Silver Dragon (16 page)

"I don't know who, exactly! I heard it came from the top. Some wizard that's supposed to be in charge. He's got those knights running around doing secret jobs
, too, but rumor has it one of those jobs is getting their hands on you."

"Supposed to be in charge? What's that mean?"

"Well, we're told to do anything he or the knights want, but the giant that gives the orders for the men is Pavlon."

"Giant?"

He nodded. "Yes, there's a few of them but he's in charge. Stands twice as tall as a man, maybe more. Huge and strong, he's the one that's been commanding the army they've been assembling."

"Men, ogres, trolls, and goblins?" Alto asked.

The man nodded. "Wolves, too—they've got a lot of them. Bigger and meaner than any I ever seen."

"How many?"

"How many wolves? A hundred maybe?"

"No!" Alto snapped at him. "All of them. How many are there?"

"I don't know; I never seen them all. They've got us split up in camps in the mountains. Big camps, not like those little ones you wiped out. Those were just the ones that didn't come the first time they put out a call for bodies."

Alto had to pull his sword back
; it had been less than an inch from his prisoner's leg. "Make a guess."

"A couple hundred in each of the camps I seen, and I seen a few of them. I'm a messenger. Probably at least a couple thousand, but maybe more.
"

"What about the dragon?"

The man gaped at Alto and then slowly nodded. "It's true then?" he asked.

Alto scowled, prompting the wounded man to hold up his good hand. "I heard it as a rumor, that's all. They're paying good money
; that makes most of us not ask questions. We're supposed to be getting ready to gather and head out in the summer. Don't know when, but they want us to push to gather as many bodies as we can so they can be ready when the time comes."

Alto nodded. He turned to look around
and then glanced up at the goblin's cave above him. "You're going to die out here," Alto pointed out.

He shook his head. "Please! No, I can make it. I've got food and with the snow
, there's plenty of water. Some shelter and I can rest up until I'm well enough to move."

"Broken arm and ankle, you'll be weeks or months before you can move. Winter won't break for a few months, maybe more up here. Mercy would be killing you quick
ly."

"No! I—" The man's eyes widened as his eyes shifted to stare behind Alto.

Alto spun and saw a massive body standing behind him. He thrust out with his sword even as he realized the body blocking out the sun was Thork's. Thork howled from Alto's instinctive attack and then responded on reflex with his shield. Alto found himself weightless for a moment and then he crashed into the side of the hill. His back ached and his face and chest felt like it was on fire from the shield that had smashed into him.

"Dat was stupid of yous!" Thork growled at him as he pulled Alto's blade out of his belly and tossed it on the ground.

Alto coughed and spat out some blood from where he'd bitten his tongue. He groaned and tried to sit up but he found himself not certain which way was up. "Sorry," he managed to mutter.

"What are you?"

Thork turned to look at the man Alto had been questioning. "Who's dis?"

"Just a messenger."

"Friend of yous's?"

"No."

Thork shrugged and towered over the wounded man. He lowered his spear and looked to Alto while the messenger whimpered and begged for mercy. Alto nodded, signaling the troll to plunge his spear down and silence the messenger forever.

Thork pulled his spear free before kneeling down to go through the man's possessions. He poked around in his pouches and tossed some trail rations he found into his mouth to chew on. He made a face and swallowed,
and then yanked off a pouch full of coins and tossed it towards Alto.

Alto picked himself up off the side of the mountain and winced at the stiffness and pain in his body. He twisted his neck and moved his arms and legs to try
to release it, but everything felt disconnected. "Took you long enough," Alto said.

Thork straightened. "What?"

"I've been trying to find you for weeks!"

"Den yous been
lookin' in da wrong place!" the troll snapped back at him. Thork moved over to Alto's sword and picked it up. He pulled up his armor and pushed his round belly in so he could see where the blade had managed to slide between the sections of armor to pierce his flesh. "Dis is a nasty sword!"

"Sorry about that," Alto repeated. "Are you okay?"

Thork guffawed, his raucous laughter echoing off the mountains. "Thork is swamp troll! It takes more den a poke in da belly to bash Thork! See?"

Alto frowned. The sword he'd taken from Beck had impressed him with just how sharp and vicious it was. Even being run through by a normal blade in the stomach promised a lingering death for most people. Alto squinted and stared as the troll wiped the blood away. His dark green skin looked untouched, aside from a pale spot that faded before Alto's eyes.

"By the saints!"

Thork
grinned and then handed Alto back his sword. "What da fear is yous doing wif dat fing? Where'd da sword Thork gived you go? Hey! Dat's da sword dat other stupid had dat Thork fished out of da water!"

Alto nodded. "Yes, Beck."

"You bashed him den?"

"He…yes, I bashed him."

"Good, dere's one less stupid out dere den." The troll gave him a nod of approval. "So what yous need Thork for?"

Alto opened and closed his mouth. He frowned. "It's a long story."

"Okies." Thork fell silent as a large snowflake landed on his even larger nose. His eyes crossed as he stared at it, and then he swatted it off and staggered himself with the punch to his own face. "Stupid snow," he muttered. "Let's get out of da cold first!"

Alto nodded and sheathed his blade. The troll turned and started walking down the path. Alto tried to follow but found that he was having a hard time keeping up. He kept running out of breath and his legs weren't moving as fast as he thought they should.

"What da fear is wrong with yous?" Thork said after he turned and saw Alto struggling to keep up.

Alto shook his head. "I'm not sure. Can't breathe or walk right."

Thork scowled and hurried back over. He jammed his spear into the path, bringing a brighter pulse of green light from the tip, and then stiff-armed Alto in the chest and knocked him flat on his back again.

