Dark Thane

Jungor continued, "Are you sure it isn't Beryl?" he asked the crowd. "No, we've heard not a peep from the great green bitch, despite the king's most dire prophecies. Maybe it was Malystryx, then." The crowd began to roar with laughter.

"It was a chaos dragon I tell you!" Tarn shouted, his voice cutting through the levity like an axe stroke. "My captain and I discovered its lair beneath the new Council Hall. You can go and see for yourselves, if you don't believe me. It is asleep now, but stirring. It may awaken at any moment. We must evacuate the mountain."

Jungor glared at Tarn for a few moments, his misshapen face writhing. "A chaos dragon? But the chaos dragons were all destroyed. As you yourself have attested, all the minions of Chaos were destroyed, and by your own father when he released the power of the Platinum Egg. May the name of Baker Whitegranite," he added quickly, "be forever praised!"

"Go and see for yourself, I tell you!" Tarn responded. "But I warn you, when that beast awakens, it will be the horrors of Chaos all over again."

Jungor ignored the king. "So now you would have us abandon our homes once more, to make your father's sacrifice a vain and empty one!"

"Are you the only one who has seen this supposed dragon?" Rughar Delvestone asked accusingly.

"No, Ghash Grisbane, Captain of the King's Guard, also saw the dragon," Glint said as he stepped nearer the Daewar thane.

"And where is he, pray tell? Not here to confirm the king's words, I notice," Rughar sneered. "There is only you, Tarn's ever-loyal lackey."

"I'll only warn you once to keep a civil tongue between your teeth, Thane Delvestone," Glint growled.

"Don't speak to me of civilities Thane Ettinhammer. How many innocent Hylar and Daewar did you slaughter during the Chaos War? Their blood still cries for vengeance!" Rughar shrieked.

"Very well then," Glint said as he calmly hefted his axe.

"You wouldn't dare," Rughar hissed as he fumbled at his own sword.

"I told you I would only warn you once," Glint said.

"Glint! Wait!" Tarn cried as he leaped for the Klar thane, but too late. Glint's huge, double-bladed axe swept up, cleaving through armor, bone, and flesh. Rughar's head leapt from his neck in a spray of blood that doused both Jungor and the Theiwar thane.

Tarn swore furiously as madness seemed to erupt. His guards retreated to within a few steps below him, forming a defensive barrier of steel to protect their king. Jungor's forces poured in from every side of the plaza and fought their way through the frenzied crowd. Glint swung again and cut down one of Rughar's bodyguards even as Crystal drew her dagger and slammed it into the throat of another. As the dwarf fell, blood spurting around the blade in his windpipe, she snatched the spear from his fist.

The third bodyguard drew his sword and attacked Tarn. His own sword still in its sheath, Tarn managed to dive beneath the blade and slam his shoulder into the dwarfs belly. Standing up suddenly, he lifted the Daewar warrior and flung him down the stairs, ripping his sword from its scabbard at the same time.

He turned as a sibilant whisper of magic froze his blood. Jungor now filled the doorway behind Brecha Quickspring, his face contorted with hatred. Lost in the ecstasy of her magic, Brecha seemed not to hear Jungor's warning shout. Her words shivered the air, drawing power as the spell found shape and substance around the amber rod in her hand. But the spell died on her lips as Jungor grabbed her by the belt and pulled her through the doorway an instant before Crystal's spear would have skewered her dark Theiwar heart. Instead, the missile thudded into the doorframe and stuck quivering in the wood, just as Jungor unceremoniously slammed the door.

Tarn leaped after him, but as his hand closed around the ornate bronze knob, a bolt of electricity arced from the metal to his fingertips. He jerked his hand away and wrung his numb fingers.

"That witch has magicked the door," Glint shouted over the din of battle. "We have to get out of here before she has time to do worse."

Tarn nodded as he switched his weapon to his left hand. Crystal jerked her spear free and dropped in behind Glint as he strode down the stairs, bellowing orders to Tarn's guards. They quickly formed up in a defensive wedge, with the Klar thane at the point, and drove into the first of Jungor's soldiers to reach the stairs. So ferocious was the assault of the battle-mad Klar warriors that they easily clove through the disorganized resistance they met.