Happy Mammoth Monday.
This chapter will technically be set before the previous one, but that would have screwed up how I wanted to present them, so here it is. Enjoy.
Mist and shadow
Evandar POV
It had been five days since that bastard to Mercury Iridium had betrayed their good faith, somehow overpowered all of the delegations and the two dragon rider guards, his little sister among them, and had launched an invasion that had surprised everyone and had resulted in the loss of their entire northern coastline.
How exactly he had done it, no one knew, as word had only gotten out of what had happened after the bastard himself had dared to contact the high king of the Empire on behalf of the high king's representative and had then informed the high king of what had happened.
How did he do it? We had hundreds of guards ready to stop any attack from the men on his ships in Teirm and none of our patrol ships saw any signs of an invasion fleet until the next day, Evandar mused on a conundrum that had plagued him ever since he had learned of it, and why did he choose to inform us in the first place, when he could have easily been halfway to Ilirea before we figured out what was happening? What is he planning?
Although Evandar had tried night after night to figure out what Mercury's motivations behind doing so could be, he had not come any closer to an actual answer to it yet. It simply did not make any sense to Evandar that he should warn his enemies instead of fully utilizing the confusion and surprise to its limit.
His little sister might have known why Mercury had done as he had, or she would at the very least have had the best chance of knowing it, but she had unfortunately been assigned as a guard to the meeting and no one had heard from her since.
In fact, no one had heard from any of the dragon riders that had been stationed in Teirm, Narda or Kuasta since that day, which only added another mystery to the already quite full bundle of them, as it should have been neigh on impossible for any one man to singlehandedly capture or kill more than 15 dragon riders and their dragons in three different cities before at least one pair could escape.
Little one, you have wracked your brain with these questions for five days now, and you have come no closer to understanding the nature of the oath-breaker's mind, Delvaria, Evandar's female golden dragon, said sympathetically, instead of focusing on why he acts as he does, you should focus on how we stop him. We do after all have the meeting today.
Yeah, I know, Evandar replied tiredly, but my mind just cannot stop thinking of why he does as he does. I feel that if I could just understand his motives, then perhaps I would be better prepared to stop him.
His motives are simple; he wishes power over all of Alagaësia and the destruction of the dragon riders, but I do not think that you could understand his mind even if you tried for a hundred years, Delvaria replied, he is likely as mad as the mad-king once was and can therefore not be reasoned with or fully understood by any sane person.
Yes, I suppose that you are right, Evandar conceded.
The meeting that Delvaria was speaking of was the meeting between all of the royals of Alagaësia and the dragon riders, which were represented by Evandar, whom had currently taken command of the dragon riders, as the previous leader had been in Teirm when Mercury had betrayed their trust and neither had any word arrived from Estildirin since that day.
The meeting's purpose was to plan their combined counterattack to the invasion, as was stipulated in the Second Osilon Treaty, which dictated that if any of the Alagaësian nations were to be threatened by an outside party, then all of the other nations and the dragon rider order would have to help them repel the threat.
The treaty had been drafted after the Second Ra'zac War had ended and an acknowledgement for the need of such a binding promise between the nations had been made abundantly clear. Already, the various leaders had called for their people to begin mustering for battle, and the dragon riders from all across Alagaësia were flocking to their HQ in Ilirea to be ready for what was to come.
A knock was heard from outside of the lead rider's office, which Evandar had since taken up in his absence, and after Evandar had allowed him entrance, the dragon rider called Aryan came inside.
Aryan was an almost three hundred years old medium height human dragon rider with a black goatee, a pair of green eyes and an altogether average appearance for any human. In fact, if his red male dragon Rueben was not with him, he was often mistaken for an average human by the people around him, though Evandar was pretty sure that the dragon riders that did so were mostly teasing him.
"The dragon riders of New Melian are reporting for duty, Evandar-elda", Aryan reported while twisting his hand over his sternum.
"It is good that you made it unharmed" , Evandar replied curtly, "now, go ask Bjorn about where you can find lodgings".
"Yes, at once Evandar-elda", Aryan replied and quickly left again.
As he walked through the door, Evandar sighed at how little there was of his precious daughter, now long since deceased, in the man. Even his green eyes looked different than Evandar's own or from the ones that his daughter had had, but Evandar supposed that you could only ask for so much to look the same after five generations of mixing blood with other humans. Six, if you counted Evandar's own mixing with his late mate, Celiste.
