Silvertree Chronicles Bk. 08

Charlus looked at him, "When these are under construction even Kings and Queens are unaware of what is being built normally. This centers around the flying mountains that came at us. We make flying and mobile shields. We can then turn them into offensive weapons against the half-dragons, Your Majesties.

This is untested and the second contingency of two shields including one over the unprotected border walls and one over the open ocean.

The ones who would have the biggest objection to this implementation would be Majisa as it does damage dragons. She voiced no objection yesterday about preparing for this eventual invasion.

As to the humans, I directed them to Quatarsia and the Duke was made aware of their approach and was getting linguists together to talk with them. Their common is not great. They are freed, former slaves. Anything that puts a hurt on the former slavers that held them they would likely relish the chance at vengeance against them.

They are all ready to fight. I can cast the tongues spell on you and you can ask them anything. As to base 1, I will make that call when we have vetted candidates that are trained. That will not be dictated by you. As I said, that is my home."

He looked at his general who simply nodded. Charlus looked at the Queen, "Did he come with a contingent?"

She shook her head, "One of our mages brought him here this time with his general. He is not a fan of his court wizard."

Charlus nodded," I can take him to Quatarsia to meet them if you can get the shields down. Then return him to his 'palace' if he brings his shields down. Does your General have the glasses? I see you are not wearing any either."

He nodded, "He wears them when required. When I wear them is none of your concern."

Charlus looked at the General, "When required should mean every time your eyes are open. They can show up as messengers or servers. Just walking down your streets. You should wear them to see the truth of the world."

King Rosenthrawl looked at Charlus, "You do not wear them."

Charlus smiled and let his eyes be revealed and he looked shocked. "It was an ability given to my sword. I have that on all the time. I see better than most dragons. That is how I saw the aid was one and ordered his wrists to be broken. Then he was brought here and I snapped his neck and took the ring away and put it in the pile from your slaver friend."

He nodded and put his glasses on. Charlus reverted his eyes. "I can control when they appear; except in the heat of battle or passion. Unless I focus on them and I never focus on them."

He scooped up the rings. And moved over next to them. The Queen looked at Charlus as she put the crystal down, "You are cleared into the crossroads your guests are at the inn. In your shelter."

He teleported them into the crossroads and there were city guards everywhere. He nodded to them and took the King and General into the inn and onto the fourth floor. The wall was down. Charlus walked over and activated the portal. His guests were scattered about and he walked in with the two humans.

One grabbed a weapon and he called out in the regional dialect, "Stand down Chan Qui, they are here to talk with you. That is all."

She looked at Charlus, "How do you..." He changed forms.

She looked at Charlus, "You're a shapeshifter!"

He changed back, "No an elf who was traveling your part of the world. I use magic to disguise myself and to get you freed, twice in your case."

She nodded, "I remember you dropped us off at the end of the road and pointed us here. An elf who spoke one of the dialects badly told us they were sent to take us to a shelter."

He nodded, "This is one of my homes. Created by one of my ancestors."

Charlus cast the tongues spell on King Rosenthrawl, "They will hear you in the language they like to use and you will hear them."

King Rosenthtawl looked at them, "You were slaves?"

They nodded, "Until the Stealth Butcher freed us. He hates slavers and left them messages with the dead bodies. He became infamous in the last several months. They had a million-gold piece bounty on him in three provinces." Charlus looked at her, "It grew to 10 million."

She nodded, "After you freed our group?"

Charlus shook his head, "Before your group. I relocated over 20,000 former slaves on several fishing boats to what is supposed to be an uninhabited island. We know it as Queens Island when the elves had a naval presence there.

Plenty of vegetation and fishing. They can eat. I recruited 24 into an order to bring a stop to slavery, these chromatic dragons and half-dragons they raped into women. As you know."

She nodded, "I gave birth to a black demon that tried to kill me to get out! They took it away. I was turned over to slaver because I am infertile now."

