Dragon Wars Book 1 Pt. 03

Vexxor continued to look down, "Queen Xamelixanaa, for 2 reasons. Your orders were to get back as fast as I could. Second, while walking in that tunnel I heard a muffled voice coming from within the wall, almost 800 feet from the surface at best guess. A conversation I could not make out. It was not Drow or common. I believe it was elven. That wall was next to your tunnel to the surface."

The Queen grabbed Vexxor's parchment with the path and then looked at the world map in the next room. She contacted General Zarrodixana, "Move all your forces with teleportation circles now! Move them to the Gridea tunnel. Vexxor, the Half-Dragon that traveled through there heard an Elf through the wall over 800 feet down.

He teleported back. If they know about that tunnel then we need to clear out troops to safety. They like to use dwarven explosives. I would see them doing that yet again. Send 12 volunteers to the top, have them teleport up invisible above the breach. I want to know what is there. Search quickly and return.

Do not delay, do not engage unless attacked, and do not stay together to be taken out by one spell! Have them report back to the Palace. The tunnel may have been compromised. Now move!"

General Zarrodixana looked at the 12, one was a distant cousin to the Queen, "Check the surface and come back to me. We are not evacuating on the word of one abomination. If there is an issue we will evacuate when a true Drow female has seen that the problem exists."

---

Tallion realized that section of the tunnel was likely thin here. He needed to work quickly. He teleported to dwarven lands. He got crystals to the Field Marshal, Queen Goldeagle, and Commander Moon Blade. Tallion sighed, "I have a few crystals up, The Queen will respond first. Please get to the War Room, Your Majesty, and have a crystal to Duchess Moon Bow. Commander Moon Blade Dwarven Rendevous point now with those feather-fall spells. Let us know when to continue Your Majesty."

The Queen rushed to the War Room and the Field Marshal deactivated his and looked at her, "I told him the Dragon Field Marshal contacted me. They checked and believe they spotted a Half-Dragon and 12 scouts in that tunnel, Your Majesty."

Tallion nodded, "I heard the snapping of metal, likely chains from the other side of that wall. Then mumbling in Drow. I don't speak it but sounded like casting. If it was a Half-Dragon with teleportation capability then our time to act on that tunnel is coming. I teleported out immediately to dwarven lands.

I am getting ready to send the barrels down via a feather fall on them. Each of Commander Moon Blade's riders is casting on assigned barrels. I will drop it halfway up in the tunnel and then use a dimension door above to get above the surface.

If I see Drow forces I will throw a rock into those barrels and work to fly up, get a damage assessment, and then teleport away. If they did not explode on landing. Moving that many at once and with crosswinds I am not taking chances.

Duchess Moon Bow needs to evacuate any remaining people now! I know her Royal Compound was still being worked on. We might have to go back and dig through the rubble. Lives first, Your Majesty."

Queen Goldeagle asked, "How many people do you have left in the city?"

Duchess Moon Bow sighed, "A few hundred in the royal compound. We have a lot of arcane casters if we need to pull out. We worked day and night to clear the city. Searching every building. Outside villages were less willing to move. I did not have the assets to force them. All wagons are out of town except for the 12 outside the building. Only half are full."

Tallion shook his head, "Contact the Dragon Field Marshal, see if they can teleport out any full wagons. Duchess, you need to clear out now. We have a Half-Dragons and scouts spotted by our dragon allies in that tunnel. I am almost ready to send in the explosive. They are working on the feather fall spell on the last 20 barrels."

The Duchess called out for everyone to evacuate and those who only had the teleport spell to meet at the Palace. Those who had teleportation circles to take everyone else to the Academy grounds. The Dragons swooped down and snapped the chains to the wagons and sent the horses running in fear.

They took 6 to the Capital outside the palace. The remaining Dragon was the other champion who went back into the air. Tallion teleported the explosives halfway down the tunnel and dimension doored as high as he could.

---

The 12 Drow arcane casters teleported above the Breach and looked around as horses shot past them. She activated a crystal to her General, "Looks like an Elven City. Looks like they abandoned it. Wait. I see one dragon overhead. It can see us. Another figure. A Half-Dragon. Flying over the area. One building has been destroyed and there is a large hole straight down."