It had certainly not been easy for Evandar to watch as his only daughter refused to even touch a dragon egg and therefore had to slowly grow old and die in front of his very eyes, while he remained as youthful on the outside as ever, but time had taught Evandar how to accept that he could simply not change things.
And then, when his daughter's great great great grandson had been chosen by an egg to become a dragon rider, Evandar had hardly been able to cope with it. There had simply been so little of Helen in the boy that he might as well have been a complete stranger, and yet, Evandar knew that he was not, and that thought arose every time that Aryan was in sight of Evandar.
It did not help that the boy had been completely average in everything that he did, as Evandar clearly remembered that his Helen had been gifted. That was why Evandar preferred not to deal overly much with Aryan, as he kept comparing him to his long dead daughter, and it was not fair to the boy to constantly be judged as such.
The fact that Loivissa did not seem to be bothered by it only further alienated Evandar from the boy, though he could admit that his sister was not likely to be the best candidate to ask about such things, as her heart had been sealed shut ever since she had returned from the war four centuries ago.
In fact, when Evandar had confronted her about whether Aryan reminded her of Helen at all, her only response had been to take a quick look at the boy, before she had looked back at him and had quite bluntly told Evandar that there might be a little of Helen in the boy, but she would regard him as no different than any other dragon rider.
His little sister's change was just another of the many offenses that Evandar planned to make the bastard, Mercury Iridium, pay for.
Little one, we should depart soon if you wish to make it to the high king's scrying chamber before the meeting starts, Delvaria interrupted his thoughts, which might actually have been for the best.
Yes, you are right. I have wasted enough time needlessly fussing in here already, Evandar replied and made his way to the balcony, which he jumped out of in time to land on the back of his beloved dragon.
It was not long after that Evandar found himself in the royal scrying chamber of Ilirea, with his royal highness High King Aldoran on his left side and an array of scrying mirrors spread out in a half-circle in front of the pair, which each held the image of one of Alagaësia's monarchs, though a little of Blödhgarm's blue fur could be seen behind the figure of Evandar's grandmother.
The high king of the Empire was a plump little man with a large stomach that was only held up by the specially tailored clothes that he wore. The dwarven king was a robust little dwarf with a long grey beard that split into two braids, and he had a large scar running back from the corner of his left lip and all the way to his ear, courtesy of the last clan war. The urgal representative was actually a kull that was the Nar of the Ushnark tribe, and even compared to all the urgals that Evandar knew, this one still looked very intimidating. Regrettably though, Delvaria was far too large to fit inside the room, so she had to listen in through Evandar.
An uncomfortable silence stretched across the room as no one seemed to be willing to be the first to breach the subject that was on everyone's mind. Eventually though, it was the human monarch next to Evandar that broke it by drawing a loud sigh, before he said, "rider Evandar, are you sure that you have received no new word from Estildirin since that day?"
"I am afraid so", Evandar had to admit, "any attempts to contact or otherwise scry my fellow dragon riders have been met with nothing but failure".
"Then we will have to assume the worst and proceed accordingly", Islanzadi reasoned coldly, "how many dragon riders are still accounted for?"
"With the losses of those that tried to help the imperial navy, only 133 dragon riders remain in Alagaësia", Evandar reported, "I have ordered all but those stationed on the southern coastline to head for Ilirea in preparation for our response to this invasion. I have also sent some of those riders out to try and persuade the wild dragons in Alagaësia to join forces with us, as I am sure that many will come when they learn of the threat that Mercury poses to all of Alagaësia".
"That will have to do then", Islanzadi nodded, "my own people have begun flocking to help defend Alagaësia after information about the attack on the dragon rider city was leaked, though we have omitted the fact that we have lost contact with them and instead begun suggesting that there is no way that the dragon riders could have lost. How are the other nations faring in fulfilling their ends of the treaty?"
"Many urgalgra rams are gathering their axes and leaving their homes even as we speak", the representative of the united urgal tribes said, "my people ache for a proper fight, the likes of which we have not seen for ages".
"And the dwarves", Islanzadi asked coldly.
"It takes time for the dwarves to gather from our mountain homes and prepare the supplies needed for the trek to aid you, but the dwarven army should be in Ilirea in two months", King Olaf answered.
