Silvertree Chronicles Bk. 03 Pt. 02

He nodded. "I will secure the house as best I can."

Travious nodded, "Thank you."

Travious got back to his Aunt. She looked at the wrapped body over his saddle. She looked at Travious, "What are you going to do with him?"

Travious looked at her, "Take him with me and return my apprentice to his family. It is Golden Bow."

She rolled her eyes as she thought about the message this would send to the King who was already furious with her. They walked into the Palace with him carrying a body in his arms. Court activity suddenly stopped. The King waved them forward. He looked at Travious, "Who do you carry?"

Travious looked at him, "One of my former apprentices. He was listed as a candidate and I formally request that the word candidate is removed for him. That he be called Knight Paladin. This was Knight Paladin candidate Golden Bow. The first Gold Elf to undergo this training. He died from one of the 20 drow assassins who attacked me earlier today, Your Majesty."

The King looked at him, "I will honor your request. I would like my guards to take the body and send a messenger to the Golden Bow family to come to the Palace at once. No details. Royal cleric, please heal up the champion."

He came forward and removed the bolts Travious had ignored and healed him up.

The King looked at Dutchess Zaria, "You have suffered a lot of losses recently in your Duchy."

She looked at him, "Yes, your Majesty. We have had 3 rounds of assassins targeting the champion."

Travious nodded to the King, "We have much to discuss on this latest round of attacks and my Uncle has compiled a novel on his observations. My cousin who was here earlier might want to sit in our meeting. To offload stress on the Duchy I am relocating temporarily to the Far East Embassy. From there I will be at sea on a mission for you and the Gods within the next couple of days."

He nodded, "Your new papers and your charter."

Travious bowed to him, "Thank you, Your Majesty."

He handed him his old ones. Which he took. The King looked out to the court, "This mission is for the Gods. As such he has been given command of his own mercenary unit with the previous numbers being included. I think we need to talk in private."

They went to the Queen Mother's Audience chamber as it was closer. He closed the door and secured the room. He started off on Duchess Zaria, "Where the fuck was your security for this?!"

Travious looked at him, "These were no ordinary assassins. They were an elite unit. Mostly female unit of assassins. Using rings of improved invisibility and paralyzing poisons they got the victims into a state where all they had to do was slide one of those rings on them and then kill them. Then the new body is stored.

Then they could go around as citizens of the town or be invisible. We tracked them down using the herd. We can deploy a tenth of the herd around the area they will alert if they identify poison where it is and which direction it is heading.

Then she can deploy a unit that has been properly protected with delay poison for them and the horses. With an arcane who has the new true seeing spell. Making all of these announcements about me being in the Deep Sea should hopefully start to curtail that activity.

My Uncle even sent a dying message back to the other champion that they failed and were overwhelmed by the troops I had amassed. My Uncle has the contents of her head in his hands. There are still 20 more floating around the capital.

She was high up on the food chain apparently. The herd will help while she rebuilds her ranks. Might I suggest recalling some of the assets from the regional generals and assigning them back to the Gray Blades? Her numbers drop because of the assets we deployed to other parts of the world when the war ended, Your Majesty."

Dutchess Silvertree looked at the King, "I lost 300 assets at the end of the war from the Gray Blades. Another 150 from the protection force. They were not even supposed to be touched because of the minimal training they had. That leaves me running with a skeleton crew and no recruits coming in from the regional commanders. Little interest from our local allies because of the timeline of the wars, Your Majesty."

King Goldeagle looked at them and sighed, "The regional commands are in disarray at the moment."

Travious looked at the King, "Sounds like there are plenty of issues and blame could be cast wider, the blame is not what we need. We need to fix the problems in getting assets. Time to recall someone back into service to get things back on track. Jarron Silverleaf, Your Majesty. I have one of his sons in my group as you know."

He nodded, "I may have to do that. He will, of course, blame you."

Travious nodded, "He should be blaming my Aunt or himself. Someone should be heading up the coordination with these regional generals and making the calls needed as you cannot monitor them all, it needs to be delegated.