Alto gasped and struggled to breathe. The moment passed as soon as it had started, allowing him to climb back to his feet. He rolled his neck around and found that he felt fine again. Even the stiffness and pain in his leg from the ogre's club was gone. "Thanks, I think."

"Don't fank me, fank Jarook. Him must fink yous is special."

Alto glanced up at the sky and then around. Saint Jarook was considered a less than wholesome saint. To be in his good graces might not bode well. Then again, Thork was a shaman of Jarook and he'd helped Alto and his friends out several times now.

"Let's go, Thork hates da cold!"

Alto nodded and found he had no trouble keeping up with the lumbering troll. Thork led him down the path and
then ducked into a crevice between boulders. The troll had to squeeze through, muttering as he did so. Once they were through, Thork turned and kicked one of the rocks. It rolled back into place, sealing the passage from anyone larger than a squirrel.

Alto tapped his shield to invoke its light and turned to see Bonky sitting on the ground and sharpening his sword.
The goblin's hair was white but his body was blue, an exact opposite of what the troll's short assistant had looked like last time. He used his hand to shield his eyes from Alto's light and cursed at the warrior in his own language.

"Always a pleasure," Alto responded.

"Bonky doesn't like da cold either. Come on, dis way," Thork said, stepping past Bonky and heading deeper into the cave.

Thork led Alto through a system of tunnels that made the warrior feel as though he was back in the dwarven mines. Twice he heard sounds echoing from side passages that could have been miners working rock or people talking. The troll seemed unimpressed and continued. When they finally stopped
, Alto had lost track of how many times he'd reactivated the light on his shield. The troll's green glowing spear wasn't enough to make him feel comfortable.

Thork's latest home had many of the same amenities as his last one, complete with a fire pit with
some green glowing embers in it. Unlike the last one, he'd found a far larger cavern, complete with a small waterfall dropping into a pool at one end. The partial skeletal remains of several fish littered the ground, as well as an eel. Alto wondered if it was the same type of eel that had attacked him the last time he'd been the troll's guest.

"What yous need dis time?" Thork asked while Bonky grabbed a net off some rocks and moved over to the edge of the pool.

"I need a weapon," Alto said.

Thork guffawed. "Yous's got one! It’s a nasty one
, too. Thork isn't sure yous wants what yous got. Is dat da problem?"

Alto shook his head. "The broadsword you gave me, Kevard's Blade, it wouldn't work for me anymore. I'm not sure why, but I gave it to Teorfyr, Jarl of Holgasford."

Thork nodded. "Yous and da blade wasn't working for da same fing anymore."

"I'm trying to protect people!" Alto snapped. "Keep what happened to my family from happening to others."

Thork grinned and leaned back. "Dis is getting good! What happened?"

"What do you mean?"

"Yous family?" the troll prompted.

"Oh," Alto took a deep breath and let it out. "They're dead."

"Yous fink Thork is a stupid too?"

Alto looked harshly at the troll but found he couldn'
t stare at the fearsome shaman's eyes for long. It wasn't that the troll frightened Alto with his looks; Alto had gotten used to the troll. It was the experience in the troll's eyes that cut through what Alto wanted to believe and say. "Beck found them and killed them. It was an example for others and a message to me."

"Yous bashed him for dat?"

"Yes, I killed him. I used the dagger you gave me when my sword couldn't harm him."

Thork nodded. "Good finkin.
So if dem's bashed and Beck's bashed, what's left?"

"Sarya."

Thork jerked at Alto's declaration of war. He grinned at first and then laughed. The laughing grew louder and louder, echoing off the cave walls and causing Bonky to stop fishing and stare at the troll. The goblin shrugged and pulled his net out and then grabbed the two fish caught in it and slammed them against the rocky floor before he turned and tossed the net back in the water.

"Yous is going after her? She's a dragon!" Thork said between snickers as he calmed down.

Alto shrugged. "Ultimately, the order to kill me and my family came from her. I can't let others I care for be hurt."

"Yous could give up."

Alto frowned. "I could, but what of all the people her armies will kill or hurt?"

Thork shrugged. "Yous family is dead, why does dat matter?"

"It matters!" Alto hissed at him. "She has to be shown that she can't do this! She has to be punished!"

"Maybe
dat's what she was saying to yous by sending dat ijjit to kill yous family?"

Alto stared hard at the troll. Whos
e side was he really on, he wondered. Thork had helped him but before he'd done that, he'd been helping Sarya and her servant, Barador. Thork had helped him kill Barador but was that as far as the troll was willing to go? Well, that and giving him a potion that helped collapse a mountain on Sarya's forces mining underneath it.

"I've become who I am because of Sarya. Her minions hurt my father, forcing me into action. I've responded and reacted to her plans for conquest every time. Now I've had enough. I need to find a way to stop her before she hurts me again."

"Dat's why dat sword stopped bashin for yous," Thork said. "Yep, yous stopped protecting."

"What? You're mad!"

Thork shook his head. "Nope! Yous wantin' to hurt Sarya. Dats what yous after, wanting to bash dem."

"That way they can't hurt me anymore!"

"Troof! But dat's not all da troof," Thork said. He leaned closer and grinned. "Yous wants payback!"

Alto opened his mouth to refute the troll's claim but he stopped himself. He glanced down and saw he'd pulled his sword halfway free of its scabbard without realizing it. The sword hummed in his hand, encouraging him to draw it. He slammed it home and scowled. "So what if I want vengeance. In the end
, it serves the same purpose."

Thork shrugged. "Maybe it does. But yous needs to know yous self if yous wants to do dis."

"Wants to do what? Kill Sarya? I do!"

"Dats da easy part," Thork said. "Sarya is old and feeble."