Chapter 24

The hero gets some much needed information

"Two months," the blacksmith was saying as I entered his shop.

"There's no way you can do it faster than that?" Alita protested.

"Not if you want something that's going to hold up. What in the world?" He looked past her and saw me coming into the room. "What is that?"

"Oh, you like it?" I asked him modestly. "Just a little something-something I got from a certain someone. Pay it no mind." He strode around the counter and started prodding me. "Do you mind?"

"Someone really made armor out of dragon scale," he finally allowed. "That's crazy."

"Crazy enough it just might work?"

"Oh, it'll work, if you can survive every dragon in the land attacking you the moment they- wait a second. Don't you have some dragons on your side? How did they take it? Or have you not shown them yet?"

"Let's not dwell on the past," I told him. "How about the armor for my party members here? Two months?"

"At the earliest. I'm only one man, and armor, especially as fancy as they want it, will take time. If I even have enough raw material, which I may not."

"Can you melt their current stuff down? I'll donate my old armor to the effort as well, as you can see I don't need it."

"I suppose, that would fill in the gaps. They want full suits, more or less, so that will take a lot of iron."

"What if you mixed gold into it?" Clarissa asked. "We can get you lots of that."

"That would be super heavy though."

"Would it?" I asked. I jingled my pouch. "No matter how much gold I put in here, it doesn't seem to weigh any more."

That brought him up short. "You're right. Never thought about that before."

"Besides we're stronger than we look," Alita told him. "Fighting monsters for a month will do that to you. Even if it was heavy, it wouldn't weigh us down all that much. And if we have two months, we'll be stronger still!"

"I might be able to add bulk by creating a shell of iron, then doing a gold/iron backing. I don't know, I would have to see how well it held up in a small scale test before I made four complete armor sets with gold in the mix."

"We could make it to nearby towns while you work," I suggested. "See what iron they have available. If it's going to take that long away, use what you have for the first one and we'll see what we can find for the others."

"Fair enough. Obviously I'll give you a break on the price if you supply your own iron or gold, if it comes to that."

"Speaking of gold," Rose spoke up. "Here's a down payment." She handed a coin pouch over and he hefted it.

"Thank you kindly, Rose." He handed it back. "But you don't need to do that, I know you're good for it."

"Oh, okay." She shyly took it back.

"As for the rest of you..."

"Oh, sure, make us pay up front," Alita handed over one, as did Clarissa.

"Don't get me wrong, ladies, I'm sure you're good for it as well but..."

"No, we understand," Clarissa told him. "Rose is Rose. We'll leave you to it."

"I'll need your measurements though," he told them, "so don't think you're going anywhere just yet. Follow me into the back and take everything off. Now where did I put my tape? Apprentice, have you seen that ribbon with the marks on it?" He walked into the back.

"Measurements?" Rose asked, looking ready to bolt. "Taken by a man?"

"Afraid so," Alita told her, pulling her by the hand. "You want custom armor, it has to fit, and there's only one way to assure that. Just like getting a dress made. Come on, I'll make sure he doesn't leer any longer than necessary."

"But… But..."

"You wait outside!" Clarissa told me, pointing to the door.

I raised my hands in surrender. "Of course. I'll be just outside." I've seen you all already anyway, because of the cosplay. Cosplay. I snorted. I've been hanging around dragons too long. Soon I'll want to pay for things with dogecoins.

Moments later the three red faced girls joined me again.

"Everything go okay?"

"We will never speak of it again," Alita informed me. "So what's the plan?"

"Monster fighting time, I suppose," I told her. "Then tonight we talk about how we're going to actually win this fight."

With the magic we had returning to the town was a snap, so we simply walked in a straight line away from the castle all day. We killed monsters as usual, and when the sun was going down we headed back to the town. We had a hearty meal and finally the topic of what we were going to do about the Dragonlord was at hand.

"Something is missing," Clarissa announced, after a moment of discussion.

