The Dragonskin Chronicles Bk. 02

Zyndyr turned to the Giant Eagle she had been speaking to and made some communication with the bird, who lifted off with the others and flew off. Korwyn mounted up and cradled the Prince in one arm as he waited for Zyndyr to mount her horse, before they wheeled around and headed back to the advancing column.

"The Eagles are finding somewhere to roost until we decide what we will do," Zyndyr said. "They are prepared to carry a handful of us back, if we wish."

Ahead of them, Captain Difaniel of the Skirmishers had already heard of the arrival of the Eagles and rode out to meet them.

"Captain," Korwyn said, "Ghumbletuc has rebelled against your High Queen, and holds her prisoner against her will, only Prince Bydon has escaped. Our campaign now hinges on who the Dwarf Army is prepared to serve, their duly elected Queen of the Seven Kingdoms, or this usurper Ghumbletuc."

"Speaking for myself and my Dwarves, we serve you, My Lord, until this campaign ends. We were charged with this duty by our High Queen, a beautiful Dwarfess who has endured the worst indwarfanity that could ever befall a female Dwarf, yet she has emerged, graceful and regal from her ordeal, without a trace of bitterness, and determined that marriage to the Prince of Salzden was neither in her best interests nor of the Seven Kingdoms. In her first few months as Queen she has protected and promoted those disabled and distressed Dwarves, who have been left in the position of begging for food and shelter through no fault of their own. In fact they were once hounded and imprisoned for begging by the Queen's hated father. She has now charged each community with protecting such disadvantaged Dwarves, including orphans and has set up pensions for those too old or too disabled to work. My own grandfather was a serving soldier, now he is too old and infirm to work but also too proud to ask for help, but the Queen has set aside funds to supply him regularly with cords of wood for heating, prepared rushes for lighting, and provided a kitchen in his village where he can get hot food every day as a due right of his proud service to his nation. If we were to be released from your command, My Lord, I am sure that most here would be for Queen Myr. Wait, I will send for the Captain of the Salzden Regiment, but I doubt he holds his King and Prince in much more than nominal regard."

He snapped some instructions to a mounted Sergeant, who galloped his eager pony off down the line.

"I've sent for Captain Unwynden. We switch the Regiments around every day to make the marching more interesting and his regiment is the third one down, so he will not be long. I'll send my party to carry on checking the land ahead, but we feel pretty safe here in Goblin country."

Korwyn and Captain Difaniel stood to one side while the Army marched past. Clearly the rumours of trouble at home had spread through the Dwarves and a few asked of them for more information, worried about their families. Opinions were clear, it would take weeks to march home, so what difference could that make? They had been charged with a mission and they wanted to see it through. The rule of the Seven Kingdoms would therefore have to wait to be resolved.

A Dwarf Captain, clearly in a hurry, with several of his officers in tow, ran up the line towards them.

"Ahh this is Captain Unwynden, now, Sire," Captain Difaniel said, "He's normally a happy dwarf but his face looks like thunder now."

The Captain was red in the face and so angry and out of breath that he was speechless when he arrived.

Korwyn assumed he only spoke Dwarf, so he began in this tongue, which translates roughly to "Captain Unwynden, the news from Dharibia is that your King Ghumbletuc has seized Queen Myr with the intent to force her to marry his son, the Crown Prince Dhunhark. What say you?"

"I would say, Sire," the reply came between his breaths, "that the King and Prince have bitten off more than they can chew. The prince is a good for nothing with a face like a slapped arse, so no surprise to any that the Queen turned him down. Only a lady of the night would say yes, and only then if he had the coin to compensate for the vomit-inducing inconvenience. I was there when he did the basic training for the Salzden army, he only did one or two days of the three weeks required, because he was 'tired' all the time, and two weeks later the fat King Ghumbletuc made him General of the Salzden Army. If they've taken the Dharibia Palace, I would think they only have taken the royal apartments. I have been part of the detachment to accompany the prince and the Royal Guard of the Seven Kingdoms normally only allow a squad of eight or twelve into the Palace with the Prince. If the two royals arrived separately, that might mean up to twenty-four soldiers."

"And they may have included a few unarmed 'clerks' or 'servants' who would have to use any arms seized." Captain Difaniel ventured to suggest.

