“There are three groups of people that hunt Gifted. The first group are those that arrest the individual then transport them wherever the chancellor wants them. The second group is like Verkal’s command. We were an elite team tasked with hunting down and arresting or killing if we couldn’t apprehend the people that escaped from the first group. The third group are shadow hunters. Their job is to kill anyone that is Gifted or suspected if the chancellor doesn’t want them.” Torroth explained.
“So there is another one of them out there?” Mytera nervously looked at the windows and doors.
“No. He wasn’t expecting us so we were able to sneak up on him while he was hiding the body.” Encer rubbed his palms together absently.
“So the shadow hunter is a prisoner? Who is guarding him?” Inadar had taken a seat on the other side of the table.
“Well, not exactly. We caught him and were questioning him when he sort of... got free and... and... Well, he isn’t going to be hurting anyone else.” Torroth slid his hand over the cut as if to hide it. Mytera saw the subtle gesture and retrieved a bowl of water and a towel and began tending to the injury despite Torroth’s protests.
“Why was he after me?” Inadar noticed that at her question Encer glanced at Mytera who refused to meet his eyes. After a moment of awkward silence Encer turned back to Inadar.
“Because of what you are.”
“I'm just like the rest of you.” Inadar made the statement like it was a question. Torroth noticed that Mytera and Encer knew something.
“The dragons believe that you are something like a Dragon Lord. They think that you were hatched from a dragon egg.” Mytera stopped washing the injury for a moment as Encer spoke but she didn’t look up either.
“That is ridiculous. I'm not a dragon or anything like that. It’s not even possible. Just because the dragons protect me doesn’t mean I'm Gifted or anything.” Inadar was incredulous. Torroth was also surprised. He had seen many things but this was new.
“You aren’t a normal human. You spoke and summoned the dragons that night. They told me that only a Dragon Lord could have done such a thing.” Encer calmly tried to convince Inadar.
“Dragon Lords? I have heard legends and myths that mention Dragon Lords but I'm not really familiar with the name.” Torroth interjected at this point.
“They were a powerful order of beings that existed thousands of years ago but died out because of a curse. They had a prophecy about the return of the Dragon Lords and the dragons think that is what you are.” This time Inadar didn’t try to argue.
“That doesn’t explain how I supposedly hatched from a dragon egg.” Inadar still didn’t look like she was believing what was being said.
“Did Iradaemi ever tell you how she found you?” Encer questioned.
“She said that she found me in a small meadow on the side of a mountain. What does that have to do with anything?”
“Rothlt told me that there was no sign of any humans in the area that could have left you there. They think that that is where the dragon egg was left and when it hatched they found you.”
“So let’s just say for a second that I believe you. That I am some sort of descendant from some ancient race. Why don’t I have any Gifts? Are there any others?” Inadar crossed her arms and sat back in her chair.
“I'm not entirely sure but it sounds like your powers are bound somehow.” Encer was about to continue when Inadar got that glassy look in her eyes that meant dragons were near. A moment later the ground shook as a dragon landed heavily near the house. The group left the house and were confronted by Iradaemi.
“Blood and death taint the air. Is the young one well?” Iradaemi asked as she looked Inadar over. Her eyes narrowed when she sniffed at the girl’s side.
“The young one is injured! Who has done this?!” Iradaemi raised up and scanned the area like the threat was in the immediate vicinity.
“It’s nothing. Just a scratch.” Inadar tried to calm the agitated dragon.
“The hatchling lies. Blood left her veins. Where is the eriache that I might tear him asunder!” Iradaemi eyed the others in the group suspiciously.
“They are dead.” Encer flatly made the statement. Iradaemi hissed loudly before responding.
“You spared them my vengeance yet I will forgive you. Who were these eriache?”
“Torroth says that the evil ones were shadow hunters. They think that I'm gifted. Why would they think that? Is it because I'm a Dragon Lord?” Inadar asked candidly.
“If they hunted your shadow I will hunt them and destroy them all.” Iradaemi seemed to calm down a little. “It is now known to the hatchling. No longer is this valley a safe nest for the hatchling.” Setur made an appearance and settled down a little further away. The blue and grey dragon conversed for a moment and seemed to convey the events to the latecomer.
“Hatchling will be safe at towers.” Setur announced when he and Iradaemi had finished talking.
“Towers? How will I be safe there? Won’t I just grow old and die of boredom there as well as here?” Inadar enjoyed talking with dragons but couldn’t imagine living with the creatures.
“The hatchling speaks truth.” Iradaemi proceeded to explain. “Without the soul forged weapons she will die a human. How will she mate with the other Dragon Lord if we hide her at the towers?”
“Wait! What? Soul forged weapons? Mating? What are you talking about?” Inadar found little to no logic in Iradaemi’s thought process.
“One Encer not make known to hatchling?” Setur turned a confused eye on Encer that was more than enough to make the man uncomfortable.
“I will make it known. Eld’or the Night Soul created two dragon eggs. You hatched from one. It is natural that a male hatchling came from the other dragon egg. Until your powers are unlocked by a soul forged weapon you are bound by onwath.” Iradaemi made it known but Inadar wasn’t sure it made sense. She knew that onwath meant mortality.
