Silvertree Chronicles Bk. 01 Ch. 25

The dwarf chuckled, "Yep you are direct and that is not something I would have thought of doing."

The two dwarves laughed. Charlemagne looks at them, "He is very much into symbolism."

They heard Heliar laughing at the door. Eldar sighed, "Speaking of symbolism."

They saw Jarron storm off with his present under his arm. His father walked toward him red-faced and shook his head and stopped because he could not stop laughing. Eldar walked toward him, "For a diplomat, I figured you would be more in control of what I did to Jarron."

Heliar shook his head, "You missed when the door was opened. She looked out and giggled. Then commented, 'We need you to have the Queen come to see us immediately if she can. You might want to put those someplace before going to see her.' The guys behind her were laughing at the double entente and I could not hold back any longer as he stormed off."

Heliar and the group laughed except Eldar. "They want you and the ladies as well. I will wait with your men back at the door until they are ready to continue."

Eldar smiled, "Charlemagne, care to guess what the Queen would ask if he approached her with that in his possession?"

Charlemagne just laughed, "I will let Jarron know you are getting a spanking tonight for being bad."

That caused everyone to laugh. Eldar shrugged, "He will just tell you that I would probably enjoy it so it would not count unless he was the one doing it. Then he would work to break the paddle."

That got them laughing again. He sighed and paused before reentering the room, "When he asks you, and he will ask you. 'Why do I go out of my way to embarrass him?' Tell him he is missing the message. Without a little joy in life why live at all. Find joy, find time for it, and find time for a wife. Stop trying to make diamonds in your nether-hole.

He needs to find a way to release steam and if he will not do it himself then someone has to do it for him. Also, he started it by calling me 'a tool' and figuring he would 'insult me' by saying I was nowhere near the diplomat you were. I am not the diplomat you are, but he did it to try and embarrass me. I was just ready for his next antics with a response as I knew he would escalate it, yet again."

---

Jaron walked into the Queen's Audience chamber with the beads under his arm and his cloak. Until they slipped out and he caught them in front of the Queen and closed his eyes, "Eldars idea of a practical joke, Your Majesty."

She looked at them, "My husband's 'Den of Sin' has some of those. I never asked about them. What are they for?"

Jarron groaned, "Your Majesty, That is a question for your husband. It is sex-related, embarrassing and I commented about seeing them when I returned to Eldar that night for setting me up to be embarrassed again." He pulled out a bag of holding and storing them.

The Queen smiled, "Maybe he is trying to get you to find a wife finally. It seems if it is sex-related he is pushing you to get an affair of the heart going. I will stop short of ordering you to find a wife. But you probably do need to get laid more often at least. The new laws are going to make that more difficult and not have children. Was this all you wanted to discuss?"

Jarron sighed, "No Your Majesty, The Silver Dragon Queen wishes to meet with you. Eldar told her of the caches. She acted as if she knew something about them. Eldar was concerned for 7,000 assassinations that 77 Billion seemed excessive."

The Queen sighed, "We should not keep them waiting then."

---

They walked back into the room and a short time later Jarron returned with the Queen minus his gift.

The Queen looked at Eldar, "Embarrassing Jarron again?"

Eldar shrugged, "I was waiting for him to ask what I was doing in that shop, Your Majesty."

Jarron took the bait, "What were you doing in that shop?"

He pulled out one of the toys and handed it to Charlemagne and told her, "Activate and put it on the table." She walked over and turned it on. She set it on the table. It skipped across the table and she grabbed it up. He reached into his bag and pulled out another 10. Then put them back in his bag. He looked at him, "About 60% of my Mercenary Company are women.

We give them something to delay random sex in the field. To ensure they are not out on leave to give birth and out of action for a few years afterward. I figured it was a small investment. Allow them to enjoy themselves and release their pressure if you will. Remember why they are alive, Your Majesty."

The Queen nodded, "I will have to make that recommendation to my army."

Jarron put his hand over his face. They turned their attention back to the 'Elven' friends in the room who smiled.

Eldar looked at them, "They had 20 left in the store if you are interested, or better yet I could just give you one as a gift."

