Silvertree Chronicles Bk. 01 Ch. 19

He nodded, "This ship will be leaving without us, we will have to find another. They have time-sensitive cargo and refuse to be delayed."

Warlord Tang sighed, "Find another ship to get you there. You have 3 days to make arrangements." The connection closed.

The General looked up to see she had already ridden off at a very fast speed as she was beyond the docks now. The men were marshaled on the dock waiting to board and now they turned to find a place to stay for a few nights. He nodded, "You will be missed Dancer of Blades. Thank you for the warning. I am happy my father would listen to your word on this matter. He would have ignored mine."

---

The Guard Captain walked into his home and hear the sounds of sex coming from his bedroom. Officer quarters, a Wood Elf Lieutenant, and his wife lived across the way. He worked in the slums section of the City Guard.

The Guard Captain was offended when they put him in quarters across the hall from his own. All because neither of them had children and he did not have the money for a home in the city.

He heard his wife scream out, "Don't cum in my cunt! My husband's infertile but I am not!" He heard the man grunt his release into her as she wailed another climax. The man laughed, "I don't use anti-fertility items. Here's hoping your snob of a husband enjoys any children I just gave his hypocritical wife!

Don't think we did not hear you talking with the other officers in this married barracks. Complaining about the indignity of us being given quarters across from you and having the nerve to be insulted. All the while you have been having me fill your ass 4 times a week for months now!"

She cried out, "It is what my husband expected me to say! He is a one-shot and done and will only do my cunt once a week or he has me swallow it. It's not like he could get me pregnant. I had him checked a year ago."

The Guard Captain kicked in the door to his bedroom just as the Wood Elf turned to face him. He stabbed him in the stomach, grabbed his cock, and then cut it off. The two ladies got into a wardrobe and held the doors closed and started screaming as the other guards entered the home.

One tackled the Captain to the ground after he stabbed through the wardrobe to hear two women screaming. They both got stabbed in the arm. The other guard threw the doors open and got the women out of there while they cuffed the Captain.

The man who tackled the captain sighed, "The fucking Champion knew it and tried to warn you to hurry. You just had to not make haste. Now you will be prosecuted for murder and two counts of attempted murder. The first charge on a City Guard. You flushed your fucking career away and your life."

The Captain looked back, "Let me kill my fucking wife. If I die so should that slut!"

Another Captain, Bilara Moon Glow stood there and he looked at her as she smiled down, "You are so fucked right now. I have clerics tending to your wife and the wife of the dead lieutenant. The protection of your wife's defense is not going to work when you fucking stabbed her as well.

She is giving a statement now. Guard New Moon sent a Guard to the Palace as well because of what the champion had going tonight. I wouldn't want to be in your shoes. I already have my husband working to assign me to take over your men.

You will formally be stripped of rank in the morning. Nobody is to harm those 2 witnesses. I have 4 female guards watching over them across the hall. Take him to the Palace dungeon!"

She got on the crystal to her husband, "The message passed back to you from Sergeant New Moon is accurate. The Captain is in custody and the Lieutenant Wood Elf from across the hall is dead. He even stabbed both women in the arm so protecting his wife is out of the question. I don't know what set him off, but it is a fucking mess here."

The Head Guard Captain sighed, "You just briefed the Queen as well. I was giving her an update on the Champions activity." He ended the comms.

---

The head of the royal guard sighed, "The champion blew through a gate and went into some type of prediction mode. He sent guards off with Moon Blade to Golden Knife's home as well, your Majesty."

She groaned, "Alright, get me a status on those guards."

He nodded, "I'll be right back your Majesty. I have to find their communication crystal in my office. This one I keep because it goes to my wife, Your Majesty."

---

Gatrius rode into the small Gold Elf estate. Golden Knife was the last of his line and over 400 years old, almost 450 years old if the records at his store were right. He stopped to double-check them. He had a single page out front who looked at the arrivals. "Patron Moon Blade to see Patron Golden Knife on a matter for the Queen."

He knew he would have to respond to that and it would explain the two Royal Guards. The page went inside and knocked on the door to the master of the house's research laboratory. He was not allowed entry. Patron Golden Knife sneered at the page, "This had better be important?"