"Hope?" Alita asked. "Sanity? Common sense?"

"No, no, I mean we have no idea what we're doing."

"Yes, that's why we're talking about it, right?" Rose asked.

"That's still not what I mean. Stay here, I'll be back in a few minutes." She grabbed her weapons and headed out the door.

"What's she planning?" Alita asked as she vanished though it.

We all just shook our heads.

Moments later she was back, with a guard in tow. She shoved him down into a chair and grabbed another one for herself. "Everyone, meet Kandan, a guard at the castle."

"I was, until I was abducted and brought here!" he protested. "I'm still supposed to be on duty you know! What's all this about? Aren't you the runaway maids?"

"Runaway?" Alita scoffed. "We're trying to save the world here, you know? Finding another job in a village literally two minutes away isn't running away, either. What have you been doing lately?"

"My job. Guarding," he answered testily. "I'm not just going to run off when the fancy takes me."

"Fancy!?" She slowly stood up and went for her sword. "I'll show you fancy!"

"Don't fight," Rose told her, laying a hand on her arm. "Just tell us what he's doing here."

Clarissa waited, arching an eyebrow.

"Fine." She plopped down in her chair again. "But this better be good."

"It will be," Clarissa told us. "I asked around. You know how, when the Dragonlord first showed himself the king sent a force of soldiers to the castle to try and kill him?"

I nodded. "He told me as much himself. He said they all died. All but… one..." I glanced at the man sitting with us, and he let out a breath.

"Yes, I was the one the Dragonlord let go," he admitted. "To tell the tale, and all that. He ordered no monster to harass me on the way out, and I crawled back to the castle in disgrace. I've tried to make up for what happened but there's no way I can. He… he killed them all. And he… And he..." The man looked about to break down, and I could imagine why. If I had gone in with a force of hundreds of soldiers and I was the only one to come out alive? How would I feel?

"It's okay," Rose told him softly, taking his hand in hers. "It wasn't your fault. No one here blames you. We're not here to make you relive that. Just relax."

"Thanks. Rose, right? I always heard you were kind, it's just-"

"Actually, that's exactly what we're here to make him do," Clarissa told us. "Sorry, but it's important. Right now you're the only one that's been in the castle, and seen the Dragonlord himself. We need to know everything."

"Oh, so we can plan accordingly," Alita decided. "Smart. Yes, turn his act against him. Look, Cranston or whatever-"

"Kandan."

"Right, Kandan. This is your chance to make your being alive still mean something. Tell us everything. If there's a hope of us defeating the Dragonlord, it rests with you."

I always thought it rested with me, shows you what I know.

"You really think so?" He looked around the table, sounding surprised.

It is a good idea. I was going to suggest scouting the place out with the basket, maybe even taking a look at the layout from the inside, if we can get in without being attacked right off the bat. What does 'off the bat' even mean? What do bats have to do with it? Anyway, this way we don't need to, he can just tell us!

"Don't feel you have to force yourself," Rose told him. "But if it's not too much for you-"

"Force yourself," Alita told him. "You think this is a game? We have one shot at this. Give us what we need to make the most of it."

"Yes, I know," he sputtered. I noticed he hadn't let go of Rose's hand, and was actually gripping it tighter. "I'll try."

"One second," Clarissa told him, getting up.

"Now where are you going?" Alita demanded. "You're the one who brought him here! If there was someone else you should have gotten them-"

"It'll just take a second, sheesh!" She went over to the counter and came back with a drink for Kandan and some paper, ink, and pen. "Good thing they had some, but they keep records of things too." She gave him the mug.

"Thanks," he said, drinking about half at once. "Okay then."

"Go ahead." She dipped the pen in the ink and held it above the page.

