Path of The Dragon Mage (Nomad): 61. Implicit Trust (Patreon)

You have received a message from party member: Gwen

Come back to the Grand, quick. Roan is being stupid, and he won't listen to sense.

Though it was only text, Corvus could practically hear the stress in Gwen's voice.

At least she's talking to me again, he thought wryly. And desperate enough to reach out for help. Gwen was a self-sufficient girl. But he knew from experience that she would pull out all the stops to keep her friends and loved ones safe. Whatever Roan was being “stupid” about must be serious.

He cast one final glance down to the sinkhole. He and Charm had waited with bated breath at the edge for the last half hour. Nothing else had climbed out.

They had even considered throwing more burning branches down there to see what would happen — if they could ambush another Nest Guardian.

But facing a level sixty creature was daunting. He wasn't sure if he wanted to take that on alone, even with Charms added strength.

So he was glad for the excuse to return to the noble tower.

Even Charm didn't give a complaint. She just crouched down and allowed him to leap up onto the base of her neck. As soon as he had his seat, she jumped high into the air and used some of the large branches as springboards up to the canopy. Corvus crouched against her neck, head down, and endured getting slapped by leaves and twigs on the way up.

"You need a saddle," he grumbled under his breath.

Of course, she heard him. "You are not saddling me like a common horse." Then she paused. "Though, a beautiful diamond-encrusted harness that would happen to have handholds would suit me just fine."

He snorted. After the stresses over the last few days, it felt good to tease and talk with his dragon over minor matters again.

As soon as she was free of the canopy, Charm made one final leap and spread her wings, climbing into the sky. He directed her to the base of the noble Grand palace.

The jungle growth had grown right up to, and into the lower levels of the tower. Men with machetes were hacking paths out. For the most part, the plants were not fighting back.

The worst of the rapid growth seemed to have stopped. And it helped general morale that when men tired, all they had to do was reach up and pluck a fruit from one of the nearby vines.

"Hey," Corvus heard one say. "I think this is some kind of plum-guava mix."

"Nice," said his friend. "Hand me one."

The foliage was so thick that Charm was able to land close, without much notice. Corvus used one of the broken-out windows to access the tower — leaving Charm to take off again and sun herself on the rooftop.

It was not the most dignified entrance for a prince, but he was not a dignified prince. Corvus was able to walk several floors before he was spotted.

It was Kale who saw him first and hailed him with a raised hand.

From the reports, Kale had been in the thick of fighting on the lower levels. There was a nasty gash along one cheekbone which looked like it had been stitched up by hand.

"Corvus," the horseman greeted warmly. "I heard rumors that you were well. I'm glad they were true."

"I'm fine." He peered at the wound. "Are you okay? And CometChaser?"

"Were both fine. The stables weren't breached. She had a fine night watching over CloudStrike.”

Corvus hesitated. "About that…"

Kale nodded grimly. "You know that I'm an old hand with horses. When I saw her hoof, I knew what kind of damage must have been behind it. It's not your fault you couldn't make her entirely whole."

"My error caused her wound," Corvus said.

Kale fixed him with a stern look. "And if the alternative was, what? To leave her behind and get ripped to pieces by the ratkin? Roan is not happy — no one would be happy in his place — but his companion is alive and not in pain. I saw her up and about earlier in the morning. Though she won't be able to run as swift as she used to, she can move around well enough not to hold the rest of the herd back. It is not perfect, but you cannot go through life expecting perfect."

His easy acceptance somehow made Corvus feel all the worse. He looked down.

"Roan's heart is bruised — but he would be completely shattered if CloudStrike had died," Kale said seriously. “He would have been stricken from the clan entirely. You saved him from that.”

Corvus didn't want to ask, but he could not shy away from the question just because it wasn't pleasant. "But he was your heir. What happens now?"

He didn't miss the frown that deepened his expression before his face relaxed. "Some things are out of your control, Corvus. This is one of them.

He couldn't let it go that easily. "Will you make Gwen the heir?"

Heir of the clan was her current sub-class along her path, but that didn't make it official.

"If the rest of the clan will follow her," Kale replied. "Again, that is nothing that either of us can change. The heir of a horseman — or horsewoman,” he said, though the word was awkward on his tongue, which spoke to how often a woman led, "must inspire their own followers. I'm afraid it will be up to Gwen."

Being the head of a Horse Folk clan was not like being a king. Kale could not order people to follow somebody they didn't want. The heir had the advantage of his automatic trust with the rest of the people, but the elders could always overrule it. Or people were free to leave one clan and join another. It happened all the time if they were unhappy with leadership, or if they just wanted a change of pace.

Sometimes the lack of structure of a Horse Folk clan drove Corvus crazy.

He nodded, realizing he had to set that aside for now. "I need to speak to Gwen."

"As far as I know, she is in the stables."

