Omensent: Rise of the Shadow Dragons (42 page)

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s mind worked quickly as he tried to think of an excuse to refuse, and he glanced back at Veren and Raven, who both had suspicious expressions as they watched the strange warriors, then over to Susa, who was trembling in fear as she tried to conceal the tattoo around her eye.

There was a sudden crash of thunder, and several heavy drops of water suddenly dropped from the sky.

"I'm afraid I must insist, Dragon Lord." The scarred woman said firmly. Without another word, she turned her horse around and gestured for her men to lead the way.

Damion watched the strange woman for a long moment, then gestured for the others to follow.

Susa urged her pony up to Storm's side, a desperate look in her eyes. "
Please
don't follow her, Damion! I don't trust her! There's something evil about that woman!"

He glanced ahead at the armored woman, who was well out of hearing distance, then looked do
wn at the little girl. "Don't worry. I don't trust her either, but she's right about the snakes, isn't she?"

"She's going to try to take me from you! She's a slave chaser, and she saw my mark!"

Damion shook his head. "No one is going to take you away! I promise you that!"

The little girl
still didn't look very reassured, but fell back to ride close to Raven.

"Let's keep
our guard up." The huge warrior warned the others quietly. He looked at Raven. "Keep Susa close."

Raven nodded at him wordlessly, then smiled down at the frightened little girl
. "Just stay by my side, okay?"

Thunder continued to crash in the distance, and
the heavy drops of rain began to fall harder. The Arleian slave chasers continued to lead them east along the trade road, until they finally turned off the main road onto a smaller, less traveled trail. They led them across an open clearing towards a rocky cliff side, then directly into a shallow depression in the rock that was easily large enough to accommodate everyone.

"It should be safe enough
in here." The armored woman told Damion as she slid from her saddle. She looked over to her men and spoke to them in a harsh hissing language. The men silently turned their horses around and disappeared back across the clearing in the direction from which they came.

"
Where are your men going?" Veren asked the woman, trying to keep his voice casual.

"They must return to their patrol." The woman glanced at Susa, who was trying
desperately to remain hidden from her view.

"And you choose to remain with us?"

The scar faced woman shook her head. "It is required. All outsiders must be accompanied by an Arleian."

"That must be tiring having to trail along behind every
stranger that enters your land."

The pale skinned woman
shrugged. "Few strangers choose to visit us, other than the slave caravans, that is." She glanced over a Susa again, who jumped fearfully and hid behind Raven.

Damion gathered together some damp wood, then piled it together in a large pile near the entrance of the cave.

"It's wet." The woman told him in a slightly scathing tone. "It'll never burn!"

Damion slowly looked up
and fixed the woman with a stern glare, then casually waved one hand over the pile of soggy wood. The wood instantly began to steam and hiss, then after several moments, leapt into flames.

The woman's eyes grew wide with surprise, then she frowned. "My apologies, Dragon Lord." She turned out to stare into the rain
.

"
Do you have a name?" Veren asked her as he began to rummage through their supplies.

She slowly turned away from the rain. "I am Tara. I am a slave chaser from Hthiss.
It is my job to track down runaway slaves and bring them back to the market." She glanced to Susa, who was still trying to remain out of her view, then rolled her eyes impatiently. "It will do you no good to try and hide from me." She told the little girl, a note of exasperation in her voice. "I saw you long ago."

Susa gulped audibly, then stepped from the shadows
. "I was kind of hoping you had missed me." She laughed nervously.

"Not likely." The armored woman turned to Damion. "You allow your slave to roam loose? Are you not afraid that it may escape?"

Damion slowly rose to his full height, then turned to face her, a dangerous expression on his face. "Susa is no longer a slave." He delivered this in a firm growl.

Tara gave him a slightly confused look, then shrugged. "As you wish."

Susa gave Damion a weak smile, and he gave her a quick wink in return.

"How much father is Hthiss from here?"
Veren asked, passing the last of the beef amongst them all. "Our supplies are running rather low."

"Less than five miles
. Unfortunately, you may be stuck here for a while. The weather can be quite violent in this region, not to mention the serpents." She suddenly smiled a loving, motherly smile that looked quite out of place on the large woman, then pointed to a growing mass of writhing serpents about twenty yards away from their camp. "They love the rain!"

"Ugh!"
Veren shuddered. "Snakes make my skin crawl."

"They are wonderful, majestic creatures."
The muscular woman disagreed, still watching the writhing mass in fascination. "The serpent has been revered by my people for thousands of years now. There are some of the most magnificent temples you could ever lay eyes on, built in their honor!"

"Have you heard of anything... unusual happening within your lands?" Damion asked in a quiet voice, watching the woman closely to gauge her reaction.

Tara shrugged indifferently. "Nothing that I have heard, although there are some that a few of your dragons been reaping havoc upon the kingdoms." She began to remove her armor.