"The castle had at least seven floors, and the layout was almost nonsensical," he began. "Some floors were large, sprawling mazes completely in the dark, while others seemed to be little more than staircases. Monsters crowded everywhere. Werewolves, wizards, men of stone, armored suits with no one inside. We were completely unprepared, but we knew we had to win through. We ran from what we could, many sacrificed themselves to block the path so others could move forward. We had to move up and down stairs, I couldn't draw you a map, just to get anywhere. The place seemed built to force us into the longest path possible in the confines of the castle walls. Narrow hallways, no real rooms, just monsters, and darkness. And the screams of the dying as we pressed on. Oh, the screams..."

"It's okay," Rose told him. "You're doing great."

"But you made it down?" Alita prompted, after he took another drink from his mug.

"We did," he told her. "Down deep. How he even made it that deep, I don't know. We passed a more open area, water on every side. Held back by magic? I don't know, it must be, the place is an island. He somehow dug until he hit water, underground stream maybe? Cavern full of water? Pushed it back, put in the final floor, and just to show his power left some walls unfinished. No stone held back the water, it was just floating there."

"That's going to be a problem," Alita mused.

"Let him finish, plan later," Rose chided. "Go on, Kandan."

"We went past it, into a small chamber. Throne room. I'll never forget that. Six meters across? Diamond shape, with the throne in the center. He sat on what looked like enormous blocks of gold."

What is with people in power sitting in tiny rooms? He has a whole castle and he sits in a damp chamber at the bottom? I guess he is a dragon so he has some excuse. And he wanted whoever came to fight through the whole place, I guess. Jerk.

"Wait, how did he fit into a six meter across room?" Alita demanded. "That doesn't make sense."

"He's not that fat," Kandan explained. "In fact he looked rather frail. All the worse when he… You know."

"They don't know he's a real dragon," I told her. "They think he's just a man with the title of Dragonlord. Apparently he keeps that form in his castle. Probably because it was not built to hold dragons, but humans."

"That raises some possibilities." Her eyes narrowed. "Go on."

"He welcomed us, praised us for getting so far. Then just used magic to kill everyone but me. We were weakened by that time but still. He cast some kind of fire spell, burned them up one at a time. Just laughed as we tried to attack him."

Not high enough 'level,' not good enough armor or weapons. They have spears, for goodness sake. Still, something to watch out for. We knew he was a spell casting dragon, it's too bad they didn't know the secret. Maybe a few 'levels' and they would have survived.

"Said I should go back and tell everyone what I saw that day. He gave me a guide, a wizard, who led me back outside. The wizard blew the bridge apart right in front of me, cast a spell on me that sent me back to the castle. I told the king we had failed. He was still in shock from the death of his wife, he's never been the same since. He let the Dragonlord have whatever he demanded, and here we are today."

"Can you draw out any of the castle layout?" Clarissa asked, holding the pen out.

He shook his head. "It was complete darkness. Some of us brought torches, but they don't help that much. We were just rushing through, trying to make the sacrifice of those that stayed behind worth it. There were so many twists and turns, and narrow passages, it's impossible."

"But no secret passages? The path was straightforward just long and harrowing?"

"No secret passages, no."

"That's something." She made a note.

"I'm not sure what else to tell you."

"I don't have any questions," Clarissa told him. "You?" She looked around the table.

"How high was the ceiling?" I asked. "In the room with the Dragonlord I mean."

"Regular height? I don't know, I wasn't there as an interior decorator. It didn't seem all that high, I guess?"

I shared a knowing look with Alita, who nodded. "I think that's it."

"Okay." Clarissa wiped the pen off and capped the ink. "This is good stuff."

"You think so?"

"It's a lot more than we knew before, so yes. Thank you. If you think of anything else, come find us in town."

"And you'll use this to kill him?"

"We'll make a plan. Hopefully our own strength and skill will kill him. This is just so we know what to expect on our way there."

"I wish you luck. If there is something else I can do, let me know."

"We will. Thanks."

The others and I thanked him, and he drained his mug and stood. "I'll see you around. Rose, I hope I see you later. Don't get killed, okay?"

