Silvertree Chronicles Bk. 03 Pt. 02

He let the crystal go dark. He rode for the Silvertree home. He had horses at the doors to two homes, including the old Silver house. He opened the door to his home with the bow drawn. He saw the assassin but he wanted a better angle. He fired on him and caught him in the knee. He fell forward and he put one in the top of his head. He moved upstairs.

He pulled the rings one at a time. One of his own knights, "Golden Bow."

He sighed. He pulled all of the gear off of him and wrapped his body. He went to the old Silver home and kicked in the door. He surprised the occupant who was not one of the assassins. He pointed him to the door. He went out. Travious went up and found this one in a bedroom. He shot her center chest. He took this one downstairs and invited the guy inside. He pulled off the first ring and it stayed invisible.

Travious pulled off the ring and took off the other and the male elf looked at Travious, "My wife, you fucker!"

Travious put the ring back on and he saw the drow. "She killed your wife. I killed her. I am hunting them. I just released your wifes already dead body for burial."

He stripped her gear. He looked at him, "Go to the elder's house. Have him bar his door as it is a safe location at the moment. You will know it is safe when you see a hundred of our Elven warhorses in the village. Go and pass the word. They also killed my mother-in-law. This is not just a threat to you or me."

He nodded. He talked to Shi'Drakon, "How many have the horses killed?"

He responded, "Eight so far."

Travious thought back to him, "Have one mark the location for us unless they stomped both hands-off."

He contacted his Aunt. "I got two more. One was Golden Bow the other was a man's wife. The horses have gotten 8 so far."

Shi'Drakon responds "Make that nine."

He sighed, "9 so far. I am heading over to Strong Oak's home. It was like they were targeting certain family members, old homes, and friends."

He rode over quickly and saw one in Silent Falls, "Goddess I will get him out of it before killing him."

Travious switched to sword and shield. He got off his horse and dove into the water. The drow switched to daggers and stabbed Travious.

Travious bashed his face in with his shield. He knocked him out and quickly took him out of the pool. He thought, "Moon fire." As he stabbed him through the heart. He undid the rings and this one was an elf from the village of Misora.

He stripped the body and rode into the village. His cousin's house had a horse standing in front of it. Travious kicked open the door and fired at the first of 3 targets hitting center mass. He turned to the next and hit the pelvic region above the groin. He got hit with two bolts, and then two more as they used double hand crossbows. He blasted the third one through the left lung. He walked up and stabbed all three just in case. He dragged their asses outside. He stripped the bodies down. As he feared it was all 3 of Strong Oaks wives.

He thought, "What is the number now? I have eight killed out of 20."

Shi'Drakon responded, "We have 9." He contacted his Aunt Zaria, "Have you found any?"

She sighed, "Only 1 so far."

He sighed, "We are missing two."

Karti' Ros signaled, "Danger!"

Followed by, "I smell poison." From Shi'Drakon.

He thought, "Kita Shi'Drakon."

He turned and went full steam into the woods and up toward the trees and kicked one. The assassin fell 50 feet.

Travious jumped down and stabbed him. Shi Drakon told him, "Another source of poison."

He stripped the body. They went through the woods at ground level. They got to the road. He had picked up a little girl and held a blade to her throat, he had improved invisibility going. Travious looked at him, "You obviously want something. Besides me dead."

He looked at Travious, "I want out of here. I want a horse. I do not want to have to walk."

Travious sighed, "All our horses are trained to step on you until you are dead. I do not think you want one of them."

Travious thought, "Shi'Drakon. Have them move behind him in the woods. about 6 of them."

One of the casters from the Academy made out where he was located. He threw a paralysis on the drow. The girl wiggled free. Travious got off his horse and pulled all the rings off of him so he could see his drow face. "Enjoy getting fucked in hell." He found the ring that held the body he stole and put it on. He jammed his sword under his chin and through the top of his skull.

He stripped him down and left him naked in the street." Travious pulled out the crystal to his Aunt and the King. "All 20 are dead here. I am walking to the academy now. All of Strong Oak's wives were killed, Your Majesty and Duchess Silvertree. I have two crystals open. Aunt gets a dozen men on their horses. Their horses will lead them to other bodies. The one being interrogated said there are 20 in the city still."

