Silvertree Chronicles Bk. 01 Ch. 26

Everyone walked around and Moon Bow asked softly, "What in the hell just happened?"

Eldar looked at him, "My wife Annette is psionic. She just helped up capture a high-value prisoner. AGAIN!"

Eldar, "Find out if he knows how to shut down the teleportation block. The location of the phylactery if he knows it."

Graxxor was barely conscious and unable to resist at that point, "Device is buried in the center column of the walkway down. About 200 feet down look for a small bird carving. It is just above it. I do not know of the location of the other."

He looked at the group, "Commander Silvertree is in charge, I know the location of the teleportation blocking device. I will let the others know. Annette, stay 300 feet behind me and connected."

---

Jarron was shocked nobody was dead or seriously injured from the battle. Eldar had that planned. He saw his movements in combat and could not stop thinking of his mother, Elara the Rogue agent spy he had. How he did acrobatics she would have been proud to see.

He had not thought of Elara, her skills anyway, in years unless Heliar was present. Now he understood the reports he got back from Hunter, Charlie, and the new Human General. The General had sent a report to King Thornlord and it was shared with Jarron.

All because of the unbelievable actions and maneuvers witnessed by the Human Sergeant who did not engage. As Eldar's group decimated that force. Eldar had a cat's grace, those were the words of Master Trainer Yetto. He said he would be a force to reckon with in the field and Eldar could beat him regularly in the last 10 years.

Jarron got to see just a glimpse of it first hand. Reworking the plan as it went to shit. Mixed units, mixed tactics, and using every resource he had. Especially Annette. Jarron had been dismissive of her until the spy activity. He now knew she was one of his most valuable agents that Eldar found for them.

The dragons wanted to train her and her children. He could see her son being a long-term asset in the future. Potentially many of them. Eldar gave him hope for the Knights and he now wanted to see this play out.

---

Annette nodded and they ran down the corridor until he got to the sapper who waited on the battle. He tapped him on the shoulder, "200 feet down the spiral corridor. Look for a small bird carving. The item blocking teleportation is buried above that image. Something tells me you can get to it when the lady wants it down. We will head back and hold the intersection."

Eldar signaled a wait as he looked around the corner at the battle. He saw the dragons battling it out in a dog pile melee combat. "I will send one of the clerics to you just in case he is needed."

The dwarf laughs, "They are both women."

Eldar nodded, "I stand corrected."

Eldar, "This is Eldar. The Sappers have the location of the teleportation device and we captured his son."

He saw the Draco-lich turn his head toward him and glared. 'The Elven champion comes to me to DIE!' Lord Barrimus lunged away from the pack and toward Eldar. Eldar signaled everyone back as Lord Barimus breathed fire on Eldar and the other dragons brought him to the ground and busted up that body.

He looked at the shocked dragons, "Sword, I am immune to fire. I will let you know when the sapper has it dug out of the wall so you can collect the device when ready. We have a cleric coming. If you require healing, walk slowly. Let me know if you need anything else besides the present, we have for you. Barimus's Half-Dragon son."

They took off down the corridor and there were 6 of them. The other 18 must have worked down the spire. One stopped and nodded at Eldar before continuing forward at a much slower pace.

Eldar headed back and looked at the sapper, "The first body is down. Go to the teleporter blocker site and hold until they give you direction. The location might be warded. Ensure they have a cleric healing up the trailing dragon. I am heading back up to see if anything else showed."

He hurried back to the group with Annette. He returned to the intersection and looked at the group, "Need a cleric to head down that way and meet up with the sapper and dragons. Hurry, one is badly injured. Annette's powers are a Knight's secret. Very few in the order know so it is not to be discussed.

They got us into the assassins' heads, the cache locations, names of other spies, she has a very strict code of conduct and she has my love and support. My sword makes me immune to mind control so I would know. She only uses it when we make very specific requests for her services. Like having him strip off all his protection."

This got a few chuckles. Moon Blade looked at Eldar, "I like that kind of surprise, saved a lot of damage and got us a prisoner."

