It was a little past noon. The skies over Lucitania were clear and blue, but the Western horizon was a mass of black clouds. A raven cried out and landed inside an alley within the city. A dark mist formed beside the bird and took the shape of a man. Damion blinked once and looked around. His raven squawked and perched on his right shoulder. "This place reeks of death. Death that has been here, and death that is coming." He looked at the raven from the corner of his eye. "Go find the Dragonmaster. We must watch him."
Without a sound, the raven flew from its perch and glided above the bustling city below. People filled the streets between the white marble buildings of the city of Lucitania. Using the raven's eyes, Damion watched as families loaded their belongings on to horse drawn wagons, magic powered wagons, and razor wings. They were fleeing the destruction that was coming. "It's too bad they can't run forever," muttered Damion to himself.
The Avenger willed the black bird away from the city and out towards the plains to the north. The raven flew for a few more minutes until it came upon several thousand troops spread out across the plains. The Lucitanian army was preparing for the battle which would happen any day now. With the reports of the border defense forces having been destroyed, the Dragonmanster and the generals had decided to focus on defending the city and the palace. Steel armored knights practiced charging in formation, archers released wave after wave of arrows at hay filled dummies, foot soldiers wielded both sword and axe in preparation, and in a commander's tent, generals poured over maps and statistic sheets in an attempt to plan strategy.
Ignoring this all, the raven steered itself above the army until Damion willed it to land near the edge of a small forest. At the edge of this mass of trees, engines of destruction were being built. Normal siege engines were being converted to defensive machines. The noise of hammer and saw were almost deafening to the ears of the raven, but Damion forced it to stay. Walking along the perimeter of the construction site was the Dragonmaster. The Dragonmaster stopped and turned as a woman came running up behind him calling his name. "Cole!"
With magically enhanced hearing, Damion listened in on the conversation.
Leeta ran towards the disappearing form of Cole. "Cole! Wait!" she cried after him. He stopped and turned around.
Since the previous night's attack in the temple, the green eyed warrior had refused to take off his Dragon Armor. She herself hadn't changed since the temple either. There were shadows under his eyes, he hadn't shaved yet, and sweat dripped from his forehead to the tip of his chin. He wasn't earing the Dragon Helmet, but the Princess was sure that it wasn't to far away from his reach, should he need it. But the Goddess' Sword and the Dragon Shield hung from his sides. The look he gave her was one of stress, weariness, and frustration. His face remained emotionless as she stopped in front of him. He used to smile whenever he saw me.
Well if he wanted to play no emotion, so be it. "Why didn't you wait for me this morning?" asked Leeta with her most emotionless face on. "I said I needed to talk to you."
He wiped the sweat from his brow. "Sorry," he said in a hushed voice. "I needed to meet with the generals early, and then we need to get the troops out here to train. Now that they are all well again, we have a war to prepare for."
Leeta could feel the anger welling up inside her. This was her kingdom after all. "Either way, you should have waited for me on both accounts. I am the leader of this nation, whether you are a Dragonmaster or not."
"I said I was sorry!" There was a note of harshness in his voice. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have to look in on the cavalry units." He turned to leave.
Leeta had had enough. It was time to get to the bottom of whatever was going on. "Cole!" She reached out and grabbed his right arm. "What's the matter with you?"
He tore his arm away from her touch. He spun around and glared down at her. "It's not your problem," he snapped. "Just stay out of something that isn't your business."
She drew back her arm like he was some sort of poisonous snake. "Cole, I love you. Tell me what's the matter, and maybe I can help." She reached out again, carefully.
He backed away from her hand. "I already tried to explain it to you, but you didn't understand." His hand went to his forehead like there was some sort of pain in his head. "You can't possibly understand what I'm going through right now."
Leeta gingerly took a step forward. "But if you'll just talk to me! You don't have to deal with every problem by yourself. I want to help you because I love you."
"I don't want your help!" he shouted back at her. "Just leave me alone until this whole thing is over with!" He stormed away without another word.
Leeta just stood there with her arms at her sides. Her face was pale and there were unshed tears in her eyes. What is going on here? she asked herself. Can he truly blame himself this deeply for everything that's happening? Why doesn't he just let one of us inside to help him sort it all out? She hastily wiped the water from her eyes and set out to find the one person who might be able to get through to the depressed Dragonmaster, Carla.
Damion sat in the alley as he listened to the fight between the Dragonmaster and the Princess. As Cole left, Damion willed the raven to follow and watch the Dragonmaster. "I think I'm beginning to understand the other part of this mission, Althena," he said quietly as if the Goddess were with him right there. He was so intent on his new thought, that the Avenger pulled his mind away from the raven's before he saw a construction worker change shape into a black hawk and fly west.