King Goaldeagle groaned out, "How?"

Travious sighed, "They are using local bodies and improved invisibility. How they got in the city is a better question, Your Majesty."

He let the crystals go dark.

The wizard looked at him, "Why did you put the ring back on?"

Travious sighed, "So the bodies can have a funeral. The drow is now stuck in the ring. Their bodies anyway."

He nodded, "What about their spirits?"

He sighed, "If the Goddess releases all of the spirits. If they are even in the ring. Then they will go to the afterlife. Else their spirits were destroyed by necromancy."

Travious looked at him, "You a graduate?"

He nodded, "Four years out."

Travious looked at him. "I am being assigned to the Far East. I will be operating in the oceans or human lands. Going after slavers who hold our people. You interested in that?"

He looked at Travious and nodded. "Yes. I am Joshua Yellow Leaf."

Travious looked at him, "Go to the fourth floor of the inn when you are packed."

Travious rode to the Academy. "I need to see Strong Oak NOW!"

The guy looked at him and teleported him to the training arena.

"Grand Master Strong Oak. Cousin. I need to speak with you now."

He walked over, "What is the problem? Who shot you?"

Travious wrapped his arms around him, "Cousin. 20 assassins; drow, came into this area. All of your wives are dead. I ensured their bodies were pulled from the ring for burial by leaving them on the drow when I killed them. They were invisible at the time and firing dual hand crossbows at me. The Drow bodies are now trapped in the rings."

He thought, "Shi'Drakon I want these horses here to be wandering sentries until it is time to birth. They can contact The Duchess' mount and she will be alerted when an assassin goes in and protects herself from poison. Then find them and kill them."

Shi'Drakon sighed in his mind, "They could run the perimeter of the town for exercise and another up toward the pasture. Will only need a tenth of them at a time to do that."

His cousin cried into his shoulder. Travious sighed, "They took 20 locals. Including my mother-in-law, Golden Bow, and one of my Aunts lovers. I do not know who all of the others taken are yet. All 20 are dead except for the one who killed my mother-in-law. John is pulling every ounce of information out of her. I am headed back there. Do you wish to see this?"

He nodded, "Are they at the house?"

Travious nodded, "I kicked in your door and killed them. I have not even removed the bolts that have hit me with yet. I needed to see you first. They are just outside your home."

He nodded, "Thank you for telling me. I know assassins are hunting you. Why?"

Travious sighed, "There is a champion for Loth on the other side of their battle. She wants me dead before the war occurs."

Strong Oak took them back down and they walked. "How did you kill so many?"

Travious looked at him, "I release the horses from the pasture to hunt them down. About a thousand went out and located them."

Shi'Drakon waited outside. He walked into the inn and went to John's home and he was still going at her. Amy wrote information out at an alarming rate. They had several pages of data already. Travious looked at him, "I need to know how they communicate?"

He looked at Travious, "They have an egg-like crystal with a spider on it."

Travious reached in and pulled it out. "Can only be activated by a drow."

Travious smiled. "Have her activate it."

He looked at Travious, "It will not connect in here."

He looked at her, "Activate it and I will take it out and try and talk or we drag her out far enough to activate it." He sighed.

He finished giving some notes to Amy. He pulled her to a standing position "What message do you want to send?"

He looked at him, "Send this message. The champion has been relocated. We tried to fight him before he left with his forces. He overwhelmed us with the forces he had collected. He will be in the middle of the Deep Sea tomorrow. On a ship. Then gasp and die."

He looked at John who had her say it along with the proper greeting. She finished it with a Loth forgive me at the end. The crystal blacked out. Then it cracked.

John looked at him, "They destroyed the mate to this crystal." He took the ring of his mother-in-law. "Once you have everything come get me."

He walked out of the room and went to his house and sat on the edge of the table. Grand Master Strong Oak looked at him, "What are you thinking?"

Travious looked at him, "I am hoping I can take the ones that do not have dragons in them and get them purified. I want to try it first on one ring. One of your wives. If the spirit is truly destroyed, I can do nothing about it. It did not pass on. Then at least I know. Our Uncle the bard was used in one of them. When he died it was his body but the wearer got trapped and stripped. The question is where did it go?"