"So we may have up to fifty soldiers to face, you think, Captain?"

"Aye, Sire, but by the time we march--"

"We are flying," Zyndyr said as she arrived, "we have six Giant Eagles so have room to take four more Dwarves."

"Well, count me in," Captain Difaniel declared, "I've sworn to protect the Queen and her family and if I have a means of getting there I will take a hold of it with both hands."

"I too, want to go back, Sire, if I be permitted," said Captain Unwynden, "I would know all the lads being ordered to commit treason by that dolt king of ours, who is only tolerated because he usually does nothing, so we can ignore him in the main. I have a couple of experienced Corporals who could fill the remaining places, they are well used to banging stupid heads together. My Lieutenant here can keep the rest of the regiment marching on."

"Hope you're not afraid of heights, gentledwarves," Zyndyr grinned, "and you will need to fetch your coats as it will be cold in the air. We'll meet together in the large clearing up ahead."

Korwyn and Zyndyr already had their coats with them. They rode directly to the clearing and the first Giant Eagle landed by them ready to take off with one of them. Once more Zyndyr spoke to the Eagle by gesture and it took off to circle around on the airwaves. Soon the Dwarves who were to accompany them arrived ready to go. In addition to the Captains Difaniel and Unwynden, they were accompanied by battle-hardened Corporals Tryxyw and Pomplewaft.

The Eagles were swift and Korwyn was glad he had his Dragonskin cloak wrapped around him, as he was suspended in a rope bag quickly fashioned by the Dwarf engineers.

The Eagles flew into the palace with barely a flutter of their wings as they glided in silently and into one of the windows in the upper part of the south western tower, where Korwyn and Zyndyr had been quartered, and where Prince Bydon had told Zyndyr that Queen Grand Mother Urmah had retreated to after the palace was taken by the rebel king of Salzden.

"Thank you," Korwyn couldn't help saying as his Eagle deposited him in his rope sack just over the cill of the window into his old room.

There he extricated himself from the confinement of the rope sack in which he travelled.

"Greetings my young Lord." Queen Grand Mother Urmah greeted him with a grim smile, "You're a sight for straining eyes," she said, as she greeted the man with a clutching hug.

"I am happy you are safe," Korwyn said, "What news of the Queen and Princess?"

"The princess Maya is safe, she had a protection spell on her so the Dwarf ordered to kill her in cold blood was forced to stay his hand long enough for me to find and rescue her. She's asleep in the other room."

"Thank Tapaj the Mighty's oath for yours and the Princess Raya's salvation, Queen Urmah," Zyndyr said as she was similarly deposited over the window cill by another skilled flying Giant Eagle. "Delighted to hear that both you and the princess are safe. Where is the Queen?"

"The king of Salzden has her. He doesn't trust his only son the Prince, he is an animal considerate only of his own attentions to his basic needs without regard for the future. If he was left to his own devices he would certainly muck everything up."

"So, what can we do?" Korwyn asked, after the four carried dwarves were dropped in behind them.

"Ghumbletuc sneaked his soldier Dwarves in as unarmed clerks in small groups as well as his permitted bodyguard," Queen Grand Mother Urmah explained, "and they overpowered the few guards present in the Palace and took their weapons before they overpowered the rest. I have placed a spell upon the door to these apartments, to stop them coming in but I can hear them conversing behind the door. Perhaps if they do not know you are here you could surprise them?"

"We could try. What do you think are Ghumbletuc's intentions?" Korwyn asked.

"I think--" both Captains Difaniel and Unwynden spoke together in Dwarfish, before Difaniel deferred to the Dwarf Captain who knew his own master better.

"I think the good Captain here agrees with me that if the Prince marries or. rapes Queen Myr, he will be Consort for only a short while before King Ghumbletuc pushes Our High Queen into the background and King Ghumbletuc will rule in the name of his son. Once they have a child together, I think an accident will befall Myr and her other children, so Ghumbletuc can establish a new dynasty."

"Aye," agreed Captain Difaniel, with clear nods of agreement by Corporals Tryxyw and Pomplewaft, "we all know that King Ghumbletuc of Salzden is a poor and vindictive ruler who will allow no one to hinder his ambitions. We must strike at him now."

"How many soldiers does Ghumbletuc have in the Palace?" Zyndyr asked of the Queen Grand Mother.