"That is not good enough", Evandar commented, "how much time can you cut off if you are given supplies by the Empire on the road instead?"
"But that would cost the Empire a fortune", High King Aldoran interjected.
"Two weeks, perhaps three if we hurry, but then we will not have the strength to fight properly when we arrive, lad", King Olaf ignored the high king's outburst and answered Evandar directly.
"Make it two weeks then", Evandar also ignored the scandalized look on the high king's face as his opinion was being cut out of the loop, "it is better that you are ready to fight a week later than that you are half-dead and in need of recovering a week earlier".
"Now, wait a minute", High King Aldoran puffed up his not so small stomach and said, though the action really only made him look more like a turkey, "you cannot just go making promises on the Empire's behalf. I am the high king, and I should have a say in these matters!"
"Your highness, if I may clarify something", Islanzadi said icily, "currently, you have no other forces in Ilirea than your usual city guards, and given that our enemy have an unidentified number of men under his command, it would be wise for us to join forces as soon as possible, or we might be beaten separately. Naturally, since it was your navy that failed to discover the threat and your cities that have been invaded, we, as your allies, can only ask that you help us mobilize our forces to come to YOUR aid as soon as possible, or is that too unreasonable, because if you do not need our help, then the rest of us could concentrate on figuring out what has happened to Estildirin".
"Now, now, let us not be hasty here", the high king said with nervousness all too evident in his features, "it is not that I was opposed to providing the supplies, but just that I felt that it was my right as high king to be asked before such decisions were made on my behalf".
Evandar knew that if his grandmother wanted to, she could make the high king sweat even more than he already was with just a small sign of displeasure, but although Evandar had never really liked the man, he still chose to save him from further embarrassment by intervening in this unproductive discussion, "I meant no ill intent, your highness. I just assumed that as many of your other royal duties are being handled by representatives without them having to consult you on every little detail, this particular detail would be too obvious for it to require your counsel".
"Oh, uhm, yes, of course", High King Aldoran said with relief at being able to change the topic, "and as for my own forces; I believe that my generals said that they will have mustered an army of over 150.000 men by the time that your forces should arrive".
"And what of the imperial navy then?", the dwarven king asked.
"Uhm, most of my ships were actually docked in either Teirm, Narda or Kuasta, so I am afraid that it have been heavily diminished, and to add further grievance to our woes; what still remains intact of it is now being hunted down in my very own waters", the high king announced timidly.
"Then they can hardly be called your waters any more, your highness", Islanzadi said and made the honorific sound like an insult, but also just so far away that it was not considered an actual insult, "though this brings to mind another failure of your government; how did an entire enemy army slip past your patrol ships unnoticed and manage to capture three of your most important cities, of which one of them was on high alert and which is supposed to be famous for being built defensively?"
"Yes, I have been wondering about that as well", the dwarven king joined in, "you assured us that the guards that he brought with him were carefully monitored and guarded and that you had doubled the amount of city guards on the walls, as well as the patrols guarding the sea, and yet, in the simple span from I talked with my representative that very same noon and until you contacted us that very same night, after having been informed of the events by the invading warlord, I might add, Mercury Iridium somehow managed to not only capture the city that he himself was in, but also two others that he was not even close to".
"Yes, but, well, you see, my patrols still maintain that there were no ships of any kind for that entire day", the high king said, as he fiddled with his plump little hands, "I truly have no idea of how he managed to get his forces behind my patrols, but could it be possible that he has mystic powers like in the legends, which grants him the ability to summon dead armies at will and move wherever he wishes to, even through solid walls?"
"That man is nothing more than a regular human turned ageless, which relies on tricks and cons to pull off his so-called mystic powers", Evandar responded, "he was like that nearly six and a half centuries ago, he was like that four centuries ago and he will most likely still be like that today. If you ever find yourself to think anything else, then that is because he has fooled you".
"Do not talk of that which you do not know, grandchild of mine", Islanzadi interjected, "while much of what you say is true, the fact of the matter still stands that this person has been known to elude the reaches of the Empire's mage's order for centuries, as well as using his so-called tricks to circumvent many things that we to this day still hold to be the rules of nature. He is not to be underestimated".