He prayed, "I want to purify one of these rings to find out if it will even work."

He heard, "Very well take a bowl to Silent Falls and fill it from the water there. Place the ring there and start praying over it. I will see you soon. Come alone. Shi'Drakon can bring you and go. He is waiting downstairs."

He walked out and went into the kitchen and found a bowl made from silver wood. His cousin followed him. "I have to go alone. Go to the church, get every cleric available to help heal any injured warhorse that is out front. Sorry, this is direct from the goddess."

He nodded and headed to the church. He got onto Shi'Drakon and thought, "Send any injured Warhorses to the church."

Shi'Drakon responded, "Thank you, it is appreciated and there are several on the way."

He took Travious to the falls and then left without asking. He pulled out the 3 rings for his wives, Golden Bow, and his mother-in-law. He scooped up and filled the bowl and set down and kneeled.

He placed the ring inside and prayed, "My most holy of gods. Corellon Larethian and Sehanine Moonbow The Lady of Dreams. Tell me if these rings hold the spirits and souls of their victims or if they are truly destroyed. Free those of elven blood. Those who were random victims of these wretched things. I humbly ask that you try and answer this question on if those spirits and souls are truly lost and release the innocent if you can into the afterlife. Leaving the damned behind."

The whole area was enveloped in white. "I see you have others lying about."

He nodded, "Yes in the hopes that if this works that we can do the same for these other rings. I know you said we should wait until the tasks at hand are completed but from what I keep hearing I am ahead of schedule on things for good or bad.

I have been inventive and brave. Working to find solutions to complex problems. I cannot say which ones were expected and which ones were a surprise to you. I am just trying to be hopeful in this tragedy. Hopeful that we can do more than one now."

She nodded, "We shall see. She held her hands over the bowl and placed fingers on the surface of the water. A torrent of air rose from the middle of the bow and little wisps flew into the air.

Travious looked at her, "Did it work?"

She nodded, "I cannot speak for all of the victims but our followers were released. Others were as well, but not the enemies of our people. Put the other rings in the bowl. He placed the other rings into the bowl. She repeated her steps and there were columns of air coming from the rings.

She looked at Travious, "They have been released. Your mother-in-law did not have faith in us. She passed to the human side. She did whisper one message. 'Thank you for freeing us.' That confirms to me that I freed others who were not enemies of ours. That is why I wanted you alone because we did not want to give false hope to others if the spirits had been destroyed."

She looked at him, "Melia is the keeper of rings. Those that have non-dragon bodies in them should go to her and wait for the proper time for me to do this in mass. You might need to fill your grandfather's tub with the way they are throwing things at you. Sending her that message from her dying agent was a good idea. It will hopefully stop them from attacking here. What are you going to do at the Embassy?"

He looked at her, "I want arcane casters with the new true seeing on standby with delay poison or poison resistance. I want the horse to be free-ranging about. Let them track the poison as it moves into our area so the mages can intercept them.

We have worked to keep the fact that the horses can sense poison a secret at least. I wish all of them had permanent poison resistance as an ability. It would make them perfect cavalry for the drow war."

She sighed, "They cannot have everything but your efforts to get rid of these 20 were inspiring. We had not counted on you doing that with the entire herd. Your estimates were off that was over 2,000 horses. You were fortunate to disable their leader before she could communicate that they could fly.

She might have seen another doing it so it may have been reported. Using mental communication to relay your request to the herd was good as well. All they know if they were watching is that you stood in the road and sent a call somehow to the horses and they were everywhere and they could not avoid them."

Travious looked at her, "I have to ask. The one from my mother-in-law. Is her body still present in the ring?"

She nodded, "If you had killed the drow it is not important. The spirit or soul in her case is what matters and she will burn her mother's body in the eternal forge when she destroys that ring. Those things can be destroyed as soon as the forge is operational. Time for you to go. Shi'Drakon is on his way back. The evil spirits and souls are stuck in the rings still."