The Demon Dragonmaster stood at the bow of his airship as it landed in the middle of Alrax's army. As the craft settled onto the ground. The Chaos Dragon appeared before Kole. It saluted and made a stiff bow. "What do you have to report, Arlax?" asked Kole.
Arlax rose and glared at the the dark warrior with onyx black eyes. "We have easily crushed the Lucitanian border forces, my lord. They posed no threat at all." Kole nodded, and the Dragon continued. "At our current speed, we will reach the capital city, Lucitania, itself in at least six or seven days. Also, I just received a report about you double." Kole raised one eyebrow. "It seems that he is blaming himself solely for all the deeds you have done. The Dragonmaster feels that he is somehow responsible for you. He is making himself quite sick over it."
"How interesting," was all the dark warrior could say at first. "This information tells us much. His attention will be focused on his depression, and, therefore, he will be completely off guard for anything we may throw at him. With his mind like this, he'll be more of an asset to us than a hindrance."
Kole turned his head and gazed out at the mass of monsters and humans before him. The sky was black above him and the air was rank with death and decay. "What a lovely smell," he commented in a low voice.
"Excuse me?" replied Arlax.
The Demon Dragonmaster turned back to the Dragon with a smile on his face. "Get all the mages together and put them in the middle of the army. First, I want them to teleport Thiss' and Scorn's divisions here tonight. Then I want them to begin teleporting the entire army gathered here to at least one days distance from Lucitania."
A grin appeared on Arlax's face. "The mages will most likely die from being over worked."
Kole smiled back. "Yes. But what do we care?" Both of them began to laugh horribly as thunder echoed all around them and multi colored lightning flashed in the sky.
The sun was just beginning to set when Leeta finally found Carla. The Premier was holding her own meetings with all the mages at the Wizard Academy in the eastern section of the city. At least several hundred mages were gathered in the front court yard of what looked more like a cluster of towers than a building. The base of the Academy was rectangular in shape, but it also had a little more than half a dozen towers sprouting out of its otherwise flat roof. Leeta found Carla in the middle of the crowded court yard.
The dark haired Premier was lecturing about defensive wards and how to strengthen them with the proper runes. She wore a simple red day dress with shoulder straps and a belt across her waist. Leeta waited until she was done, and then politely cleared her throat. Carla waved her hand to quite the Princess. "Whoever it is, I'll be with you in a second," said the mage.
Leeta rolled her eyes. "It's me, Carla. I need to talk to you. It's important."
Carla turned around and grimaced when she saw the Princess' face. "What happened to you?" she asked gruffly.
Leeta quickly told the story of what happened between herself and Cole. "He's been acting odd ever since we got back. It almost seems as if he doesn't want to tell me anything anymore." The tears finally started to fall as the Premier enfolded the Princess in a hug.
"It's okay, hun," soothed Carla. "We'll have a long talk with stupid ass you call a boyfriend." She led Leeta to a stone bench not too far away. Two other mages bolted from the bench after receiving a cold glare from the Premier. They sat down and Carla continued to talk. "You see, ever since Cole's parents died, he always felt that he needed to prove that he could handle anything on his own. So whenever he had a personal problem, he would shut everyone out until he could come to grips with it. The problem now is that he has people he can come to, but he doesn't realize it. The putz probably thinks you think he's weak if he asks for help." She sighed heavily. "He just needs to understand that having the love of family and friends can go beyond just expressing the feelings."
Suddenly, someone off to the left screamed as if she were in great pain. Tears evaporated from Leeta's face as she jumped from her seat. "What was that?"
Carla seemed to be going through a mental check list. "That came from the group I have scanning the surrounding land around the city," she answered after a moment.
The Premier led the way as they cut a path through the gathering crowd. The two friends finally pushed their way to the center and found a female mage in purple robes lying on the ground. Carla dropped to her knees and cradled the woman's head in her lap. "What happened?" she asked quietly yet with urgency. "What did you see?"
The woman's young face was pale, and her once brown hair was now white. "I ssssaaw dddarrrkkneesssss," she said with a shiver. "Ddddarrkknesssss llleessss ttthhhaann a dddaayy fffrrroomm tthhe cccity." Then she fainted.
Carla gave the mage over to a pair of priests that had arrived, and they ushered her away. The Premier and the Princess gave each other haunted looks. "Goddess help us," breathed Leeta. "They're here..."