The Silver Queen worked hard not to laugh but could not help it. She smiled, laughed, and took it, "You are a curiosity. I thank you for the gift. I would like to examine some of the treasures you found. The items."

He nodded, "Jarron, can you bring my troops in? They are wearing and wielding some. Just the Lieutenant and Sergeants for the moment."

They stepped in and the lady walked over to them and waved her hand over them and the others looked on as the elves saw nothing. She walked back over and nodded, "They can leave again."

The door closed and he could tell she was upset, "You have found treasure taken from the Royal Horde for the Kingdom. Over 400 billion in coins and other items were taken."

Eldar nodded, "That means it is safe to assume it is divided into caches into 4 areas at least. The Dwarven Kingdom, the human Kingdom, the Elven Kingdom, and the Draco-liches' treasure if I had to guess. Not counting what he has equipped his troops with or distributed."

Queen Goldeagle suddenly felt a weight on her shoulders knowing that much was in every asset's hands including the enemy. This war could go on forever.

Eldar looked to Queen Goldeagle, "This much coin alone could cripple any ally if all of the resources were purchased during a time of war, food, ore, chemicals for potions. It is devastating money in the wrong hands."

Eldar looked to the two ladies, "The question is how would you like to handle this?"

The Lady responded first, "Our initial reaction was to ask for everything back but that presents a lot of problems."

Eldar nodded and looked to the Queen and she seemed to be at a loss for words. Eldar stepped back so he could see both ladies clearly, "I would like to throw out an initial idea from which to build upon. First, we need to complete this mission and discover how much of the treasure is in the horde and not distributed. We can assume that the lion's share is in the dragon's horde.

The lion's share of the gear would be in the hands of his troops, in what is recovered, or the troop commanders for equipping the Horde's armed forces."

They both nodded, "Let us consider this point settled."

They sighed and nodded, "We hit the dragon's horde, and you reclaim everything. Tell us how much in coins was recovered from that location, including the location for the other caches if discovered.

If we can reclaim it from the other kingdoms based on information at the horde then Dragons and Knights can work to pull all the coins and artifacts from the 3 kingdoms. Now after this is said and done, I will give an example. We find 18 billion is still in our enemies' hands. The dragons leave 6 billion with each of the other 3 allies as a reserve.

The elven Kingdom returns anything above 6 billion that we pulled. Bring the field into balance." They both nodded. "The Knights can then make the cache locations known to the two Kings to collect the gear once those two spies are gone.

You have no method of pulling it from enemy troops. That is a given. Now, I am going to shift back to gear, we will allow you access to the gear as we pull it out; all gear will be taken by wagon to House Silvertree; all coins to the Royal Treasury.

Anything that is an Elven artifact or a dwarven artifact has to remain if found in dwarven or Elven territories. We have treaty stipulations with the dwarves on the return of artifacts. All gear would have to remain, except for select relics. We will call this point two option one; the best-case scenario. Are you two in agreement with that idea?"

They nodded, "I am no diplomat but I do know a thing or two about fair play. I will leave it to the diplomats to discuss options if this does not occur but we have a framework on which to proceed with this mission. To include the other two spies, they have to be captured and not killed which might change who is involved. The Dragons' direct involvement is possible to recover their own ass'ets."

The pun was another double entente that was not lost on the group and he heard some laughs and a couple of groans. "Also, the recovery of caches behind enemy lines, that could reduce how much we hold in reserve even further. This would have to be a strictly Dragon matter unless we are engaged in full conflict and by that time the information might not be any good.

As we are short on time right now, I would propose we table the discussion further until we know if there is a solution. I would also suggest we get our hands on every scroll of stone wall we can get. Unless the dragons have a better spell to ensure that once the tunnel is collapsed it does not get opened before you get everything out. You will have to address it in our planning meeting.

Also, we are expecting the Second and his bodyguards. We can deal with them as agreed. We need to make it clear their gear is not up for grabs and the Second's office might hold information on the cache locations so we have to stay out of it.