"I do not know exactly how many but I am sure it is but a few, and the Dharibian Regiments in the barracks are probably not even aware that anything is amiss until the changing of the guard happens this evening. I fear that if Ghumbletuc is opposed and gets to the point that all is lost he will simply kill my granddaughter and fall on the mercy of the High Dwarf Council, made up of nobles of all the Seven Kingdoms and ask them to decide who should be the new High King." Urmah wiped a tear from her eye, but straightened her shoulders and looked at the six heroes in front of her. "That is why she must be rescued first, by stealth, while a disturbance here diverts their attention."

Korwyn smiled, "I think you already have a plan, Your Highness?"

"Aye, my dear Lord of Man, so ready to help others that you have been a boon to the Realm of the Dwarves. You are right I do have a plan. Gather close and I'll tell ye."

Chapter 4

Rescue!

Queen Grand Mother Urmah moved like a wraith through the Palace corridors, shape shifting and blending into the walls and tapestries as she glided to her quarters. They were locked, but you cannot keep anything closed from a determined Witch, and she melted through the door, not leaving a trace, as if it had been an open doorway.

Inside, although it was as dark as a coal mine, she ran to a wardrobe and brought forth a cloth-covered object about the size of her torso and oval in shape. She brought it to her dressing table and unwrapped it, after lighting a candle there from a tinderbox beside it. In the flickering light, the object appeared to be a mirror but unlike any mirror a mere mortal would choose to view themselves in. No, this glassy surface, framed in a beautifully fashioned gilt surround, had but a cloudy, milky image, not at all a reflection. Although the Queen Grand Mother held it at arm's length in front of her as she sat relaxed upon a leather-skinned padded cushion on a comfortable high backed chair, her image failed to reflect from the surface of the oval mirror, it was as if the silver painted on the reverse of the glass had worn away.

She pressed the side of the frame and a small shallow drawer appeared to open at the foot of the frame. From a pocket in her vestments, wrapped in a silk handkerchief, she extracted a tiny green eyelash with silver tweezers, barely visible to the naked eye, which she deposited in the bottom of the little drawer and closed it up. The screen instantly darkened, showing what looked like a moving image over the fortified walls of the Palace, as if someone was flying high above the ground. The image appeared to move with purpose, descending down, the stones on the wall appearing to shoot upwards. Soon the image brightened considerably as the mirror reached a lighted glass window through which could be seen the back of a crouching figure of a hunch-shouldered woman warming herself by an open fire. She turned when she was alerted to the presence of the onlooker, for that is surely what the magic mirror had captured via the magic associated with the original owner of the eyelash. Now that there was light and the onlooker was hovering outside this window, it was clear that this image in the magic mirror was depicting exactly what Zyndyr the Elf was seeing, as her green hair blew in front of her face and swept in front of her eyes, and therefore in front of the scene before those emerald orbs.

Zyndyr's hand could be seen rapping on the window but there was no sound. The window opened, showing Queen Myr, with a black eye and a split and swollen lip, but with a delighted look on her damaged face.

From where she sat at her dressing table, Queen Urmah seethed with rage at this outrage to her granddaughter, who had only just recovered from her five-year-long ordeal of abusive imprisonment with the Orcs of Blearn Mountain and the evil Sorcerer, who was both the great-grandfather of her grandchild High Queen Myr and the father of Myr's first born, Prince Bydon.

Queen Myr was clearly delighted that the Elf had arrived at her window and threw herself into Zyndyr's arms as soon as her rescuer entered the room. Soon the image changed, now the dark hair of Myr swept in front of the eyes as they retraced their steps back over the blocks of stones until they reached up to the tower that once housed Korwyn and Zyndyr in a grand apartment, now under siege.

Queen Urmah wrapped the oval mirror back in its silk bindings and put it away in the wardrobe. Just as she was about to slip wraith-like through the stones again, in readiness to join her daughter, she could hear the cry without of alarm and the clash of steel against steel and the screams of Dwarves being slaughtered, by a Man and four vengeful Dwarves from the Dwarf Army of Man that should have been far away marching on the Kingdom of Man.

***

"Glad that you're home at last!" Carole snapped as soon as Clive walked in the front door, "Have you been deliberately avoiding me?"

