Silvertree Chronicles Bk. 02 Pt. 01

Brannar looked at him, "She taught me your languages."

Brannar looked up and saw someone serving food and he stated in elven, "The server on the end far right."

She looked and saw what he saw, a polymorphed dragon. Valita finished his song.

Brannar looked over at him, "Dear brother tell us the fable of the Saatorixx Knights, you remember that one."

He turned and looked straight at the server. While his brother recounted the story. The server saw Brannar watching her.

Brannar looked at the host as he stood, "Can I grab a server to show me where the chamber pot is located?"

He nodded. Brannar turned to her. In the dialect of the locals, "Would you please show me the way to the chamber pot."

She looks annoyed as they left the crowd.

He told her in draconic, "You are a long way from home. Even further than I." She looked back at him. "I am a Battle Mage and I know what you are. Question is what are you doing here?"

He stopped in the hall. "Say something or I will inform our host!"

She stopped, "You would not do that, it is against the Knight's code."

Brannar looked at her, "I never signed on with the Knights. Briefed of them, yes. Spoken with them, yes. There is a rift between Dragons and the Allied Kingdoms who support the Knights. Especially the Elven Kingdom. We know of the 14 and so much more. Take that back to the council, to the one I know as Lord Regal and Lady Silver Hair. My father gave them those names. The gold and silver who sit upon the Council of Nine. Now, what are you doing here?"

She looked at him, "Dragon business."

Brannar looked at her, "Wrong words to use outside Dragon lands. Silver Moon and my brother are both Knights, my father, his father, and mother were all Knights. Now I have 6 siblings missing. I know that 2 are dead. I captured the half blue pirate who killed them and took the other 4 to another location. Your risk of exposure is not as high now. With us looking to open trade with them who knows what kind of magical items we might sell them.

They have 4 days until the meeting to explain themselves. Now, are you going to stick with that story that it is dragon business?"

She nodded. "Show me the right way to the chamber pots."

She pointed to a door behind him. He looked at her, "You better get on your crystal and talk with your superiors. I will be reporting this back to the Elven Queen. You can go now. Preferably home. If you are not part of the solution then you are part of the problem. From what I have seen, dragons are never part of the solution."

---

The server slipped into a different room, not in use. She contacted her boss The Queen of the Black Dragons, her husband sat on the council, "There are elves in the Sun province. At least one can see me. He wears glasses, they are probably enchanted because he can see me for what I am!"

The female voice on the other end sighed and responded in draconic, "Can you kill him, get those glasses. If he is a caster get his spellbook. We need to know how they have penetrated our rings. Report back when you have completed this task."

She got on a crystal, "Inform Kan Tri that there is an elven contingent in the Sun province. I hope to know more later. They can see our rings. Our agent on the ground was spotted."

She heard back, "Will pass this message along when you have details, not before. Kan Tri would want numbers and a threat assessment before taking action. They are 4 provinces over and are not a direct threat to him at this point to take an interest." The comms ended.

She hissed out, "Fucking umbral dragons."

---

The collector hissed out as she headed back to the dining area. She weighed her options, 'I am not about to let this elf disrupt the capture of meat for our children. Poison should do the trick.' She went back to her quarters and collected the most toxic poison she could find.

---

Brannar went into the room with the chamber pots. He called up his sister, "We are at a banquette. I just saw a polymorphed dragon here. She would not tell me why she was here, Just dragon business."

She responded, "I just told my bunkmates that you had too much to drink if you are seeing dragons."

Brannar smiled, "Well I am in a room filled with chamber pots, and our brother is singing!"

She laughed, "Probably one of his tales has you seeing things."

Brannar smiled, "Now that you mention it, he was telling us the story of that old order, the fable that father told us as children. That might have spawned it."

She laughed, "That old tale. You have a good night and watch what you drink over there. I worry for you out there."

He let the crystal go silent. He used the pot and returned to the party after cleaning his hands. He went back to his seat and stayed standing. "Silver Moon, it has been a long day I think I will go home for the evening."

She looked at him, "Not yet they want to put us up here for the night."

