Chasing the Dragon

by Jason Halstead

  Karthor nodded and turned to the unconscious man. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath before beginning his chant and pressing his glowing icon of Leander to the man's forehead. The man snorted and jerked, and then scrambled to get away from Karthor and his glowing pendant.

  Alto was there to stop him from escaping. He knelt down next to the man and produced a ring he'd taken from one of the dead men. He twisted it and popped out the needle, and then held it up between the two of them. "You know what this is?"

  The man glanced at it and then nodded. Alto saw his Adam's apple bob as he swallowed. "I was stabbed with one of these the other day. It didn't kill me, but I'm told that's unusual. Do you think you'd be so lucky?"

  The man stared at him. Alto brought it closer to his face and then stopped. "I made you a deal earlier. A deal you weren't interested in. Are you now?"

  His eyes shifted, glancing at Alto's companions and then trying to see beyond them. By moving him into a corner, Alto had taken away his ability to see the rest of the warehouse.

  "They're all dead. Your friends, I mean. My friends killed them. And none of my people were hurt. These are the men who fought against giants and ogres. These are the men who helped to kill a dragon. Did you really think you stood a chance?"

  "I heard those were lies," he mumbled.

  Alto reached down and drew his sword. He moved it close to the man so that a green tint began to radiate from the steel. "This is the sword that killed Sarya," Alto said. "It glows green, the color of Saint Jarook, when it senses fear. Are you afraid?"

  The man's eyes widened. He stared at the sword and then at Alto. "What do you want to know?"

  "Are you a Stalker or just a lackey?"

  He shook his head quickly. "Just a go-between, a messenger."

  "Some of the dead were?"

  He nodded. "There's a contract out for you."

  Alto frowned. He glanced at Patrina and received a nod of support from her. He turned back to the man. "I'm putting out a contract on them. Every Stalker killed earns a bounty from me."

  The man gasped. "Who are you?"

  "I'm Alto," Alto stated as though it should have been obvious.

  "And I'm Lady Patrina, Princess of Holgasford," Patrina said. "My realm endorses this bounty."

  "How do I find them?" Alto asked. "The Stalkers have my friend and I'm going to get him back. Where is he?"

  "They'll kill me!"

  "I'll kill you," Alto promised.

  "You might as well," the man said.

  Alto drew his sword back, calling his bluff. Patrina stepped up and put her hand on his shoulder. "Alto, wait." She turned to the doomed man. "As much as it disgusts me to do so, I can protect you. Head to our ship and you will be kept safe."

  His eyes narrowed. "Why should I trust you? I tried to kill you."

  Patrina turned and pointed at Karthor. "This man healed you. Do you see his amulet? He serves Leander, the patron saint of honesty. Leander wouldn't grant him magic to use on you if we lied."

  "Besides," Alto added. "What do you have to lose?"

  He looked at the three of them and then closed his eyes. "Your friend is Namitus?"

  Alto stiffened. "You know him?"

  "In passing. I ran the streets when he was here years past. I heard he'd returned and that he was asking questions about the Stalkers and the Order, then I stopped hearing about him."

  Alto shifted to kneel on his other knee. "Do you know where he is?"

  "No, but behind some crates, you can open one of the crates and go into a tunnel that will take you into the Shadows."

  "Where next?"

  He shook his head. "Anywhere. The Stalkers run thick in the River District. There are secret passages to nearly every building. Not even the owners of the buildings know of them in most cases."

  "That's not very helpful," Alto pointed out.

  "It's all I can give you."

  "All you can, or all you will?"

  "All I have. The Stalkers are here, under our feet. The leaders of the Shadows are farther north and east."

  "You mentioned the Order of the Dragon. What do you know of them?" Alto asked.

  He shook his head. "Almost nothing. They worship dragons, it's said. I've heard some of the nobles are involved, but I've never seen anything myself. It's an old religion, isn't it? All but gone?"

  "By the time I'm done with them, they'll be gone," Alto promised. He rose up and stared down at the man. "I should kill you, but a promise is a promise. Find the Kraken and tell the captain, Taldar, that we sent you. Make sure he puts you to work."

  "Taldar?"

  "You know him?" Patrina asked.

  He hesitated and then shook his head. "No, I've heard the name, that's all."

  "What have you heard?" Alto demanded.

  The man's eyes danced about as he tried to remember what he'd heard. "Something in passing about delivering a payment to a man of the same name. It may be nothing. There are many men with that name."

  Alto and Patrina shared a glance. "No doubt," Alto said. Patrina hesitated and then nodded.

  "Very well, be on your way. Hurry, I expect word will travel fast when we breach the Shadows."

  His cheeks paled. He struggled to his feet and nodded. "Uh, thanks," he offered, and then turned and moved away.

  "Garrick, let him go," Alto told the barbarian. "We're headed the other way."

  "Other way?" Mordrim asked as he and Garrick rejoined them.

  Alto offered a humorless grin. "You'll be happy, Mordrim. We're going underground."

  "Underground? What's under Mira?" the dwarf asked.

  "The Shadows."

  Chapter 16

  Ketten split away from the paladins once they reached Highpeak. He walked his horse through town, heading straight for the south gate and the lands beyond. Aleena turned to Celos once the mountain man was out of earshot and sighed. "That was the longest two days of my life!"

  Celos frowned. "Why?"

  "Why? Because I wanted to talk to you!"

  Celos raised an eyebrow. "You did talk to me."

  "No, not about Queen Rosalyn."

  The paladin snorted. "We'll see about that."

  "What do you mean? She's right; there is no realm in the mountains. If the creatures of the mountains accept her as their ruler, then she is."