“We have no soul forged weapons or we would give them to you so you could destroy these eriache.” Setur and Iradaemi puzzled over the conundrum presented to them.
“So I'm normal until I get one of these soul forged weapons?” Inadar questioned.
“Hatchling speaks true.” They were both looking at Inadar expectantly.
“And the dragons don’t have one of these soul forged weapons?”
“This also is true.” Iradaemi appeared to scowl as she waited for the next question.
“Where are these weapons?” Inadar didn’t fail the dragon’s expectation.
“The hiding places for these weapons are unknown to the dragons.” This admission seemed to irk Iradaemi to no end.
“What if instead of being taken to the towers I were to go looking for one of these soul forged weapons. The only people that know what I look like are dead so no one would be looking for me.” Everyone accept for Inadar stepped back as the dragons hissed and glared between each other and the girl.
“This is indeed Eld’or’s spawn. She has his cunning and logic.” Setur growled angrily.
“It is unsafe to do this.” Iradaemi hissed in her annoyance.
“I might find this other Dragon Lord then we can mate and make more Dragon Lords.” Torroth caught his breath as he realized what Inadar was doing. She was playing with fire or more accurately manipulating dragons.
“The logic is harder to break than stone.” Setur snarled at Iradaemi who was literally smoking. After a heated debate between the two, interjected on occasion with clouds of smoke, they turned back the assembly.
“You must not go alone. One Torroth will protect hatchling yes?” Setur fixed a huge blue eye on the startled young man.
“I... Yes. Yes of course I will go with Inadar and protect her.” Setur nodded with satisfaction.
“Much courage in one Torroth. Must fight hatchling’s cunning and eriache both.” If it hadn’t been said in such a serious tone Inadar would have laughed.
“No harm is to come to hatchling or I w
ill roast you slowly.” Iradaemi finished threatening Torroth and turned back to Inadar. “I cannot argue your logic. Perhaps Rothlt can. Until then no going.” With that the two dragons took off. Setur circled above the valley while Iradaemi sped off over the horizon. When Rothlt arrived, Setur was still circling. The black dragon settled down at the usual location and waited for Inadar to arrive.
“Eld’or was the wisest Dragon Lord to live however he was stubborn and never lost an argument. Sadly these characteristics live on in his offspring. It is a burden that dragon kind will be forced to bear. Your logic is inescapable. I myself would accompany you on this quest however I fear that my presence would do more harm than good. To this end I charge Torroth as your protector. I know not where your search for the lost soul forged weapons or the other Dragon Lord is to begin but I believe the fates will guide you.” Rothlt gave his permission to leave and repeated Iradaemi’s threat to Torroth.
“What will happen to the village when they find out I am no longer here?” Inadar asked. Encer had been feeling uncomfortable about the fate of the village with Inadar’s departure. He feared that without any more use for them the dragons would either cleanse them from the land or leave them to the mercy of the chancellor's men. Either fate was not appealing.
“This has been discussed by our council. As long as they don’t know that you are no longer here then they will not search for you elsewhere. To this purpose no iron shell will live to see the village.” Rothlt gave one more promise of everlasting torture to Torroth before the black dragon took to the air.
Back at the house preparations for departure had begun. Inadar had a leather suit that she selected and a brown cloak for traveling in. Mytera busied herself preparing food but Inadar saw a few tears slide down the woman’s cheeks. Encer presented Inadar with a couple knife sheaths that were dual purpose. They could be fastened to the forearms under the sleeves and serve as knife sheath and armor for the back of her arms. The necessities like a good piece of flint and various other items were bundled together into a pack. Inadar’s boots had only been finished this last winter so they were virtually new.
When Torroth arrived he presented the fighting daggers he had taken from the shadow hunter to Inadar. Replacing the daggers up her sleeve with the black metal she slipped her old ones into a slot in her boots designed for that purpose. Evening arrived before the last preparations had been completed. Mytera had checked and double checked Inadar. At last without anything else to busy herself with she gave Inadar a tight hug and extracted a promise to be careful before breaking into tears. Encer having decided that the dragons had threatened Torroth enough only gave the man a long meaningful handshake. Inadar gave Encer a hug and shed a few tears on his shoulder before the duo slipped out the door into the night.
Torroth had decided that it was safer to leave as soon as possible to avoid any chance of meeting more shadow hunters. The village was soon left behind as the pair walked in silence. They reached the mouth of the valley a couple hours after leaving the village and stared at the ravaged land around them. In spots it still smoldered and overall it looked as if two dragons had battled for hours over the whole area. Inadar looked up into the night and smiled.
“Iradaemi is watching us.” Inadar wiped her cheeks and Torroth realized that she had been crying.
“Let’s get moving. I want to cover as much ground as possible before daylight.” Torroth shifted his pack and offered to lighten Inadar’s.
“I'm fine. Do you know where we are going?” Inadar adjusted the straps on her pack and they walked on.
“A town I used to pass through every now and then. Cercha.”
“Wide Waters. What is it like?” Torroth glanced at Inadar with a raised eyebrow. Her understanding of the old tongue often surprised him.
