Dream II - Chapter 20 (Patreon)

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Race: Saurian

Bloodline Powers: Improved Strength, Rending, Firebreath
Greater Mysteries: Fire (Noble) 4, Wind (Noble) 2, Sound (Advanced) 1
Lesser Mysteries: Heat 4, Oxygen 4, Embers 4, Pressure 4, Current/Flow 4

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“Lizard”

The world practically dripped with contempt.  Jamise hadn’t gotten down from his horse, his face a thundercloud of anger and distaste as he glared at the travelers.

“Yes?” Samazzar replied, cocking his head slightly to the side.  “We’re saurians actually.  Like lizards, we’re reptiles, but all three of us contain traces of the draconic bloodline that places us significantly above simple reptiles in-”

“I was identifying vermin,” Jamise cut him off, “not requesting a lecture.”

Sam’s brow furrowed, but he didn’t say anything.  He’d only met the knight captain once, and that had been before he knew much about human society.  Jamise hadn’t impressed him much at that time.  The knight had been angry and narrow-minded, and nothing Adam had told him since then had done much to improve that impression.

Matthus edged past Sam, an unctuous smile on his face and his hands pressed together as he beamed up at the mounted soldier.

“Ah yes Sir Knight,” he said cheerfully, fishing his writ out of his robes.  “Your assistants detained us for a bit and said that there was some trouble in the city.  If you could let us pass, I would like to check to ensure that the craftsman I am delivering goods to is still hale and in good health.  Otherwise, I must report to the sub-council on intercity commerce to discover what the government wants me to do with the goods I purchased for them.”

Captain Jamise more or less ignored Matthus’ flowery words, instead fixing his glare on the knights riding on either side of their tiny caravan.  Their guard-captors withered as he stared silently at them, mouth set in a thin, angry line.

“Oh?” He questioned coldly.  “Did you tell them about what happened in the city, Knight Peter?  Whatever happened to my orders that you keep any travelers in the dark until I had an opportunity to question them?  Now their testimony is tainted and it will be impossible for me to be sure whether or not they are telling the whole truth.”

“Don’t worry too much Mr. Captain sir,” Matthus interjected.  “We’ve been on the road for a week or so, and your subordinates didn’t tell us much, just that there was a fight of some sort in Vereton. I am transporting precious cargo, and the uncertainty over what happened or didn’t happen is making me anxious about what I should do with it.”

Jamise motioned toward the merchant, and Matthus brushed past Samazzar, leaning over his shoulder to toss the saurian a quick wink.  The knight leaned down from his horse, taking the man’s writ and pressing his index finger to it.  A second later, the lightly glow crystal flared to life.

With a sharp hiss of pain, Jamise pulled his finger back, clenching his hand into a fist and opening it a couple of times as if it had been stung.  Finally, with some reluctance, he handed the document back to Matthus.

“You can pass,” he said, motioning toward the city.  “Knight Peter and his squad will escort you inside.  Then they will report to the Potter Street barracks for discipline regarding their unfortunate inability to maintain information discipline.”

“Come on then,” Matthus replied, walking back toward his wagon.  “I’m sure the captain is a very busy man, so we should get going and leave him to his duties.”

Takkla reacted first, stepping away from the carriage and beginning the walk toward Vereton.  A second later, Dussok and Samazzar joined her as Matthus climbed up onto his seat.  With a click of his tongue, he flicked his reins to start the horse into motion.

“Stop,” Jamise barked, leaning forward in his saddle with a gleam in his eyes.  “I said that merchant Matthus could enter the city.  I did not offer such a privilege to the… individuals that he chose to hire as guards.  They are not citizens of Vereton.  I think the timing of their arrival is quite suspicious, and I would be as derelict in my duties as Knight Peter if I were to let them pass without questioning.”

Dussok bristled next to Samazzar’s shoulder.  He couldn’t blame his sibling.  Sam knew that the knight captain was only being petty and trying to make trouble for them, but that didn’t stop the flame from rising in his gut.  Deep down, he could feel his inner dragon stirring.  Not at the injustice, there was plenty of that in the world, but at the false accusation.

If the human wanted to pick a fight, Samazzar would fight.  He could feel a tingle of magic on the man, but the heavy steel armor he was wearing would slow him.  More importantly, hundreds of hours laboring in front of a forge had taught him that metal and heat were friends.  One glance at the gems and gold trim adorning the less than practical brightsteel alloy of the plate, and Sam knew exactly how much fire he’d need to turn it cherry red and cook its soft pink contents.  Five seconds at the maximum.  Three seconds if Jamise couldn’t dodge his attack.

No.  What annoyed him was the slander.  Those that spoke ill of dragons tended to become charcoal, even if what was said happened to be true.  The human’s provocation was a lie, and both of them knew it.