Your assets are going to have to clear any ward, pull any gear, and collect the intelligence. I would insist that any intelligence found on spies, caches, troop numbers, sizes, commanders, etc. should be shared with us.

The Knights for the caches, the Gray Blades, and our allies on all of it that is relevant to us on the front lines if you will. This gives our support team no reason to enter that office area to look for this information ourselves."

The Lady nodded, "We will incorporate the ideas we feel will be needed into the plan. We will go over this with your team when ready."

Eldar looked to the Queen, "I will have our Knights hold all the gear at House Silvertree until we have a chance to go through it. I will have Charlemagne return with Annette to oversee what we have. Any gear deemed excess gear by my people will be turned over to you to distribute to the Army of the Elven Kingdom.

Our men are fighting, and dying, now. We are holding the line to give time for preparations and establish fortification that will aid the army when you are ready to deploy. For all of our allies to deploy, Your Majesty."

The Queen nodded, "You might not be a diplomat but I still see some of your father in you in that regard."

Eldar smiled and nodded, "If you say so, Your Majesty."

Jarron looked at Eldar, "When did you come up with this?"

Eldar looked at him, "Do you remember me walking in with changes to how the team did stuff when I first came on board. That was from the walk across the compound. That was when I mentioned I might have an idea when I have a chance to speak at your meeting. Downstairs I mentioned the amount of gold and what they would have to charge.

You commented on my 'wild conspiracies.' That was when I started thinking this could have been from the dragon's private horde. Then I ask the question of 5 billion and that would seem large. Between those 2 questions and the announcement of the 400 billion being stolen."

Eldar looked at the Lady, "I have a really good memory. I read a lot of information including all of the treaties with our allies. Including the terms of the Dragon War Peace treaty. I negotiated the information on the spies and Draco-lich direct involvement to get Moon Blades back. I have now confirmed what you have suspected.

The Draco-lich was either directly involved or allies of his within your kingdom aided in this theft, like his son on the council. You might discover this information within the horde, or he might have it all in his head. Regardless, once I knew what we found could not possibly be one dragon's private horde.

I was obligated as a Knight and ally to inform you of our discovery. I was not withholding information. I was just unaware of your theft. I had no reason to know. I was hoping the items would have been traced back to the Draco-lich's allies in your kingdom. If the marks you looked for led to a specific dragon or dragons. This is still something to check with each item we pull before deploying anything further."

Eldar looked at Jarron, "This changes our approach. The Knight we have on this mission will have to stay in the city. The extra squads I sent in will do external security at House Silvertree but kept in the dark as they are not Knights.

All they need to know is we captured treasure and we are determining what goes to our troops and what will go to the army. That gives a reason for the Gray Blades to have a presence in the city. I will leave Captain New Moon to oversee perimeter security.

He would be a good liaison as he used to be a Royal Guard. Any Royal Guards sent need to take direction from Captain New Moon in this matter. Commander and Dame Silvertree will be in overall charge of this operation.

As Dame Annette will deal with any more questioning of the prisoner and she has been cataloging all of this data. She should be involved in this 'administrative role.' I will get Greentree to send any questions he has to her in regards to the town construction that is underway."

Eldar looked at his father, "You will have to split Silvertree resources between guard duty of our prisoners, the property in general, and the seizing of Silvertree assets from the disowned."

The Lady looked at Eldar, "You seem to be a force of nature."

Eldar nodded, "I am head of House Silvertree. My father is the proxy in dealing with those matters. I am the Leader of the Gray Blades which has grown and will shrink. I am a Commander with the Knights, which means these troops on the mission, I will lose most of them to Jarron. They are already aware of that possibility once this mission is finished.

That leaves being Knight Protector of the Elven Kingdom meaning doing what is best for the Elven people. Which overlaps with being a Grand Master Blade Singer in terms of responsibility. Then there are the personal issues of building a town, loving 2 voraciously sexually challenging wives, and 2 sets of twins on the way. I am being spread a little thin at the moment."

