Dragon Alliance Dark Storm : Dark Storm (35 page)

“We Kallysh holy warriors of Hasera kneel to no man or filthy dragon, be it Dalmach, Stalenjh, or the foul beast Tiamat herself, and with your great defeat in the unsettled lands, your weak empire will soon fall to us, if it does not do so to the infidels of the Alliance!” he screamed back pointing his finger at the sorcerer.

“Then you will all suffer for this insolence.” Harfrac stood, his dark crystal glowing as if he was about to cast a spell.

“Guards!” the emir shouted, and dozens of palace guards lowered their spears and charged the three standing in front of the emir. Harfrac immediately recognized he was in a bad situation, and the pain in his stomach was growing so great that he had a hard time concentrating on his crystal in order to cast a spell. Even though he had to hold his abdomen with one hand, he managed to conjure a fireball and hurtled it at a group of palace guards charging him with spears at the ready. The flaming sphere incinerated seven of them, but he had to parry a spear coming at him with his staff and strike the guard with the crystal tip. This sent the white-robed soldier flying back from the crackling power of the stone. The two Morgathian guards had waded into the rushing palace soldiers, their black-iron swords slicing through the light armor of their adversaries. The palace guards’ spears were either deflected off of the Morgathian black shields or had a difficult time penetrating the pitch-colored chain mail. Soon, they were overwhelmed, and Arianan spears found weak points in the Morgathian armor. They were brought down.

Harfrac stood, with his staff glowing, keeping the palace soldiers at bay, ready to cast a concussion spell to allow him to escape, but outside through the palace doors, he saw the four wyverns being brought down by a hail of arrows and manticore spikes. One wyvern had just killed two of the hideous beasts, but two more sent a shower of spikes at it and jumped on its back, knocking it to the ground and finishing it off. He turned around to cast the spell at the emir, who had his slaves standing in front of him to shield him from a spell. Just as the sorcerer was about to fire his lightning bolts at the group, a spear was thrust into his back. It penetrated his ceremonial chain mail, the tip emerging from his chest. He still felt more pain from his stomach than the spear wound and was brought to his knees.

“The poison makes it hard to cast spells, you miserable Morgathian dog,” the emir shouted out to the sorcerer. “Guards, kill the infidel!” he ordered as multiple spears were thrust at him. As he was about to die, he saw Stalenjh’s and Vorten’s images appear in his dark crystal. Stalenjh spoke through the crystal as Harfrac was dying.

“My young apprentice, your friend and I thank you for your service to the empire. Your death will allow us to destroy this city and claim its wealth. This is the penalty for your blasphemy with regard to my daughter and your misguided ambition. Die well,” he said as he smiled. Vorten stood smiling beside him.

“Damn you!” Harfrac shouted, knowing now that he was under Stalenjh’s suggestion spell, as several more spears silenced him. As he fell, he grabbed the crystal with his bloody hand and in his dying breath whispered a command in Draconic, upon which the dark crystal glowed and started to vibrate. Eventually, it exploded. All around him were thrown to the far walls and killed instantly. The emir’s slaves took the brunt of the explosion, so the monarch was only knocked off of his pillow. As more guards rushed in and helped the emir up, he shouted out to cut the heads off of the Morgathians and send them to the nearest Talon ship, so they could carry the message that this would be the fate of all infidels who defied him and Kallysh.

Back at the shooting range beside the weir, Mkel, Jodem, and his two best marksmen, Crystinj and Poteignr, were instructing all of the weir garrison’s archers on the new repeating crossbows they had just received from Draconia. In the background, the heavy infantry were getting classes on the new dragon-skin armor they had also received from the Capital Weir. Toderan was watching his senior sergeants and Sternlan go through the fitting procedures, as the armor had to fit the wearer well or it would not be as effective.

“Gentlemen and Ladies, these new crossbows will allow you to shoot almost as fast as the elves, and just as far. The dragon-sinew bowstrings and dragon-bone limbs are compliments of Gallanth and can propel your bolts faster than the eye can see. This, with the loading box containing ten of the new smaller bolts, can give each of you the firepower that would have taken a squad of archers and crossbowmen to achieve. Your bolts will not fly as fast as Markthrea’s, but as you will see, they will give you an effective three-hundred-yard range. We will begin firing at twenty-five yards to zero in these new graduated metallic sights the weapon smiths at the Capital Weir invented. They will allow you to adjust your aim to compensate for the drop in your arrows out to your effective range. Eldir is working on a better sight for your weapons, similar to my dragon-eye sight on Markthrea to better take advantage of their range and accuracy. These should be ready soon.” Mkel concluded his introduction at the archery range.

