Dragon Alliance: Rise Against Shadow

by J. Michael Fluck

  “One last thing, tell the men the first round of ale is on me tonight, just because I’m glad to be back and see their ugly faces,” Mkel said again with a smile. “Oh, tell the lieutenants I will meet with them tonight, an hour before dinner.”

  “I will let them know, now take that big lizard out to relieve himself,” Pekram said with his normal sarcasm.

  “I heard that, Sergeant,” Gallanth chided the senior fighter. “Mkel, Michen wants to ride,” he told his rider. “Janta, do you have …,” Mkel started to ask the halfling.

  “Michen’s seat is right here, sir,” the diminutive halfling said, moving the boy’s carriage over to him with its padded seat.

  “Thanks, my dear,” Mkel said, taking the seat and putting Michen on Gallanth’s huge head. He would hold onto one of the gold dragon’s two head horns and play. Gallanth would make sure he would not fall by his limited telekinetic ability and careful manipulation of his tail. Mkel then waved to all assembled and to Jodem and Toderan; he then climbed up Gallanth’s arm and onto the flying rig. He fastened the padded cloth and wooden seat onto Markthrea’s mount and asked Gallanth to lift Michen up to him. Gallanth responded by shuffling the boy onto his tail and then lifted him up to Mkel. He grabbed his giggling son, and placed him into the seat, and secured him in.

  Gallanth then moved over to the lake, took a quick drink, and launched into the air. He soared over the lake and out of the Weir to the sound of the warning horns, as well as Gallanth’s own roar. They sailed over the Severic River, and Gallanth banked to the left as he gained altitude. Michen was giggling and laughing, thoroughly enjoying the ride. Gallanth was flying at a very leisurely pace so as not to whip too much wind at the little boy, for Mkel didn’t want to use the shield that one of his dragonstones could emanate, for it was a comfortable evening and Michen liked the wind in his face.

  “Enjoying yourself, little hatchling?” Gallanth asked Michen as he turned his head briefly around to look at the boy. Michen smiled and yelled, “Gallyanth, flying!” Mkel could almost make out a smile on the dragon’s huge jaws.

  “I know you need to talk, my friend. I can feel your mind is busy and slightly troubled,” Gallanth spoke aloud to Mkel.

  “I still have consternation about the happenings of the last several days,” Mkel explained. “Never before in battle have I had these feelings. I do not fear death for my own sake, but with Michen now, I am scared of leaving him like my father left me. As for the men I killed, including that death knight, I guess that bothers me slightly as well. That pogasch deserved to die for what he did, but I can’t help feeling a slight remorse. At the same time, I feel I failed by not protecting that boy’s father as well.”

  “I understand your fear of leaving Michen,” Gallanth said in a comforting tone. “Our job is a dangerous one, in spite of all our advantages. I also noticed that you fought these last two days like a ghost was looking over your shoulder. Remember that you do not need to prove anything to anyone, even your father’s memory and especially to me, only to yourself. Up until now, you’ve only had to fight orcs and their allies; killing them is akin to squashing an insect. Remember evil exists in many places and can take many forms. The men we killed today, including the death knight, deserved what happened. This does not mean you can’t pray for their souls, however.

  Gallanth’s words hit him hard and made him think. His wisdom and brotherly tone always comforted him, especially now. “I understand your words, my friend, and they do make sense. It is just I still see that boy’s face in my mind, and I can’t stop thinking about Michen and my own memories of my father,” Mkel replied.

  “Again I understand your feelings. It is the true facet of humans that makes you unique in this world. It is also what gives you strength and the ability to love. In regards to your thoughts that we did not do enough, you must remember that as powerful as we are together, we cannot save every soldier or every innocent life. We do not have the power of the Creator and cannot be held to that same level of responsibility. All we can do is the best we can, maintain our honor, look out for our friends and those we are responsible for to the best of our ability, and above all love those who love us. Remember the oath you took when you became a dragonrider. One of the many themes of that oath is that the Creator makes us only strong for a certain period of time, to enable us to defend the weak.