Tallion looked and saw the Drow on the surface because of his glasses. He yelled down in common, "Tell your Bitch Queens and Loth, we found your tunnel. There is nothing left here for you to fight, other than me. The Champion of Corellon. She is showing herself too much of a coward to come herself."

Tallion tossed the rock and flew higher. The Silver Dragon swooped in and grabbed him and teleported out as the explosion went off. 3 managed to cast teleportation before the ground swallowed the others.

Two went to the general's location as she wanted an answer before sending people against orders. The third was the cousin of the Queen, distant but still a cousin. The General started getting them to evacuate as the ground started to open.

She started teleporting people out and those who arrived were badly maimed or, dying, at least 30% of those who made it into circles. As to the others, she did not have a count as they might have teleported to another location. General Zarrodixana went to the Palace.

Loth sent her a message as the one that spoke with General Zarrodixana but came to the Queen and walked into the room. Loth hissed, "Listen to what she has to say!"

The girl kneeled, "General Zarrodixana. She felt as though you were panicking over nothing but a rumor from an abomination. I was in communication with her. We confirmed the large hole in an Elven city that had been abandoned.

A single Silver Dragon and a Half-Dragon, Brass, or bronze I could not tell. Was in the sky as the light hurt my eyes. He stated, and I only say this so you know his words.

'Tell your Bitch Queens and Loth, we found your tunnel. There is nothing left here for you to fight, other than me. The Champion of Corellon. She is too much of a coward to come herself.'

He threw a rock into the hole and flew higher. The dragon grabbed him and teleported away. I know the ground exploded as my spell went off, the streaks of blood I carry are mine, and those of 2 near me hit by rocks, more like boulders as their bodies exploded and killed them.

General Zarrodixana disobeyed your orders. She did not want to take the word of the abomination. She felt you were panicking over nothing. We went up invisible. 12 of us. I came to you instead of returning to her and certain death. I do not know if she got the troops out or not. If they are safe or not."

General Zarrodixana walked in and stopped as the girl reported the General's action. She knew she was dead, it was only a matter of how.

Queen Xamelixanaa glared at General Zarrodixana, "Is what she said true?!"

The General simply nodded, "We teleported out, but of the ones who got out, at least 30% of them were dead or maimed. None of the driders survived. I do not know if that count is higher."

The Queen heard in her head, "The death toll for her blunder was 127,684 and climbing as many die succumbing to their wounds. If she would have acted she could have saved over 100,000 or more. The driders would have been impossible to save, other than having them run for the Capital. A few thousand might have survived. You cannot get more than one in a circle with a mage unless the mage is on its back!

Add another 15,914 as I took their lives if they were too badly wounded or maimed. 143,598 Drow and driders. They all heard the orders to General Zarrodixana and none of them took action against her, except for a distant cousin kneeling before you Gilerxxaranax of your house."

The Queen stood up, "Guards take General Zarrodixana, she is a General no more." They quickly bound her as the Queen walked forward, "All members of your house who happen to be male will be submitted to Loth to be made driders to replace what was lost. All of your children and parents' children will become food for the driders.

The rest of your house are now slaves of the Drow. As for you. Public execution while bound. By the very abomination who warned us all to save our troops. Vexxor, You will chop off her hands, feet, legs, arms, and then split her in half.

Then feast on her in the Arena. First thing tomorrow, I want a good crowd for this one. Leave nothing behind but her head. Keep it as a trophy in a jar in your room here. Once you return, my clerics will be restoring those balls of yours.

You fucking earned them back as you had the brains to break the shackles and the balls to tell me what you found out to warn us. Remember, I can always take them away again at any time. You are now my royal consort and Bodyguard.

You will be fitted with an indestructible control collar tonight. Any attempt to remove it will shock you. Thinking of killing or injuring me, will shock you. When I die, you die. As to you, cousin of mine, You are still fertile?"

She nodded. The Queen smiled, "Vexxor will mate with you. The Half-Dragon way. As a metallic Half-Dragon would do it. Expanding scales and all but you are not to injure her. Keep your claws and teeth off of her. Do not try and fuck her like a male Chromatic Drow Half-Dragon and rip her to shreds.

