P.S. the Dragon Sleights

by K. G. Wilkie

  On his arrival to Witch City all seemed well. He is greeted with the average amount of friendliness. He only had to go through the standard security procedure and have a few witches tasked with the responsibility of keeping the city secure check him for weapons of war unpleasant magics. And then he was off to the guest quarters in the single in the city. The and was reserved for when wizards or other outsiders visited the city because the witches were more open to visitors and the wizards. Hence the security procedure because allowing people to visit your city wasn’t the same as trusting them. Gruzelvelt knew all about that with his own people having the nerve to mutter about him now that things had changed.

  It was a very good sign that he was allowed to sleep in the guest quarters because anyone who the Head Witch was feeling disgruntled by would normally find themselves in one of the prison cells. That was one big difference from the two cities; the wizard’s Domed City was insular though relatively friendly to their own people while Witch City was more cosmopolitan but also more cutthroat and cynical to outsiders and insiders in equal portions. Gruzelvelt gave himself a mental pat on the back. Yes, it was a very good sign he had been sent to stay in the guest quarters. It seems likely that success was practically a given at this point. And packed his bags and left the suite for a stroll through the town.

  Witch City was an impressive sight and full of surprises even after visiting here annually for most of his life. Where Domed City was limited in land, They also made good use of the space they had. There were parks in greenery and as much abundance as practical spaces and living spaces. This city, however, was a whole other kettle of fish. The city was neatly arranged in squares. Building after building announced on its signage that it was an institution, or school, or an office. Almost no one in the city had what the wizards think of as space’ homes’. No, here you lived where you worked, and you worked where you lived, and everything was done very practically. It was strange that a city that believed in more social and societal freedoms than his own was far more strict in these other ways. Even in his own city the young children and the Ranked adults had free time to spend enjoying their lives and friendships. This city seemed far too serious to allow for such nonsense though even Gruzelvelt had to admit that after all these years this city surely had secrets he’d never fathomed.

  The Head Witch ran into them during his walk and gave the proper greetings. It was alarming though, to notice that she wasn’t nearly as friendly as could be expected from past interactions. It made Gruzelvelt start to suspect that maybe he’d been all wrong about this meeting. He could avoid the uncomfortable feeling that made the hairs on the back of his neck rise up in response to their conversation. Maybe something had gone terribly wrong.

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  Battlefield

  Grumblings woke up the junior wizard’s barracks first. A few of the more adventurous peat their heads out of the door and saw that the dome was on fire. Quickly they rushed back inside to the others and sound the alarm.

  The dome itself was made to be all of the security the wizards would need. The few times people were allowed to enter or exit to the city, seven of the elders would come together and open a hole at ground level for passage. This was different from the. Rather than dense in the dome itself, the entire domed was shifting under a reign of fire. It almost started to look like holes were opening up in the shield.

  The unranked who lived in shanties on the grounds quickly realized it truly was holes. Rapidly expanding holes. Little flecks of senders fell down from above onto their shelter, or on their exposed skin in the case of one unlucky unranked who had rolled out from under the protection of his shanty.

  They scrambled to action barely in time.

  The elders were summoned by the alarms and grumbled as they Made Their Way, Alyss of their homes until they looked up and saw their city was under assault. Until that point, had been easy in their sleep softened minds to think that it was just another case of one of the young people accidentally sounding the alarm, but with the evidence burning in front of their very eyes it was impossible to deny that this was very real.

  The junior wizards, journeyman, and elders took out their weapons both magical and physical and prepared for battle. A few of the elders uselessly tried to shore up the shields, but the attempt came too late. With the last grown the dome shattered into thousands of shards that were barely died just by the wizards on the ground.

  Entire army was spread out around the edge of the city. Rapid marching brought them swiftly in towards the center. There was an entire a host of people readied for battle during this midnight assault. There were the delegates often seen at the Palace, and the other notable people within the Dragon kingdom. Prince Aeron and his close subordinates as well as his guard, the Blue Crows, stood at the front lines and marched ever onward. Jackie, Cillean, Daerick, and Kraelek had all been called in for this battle. Kraelek especially had been ordered to join in the assault as a sort of test of loyalty. He stood behind the rest of Aeron’s staff, and looked like he’d be ready to run at any second. Darien, standing next to him with the other Alchemists, kept a wary eye on him. He wouldn’t have followed Aeron’s orders normally, but this time it was to make sure that Domed City got what was coming for them. Darien had never intention to see things through here in the fight against the city that had so betrayed him, and if that meant doing the prince’s dirty work he was willing to make an exception this one time for such an important occasion.

  Prince Richard and the King had their own people involved in the battle as well.

