Omensent: Rise of the Shadow Dragons (25 page)

The shadowspawn stopped when it saw him standing less than a dozen feet away, a murderous glint in his eyes
. Its eyes widened in alarm as he started forward, then it suddenly dropped to its knees, and threw its arms up in submission.

He noticed with some surprise that it was missing
half of one of its arms and realized that this was the same shadowspawn that he had encountered several weeks before. He was even more surprised when the beast spoke in a common tongue.

"Merccc
y, Dragon Man!" It hissed in a harsh voice. "SSStay your hand!"

Damion did not strike
, but his arm remained coiled and ready to strike. "So shadowspawn
can
speak."

"We can." The crippled beast snarled, still on its knees groveling.

"I have faced you before, have I not?"

"You have." It raised its half arm, which had healed considerably in the
weeks since their last encounter.

"Why do you continue to trouble me?" He growled at the shadowspawn. "Why do you insist on bothering
us?"

The shad
owspawn hissed fearfully. "The Mother ordersss, the ssspawn followsss."

"The Mother? Who is the Mother?"

"The Mother issss." The beast stated simply. The Mother returned to thisss world, and her brood followsss."

"Why does the Mother order you to attack us?" Damion snarled, advancing
forward a step angrily.

"The Mother wissshesss usss to tessst you."
It whimpered.

"Where is the Mother now?"
He stared down at the trembling creature, his mind working quickly.

The shadowspawn shook its head. "Mother
'sss not here. Mother'sss resssting beneath the fiery mountainsss."

"Where are these
fiery mountains?"

"Not here." It was obvious that the beast did not know. "But the Mother knowsss y
ou killed one of the brood." It continued. "The Mother ordersss the ssspawn to find the Dragon Man, tessst him, and..." It stopped, its eyes falling upon the Dragon Sword.

Damion noticed its sudden int
erest on the sword. "Why should I let you live?" He asked harshly. "If I do, you'll just return with more spawn!"

"Nay
!" The beast hissed desperately. "The ssspawn may return, but ssstay your hand and I ssshall never come againssst you again! My life will be yoursss, Massster!"

He
stared at the beast for a moment, then had a sudden thought. "You will take a message to the Mother." He told the prostrated creature. "Tell her to take her brood and leave this world, or I will hunt each and every one of them down and wipe them from this fair world!"

"I will take your wordsss to the Mother
, Massster." The crippled shadowspawn promised, slowly rising to its feet.

Damion glared at the beast for another moment. "
Go then." He watched as the crippled beast disappeared into the darkness, then slipped back into the form of a panther and slowly made his way back towards the camp.

"That was certainly interesting
."
Snowfeather hooted, appearing from the canopy above.

"And enlightening!
It seems that I have drawn this brood mother's attention!"

"And if you hadn't before, sending that message certainly will!"

He paused as the snowy owl landed on a tree branch nearby.
"Is there any sign of other shadowspawn nearby?"

"There is nothing else moving except for a pack of feral hogs that are ripping up the forest floor nearby in search of food."

"Hogs, you say? Are they close?"

"Not too far."
Snowfeather chirped, fluffing his feathers.
"I take it you haven't yet had your fill of blood?"

"We still need supplies."
He explained absently, his mind still on the strange encounter with the shadowspawn.
"Let's go take down a couple of hogs to bring back with us."

"These hogs are a bit large for me."
Snowfeather hooted doubtfully.
"But their are hundreds of quail and rabbits around. I can grab a couple of them if you would like."

When Damion and Snowfeather finally returned to their hidden campsite, they found
Veren sleeping comfortably near the fire while Raven stood watch near the entrance.

"Damion!" She exclaimed in surprise and relief as he appeared through the luminous curtain of moss
carrying two large hogs and several large rabbits which he had dangling from his belt. She sat her bow aside and jumped to her feet. "I had begun to worry!"

"There was no reason to worry." He assured her, dropping
the two hogs next to the fire. "I came across these while I dealing with a number of shadowspawn who were lurking nearby."

Veren
came awake with a snort. He lifted his head and looked at Damion, then to the two large hogs laying near his feet. "I'm guessing it's bacon for breakfast, right?"

"
Either that or rabbit." He smiled, holding up Snowfeather's catch. "Get up. I've learned a few things while I was gone."

Veren
rose from his bedroll and joined them near the fire. "Did you locate any shadowspawn?"

Damion nodded. "I
found a number of them lurking nearby scouring the forest for us." He went on to describe his encounter with the crippled shadowspawn. "It seems this 'Mother' has taken a great interest in me."

