Order Of The Dragon (Omnibus 1-4)

by Jason Halstead

  Celos stared down at her, his surprise and then anger fading before her eyes. He nodded but said nothing.

  Aleena sucked her lips into her mouth, biting them, and then turned away. Celos stepped away from the wall and stared at her before he looked down the hallway. He cleared his throat and said, "Let's fill the baron in on what we found."

  "Good idea," she responded without looking at him. Neither knight spoke another word until they reached Tristam's office and then it was only to request an audience. Tristam's aide rushed them in, interrupting the baron as he pored over reports that had figures scrawled up and down them.

  Tristam rubbed his hand over his face and rose up to greet them. His smile was thin and forced. "My friends, that was a quick journey. What tidings do you bring from the mountains?"

  Celos and Aleena glanced at each other. "Go ahead," Aleena deferred to her mentor.

  "Baron, it's a delicate situation," Celos said. "We found Ketten, the mountain guide, and it seems he's working for a woman named Rosalyn, the same lady he escorted into the mountains. She has appointed herself Queen of the North."

  Tristam shook his head as though he was a dog that had gotten a bone stuck in its mouth. "She's what?"

  "Queen Rosalyn," Aleena answered.

  Celos nodded and continued. "She's secured the allegiance of the various, uh, people in the mountains."

  "What people? She's driven them all out!" Tristam growled.

  "Ogres, goblins, trolls, giants. Those people," Aleena said.

  Tristam shook his head and sat down in his chair. "So soon? We're not ready for another war!"

  "She claims to not want war," Celos said.

  He gestured at the reports on his desk. "War or not, without the mines Highpeak will be starving in weeks."

  "We mentioned that," Aleena said. "And we came up with some possibilities."

  "Possibilities?" Tristam repeated. "What possibilities can there be? They are monsters! Savages. They only know how to hunt and kill."

  "They want more," Aleena said.

  "So she claims," Celos added.

  Aleena nodded. "Yes, so she claims. We discussed hiring the miners of Highpeak to help her with the mines. To teach her people and to receive a fair wage for working them. She will also need food if she's to civilize the mountains. There is much land south of Highpeak that could be used for crops or raising animals."

  Tristam lifted his head. "Trade?" he asked.

  Aleena nodded.

  Tristam considered it for a moment and then shook his head. "Wait, she has no right to those mines. Those are Highpeak's mines. They belong to the kingdom!"

  Celos shook his head and said, "I'm of the same mind you are. Kingdom men dug those mines, yet Rosalyn has a valid point. The kingdom's border ends at Highpeak."

  Tristam scowled and rubbed his face with his hand again. "Become a baron, they said. Rule Highpeak, the duke offered. It's a small city with a steady stream of revenue. Not many problems. Why not?" he rambled to himself.

  "Baron?" Aleena said, drawing him out of his self-pity. "Rosalyn invited you to visit and negotiate terms with her."

  "Terms?" Tristam asked. "I thought you said she didn't want a war?"

  "No! No war." Aleena shook her head. "I meant regarding the miners and trade."

  Tristam nodded. "I can see some benefit," he admitted. "And if she plans to sell her ore, she'll need to go through Highpeak."

  "She might secure a port through the northlands," Celos said. "Or even the dwarven mines to the east. She claims she will work with them."

  "I don't see Highpeak's miners working alongside goblins and ogres," Tristam added. "These are the creatures that they fought just last year."

  Aleena chewed on her lip as she considered the problem. "The kelgryn and kingdom have not always been at peace. Yet during the troubles at Highpeak, Jarl Teorfyr marched with an army to come to our aid."

  "It helped that we saved his daughter." Tristam chuckled. "And that she fell in love with Alto. Saints know what she sees in the boy!"

  Celos chuckled at Tristam's joke but Aleena frowned. Tristam looked at her and his smile faded. "Oh, um, sorry. I forgot who you were. Or at least where you came from."

  Aleena shook her head. "I owe my life to Alto. I am who I am because of his influence on me. He believed in me and told me I could do anything. But it was up to me to prove it."

