CHAPTER 20

Now reunited, the Dragon Prince and his three guardsmen friends ventured through the Path to Everywhere with their two unfortunately but necessarily depleted Dragon Gemstones in tow. The journey through the Ways Network was nerve-wracking with every cloaked stranger being a potential robotic rogue, but thankfully the trip was uneventful. Instead, it was when the team exited the tower in the border town of Vinestone right on the edge of the Slahan and the neighboring Alamer Forest that the team came face to face with danger.

“You know… there’s something oddly familiar about this place,” Zhanatos noted suspiciously after exiting the Waygate and looking out the large open doors to the town proper.

“That’s likely because we’ve been here before, Zhanatos. Remember? We passed through Vinestone on our way to Holbeck,” explained Radias.

“Holbeck, Holbeck… hooolllbbbeeccckkk,” Zhanatos tapped his chin thoughtfully then snapped his fingers. “Oh yeah, that was the time we fought mummies, right?”

“‘Holbeck’ no, as I recall they had issues with harpies,” Xion replied.

“I thought that was Holmfirth,” Larxene raised an eyebrow.

“No, Holmfirth was the fake town that turned out to be a really big mimic, remember when the sign licked you?” Radais explained.

Larxene shuddered at the memory.

“And yes, Holbeck was harpies.” Radais concluded.

“Okay, but where and when were mummies?” Zhanatos questioned.

Radais shrugged. “I don’t recall us ever having an encounter with mummies. The practice of mummification is only done in the far distant east in Zaegizar Dynasty. A rather interesting death preparation ritual actually. There was a fascinating presentation at Highhelm University. It was a low-key affair due to the involvement of necromancy.”

“So… the university had to keep the mummies under wraps then?” Zhanatos tried to hide his grin but he just couldn’t.

Radais sighed and covered his face with his palms. “I can not believe I walked into that.”

Larxene turned and considered walking back through the Waygate, she could probably get back to Dragon Haven before anyone noticed she was gone.

Xion… was giggling hysterically. So much so when the others caught on they felt a tickle of amusement as well. “UNDER WRAPS! HA HA HA! SORRY…sorry leftover effects of that spell I did. I’m so charged with positive karma I’m having issues with giddiness.” The shaman explained through barely contained fits of giggles.

Radais pat Xion’s back in a reassuring manner. “Perhaps, we might limit the jokes until she’s feeling more normal?”

Zhanatos nodded, “Yeah, I guess my jokes might be a cruel and unusual punishment--”

Xion let out another loud cackle drawing the gazes of onlookers, “PUN-ishment! I literally can't stop laughing.” She smiled as she giggled and explained, “This hurts so much!”

“I swear I didn’t mean that one.” The berserker offered apologetically.

“And for the record… your humor is cruel and unusual on a normal day, Zhanatos,” Larxene added.

Once Xion was able to calm herself, the group ventured out into Vinestone proper. The city is similar to how the Dragon Prince remembered it from the previous visit. The name ‘Vinestone’, a portmanteau of two words ‘Vine’ and ‘Stone’, reflected the dualistic nature of the town. A river ran through the middle of the two halves of the town. The elven side was forest atop a sort of plateau and the human side was one long downward slope leading east. The human town made mostly of stone harvested from mines beneath the city is on the east side, and an elvish forest with tree house homes connected by suspended rope bridges with stone curricular stairs leading to the treetops. The bridge connecting the two halves of Stonevine was quite the site to see. Whitestone that seemed to gleam in the sunlight hugged by flower-sprouting vines wrapped around every viable surface except the well-trodden street. It was practically a work of art, despite serving the mundane function of transportation across the river. The slopped nature of the human side of town allowed for portions of the river to be siphoned off for water wheels which flowed parallel to the main street and down holes into the mines below where the flow could be used to power mining equipment. The north and south sides of the towns were sheer rock walls which made the location an ideal choke point against invading armies.

The story goes that the town was created as part of an ancient peace treaty between humans and elves. The river marked the separation of the two kingdoms so someone had the idea to build a town of two halves over the river as an everlasting symbol of outreach and co-operation between the kingdoms. Radais wasn’t sure if the story was true, but he wondered if he might apply a similar ideology of cultural border sharing to Dragon Haven. Even with the curse resolved by Xion, tensions still existed among the denizens of the island.

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“Well… I’m glad to see the path has led you here once, more my friends.” A familiar wizened voice cut through the chatter of the busy town to draw the heroes’ attention.

Radais turned to look at the source. “Elderman Gantar Elyarus. An elder elf with blonde gray hair carrying an ancient and gnarled staff. A pleasure to see you again.” The Dragon Prince and the Elven Elderman clasped arms in a traditional elvish greeting.

“I thought the Adventures’ Association might send you all.” Gantar exchanged similar greetings with the rest of the group.