Charlus shook his head, "You were turned over to the group who took the dragons their food. That is why I risked getting the 10 of you out of there so quickly, instead of sticking around for the dragon to stick his head in and roast all of you.

You were one of 3 that got recaptured and I came back for you and freed the others that were with you. Red dragons live off the ash from your bodies. The reds prefer that or cooking you up in a recipe if they have time. Lately, they have gone straight to consumption. I want to train you, put you to work in this fight. At my bases and in the field.

We need to improve your language skills for most to understand what you wish to say. You will see a lot of things that are unbelievable like this shelter and magic. The elves are a very magical people. What did you wish to ask them?"

King Rosenthrawl looked at them, "You loyal to any King?"

They looked at Charlus. Charlus smiled, "You have warlords and at one time you had an emperor who was over the warlords. He would be talking about either of those roles?"

They all shook their heads. One man looked at them, "We do not trust rulers, people with titles, or the military."

Charlus nodded, "This is not a military unit. We work for the good of four kingdoms. But we are independent and seek to bring balance to the world. The human King Rosenthrawl, the Elven Queen Goldeagle, the Dwarven King Fireaxe, and the Queen of the Gold Dragons Majisa.

She heads the Metallic Dragon council and the Dragon council which includes some neutral dragons. She is a metallic and a sworn enemy of the creatures that are plundering your previous homes.

The question is can you follow my direction? I am a Knight in the Elven court and considered the commander of these two bases. We use it to monitor our home. Come here and look at this."

Charlus walked over to the map. "This is a representation of the world. When the land changes this map changes. We have maps that allow us to see if someone is using the alter self, invisibility spells, anything with necromancy. You would be trained to work this system and watch over the world. Once your language skills are up to par then I would see some of you being agents.

In order to return to the land of chaos as adventures. Spies, assassins to free other slaves, help to establish a stable and peaceful government."

They looked at each other and she finally spoke, "We would work for you and get paid for this work? Not sex or cleaning, but other work?"

He nodded, "Yes, you would. You came here frightened mice and you will leave here as a jaguar, a raven, a cat, or a dog. You will learn to infiltrate the way I did. Get close to those in power and in the know of things. Those who have been raped by these chromatic dragons I would work to keep here.

I would like you to remain and work on this system and live a full measure of life, but the choice is yours. The King here wants you to be members of his kingdom. To be blessed into this order. It would be welcomed, but it is not required.

The group I run recruits from everywhere to find the right talent. Loyalty to a King or Queen is not required but looked favorably upon. We look for those who are motivated to bring peace to yourselves and your people."

She looked at Charlus, "Why us?"

Charlus looked at her, "Because you have nothing to lose, you're motivated, and I have a soft heart when it comes to women who were assaulted like you were. This is a chance to strike back at them. To get a fresh start."

One of the girls he had never got a name for spoke, "What if I wanted to learn magic."

Charlus looked at her, "You got the talent for that?"

She looked around. "I might damage your home."

Charlus smiled, "It will fix itself. Just aim at the falls in the back. He walked her back. She set off what would have been a fireball but was more like a wave of fire. He nodded, "We will get you trained to control it." He looked over and threw an acid explosion at the falls and let it explode."

She nodded, "Thank you."

He walked over to the table, "Pork roast with sides for 16.

She watched the table fill up with food. They hit the table like starved animals. "This place will shelter you and feed you while building up your skills." He walked over to a wall and cast up another and locked it in. "A training facility with four times as many training dummies."

---

Charlus gave them time to eat while he spoke to the Human King and his General lover, "As you can see they bear the marks of being in manacles and living under governments that were beyond trusting. One woman is infertile, from being raped but lived through the delivery.

Chromatic half-dragon children work to eat their way or claw their way out of their own mothers. Humans half-dragons can be bred fast enough because of their higher birth rates. Even with the mother dying 90% of the time or becoming infertile food after delivery.