  Tristam cleared his throat and glanced at the reports in front of him. He sighed. "So she wants to talk. That should be exciting. Not willing to come here, though?"

  "No, she's too busy building her kingdom," Celos said. "She doesn't even have a proper town yet."

  "Who's building it?" Tristam asked, his eyes narrowing slightly.

  "Ogres and goblins."

  Tristam chuckled. "I trust the two of you. Not because you're knights of Leander and all that. I trust you because I've played cards with you, Celos, and you can't lie worth a damn. Aleena, I've watched you blossom over the last few years and I knew you when you were watering down ale and serving it at a premium."

  "I never—"

  Tristam waved her protest away. "Tell me, is this woman the real thing? Is she going to stick, or is she up to something else?"

  "Something else?" Aleena asked. "Like what?"

  "I don't know. I'm just a man paid to do what he's told and to make others do as I tell them."

  Aleena snorted. "Alto told me once that one of the reasons he trusted you was because you weren't like that. You were a thinking man and you valued that most in others."

  Tristam chuckled and said, "So think, damn you. What could a lone woman possibly want living in mountains as harsh and unfriendly as the Northern Divide?"

  Aleena and Celos looked at each other. This time, Celos spoke first. "She claims she wants to create a realm where a person is judged by their merit, not their race or gender."

  "So she picks a place filled with creatures that are known for violence against humans," Tristam stated.

  "Yes, but they are also a tolerant people," Aleena argued. Both men stared at her with a look on their faces that suggested she'd just hit them with an iron skillet. "Ogres, goblins, giants, trolls, and other races living together. They are violent, yes, but that was how they were taught to live. With a different teacher, perhaps they can change."

  "You buy her story?" Tristam asked, staring at Aleena.

  She bit her lip again before she nodded.

  "And you?" the baron turned to Celos.

  Celos shrugged. "I can find no fault with it, but it doesn't sit right with me."

  Tristam sighed. "How do I know I'm not being lured into a trap designed to leave Highpeak leaderless?"

  Aleena smiled. "She needs help. Even Rosalyn admits she's fearful of the results of her people building her capital city. You have miners who are out of work. They work with stone and the mountains are full of it. Take them with you, as well as some soldiers. Show up at her doorstep with a force of men eager to help her build and to teach her people how to do so. For a price. If it's a trap, you have a small army with you."

  Tristam's eyes narrowed and he nodded. "Who knew under that pretty smile and mop of unruly hair lay such a sharp mind?"

  Aleena smiled. "I will go with you. She invited me back and it offers me an opportunity to keep an eye on her. One more sword at your side and eyes from the church of Leander to ensure her motives are pure."

  Celos frowned. "We should return to Portland to report."

  "You should return," Aleena said. "Update them on things and then come back north. I will share what I've learned."

  "It's not safe."

  "I'm one of Leander's chosen!" she reminded him. "Safe is not in our job descriptions. Place your trust in me, Celos. And if I'm wrong, you can have the satisfaction of avenging me."

  "I don't want you to be wrong!" He stopped and scowled as he realized what he'd just said. He glared at her and then nodded. "I don't like it, but your reasoning is sound."

  "Now you're lear
ning," Aleena said.

  "Learning what?" Tristam asked from where he watched them bicker.

  "To treat me the right way."

  Tristam laughed. "Just give up now, my friend. She's snared you and she'll always win."

  Celos stiffened and Aleena's eyes widened. She glanced at the laughing baron and then back at Celos. She'd snared him? Did that mean he thought that she and Celos…

  "Well, I'd best make plans to go on a journey. Aleena, do whatever it is you need to do. I'll make sure we're ready to leave in the morning two days hence. Speak to my aide about a room."

  "I'll stay at the temple," Aleena said.

  Tristam waved his hand. "Whatever you like," he said. He turned to Celos. "No tearful goodbyes in my office. Be off, you two!"

  Chapter 17

  "How does this stupid thing open?" Garrick growled as he and Mordrim both worked on trying to open the crate.

  "Are you sure that's the door?" Alto asked.