Matthus looked back at him, a look of panic flashing over the human’s face before he addressed the knight once more.

“I can vouch for the saurians.  We’ve been away from the city for a week or so, and they’ve spent the entire time with me.  I don’t entirely know what happened while we were gone, but they were on official business just as much as I was.”

“Then stay and make a witness statement,” Jamise replied, not taking his eyes off of Samazzar and his siblings.  “If you truly spent that long with these creatures, it might be best that I open an investigation into you as well.  After all, it's hard to say what sort of foreign influences might have infected you while working with their ilk.  You do travel out of Vereton after all.  A merchant would make a perfect spy.”

“I am a merchant second class,” Matthus bristled, his voice indignant.  The small man straightened his back atop the wagon as he glared at the mounted knight.  “You should know the loyalty testing associated with such a rank.  I was inspected before I left Vereton.  If I were corrupted, the Patrician’s auditors would have caught me long before now.”

“Enter the city or stay here,” the Captain responded indifferently.  “I don’t really care to be perfectly honest.  I’ve explained the consequences if you were to stay.  If you insist, I can only assume it’s because you have something to hide or prevent your companions from saying, and I will have to interrogate you accordingly.”

“This is outrageous!” Matthus blurted out.  Despite their companion’s obvious affront, Samazzar couldn’t help but notice a faint quaver in his voice and a quiver in the hands holding the horse’s reins.

He couldn’t be sure that Jamise had noticed, after all, it was unlikely that the knight was proficient in the mysteries of sound and wind, but it hardly seemed to matter.

“Are you entering the city or not?” He asked, armor creaking as he leaned back in his saddle.  “It’s a simple choice.”

Matthus looked back at the three of them, his eyes wild as he tried to restore order to an out of control situation.  The human’s lip quivered as he steeled himself, digging deep to find the courage to make a difficult choice.

A hand touched Sam’s shoulder, and Takkla took a half step past him, shaking her head at the merchant.  When she spoke, her voice was calm and reasonable, a perfect counterpoint to the agitation evident on Matthus’ face.

“Didn’t you say that you had people you needed to speak with inside Vereton?  We are innocent, but the Knight Captain is just doing his job.  I’m sure we can clear this misunderstanding up.”

Sam caught a hint of a sneer tugging at Jamise’s stoic expression, but Matthus reacted to Takkla’s words like they were an epiphany revealing the greatest secrets of the mysteries.

“Of course,” the small man called out, snapping the reins to set the wagon back into motion.  “You’re right Takkla.  My first duty is to my cargo.  I’ll see the three of you when you return.”

Dussok rumbled next to him, but Samazzar silenced him with a quick jerk of his head, eyes locked on Matthus’ back as the knights that had escorted them to Jamise broke off to follow the merchant toward the city itself.

With the scrape of metal on leather, Jamise dismounted.  He placed two fingers in his mouth and let out a piercing whistle.  Barely a second later, an assistant, little more than a boy, ran up and took his reins from him before leading the horse away.

He walked closer to the saurians, a grin on his face that Samazzar was sure the human meant to be menacing.  Instead, it made the smaller pink creature look ridiculous.  Finally, Jamise stopped some three to four paces from them, leering maliciously.

“So,” he said.  “Here we are, lizards.”

Externally, Sam only let out a single heavy breath.  Internally, he fought his hardest against a rising wave of anger.  It wouldn’t help him.  He’d only encountered Jamise face to face once, but between that incident and Adam’s commentary, he knew what the result of any snide comment or retort would be.  The captain would twist anything he said against him, no matter how far-fetched an interpretation or how big a leap the logic took, he would find a way to transform black into white and blame Samazzar and his siblings.

Takkla had made a good call, sending Matthus out to let Etanne know about their situation was their best chance at resolving things.  Of course, that was based on the assumption that Matthus had picked up the unspoken meaning behind her statement.  There was no way to confirm for sure that he was even looking for help, which could leave the three of them in a bit of a rough spot.

“Don’t think I’ve forgotten about that little fire you started,” the human continued slowly, eyes flickering around as if looking for witnesses. “Pothas may have saved you from the consequences of your actions when we first met, but he isn’t here right now is he?”

“But that shouldn’t have anything to do with you questioning us, should it?”  Sam asked innocently.  “Either we were somehow involved in an attack on Vereton despite being on a City approved mission days away, or we weren’t.  Pothas being my master should have nothing to do with it.”

Anger flashed across Jamise’s face and the metal of his right gauntlet bunched up into a fist.  Almost instinctively, Samazzar took a half step back while Dussok interposed himself between the human and his family.