“Indeed they have. Just how bad is it?” Radais inquired.

The old elf frowned, “This way… you can see for yourself.” He led the group away from the tower to an overlook where they could see outside the city walls. There stretching off into the distance for at least a mile was a train of haggard and exhausted refugees making their way through the city. Judging by the blackened soot smeared on their faces, the limited supplies they were carrying, and their general disheveled appearance it was difficult to guess the people were from a town that had just been ravaged by the orcs. “The town of Hewe is no more,” Grantar announced grimly. “And this is but a fraction of the city’s population, the rest are either dead or scattered to the winds. We’re doing what we can to help, but there is not enough space for everyone in Twinestone. Thankfully this spring has been warm, most of these refugees will be sleeping among the trees for the foreseeable future.”

Radais nodded grimly, “I hate to add to your troubles, but there may be imposters among those refugees…” The Dragon Prince quickly explained his and Zhanato’s earlier encounter with the Empire’s golem in the Ways.

“We’ve also encountered the metal assassins. Fret not, we have taken measures.” Grantar pointed out a few groups walking up and down the line of the refugees. Judging by the gear Radias deduced, each group had a magic user accompanied by a pair of knights in full armor armored with pikes. They were carefully checking and re-checking every refugee that approached the city gate. “The first one caught us off guard. Thankfully one of my mages was able to hit it with an ice spell, which proved to be very effective. The machine's movements work by some manner of oil flowing through tubes.”

Radais nodded. “Freeze the liquid and they are unable to move. That’s clever.”

“I’ve sent word to other towns at the border about the metal assassins, but my messengers have yet to return. Out of the many refugees we’ve received only two were golems so it appears they are rare in nature.”

“For now at least,” Radais added. “Given enough time the Empire will have legions of them. What of King Arthurian? Any word from him?”

“The King yet remains, though his castle’s fortifications have been tested by the orcs many times. One of the king’s patrols just recently departed, in fact. They found the refugees fleeing Hewe and escorted them here. It seems by all counts the King is doing what he can to protect his subjects, but the warbands have proven too numerous and too swift to combat.”

Radais blinked, “‘War bands’?” He emphasized the ‘S’. “As in plural?”

“Indeed.” Grantar nodded.

“But… Orcs don’t work like that. I checked Slahan on a map. The kingdom isn’t big enough for more than one warband to prey upon the area; they'd come into conflict.” Orcs would raid and pillage anyone, even other orcs. In some cases especially other orcs.

“Had I not seen proof of it myself, I would agree, Prince of Dragons.” The elf nodded. “An orc unlike any other has united many warbands together. I fear until the cause of their unification is found and dealt with there is little hope of driving them out of our lands.”

Radais sighed and nodded. “So which clans are we up against?”

“So far we’ve encountered the Spiderwalkers, the Earthbenders, and the Iron Mongers. The Spiderkins specialize in training the giant spiders of the Kulsua jungles to use as mounts. The Earthbenders have Terramancy, and the Iron Mongers can eat metal and have a skin of literal iron.” The worst, however… are the Shriekers.”

“What do they do?” Zhanatos asked with more enthusiasm than he intended. He couldn’t help it, orcs were good eatin’! They tasted a lot like goblins, one of his personal favorites. He was looking forward to sampling all of the varieties.

“They are a vile breed… creatures most foul.” The elderman practically spat his words. “They self-immolate and explode like smokeless powder. They’re essentially living bombs.”

“How…” Larxene began with a confused blink, “... how does a species that blows itself up propagate to the point of having a functional society?”

“Yeah, wouldn’t someone like… make them all blow themselves up just be rid of them?” Zhanatos inquired.

Radais supplied the first part of the answer, “Well, as it happens that was tried once about a hundred years ago by the mage-knight armies of the Lost Kingdom of Kal-la-blo-mie in the distant arctic north. They rounded up every last Shrieker orc in the kingdom and killed them all by forcing them to detonate, which had something of a chain reaction effect, and then buried the remains in mass graves.”

Grantar nodded grimly, “That’s how it was discovered that they reproduced by sporing when they detonate… by the next summer there were literally millions of them. The only way to ensure they don’t come back is to salt and burn the earth. The reason they evolved to explode is to upturn earth to reach the viable soil beneath the snows of the frozen north”

“Which subsequently is why it's now known as the ‘Lost’ kingdom of Kal-la-blo-mie.” Radais finished.

Xion started laughing hysterically. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I don’t mean to!” She apologized as she giggled.

Grantor turned to Radias with a raised eyebrow to which the Dragon Prince explained the unfortunate side effects of Xion’s earlier spell. It was as Xion’s laughter patterned out the team began to hear the shouts of alarm. They looked out over the city to hills as a sea of gray crested a distant hilltop and washed towards the town like a flash flood.

The shrieking noises filled the air as the orcs charged Vinestone.