  "Aye," Mordrim confirmed. "I looked at them all. I'd stake my beard on it."

  "Were we played for fools?" Patrina wondered aloud.

  Alto clenched his teeth. He'd been wondering the same thing.

  "Step back," Mordrim warned Garrick. The barbarian punched the crate in frustration and did as the dwarf asked. Mordrim grabbed his hammer and swung it hard and fast, cracking into the wood and breaking through. He yanked it out, pulling some of the wood with it, and then reached in and broke more of it away. The dwarf turned and looked at Garrick. "You can help."

  Garrick stepped in and started prying away the boards. He paused only to take out his hatchet and hack at hard wood making up the wall of the crate. Patrina cleared her throat from behind the warriors.

  "Excuse me, boys," she said as she held her axe in her hands. They looked at her and then each other, and then shrugged as one and stepped out of her way. Patrina brandished the axe and let it fall, and then she repeated the motion twice more. She stepped back with a smile on her face.

  The wall of the tall crate was broken in enough to allow for them to easily break away the rest of the wood. In a few moments, Mordrim stuck his head in and peered around, and then cried out and retreated, only to reach in and fumble around until his hand found what he was after. A click sounded and the wall swung out, revealing a hole in the floor and an iron ladder leading down.

  "That's why I keep her around," Alto said while he stepped up to Patrina and gave her a kiss on the cheek. "She always axes the right questions."

  Karthor was the first to shake his head, followed by a groan from Patrina. Carson and Garrick blinked, not understanding the joke. "Leave the bad jokes to Namitus," Patrina told him.

  Alto smiled and waited for Mordrim to climb down the ladder before he followed. The others followed after until they found themselves in a tunnel that was tall enough for Alto to stand but Garrick had to bend over. It was four feet wide, barely enough for two of them to walk side by side. Wooden beams supported boards that lined the walls and ceiling of the tunnel, though they could feel sand occasionally fall from between the boards of the ceiling.

  "Let me lead," Patrina called out softly.

  "It's dark!" Garrick growled.

  "I can make some light," Karthor offered.

  "No, Trina's right," Alto said. "She can see in the dark."

  "She can do what?" Mordrim repeated.

  "I can see shades," Patrina explained. "The walls and floor are darker than the open passage ahead of us. All of you are glowing—you're so bright."

  "Heat vision," Mordrim grunted. "Heard of it before. Some dwarves got it, but you aren't a dwarf."

  "I noticed it after Thork gave me this armor," she said.

  The dwarf grunted and shuffled up against the wall of the passage.

  "Go ahead," Alto offered.

  She squeezed past him but stopped in the dark to return his earlier kiss, save that hers was on his lips. Her hand brushed across his thigh beneath his chain shirt and then she was gone. Alto squinted in the darkness but so little light filtered down from above that he could barely make out her silhouette.

  "Come on," Patrina said over her shoulder. She started out and the others followed, bumbling about in the darkness and often running into one another. She stopped, forcing them all to run into the person in front of them. "The passage ends in a hall; it goes left and right."

  "Go right," Alto said.

  Patrina turned and led the way down the right-hand hall. She stopped again after a couple of minutes. "Ladder on my right."

  "Keep going," Alto said. "It's too soon."

  "What if they wanted us close by, so it would be easier to get us together?" Karthor suggested.

  Alto shook his head, unseen in the dark, and said, "No, not yet."

  Patrina walked on and stopped again when another passage joined on the left. They turned down it and after two more ladders, Alto decided they should go up.

  "What makes this one better?" Karthor asked in the darkness.

  "Nothing," Alto admitted. "I'm lost in the dark and I want to know where we are."

  Garrick laughed while Mordrim cursed. "I can get us back," the dwarf said.

  "I don't want to go back."

  "Then why—"

  "This is as good as any," Alto reasoned. "We're far enough from the shipping house to start looking."

  Patrina climbed up the ladder and triggered the release on the inside. She climbed out and looked around, and then whispered down the hole, "Looks like a pantry or a stockroom of an inn!"