Eldar nodded, "The Dragon's first body is down. We have our prisoner. I am going to head back to the sapper who is waiting on the teleportation blocking device to be removed. The prisoner will get questioned further, but not by us. He is a Half-Dragon and falls under their rules."

Eldar went down the corridor to the sapper. He saw the lady walking up the corridor rapidly, "Two more will be here in a second you found the device?"

He nodded, "With Annette's abilities we know it is buried in the wall right here. We were awaiting your arrival in case it is warded. The Half-Dragon stripped himself naked and laid on the ground for us thanks to her. I wish she would have left his underclothes on but he is naked. Now I feel a bit inferior."

She laughed at him as they walked back to the main group and her 'wrapped present.'

Lady Silver Hair smiled, "Great work. Hold here we will clear the office. They have him contained as they destroy the other bodies. This will give us time to locate the phylactery."

Eldar looked at their prisoner, "We already asked about the phylactery, he does not know. You might want one of your sappers with you as we have not checked that tunnel for any traps or wards."

She nodded, "Not information a Red would share with an offspring, especially a Half-Dragon. We have ways to locate it. The horde is massive. Has to be half of what was stolen, at least in coins. You were right, most of the gear is gone except for some dangerous relics. We will find out how much is in the hands of the enemy troops."

Eldar nodded, "I am betting that was a Giant Chieftain that got buried setting off those traps."

She nodded, "Your perception paid off. Good work on capturing this one and getting the teleport blocker location."

Eldar looked at Annette, "The team blasted him and she brought him to the ground. The manacles are mine. They help with spies and sometimes in the bedroom."

That got a few loud laughs. The ladies just sighed at him and nodded. "Sometimes they like to tie me up." That got a few more laughs. Two more of their casters and one of the sappers headed up the hill.

He looked at Lady Silver Hair, "Did they give you the crystal? The only thing that has been touched. He stripped himself while trapped between two walls of force. All of his gear is on the ground there for when you wish to collect it up. Including his underclothes."

They heard an explosion from below and the lady looked, "Yes, one of ours has the crystal. It shattered when the other was destroyed in the main fight. They just got access to the teleporter device and it was warded. Things are transferring very rapidly now. Send your strike team back. Our men can teleport out vast amounts of the horde now."

Eldar looked at the group and Jarron just smiled at Eldar, "One caster per group, groups of 9 no discussion of this mission until the debrief in about a week. Great work everyone. Any mission where we all walk away is a good mission."

A cleric healed him up and stayed with the sappers. The Lady nodded, "Your interruption of the battle below actually helped. You drew the aggravation of the Draco-lich once he heard your name.

He wanted you dead IMMEDIATELY for what you have been doing. That allowed the other 5 to finish him off. The one who nodded to you, you saved his life as he had the focus before that."

Eldar nodded, "Not intentional, but I am glad it helped. I knew I was immune to any stray fire and with as many, as you brought, I was not too concerned with him getting a bony claw on me."

That got a chuckle as the others started to group together and teleport away. The other sapper arrived and one tossed the lady the suppression device that has been deactivated.

She looked at it, "An artifact from a long-dead race. One of their greatest creations was their downfall as they could not escape or get to the device to turn it off. During the 2nd Age." She looks at Eldar. "Legend Lore spell when we found it several millennia ago, in the 5th Age."

Eldar nodded, "Seems to have worked twice in that role."

She smiled and Jarron put his arm on Eldar's shoulder, "I told her you were ready for this. Your father was worried but he agreed as well."

Lady Silver Hair looks at them, "Grab hands."

As she grabs the prisoner. Eldar stopped and asked her, "Where are we going, for what reason, and how long?"

She looked at him, "I cannot tell you the first 2 but the last is at least several days."

Eldar shook his head. "This is going to cause a retaliation strike. I cannot spend several days locked away while my men are being attacked. We took out more of their leadership than planned. Take Jarron and your prisoner.

I am going back to the city, pulling New Moon and his men back to our town in a forced ride, then out to the front to head off the incoming strike. Unless you plan on setting a couple of dragons in the valley shaking their heads to turn back?"