In fact, she will ride you while you are bound to the table or bed. Do not bounce on him, it will fuck you over. You get the loan of his cock, no other sexual gratification, or marks on him from you.

Loth will ensure she conceives at least 2 daughters from you, maybe more. Fuck it could be 12. Fill her up until you cannot do it anymore, Vexxor. At least 6 times. I am merely loaning him to you once, as a reward. He is my property.

You keep your current rank in the military. After motherhood and if you are still alive. You did not kill General Zarrodixana for disobeying my orders immediately. There you failed me. The others who returned will be lowered one rank.

If that is impossible, made driders if male and slaves if females. To work the mines, farms, and in the houses of the truly powerful. Branded as traitors to Loth, the unforgiven. Treated better than Elven slaves only. Human slaves will rule over them and breed with the unforgiven. Half-elf abominations live longer than humans and will make good slaves. Those slaves born will also carry the mark of their mothers if female. To work the farms, and dig the next tunnels."

She thought to loth, "Can abomination males be made driers, Mistress?"

Loth laughed, "We will see if they survive or what they create."

Queen Xamelixanaa smiled wickedly, "The males from those unions will be submitted to be made driders. Loth is interested to see if they would survive. If she finds nothing useful from it, then they will be used to breed more slaves, starting with their very own mother.

Those males would be fully Drow, mostly, and could be made driders. You killed over 35,000 driders by delaying you fucking bitch. You, my dear distant cousin, Gilerxxaranax. Loth gave me your name as you failed to do it in your reporting to me. I want you to teleport back to the surface alone and invisible.

I want to know what is left of that city come morning. Then return immediately to be fucked by Vexxor when his balls are back. A messenger will be sent to your home where you will remain after reporting back. I am having him give you talented children as a reward and keeping your place in the military. You remember to take action against those who defy my orders and we will see if you make it to be a General one day. After the dragon-blooded children are grown."

The Queen waved a hand to dismiss them, 2 guards took Vexxor off to be fitted with the control collar. She thought to Loth, "What of this Half-Dragon claiming to be a champion?"

Loth responded, "I saw it through her eyes. This is the second time I have heard that a Half-Dragon was Corellon's champion. I saw him on the battlefield, I thought there were many of them, if he is the only one then he knows how to rip our people apart and has killed hundreds of Drow.

I finally believe it to be a fact. You acted quickly, General Zarrodixana acted the fool. You will need to address this will all of your Generals and Field Marshal. With a decree, stating any officer in the Drow who hears or sees of a General and/or Field Marshal ignoring your orders is required to kill them.

Else face the fate you have outlined. You will need new tunnels. You have years. Still, I would want you to use the Gridea tunnel. Get the intelligence we need."

The Drow Queen opened the Crystal to her Field Marshal, "Use the tunnel, breach

tonight, and send the Drow everywhere. Gather what you can. Gather slaves, wealth, and intelligence first. Killing is secondary but authorized. Use sleep poisons and drag them away and into the depths.

We need to know what is there. Leave the tunnel open at the surface. Seal the lower tunnels to us at noon tomorrow. A one-night raid, make it count. At noon tomorrow, all troops had better be back and behind the sealed passage. This is a retaliation raid. Try to capture any Half-Dragons you can. One of them might be an Elven Champion."

---

Queen Goldeagle nearly fell off of her throne as the first shockwaves hit from almost 800 miles away. Section of the ceiling fell as well and fortunately missed people. She looked over as Tallion walked in.

Tallion was upset, "I don't have the spells to go back and return today. I wanted to see how much damage was done, that was why I flew higher. I did not need to be taken out like that."

The Silver Dragon General shook his head. "We felt it outside as we landed and we are hundreds of miles away. The damage was significant and far wider than predicted."

The Silver Dragon General pulled out a crystal to the Field Marshal, "We need assets with project image to go and fly over the Xantria city ruins and surrounding areas. We need to know how bad that was.

Also, contact the Dwarven Field Marshal and get him to send his best sapper expert to the Elven Palace. He can look over what we can project here, and answer to what in the hell just happened."

