Omensent: Wrath of a Dragon God (4 page)

Raven frowned. "I hope you didn't go out of your way to offend them, like you did last time."

Damion snorted. "I'm fairly sure they were not very happy when I left, but I didn't threaten to turn anyone into a toad, if that's what you mean."

Several castle servants appeared bearing a number of trays of food for Leia's breakfast feast. There was platters stacked high with links of sausages still sizzling from the pan, and plates piled with fresh eggs. There was a dozen loaves of fresh bread, still warm from the ovens, and tubs of jam and freshly churned honey butter. There was fresh fruit and nuts, and freshly squeezed juice to wash everything down.

"You're not planning on starting the feast without us, were you?" A child's voice suddenly questioned in a playful
tone.

Everyone turned to see a small freckle faced boy with shockingly red hair standing between Sly and Veren, who both looked as though the
y had been raised from the grave.

"Dar!" Damion exclaimed happily. "We wasn't sure
you'd make it!"

Alt
hough Dar looked remarkably like a human child, he was, in fact, an Alena. The Alena were a race of childlike sprites whose life spans stretched for thousands of years.

"
I found him when I was on my way to wake Veren." Sly grumbled in a rusty sounding voice. "I waylaid him into helping me haul
this
lightweight out of bed." He gestured to Veren, who was an unhealthy shade of grey.

"You
had better take a seat." Raven told the hung over man. "You look like walking death!"

The one eared man
grunted, not trusting himself to speak in fear of losing the contents of his stomach, then stumbled unsteadily to one of the chairs, and collapsed into it with a groan.

The one eared man looked slightly out of place in their tiny little group. His swarthy skin and strangely slanted eyes marked him as being from Jaghera, a country
hundreds of leagues to the north, across the sea. After losing his family to an attack by a shadow dragon, he had journeyed to the southern continent to assassinate Damion, believing that he had been responsible for the beast's actions. He had since proven to be a true friend, and had been instrumental in tracking down the shadow dragons.

"You took him out drinking with you again, didn't you?" Lady Skie accused Sly, who was watching the one eared man in amusement.

"He said he could handle a couple of drinks." The little man said defensively. "It's not my fault if he can't handle his ale."

"I can handle the
ale just fine." Veren growled, not bothering to lift his face from his hands. "It was when we decided to try some of that gnomish fire water that I realized I was in trouble."

"Then why did you try it?"
Raven asked curiously.

The one eared man shrugged. "It seemed like the thing to do at the time."

Everyone laughed at that.

"How was your visit home?" Damarius asked Dar curiously.

The childlike sprite smiled. "It went well. The scars left behind by Kaviel and his minions are slowly beginning to fade, and the centaurs welcomed nearly a dozen new foals to their herd. That's a promising start in replenishing their numbers." He walked around the table and produced a small package wrapped in brightly colored cloth. "This is for the birthday girl!" He presented the gift to Leia with a flourish.

"You didn't have to get Leia a gift." Raven told him.

"I know, but I found this and couldn't resist."

Damion helped his daughter unwrap
the package to reveal a delicate silver necklace adorned with a small polished green stone that was bisected by a sliver of black.

"It's called a Dragon's Eye."
The boy explained. "The stones are exceedingly rare. I discovered this one by accident along the banks of a small stream a few weeks ago. I had a jeweler in Kainpre polish it, and fashion a chain and setting for it. I thought it would make the perfect gift for our little birthday girl."

Damion carefully draped it around his daughter's neck.

"It's exquisite!" Raven exclaimed, moving closer to get a better look at the strangely colored stone. "I've never seen anything like it before!"

"There are only a few of them that have ever been found." Damarius told them, squinting to get a closer look at the young child's new necklace. "I've only seen one other in all of my years
, and it belonged to a merchant prince from the east."

"It must be worth a fortune!" Sly
marveled. He turned to Dar. "Where did you say you found it?"

The
fiery haired sprite shrugged. "Along the banks of some random stream. I think I was in the grasslands, or perhaps it was somewhere near the mud pits at the edge of the Cursed Forest."

"You don't remember?" The little man asked in an outraged tone. "If you knew it was worth so much, why didn't
you mark the spot so you can return later to search for more? You could get rich!"

Dar shrugged. "I haven't any real need for gold. It's never really been more than a pretty metal to me. Besides, if we
did
find more of them, the others wouldn't be nearly as valuable."

Sly gave him a disgusted look, then turned back to the feast, grumbling sourly under his breath.

For Leia's part, she found her new adornment fascinating. Her eyes were wide with astonished curiosity as she stared at the strange stone, seeming almost hypnotized by the strange object.