I also talked with Jarron about my waking you up a few times in the middle of the night with updates from the other side of the world. He knows that buffer is a position that he filled. Do I get to keep the ship's crew or do I have to try and divide 100 men to do what 400 do, Your Majesty?"

He looked at Travious and shook his head, "Your unit does not count the ship's crew as they will be docked or out of reach once you make landfall, and then I will recall them."

Travious looked at him, "You are denying us the right to take down slave ships, Your Majesty? I disrupt a shipment or 20 going into that province at war while outside of territorial waters it would earn me some ocean credibility as well. Especially if it was seen, Your Majesty."

King Goldeagle nodded, "On a volunteer basis. I will adjust your charter to include 2 full crews for now. We will make adjustments as needed."

Travious looked at him, "Then can I ask for volunteers from the other ships I will be saving from dragons, Your Majesty?"

He chuckled, "Yes, you can scrape a crew from the others if you do not get enough volunteers."

Travious smiled, "I picked up 1 more volunteer from the Academy to help. A wood elf. He will need wands. He paralyzed the last assassin and saved a little girl he was holding hostage."

The King nodded and his uncle interjected, "I have a full or close to full background on the drow champion. A Gestalt wizard sorceress like your father but based in poison. Instead of electricity."

King Goldeagle sighed and looked at Travious, "I wish my hands were not tied and I could put you out with the drow now."

Travious nodded, "We both have our orders. I have a request to make. Bree knows two teleport locations to the Griffon Queens Palace. She could take in eight others. Set up different locations and teleport back. We just came into a trove of rings with improved invisibility on them thanks to the Drow assassins. On another note. I prayed to the goddess to help purify and release the elf and elf-blooded souls and those of hapless victims from 5 of the rings.

We tried one then added four. They can be destroyed now. The rings retained the souls or spirits of its victims. We are sending a bunch of drow souls into oblivion from using those rings, Your Majesty."

He looked at Travious, "This is to see if the Griffons are flying or if dragons have taken their place?"

Travious nodded, "Gives us places to do it again in the future and ensure we are not just one caster deep in who knows the location to the garden as well."

He nodded, "Approved for tomorrow. Anything you find can wait until morning."

Travious nodded, "Yes, Your Majesty. Your morning or mine?"

They chuckled together. Travious looked at Uncle John, "Any other big surprises in there?"

He nodded, "Your military will want to see this data immediately, your Majesty."

He nodded and Travious looked at him, "I expect a separate write up from you Uncle John, on this other champion. Remember I have not filled out my 100 yet. I can recruit from anywhere."

He chuckled, "Fine I will get you a more detailed rundown on her."

The Queen Mother came up with six encrypted pages and Travious decrypted them two at a time for her. She looked at him, "You saved me days' worth of headaches."

He looked over at Uncle John, "I am the revealer. I discovered that talent and decrypted several documents written in drow for my cousin."

John looked at him, "A stack about yeah high?!"

Travious nodded, "Maybe a little taller but yes. I decrypted them all, they were in drow so I could not read them."

John looked at the King, "We need her to compare notes because they were working on sending out some false information, Your Majesty."

The King nodded, "I will get her here at once. The two of you can chat it out."

Travious sighed, "I have a father to go deal with and an enchanter's shop to go see."

He nodded, "I will have his paperwork amended."

They unsealed the room and Travious got about 10 feet out when the boy's father came up to Travious, "What happened?"

Travious looked at him, "Drow assassins, 20 of them came into the 2 villages and town. They paralyzed or knocked out their victims. Then slid a necromantic ring on that when they killed him it captured his spirit and trapped his body for use by the assassins.

They could put it on and use his body with their minds. I killed them with the ring on freeing his body for burial. They had improved invisibility going as well on all of them. I sought help from the Lady of Dreams to free his spirit from the ring. The Goddess purified one of the rings. One of the three wives Grand Master Strong Oak lost in this attack.

It worked. I had set aside others in the hope she would do them as well. The other two wives, my mother-in-law who hated me, and your son. His spirit has passed on. The King is modifying his title to reflect him as a Knight Paladin. That was at my request while I held his body in front of him. He was wrapped of course. The damage done from my bow is extensive.