He rolled his eyes and nodded to her. He asked her in elven, "Part of your studding service I take it." She glared over at him and simply nodded.

He shook his head and stood over by his brother, "Anyone else speaks elven here?"

He shook his head. "The server is not what she appears to be, think of the story. This one looked different. You got your crystal to Jarron?"

He nodded and pulled it out of his bag and handed it to Brannar. Brannar walked back to the chamber pot room and activated the crystal and heard Jarron. "Silvertree what is going on? Has your brother shown?"

Brannar looked at the crystal, "Yes I have. I have his crystal to you. I need a dragon anatomy lesson. Particularly the horns."

He proceeded to give him a description of the horns, "That sounds like a black. Why?"

Brannar growled, "Because one is in the Warlord's home polymorphed as a servant right now! See if the Queen wants the Dragons to know about this dragon business or not. Contact Silver Moon directly. She has a line to the Queen as well. I am going to keep an eye on this meal."

He let the crystal go dark and put it away. He went back to the room and the 'server' was near his seat, Karti'Ros spoke to him, "Danger."

He sighed, "I know."

He moved behind the server after pulling his manacles and put his hand on her shoulder, "Back again I see."

She glared and he quickly manacled her hands together. She looked at him in shock. He put his arm around her so the others would not know. He looked at her, "The reason I have my hand where it is because if I summon my sword the dragon bane on it will leave a lovely hole in your black heart."

He yelled over, "Silver Moon."

She came to him, "What is..." She looked at the hands and he cut her off as he spoke in elven, "This one has a black heart. I think my food was just poisoned. Call Jarron to ask him how long these manacles will hold a dragon? They better send some dragon assets moving or I will run her through myself. See if she breaks when she dies. I run her through here and the dragons might be exposed. If she pulls the item she is wearing, then dragons are exposed.

If she plays along for the moment they are not. She might have a fighting chance of getting away. Not like the dragons will take action against their own. That is not their way. I was thinking about his favorite office if he can rally the troops. Go talk with him in private. What kind of poison did you use?" She stayed quiet.

---

Silver Moon walked off and got a Crystal with Jarron, "Are you there and with the Queen?"

He sighed, "I am because I just finished talking with him about a black being out there in the Warlords home."

She sighed, "Brannar now HAS the polymorphed black dragon in manacles in the Warlords home. He is debating on killing her or him here. The form is female, the underlying dragon I do not know. He wants to know if you want the dragons involved. If the dragon reverts when killed and they are exposed to the local population that would be a dragon problem. He asked about rallying troops to your old office to turn it over to the dragons or he will likely kill it as he believes it just tried to poison him. We need an answer."

Jarron looked at the Queen. She contacted the Silver Queen and set the crystal down. "Brannar has managed to catch a black dragon in the Far East. Currently polymorphed and in a Warlords home. He kills it there and you are exposed. He is asking about Jarron's old office. How do you wish to handle this?"

Jarron sighed, "He called me a few seconds ago and told me he spotted one. I don't know what caused him to react but based on the horns he described it is a Black Dragon."

Queen Goldeagle looked at Jarron, "We do know what caused him to react, it tried to poison him!"

The Silver Queen got up, "I will be there. Send them to Jarron's office." She summoned 20 of her guards and teleported to Jarron's office.

---

Brannar yelled over, "Brother could I borrow you for a moment?"

He came over and looked at her hands, "Could you make certain nobody touches my plate."

He handed Valita a scroll. "Read that about twenty-five feet from my seat; quietly."

Valita came back, "Your plate and wine glass, not even the food."

Brannar nodded, "Contact poison then. Put your gloves over her hands."

He did as he asked. She struggles with him.

Brannar looked at him, "Hold the manacles." He kept a hand pointed to her and he pulled out a section of silk rope and he tied her hands together.

He grabbed the manacles "Guard my place setting and keep the Warlord occupied."

Silver Moon came back, "Now!"

She stepped away. He cast the teleportation circle and whisked her into Jarron's office.