It had been late on a Friday afternoon and Clive had been busy getting new bed linen and towels for his rented flat, and he hadn't realised that the last bus left the nearest bus stop at five past five and he had just missed it. He was fortunate that someone passing by noticed him standing by the bus stop and told him, otherwise he might have stood there like a lemon waiting for a bus that was never coming. He had to walk briskly to the other end of the High Street and catch the shuttle between the station and the hospital which stopped on the opposite side of the estate in which he lived. By the time he had walked through the estate of suburban houses it was getting on for six o'clock and he thought he had probably missed the family tea by at least half an hour.

Carole had her face all made up and, wearing a skirt and stockings, she looked ready to go out for the evening, unlike the sweatshirt and sweatpants that she usually changed into on a Friday night after work.

"Oh sorry, Carole, I wasn't aware that you were going out tonight. I missed the bus and had to walk. What's for tea?"

"Nothing in for tea, Clive, you need to order in for you and the children."

"Oh, right. Where are you going out to tonight?"

"Out, and because you're running late, I'm now running late!" she snapped. "I've called and got Mum coming round and there's a taxi collecting me in two minutes, ah, there is the taxi now."

Clive turned, to see a taxi cab just turned up at the kerb outside their house. And only moments behind the taxi's arrival, Clive recognised the yellow Ford Ka of her mother's pull up immediately behind it.

"I'll go tell her she's not needed then, Carole, as it looks like I'm babysitting tonight," Clive said, not relishing spending any of this evening's time with Carole's Mum, so he walked down the driveway to send her off.

"Hey, Mum," he said, as she opened her car door, "sorry to have put you out, but I'm home now and will look after the kids tonight."

"Not the best day to leave your timing so late, Clive," her Mum was just as snappy as Carole was, perhaps it runs in the family, Clive thought, "Carole's been planning this for weeks."

"Oh, has she? Well she never tells me anything, nowadays."

"Really? I thought..." Carole's mum looked incredulous. "Well, Clive, give me a call if you need help with the kids any time this weekend and next week."

"This weekend and week? Why this weekend and next week?"

"It's half-term week, Clive, no school. Just give me a ring if you need my help, OK?"

"Sure, if any interviews I need to attend come up, I will do. Bye Mum."

His mother-in-law drove off. He turned to find the taxi driver closing the boot of his taxi and walking round to the driver's door. Clive looked around to see where Carole had got to. The front door of the house was left wide open. He had barely turned towards the path leading to the front door before the taxi pulled away from the kerb. Carole must've been sat inside it covered by the darkened rear windows and she was off out wherever she was off to. No doubt going to be drinking, which is why she didn't take her own car.

Inside, the children were clearly already bathed and in their pyjamas but Michael piped up as soon as he saw his father, "What's for dinner, Dad, I'm starving. Can we have pizza, can we, please?"

"I want chicken, Daddy, not pizza again for me," said Chloë.

"And I want chips with tomato sauce," Katie said emphatically, not to be denied her favourite choice.

Clive called a restaurant that delivered the varied range of food required and ordered what had been requested, using Carole's credit card number. That was easy even without the card, he had all her details written down on his iPad. When he set the table and got the plates out to warm in the oven, he noticed a note magnetised to the fridge door. He peered at it. It appeared to be a timetable of activities the children were booked into throughout the week, one or two were their normal activities like scouts and guides' nights, but there were extra children's holiday club activities for which he would have to use Carole's car to deliver them and collect.

'What's going on?' he thought, 'Has she jumped the gun and is leaving me first, lumbering me with the kids?'

He phoned his mother in law who had just got home, "Hi, June, when you said you were prepared to help with the kids this week, what exactly did you mean?"

"Well, the children are at home all week, plus an inset day on the following Monday, so if you have to go down the labour exchange or you have a job interview, just let me know and I can watch the kids. But I'm not covering evenings just so you can go out while the cat's away."

"So, where's Carole the Cat going to be next week?"

"Er... you mean you don't know?"

"I'm clueless, June, so tell me, where did she go--" he remembered the boot of the taxi being closed," -- with her suitcase?"

"Er off to Spain... with some girlfriends from school, she said."

"All weekend or all week?"

"For the whole week, seven nights, eight days, due back Saturday week."

"Thank you." Clive hung up the phone. This was the final straw.