They both got to the line and Tallion bowed, "12 Drow, invisible on the surface. I cannot say if they escaped or not. But I suspect the loss of life was higher."

Tallion heard in his head from the Lady of Dreams, "Over 100,000 are dead in that attack as the best guess. I cannot be more specific as our and their lands are a blur at the moment because of the mixing from the explosion and only for a few seconds. Many were halfway up. You dealt a nasty blow to them, We lost 3,845 Elves in the surrounding areas. Homes and tree collapse, not counting a crater that extended over 200 miles from the center."

Tallion got an image from the Lady of Dreams of the ground and he shook his head and sighed, "Sorry, the Lady of Dreams sent me a message and then some images. Best guess is well over 100,000 Drow and driders died. Something about our lands and their lands mixing in the explosion.

They can likely only see our battlefields or something. Our battle was over quickly. 3,845 elves died from falling trees, building collapses, and likely landslides. The crater is almost 200 miles wide in all directions from the center, Your Majesty.

In short, they had an army in place and we just gave them a very bad defeat. The Royal compound is almost 2,000 feet down being at the center and destroyed as is every building in that city. Most surrounding cities had their royal compounds and academies flying already. Some buildings were damaged. A lot of work to do to level the land in those locations. We get a project image scroll and I can show you, Your Majesty."

Queen Goldeagle stood, "Ambassadors room. They likely felt that across the continent!" She looked at her Ambassador here who nodded at her as they all went to the second floor. They awaited the arrival of a sapper expert. One of the Dragons who did a flyover arrived with the sapper and pointed at the wall.

He projected up the image from higher up and then more focused on just the crater area. The Dwarven sapper chuckled, "How many barrels and how far down did you go before setting the barrels?!"

Tallion sighed, "I went deeper than planned, close to 900 or,1000 feet down. To be safe we cast feather fall on the barrels, all 50 of them to the bottom. They were bound up good and tight to land as one. They landed without going off as best as I can tell.

We built planks and wrapped them in cloth between every 10 barrels. We had 50 in the reserve and we used them all. Your King said it would take the tunnel down at 500-600 feet."

The sapper chuckled, "He never asked us. Likely wanted to start selling some of it to you. Now, as best I can tell, it looks like a 2-3-part detonation. Those first barrels blew, with the second.

The bottom two went last, it might have been the bottom 2 of 3. Hard to say we are talking fractions of a second with that many barrels and the padding you put in-between it. We never use that many at once.

Simply because of something like this happening. Now the design looks to show us that it destroyed other surface tunnels in these 8 spots. Then lower tunnels in these 8 spots. A sapper can tell you that. Regardless you collapsed 17 tunnels, not just 1. You likely could have done just the one with 10 barrels that deep, maybe 20. No more than that at once. You got an image from before the collapse?"

Another Dragon stepped forward and displayed it and the Sapper chuckled, "I forgot to introduce myself, I'm Flinter 'Giggles' Fire Axe. I teach sappers and get them to handle a thimble full of the stuff while telling them jokes on the first day.

After the first couple dropped their thimbles I just laughed louder and looked at them. Told them, 'You work as a sapper, you can be distracted by nothing. Even blasted funny jokes. Now dump that dirt on the ground.

They did so and one thimble had one grain of that in it but it was enough to scare the shit out of most of them. I lost half the class by the next day, but I saved their lives. Back to your problem here. A lot of this could be leveled out with weeks of rain to settle the ground.

You are going to have to do it especially over these areas where you still have cities. But the entire area. It will compact the area and make it near impossible for the Drow, Duergar, or even a bullet to travel through the mess. For years, if ever.

It might cause some secondary collapses further down. Raining dirt and mud on Drow cities potentially. Maybe a lot more damage to them, but that is hypothetical. We've blasted into an underground river on more than one occasion. It got a lot of dwarves killed if they were in the lower tunnels."

Tallion turned to the Dwarven ambassador, "Make sure you King knows he owes us another 40 barrels of this for free. If he did not know the answer, he should not have given one. It cost a lot of Elven lives. Not as many as an invasion, but almost 4,000 of them. Which will go higher as we work to level this ground out I am sure. I leave that to Queen Goldeagle to handle."