Tales of Vyscher Book 2

Chapter 13

Power. There was so much more power! After spending so much time in his tomb, healing and changing, Aldebaran felt more alive than at any time in his life. He also understood why the new shamans deep underground had moved the tribe once the old one had retreated to the mud grave. His old form had been like that of a caterpillar, and after stewing in the mud he had become his new form.

And he was starving!

Something moved against him, and he could dimly hear noise near his mud cocoon. "What the hells is this?" came a voice.

"I dunno! But that must be what is causing the blockage we've heard about!" came another.

Perfect, food came to him!

With one massing heave, he shook loose of the mud that was clinging to him, scattering it throughout the sewer tunnel and coating the two people that were standing next to him. They were both dead before they had wiped it from their eyes, and Aldebaran felt his hunger partially sated. But he hadn't eaten in a long time, and the metamorphosis had taken a lot of his energy. Looking up, his toothy maw split into an evil grin, and he started to dig.

"Sowyan, what progress has been made?" Prince Brellior asked the blonde bearded man with the jet-black eyes. The prince stifled a shudder, as the man's eyes unnerved him even more than the immense blood colored dragon that lay curled up near the two men.

The blonde man regarded the prince with disdain. The man wanted to rule the whole continent yet for all his ambition he had no skills of any kind, just his station in life. "It goes well. The new gnomes and dwarves have sped up the digging. If we're lucky, we will be done by the time the snow thaws."

Brellior was incensed. "That isn't fast enough! Each day you dig is another day we can be discovered! What can be done to speed that up?"

"Nothing. Even more bodies wouldn't help at this point, there isn't room for the ones we have. All you can do now is to be patient and wait till we're done. Oh, and assemble your army." Sowyan resisted the urge to sneer, but he couldn't wait until Brellior was under his thrall!

Vic sat next to Rek in her brother's office as he looked over the papers that they'd brought back from the cave. "Do you think there is anything that we can use in there?"

Jondure rifled through a few more of the papers and nodded. "They already have. Didn't you say you wanted to leave the valley?"

Rek sat up straight with excitement. "Yes!"

"You're going to go visit Lady Bawnia. We already know she is pulling a lot of strings over in Marendia, and now it would seem she wants all of the Bishop teams eliminated. You've done a lot of damage to slavers, and that means golds lost by her," Jondure explained.

A rapid knocking on the door interrupted the discussion, and a guardsman entered without waiting for the answer. "Sir! There was attack over at the Weary Harpy! The messenger said there were many dead!"

"We're on it!" Rek said as she ran from the room, Vic right behind her. They never waited for an order from Jondure, though he would have suggested that very thing. It didn't escape their notice, that the last time they were in the city, that was the same tavern where they wounded that strange, segmented creature.

"Fehrys, we're going to send you on another mission. You're going to see a dragon named Kraulth. He lives in the southern end of the mountains beyond the valley. Alia will take you, as she's been there," Czanther explained.