Silvertree Chronicles Bk. 05 Pt. 01

They heard the sound of hoofs hitting the ground. Jarronus walked forward toward the door. It was the other Moon Blade wielders.

Jarronus looked at them, "You are a little late for the battle here."

Strong Oak looked at Jarronus, "We were not told where to go."

He sighed, "I saw them flying and warned the Queen. Moon Ray is dead, his sword secure. Trisna is dead. Both of them got those dragon rings put on them somehow. The Moon Blade killed the dragon inside Moon Ray. We are still missing one somewhere. Use detect magic and look for necromancy auras on the person.

I know Strong Oak has glasses because I gave them to him. Split up into three-man groups. I will take Silver Moon and Silverbar with me. We are headed to the entrance to the Queens secure shelter."

They went to the shelter entrance and there were no guards. He took the teleportation circle up to the shelter as he remembered the sigils for it. The door was open. A red dragon was in the main foyer. He seemed to be searching. He hit him with chain lightning then another as he charged toward the 3 of them. Jarronus threw another force web twice, one quickened. The other two dove off to the side to flank it. The dragon slid right into Jarronus and pinned him to the wall. The cracking of his ribs rang out.

He yelled, "Get the rings off. I am pinned!"

They got the rings off and they started carving it up. Once freed Jarronus gutted him to check to see if he got the King and Queen. A couple of guards but no Royals. A few seconds later another portal opened and a court wizard poked his head out.

Jarronus looked at him. "Twelve dead. Knight Champion Silvertree. Is the Royal family safe?"

He closed the portal. A couple of minutes later the King and Queen came out of the portal.

Jarronus looked at them "They focused the first round of breath weapons on the southwest tower upper level. I blocked most if not all of that attack with a force wall. The Silver dragons did show up but they were getting beat on pretty badly. I saw them teleport out. I do not know if they were recalled or disappointed in our assets here.

I arrived with Moon Ray, Brima Silverleaf, Trisna Golden Bow, and Mirama Silver Sword who is in the throne room treating wounded. Trisna and Moon Ray are dead, your Majesty. The dragons got those damned rings on them. I had to kill Trinsa's body. We were supposed to be married in 12 days. She was 1 of the 4."

Silverbar looked at her, "We did not get guidance on where to go. The Knight Champion saw them flying from where he was. We came in after the fight was over except for this fucker. I saw no Royal Guards standing downstairs. You do have the thirteen remaining Moon Blades here."

She went over and handed Jarronus a ring, "My Guard Captain's body that accessed my portal. That location is our bedroom."

He took the ring from her and put it into another pouch pocket. Jarronus looked at her, "We should search the bodies of these dragons for any communication devices or other intelligence, Your Majesty."

She nodded, "Our wizard saw the change occurring and threw up a shelter, and then we all jumped inside. He sealed the portal. It is just a simple normal-looking human mansion inside of this secure shelter."

They finished collecting up the stuff. As she had no guards, they took up those positions, Jarronus sighed, "What have your accountants come up with, Your Majesty?"

She shook her head, "Nothing that they have reported."

They got downstairs as two squads of Royal Guards came rolling into the throne room. Jarronus immediately went to cast and paralyzed the one guard.

He looked at him, "Dragon in that guard. Get the fuck away!"

The Queen yelled out, "Do what he says!" He detected magic on the ring.

He pulled it off and put it on, "Kill yourself, slit your fucking elven throat."

Jarronus chuckled mentally, "I am immune to mind control you fuck. I am going to take you straight to the Eternal Forge and watch you melt."

Jarronus heard it screaming in anger as he pulled off the ring, "Another blue if I am not mistaken. It wanted me to kill myself, to be freed from the ring. It will go to the forge."

Jarronus looked at the Guard Captain that walked in and slammed him against the wall, "GET THE FUCK OUT OF HERE! Return when you can do your job! Get your fucking glasses!"

He realized he did not have them on. He went running out of the Palace. He looked at the Queen, "Your Majesty until you have some competent security, I request permission to secure you in the war room. I will bring in my remaining brides and students. One of whom is a potential wielder of Moon Ray's Moon Blade. I do not know what his will holds. His body is over there and I have his sword stored and wrapped for safety."