"I won't," she promised. "Bye."

Oh sure, she gets a 'don't get killed' what about the rest of us?

"So what does that tell us?" Alita asked when he was gone. "Anything we didn't really know before? I mean I suspected it wasn't going to be easy."

"Interesting trick with the water," Clarissa replied. "A form in insurance?"

"Probably. If you kill him the magic goes away, and the water crashes into the place. I doubt you would be able to get out in time… If you didn't have magic."

Which we all do, so it's not a problem for us.

"We would have to be fast though," Rose added. "It sounded like it was right there. We would have to kill him, make sure he was dead, and then avoid the rushing wave. Who knows how fast the water would move?"

"We would probably be fine," Alita said. "Those solders were dead one way or the other. Poor guy. But maybe we can give him a little peace. You thinking what I'm thinking?" She asked me.

"Yeah. He, for some reason, hangs out in human form. In a room too small to accommodate his full bulk. We keep him in there, and we only have to fight the man. A far easier prospect than fighting the dragon why are you looking at me like that Rose?" She was looking at me like she was fighting hard to not call me an idiot right to my face, because she was too nice a person for that.

"He probably knows the same magic we do," she reminded us. "He can just take the fight outside. In fact if we attack him I see it going like this. We step into the chamber, say we're going to take his life, he says, 'not so, and to punish your insolence I'm going to destroy the town you came from!' He vanishes, turns into a dragon now that he is outside, flies over there, burns the place to the ground, and is waiting for us when we make it back there. He doesn't know we have magic to bring ourselves outside, but we still can't move as fast as a flying dragon. The town would be in danger, and it would be all our fault!"

"Crap she's right," Alita spat.

"Could we enrage him enough he stays there, trying to kill us, until he runs out of magical power?" Clarissa asked hopefully. "Then he can't leave and we can kill him then?"

"Saving enough magical power of our own to escape the water?" Alita asked.

"Oh. It could be done, right?"

"If you think anything you could say or do would keep him there in such a rage that he lost track of how much magic he used. I mean I have a sense of it, when I'm getting low. Don't you?"

"Yeah," she admitted.

"And would our healing magic outlast whatever destructive spells he threw at us? We really don't know how much magic he can do at one time. Don't want to find out the hard way, either."

"Well, you think of something!"

"Cancel the magic on the water and hope it slams into him before he can react?" I suggested. "Hard to cast magic when you're not able to breathe, I think."

"It's an awful risk," Rose told me.

Well you think of something! I didn't say because I wasn't going to be mean to Rose, what kind of a monster would do that?

"We'll keep it in mind as a last resort," Alita allowed, "but it's not easy. For one thing how would we cancel his spell, none of us has that kind of magic. Stopspell will stop a spell from being cast, but would it work on a spell already going? I don't think so. Plus, he could be an excellent swimmer, and he must know his own castle, he won't get lost."

"They can see in the dark, dragons," I admitted. "He could simply take a breath and swim out of there. I wonder if he can still see in the dark in his human form?"

"He can still do magic," Clarissa figured. "So I don't see why that would change."

"Must still sleep though, could we put him to sleep?" Rose asked. "That's a magic we do have."

"I'm sure the first thing he would do, upon hearing someone in the hall, would be to cast Stopspell. I don't think we can count on using magic to fight him. Just to heal ourselves, that's safest."

"It's a fair point."

"We don't have to decide now," Alita told us, standing and stretching. "We got more information, we'll have plenty of time until the armor is done. Just think about it, and we'll come up with something. He can't be invincible, even he has a weakness. Let's find it."

"Good night," we said to her, getting up ourselves.

But as I walked back to the inn I was troubled. How are we going to beat him? He's superior to us in every way. Magically, physically, he seems untouchable. I can't even handle a 'young' dragon, even with the others helping it doesn't seem possible. How do you defeat something you can't even touch?