very hungry.
“I have not used wards before at our camps, but tonight we need them. It means that any mage in the area can see them, unfortunately. I don’t sense anyone for miles, though.”
“So the Lions can’t sneak in and snatch one of us, huh?” asked Tamaris.
“Not even the whole pride or a herd of Buffalo, Tamaris.” Ender, Purdy and Rolph were listening to this, and all four were visibly relieved.
“Let’s cook some venison tonight. I’m starving”.
“Magic does that to you, right?” asked Rolph.
“Only when there are no fresh enemy kills to tap, Rolph. I do best when they are dying nearby, and there is lots of blood.”
“Ewe. You could tap this energy from other animals, or even us, couldn’t you?”
“Yes. But I won’t unless invited to do so, and then only if there is very dire need. And there is no need, really. Food does a splendid job all by itself.”
“Ya hear that Purdy? You better get on that fire quick or Owen will do more than mess your face up!” Tamaris had not forgotten the ribbing he had endured.
“You are the one with all the yapping energy, Tamaris. “Owen, why don’t you slow him down some, and solve two problems at once?”
“You two should be married”, said Ender. “You bitch at each other enough.”
“Oh Tamaris, will you be my Bitch?”
Tamaris just walked off in disgust and started constructing the fire pit.
In the wee hours, Owen was wakened by a draw on his wards. He slipped out of the tent with his Elven swords handy. The horses had move closer to the tents and were whickering nervously. Gander stood close to the ward on the east side.
Owen threw more wood on the fire. Rolph was standing between the fire and the ward, looking into the darkness.
“Those aren’t lions”, he said as Owen approached. “I saw the big one test your ward with his nose just now.”
“Wolves. Big ones aren’t they. I see the leader. Let me see if I can contact him”.
“The savannah wolves are large and smart. I know that one. His pack is on top. I named him Tooth a few years back. He might remember. They have a pack mentality, so do not embarrass their leader.”
Owen strode up next to Gander, who issued a low note of warning at the wolves. “Great Tooth, why do you pace our resting place?”
“Tooth? Smell Dragon, not wizard. Curious. Hungry. Horses good.”
“Dragon hungry. Wolves good.”
Owen sent an image of fire blasted wolves being devoured by a Vampire Dragon. Gander licked his chops.
The big wolf growled. “Wizard gave.”
“Rolph, go fetch one of those salted deer haunches please. I think big boy here needs to save some face.”
The wolves paced, their read eyes gleaming, and Rolph returned with a meaty haunch.
Owen took it and stepped through the ward. The wolves back away from him, except for Tooth.
He threw the haunch and Tooth caught it with a mouth full of long, sharp teeth. He gazed at Owen for a moment, then turned and padded off into the darkness.
Rolph sighed as Owen stepped back through the ward. “That was dangerous, Owen.”
“Not really. They fear us, and won’t attack unless we goad them. Go get some rest, Rolph. I will take the next watch. I might as well. If the ward gets probed, I wake up anyway.”
After Rolph went into the tent, Owen took a seat next to the fire against a stack of unburned wood. “Baird, I notice that Gander is pulling images from my mind and anticipating. Is this part of the familiar process?”
“Since it was not your original intention to create a familiar, this will go more slowly. You have been growing closer, and before long the link will be strong enough for you to actually morph Gander into different forms. Because he started as a mortal creature rather than a creature of magic, he would eventually die as all mortal creatures do. Just like Firefly did shortly after you were given to the Hodgens. Gander will live much longer than normal, several hundred years probably. Firefly was over 600. He was originally a Fenri, an Elf horse. They are splendid animals that can be called from afar by name, just as you can call Gander now. I don't know all of the effects your blood might have on him really. He may actually live as long as you, now.”
After a couple of hours, Purdy opened his tent flap and stepped out. He relieved Owen, who managed to get a few more hours of sleep before a gray dawn woke them all.
They debated moving on in the face of the storm, and decided they would go only as far as a better place to weather it. So they quickly struck camp after a good breakfast. Owen fed some of the Elk meat to Gander, who relished it immensely.
“Let him have it”, said Purdy, the biggest eater. “Gander is the best fighter we have save perhaps Owen.”
As they rode on, they could see animal movement everywhere. “They are moving to more secure locations. Perhaps we should follow those Gazelle”, said Owen.
So they followed the Gazelle for a couple of miles and the rise and fall of the moors increased. “There is a good chance we can find a ravine or something to shelter in up there”, said Rolph. The storm was looking ominous. Low black clouds moved overhead only miles away. They could see lightning.