They were just preparing to dig in the sumptuous feast that had been placed before them, when a large bearded man dressed in a rough leather jerkin came stumping into the hall.

"Shirk!" Damion greeted him, still balancing his daughter on one leg as he attempted the fill his plate with some sausages. "I was wondering where you had wandered off to. We haven't seen you for a few weeks."

The rough looking man
flopped down in a chair. "I had heard a few rumors of some highwaymen attempting to set up shop here in the mountains. I thought I would go investigate."

"By yourself?" Veren asked, raising his face from his hands. "You should have let me know what you were planning. I could have sent some men with you to help insure your safety." His expression was disapproving.

Shirk snorted. "They would have all just gotten themselves killed. These highwaymen can spot a guardsman from a mile away. Luckily for me, they can also spot a fellow criminal when they see him. After searching for them for a couple of days, I was finally able to locate them to the south, camped out in a gulley half way between Sevria and the foothills that border the mountains."

"Why would they set up camp so far from any settlements?" Dar asked in confusion.

The big bearded man snorted, then gestured at Damion, who was busy fighting his daughter for a sausage. "They were hoping to stay below Damion's radar. They figured that if they set up camp far enough away from Sevria they might be avoid being noticed."

"W
ere you able to discover anything useful?" Sly asked, sniffing at one of the containers of juice suspiciously. After a small experimental sip, he replaced it on the table, then asked a passing servant to bring several pitchers of spiced wine.

Shirk nodded, taking one of the loaves of bread and tearing off a large chunk. "
It took me a couple of days, but I was finally able to gain their confidence, and get them talking. Apparently, someone has paid them a great deal of gold to ambush the trade caravans that are moving to the south. When I asked why, their leader, a skinny little toad named Brody, said that their employer wished for the trade to be disrupted in the area, but didn't explain why. I guess this person is paying them quite well, and they get to keep whatever they are able to steal from the caravans that they ambush, so there was no shortage of volunteers for the job. They're not the most organized group, but there
are
a lot of them."

"What would anyone gain by disrupting the trade moving through the mountains?" Lady Skie asked with a baffled expression.

"It's probably some merchant trying to corner the market on goods, and trying to kill off some competition in the process." Damarius said, trying to brush some egg out of his beard. "Have they ambushed any caravans yet?"

Shirk nodded, dipping the piece of bread in one of the jars of honey butter
, and taking a huge bite. "We haven't heard about it because they are careful to make sure that they don't leave any survivors to spread the word. Once everyone is dead, they drag the bodies into the brush, then plunder the caravans, stripping them of anything of value. They take the horses with them back to their camp, and dump the stripped down wagons in a gulley a half mile or so from the trade road. It's actually not a bad operation that they have going, for amateurs anyway."

Veren glanced over at Damion. "Do you want me and
Shirk to take a few men and go take care of them? We can't just leave them out there to prey upon the caravans. It won't be long before word finally trickles back to the Merchant's Guild that their caravans are disappearing somewhere in these mountains."

Damion thought about it for several moments
. "I've got a better idea."

"You're not running off to slaughter a bunch of highwaymen on your daughter's birthday!" Raven declared suddenly, her hazel eyes flashing. "I'll make sure you eat nothing but hay for
the next month if you even try!"

Damion laugh
ed, although he did quickly pile more eggs and sausages onto his plate. "Actually, I thought I would ask Slither to have a few of the dragonspawn run them off."

"That reminds me," Veren grunted, finally rousing himself enough to start filling his plate with food. "Slither has been seen skulking around the edge of the forest for the last few days. I was going to tell you when you returned, but..."

"But you were too busy laying unconscious, face down in the middle of the street?" Damion chuckled.

Veren blushed, but didn't reply.

"Don't worry about it. I went and had a chat with him late last night. He had been trying to get my attention, otherwise he would make sure that he wasn't seen."

"What did he want?"
Sly asked curiously. "I meant to ask, but we were a little busy last night, and it somehow slipped my mind."

Damion
rolled his eyes. "He wanted to give me a warning." He glanced over at Damarius, who had tried to take a drink of juice only to have his brow lock dip into the glass, and was now busy wringing the sticky nectar from his hair. "He told me that there were rumors being passed around the dragonspawn that the dragon god, Draco, had returned to the world once again."

"That wouldn't surprise me." The old wizard stated
as he continued to tried and wring the juice from his hair. "The constellation that represented their god suddenly vanished from the heavens. I would be surprised if they weren't inventing all sorts of stories to explain its disappearance."