  “This is also the curse of the metallic dragons,” Gallanth continued, “in that the very soul bonding we do with our human riders, the very thing that makes us more powerful, is still a temporary endeavor. Dragons are immortal unless killed in battle. We almost always outlive our bonded rider. This means we will face the loss of our soul mate many times, and dragon emotions are extremely powerful, like the pulsating of an erupting volcano.” As Gallanth spoke, Mkel felt the surge of emotion from the dragon come over him like a tidal wave. Immediately tears welled in his eyes and started to run down his cheeks before the wind whipping around his mithril crystal visor dried them.

  “The love you feel for Michen is the same as the love I feel for you and all my riders. But even this is infinitesimal compared to the love the Creator feels about all of his creations, and the loss of his earthly spirit at the hands of Tiamat and her drow, orc, and Morgathian minions, which he also created. He bore all the evil of mankind, elf, dwarf, halfling, and dragonkind, in an attempt to bring the world back into balance. All of the power that dragons bring to bear is nothing compared to what power of love that he and his spirit brought. This is true power. He keeps the world in balance through the deeds of those who are good, to counter the deeds of those who do evil or are evil. This constant give and take keeps the world in its present balance. Imagine trying to orchestrate all that, and still allow all those involved to have free will for the power to do good or evil, Gallanth said.

  “It is just amazing how he has the fortitude to allow such things to happen,” Mkel thought out loud to Gallanth.

  “It all comes back to his gift of free will. Dragons chose by species, as did the elves. Humans have an individual choice and continue to do so. You, as all men, have two dragons fighting inside of you for the control of your soul, one good and one bad,” Gallanth told Mkel, much to his surprise. Mkel, slightly startled, asked, “Which one will win?”

  “The one you feed,” he answered.

  Mkel’s seeing crystal vibrated. He picked it up and said, “Yes, my dear?” answering the image of Annan in the mirror face.

  “Where are you? You fly in from a huge battle in the east, land, then take off on that oversized gold lizard with Michen,” she yelled at him.

  “Just wait, we have been through hell in the last several days and Gallanth needed to void,” Mkel answered her, slightly irritated.

  “How do you think I feel back here dealing with all the Weir matters, worrying about you? And Michen has been very difficult as well, as if he knew you were in danger. Janta and I could hardly handle him at times. You should have let me and Silvanth know more of what was going on,” she continued.

  “There wasn’t much free time, Annan. We were involved with two major battles and had to fight dozens of chromatics,” Mkel answered, getting more irritated.

  “I know you weren’t fighting for three days straight, and I know there’s a dragon gypsy cult in Battle Point. I’m pretty sure you had many drinks offered to you along with other things, but most importantly, we were worried about you and should have joined you in the fight,” Annan continued her worried rant.

  “Enough! I will talk to you later when sense has returned to your head. I missed you greatly and look forward to holding you,” he spoke back and made the crystal go blank, ending the conversation.

  “I will have Silvanth talk to her. She is just worried, if not a little tired,” Gallanth interjected.

  “I understand, but she can be a little trying at times; lady dragonriders,” Mkel explained.

 
“We should be getting back soon. I’ll drop down to the small farm east of the Weir and quickly void, to not make you a liar, and then circle back. Michen is a little cold,” he added.

  Mkel reached down to the back of his son’s neck and tapped the heating crystal on his jacket twice to make it warmer, as Gallanth banked and flew east. He didn’t even touch the ground to void, and they flew back over Draden Forest, hugging the mountain base of the Weir, and darted into the large entrance. Michen was laughing and talking the whole time.

  “He does like flying,” Gallanth said with a warm tone to his deep voice. Mkel knew how fond his dragon was of his son, which made him feel more relaxed. He was glad to be home.