Then Owen signaled stop. “There are men coming on horseback. They have a powerful mage who knows we are here. I am sure they are Raiders. Don’t act alarmed or threaten them.”
“Easy, Owen. I know this one. We have invited him into the circle many times, yet he prefers not. His name is Zaron Watershed. You won’t be able to hide much from him, although you should keep the glamour up for the rest of them.
He placed the glamour on Gander, who accepted it without complaint.
At least fifty raiders boiled over the top of the adjacent hill, and before long they were surrounded. These were bareback riders in barbarian attire. Some had studded leather armor, and some no armor at all. Many had bows and long spears. There were women too; showing more skin than Owen was accustomed to.
Two stood out. One was no doubt the mage, a well built gray haired man in studded armor and a skull cap. He carried an ornate, rune covered staff around which a blue nimbus played. The other was a huge man wearing studded leather pants and studded armor that crossed his chest but left his massive arms and neck free to wield the biggest axe Owen had ever seen. He had a headpiece with a steel cap and jewels imbedded in leather around the lower portion. A polished alloy mask covered his nose and most of his face. This must be their Khan.
“Garth Axeweilder. He is Humphrey’s son. Old Khan Humphrey must have passed on. Garth is ok. He looks mean, and can be if you cross him, just like his father.”
Garth motioned Zaron to move forward. The wizard stepped his horse up close to Owen and peered into his eyes. He looked at the emerald ring. “So Baird did not make it this far, I see. You must be his charge, the new Dragon King puppy. I see your Dragon eyes, and your Familiar. A powerful sorcerer already – I smell a blood mage? That would make you a Vampire Dragon. Scary combination, that.”
“Baird names you Zaron Watershed, a circle class Mage. I am honored to meet you. My name is Owen Hodgen. We
pass through on our way to Dragon Mount on the Maker’s business, and mean you no harm.”
“We know. We could have let you go on and not slowed you, but the coming storm is a very bad one. I think you should shelter with us. There is not much time.”
“Thank you, Zaron”. Owen was greatly relieved.
Zaron rode back to his Khan and nodded. “Follow us!” commanded this formidable Khan. “Leave the wood here.”
The circling warriors peeled away. “Come on”, said Owen. “They offer us shelter.” He circled behind the mules and released the ties to the wood sleds.
They raced behind the Raiders, and more of them circled in behind. The wind picked up, and ominous thunder was getting louder. Soon they were on a well trodden path, weaving this way and that between hills in a confusing pattern. They galloped around a turn and entered a narrow valley. They slowed to a trot as they climbed up the sloped valley to a sheer rock face. It had grown dark, yet Owen made out sentries in the rocks overhead, making their way toward the switch back cut in the sheer granite face of biggest hill they had yet seen. As they entered the hill, white wizard lights lined a passageway of stone into a large central space, packed with people. Around the inside walls of the hill, wooden platforms, parapets and cabins had been constructed. Walled off sections of housing and trade buildings lined walls almost right up over their heads. Wizard lights were everywhere, and some wood and coal fires as well. The smoke spiraled up and out through some sort of arrangement at the top of the dome.
They slowed to a walk; negotiating narrow ails through another passageway into a second, lower and broader space. In here the raiders were dismounting and leading their horses into fenced paddocks. It was darker in this area, with Wizard lights spaced much farther apart. No fires burned here.
Zaron approached them on foot. “Put your teams in that paddock. I don’t think they will get along with our horses very well, especially this one.”
“His name is Gander, and our horses and mules have gotten used to him”, said Owen. They did as they were told, and were gratified to find feeders well stocked with high quality grain.
“Everyone, this is Zaron. ”Zaron, this is Rolph, Ender, Purdy and Tamaris.”
“Not miners I bet, I’d say Elite Royal Guards by the way you carry yourselves. Don’t mention that to anyone else. Their trust might not go that far.”
“The King respects your land, Zaron”, said Rolph.
“I know Kirkland does. It’s a blessing to have him as King, but that was not always the case, and might not be in the future. Giving the King’s men the location of one of our havens would trouble young Garth no end.”
“They are my men for the time being.”
“That’s right”, said Rolph. “There are many things we are learning on this trip that are not for the King’s need to know, right guys?”
“Right!” All three agreed.
“Come then. Leave your weapons here. They will be safe. The penalty is death to steal another’s gear while in a Haven, and there are guards.”
“You don’t mind if I ward them just the same, do you?” asked Owen.
“Go ahead. Ward them with death. A fitting end to whoever would try.”
Owen did just that, but it made him hungry.