The Silver Dragon Queen chuckled, "Very well, we will want to see you in a week, at the debrief."

Eldar looked at her, "I can do that." He added a warning. "Be ready to answer hard questions. Especially you Jarron. I want to know what to do to replace the men you are taking now that you have me cut off from recruiting in the other 2 locations.

You need to find a creative solution fast because this fight will cause a loss of a lot of lives the longer it continues. We may not have lost troops here, but out there is another matter. I will have a chip on my shoulder for every death I have to deal with if I am not getting your support."

Jarron nodded and then the 3 of them were gone.

The Silver Dragon Queen sighed, "I wanted him to head back with us. We will have to delay the reveal on the prisoner for a few days. We will take him to your Knights facility for now. I have the sentry wards being put into place in the main chamber and the body chamber. The Sappers will get a chance to use those explosives as I want the tunnels here buried, starting with this intersection."

The dwarves looked around and got everything set and she gave them a nod they lit the fuses She sent them back to dwarven lands.

Jarron nodded and the Silver Queen took the prisoner and Jaron to his facility and got him caged and strapped to a chair for now.

Jarron shook his head, "You just got your ass handed to you by our Knight Champion. Rest well knowing that."

He closed the door and Graxxor was hurt, angry, and now very scared as every dragon would want him dead. His mother would be freed from her cage with his father's death.

---

Vexxor was in the pretentious human court. His plan of action would arrive soon enough. The court was only half full today. He was awaiting the upcoming gathering, a scheduled Royal Conclave. Then he felt the sudden drain on his constitution. He crumpled for a moment and the King looked at him, "Vexxor, Are you alright?"

Vexxor nodded, "I suddenly do not feel so well, Your Majesty. I believe I will retire to my quarters. This might have me out of commission for a day or two. Likely a stomach bug, Your Majesty."

King Thornland nodded to him, "You are excused from court. Get to feeling better."

The King smiled inside. Without the wizard watching over him he might get some protection activities done. The wizard left the court and the King retired to his room, "Archmage Fellow, I could use your assistance with some projects. I want additional security in the Palace and Vexxor has come down with a bug and is sick in bed.

I want additional teleportation blocking runes setup in my quarters, my daughter's quarters, and the Royal vault immediately. Add one to stop extradimensional spaces from being opened within the vault. Anything stored in a bag or a portable hole would have to be done away from the vault. We have an anti-magic field outside the vault already.

Vexxor probably has a teleportation block in the vault but I want dual security as we have some dangerous relics in our vault. I want to add additional protection from theft. Can you handle this today?"

He heard back, "As long as Vexxor does not interfere we can get this done. I have a few enchanters to aid in this task. He gets temperamental about other mages being in the palace, except for the Elven ambassador he fucks around with.

We will work quickly if he is sick. We will try to be in and out before he feels well enough to give us a hard time interfering with his affairs. Anything else, Your Majesty?"

The King sighed. He did not want to give too much away. "I want an item crafted for me. A ring of spell turning. Consider it commissioned work. I could get one from the Elves quicker but I preferred they did not know I had one. I purchased some items through a courier already, but that item was not available. Can that be done?"

He sighed, "Your Majesty, that will take quite a bit longer. At least a month, and it will not stop them all. But we can get started on that for you immediately." He ended the communication.

He looked at his schedule. He set his daughter to not be in court for the foreseeable future. Having her work with tutors on treaties and studying the Elven language. He found Dwarven to be barbaric. He had his Mages for that and a ring that let him listen in when they thought he did not understand.

Draconic was beyond him and she did not know of the Dragons' role in the greater world. Not yet. He did keep her informed of his decisions, including the cross-border treaty. She was particularly interested in how parts from the 3 treaties applied to the group who did it.

She had smiled at her father, 'That was a very smart Elf.' He had told her, 'Yes, and I was pleased to see it get used in my lifetime. I hope it continues for generations. There are interesting things in those treaties you find so boring.' She had laughed at that.

She had smiled and nodded at him at the time as she realized what that Elf, Eldar Silvertree, had accomplished with them and he was not even royalty.