  CHAPTER VIII

  The Arrival of Lawrent

  and the Raiders

  The sound of a ranger’s griffon’s cry woke Mkel a week after the Weir council group returned from Battle Point. He had spent the last several days trying to relax and spend time with Michen and Annan. Gallanth mostly slept, only rising to make a large batch of heating crystals, since he was behind in his production quotas. They both needed a little time off. Now he wondered what was going on to make the griffon give an alarm screech; had the fire giants started to move? He hoped that there would be at least several weeks before another battle.

  Nothing to worry about, my friend, the griffon and his rider were on patrol and sighted Lawrent and his ships slowly heading up the Severic River. They must be heavily laden, for they are apparently moving at a crawl pace, Gallanth told Mkel telepathically.

  “I thought you were supposed to be asleep, my friend,” Mkel replied to his dragon through their mind link.

  You know I have different levels of slumber. I am asleep to a point, but I wanted to maintain a certain level of awareness, for I knew that the raider was coming soon. I have also been concerned about the gathering in the fire giant lands with Lupek and Deless telling of chromatics. Just making sure my power of foresight was still on alert, Gallanth explained.

  “You’ll need your strength both to control Lawrent’s berserkers and for a possible fight with the chromatics, so go back to sleep, my friend,” Mkel scolded Gallanth.

  I slept at my deepest level the last two days, in which I do my fastest healing. I would like to greet the good pirate and his raider ships, and maybe give them a little boost getting up river to the Weir, Gallanth stated to him with an unusual mischievous hint. “All right, Gallanth, as long as you promise to get more rest this week, only being available to converse during the evening meal and the laudations that will follow with this crowd,” Mkel conceded. As you wish, my rider, Gallanth answered almost sarcastically.

  Mkel smiled and said, “Let me get ready.” He quietly got out of bed and went into his bathing room. He quickly bathed, shaved, and dressed, then gave the sleeping Michen a kiss in his crib as well as Annan, but gently so as to not wake her up. As he walked out of his chambers onto Gallanth’s landing, he asked, “Will Silvanth join us?”

  “She actually will, even she likes the barbarian,” Gallanth answered. Lawrent, while brash and sometimes obnoxious, was a very humorous and personable individual.

  “Excellent, my friend,” Mkel answered as he pulled his seeing crystal and called the watch tower to sound the horn to announce that Gallanth and Silvanth would be exiting the Weir, warning others to clear the airspace in front of the entrance.

  They both heard the resonating of the warning horn from outside the Weir’s guard towers, and then Gallanth launched off of the ledge. Silvanth was right behind them from the adjacent ledge. Mkel tipped his riding helmet to Silvanth as they sailed above the Weir lake and into the large tunnel opening. They emerged into a gorgeous late summer morning with the sun just above the Gray Mountain chain. The air had just a tint of autumn as Mkel tapped the heating stone once on the back of his riding jacket by his neck to warm him. He would not need this soon, as it would get warm quickly but didn’t want to power one his weapon’s shields, for he wanted to feel most of the wind in his face.

  Silvanth moved up beside Gallanth, almost on his wing tip. Both her and Gallanth’s metallic hides almost glimmered in the morning sunlight, a beautiful sight as they turned to the right and began to follow the river downstream at a leisurely pace. Mkel loved to feel the air literally pulled over the dragon’s small scales as they glided through the air. The dragons’ secret to flight was both the small scales on their hide and wings that would actually force air over them and their limited ability to manipulate gravity, making them lighter for flight. This and the fact that the dragons weighed proportionately much less than other creatures with the mithril content of their bones and musculature.

  Mkel could even see some of the elves come out of their posts along the shore line with Draden Forest as they flew overhead to wave. Elves above all others had a deep respect for the dragons, recognizing that they were the source for most magic in life. It took just under a half hour to cover the thirty miles of shore line of the elven-controlled portion of Draden Forest. There was no need to teleport the short distance, and sometimes a nice, slow, lazy flight is good for the soul of both dragon and rider. The small tributary that separated Dekeen’s part of the forest with the remainder of the woods was also kept under watch by his clan. This portion of Draden Forest would end in another thirty miles. Sometimes both he and Gallanth just needed to soar, for on his mighty wings, the relaxing flight made all of life seem better.