"Have you heard any rumors of dragons in your land?"

She shook her head as she tossed her armor to one side with obvious relief. "Although," She conceded suddenly. "There were rumors that several temples had been taken over by strange looking creatures in the last few years."

"Strange creatures?" Raven asked curiously.
"What are the witnesses describing?"

"Basically
, they are describing a dragonspawn, only far larger and black in color. We ignored the reports at first, but more and more reports began to flow in. They have never caused any problems, and we never bother them, except to make them the occasional offering." She slipped out of her stained undershirt, then tossed it next to her armor and walked shamelessly out into the pouring rain, allowing it to wash away the grime and dirt from her armor. She returned a few moments later completely soaked, but much cleaner than before. "What do you know of the creatures?" She asked, moving towards to fire.

"They're called shadowspawn." Damion supplied helpfully
, noticing the scars were not only on her face. She had one partially disfiguring scar that started at the back of her neck and ran to just above her hip. He looked away. "They are minions of the shadow dragons."

"Shadow dragons?" She asked with a curious expression, although Damion thought he could detect a slight note of panic rise up in h
er voice for a moment. "I thought all of the dragons were some shade of red?"

"The shadow dragons were banished from this world thousands of years ago. It was only when the scarlet dragons were released from the Dragon Gem that they were able to return to this world." As he told her this, he carefully gauged her reaction.

Tara stared at him in disbelief for several long moments, but she refrained from pursuing the subject. Instead, her eyes suddenly took on a rather predatory look, and she turned to face Damion, her breasts still bare. "Tell me, Dragon Lord," She licked her lips hungrily. "have you a mate?"

"He's spoken for
, Arleian!" Raven exclaimed suddenly, stepping in front of Damion protectively. "So you can just put them away, sister!"

Veren
burst out laughing, and Susa squealed in amused disbelief as Tara turned and fixed Raven with a hateful scowl. She stomped over to reluctantly pull on her undershirt, a sulky look on her face.

"I'm spoken for, you say?" Damion
asked in a murmur only Raven could hear.

The young woman froze in place, then slowly turned to face him, her usually fair skin suddenly flushed in embarrassment. "You heard that, did you?" She
whispered back, her face growing even more red. "I don't suppose we can talk about this later, could we?"

He started laughing quietly, his mind momentarily flashing to the memory of
his first love, Kariah. "You remind me of someone I used to know, many years ago." He told her, a note of regretful fondness in his voice.

"Can we please just drop the subject?"

"Yes, dear." He said with an exaggerated sigh.

The
y settled in for the night as the rain continued to pour down. After laying out their bedrolls, they gathered near the fire to discuss their next move.

"Does she seem a little... odd to any of you?" Veren asked in a half whisper, glancing over at the female warrior, who was standing near the entrance of the cave staring out into the night.

"She
is
a bit strange." Damion agreed quietly. "She doesn't seem too concerned about what's happening in the world outside her country's borders." He frowned. "And I'm almost positive that she knows more about the shadow dragons than she is telling us."

"
She's a slave chaser." Susa hissed. "They cannot be trusted! That's why she won't tell you what she knows!"

"Or p
erhaps she doesn't want to discuss such things with outsiders." Tara commented in a loud voice. She turned and fixed Susa with a stern glare. "And just so you know, little one, such talk from a slave is usually punished by having your tongue cut out. You may wish to keep that in mind once we have reached Hthiss."

"She did raise a valid point." Damion spoke before Susa could retort. "Why should we trust you? It's pretty obvious that you know more about the shadow dragons than you are telling us."

"You may not have any reason to trust
me
, but I also have very little reason to trust
you.
" The scar faced woman scowled. She sighed heavily, then stumped over to join them near the fire. "You are correct, though. I
do,
in fact, know more about the shadow dragons than I have told you."

They all waited expectantly for her to continue.

"A few years ago, many of the shrines in the more uninhabited regions of Arleia were suddenly taken over by enormous beasts that seemed to just materialize from the darkness. They appeared out of nowhere, and took up residence in a number of our temples, driving out what few humans that resided nearby."

"What did your people do about them?"
Veren asked.

"We withdrew from the areas surrounding the temples to insure that they were not disturb
ed, and moved elsewhere." Tara explained with a shrug.

"You didn't attempt to drive them off?" The one eared man exclaimed in surprise.

The large woman shook her head. "Arleians worship the dragons. We would never attempt to drive away one of the great serpents."

"They appeared
a few years ago, you say?" Damion's face grew thoughtful. "When they were released back into the world, they must have hid here in the marshes, taking advantage of your temples to remain hidden from view."

"A few months after the shadow dragons appeared, the
shadowspawn began to gather." Tara continued. "It wasn't much later that word reached us that a warrior somewhere in the south had released the scarlet dragons from the Dragon Gem."