“Don’t play coy,” Jamise replied snippily.  “You know exactly what I meant.  Right and wrong are just words invented by philosophers.  What really matters is Vereton and personal honor.  Even if you weren’t involved with this specific incident, I know your type.  There is a storm on the horizon, and the foreign elements within the City are circling, waiting for a chance to strike.”

“If I give you the opportunity,” he continued, finger jabbing angrily at Samazzar’s face as he became more excited, “you will harm Vereton and you will harm me.  Already you are undermining my authority with the Knights through that snake Joosen-”

“But-” Sam tried to interject only to be cut off by the knight.

“Oh shut up.  Morale would have taken a hit if the rank and file realized that we were losing soldiers, let alone elite teams.  The knights need to maintain an aura of invulnerability in order to inspire confidence.  If a team manages to get killed by some bandits, that’s their fault.  Losing their family’s pension is a small price to pay for that kind of failure.”

“You knew?”  Dussok asked, startled.  “You branded those knights traitors despite knowing that they were dead?”

“I didn’t know anything,” Jamise said acidly.  “It was better not to know.  Either they ran off and were traitors, or they let themselves die at the hands of inferior enemies and were as good as traitors.  The truth hardly mattered because I would have answered the same way regardless.  Knights can die in battles against enemy armies or primeval monsters.  They don’t die on scouting missions after getting ambushed by bandits.  Even if they do.”

“How could you?” Takkla whispered.  “Those soldiers had families that depended on their death benefits.  You were consigning widows and orphans to the gutters simply to maintain some perceived image of your organization.”

“How could I what?”  The knight replied.  “Keep my home safe?  Protect Vereton from foreign actors and influence?  I will rest easy knowing that I have done everything I could to protect the City.  I would and will do it again in a second.”

“After all,” he continued slyly, “isn’t that why we are here today?  Someone betrayed Vereton.  If it turned out that the perpetrator were a citizen, that would undermine public trust.  It’s better that the villain be a group of outsiders, preferably ones that look strange and inhuman.  It will give the masses an easy enemy to focus on.  With any luck, we can turn this tragedy into the rallying cry that we will need to solidify public resolve and strike back at the unseen opponents that are circling us like vultures.”

Samazzar froze, his eyes widening.

“Finally sinking in, eh,” Jamise remarked, waving a hand to call over a contingent of nearby guards.  “I don’t care if you were involved with the attack.  A separate investigation will find out who actually did it and remove them quietly and with great force.  What Vereton needs is a cause to rally around.  A villain that will make them forget about rising prices and supply shortages.”

Dussok lunged toward Jamise, but the human didn’t move, a mocking smile plastered across his face as the saurian lifted his ax.  Samazzar didn’t give it a chance to fall.

His shoulder slammed into Dussok’s scales as he tackled the bigger saurian.  Dussok was bigger and stronger than Samazzar, but he also wasn’t expecting the sudden attack.  Sam’s weight knocked him off balance, causing him to stagger away from Jamise and fall to the ground before he could launch any sort of strike.

“A pity,” the human said, turning and walking away as the guards arrived.  “Things would have been simpler, but calmer heads prevailed.  Take them to the interrogation rooms.  We’ll get what we need out of them eventually.

A half dozen humans surrounded them, spears at the ready, as Sam climbed off of Dussok.  The other saurian looked up at him, confusion and betrayal on his face as Samazzar offered him his hand.

“Little dragon,” Dussok began.  “You heard the human, he said he was going to-”

“Not now,” Sam hissed back.  “Attacking him will only get us in more trouble.  Help should be on the way.  We just need to keep our snouts out of trouble until then.”

The flat of a spear tapped gently against his back as one of the guards tried to get Samazzar’s attention.  He nodded once and let the humans lead him back into Vereton where they deposited each of the saurians in a separate stone cell just inside the gate.

Then, he waited.  At first he expected to see Jamise at any minute, but then time wore on.  One minute turned into five.  Soon fifteen minutes had passed without anyone bothering to check on him.  Even the guards responsible for the jail cell hadn’t walked by to make sure that he was secure yet.

Finally, almost a half hour later, a commotion roused Sam from where he had been laying on the thin layer of straw atop a stone bench.  He sat up in time to watch Pothas storm into the hallway, Rose a half step behind him.  Further back Matthus walked next to Henry Etanne, a pair of town guards accompanying them.

The second rank seemed subdued, but one look at Pothas’ face quieted any question or mystery about their demeanor.  A bandage covered a good portion of his left cheek, a perfect counterpart to the soot in his hair and the scowl curling his mouth.

“Here he is,” he said curtly, stopping in front of Samazzar’s cell.  “Get a key and release him and his siblings or I will do it myself, and trust me, my methods will leave you with a useless cell and a pile of twisted and destroyed bars.”