The Page nodded, "Patron Moon Blade and 2 Royal Guards are here to see you on a matter for the Queen."

He sighed, "Give me 15 minutes and bring them to my study."

He walked over and started the machine to drain the blood out of his latest victim. A male Snow Elf. He put an ad up in a small northern town, on the bulletin board. It took a year for someone to come calling. He had called out looking for a Snow Elf devoid of magical talent to be a personal bodyguard male or female made no difference. He closed his open book on dark necromancy and sighed, "I will have to harvest your organs upon my return young fool."

He cleaned off his cock from his exploits on the male corpse ass when he had been interrupted. He went to his study and sat behind his desk. He had been, for over 200 years, researching the process to become a vampire. He drank the blood of his victims daily and reeked of death to those who got close to him. His page was under a geas and soul bound to him.

He had many resources available to him including an entire library of forbidden knowledge at his disposal. All from selling assets from his victims' homes over the years. He had little in the bank, 10 billion gold pieces was a trifle. Instead, he had it hoarded away in the sub-level in magical items, relics, and gemstones. Including several artifacts, he would need to power his experiments when the time came.

Moon Blade walked in and stood across from him at the desk as the guards flanked him from either side. Gatrius looked at him, "The spirit of Alisand Blood Moon has sent us to collect her Moon Blade."

Golden Knife shot to his feet and went to cast. Gatrius, activated the spell turning on a ring he wore. The two Royal Guards, one a mage and the other a blade singer jumped into action as Gatrius got his sword out and the spell rebounded back. Disintegration.

That did massive damage to Golden Knife. The one casters spell rebounded back from a ring Golden Knife wore but only partially. The Blade Singer sliced off the elf's casting hand. Moon blade cut off his fucking head being a talented warrior and a non-caster. Screams could be heard from down the hall.

The Blade Singer went to investigate. "The page is dead. It looks like he had his life linked to Golden Knife."

Gatrius looked at his notes. "Following death's hand. He looked and the hand from the dead Golden Knife walked slowly across the floor. It had been severed before the main body was killed. He held the guards back, "Hold off, do not attack it yet. We are supposed to follow it." The hand traveled through the small estate and got to a wall and pressed on a brick on the wall that opened a secret passageway.

The way smelled of death and it was overwhelming. They followed it through 8 rooms and it headed toward what could only be described as a flesh golem sewn together from past victims. Moon Blade had enough and stabbed the hand and the caster burned it to a crisp. The golem caught fire and the smell of burnt flesh filled the room.

He counted the rooms and there were 14 rooms some had only 30 placards and others over 100 on the walls. He found the sword due to his sword being able to home in on it. and then the sheath. The guards had a crystal activated. Moon Blade took it from the guards as it was a Royal Guard Captain asking for status.

Moon Blade called out, "This is Patron Moon Blade. Tell the Queen everything here is as described by the champion. Golden Knife appeared to be studying necromancy. The gear on the walls, there are at least 500-800 items on the walls. The Relics were to go to me to cover the creation of the Gray Blades weapons. Payment received as some of this is probably priceless.

She is going to need a cleanup crew to deal with dark magic in this place. He had a contingency to inhabit a flesh golem, probably the last resort. He also bound the spirit of his page to him. When he died, so did the page. This place is a nightmare. Under every placard is a body according to the champion.

One room has 50 chests with just gemstones in them. A bloody fortune. As the killing of this patron was not authorized beforehand by the crown, I will just assume the crown will take the funds and the mundane items.

My sword has a magic detection function and there are 7 relics here that it has identified for me. Another 4 relics are dark magic and not to be touched. I want nothing to do with those. Permission to pull those items destined to me, from the Queen please."

Moon Blade heard the Queen sigh, "This was a divine directive, I will work that. I will ensure all of the guards receive a bonus from this night's activity with 100,000 going to each of the 2 guards that went with you. The rest is the property of the crown for the coming war effort. I will get the head of the Academy there in the morning. Tag those items that belong to you but do not remove them from the home yet."

