P I And Magic
Copyright© 2005 by Volentrin
Chapter 25
Fithian kept it secret he was back. Yet he went where he willed, within the palace. He was very good with spells himself. No one even knew they had spoken to, or were in the presence of, the old king of Lankur.
One of the perks of having Fithian around was he showed my sister and me a couple secret passages, and a couple rooms that were not on any of the palace maps. One was a sort of armory. It contained twenty-five saddles for dragons, and twenty-five of what Mirwanna excitedly told me were light lances.
Apparently, there used to be a group called the 'Dragon Riders'. This was a group of twenty-five men who trained with and rode dragons on patrol, and into combat if there were battles or wars to be fought.
Between the dragons fire, and the lances of of light (which seemed to shoot a ball of light which exploded and took out a large area, if I understood it rightly) they were a force that could take on and defeat forces much much larger than their own. They had been disbanded in a treaty with Salvadi Minturi's father.
Another thing that had happened when my sister and I had entered the castle, was that another spell fell that we hadn't known about. Apparently, Vostich Landkur had placed most of the dragons into some sort of sleep. When we broke the outer spell that let us enter the castle, the spell holding the dragons in their magical sleep broke, also.
We now had dragons flying from the top of the closest mountain, diving at the sea, and hauling large fish up to their homes, wherever they were. They left the city alone, and left the ships alone. But the fishermen were already complaining that the dragons were scaring the fish away.
I pointed out that the fish the dragons were catching were the larger species that the fisherman hardly caught anyway. The fisherman in the past had complained about those fish were ripping their nets. They went home dissatisfied with their Duke.
The ambassador from Minturi lodged a complaint when he saw the dragons flying. He asked if we were breaking the treaty. It was pointed out that the treaty had actually ended when the two demigods had fought. The fight was over the breaking of a portion of the treaty that Minturi had violated.
I listened to the ambassador and Mirwanna going at it for some time. Each countered the other with violations.
"Excuse me Princess, Ambassador. I want to interject a little something. The dragons are awake, whether we want them to be or not. However, they pose no threat to the Minturi. Your land is far enough from us that they pose no concern.
"Since they are awake, and I am a 'Dragon Lord', I think I can safely say as long as Minturi honors the treaties that are already in place, there should be no problems. I don't know how to put them back to sleep, and neither does my sister," I finished in as convincing a voice as I could muster.
"I see. Well, I have already sent a missive to Lord Minturi. I would not be surprised if he did not resume mining for the Cortlor Crystals. Your dragons are very dangerous, and those crystals are the only known weapons able to penetrate dragon hide. Good day
Princess Mirwanna, Lord Paul," he said bowing to us and left.
"Well, that went about as well as I expected. I don't think Salvadi will have much luck with his mines. Those mines were pretty much exhausted, years ago. Unless he has a new source, he only has a few Cortlor crystals left," Mirwanna said to me.
"One crystal is more than I like him having. Do we know for a fact how many he has?" I asked her.
"Well, last report was he had between 15 and 30 crystals left. The problem with those crystals is, once fired, they explode on impact. That is why they are so deadly to dragons. They enter the dragon's body, and then explode. If the archer misses, the crystals explode when they hit any other object.
"They were used to take down walls, originally. Then someone discovered that they worked very well against dragons. Those crystals were very good against fortified positions, as well. We even have a few of them in our armory.
"Another problem with these crystals, is that they are very rare. Our mines were exhausted years ago. The Minturi's had a better supply of them, but luckily they wasted a lot. As a result, during the last war, while some dragons had been killed with them, they were mostly kept in cities that were deemed important enough to warrant protection from dragons," Mirwanna said musingly.
It was always nice to hear a little history, but I had a hole in my knowledge of this world. I wish I had known about this, before. I put this on my list of things to learn, and made my way back to my office.
I entered, and saw that Vivian was talking with a young man.
"Paul, good, you're back. This is Baron Lester Vulnur. He would like to volunteer to be one of the new dragon riders. He says his grandfather had been one, and the lore has been passed down through the years to each child in his family," she said.
I eyed the young man in question. He had jumped to his feet when I had entered, and bowed slightly. I nodded in return. I got myself a cup of coffee, and went into my office, gesturing for the young man to follow me.
I sat at the ridiculously huge desk I had, and told him to sit. I looked him over. He was like all other young men I had ever known, idealistic, committed. Easily led, and easily screwed.
In other words, a perfect soldier.
"So, your grandfather was a dragon rider? Tell me about it," I said.
He launched into his family's story. His grandfather had become a dragon rider for Vostich Landkur, and had made a career of it. His grandfather's dragon, Firestar, was almost a family icon.
Every battle that this dragon and his grandfather had been in was told in a litany of pride. I listened and thought, if we needed dragon riders, then why not this boy? He knew the lore, apparently.
"Why do you want to be a dragon rider?" I asked curiously to know his answer.
"My Lord, my grandfather was a dragon rider, and his father before him. The dragons were sent to sleep so my father was not able to become one. He would have, and happily, if he had lived.
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