He knew that already. He had pulled up the mini-map which, now that he was in the Grand Palace, showed a multilayered floor plan of the building.

Interestingly enough, Starella was currently represented as a dot floating outside the top of the building and slowly coming closer. It wasn't hard to assume that she was using one of the aerial bridges made by vines to cross over.

It was brave of her to travel that way when the bridges were so new and not well secured, but she had always been stubborn about getting what she wanted.

And she likely wants to start searching for her egg, he thought sourly. How was he going to explain it had fallen into a hole?

One thing at a time.

Gwen needed him. She was more important than Starella.

With that in mind, Corvus nodded his goodbye to Kale and threaded his way to the stables. The corridors were crammed with refugees. He knew that quite a few had already left to explore the new jungle city, so he could not imagine how packed these hallways must have been overnight.

Thankfully, most saw his fine clothing and assumed he was either highborn or a noble. Other than to determine that he wasn't any trouble, most didn't give him a second glance.

The crowd thinned as he got closer to the stables, and the smell of horse manure took over.

The stables were located indoors to save the horses from the worst of the desert. One entire floor was comprised of stalls.

It was easy to locate Gwen and Roan. They were loudly arguing.

"Are you going to be some kind of Towner, now?"

"I'm taking responsibility for my life!"

"You're running away from your responsibilities! Who's going to take care of CloudStrike?"

"The rest of the herd. She can get around fine if they go slow. She only wants to make me happy."

"She is a horse, Roan! She doesn't understand—"

Gwen must be desperate to make a point because Corvus had never heard her compare any of their beloved horses to mere animals. The clan usually treated them as well as people.

Corvus paused and steeled himself. He halfway expected Roan to punch him on sight.

He wasn't sure if he would blame him.

No more hesitating. Corvus stepped around the corner into CloudStrike’s stall… and his jaw dropped.

Roan was decked out from head to foot in a guard's blue and tan uniform. The fabric was painfully starched and new, with no wrinkles to be seen. His hair had been cut short to a military standard, which did not detract from the days’ worth of scruff on his face.

His friend looked older. A full-grown, powerful adult.

The look of age was redoubled when Roan caught sight of Corvus.

He went very still, his fists clenching and unclenching. But he made no move to charge, so Corvus took that as a good sign.

Gwen spotted Corvus too and let out a frustrated breath of relief. "Can you believe this?" she said, gesturing to Roan.

Corvus carefully stepped closer. "What's going on?"

Roan opened his mouth, but Gwen got there first. "Roan’s trying to become cannon fodder for the Towners."

"These people need help," Roan said stiffly.

"We need your help!" she snapped, then turned back to Corvus. "He says he can't help with the quest, either. He's needed up here. For duty," she sneered the last word.

"I'll send part of my pay back home to the clan," Roan said in a stiff, distant voice as if he were holding himself back. His head turned to the side as if he couldn’t bear to look at Corvus. "I will live in the barracks… I can start fresh."

"You're leaving the clan?" Corvus didn't know why it took it this long to make that realization. Except that it was so shocking. Roan lived for the clan. He was a horseman through and through. More than that, he prided himself on living outside Towner rules. Now, here he was, trying to enlist in service.

“Yeah.” Roan rolled his shoulder in a shrug. “The captain I was fighting ratkin said I have talent. So, I might as well.”

Corvus thought quickly. "Have you signed any forms? Made any oaths?"

"No, everyone's kind of busy if you haven't noticed," Roan said. A flash of heat entered his voice. "But I'm going to. And you can't stop me."

"This is just great!" Gwen snapped, throwing her arms up in the air. "First Corvus, now you? Am I supposed to do the quest all by myself?”

Roan spun to her. "I don't care about your quest. I have to be an adult. I can't play any more games with your leveling, or whatever it is you do —"

"it's not a game!" Gwen all but screeched back.

On the tail end of her words, Corvus added, “The Paths are a way to better ourselves."

Roan shrugged. "That's not my problem anymore."

Maybe he didn’t need to worry about Roan punching him out… Corvus felt like punching him. It would be like hitting a brick wall, but it would be worth it.

Corvus opened his mouth to reply but was interrupted by a literal trumpet blast. They all whipped around, startled, to see a man dressed in a tabard standing at the entrance to the stables. His horn blew out a shrill sounding note that made horses up and down the level whinny in agitation.

The man didn't care. He lowered his horn and called out. "All bow! You are in the presence of Princess Starella!" Then he quickly stood to the side.

Up and down the stables, the common folk quickly sank to their knees. They haven’t had royal visitors to the city in generations, but most knew what to do when high nobles appeared.

Corvus and Gwen stood tall.

Roan looked unsure of himself. But then, when the procession following the trumpeter rounded the corner, he quickly sank to his knees like the rest.

"Oh please," Gwen said scornfully, seeing him. "It's just Corvus's cousin.”