Mkel nodded to Jodem, who took over the instruction, and he moved to the firing line to help the two younger instructors give their fellow shooters hands-on instruction. “Now, all on the firing line, get down behind your weapons in a good solid prone position. Make sure your firing hand grip on the stock is like a firm handshake. Align yourself to the targets so when you close your eyes and take a couple of breaths while in position, you should still be aligned on the target when you open them. This is called your natural point of aim. Now take a bolt-loading box and insert it into the crossbow’s stock. Good. Now rest the bolt box on the ground and grasp it on the front where it meets the stock. Apply a slight rearward pressure on it with your non-firing hand. Now with your firing hand, move the lever in back of the trigger guard forward until it stops. Then move it back to its original position. Excellent,” Jodem paused as the sound of dozens of crossbow levers were moved forward; this action opened the plate in the middle base of the crossbows and effortlessly moved the dragon-sinew string back to firing position. Then, as the soldiers moved the lever back, two metal claws grabbed the catch on the inside of the loading box and raised a bolt to the firing position as it was pushed up by the internal spring, while simultaneously setting the trigger.

“Now, you’re ready to fire. Take careful aim, aligning the front metal post with the rear sight aperture. As you aim on the target, keep the sights focused, especially the front sight, and the target will be just a little fuzzy. Place your trigger finger first joint on the trigger and evenly squeeze.” As he said that, the crossbows sent a hail of the small, half-inch-diameter, six-inch bolts to their targets so fast, it surprised the firers. They all looked at each other with expressions of amazement, which then gave way to smiles. The bows were fast, not nearly as fast as Mkel’s Markthrea, but still very fast. They all quickly actioned the weapons and proceeded to fire two more bolts.

Upon Jodem’s command, they proceeded to go downrange to the targets and both check their groups that they fired and pull the bolts from the compacted spongy material that was used as a target stop. Many had a very difficult time extracting the bolts from the target. They then proceeded back to the firing line and under Jodem’s range commands fired several more groups until they were all hitting the center of the target. Mkel, Crystinj, and Poteignr moved from shooter to shooter addressing any problems, adjusting shooting positions, and instructing the firers on better techniques. They now backed up to the one-hundred-yard line, and the line split with half going to the trench in back of the targets while the other half went back to the firing line.

Toderan waved to Mkel to come over to him so he could ask him a question while he was overseeing the fitting and instruction of the new armor, just as a catapult wagon clumsily moved toward them from the road that came from the weir. This wagon was different, for it was not being pulled by draft horses and was floating three feet off of the ground. It was gliding toward them, with the driver trying to control it.

Mkel watched the floating wagon awkwardly approach them as he walked over to Toderan and the soldiers trying out their new armor, slinging Markthrea over his back.

“I see the floating crystals work for the wagons. I just hope they can get the hang of driving them,” Mkel said to Toderan.

“They’ll be all right. They only float if there are three crystals per wagon, and we discovered that they can self-propel with four to five. More than that is just overkill, unless they are carrying a full load of catapult stone. Then a sixth or more are activated, but they cannot go any faster. So far, their top speed is about as fast as a horse at a good gallop but not a full run. We don’t know how long they can go without a rest. More training with them is needed, and we will talk of the tactics in employing them later.

“Now, look at this new armor. The small, gray silver metal plates truly resemble dragon skin in their assembly. They put cloth over the armor itself for comfort and ease of donning the suit, as well as to protect the small scales from wear and the elements. It is designed to slip over your head. Get your fellow soldier to cinch it tight to your sides, just above the hips with these straps. The armor is very flexible and about two to three times as thick as your dragon-hide armor riding jacket, which is still pretty thin. The padding is very comfortable and is perforated to allow heat to escape, as well as having a built-in pouch in the back of the neckpiece to allow the placement of a heating or cooling stone. The shoulder pieces swivel on a flexible joint to allow maximum range of motion. We are having our soldiers do weapons drills, tumbles, and a couple of other exercises to demonstrate to them how easily it moves with the body. Here, take my crossbow and fire at that one over there on the post with the watermelon in the armor,” Toderan instructed.