  The Royal forces continued far beyond them. The former King Jim of the vampires as well as many of their newly allied werewolf packs advanced with the wrestle line. The different tribes of the nymph people were there as well, helping to catch any of the younger wizards who try to escape with charmed vines and brambles that grew into shackles to hold them in place.

  Spells were flying in every direction but still the wizards were losing against royal forces. These were people who were determined to win the fight. Years of hard work and weapons training made this Army Excel in battle. The wizards were used to more scholarly pursuits, and when they fought it was either by making deals with other groups to fight for them or on the rare occasion when they got their own hands dirty only the young wizards were ever expected to do battle.

  Vines and the impact of heavy bodies thundered on the ground over and over as different battles progressed. A Dragon in his natural form hit the ground at full speed and left a creator behind him that fields something that shined in the reflection of all of the flames. No one paid that any mine as they continued in their battles.

  Teeth and claws met staffs and swords to good results. One wizard was knocked down mid spell and pushed backwards into the crater. He fell down on the shining object and the back fire of his spell catapulted him back out onto the streets. The force of those spell did leave a real casualty, though. Back in the crater no one had yet noticed set the beacon of light had been snuffed when the explosion had blended into tiny pieces of gemstone rubble.

  Rapid headway was easily made through the wizard forces until the Royal Army reached the city center.

  King Vovin came forward to the captured wizard elders. “Where is your leader? Where is Breitsch,” Vovin asked. When no one answered him, the King signaled to one of the vampires. That man was only too happy to bite himself a little snack. The elder screeched in mingled fury and embarrassment and complains that the man in question was dead, and can be asked anything at all. When the King asked for clarification another grudgingly admitted that they’d just had a bit of a coup.

  “Well then? Who does lead you now? I expect answers,” Vovin said. The wizards hesitated to reveal the name, but when another vampire stepped forward and threatened to bite more of them they finally caved and answered. That explanation that Gruzelvelt had gone on to visit a completely different city and was into their even if the King one to talk to was less than Vovin wanted to hear. The stretc
h of his lips and silent growl was all that was needed to cow the rest of the wizards into silence after that outburst.

  Jackie looked over the edge of the creator out of your curiosity and gasped at what she saw. Quickly she ran over to the King and tapped him on the shoulder. He growled at her and shifted his attention back to the wizards but she insisted. He growled at her again but finally turned his attention to the nymph girl. “What is it? This is important –,” he said. Mid sentence he broke off and stared after where her finger pointed. There. In the crater. What clearly used to be one of the anchors of the spell that kept the Divide going had been destroyed. That was it. Failure had come to the Royal Army.

  Still a battle has real consequences weather goes poorly or well, so the Royal Army had to focus on taking care of things after the fact. Officials were sent in to the city center and finally found evidence in writing that the wizards were planning to destroy all of the anchors of the divide. This in itself was an act of treason against King Vovin who was the king of all of the groups on this continent, including the wizards themselves. He had given them the way to live in their own ways so they could have the safety they craved from other species who had resents meant for them after the Witch Trials run by humans which had led to so many magical creatures being killed simply for being born. Vovin had given them some autonomy and the promise of safety in return for their promise of loyalty. Apparently just loyalty was too much to ask for all he had given them, the King grumbled when he saw the documents.

  For their implied involvements with Gruzelvelt’s crimes, everyone in Domed City was sentence to a trial. Most of them were likely to get off easy and be sentenced to some amount of jail or time working on one of the kingdom’s farms. The Alchemists spoke up For the unranked, saying that they had nothing to do with any official decisions and would never have been informed of such a decision. The documents held as evidence seems to give further proof to this idea, as the only types of people listed for the planned destruction of the anchors of the spell showed only those who were raped junior, journeymen, or elders. In response to that after some deliberation with his ministers and the leaders of the other nations that swore Felty to him in his kingdom, it was also decided that the unranked children and the apprentices would be removed from any punishments as well. Instead it was decided that it be more appropriate for them to spend time with the Alchemists, seeing as they were all originally wizards or which is themselves and they would know best how to care for their own people. This seemed to be an agreeable arrangements to the children question as well, because though at first they were a little scared of these strangers who had come to them after a scary battle there is also something exotic and cool that these wizards and witches lived together and had free time whether they were ranked or not and had these strange inventions that were as good as toys to the kids.

  Not everyone was so enthusiastic about the changes though. The members of the royal army itself were disappointed that their main goal had been to stop the traitors and save the anchor, and they had failed at half of their mission. As they patched each other up from any battle wounds and scars they’d incurred disappointments was shared amongst themselves.