"My apologizes, your highness" , Evandar bowed his head to Islanzadi, "I did not mean it like that, but simply wanted to make sure that everyone were aware that individually, he is no more powerful than any other human mage".
"But why did he contact us to let us know of what had happened?", King Olaf asked, "if he is as dangerous and clever as you make him out to be, then he must surely have known that he could have taken Ilirea before any of us had time to muster any counterattack that was strong enough to repel him?"
"As my dragon mentioned to me earlier; we cannot rule out the possibility that he went as mad as the mad king when his partner, the dragon named Kilgharrah, died", Evandar suggested, "therefore, it is possible that he does not think like we do, but in an entirely other fashion, which does not necessarily make him less dangerous, but it will certainly make him more unpredictable".
"I suppose that you do have a point in that, though I must admit to being ignorant on the effects of such a loss", King Olaf acknowledged his premise.
"Why are we even bothering with this discussion?", the kull asked with a frown, "the solution to our problems seems simple enough. We muster our forces in Ilirea and when we are at full strength, we meet our adversary in glorious combat and chop off his head. Problems solved".
"But we must remember that he might be planning for us to do just that", Evandar argued, "if we leave our homes undefended in our rush to do battle, then he might manage to somehow slip a small force past our lookouts and take them while we are gone".
"The lad has a point", King Olaf agreed, "but allowing for his forces to dig even deeper in than they already have would also be detrimental to ousting him, and we must not forget that if we can capture or kill Mercury, then his forces will most likely lose their reason for being here and become disorganized, so if we proceed as the kull suggests, then we should still be able to win the war by winning that particular battle".
"But how can we be sure that he will even be with the forces that we end up fighting?", High King Aldoran asked, "I find it far more likely that he would hang back and wait while his troops does the fighting for him".
"I disagree with that assumption", Islanzadi countered, "according to what we know, Mercury Iridium have never been the type to hang back while his men fight in his stead, and I believe that his presence during the meeting confirms this, as he could have easily sent a representative in his stead, but chose to come himself".
"I agree with the elven queen", Evandar concurred, "from what I remember of my sister's report, he liked to direct the important battles himself, so I find it unlikely that he should choose to stay out of such an important battle as it will certainly be when we clash with his army. Furthermore, even if he divides his men up into smaller fractions and manages to send them past us, then we will only have an easier time crushing his main force, before our larger army can then swing back and crush the minor ones that have slipped past us".
"I suppose that you do have a point", King Olaf grunted, "which then leads us to whom we would choose to lead our combined armies".
"I would like to volunteer, as I believe that I am the only one that has the necessary experience with all of the races to properly make them fight as one", Evandar said, "I am furthermore one of the only ones left that have any experience whatsoever with our adversary and his way of thinking, though I would like to compare notes with the elven queen on what she remembers about him".
"Yes, it seems only fitting that the son of the Shadeslayers should be the one to save us from this new threat", the urgal representative agreed, "it was your father, the firesword, that ended the mad king's reign and allowed the urgalgra to join the ranks of the dragon riders, and it was your sister that vanquished the shade threat so many years ago and who engineered the end of the Second Ra'zac War, so it truly seems proper that it should be you who defends our home from this new threat".
"The dwarves will follow your lead, lad", King Olaf said gravely, "do not let us down".
"The elves are willing to adhere to your command, if you promise to not leave us behind as we go east to find out what has really happened in Estildirin", Islanzadi proposed sharply.
"That will be an easy promise to make, your highness", Evandar replied as he dipped his head in gratitude for his grandmother promising to help him figure out what had happened to his parents and the rest of the order.
"I suppose that if everyone else is in agreement, then I have no choice but to say yes as well", King Aldoran conceded as well.
"Then we are all in agreement about how to proceed then", Evandar summarized, "which means that this meeting is at its end. I wish you all luck in your endeavours and hope to see you in person before too long. May good fortune rule over you all".
"And may the stars watch over you as well", Islanzadi responded before her mirror went blank, which was one by one followed by all of others as well.
When Evandar was alone in the room, save for the plump little human king, he made a mental vow in the Ancient language that no matter what it took, he would find a way to free his sister from Mercury's grasp and save Alagaësia from him.
Only then did he leave the room to start the efforts of gathering the grand army that would help him accomplish his promise.
Uhhh, a storm is gathering.