I killed 9 of the 20 myself and they were all found and killed. I captured one for interrogation which went fairly well before I executed her. These assassins are looking for me. Why I am relocating to the Far East on another mission for the Gods.

They do not want me in the war with the drow just yet, I will be in the middle of the Deep Sea in a couple of days. I am sorry for your loss as he was more than a student. He was a friend and a brother at arms."

The father nodded knowing Travious gave him the cold honest truth. Travious headed out front and his Aunt looked at him, "Thank you for helping to deflect some of the heat I was getting."

Travious nodded, "It was my fault for being in your Duchy. I am going to fix that at least until security improves. Do not be surprised if you get a midnight call about strong poison coming in. I will give you a call when I need a lift back."

She rolled her eyes and nodded. An elf stopped him, "Extra wands in case you pick up any more casters or just need them."

Travious nodded, "Thank you." He looked at him and he must have been one of the court wizards. He headed out and Shi'Drakon came over to shorten his walk.

He sighed and thought, "Did you set the herd to do the checks?"

He heard him sigh, "Yes, they are set."

Travious looked forward, "The enchanters, best speed."

Shi'Drakon took them through the district really quick. Karti'Ros alerted, "Danger, wait it is gone, you are out running it."

He sighed, "Got someone wanting to kill me here too."

He headed into the enchanter's shop. He walked to the back and she looked at Travious funny, "Something wrong?"

He looked at her, "My Moon Blade alerted me to danger a bit ago. They could not keep up. I am keeping an eye on the door if you will."

He pulled his bow and nocked an arrow, "Just in case. I want you to grab a cleric shield for me. She went off and came back. He held her back behind him. Karti'Ros alerted, "Danger."

He thought, "I got danger from the sword. Are you seeing anything on the ground level?"

He responded, "Two coming up the road toward me."

He looked at her, "Take cover." He stood off to the side and they both had one of those fucked-up rings. He drew back and popped the first one straight in the chest and Shi'Drakon attacked the one coming out long enough for him to get a shot into his back. "They are wearing those fucked up rings!"

Karti'Ros sighed, "You are using that bow more than me. All clear at the moment."

He looked at the saleslady. "I want this shield in a seventy percent adamantium and thirty percent mithril.

Swirl it up. One and half times as thick. A command word to have it shoot both down and up, 3 2-foot-long adamantium spikes in both directions. Four inches thick. Extend and retract on command."

She looked at Travious, "Where would you use that kind of shield?"

He looked at her, "In the neck of a dragon."

He handed her his papers. She read through them and looked back, "I will get this on Order Knight Paladin Silvertree. With the blue border and the holy symbol. Anything else?"

He looked at her, "Use my heraldry from my shield. Did the feather fall items get delivered to House Silvertree?"

She nodded, "Will take care of that. We had 36 rings and one set of bracers sent that way."

He smiled, "I know a cleric who would like the bracers."

A couple of members of the city guard arrived and Travious looked at them, "Knight Paladin Silvertree. These guys have been removed from these rings because I killed these two with them on."

He pulled the rings off and slid the one on to show the drow. Then he did the same but took one off and put it back on at the same time. He looked at them. "I do not know what house they belong to but two drow assassins killed them. I killed the assassins."

He opened his pouch, "Five more here."

He closed it and opened another. He lifted them out with two hands. "Quite a few here."

They looked at Travious and one guard asked, "Any way to confirm this?"

Travious smiled and pulled out the Crystal, "Your Majesty, I am here with two city guards and two corpses with those damned rings. Would you let them know what action they should take?"

The King sighed, "Cannot send you anywhere without damned assassins trying to strike. They drow?"

Travious smiled, "Yes your Majesty, they are drow."

He called out, "Guards, this is King Goldeagle. He is going to strip those bodies and bring back any useful intelligence to the Palace. He has killed I do not know...how many today?"

Travious looked at the orb, "This makes 11 out of 22 that revealed themselves today, your Majesty. The town defense force dealt with the others as you know."

Travious heard him sigh, "Take care Knight Paladin."