She looked at Jarronus, "One night, and I want you to put up a second in my existing shelter with the features yours has."

He nodded, "If you want that setup, we could set it up on the other side of the platform, I would look to add a few others. It would take a couple of days before I could do that. The two enchanters I brought are dead. One instructor and Brima Silverleaf are missing.

Strong Oak looked at Jarronus, "If you are talking Golden Harp, she is back in Quatarsia screaming her head off for help. A couple of the militia was helping Brima she was laying on the ground in the crossroads. That is how I found you with the others. We thought they were coming in from orc land."

He nodded, "They did. Just earlier than you expected."

He sighed and nodded, "Apparently so."

The Queen had a crystal buzzing, "Your Majesty are you alright?"

She sighed and replied back, "Yes Princess Majisa I was told your dragons left the field."

They heard her sigh on the other end, "Yes we got attacked as well with a force of 50."

He looked at the Queen, "Check our dwarven and human allies, your Majesty."

She looked wide-eyed and got nothing from either. He pulled out a teleportation scroll. She held his arm. "You are in no shape to go."

She handed it to Strong Oak, "Take six of the Moon Blades and six of my guard. Teleport back if there is a problem. Straight to the forge."

Strong Oak looked at her, "I do not know the forge location."

Silver Moon took it, "I do and I have one in memory left as well."

Jarronus pulled out a rod of expansion, "Take this. If you have to take the forge this will expand the circle if you use the one in memory. Use the scrolls to get there. It was created by Dame Staria 1,000 years ago. It uses a draconic mythic version. It was given to one of the Knight Paladins casters and then to Jazzia, for working moving the forge from the island."

They gathered and took off. He sat down, then laid down, and was out of it. He was at the falls with both of them. He laid on the grass unable to move.

The Lady of Dreams looked at him, "Rest there your body is working to heal your wounds. They were extensive. Your bride is setting bones working the rib out of your lung."

Jarronus groaned, "Why even bother?"

She sighed, "You still have important work to do and brides to marry. You have another bride option. She is not as gifted but she does work in enchanting."

He sighed "Who?"

She smiled, "A very small house. Silver Flute. You know her as your pretty enchanter. The one who takes all of the orders. She has been wanting to win your heart for 5 years."

He sighed and nodded, "I will talk to the other 3 first as we are not married yet so this is not replacing a wife but a bride."

She nodded, "I understand your reservation. Time for you to wake now."

He awoke in a bed that was his, but not. He looked over and studied his spells and showered. He came out naked in front of the Queen. She looked shocked, "We are out here in the war room waiting for you. You have been out for 2 days."

He sighed, "Should I get dressed first, Your Majesty?"

She chuckled and nodded, "There would be a lot of jealous elves out here if you do not. Men and women."

She turned red and left the room. He got dressed and armored up. He had an extra pouch and it contained a slew of those necromantic rings. He looked around the room and they had a few dwarves in here. He looked at them "What happened?"

Strong Oak looked over, "They hit the dwarves to get to the forge. They lost 126 dwarves, and 4 royal guards protecting it but the forge got dislodged. Silver Moon did use your rod with the teleport circle and brought it back here. The volcano is spilling into the lower levels.

We have been sending wizards in, left and right, to help evacuate them. We got 90% of their population out and they are working with the dragons with crystals to get more of them out."

Jarronus sighed, "Nice work on getting it out. Keeping it out of their hands."

Strong Oak looked at him, "Nice work living and taking out the majority of those twelve dragons according to the silver dragons. They said you were casting chain lightning from inside of a dragon?"

He nodded, "Are you going to use your other tunnels, your Majesty?"

King Fireaxe looked at Jarronus, "What other tunnels?"

Jarronus sighed, "I have a reference from the time of the Knight Paladin that towers were built into both mountain ranges to be able to observe the valley.

The range to the west of the lava flow has a set of tunnels to tower over the valley. As we know the lava has flowed into what used to be Grand Falls, we know a shaft into the volcano should be accessible from that side. Make it narrower to keep dragons from coming in as dragons, your Majesty."

He got on a crystal, "Who would know about this?"

Jarronus smiled, "Sappers."