There were several 'dragons' standing around, "My guess is another one of those hard to detect rings. I gave a horn description to Jarron and he said it sounded like a black. I never heard of a Black working with this group so I thought you might want this one back."

He tossed her on the ground and stepped away, "I want those manacles back when you come to the Palace."

Lady Silver Hair asked, "Why are you doing this?"

Brannar chuckled, "What exactly? Capturing a dragon assassin who attempted to poison me in the Far East, which my brother confirmed?"

She thought, 'Fuck, just what we need now is dragon assassins.' She huffed, "Endangering this organization?"

He backed away from the prisoner and let them take her away, "You do not get it. My problem is not with the Knights. It is with your oversight because you do not have our best interests in mind. Only in keeping another war from happening.

That aspect is in our interest. Hiding your failures from us is not. Other than that, you just gloss over what the others are doing. What that BITCH is doing! You have for millennia! You can argue that point at the Palace!"

She looked at Brannar, "Wait!"

Brannar looked at her as she spoke, "There are those of us who do wish to do more, our hands are tied."

Brannar nodded, "Well, you want to help. You keep the Knights informed of all your people's movement out of your area. If you have them gathering supplies fine. Let the Knight act as the intermediaries get out of the business of not supervising your people.

Yes, I have said people instead of kind, they are going to go around and impersonate humans, elves, dwarves, and countless other races you should be called people. There is nothing 'kind' about what I read in that trove of data. If you have demonstrated anything, it is you cannot be trusted to keep your word. Especially to me and the treaties, you hold up as your defense for taking no action.

You should be monitoring them in our lands. My father wrote in his journal that you monitored his room for 'draconic presences.' You can do it on a much larger scale than a room. My father's private journal was very thorough and his book of rare spells makes more sense now.

We have a teleport location in an ISOLATED area. We need your help to capture your people then we will ask for it. If we have to send in an army to do it ourselves you better believe that body will go on full display!

Your treaties do not allow for you to interfere, but that is all you do if it risks exposure to your failure in living up to the treaties. Stop us, block us, keep stuff from us. Like my FAMILY BEING GUTTED in these experiments!"

He pulled out the crystal, "Jarron, the prisoner has been turned over. I will be at the Palace in thirty seconds."

He put the crystal away. "I feel sorry for you. The information we gathered says dozens of your people have been used to try and perfect this process. All because the tools have been removed from this world. Those deaths are yours! Add my grandfather's death and the human royal court to that list.

You want to know where else you screwed up. My father says he helped you to trace the Liches location in your lands and the one item you could use to ensure his capture if not the death of it was an artifact you recovered that blocked teleportation. That could have stopped him from getting away."

She shook her head, "No, we used that item he was gone before we got there."

Brannar nodded, "You traced where he went and gave that information to whom? Out of your area. With no intention of going after him." He glared at her. "We could go at this for hours. Dredging up what you should have done. Instead, think of what you could do now."

Brannar teleported away. She teleported back.

---

Lady Silver Hair stormed into Lord Regal's chambers. "I just spoke with Brannar. He dropped off a Black dragon using one of those accursed rings who attempted to poison him in the Far East. I asked him about destroying the Knights. He does not want them destroyed.

He wants our oversight of them cut off because we cannot control our own 'people.' He said 'kind' was not an accurate description of us because we keep assuming their forms and so far he sees nothing 'kind' in our actions! He knows of our ability to track magic and he knows we failed to tell anyone where the lich went when Eldar showed up here and went off on you all those years ago.

Even that is biting us in the ass. It was in his father's journal. Now if chromatics intercepted his messages using the system as we did then they tried exactly what you suggested discreetly. He could see a dragon in those rings.

He was wearing magical glasses and I am willing to bet they were enchanted to see those rings. We could contact the mind and it was a dragon in the body. Likely one of the underground groups working out of the Far East.

Amy Tryst and the other members of the Royal Neutral conclave for Psionic dragons are examining this one now. He just handed us the best lead on them in years. He was headed to the palace and given an assassination attempt; I could see him giving that spell to just about everyone because of that effort! Our assets who use those captured rings are now potentially exposed. Including Amy Tryst."