He put the orb away and showed him his paperwork and they stood back while he pulled a bag of holding off of one poison injecting blades, hand crossbows, a couple of amulets, and one of those communication crystals."

He tried to see if he could get it to activate. In the same manner that he accessed the documents. It lit up. "I am sorry your goddess won't let you come to play yourself, bitch! Imagine the intelligence I will get off of this one."

She started to say something and he slammed the crystal down breaking the connection. He looked at them, "You can take them away."

The guard carried the bodies off with the holes burned through them, "Send any inquiries on them to the Palace."

The sales lady looked at his bow, "Who enchanted that?"

He smiled and pointed down, "Right here to my Grandfather's specifications. The druids hate this bow. The arrow turns into lava-like effects. The damage of a fireball in one shot. Not counting arrow and strength as it is an adjusting strength bow as well. I would like a few sets of magic suppressing manacles as well. I can use more as I am going after slavers."

She looked at everything, "Anything else?"

He looked at her, "Do you have anything for non-detection. Protected from scrying?"

She nodded, "We have a couple of cloaks. One is a high-end protection cloak."

He looked at her, "I want my design on that cloak you mentioned! You have my discounts and numbers. How long to get that done?"

She looked at Travious, "We have a series of mid-level enchantments being done for you. We can put it in with that and have it to you in the morning. Sent to House Silvertree."

He nodded, "Thank you. He mounted up and headed toward House Silvertree at best speed. His sword alerted, "Danger." He was about midway into the compound.

Travious rode into the stable with his bow drawn and saw him in the rafters. He shot one into him and the assassin shot one into Travious. He pulled it immediately.

Travious channeled some healing into himself. Karti 'Ros sighed, "Still danger. I am beginning to hate that bow."

He looked at the body and pulled the rings and put them back on and took them off. "The groundskeeper."

He pulled a crystal, "Aunt! Meet me at House Silvertree Compound immediately with reinforcements!"

She yelled, "On my way!"

He delayed poison on Shi'Drakon. Travious stripped the body of anything of value. He mounted up and a bolt clinks off the back of his shield.

He thought, "Kita strong poison. Karti'Ros, if you had ranged abilities I would use them right now. I do not have a dimension door, teleportation, or any means of magically getting close enough to strike them with you. Fly takes too damned long with those damned hand crossbows and them they use. Else I would do that. How many casters have held this blade and did you complain about the others casting at a target instead of swinging at them?"

Karti'Ros did not answer immediately.

Shi'Drakon bolted out of the barn and attacked the man. "He headed to the teleportation circle after stabbing him with his sword just to be sure. Karti'Ros, "Thank you. Danger still present."

He had 20 men and casters come in with his Aunt. He looked at her "2 down at the enchanter. 2 down here. There should be 16 more present."

Travious shook everyone's hands and gave them delay poison. He went over to the second body and removed rings. "One of the guards."

He sighed. He went through and pulled all of his gear out. He thought, "Do it again but do not attack just get me in the area. I do not want to give away your abilities."

He rode around the compound and there were 3 of them under the Great Silvertree on the grounds. Travious popped the first one and then the second. The third made a run for it. He shot that one in the back.

Karit'Ros sighed, "Still present. Back to the bow again."

He looked at his Aunt, "Room by room searches."

He stripped those bodies and there were elders in this group. He stored it all and got mounted back up and he thought, "Again."

He walked further back and around the tree a couple of times. Shi'Drakon responded. "Building in front. A lot of poison."

He hopped down and thought back, "Gray Blade hall."

Travious walked in and saw one at the end of the hall and he nailed that assassin to the wall. He got shot again from a side room. He pulled the bolt and entered the room and fired.

Hitting the window sill as he jumped out. Travious moved up and took out his foot with another bow shot as he ran. He thought, "Kita Shi'Drakon! Kill that fucker!"

He did a room by room and found what he was supposed to be picking up and keep it bundled. He stored the gear off of the body in this hall. He looked at Shi'Drakon. He took the gear off of this one and it was Victria."

He pulled out his crystal, "Outside quickly."

He let it go dark. She came out and he looked at her, "I counted 3 elders, the groundskeeper, and one guard."