  She moved out of the way so Mordrim and Alto could climb up, and then the others. They squeezed out from between two massive barrels and moved towards a door in the wall. Alto cracked it open and peered through, and then swore.

  "I'm going to kill him," the warrior vowed as he started to pull the door open.

  Patrina stopped him with a hand on the door. She pushed her way in and looked through the crack, and then gasped. She shook her head but wouldn't move so Alto could open the door and make good on his promise. She looked up at him. "No, we don't dare sound an alarm!"

  "Who is it?" Carson asked the question on all their minds.

  "The innkeeper from the Seventh Djinni," Patrina answered.

  "So that's how they got in," Mordrim muttered.

  "Bastard lied to me!" Alto hissed.

  "He's not the first or the last," Patrina pressed.

  "Because of him you were hurt, almost killed. I can't let that go unpunished," Alto said.

  Patrina laid her hand on his arm and stared into his eyes. "You can't always be there, Alto. You can't protect me from everything. Will you hold yourself to blame when I get a cold next time too?"

  "But—"

  Patrina placed her fingers to his lips. "You are my champion, but I recall saving you, too."

  Alto closed his eyes and let out the tension in his shoulders. "He'll pay for this," Alto promised.

  "Another time, yes, but not now."

  "Back to the Shadows," Mordrim said, turning and motioning for everyone to go back. Amid grumbling, they descended back into the dark passage and resumed their marching order with Patrina at the front.

  She'd walked less than a minute when she announced another ladder. Alto was about to send her up when he noticed a light flickering down the hallway ahead of them. It grew brighter as it approached, and then it rounded a corner and blinded them all with the distant spark of the lantern.

  "Quick! Up the ladder!" Alto hissed. "Before he gets close enough to see us."

  "We won't make it in time," she whispered back.

  "Excuse me, Karthor, could you crouch down a bit?" Carson asked from the rear of the group.

  The priest turned and gasped as he found himself staring at the business end of an arrow. He ducked down and leaned over, pushing Garrick out of the way in the process. Carson aimed down the left wall of the passage, using the lantern's light to silhouette his arrow and bow. He let go of his string and the arrow leapt out, arcing up near the ceiling of th
e low tunnel before it dropped and slammed into the chest of the man carrying the light.

  The man fell, dropping his lantern in the process. The glass cracked and flame burst up as the oil poured across the sandy floor and onto the wooden supports.

  "Uh oh," Carson muttered.

  "Not again," Alto growled, suddenly reminded of a fire that had started when he'd come to retrieve Namitus from a late-night rendezvous with a merchant's daughter. It had burned the home to the ground and nearly cost the merchant his family. "Up the ladder," he ordered.

  "Alto, this will burn the city to the ground!" Patrina warned.

  Alto stared at the puddle of flame. He frowned. "Good distraction," he offered.

  She shook her head. "People will die. Decent people, not just Shadows and Stalkers. Maybe Caitlyn or Namitus. Maybe us."

  Alto nodded. "Get up that ladder," he said. "I'll come as soon as I can."

  "You can't—"

  Alto kissed her, silencing her and then he grabbed her around the waist and hoisted her up through the hole until she was forced to grab on and pull herself up. Mordrim followed behind her, blocking the ladder. Garrick and Karthor went next, leaving Carson and Alto in the tunnel.

  "Go," Alto said as he turned away.

  "I made the fire," Carson said. "I'll help you."

  Alto grunted and jogged down the tunnel. The fire was starting to spread beyond the oil and onto the slightly damp wood. The dry air contrasted with the moisture of being underground to leave the wood dry on the surface but damp underneath. It slowed the burning and helped as Alto tried to stomp out the flames.

  Alto sputtered as sand was flung at him. He stepped back and turned to see Carson digging up damp sand and flinging it without looking towards the fire. Alto dropped to his own knees and started doing the same thing in hopes of putting the fire out.

  Several minutes passed and both men were sweating and hacking from the smoke. The last of the flame was squashed beneath a clump of sand, plunging the tunnel back into darkness. Carson chuckled and coughed.

  "How far back?" he asked after he'd gotten control of his breathing.