Moon Blade sighed, "There are 2 I would like to take with me. One is a forge that was specifically called out to aid in the crafting of the Gray Blade weapons. The other is another dead Moon Blade to go to the Champion for allocation, Your Majesty."

She sighed, "Take the sword to the champion and take the forge. Tag the other items and get a wizard there that can ward the dark magic relics if he can, or point them out so guards we have coming can handle that task. I will have 60 Royal Guards watching over that property tonight. It will take days to clear them to ensure there are no hazardous effects we need to worry about. I will assume the Gods know those 2 items are safe."

Moon Blade chuckled, "The Forge itself is worth the cost of crafting all of the Gray Blades. The rest is just a bonus, Your Majesty."

She chuckled, "Then a profitable night. Thank you for the report."

Moon Blade looked over and stepped next to the forge after tagging items and identifying what not to touch and got the caster to warded where he could. "Can I get one of you to have my horse brought to my home please?"

They nodded. Moon Blade pulled out an item and activated it. It did a teleportation circle into his shop's storeroom. A gift from one of his ancestors to the owner of the shop for moving materials needed. He looked at the forge, "You will be getting a lot of use in the coming years."

He covered it in a tarp in the storeroom he was in. He had his sword teleport him to his lady love's home. It could not do a teleportation circle but given the number of wielders who were non-casters, it was a good choice for his sword. He smiled, "Third and last stop. She opened the door and smiled. "Hello, my love..."

---

Eldar woke a bit earlier than normal in the usual crescent shape. With Charlemagne in front and Annette in back. He knew they had not been asleep long. He got up and got dressed and headed downstairs and went to the stable. He got his wives' horses saddled up and then he pulled out the tack and horse barding for T'suras.

As he placed the blanket, "Good work T'suras you have a son and daughter on the way. I know we will need another 6 mares to get the herd started before we leave. Then I will have to bring in another male and a dozen more mares to expand the gene pool for the next generation, but we have a couple of years on that.

I will not forget to get you another 12 mares before that occurs if not 100. We need as large of a herd as we can get. We will need a lot of trick-shot Arcane Archers for what is to come."

He got T'suras saddled with the barding in place without much difficulty. He took all 3 horses out front and tied the two mares off on the stirrups of T'suras. "I cannot give them command words like you because my wives have yet to give them names. Then I will not need to tie them off to you. T'suras Veta."

He walked back into the inn as the ladies rushed down the stairs. Annette sighed, "Where did you go?!"

He pointed out front, "All 3 are saddled. T'suras has his barding on. Time to eat."

They sat down to await the morning meal. He sighed, "Shall I save you the trouble and name the horses myself?" They looked at each other and nodded. "M'myas and M'hosa then."

They both laughed and Charlemagne looked at him, "Taste of Molasses and Taste of Honey."

He nodded, "They needed names, they are both mothers to be now. I cannot tell you which commands they have picked up already without names." They looked at him in shock. Charlemagne asked, "They are both pregnant?"

Annette's asked, "They know commands?"

He looked at them, "Yes, and some they know Biana, Filarna, unta, and veta and will pick up others as you mimic me. Name first. Let them know their names then they will associate the commands. Two more which both of them will need to learn and one which T'suras will have to associate the first is Git asos, or go to safety. The second is one you hope you will never have to use, at least not often in the field of battle. Git villam (Go home), but you have to teach them where home is first."

He saw Hunter, Keyno, Tiger, and Tranosa coming into the room. He waved them over, "You may not have heard about yesterday's excitement but I will give you a glimpse. Tiger, can you get the innkeeper's wife."

Tiger ran off and came back with the lady. "First, I take it Doc confirmed it for you?" She nodded. "I learned a bit more but the details are fuzzy. What brings this uncle into the lives is the loss of your husband and it could be 5 years or 15 years.

I cannot tell you. This uncle helps to run this inn for you. Sell the inn and your daughter's and son's fates can be sealed; your daughter will not be as dexterous as some elven archers but there is another way.

Your daughter will be wise and that is the key to the type of archery Keyno will train one of her sons in this form of archery combining her with intelligence she would excel. If you have time go to the Academy and follow the crowd to the meeting today. One of the first things you will see is Keyno's archery demonstration."

