BECMI Chapter 279 – Of Jotuns and Fire
“Gulguz’s purpose was not to have the dragons maul the lands of Eismoor, although He would certainly have approved if they did. No, His intention was the great magic the dragons wrought under the command of Pearl, bending the streams of air, the clouds and the winds as they were not meant to be into your great concealing storm, creating ripples of impact that are reaching all the way to the utter north.
“Already, the first storms churn this way, nearly two months ahead of schedule. A Wolf Winter is coming, cold and terrible, and it is going to smash into all of the lands of the North with a terrible and brutal chill.
“Gulguz is readying his servants. His frost giant worshipers in Joklhjem watch and wait eagerly for the sea to freeze, and then will pour south in their hundreds to raid as they’ve not been able to do for decades. His fire giant servants have stolen east to the lands of the Arch of Fire, and wait for the snows to bury the homes and lives of lesser mortals before they move out in turn.
“The dragons were meant to ravage the south and stop any reinforcements from aiding the north. Gulguz aims to bring down any settlements in the North and stop expansion here without great efforts being made. If Delpha intervenes, then the city and kingdom of Aetla will be annexed, and Siricil would then immediately also declare war against these de facto colonies.”
King Charred-Eye considered the maneuverings with the distant viewpoint of a monarch. In all ways, Pearl had simply been out-witted. The giants had no designs on the south of Eislas, but any fighting against it would weaken both sides, benefiting the giants and leaving the north open for what was going to follow. His dragons would not have the strength or means to interfere and claim any further plunder for their own.
What was meant to follow was then either a mass slaughter of the human settlers or a clash of human empires, a different slaughter on a grander scale.
Which would likely once again weaken both sides and leave them unable to hold onto their expansions in the north, reverting the lands to wildness and savagery once more, perfect for the giants… and, he admitted, for dragons!
The great weakness of the plan was that they had completely underestimated the brutal military capabilities of the land of Eismoor. Their losses in soldiers and moving machines had been minimal. There had been no massacre of hapless peasants, only flying into the teeth of attacks with incredible range and incredibly brutal killing power, or teams of dragon-slayers coming to fight THEM, and eager to do so, too!
Did they truly not know that Aetla was allied with Eismoor and Seacall, and had been sending envoys and speaking with the tribes of humans and demihumans across the north for some time now?
Perhaps there would be more giants than dragons, but the Jotuns could not fly to run away or move quickly. Did they expect to be able to retreat from the deadly moving machines?
Charred-Eye found his scorn returning, since it was now obvious the humanoids weren’t going to kill him. Fools are as fools do…
“Why are you not slaying me, and or even taking my hoard?”he rasped, confused on that point. It was completely against what he would do in this circumstance!
The one called Briggs was preparing to turn away and leave again, checked himself. “I’m not going to punish a dragon for obeying the command of his Ruler, for good or ill. You had no choice in this matter.
“She cost you your kingdom, your standing in the world, and our treaty with you is now null and void. Dragonhunters are coming, Your Majesty, ones who know their jobs very, very well, and they aren’t forgetting that all this gold once belonged to folks like them, and dragons took it and likely killed and ate the previous owners.”
Never in his very long life had Charred-Eye ever imagined a human looking at the glory that was his hoard, certainly the largest in all of the Dragonfangs, a magnificent thing of heaped coins and tributes of art and craft and conquest assembled over thousands of years, relics of nations and peoples long vanished from the world, large enough to sleep even his great bulk comfortably… with scorn and disdain.
Yet that was exactly what he saw on all of their faces. The gathered wealth and the power it represented meant nothing to them! The history of it was meaningless, even though he could see their interest and appreciation in the way their eyes flickered here and there… it was the appreciation for a king’s castle they were about to set on fire and reduce to ruin.
A great part of him called them silly fools for not taking what was before them. Would not killing him result in great glory, great wealth, acclaim, fortune? It was pure idiocy walking away from him, knowing he would plot his vengeance upon them, upon all who had defied him-!
Stolen novel; please report.
Against the trio who had just power-slaughtered Pearl, the Moon Dragon and Ruler of all Chaotic Dragons, the final foe on the road to the highest level of power a dragon could obtain!
Which left the seat of Pearl open for the Great One to fill…
They would have no problem killing him, but who among his peers would believe that? It must have been luck, or Artifacts of great power, or a cruel trap…
“Dragons will come to challenge the slayers of Pearl, as a test of their own power and worthiness!”he told them, whether it be threat, warning, or information they needed. “Your lives will not be peaceful!”