“Are you sure? I’ve seen these things fire pretty fast and pierce even dwarven plate armor,” Mkel replied with a smile.

“I insist, sir,” the tall senior sergeant replied as he handed Mkel his crossbow. Mkel looked at it and pointed to a smaller version of Markthrea’s sight mounted on the sergeant’s crossbow. “It’s Eldir’s attempt at mimicking yours. Its simple curved glass lens in a sealed metal tube has several crossed spider-silk threads that make those it views appear three to four times bigger. The vertical and horizontal spider-thread lines inside are aligned for the curved flight of the bolts out to three hundred yards for point targets and to six hundred for area targets. The cross threads are spaced for one-hundred-yard increments for aiming. These knobs adjust the point of impact until they are set to your eye. Pretty good for a pointy-eared elf,” he explained.

Mkel just shook his head and smiled. He turned toward the man-shaped wooden target with the armor strapped on it. He raised the crossbow and pushed the lever forward and then back to cock and load the weapon. The thin, dark silvery crosshairs were pretty visible and aligned fairly well to the eye. He rested his right elbow against his side and slowly exhaled. As the main crosshair slowly settled on the center of the armor, he evenly squeezed the trigger. He felt the slight recoil of the crossbow as it launched the bolt hurtling at the target with blinding speed. The target-tipped quarrel struck the armor suit square in the chest area, a well-placed fifty-yard shot. The whole frame shuddered from the impact, but the bolt effectively bounced off of the armor. He couldn’t believe it and wanted to see the point of impact, but Toderan stopped him.

“Wait, Captain, I want you to shoot it with Markthrea first in a different spot, with a regular bolt, not a mithril-tipped one,” he said. Mkel looked at him a little puzzled, but then he thought he knew his intent. He handed Toderan his crossbow back and then swung Markthrea around from his back and held it ready. He loaded a bolt, lowered into a good kneeling position, and carefully aimed at the left breast area, or the heart location. He sighted the crosshair and released the shot. The fifty-yard distance was covered in an instant by the magically enhanced bolt and hit the armor suit on the wooden frame so hard it knocked it over. All present walked to the target. Someone stood it up. With amazement, they saw that the location where Mkel had hit the dragon skin suit with the regular repeating crossbow, while the cloth covering was torn, the armored scales below held. The direct point of impact was noticeable but held. The bolt from Markthrea had slammed right through both sides of the suit, and little pieces of the gray metal scales had flaked off from the tremendous impact, but it was not as much damage as Mkel had predicted.

“You see, Gentlemen and Ladies, even these new very fast and powerful crossbows we are privileged to get cannot not penetrate this new armor. However, don’t think you are invincible, as demonstrated by Captain Mkel’s dragonstone-enhanced crossbow. That could have been a giant’s spear or a wyvern’s tail stinger, so smart tactics and fighting techniques are still very much important,” Toderan explained, as they were all allowed to see the armor firsthand. Mkel smiled and nodded at the senior sergeant. “Okay, now back to the drills and practice,” he stated as Mkel noticed several soldiers getting off the floating wagon that he recognized.

“Come, Senior Weir Sergeant, walk with me. I’d like to introduce you to a few people,” Mkel said as he started to walk toward the floating wagon. Mkel approached the squad of soldiers that had just jumped off the wagon and raised his hand to one of the older soldiers. “Senior Weir Sergeant, I want to introduce you to some of the finest shooters in the Alliance, Senior Company Sergeants Gemorg and Hartsean, with Platoon Sergeants Kahal and Fostab, and finally these fine shooters Reicherj, Borell, Dietren, Honick, Turgeon, and Raymont.” Mkel went over and gave the lion’s grip handshake to all of his fellow master shooters, with Toderan following suit. The weir sergeant looked at the repeating crossbows they had slung over their backs, all with a slightly modified version of the same sighting device that he had from the elves and glanced at Mkel with a slight look of surprise.