He nodded and had a long conversation. He looked at Jarronus, "That may work. They are going to see what we got to work with. It is in the Queens secure shelter. It had to cool and they had to shrink it to get it inside."

Jarronus nodded, "It should be brought here. I can put a semi-permanent secondary internal cave." He trailed off in thought, "We set up a series of them in here. I get a second enchanter to make the entire thing a production line. Each section with its own security measures at the end if we can adapt the environmental controls in dragon mythic magic and essentially create a magical volcano to tap into.

Then it might allow the forge to operate in an extradimensional space. They cannot teleport it out of here. The only thing I would be missing is getting a caster who can cast another draconic mythic. I do not know if Golden Harp succeeded in casting draconic magic or not before she left the field.

We get the Dragon candidates in here, we can get this going and start setting them up permanently. This is a gold dragon environment. Majisa would you say we can get it that hot?"

She nodded, "We have done rock, water, even some lava in our environmental shelters in Quatarsia. In fact, that environment is still in place, if I went there, I could open it. It was my home for a long time."

Jarronus shook his head, "I would like to see it. To give me ideas but it does not have the first stage security features."

She looked at him, "Like what?"

He looked at her feet. "If I activated it right now half this room would be dead with 6-foot spikes coming out of the floor and ceiling. That is across the entire briefing room including the tables, Your Majesty.

There are others like the ones in your shelters that Jazzia helped to design. Those were much more compact. Those on the list to activate the controls are likely dead, except for me. They were designed to decapitate dragons after skewering their necks in place if they tried to stick their heads inside. Protect against breath weapons. Let me show you something."

Jarronus walked back to the falls and hit the level and froze over the entire area, "I just need a temperature range to set that lever to."

She looked at it and nodded, "Why multiple levels in?"

He smiled, "Each one is another portal they would have to shift form to get through. Another set of force walls that have to be brought down or spikes they have to worry about.

We set one up and we put permanent shocking detect necromancy wards in it that we enchant to be always on or just activate them like the spikes. With a spiked field. Dragging materials in and out of the Palace is problematic."

The Queen nodded, "It is secure for the moment. I like the idea of storing it down here because of the added security. Let us not worry about installing it in here."

Jarronus nodded, "Yes, your Majesty. I would ask that you let me set up a separate room that I can work with the dwarves and experiment on the feasibility of using it in such a space. That could potentially be built for them at another location. Using a control lever as we have here to control the environment."

The Queen nodded, "I would allow that as it helps us to plan a proper course of action for its relocation."

The Dwarven King looked at them, "I would like to see what we can do with those western tunnels in the meantime."

Jarronus looked to the Queen, "Your Majesty, we still need extremely high-level mages for enchanting. 10 would be ideal, with 2 of them being dragons.

Six of ours at a minimum in order to get these shields working. I also need to get my students and brides into a secure location. Did our human allies get attacked?"

The Queen looked over, "No they did not attack there."

Jarronus sighed, "We need to see how badly infiltrated the humans have become, again. We need the dragons I visited with on the day my amulet attached. They can change forms and will look like a cautionary move to have dragons available if they get attacked next."

Majisa walked over to him, "They are already exploring that possibility. The same suggestion came in from our champion yesterday while you were unconscious due to your injuries."

He nodded, "I figured out where to go. The group I had arrived first followed by your silver dragons that got recalled. The other blade wielder arrived at the end of the battle and we got that last red dragon. That did free them to take on the battle at the forge, Your Majesty."

Majisa smiled and stroked his arm, "Yes it did and it saved the forge and a lot of dwarven lives."

Queen Goldeagle looked at him, "They found something in the records but these heirs were way down on this list. Amy is with them now upstairs."

He nodded, "I have a few of my own questions for them, Your Majesty."

She nodded and he went and found Amy. Jarronus walked in and she seemed exasperated as she spoke, "These two do not seem to have any involvement in this."

Jarronus looked at them, "Maybe my questions will help. If they are willing to help their Queen and the Kingdom?" They both nodded. "I need to know if anyone outside of your house or branch has access to your accounts.