“Hungry now?” asked Zaron knowingly.
“Uh huh.”
“Owen, you need to start storing energy into the rubies on the pommels of your Elven Swords, when you can. I have told you before. You can only use rubies, the jewel of a blood mage. Those two are flawless, and will store as much power as you could ever need. Well, close anyway. In fact, have you checked them? The Elves would not have left them empty. I forgot to myself. There are also smaller rubies imbedded in the sheath, along with some emeralds and diamonds. Don’t forget those. I can work with the emeralds and diamonds, but you must feed me the energy since I don’t have a body.”
“I understand the blood thing a little better now. Thanks for reminding me, Baird. I will check them when I get them back.”
“Come on then, I know how to fix that.”
Zaron led them back into the main hall, and one of the female raiders who Owen had seen on horseback stepped in next to him and matched pace. She was tall, thin and perfectly proportioned, with slanted eyes and a long brunette twin ponytail. He had to tear his eyes away. She noticed and smiled.
“Hello, Owen. My name is Annette Axeweilder. Garth’s sister.”
“OM, Baird, she is a mage!”
"Heh. Is that scary?"
“Definitely my pleasure to meet you, Annette. You hide your mental talents well.”
“But not my physical ones?”
Owen blushed and she smiled wider.
“It’s how we are. I can see the real you, and you are breathtaking. Why do you hide it?”
Owen was definitely not used such a frank conversation. He felt he was being pulled into something that might not be so bad.
“That is a mage thinking. How would my friends react, or even your people to an Elf with Dragon eyes. I see no elves here, and it would be a shock to these guys who have known me so long as a human.”
“So you do not think less of humans?”
“Think less? I don’t understand. Why would I think less because humans don’t live as long? I have never even considered thinking less of any soul the Maker has blessed. It has never even crossed my mind. There are some I think less of actually, yet their race has nothing to do with it.”
It was Annette’s turn to blush. She had been brought up to believe that Elves considered humans to be an inferior race, nothing more than a glorified monkey. It was only after the huge surprise of her talent and Zaron’s teachings that she began to learn differently. She felt an ubdeniable and insanely powerful attraction to this Elf, and he had not rejected her. “Quite the contrary in fact”!
“Oh boy”. Thought Owen, privately. “She is even more beautiful and alluring, blushing. I am supposed to have a mate I have never even seen, and this has to happen.”
“Owen. You and Briana are two halves of a greater whole. Nothing you do will change that. Nothing like this that happens before you meet will have any consequence, in that regard. Even after, I expect.”
“That is a hard concept to fathom, Baird. Now you stay out of this!”
They arrived in what looked like a food line. He let Annette slip in front of him, with Zaron just behind. He liked the view from this angle too. He caught Rolph and Purdy winking at him. Tamaris was talking to one of the other raider women. “He is a handsome rascal after all”, thought Owen, privately. There were other women eyeing his friends. “The hospitality here is amazing”.
The storm raged outside, and Owen could hear falling water rushing from the direction of the entrance, but inside it was as if there was no storm at all.
Annette and Owen enjoyed each other’s company until Garth joined them at the table. “Hello Owen”, he said in his naturally gruff voice. His Kingly attire was gone.
“Thank you, Majesty, for this hospitality and shelter from the storm.“
“That majesty stuff doesn’t fly with us, Owen. It’s only so people know who calls the shots around here. Otherwise there is chaos. I see you have met Annette, my kid sister.” He looked at Owen with one eye closed.
“Don’t you start, Garth”, she warned.
He held up his hands. “Ok Annette. I meant nothing by that, ok? Don’t zap me”, he said laughing.
“I guess Annette being a mage surprised you, huh?”
“Surprise is not the word for it, Owen. There has never in all of our history, an Axeman mage. We go all the way back, too. There is some reason for it. Humphrey died the day he learned. On his deathbed he said to me “Watch for the day. She will know, let her go!” A great vision, then he died without explaining.”
“What I came to tell you though is that just before the storm a scouting party spotted a very large party of Orcs, several Trolls and some smaller vermin heading North across the moors. We t
hink they were in a bad spot for the storm, but those creatures are tough. There was a Wyrm with them, and a Rider. This storm will last another day I am afraid. After that we will go after them. I was hoping you would join us, to handle that Wyrm at least.”
“We must, Owen. They are going after your kin in the North.”
“Of course, Garth. We will help.”
Annette eyes opened wide.
“Thank you Owen.” He looked at Annette and Owen. “Let her go!” echoed in his mind. He rose and went to find his war leaders.
Dragons Shining Page 12
