Omensent: Wrath of a Dragon God (7 page)

"I'll inform the castle soldiers to begin
discreetly examining the goods that the caravans passing through Sevria are carrying." Veren grunted. "We may get lucky and intercept another shipment of weapons. It should be simple to discover exactly where they were bound for then."

"I'll send word to the Merchant's
Guild to let them know everything that we have discovered so far." Damion looked worried. "Perhaps we can get some answers from them."

"Is that wise?" Damarius asked, scratching his head thoughtfully
. "It's obvious that someone in the Merchant's Guild knew that the caravans were smuggling weapons. Would it really be wise to alert them to the fact that we're on to them?"

Damion thought about it for a moment. "That's a good point. We don't want
the wrong people to find out what we know before we have a chance to determine exactly what's going on." He snapped his fingers. "I can contact Fedrio, the Merchant's Guild liaison. He is an honorable man, and I think he can be trusted. I'll send word that I need to speak with him."

"Be sure that you mention it involves the saf
ety of the caravans moving through the mountains." Lady Skie suggested, lowering Leia to the cobblestones so she could wander over to her father. "Tell him that you wish to discuss a problem with the dragonspawn with him. If he believes it's just a routine trip, it's less likely that anyone in Sierra will grow suspicious."

"That's a good idea." Damion said, scooping his daughter into his arms. "Once he gets here, I'll explain the situation to him. Perhaps he may have an ide
a on who is behind these weapon shipments."

"In the mean time," Sly
said as he began looking through the valuables the pair had salvaged from the highwaymen's camp. "Let's start going through all of this plunder." He gave the two men a greedy smile. "I want to make sure that I get my full share."

Chapter 4

The liaison from the Merchant's Guild arrived ten days later, after Damion sent a messenger with a request for a meeting. They were all gathered together in the huge man's office, when the man finally arrived, accompanied by several of the castle soldiers who had been assigned to escort him from Sierra.

"Fedrio!" Damion greeted him
, rising from his seat behind the huge desk, and moving around it to clasp the gaunt faced man's hand warmly. "I appreciate your coming to see us. Something has come to my attention that I thought that you may be able to help me with."

The
Merchant's Guild liaison was an older man, with steel grey hair and beard, and the stern weathered look of someone who had spent the better part of his life travelling the world. He was thin, almost to the point of being emaciated, and was dressed in a hooded cloak common to travelers in the mountains. "Your messenger mentioned a problem with the dragonspawn." He smiled and laughed, a gesture that seemed somehow out of place on the older man. "I'm not sure how much help I could be against those beasts, unless you plan on using me for bait."

Damion laughed. "Actually, that was just a ruse to get you here without arousing anyone's suspicions." He went on to
tell the grey haired man of the bandit camp, and their discovery of the hidden cache of weapons. "The only reason we could come up with for someone to need so many cheaply made weapons is that they wish to arm a lot of people without alerting anyone to their activities."

Fedrio's expression was grim. "
If anyone has been smuggling weapons, they have been doing it without the guild's permission. The Merchant's Guild in Sierra takes a very narrow view of trafficking in weapons. Arming large groups of people will only lead to a disruption in trade, and that, my friends, will
not
be tolerated."

"
Do you have any idea of who may be behind it?" Raven asked, filling several goblets full of wine, and then passing them among everyone. "Anyone that may profit from such a disruption in trade, perhaps?"

"Several, but only one that is bold enough to try something such as this." His
expression became one of anger. "His name is Ickor Brunon, a man as slimy as his name suggests. He normally deals in spices, but he has been known to deal in stolen goods, poisons, and even the occasional slave. He is completely unethical. He's the only man in the Merchant's Guild that would chance smuggling weapons."

"Is there any way of finding out where the weapons were heading?"
Veren inquired, sipping idly at his wine.

Fedrio shook his head. "Not without the
shipping manifest. It would have told us where the weapons were coming from, and who was to receive them. Without it, there is no way of finding out, short of reporting the discovery with the guild and alerting Ickor."

"Is there any way to be sure
that these were Ickor's wagons that the bandits hijacked?" Lady Skie asked curiously, holding Leia in her lap as she relaxed in one of the comfortable chairs that lined the office walls.

"I'll make some discree
t inquiries once I return to Sierra." The blond haired liaison took a sip of wine. "I should be able to confirm my suspicions within a week or two."