Are any of your female daughters set to marry into a different or higher branch of the family? Distant cousins. If they have access to these accounts. Write it out if you do and which houses or branches those are. Going from the start date of the transactions."

They nodded and each made a list of those who were marrying up. Four names all marrying into two branches. He took that list down to the Queen, "Your Majesty, the elders on those branches have no direct knowledge of this. This is a list of those females in the branches who had access to the accounts in question and who are marrying up into higher branches of your own family."

She looked at the names and branches, "I will get a meeting of all heirs and have those two brought in for questioning. I will hold them all. The assassination attempts that have been occurring have gotten bolder over recent days. I will also issue arrest warrants for these 4 in order to find out what involvement if any they had in this."

He nodded, "Yes, your Majesty. Do you know where Mirama Silver Sword and Brima Silverleaf are right now?"

She sighed. "They are in the multi-faith church in Quatarsia. Brima teleported out as you know. But not before losing a leg. She is undergoing regeneration to get it back. You are free to go and check on them. Your mount made it to safety and is in our stable."

He nodded, "Thank you, Your Majesty."

He went out of the war room and they unsealed the outer room. He made his way to the stables. His mount was still saddled. He sighed and spoke to Hitan, "I am taking you home and getting that stuff off of you. I have been unconscious for the last 2 days."

He heard a sigh from Hitan, "They had not told me anything. I am glad you are doing better. Thank you for sending me out of that fray. The one that chased me broke off because I was leading him away and then I got into the trees. I watched the skies from a distance to see what was going on.

Once it calmed down, I came here and one of the other horses told me you were badly injured and collapsed in the throne room. He got that from his rider who was a guard who came in."

Jarronus nodded and used a teleport circle straight to the Quatarsia barn and got his gear off and got him stabled.

Jarronus thought, "Still I am sorry about the delay in getting this off."

Hitan just brushed his head against Jarronus. Jarronus brushed him down and fed him. Then he went to the church with his gear.

Jarronus looked at the acolyte, "I am looking for Brima Silverleaf, leg injury."

He pointed Jarronus to their hospice section. He went in and found the two of them crying together. The regeneration took longer than normal it appeared. Brima saw him, "He's here!"

Mirama turned and jumped into his arms.

She held him, "I was out of healing when you collapsed. It took almost an hour to get clerics in from the other church! The Queen was furious at the delays. Not just them the military as well. She has units permanently stationed within minutes of the Palace now."

He dropped his tack and went down and hugged Brima as well, "I am so sorry about your leg."

She smiled, "You were closer to death than I was. I got it to work on one who trailed you, the force web. Nice spell. A blue caught my horse and me from the side right after."

Jarronus looked at them, "The Gods have told me of another possible fourth. Another enchanter in the city. She is not as powerful but they told me she would be an excellent wife to fill the second slot. When do you get out of here?"

Brima looked at him, "Hopefully tonight."

He nodded, "First thing in the morning I want all of us relocated to the city. I need to take care of some things first."

She nodded. He grabbed his tack and went to the inn and into his home.

His students were happy to see him. Moon Ray was sad at the loss of his father but he now carried the Moon Blade. He looked at him, "I am sorry about your father. We have someplace to go. All of you."

Olivana came out of the room and rushed him. He held her to him, "I am so sorry about the others. For some time, we were the only forces at the Palace, then the Silvers arrived. They helped but got recalled because of an attack on their Palace. I need you to go down and grab a bowl from the inn or the general store, silver wood. Keep one handy from now on."

She smiled, "I still have it. Sounded like I would need it."

He nodded. He waved them out and teleported them to Silent Falls. He scooped some water and placed all the rings in the bowl. He placed the two rings for Trisna and Moon Ray in last. He prayed, "I humbly ask you Lady of Dreams. Come and purify these rings. Release the spirits of Moon Ray and my Bride Trisna Golden Bow so they may find peace. Also, the spirits and souls of those who were pure of heart but trapped by these evil items."

The Lady of Dreams appeared before him, "I am sorry this happened but also relieved to see you take care of this right away."

This time she walked to him and placed her fingers over the water and then touched them. There were wisps of spirits that came out and circled Moon Ray and Jarronus before moving on. A couple of rings leaped from the bowl and laid on the ground.