Lord Regal merely absorbed the knowledge as she walked out and slammed the door behind her. He shook his head and got back to work.

---

Brannar teleported away to the steps of the Palace. It was early morning. He ran inside to the Queen's Audience Chamber. He looked at the Queen after entering her audience chamber. "Lady Silver Hair wanted a long discussion of why I was doing this to 'her organization,' Your Majesty."

He pulled out the books, ledgers, journals, and notes. He sat them all on her desk. "I spent 3 days reading through this kind of garbage with no sleep. One dragon captured in a Palace! The one journal with the black binding is recipes on the best ways of cooking us and our allies.

I do not recommend reading through that one. I marked several pages; those are some of the big highlights. I did not have the stomach to keep carrying all of this. I just teleported out of a banquette. I need to get back now and make an excuse, Your Majesty."

She nodded and Jarron just stared at the stack of 30 tomes, "Four days with the time difference. I will be back before then, Your Majesty."

He teleported back to the Warlord's Palace. The party's still going and his absence had been noted. Valita had watched over his food. Brannar tapped him on the shoulder, "Your Majesty, someone has tried to poison me here tonight. The server who showed me the chamber pot location. My guess is she was associated with the pirates. Regardless, she would not talk during her 10,000-foot drop into the ocean.

More like onto the ocean because at that speed it is like hitting the ground. If you have an alchemist, they can confirm a poison has been placed on these dishes. That is why I had my brother watch over them because I believe it is a contact poison and I did not want anyone getting poisoned while I dealt with the would-be assassin. I did not do the detect poison this time, I gave a scroll to my brother who confirmed it! I saw her do it."

The Warlord looked shocked and he called in his alchemist and confirmed that a poison that was fatal if touched and even faster acting if it was ingested was on the plate and glass. Brannar looked at the Warlord, "The activities that we do often attract these kinds of attacks against me and my family. I wish to go home with my brother this evening. I would love to visit with you more tomorrow to discuss more pleasant things."

The Warlord got up, "I am sorry this happened in my home."

Brannar nodded, "Servants are probably the least vetted people with the most access in some cases. When I return to the Elven Kingdom, I will ask the Queen for a couple of token items that might help you. I plan on seeing her the day after tomorrow to let her know where our negotiations stand.

If you wish to have a representative for your people along for that report, I would be pleased to let the Queen know of your desire for an official diplomatic visit. Please sleep on that idea before answering and let us see how well our talks go tomorrow, Warlord Sun."

He bowed and Brannar returned it and made his way toward the exit. They got to the stables and he spoke in elven to them, "Transfer was smooth. Getting questioned by Lady Silver Hair not so much. I dropped some crap on her from my father's journal. Questions he stopped pursuing because he was told it was no longer his destiny. It ate him up and turned him into the consort fucking man he became for the last several years. My thoughts, not in the journal.

I also went to the Palace. I left all the stuff from the ship. Except for the maps, charts, and some data the dragons will want. A few cards for me to hold."

Silver Moon looked at Brannar, "We need to get you some sleep, and then we need to get you laid!"

Valita laughed, "I can arrange the second. Hells he could have one or several of the Warlords daughters tonight."

Brannar got mounted up, "Lead on brother, not to get laid to get sleep."

He laughed and they make it back to this 'place' of his. It was larger than Silvertree Estates! Brannar looked at him, "How many of the Warlords guests normally sleep here?"

Valita smiled, "Just me."

Brannar shook his head, "No wonder you have not been home. How many kids?"

He shrugged, "None that I know of, not that I would care."

Brannar looked at him, "You know that twins thing father had. It looks like all his male children carry it! If you have been hooking up with someone's wife out here then it might be a good idea to return home for good."

He thought, "Not in this province. A few more up the coast though. Several actually. One was a Warlord's wife without his permission. That was eight months ago. He visits this province often."

Valita shrugged, "Yeah, More half-elves in the world! I don't care, I'm getting laid and often."

Brannar looked at Silver Moon and she shook her head.

Brannar groaned, "Until he passes through there in 20 years and is banging his own daughters!"