"I
f we can find out if there are any more shipments that are moving through the mountains, we can follow the next shipment until it reaches its destination," Veren pointed out. "then we'll know who has a need for so many weapons."

"The problem is that someone will have to
accompany me back to Sierra so I can alert them to which caravans belong to Ickor. He may grow suspicious if I start poking around and begin asking questions, so sending a messenger ahead of his caravan will probably not work. Someone will have to linger in Sierra until his next caravan is ready to depart, then I can point out which wagons are his."

"I'll join you." Damion told him.

"I don't think that will work." Dar said, shaking his head. "You seem to forget that you're a rather well known figure in these parts, and I'd imagine you may find it a little difficult to blend in with the crowd. It may raise suspicion if Fedrio is seen meeting with you." He smiled. "I will go instead. It won't be nearly as suspicious if he is seen conversing with some wayward child."

"That's a good idea." Veren nodded approvingly. "I doubt anyone would find that suspicious."

"And I can move much faster than a wagon train." The childlike sprite assured them with a smile. "I'll slip past them when they are not paying attention, then hurry here to point out Ickor's wagons."

"I like it." Veren stated, glancing to Damion for his thoughts.

The huge warrior shrugged. "It sounds like a solid plan. Are you sure you can handle this on your own?" He asked the freckle faced boy.

Dar rolled his eyes. "Of course I can. I've been doing things like this for over three thousand years."

Damion grimaced. "Sorry. Sometimes I still forget you're not actually a child."

"He's not?" Veren feigned astonishment. "You mean he
isn't
the sweet, innocent little child he appears to be?"

Everyone laughed.

"Then it's settled." Fedrio declared, his face determined. "With a little luck, we'll be able to ferret out exactly who all of those weapons are destined for."

The
grey haired liaison and the red haired Alena departed for Sierra later that evening. Dar chose to leave his sturdy little Deolan pony behind, and instead, rode on the back of Fedrio's weary looking mare, stating he could make it back to Sevria far faster on foot.

Sly and Shirk returned
from the south a week later reporting having failed at locating anyone with any knowledge of who could be attempting to ambush the caravans before they reached their destination.

"We stopped at over
two dozen towns and villages to snoop around." Sly grumbled, collapsing into one of the overstuffed chairs in Damion's office. "We talked to hundreds of people, and none of them had heard anything about the ambushed caravans. If anyone was expecting those shoddy weapons, they don't seem too upset over their loss."

"I even paid a visit to the local
outlaw gangs." Shirk grunted in a tired voice. "The thieves of this continent all work together to some extent, and share information, not to mention their plunder. None of them had heard any mention of highwaymen ambushing caravans along the trade route. They all seem to realize that Damion would disapprove of such activities."

"How can you be sure that they were not lying to you?" Lady Skie asked pointedly. "They
are
thieves after all."

The bearded man laughed. "When I told them of the bandits we discovered, they nearly went up in flames.
The other gangs would have never allowed the bandits to set up shop so close to Sevria. They would be far too afraid of drawing the Dragon Lord's attention."

"So you heard nothing out of the ordinary?" Damion
asked, frustrated by their inability to locate the weapons' destination.

Sly
scratched his head. "There
were
some reports that the Deola were up in arms over some roving bands of marauders rustling their cattle somewhere to the east, but that isn't really all that unusual."

Damion frowned. "I guess we'll just have
to hope that Fedrio is able to discover if there is another shipment of weapons moving through the mountains. It seems as though that will be the only way that we'll be able to get any answers to our questions."

************

It was nearly a month before Dar finally returned from Sierra. It was late evening when he suddenly burst into Damion's office, his boyish face flushed with excitement. "I've got news!"

"It's about time you got back!" Sly complained, looking up
from the stack of parchment that he, Damion, and Damarius had been studying. "We was beginning to believe that you were never going to return!"

"It took Fedrio some time to
weasel his way into a position that he could spy upon Ickor without being too obvious about what he was doing."

"And what did he find?"
Damion asked eagerly.

"Ickor is
definitely the one who is transporting the weapons. He's been hiding them among his other goods, then sending them in caravans containing only his wagons to insure that no one stumbles across them by accident." The childlike sprite climbed into a chair, then glanced over to Sly, who was waiting expectantly for him to continue. "Why don't you get us some refreshments." He suggested to the little man. "I haven't had anything to eat or drink in two days."

Sly scowled at him
momentarily, then hurried to the door and ordered a passing servant to bring them food and drink. He hurried back to his seat, and waited for Dar to continue.