Now King Thornlord had this threat Eldar had uncovered from within his court. 'If only the dragons could remove this archmage.' Magic scared him a lot and this traitor had him on edge but he had to keep up a facade until they were ready to take him down.

Jarron had worked on the framework of a plan to aid him, but it was days out as he had to pull resources that were geographically separated and some were on important missions. They had to all be human and that constrained which assets he could bring forth. This Knight's training facility would help in the future Jarron had told him. He thought back to his daughter again and smiled, 'She will be a great ruler one day.'

He called in his Captain of the Guard, "Archmage Fellow will be in to set up some additional protection today that I requested. I want them escorted and nobody is to interfere. I want orders given to the guards at the vault that only access is to be given for this activity. Once completed they require you, the treasurer, and a signed order from me to gain access to the vault."

The Guard Captain nodded, "I will take care of this personally, Your Majesty."

The King sighed and set about work he had piling up.

---

Vexxor hurt all over and took to his bed after warding his chamber, "If someone killed his Draco-lich pet then they had to be very powerful. A dragon strike force most likely. He was in no shape to face that at the moment to check. Investigating was out of the question for now. Plus, that damned teleportation blocker also blocked out scrying.

He could go and check on it a couple of days if he managed to regain his strength, but then he would have to deal with any of the hordes guarding the entrance...was it worth it? Likely not.

That soul bind had consequences that would have been negated by being a lich. Now he had to face them as he worked to recover his strength. Sleep overtook him as he worked to put the pieces together. Something was missing.

---

The Silver Dragon Queen walked into the chambers of the Council of Nine and took her seat. Everyone was assembled. She looked over, "I have something to report. The blocking of teleportation and communications over elven lands was temporary as we suspected. It appears the teleportation and scrying blocking in Ok'nar has also self-corrected. We have not had a chance to investigate the area and as it is in your area we did not know if you knew it had been resolved or how?"

The Red Dragon King looked over puzzled, "I have not been monitoring it that closely as it had been present for a long while. If it is down then we will investigate the issue."

The Gold King looked over, "No. Risk of exposure to our forms there. We will work through scrying to see if anything can be found out. Dragon activity in that area is still barred until we figure out what caused the disturbance. It could reemerge and we don't want any of our kind being trapped there."

The Silver Queen raised a hand, "I second that motion." The vote went 7 to 2 as the Blue member of the Council voted against exposure. The Red and Black Dragon Kings were the only two who voted to investigate by other means. The Gold King looked over, "Scrying will begin tomorrow morning to monitor the area."

They adjourned the meeting.

The Red Dragon King left in a hurry. The Silver Dragon Queen had a 12 man strike force on standby if he teleported into the area. She looked at the Gold King in his secure quarters. She checked and the listening wards were not present, "We conducted a successful raid there, more than successful. Eldar Silvertree proved most impressive in the conflict as a team of his aided us in support of our efforts.

He is, as I have confirmed, a champion to Corellon. His holy symbol is buried in his chest as his wives gave him a major amulet of health and it has a regenerative effect as it merged. I identified it for him when asked. Based on the description I believe it was a draconic version.

We have not seen an Elven Champion in millennia but he is a true champion, and Knight because he joined us before he was revealed or chosen. We are the victims of our success as most of the leadership of the horde was killed. This deception on the Ok'nar area, for example, was where he was located.

The Draco-lich and father of our Red Council representative. Eldar foresaw a reprisal strike and would not allow his men to face it without him. We are delayed. If he breaks the council's ruling, we can hold him for doing so as we have sentry spells in place in the main chamber and body chambers.

The sappers we took, at Eldar's insistence, were able to shut down 4 more sections of the tunnels leading down. The horde in the area could not get there before we started monitoring in the morning, officially."

The Gold King looked at her, "We had a Draco-lich and you did not inform the Council?!"

She sighed, "We know at least 2 of the chromatics who voted on exposure, likely all three but the other is older and wiser. He does not want to be caught in that area. His name along with 47 other Chromatic Dragons had been listed in the journals captured from the son Graxxor, who is being held by Jarron at his facility.