They like elven women for that because they get more arcane talent that way. Occasionally female half-dragons are used to breed with human and elven males. Infertile males and those in same-sex only relationships are automatically considered food.

Once the half-dragon mothers to be are expecting the first meal is usually the bed partner who got them pregnant. They face the same risk of dying during delivery and becoming infertile because of the nature of chromatic dragons. Laying eggs is natural to dragons, Chromatics are sadistic enough they do not care about the host carrying the child.

Something else you have to consider is you are getting crowded, that is why those 20,000 have not been brought forward yet. There is room to expand on the other end of the land bridge Until you do, it will continue to get crowded in the lands you currently occupy.

Elves will need to expand out in that direction as well. But we are not nearly as overcrowded as your city-state is becoming. You have some room to breathe as you lost over 400,000 people in the last war due to your infiltration previously.

Chan Qui managed to deliver before it killed her, but not before it damaged her reproductive systems. The little girl was not one I had met before, her having magical talent and too young to breed. I don't know what caused her to be put into the dragon's food bowl if you will.

She is a raw talent that could learn much in our academies. She will have a lot of options open to her. Some that might force her to become a member of your Kingdom. You have had the worst luck with wizards, always have in my family history going back to the champion Eldar and Grand Falls.

She could be in your court eventually or with the dragon riders. I won't know until she is assessed. You have human candidates for access to my system then you send them to Quatarsia. They will be checked over physically for draconic runes, which this group will need to be checked for.

Then checked via divination and psionically to get vetted into access to the systems at Base 2. No base will have an all human contingent, ever. There are 2-4 races represented in every shift. I own those systems and they are documented into treaties signed by your Mother when I allowed her to have humans in the Knights working Alliance Overwatch.

Another human Kingdom, across the bridge, or the other side of the world forms up and requests to join the Knights then another Human King or Queen will be in the mix and will get this same briefing. Again, Base one is my home, until I trust them, nobody will gain access to Base 1.

Base 1 is not all elves, as dragons have a representative on just about every shift before I departed for the Queen's mission. It will return to that. Before you ask, I have elves, dwarves, and dragons subject to that same level of scrutiny. You heard my Queen mention paranoia, but it is not paranoia when I keep getting proved right. Especially with humans. She knows that, Your Majesty."

King Rosenthrawl looked over, "What if I don't recognize your authority over this system. What if I void that treaty?"

Charlus looked at him, "You should consider that. It is built into your Alliance Treaty; you are asking what if you leave the Alliance. That is a question you should ask the Dwarven King, Majisa, and Queen Goldeagle as to how they would respond, individually and together.

The moment you make an aggressive move, or get deemed a rogue state because of the level of infiltration in your lands could dictate the response. Which we would monitor aggressively at that point due to your proximity and you would have no treaty with which to control the level of monitoring that we are doing over your Kingdom.

Unless you migrated away from the elven people and the Alliance entirely. Then you have to deal with the hordes of barbaric humans on the other side without our aid. In short, it is not wise to leave the Alliance, but it would be your right to do so, Your Majesty.

I would speak with your human diplomates to get a feel for how each of the allies would likely respond to that situation. BEFORE attempting to make that call.

I could foresee the other members of the alliance working together to remove your Kingdom from the area if not the face of the world if you turned on the Alliance in part or in whole. You would be throwing away centuries of peaceful co-existence.

As to my system, it buys you nothing, except your people would be locked out of the system. Those humans unaffiliated with your government would still be able to work with the Knights on an individual basis.

You ally with our enemies and you would soon find yourself in a lot of trouble when the arcane power is unleashed on your people. There are a lot of ways for you to go on this discussion, but bullying your way into my system is never going to work.

You have already proved you cannot vet your own people. Your inability to handle minor magical items, glasses, for example, to ferret out these problems shows you are not ready to deal with higher forms of magic to use that system effectively."

---

Chan Qui approached and Charlus looked at her, "This one is designed like the training facility at my home in the Capital." The others followed having gotten something to eat.