“I’ll put up an arena where they can call us out and wait in the queue. If they show up with some gold, they can even get fed while they wait, Your Majesty,” the elfin called back as she glided away from him, her apathetic response completely without any regard for what that threat might mean.
They were letting him live. They were letting him live…
So that others could kill him. They had already slain Pearl. Her entourage, at the very least, would be demanding vengeance, and why they hadn’t shown up this time he did not know. Perhaps she had simply not been expecting to be attacked, and only came here to Heal him?
They would certainly know that she had died without them being present. A Great Wyrm of each bloodline subordinate to her, and four additional Amber Great Wyrms to soothe her ego…
They would all die. If hundreds of dragons could not bring down Eismoor’s forces, could a mere eight of them? Would they seek to undertake a skirmish and raid against Eismoor instead, counting on being able to flee?
He had the impression that was not going to work very well, either. The dragon slayers had come for his force with magical speed, a score of teams of them suddenly in place in every direction, and the moving machines in place and bombarding them from literally miles away.
No, they too would die, although they likely did not believe it.
He was sure Commander Briggs wouldn’t mind killing one of them as a lesson to the others. Now, if it was just the two, maybe three of them, and ALL of the entourage…
Charred-Eye lowered his head back down to his hoard, scenarios of the three running through his mind. He did not know enough of them, particularly the elfin and what magic she had struck Pearl with… but it had obviously been enough magic to completely thwart the Ruling Dragon and prevent her from getting away easily.
He had the feeling that if Pearl’s entourage had been here, they would have died as well.
The thought gave him some solace as he laid his head down to rest.
The dragon-slayers would be coming now, even if those three were not. The truce was over, the Dragonfangs were at a tithe of their power, adventurers would be coming to kill what dragons remained and seize their hordes, as the servants of Eismoor seemed to be doing to the dead dragons, doubtless using their own bodies to track the location of their hoards to loot.
It was the plundering of an epoch, and he had led his dragons right into it. His place in draconic history was assured, but as part of one of the greatest blunders ever made by a Dragon King…
Would they pin the loss of Pearl on him, too?
The thought made him open his eyes for a moment in contemplation, wondering if her entourage was going to come here and slaughter him for not dying in defense of Pearl.
Well, the Curses on his wounds would be gone at sunrise, which was not far off. He had plundered magic which could be used to deal with some of his injuries, and it appeared he was going to have to take a much more active approach with his defenses.
He was not going to move his hoard. Such would take far too much time, and his pride had already taken all the beating he was going to endure.
If they came for him, he would die here, in the place of power of the Dragon Kings of the Dragonfangs, and then all would be as it should be.
King Charred-Eye drifted off into a short doze, enduring the pain for the short time it would take before he could take actions to Heal them. It would burn out one of his captured Staves, but he did not care, for he had to be back to his full health soon.
If Pearl’s entourage came, he would still die, but ah, he would have some surprises for them...
--------
It was the twelfth Ward I had to bring down, this one evoking a Blackball forth to chase after anyone and anything magical in the area. I pulled out a Rune of Magic (Gate), activated it, and Briggs yanked on the butchered corpse of the dead White Dragon hard enough to send it into the area.
The magic collapsed, the sphere of utter darkness congealed at the intrusion, and touched the corpse of the White great wyrm.
The whole carcass seemed to bend towards the sphere at the contact, and then was sucked into it and gone in an instant.
The ring of the Gate gathered around it, flickered open into astral space, and a second later the Blackball was dumped inside it as suddenly as it had appeared, gone in an instant, and the Gate snapped shut.
“Well, I’m so glad we got the essentials off that sucker first!” Sama said cheerfully, making a show of wiping her hands off. Behind her, the majority of the hide, wing leather, claws, tails, teeth, major bones, head, several important internal organs, and a forty gallon drum of blood all waited, hurriedly scavenged with lovingly savage skill and rather disturbing speed by Sama before being used as a sacrifice.
That was nigh a hundred thousand gold in consumables or more, just from one great wyrm!
The chamber ahead gleamed cold and pristine, a rolling door that would take a titan to bypass blocking their way, replete with glowing Runes that dared me to attempt to take action.
I walked into the trapped area, looking at everything around and below me. Pearl had access to Immortal Power, but only seemed able to muster up VII’s normally, with what looked like IX’s spun in a Ritual manner with Immortal Power to bypass her limits.
This Door, for instance, reeked of Immortal Power, clearly an Artifact designed to punish any who would dare intrude upon Pearl’s lair.
Dread smacked into the crystalline material, and pulled.