| Astra was dead.
Fred sighed and looked down at her unmoving form. It was bruised and
burned. And other bodies lay nearby as well; they too were mangled and
torn. The smell of death was everywhere and the cave was wet with black
blood. Of the numbers that had died here today, Fred could only guess.
But he knew without a doubt that it had been the orcs who had lost the
most, suffered the greatest.
There was no sense of victory here though. Rather, Fred was overcome
by a sense of finality. A sense of things coming to an end. And it left
Fred's heart heavy and tired. He was a soldier, a knight of the Kingdom,
and he was no stranger to the reality of warfare. Death was a constant
companion to all who wielded the sword. But that knowledge did not make
the loss of a friend any easier to bear.
Fred's only consolation was that Astra had died as she had wished, with
a weapon in her hand. And now no one, not Rift nor the dwarves or evil
dragons or orcish beasts, could enslave her any longer. Astra was now on
her way to meet her strange gods and Fred only hoped that they would welcome
her.
For Fred though, it was time to go home.
So much had happened to him in such a short time. Now he needed to rest
and to try to sort everything out. Since he and the Amazon princess had
first found themselves transformed into half-animals, so many questions
had arisen for the Lord of Suffex and too few answers. He had stumbled
upon too many mysteries since they had first walked the dark, stone passages
of Minestus' mountain home. The slaying of one dragon had led him to two
others, and the death of those had sent him on a journey to a city of depraved
delights and corrupt men. And then finally back to this mountain peak where
a band of grim dwarves now silently tended to their wounded, prepared their
dead and gathered their treasure. And where Astra lay dead on a cold, stone
table.
"I will leave this place now," Fred said, turning to Tarin. "And I have
no need of a guide. Or a guard." Tarin's response was swift and simple,
he laughed, and when he was done he said, "If you leave this place without
an escort, then you will die." Fred could not tell if that was meant as
a warning or as a threat. Tarin seemed to read his mind. "If I wanted you
dead, you'd be lying here next to the amazon," the dwarf said and pointed
at Astra. "Now after all we've gone through together, I think that that
would be such a terrible pity. Therefore I have assigned three of my people
to accompany and guide you. You will go with them." Tarin paused and then
smiled up at Fred. "Because like I said, if you don't you'll never see
your home again."
Whether warning or threat, Fred clearly saw that Tarin was not giving
him a choice. "Then bring these men to me now," Fred said commandingly.
Tarin bowed his head with a mockish tilt and motioned the hand picked dwarves
forward. He introduced them as Dokken, Baren and Lem. Quickly assembling
needed supplies, the quartet left the dragon chamber and began their journey
to the Shreken Mountains and the border of the Great Kingdom.
From there Fred would travel straight to Caemlyn, the capitol city of
the Kingdom. There was much that he needed to report to King Emry. The
complete journey would take at least a month and a half, and he was impatient
to reach home, but at least he would have time to think through everything
that he had seen and learned. And consider all the questions that had been
raised by his adventure.
Was Dragonkind caught in the midst of some internal struggle? The dragon
Malachi had called herself a rogue and mentioned a Dragon Council and Dragon
Circles. Were they at war with each other? And if so, what did this mean
for Humankind?
Who was Synizn? To Fred he was simply a name and a jumble of conflicting
rumors and stories. But now he knew he was real and that he had some kind
of connection with the dragons. And Malachi had wanted him to have the
Crystallic. Why?
Who were the dwarves, really? In the Kingdom they were thought of as
wandering smiths, the last remnants of a lost race. In Walants a small
number lived within the city walls as lowly servants and assistants. But
then where did this powerful force of armed warriors come from? Certainly
not out of thin air. And Tarin had proved himself more than just a subservient
ink-bottler. What then was his true relationship with the barrister Rift?
And the orcs. Fred had been taught that they had all been destroyed
in an Age before Men had even learned to read or write. But that was obviously
not the case. Like the dwarves, the orcish race was perhaps not so lost
as Mankind believed. Were the two races now returning to play a role in
the events of the world? Were the two races embroiled in some war of their
own? The orcs had attacked them within the lair of the dragon. Were the
orcs secretly in the employ of the wyrm? Perhaps the dwarves had accidently
stumbled upon some newly made outpost of the creatures? Or maybe the orcs
had been tracking the dwarves all along and had chosen the dragon cave
to close in for the kill.
Too many questions, too many mysteries. And too few answers. But Fred
was a patient man and a curious man. Mysteries and secrets were meant to
be uncovered and all questions had answers. And one way or the other, Fred
was going to get to the bottom of it all.
-
 Fred and the three dwarves
travel up the Goth toward the Shreken.
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