The Lady started to giggle at him and Charlemagne interjects, "He neglected to say his wives are on the top of his list." This got a laugh from everyone as Eldar simply nodded rapidly, "Family is very important to me. I want them to have a place to grow up, thrive, learn, and make their way in the world. I want them to know tolerance, hence the town name. Those things can only occur if I am doing the other jobs."

The Lady nodded and then nodded at Jarron in some unseen communication. Jarron smirked and nodded back to her. Eldar looked at them, "I will get the others to get this meeting started if you like."

He pulled out the book, "My mother had this and I recently recovered it. I plan on making 1,000 copies. would you like one?"

She looked at the book, opened the cover, and smiled. She closed it and handed it back to him, "I would love one when you get them made."

Jarron shook his head and groaned. Eldar walked off to get the guys.

The Queen followed him and she sighed, "Quite a quagmire we find ourselves in. A Draco-Lich?!"

Eldar nodded, "True, the former Red Dragon King, an Ancient Red Dragon who has become undead. Hence all of the dragon forces. This is why the Knights have held this back thus far. It was a complex problem and we needed a good solution to handle that problem. Please keep the information private for now, the others will learn of it after we are done. Yes, this is a quagmire, but the company is lovely, Your Majesty."

Queen Goldeagle groaned and then laughed as he got the door for her. She left and he waved everyone back into the room. They walked back into the room and the Lady smiled. He looked at his troops, "I need you to line up for inspection, they want to ensure you are adequately equipped for this mission as this is your first mission into enemy territory. Speaking of which, I need to show you something but it will require me to take my shirt off as the item is attached to me."

The Lady smiled and nodded. He pulled off the top of his armor with the ladies held and his shirt. "An item from the first cache was a major amulet of health, my wives gave it to me and when it crossed this non-magical amulet the other disappeared.

The magical amulet was platinum with a platinum dragon with sapphire eyes over a large ruby. This one is now magical and is also providing a regeneration effect as well. It also pulses like it has a heartbeat and has attached itself to me.

I told the ladies I would have you take a look at it. You might as well examine it along with the rest of the gear everyone is wearing. It is the only item from the cache that I took and that was at my wives' insistence. They want me to have more virility, likely in bed."

This got a laugh from everyone including Jarron.

---

The Silver Queen heard from Bahamut, "The amulet is what you think it is, a relic of Sartior for a champion that would never come. It is bound to him and you have looked at his records and know why it did that. Only warn him his sexual stamina in bed will double or more as the boosted constitution effects got amplified on this champion.

Any other's ask, the amulet is merely a major draconic health amulet that got used and not one of Draconic physical perfection you would likely detect with other elements you cannot detect. Sartior will not say what else he put in that amulet but it will change him, even more. Some might follow his heirs not conceived yet.

It may have altered the children in the wombs of his wives as well as they carry those markers now. Sartior is informing the Amethyst Queen of this as well as her hero in this world. Only the 2 of you will know, hidden from psionic detection as well. He will pass it on to his next hero when and if the Amethyst Queen falls.

His family line will be one to watch for as long as we are in this world. You know that already and that is shielded in all metallic dragon minds who have learned of it, the Gold King and yourself only. He would not share the information from what you found in the archives. Overall it is a very good choice his wives made."

---

The Lady looked at it, "I have only seen this on rare occasions usually involving a holy symbol of a deity with a champion."

Eldar sighed and nodded, "I mentioned that on our first visit. I am also the Knight Champion for Corellon Larethian which falls in line with everything I do for the Elves and being a Grand Master Blade Singer."

She nodded, "It might have been accidental but it is all you and bound to you. That was a good choice for a necklace. A very good choice."

That got more laughter. He nodded to the Lady, "Thank you for that I will let you inspect the men and women. I will get dressed now before my wives start to attack me to get the rest of my clothes off, again."

That got another round of laughter. He got his clothes back on and the Lady came back, "Thank you for that, they seem to be well equipped for this mission."

Eldar nodded, "Thank you, Lady."

The Lady walked over to Eldar's wives, "That was a good choice, after a time he will be able to go twice as long in bed, maybe longer. It will likely never taper off but it might increase even more."