"I'm still having a hard time
swallowing the fact that these creatures can speak." Veren told him, shaking his head.

"Believe me, it can speak. It to
ld me that the Mother wanted the shadowspawn to test me. I believe that's what the barricade was, one of those tests."

"I wonder if she has learned what she wished to learn."
The one eared man pondered in a quiet voice. "Or if we should expect more of these tests."

"The one armed shadowspawn said that others will return. I'm sure this is far from over."

"You don't think that this 'Mother' will take her brood and return to where they came from?" Raven asked, a hopeful look on her face. "You already killed one of her children. Don't you think she will try to protect the rest?"

Damion shook his head. "I don't believe she will
leave. I think her and her brood will continue to create as much mayhem as they can." He looked at Veren, who had started to look over the hogs. "Do you know of any fiery mountains? It said that the Mother was resting beneath the fiery mountains."

"I have heard stories of a vo
lcanic mountain far to the east on an island off the coast of Arleia." Raven told him suddenly, her face excited. "That might be the fiery mountain that it was speaking of!"

"The disturbances b
egan in the east." Veren reminded them as he began to drag one of the hogs to the side to be butchered. "It would seem reasonable to assume that the island volcano may be the brood's lair."

"We'll continue to make our way east." Damion decided, drawing his dagger
to aid Veren with the hogs. "Hopefully we can figure a way through Arleia to the coast and find a ship. We'll pick up what information we can along the way, but so far, this is probably our best lead to finding where these creatures nest."

"And what will we do if we
do
find them?" Raven asked curiously. "What will happen then?"

"
I will alert the scarlet dragons of what we have learned." He told her grimly. "That is when the
real
battle will begin."

They spent the next two days hunting and gathering supplies, allowing the horses
to rest up for the journey ahead. Between Damion's nightly prowls, and Raven's impressive hunting skills, they soon had plenty of meat to last them for weeks.

Raven disappeared several times during those two days, returning each time with a number of fruits and
vegetables that she gathered in large numbers. "Try this." She tossed Damion a large melon when she returned from one of these ventures, a mischievous smile on her face. "We make our wine from this fruit."

Damion used his dagger to slice a large piece
of melon, then took a bite of the pale pulp. It was sweet, with deep purple juice that reminded Damion of the wine he had tasted back at River Pass.

"Careful." She warned, taking a slice for herself. "Eating too much can have an intoxicating effect."

"Really?" Veren asked, a grin on his face. He took an entire melon from the pile Raven brought with her.

Damion laughed. "You and Sly could be brothers!"

"I think you've said that before." The one eared man grunted, slicing into the melon eagerly.

Raven smiled, then looked to Damion. "I think we should probably
wait until tomorrow evening before we depart." She advised. "It will be unbearably hot in Veiria during the day, and the horses would fair much better in the cold at night."

"How cold will it get at night?"
Veren asked through a mouthful of melon.

"Cold enough to freeze
our water bags solid." She said, taking another bite of melon.

"So it's either sweat to death or freeze to death?" The one eared man asked, wiping the purple juices from his lips.

Damion shook his head. "It shouldn't be that bad. As long as we stay out of the sun during the day and keep moving at night, we'll be just fine."

"Says the man that's fireproof."
Veren snorted, taking another bite of melon. His face was growing increasingly redder as he ate, and his eyes were beginning to glaze over. "The heat won't bother you!"

"There are a number of caves that are commonly used by
travelers to escape the heat." Raven assured him. "The shifting sands carve deep caverns into the cliff sides which are used by the caravans traveling along the trade route. It is much cooler in these caves. One of them is said to even have a natural spring inside."

"
Then we'll leave tomorrow evening, a few hours before dusk." Damion decided. "By the time we reach the border, it should be nearly midnight. Perhaps the darkness will help conceal  our crossing from prying eyes."

"Finally
!"
Snowfeather hooted in exasperation. The huge owl perched on one of the packs preening his feathers.
"It's about time that we start traveling at a decent hour!"

They
dined that evening on several pheasants that Raven provided while showing off her skills with a longbow, and freshly roasted nuts that they gathered from a nearby tree, then spent the rest of the evening relaxing near the fire while Snowfeather patrolled the area as he hunted.

They slept in late the following morning, then spent
most of the afternoon preparing the horses, who seemed eager to be on their way. Damion was as nearly as impatient as the horses and finally decided to set off, even though it was still several hours until dusk.

Raven led them back to the the trade road and they continued towards the border of
Deiria and Veiria, rested and refreshed from their extended stay. After they had traveled five or six miles, the forest abruptly fell away to open grassland. They pressed on as the sun set, moving at a mile eating trot.