Starella strode in. She had washed, dressed, and somebody had done up her hair. She now wore a green dress that brought out the color of her eyes. She was also flanked by several high-ranked guards, including the new commander, judging by the rank knots on his shoulder. Perry followed a few steps behind them, his fingers thick with heavy rune rings. He gave Corvus a silent nod.

"Prince Corvus," Starella said, coming to him and completely ignoring Gwen and Roan as if they weren't there. "May I introduce to you the new Guard Commander, Jonas Smithy?”

Jonas stepped forward with an elegant bow. “Highness.”

Since when had Starella openly used Corvus’s rank? He nodded to the man and looked expectantly at his cousin. “What’s this about, Starella?” His voice was cold. He’d say he was still angry with her, but anger was not quite right. It didn’t hold enough frustration, disappointment, and… sorrow.

His cousin had betrayed him. He wasn't even surprised… but it still hurt.

Though Starella held herself with poise, her expression was a hint wobbly. “I will soon lead a party of guards to the jungle floor to look for my dragon egg. I… I would appreciate it if you and Charm could aid the search.”

Corvus shook his head. "It's no use."

"And why would that be?"

He briefly considered requesting this be held in a conference room, but he wanted Gwen and Roan to hear, too.

"Because I believe that the egg has fallen to the sub-levels below the city."

Perry stepped forward, his gaze intent. "What do you mean, Prince Corvus?"

Corvus sketched out a very brief overview of the sinkhole and other fissures he found… and the thing which had crawled out.

Everyone seemed to be at a loss for words. Including the guard commander. It was Roan who swore and spat to the side. "Are you telling me we’re on a nest of demons on top of everything else?"

"I believe so."

"What is with this city?" Roan demanded, for once sounding like his old self. "Is the whole thing cursed or something?"

Commander Smithy bristled. “You will hold your tongue in the presence of royalty!”

Roan’s mouth snapped shut and he flushed red.

Smithy turned to Corvus. “This is… unexpected news, My Prince. What are your orders?”

Corvus felt a curious sensation. He felt as if he were at a junction between two split paths, each leading to a different future. He'd felt this way before back when he was at Solt’s estate. It was a turning point.

He could tell Smithy to assign a group of guards to explore the sub-levels. Meanwhile, Corvus would leave the management of the city to Starella and fly Charm with all haste to the palace. He’d warn the king of Daffodil’s plans, and hope that he was welcomed and not charged as a traitor and burned alive like Zriah the foolish.

Or he could take a more active, immediate role. He and Gwen could lead a party of trusted allies below and destroy a nest of demons before they established a foothold within the city.

Duty and friendship warred in his head.

Swiftly, Corvus made his decision. The king and the rest of the royals would have to defend the palace themselves.

He formally accepted Perry's quest and was added to the party. Weirdly enough, it was entitled “Dungeon Delvers”.

He saw Gwen's eyes sparkle when she caught the notification he’d accepted.

Corvus looked to Smithy.

"Were not certain what the extent of the demon infestation is. It could have been one creature." Though he doubted it. "A small scouting party consisting of myself, Lady Gwen, and a few others will go down and find out for ourselves.”

Smithy started to object, but Corvus overrode him, gesturing to Roan. “I will need this young guard to accompany us as well."

"Now wait a damn minute…" Roan said.

But he was cut off by another look from his superior officer.

“My Prince, we have better-trained men—”

“I'm aware of Roan's value. There is no one I would rather trust more.” Corvus looked at his friend. “I would rather have a man tell me his thoughts than keep them behind a polite façade.”

“You cannot possibly risk yourself—” Smithy said.

“My dragon and I faced the ratkin last night, as well as an ancient dragon. Royals were meant to defeat demons,” he said on a burst of inspiration. His deception skill pinged in his mind. “Why do you think we have magical Talents?”

Starella sputtered.

Perry took the opportunity to step in. Somehow, he seemed to smile without smiling. "There have long been rumors of caches of hidden treasure down below in the old city. If that is the case… our royal family is entitled to the first fruits of such a find."

"Old city?" Starella repeated. "Why is this the first time we are hearing about this? We could have evacuated some of the commoners down there last night."

Peary shook his head. "Until recently, it's only been a rumor. In fact, it's been a fool’s errand to try to dig down below."

Starella subsided and looked at Corvus. "You believe my dragon egg is down there?"

"I do," he said.

She drew herself up. "Then I will accompany you.”

"You can't," Corvus said, startled. "A royal presence is needed to help manage the city."

"But cousin," she said sweetly. "You will have a royal presence to oversee things. Someone you trust implicitly."

"Who?”

Her smile only broadened. "Why, your dragon, of course. Charm cannot travel narrow sublevels with us. I believe she will be able to manage things here very well."

Corvus’s head rang with Charm's bell-like laughter.