She nodded and headed off. Then he had 4 sets of eyes that stared at him. "I had some sort of emotional storm. Flooded with images of things that were going to happen. Things that I needed people to do.

People I had to talk to so they could effect change. Gartius Moon Blade had a busy night last night. I flew through one of the gate checkpoints without stopping." The wives just nodded rapidly. "Please sit and eat the worst of that is over."

They were about finished eating when Guard New Moon arrives. Eldar sighed, "How bad was it?"

He looks at Eldar, "The husband was dead and the two women were hiding in a wardrobe trying to keep the door closed. A sword blade holes both of them were injured but not seriously. The Guard Captain is in custody and relieved of command permanently. Captain Bilara Moon Glow has taken over and is outside waiting for you."

The last sentence was said with a bit of anger and disappointment. Eldar nodded and he got up and placed his hand on New Moon's shoulder, "Listen to what I have to say today. I need another leader of people. I have great people, they will be excellent trainers but not all want or have the tactical skills to lead troops."

Eldar nodded to him again as he went past. He stepped outside and saw the lady up on her horse, "Guard New Moon relayed my request for him all day today?"

She nodded, "I hope you do not go rushing past our gates again. You should tie up your horse."

Eldar got up on T'suras and turned to her, "If I had not, the Guard Captain would have killed 5 instead of 1."

She looked perplexed, "There were only 2 women in the closet."

Eldar nodded, "Pregnant women, check for yourself if you like." He waited for his wives to come out and get mounted up. The guards brought the other horses around. He looked at the Guard Captain who stared at him hard and uncertain. "I got T'suras yesterday from the stable; nobody could get near him. This horse has never been broken. I know 12 commands including stay.

Where he will stay so he will never be tied down. The one man who tried to force that yesterday. Let us just say it did not go well for him. I told him to ride like the wind which is when I lost the escort but I had to catch someone. That led to the capture or death of a mass murderer and soon the safe return of a lady from the far eastern part of the world in the next four days."

---

The lady of Dreams smiled. "I sent him the 2 revelations instead of visions. Those work fine for now."

Corellon nodded, "Work with what he needs. He weathered the worst of it. We will see when he addresses his wives."

---

Everyone was mounted up, "Shall we T'suras? Biana."

He started his team moving. He looked over at Charlemagne, "Yes, she is scared of me now. She should be scared of her husband when he finds out she is fucking another married man and a young lieutenant."

---

The Lady of Dreams groaned, "That was from the vision storm he got. I will keep a close eye on him."

---

Annette giggled. They headed off to the market to meet with the Merchant's Guild. They walked into Merchant's Hall. Most did not seem to know why they were there. He tapped the stand to get their attention, "Greetings everyone. Some of you met me yesterday as we went through and purchased half of your supplies in some cases."

He got a few giggles. "I am Commander Eldar Silvertree of the Gray Blade mercenary company. In about 4 weeks, we will have the southern trade route reopened for travel. This will cut 6 days off of travel time to the nearest human kingdom and 4 days off of the travel to the dwarven settlements. We are in the process of building a village on this route that will span crossroad to crossroad."

Someone shouted out, "That spans into human lands."

Eldar nodded, "Yes it does. This village, Quatarsia, is home to the Gray Blades. The first cross-border mercenary group was established under treaties with the Humans, the Dwarves, and us. The governments will be paying for our services, which means the merchants will not need to pay for escorts. At least for that 400 square mile section of the human and elven border, we have under our control. The Gray Blades are a multi-racial company hence the name of the town."

Someone else shouted out, "How much land is the dwarves giving to this?"

Eldar smiled, "None. The treaties specify that they will contribute labor to this effort. We will have them building a garrison, maybe even a fort. They will also build watchtowers along the far south road.

To provide some reliable intelligence on activity. My turn to ask a question of you, any veterans of the last war here and could they tell us before they attacked what the typical scouting party sent looked like?"

A one-eyed gentleman in the back stood up, "I served with and scouted the area and would encounter groups of 6-12 orc scouts."