“It is a town along the shores of Lake Cerveza. A few days south of the capital Shienhin.
“Wide River? How big is the lake?” Torroth began to notice the similarities between the names and surmised that cer meant wide while veza meant river and cha meant water.
“It takes days to walk around so I guess it is “wide”.”
Chapter Thirteen
Emeck was proving a good travel companion in Urake’s opinion. The lad was quiet for the most part and unobtrusive. The conversations had been intelligent and the young man seemed to know when to remain quiet. Together they had made their way south from Warton trying to follow a clue about a blond blue eyed lad seen going south from town. From there they had traveled through several villages making discreet inquiries without any success until Emeck had caught a glimpse of Skeln a considerable distance further south than Urake had anticipated. When they arrived in the general area Urake managed to find an individual that owned an old tavern who recalled kicking a blond kid out of the stables a few days in the past.
Sure that they were at last on the trail again Urake had the good fortune to run into a traveler who had passed Skeln on the road. The boy had been going south. Urake with Emeck again set out. Skeln’s overall theme seemed to tend south so they limited their inquiries to travelers who had come from that general direction. For the most part no one knew anything until Urake narrowed the criteria down to roads that were not the main road. This elicited a few individuals who knew about the lone traveler.
Days into the journey Urake and Emeck were hiking along when a long legged traveler passed them. At first Urake had tried to keep up the pace because he thought he recognized the man. That evening when on arrival at the village inn Urake sought out the matron that ran the establishment. She had aged over the last decade and a half but only glanced at Urake once before showing him to a back room. After scolding him for not having let anyone know that he was alive she informed him that a courier had come in that very afternoon and told her the good news. On top of that she had delivered a package for Urake.
Urake smiled as he was left alone with the sack. Brounn was indeed waking up the network. The first thing that Urake pulled out of the sack was an itemized list of all the agents that had been activated since Urake had left Warton. Of course it used old code names lest the list fall into unintended hands. The woman who had just finished scolding Urake was listed as a probably active way station contact. Urake paused when he reached an entry that described the toy maker and wife as active. The wife was a new agent but Urake remembered events from long ago and wasn’t that surprised.
The mention of the toymaker gave Urake a hint about the contents of the rest of the sack. His suspicions were confirmed as he removed a light reinforced leather armor set from the sack. This multi piece outfit was constructed from hardened leather that was both light and flexible and of low enough of a profile as to be capable of being worn under normal cloths. It was still hard enough to deflect most arrows and bolts or render harmless any but the strongest sword cuts. It fit almost perfectly accept for an unexpected tightness around the midsection that Urake vowed would be worked off as soon as possible.
The new combination hidden blade and miniaturized dart gun gauntlets were of the usual superb quality. A new set of boots was next. Tusul had developed a system of boot construction that utilized a cast of Urake’s feet and almost negated the process of breaking them in. Many a blister had been avoided in this fashion. A few small bottles and a new set of daggers was all that remained in the sack. Removing these Urake noted the fine woman’s handwriting that labeled each of the vials. A poison, a sleeping draught, an antidote, a potion that induced paralysis, another which dulled pain and several more. The leather under armor had slots worked into it that these vials fit into perfectly.
Urake returned to where Emeck had been waiting and was informed that a couple tables over had mentioned a blond lad that they had traveled to the village with a couple days past. Emeck also mentioned that a soldier had been in asking about a blond blue eyed lad traveling with an older beggar. Urake contemplated continuing on that night in the hopes that he could cut down on the lead that Skeln had. Surprisingly the boy had been makin
g good time. On the other hand was the option of staying the night in a good bed and setting out rested in the morning. This won out and the matron was found. She flatly refused any compensation and showed Urake and Emeck to a room and had a warm meal delivered. On the table by the window was a dish of water and a shaving knife that Urake took advantage of removing anything that could be described as beggarly.
The next day Urake tested out the new boots and found them to be as good as ever. His old boots fit Emeck better than the ones that he had been wearing so the tatters were discarded and replaced. They made good time and had left the village behind them before the sunrise had faded. The next day they overtook a couple travelers who had paused for a time in the village that Urake and Emeck had just left. They recalled having traveled for a time with a blond lad named Cero who was supposedly headed for a relative’s village just north of the Draeld Swamps.
Urake was glad to know that Skeln was going by a new identity. He however did not believe for a moment that Skeln or Cero was really headed to the village named. So far the trail had been heading straight south. There was nothing down here but the badlands and the swamp so it was likely that Skeln was headed towards The Forks. This made sense if he thought that he could disappear into the city.
Urake had by now acquired a healthy respect for Skeln’s reasoning and talent at disappearing. The other option was that Skeln hoped to disappear into either of the wildernesses aforementioned. Of these the swamps would be easier to live off the land. The badlands were fairly desolate accept for a few water holes and isolated stands of scrub. Either way the city would be the easiest to find the boy in. Not that it would be easy. The Forks were built around the confluence of two rivers that drained half of the Braebach. From The Forks if one desired could be purchased passage to almost any place along these rivers even as far north as Cercha. Urake hoped that Skeln would simply try staying in the city rather than continue on.