  The paladin was silent for a long moment as they walked towards the baron's estate. "I don't like her," he finally admitted. "Her story doesn't add up. How does a woman become the ruler of a land of savages who prefer to raid and pillage? At first sight of her, they would think only of taking her prisoner and—"

  Aleena waited for him to finish but he only glanced at her and then looked away. "And what? Raping her? Killing and eating her?"

  Celos sighed. "Yes."

  "I'm not a child and I'm not a delicate flower, Celos. I'm a warrior, the same as you. I bleed just as red as you do. Don't treat me like a lady; treat me like a dame."

  "But you are a lady!" Celos blurted out. He clamped his mouth shut and looked away, and then shook his head. "You're difficult."

  Aleena laughed. "Yes, I suppose I am. And I understand, you're very rigid and proper. Very old school. I remind myself of that every time I want to smash a shield into the back of your head."

  Celos's puff of breath as he looked at her brought a smile to her face. "Smash a shield into my head?"

  Aleena smiled at him. "Sometimes. But I can go on for days about the things about you that I admire and the things that upset me. We don't have that kind of time. So let's just agree that you're a very flawed person who also happens to be an outstanding knight of Leander. Now we can talk about Rosalyn."

  Celos stared at Aleena for a long moment until he shook his head. "You are a baffling woman," he admitted.

  "I have to keep you guessing," she said.

  "I shouldn't need to guess. I should always know I can rely on you."

  "You see, that's one of those things that makes me want to bonk you with my sh
ield," Aleena said. "You know you can count on me."

  Celos opened his mouth and then shut it. He nodded. "Very well, back to the mountains."

  "Yes, good idea," Aleena agreed. "I really think Rosalyn is onto something."

  Celos snorted.

  "Maybe if you'd grown up as a girl you’d understand," she snapped at him. "Girls don't have it easy. We're taught the only way to get anywhere in life is to latch on to a good man. The ultimate goal of a woman? To bear her man children and hope he treats her well. To cook and to clean for him. I can't speak for royalty, but I imagine it's not so different. They have servants but they still have to bear heirs for their husbands."

  "Woman do not have the stomach for fighting, nor the steel in their hearts," Celos insisted.

  "By Leander's grace, do you even remember who you're talking to?" Aleena raised her voice as she chastised him. "Do you forget the blood my sword has spilled? The decisions I've made that caused good men to die so others would live?"

  Celos had the good sense to blush. "You're different," he admitted.

  "I'm different because I was given a chance to be different," she asserted. "Leander saw something in me when I came to him and He gave me a chance to prove myself. All the other girls out there? They don't know how to do that. They've lived and breathed a life of domestic slavery."

  "Domestic slavery?" Celos echoed. "They life free and can do what they choose! They are protected and respected. They don't need to pick up a sword or mace. Their husbands and fathers want them to stay safe. It's called chivalry."

  "Thus slavery is gilded with lace and made pretty enough to be acceptable."

  Celos fell into a brooding silence as they continued their walk. Aleena risked several glances at him before she finally asked, "What is it about Rosalyn that bothers you?"

  Celos took a deep breath and let it out before he responded. "I don't know. A lot. Anyone that holds congress with such creatures would be suspect, be it a man or a woman."

  Aleena nodded. "I'll even agree that, if Rosalyn were a man, I'd be suspicious."

  "But you're not because she's a woman?" Celos challenged. "How did a woman rise to such a position among those…people?"

  The dame frowned as she considered Celos's question without bias. "I saw no sword and she didn't have the look of a warrior. Perhaps she's a witch?"

  "My thoughts exactly," the elder paladin said. "Has she ensorcelled them or do they fear her? What evil is she capable of with her power?"

  Aleena wiped the bitter look off her face almost as quickly as it arose. "For the sake of conversation and diplomacy, what you say is possible," she admitted. "But is it not also possible that her words ring of truth?"

  Celos ran his tongue over his teeth before he responded. "Yes, it is possible. But very unlikely."

  "She invited me back," Aleena said. "I think I should go."

  "Now you're in need of a shield to your pretty head," Celos muttered.

  Aleena stopped dead in her tracks and stared at him. Celos turned and cocked his head when he saw the smile on her face. "You just called me pretty," Aleena said.

  He sighed and shook his head. "Pretty. Strong. Skilled. Pious," Celos rambled off several words. "That and more. I've told you as much before. You've earned your position with these traits. It's nothing to gloat over."

  "I'm not gloating," Aleena said. She resumed walking. "You've just never called me pretty before. It surprised me."

  "Knights of Leander don't focus on being pretty," he said.

  "No, they don't," she agreed. "But I'm a woman, too, and we like to hear that sort of thing."

  Celos threw his hands up in the air and muttered an almost silent prayer to Leander.

  "What was that?" Aleena asked.

  "I was thanking Leander for reminding me and testing me by putting you in my life. Then I was asking him for the strength to keep myself from strangling you."

  Aleena laughed. "Be careful, Sir Celos, that's a fight you might not like the outcome of."

  He shook his head and turned to the doors of Tristam's manor. The guards opened the doors and Celos surged ahead and marched straight through, ahead of Aleena. She gasped and stumbled a half step before she glared at him. Both guards looked on in surprise as she passed them.

  "What was that?" she snapped after the heat in her cheeks faded.

  "Didn't you say you disapproved of being treated like a lady?" Celos asked.

  Aleena's jaw dropped as the paladin moved ahead of her down the hall. She shook her head and narrowed her eyes and then stormed after him. She reached out and grabbed his shoulder and pulled him around, nearly causing him to fall. She pushed her finger into his chest and backed him into the wall.

  "Don't twist my words against me, damn you," she hissed, her face only inches from his. "I have shed blood, sweat, and tears for you, and I deserve some respect. That's what I'm asking for, not to be put on a pedestal."

  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 in
vited 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."