He nodded, "Thank you, Lady of Dreams, for taking this pressing matter off of my mind."

She smiled, "One less thing to worry about. We understand."

He nodded, "Thank you also for the enhanced vision, you knew I would need it."

She smiled, "Yes having one champion after you is one thing. Having two is another. You might even encounter a third from an evil human god because of where you are going. You will upset the balance or shift it drastically. We see many divergent paths to your future as your actions, for good or bad, have created ripples.

For your ears only. We cannot see the actions of draconic gods' activities until after they have passed. We cannot intercept other gods champions, their communications, or communicate with them. There are rules.

When we saw movement into the valley we alerted you to the fact they had moved, but you had to decide the course of action. We can see more of the possible future outcomes for not draconic gods but every champion good and bad can create issues or change what we are unable to predict. I am telling you this only because you are causing a lot of ripples with your actions."

He nodded, "I understand, Lady of Dreams but that is my mission. To keep everyone guessing."

She smiled, nodded, and chuckled, "Thank you for not killing that assassin in the falls and getting him out first. It would not have caused any harm but it shows respect to this holy site."

She smiled and winked out. He got up and took the five rings and put them in a pouch.

He took the water and poured it away from the falls just in case. Shi'Drakon came and Travious got up, "Thank you, my friend. When I have you aboard ship did you want any time up on deck?"

He chuckled, "No I am going to be busy fucking every mare. Though I might go from ship to ship."

Travious thought to him, "I am going to ask this. Horses you are not going to use for stud services be considered for my riders. If something does happen then those you want to use are in place. A will for you, if you get my meaning. Selecting those with the best traits to carry on your legacy."

Shi Drakon chuckled. "I will have those studs that can be used for your troops lined up. Your previous horse will stay. He was a good choice for you and descended from many of my kind over the years."

Travious thought, "What about Straka? I have only ridden her once or twice. She is your wife if you will. Is she alright by that?"

He laughed in his mind, "She is fine with that and she liked your name. She wants to run along the perimeter at the compound and stretch her legs some. You did not see her get in line to join that hunt."

Travious smiled, "I was so focused on getting the delay poison onto all of them. I wanted them protected. I want to go to the enchanters today and put an item on order and see if they have another in stock. Maybe tomorrow. I got to see how all of this is going to go. Stay saddled for now."

He laughed, "I expected some full days with you. What you did with that Dragon was spectacular, brave, and risky."

Travious sighed, "I knew I could take it but the paragon was another matter."

They arrived at the inn and his Aunt was waiting for him, "You are wanted at the Palace."

He looked at her, "I need to know what John pulled from her and ensure she is dead. The King could have contacted my crystal. You want me to go with you to the Palace. Give me a minute."

He got to the fourth floor and John had almost a book of information from this girl, "She was fairly senior. You can kill her now."

Melia was standing there and Travious asked, "Do you wish to bury your mother or have her body destroyed in the eternal forge when it becomes operational? I know she did not follow the elven gods. She did whisper a thank you to us for freeing her soul.

I purified the ring releasing all the souls and spirits who were victims of the ring or who were elf- or elf-blooded. Possibly others. Do you want to watch this body burn or your mother's?"

Melia looked at him, "Leave her body for the forge. I want to watch the flesh burn off of this bitch!"

He nodded. "Do you want to kill her?"

She shook her head, "You do it."

He pulled his sword and the Moon Fire was already on and he slid it into her gut, up through her black heart and straight out of her rib cage. "Her spirit will go back to Loth. She has no genitals, gave up every secret she had, and failed in her mission. I think she will be royally fucked. I need to go. You Uncle are going to hand me all of that or come along with me."

He sighed and grabbed it. He followed Travious out, "What is going on?"

Travious shrugged, "My Aunt wants us to go to the Palace with her."

He got on his horse and looked at her, "Be right back I have a body to return to his father."

She nodded, and he went and got Golden Bow's wrapped body when his other apprentice arrived. Travious looked at him, "Get your things and bunk at the Keep. We had 20 assassins come through claiming local people's form to try and kill me. Golden Bow was one of them. As was my Mother-in-law. Also, my cousin's three wives. It was a hard day all around."