He showed them the falls. He looked at one man who went by the name Duck. He walked him into a side room and stood him in a shower. He turned on the nobs. And he looked around and laughed. "You take your clothes off in the room you will find them clean and stacked in a pile when you wake up. No servant. No cooks required here. It is something that will take care of you. I will take you to a store and get you new clothes and weapons you like or want to learn."

He walked out with the human King and his general and waited for them to all exit the side room before continuing. "We will bring it all back here to get you started. I will get you to Base 2 in a few weeks and show you the maps and what to look for.

We will be training you to be the guardian eyes over this part of the world and see how bad it was in your part of the world. What I want to fix. But you have to have some form of government for your people. Be ready to train and fight for your people and not just yourselves."

They all nodded at him. Charlus looked at King Rosenthrawl, "Your Majesty, I am showing you 10 humans with raw skills that we will turn into swords, and a caster able to work the system that is helping to monitor your people's safety.

They are not loyal to the elven people or any government and we accept that in the Knights. They will work with your military eventually. They will be paired for a time with someone who can relay the information to you. Is this acceptable?"

He looked at Charlus, "I would prefer that they were loyal to me."

Charlus nodded, "They are going to be loyal to the Alliance as a whole and human agents for change. As I mentioned I got another 20,000 to move to train them to be an army, find more spies, and build up their battle skills.

First, you have to have room for them, which you do not currently have until you expand south. You cannot safely do that until the border walls and new fort are in place on the other side of the land bridge.

We might even find a few more untrained mages to add to your force or eventually your court. Trained in the right kinds of magic. The girl is an untrained battle sorceress. She would make a great field agent in an adventuring group. If that is what she wants to do. She could become a Dragon Rider."

She looked at Charlus, "Fly on a dragon?"

Charlus nodded. "Follow me."

Charlus walked outside and looked and saw them flying in the distance. He pulled a crystal, "Majisa could we get a couple of Dragon Riders into Quatarsia crossroads. I have guests and the Human King with me."

She sighed, "Sending 3. The area is small and only one of them will land."

They waited a few minutes and one landed and Charlus waved him down. He pointed at the girl, "Untrained battle sorceress. Could she get a ride on the dragon with you? Let her see if it interests her."

He nodded and took her up with him. She was small, maybe 10 years of age, and extremely powerful for her age. Charlus looked at the King. "If she decides she wants to be a Dragon Rider then she would need to align with your kingdom. That is outside the Knights but we work to support each other."

He nodded. They came back 10 minutes later and landed. She returned all smiles. Charlus looked at her, "This is something you would want then you would need to take the King up on his offer once you graduate from the Academy. Dragon Riders are aligned to the four kingdoms and he is the King over the humans in this area."

She looked at him, "If I can get there then I would be loyal to you."

The King smiled and nodded. Charlus looked at her, "We are getting you some clothes and then I am taking you to the Arcane Academy just down the road where they will teach you. There are some who know your language and others who can cast a spell to understand you."

She nodded. He looked at the others, "I know you are not family but you have come to care for each other. She is a danger to go untrained. Best to get her training started at the Academy. I am going to call you Butterfly. I will make it so you can get into the home here and stay or see the others."

She smiled, "Thank you. Why do you use different names like that?"

Charlus pulled out a crystal, "White Crane, how is the weather today?"

He responded, "Still looking stormy."

Charlus smiled, "I am looking at a girl I call Butterfly. She wanted to know why the different names."

He replied, "So the enemy does not know our real name and we can identify each other easily."

Charlus asked, "Anything special I need to know?"

He heard him chuckled. "Moving spots because the fishing is lousy in this spot. I see signs of turmoil in the water. Days away as I told you. I am going fishing."

He put the crystal away. "There may be assignments where Dragon Riders are deployed to do a strike against our enemy when we see a big threat. They are a big part of our defenses."