“But sir,” one of the guards spoke up meekly, “Captain Jamise ordered him held here.  Even a captain of the guard doesn’t have the authority to override Jamise’s orders, and I’m just the sergeant in charge of this detail.”

Pothas whirled around, and a gust of wind picked the speaker up, holding him in the air for a second before depositing him a pace away while the magi advanced on him with the inescapable force of a raging thunderstorm.

“And Jamise isn’t here right now because I have already issued a complaint about his overreach,” Pothas hissed.  “The Academy was attacked, and it was the Academy that fought back the invaders.  My colleagues have lost students and had their disciples injured in the fray.  The only knights that involved themselves in the battle were those on campus for their magical training.  By the time the Captain’s vaunted rapid reaction task force arrived, the attackers were already escaping.  For him to seize my apprentice is beyond the pale.”

“But-” the soldier began only for a gust of wind to send him staggerin back a pace as his hair and clothing whipped back and forth.

“Release him and his friends now,” Pothas cut him off, voice icy.  “Sam will submit to questioning at a later time from an impartial investigator.  Jamise has displayed bias against him in the past, and I personally signed off on the multi-day mission that kept him away from Vereton during the attack.  He was not involved, and he could not possibly have been involved.”

The man looked from Pothas to where Samazzar was standing in his cell.  His tongue darted out, wetting his lips before the man nodded nervously.

His keys jingled as the soldier’s hands shook, but barely a minute later Sam was walking free next to Etanne and Matthus.  The merchant smiled at him, flashing a thumbs up his way, and earning a grateful nod in return.

They didn’t waste time.  Pothas used his magic to track down the two remaining saurians with the accuracy of a bloodhound, and under a half hour later their entire entourage was on the street.

The normal busy crowds of Vereton were absent, replaced instead by a handful of people hurrying to or from locations and any number of shuttered windows.  It felt wrong, like the seven of them were walking through some sort of ghost town.  Every once in a while, Samazzar would feel a pair of eyes on him, but a burst of air magic would quickly confirm that it was nothing more than a citizen peering out of their home or shop, confused at the reptilian creatures walking in Pothas’ wake.

Around the time they made it back to the Academy gates, Samazzar couldn’t take the silence any longer.  He was naturally a talkative being, and unless he was immersed in the study of a mystery, it was rare for Sam to be both conscious and not filling whatever room he was in with meaningless but friendly chatter.

The walls of the Vereton Academy itself bore the scars of the attack.  The gate had held, although Samazzar could see some bloodstains on the walls that held up the guard post, the scars in the metal were largely superficial.

The same couldn’t be said for the barrier some two hundred and fifty feet away.  A massive spell had blown a huge hole in the ornamental but heavily enchanted wall.  Almost a dozen guards tensely stood around the opening, warding off rubberneckers and the potential attackers that could hide in their numbers as they waited for an experienced practitioner to arrive and repair the damage.

“By the mysteries!”  The exclamation practically tore itself from Samazzar’s throat.  “What happened here?”

“An attack,” Pothas replied grimly.  “They had almost a dozen practitioners and at least two dozen soldiers that had used at least one elixir.  None of them were all that weak either.  If I had to guess, I’d say that all of the magic users were at lesser completion, full magi all of them.  Amongst the soldiers, it sure looked like there were more warriors that had taken two elixirs than there were at the first level.”

“It was an army,” Rose agreed.  “Admittedly a compact one, but the force used was more than enough to take over a small fort on its own.  Somehow they got in without being noticed and made a beeline for the Dean’s tower.  We were able to stop them, but that was at a cost.  A good number of students died in the fighting.”

A thrill of fear ran through Samazzar’s spine, and without speaking, he made eye contact with first Takkla and then Dussok.  Their eyes had gone wide at exactly the same instant.  When Sam finally spoke, it was on behalf of all three of them.

“Is Crone Tazzaera fine?”

“She acquitted herself well,” Pothas said, guiding them toward his tower.  “As best I understand, she managed to hold off a practitioner and two warriors for five minutes untilt they retreated.  Better still, she was one of the few that managed to kill an enemy warrior.”

“Do we know what they wanted?”  Takkla asked, slightly calmer now that their mentor’s safety was confirmed.

“Treasure?”  Rose responded with a shrug.  “There are plenty of rare objects and reagents in the Dean’s tower, enough to motivate a rival or a secret society. Maybe revenge?  Unfortunately, we don’t even know who the attackers are.  None of them talked.  They either retreated or died.”

“Just like the bandits,” Sam said with a sigh.  “An enemy without a name or an obvious motive.  It’s clear they had to come from somewhere, but-”

“I know,” Pothas replied, his voice grim.  “Something is coming, and we don’t even know what it is.  All I can say for sure is that the three of us need to become stronger and fast.”