  Making arrangements for the wizards had been difficult, but the conversation afterward was even harder for the three Royals. King Vovin sat down with both of his sons in his battlefield tent. “We still of many things that have been taken care of after all of this,” Vovin said. It was clear he was still thinking about not only the anchor here, but the anchors that were hidden elsewhere across the world.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  Don't Count Your Eggs

  Parties were formed the next day to take the higher-ranked wizards to the courthouse cells in the Dragon’s Palace. No headcount was ever made of how many captured wizards they were in each group. The prisoners had readily realized this weakness and plotted amongst themselves during the long night before they were taken away from their destroyed home to be sent to prison. The thought of a cold hard cell greeting them at the end of such a long journey, especially after such a stressful night, could not been endured.

  Daybreak on the first day of their journey a few bits and pieces ended up disappearing from the packhorses their captors used for their own personal supplies during the trip. A bit of rope, some pieces of bread and cheese, and in one lucky junior wizard’s case even a map was found in the packs the dragons who were leading his group carried. It was easy for him to sneak that map around to the other wizards before the sun had reached its full height. And once everyone in the group knew where they were, and where they’re going, the rest was easy. They slipped away in ones and twos whenever the dragons were focused on talking amongst themselves. The one good thing about dragons is that they can be as absent-minded and scholarly as the wizards, so they didn’t seem to notice anything until there were only five wizards left with them. And then when the dragons realized what happened, the last five were able to run away together and escape when the dragons got their wings fouled up in the branches when they tried to give chase.

  The wizards being taken captive by other groups didn’t fare as well, but they still made good progress. By the end of the morning of full quarter of the captive wizards had escaped and run towards roughly where they thought their rendezvous point was. It didn’t matter that none of these wizards had ever left their city before. They had studied enough maps over the years to know the general direction they are moving in, and for where they were heading that was good enough to get to their goal.

  No one particularly noticed when the first few trickled away from the group at the beginning of the day, but by midday and become obvious that the captured wizards were slipping away.

  The sight of all the wizard running away and trying to sneak through the bushes and undergrowth would have been comical if the forces from the Royal Army weren’t so upset that this would possibly risk their reputation and careers. The nymphs and vampires were at least able to stop many of the runaways, by having the plants find and trap them and running them down themselves respectively, but still a great many prisoners were lost on the way to the prison itself.

  Back at Domed City everything was calm. The pennants flapped in the breeze, the last vestige of pride left in the crumbled remains of their home. The battle had decimated the numbers of wizards, yes. But far worse was the damage to their homes that had stood for all the generations since Domed City was built as a refuge for wizards by the first few magical humans who had stumbled across the divide as refugees. Now everything they’d held dear had crumbled away, killing their pride and sense of security along with it.

  The royal army was fairly bleak as well. Normally a conquering army could be expected to celebrate their victory, but all was business as usual for the soldiers.

  But the dreary mood was brushed aside as they jumped to their feet to see the dragons put in charge of leading away captives came running back into the camp with not a single human.

  Everyone jumped at the chance for a bit of entertainment from hearing about whatever screw up must have happened and the dragons and other soldiers crowded in to talk over each other and try to make sense of what happened. Eventually Cillean had to wade into the mass and demand explanations from each of them one at a time. Once they’d spilled, he sent them away in disgrace at their failure and passed it on to Aeron. They both summoned a scrying sphere to break the news to the king.

  “I know how they managed it, but they’ve been running away from us all day. I checked with the other groups, and it seems the other dragons managed to lose all of their wizards,” Cillean said. Going on, “however the vampires including myself and the nymphs seem to have made it out okay with most of their captives.” He seemed rather proud that he at least hadn’t lost such a staggering amount of prisoners. “We’re here at the Palace now. Should we punish the remainders for helping their friends escape? Or should we just dump them here in a deeper level of the dungeons than we originally planned and head out to hunt down the runa
ways,” Cillean asked.

  “Oh, don’t worry about them,” King Vovin said. He waved his hand at his healer to dismiss her from the room. She pursed her lips, but knew that king at least would think that matters of state were more important than keeping the king alive and in decent health.

  Vovin carried on without showing any sign that her obvious unvoiced concerns amused him. “I think we can guess exactly where they are headed to. Right now I want to make sure you feel that those who are still left behind feel really comfortable. We wouldn’t want them to think where inhospitable, so it might be best to put them on one of the lower levels of the dungeon that have access to the vents,” he said. The vents heated the entire Palace whenever Dragon felt like letting off some steam or flames when they’re in a bad mood, and to be housed in the heart of that network would be unbearably hot for the human wizards whose bodies were meant for slightly cooler temperatures. Comfortable, indeed. That was one way to put it.

  The King gathered up those who were still set up and the destroyed the human’s city. “It seems that we’ve had a wildly successful round of runaways,” the king said. Booze and growls filled the air from the disgusted crowd. They’d worked hard to capture those wizards in the first place, and it was naturally disagreeable to learn their comrades had failed in keeping track of them during the journey back to the Palace.