  The griffon sighted the ships on his long swing to the Draden Forest borders, at the last port town of Columbrian, that lies on the southern edge of Draden Forest along the Severic River. Many times the griffons and hippogriffs would swing north or south and fly along the river and its tributaries to catch any large fish they would spot. They liked to dive for fish in the river; they could spot them from over a mile high with their keen eyesight. Gallanth liked the occasional fish as well but needed to catch the larger oceangoing types or sharks. He did this occasionally when they visited Draconia and especially when they went to Freiland to see the raiders.

  “I see their ships about a couple of miles ahead,” Gallanth announced, “just past Columbrian.” Mkel quickly looked through Markthrea’s sight. He could see Lawrent on the ship’s bow and his men rowing the many oars on each side. The other two ships in his small fleet were just behind his flag raider. The carved wooden dragon’s head in the image of Gallanth was freshly painted. He then reached for his seeing crystal and said with a lively but joking tone in his voice, “Hey you scurvy pirate, it’s about time you showed your ugly face.”

  “Mkel, you son of dog, is that you and Gallanth bearing down on us up there, or have the chromatics been told of our arrival?” the tall barbarian answered in the seeing crystal he had been given by Mkel.

  “It could be an angry red dragon that finally found you to exact revenge for stealing its treasure, but in this case you’re lucky, even Silvanth wanted to see your arrival. Still carrying that frozen ice cycle of a sword?” Mkel again teased Lawrent.

  “Are you still carrying that stumpy crossbow and little curved dagger sword of yours?” Lawrent joked back.

  “I’m looking at you through its sight right now, I could shave that mustache off if you want,” Mkel good-naturedly answered.

  “No, that’s all right,” Lawrent answered. “I heard you both had a hard fight recently?”

  “My lord, you will let him threaten you like that?” the barbarian’s young crewmen asked him in a surprised tone.

  “Fool, he could put an arrow in your eye from a thousand paces, not to mention that he rides the most powerful dragon in the Alliance, which has saved this ship dozens of times,” Lawrent quickly snapped at his underling.

  “News travels fast, my friend; could have used you and your crew,” Mkel told him. “We faced a formidable force of chromatics and giants, not to mention the orcs and drow. No need to talk about business now, have your men unf
url your sails and Silvanth will give you a little breeze to get you upstream and save your strength for the drinking later.”

  “You are too kind, Dragonrider. Men, recover the oars and unfurl the sails, we will have a good wind soon!” In a commanding voice, he bellowed orders to his men, who immediately secured the oars and began to lower their main sail. Gallanth and Silvanth dove and circled around the ships only a couple hundred yards above the river. The raiders cheered and waved at the two dragons. Silvanth then made a strong breeze funnel over the river, which caught the raider ships’ sails and began to propel them forward at a good pace.

  “A little breeze for the last leg of your journey,” Silvanth said as she dove down and over the raider ships, her great silver wings glistening in the morning dawn.

  “Sorry we’re late, but we were attacked by a saragwin hunting party a day’s sail from Sauric Bay,” Lawrent began to tell Mkel.

  “That close to our shores? I’m surprised the sea elves didn’t find them first,” Mkel said. “I’ll have to ask Dekeen if he has heard of anything from his ocean-dwelling cousins.”

  “I think their war is escalating. We’ve been noticing a lot of bodies floating about, both sea elf and saragwin as well as their mounts. It’s been disturbing the fishing and commerce in the several sections of ocean between the edge of Alliance waters to our shores and as far south as the Canaris Twins,” Lawrent explained. “Our kingdom has even lost several ships in the process, and several of our smaller coastal villages have been attacked. Our ambassador will be addressing your senate at this next gathering for assistance from your navy and the bronze dragons, as well as for information you might have from the sea elves.”