Chapter 20
September 2, 780
Hydrozeno gazed around at the assorted group of people gathered around the map table in Octavia’s command tent. It was himself, Octavia, Kiln, Ariela, Dan, and an armored man and woman that Hydrozeno did not recognize. Their armor was dirt spattered like Dan’s and Hydrozeno assumed they were part of Dan’s entourage. The two stood along one side of the table with Dan, while Kiln kept the trio between himself and his sister, Ariela, much to Hydrozeno’s amusement. Hydrozeno was standing next to the mercenary captain who was studying the new arrivals as Dan introduced everyone.
“Captain Octavia, we haven’t had the pleasure to meet in person but we have exchanged correspondence. I am Lord Dan. This is my wife, Lady Crystal Asten.The lovely elf is Ariela, Kiln’s older sister. And lastly this is Heinry.”
The other other armored man coughed and scowled. Dan rolled his eyes.
“Apologies, Lord Heinry, allow me to correct myself. This is Lord Heinry Weisten of the Weisten Fief, Knight of the realm of the Silver Hills, and our appointed protector at the behest of Lord Cian Asten.”
Dan looked pointedly at the man, “Is that satisfactory?”
The man sniffed, “It is adequate.”
Everyone stared incredulously at Heinry for several seconds, then Hydrozeno could not help but burst out laughing.
At the same moment Octavia burst out, “Is he serious?”
Lord Heinry looked outraged.
“I am a member of the peerage of the finest realm of knights in the world. I do not think it so difficult to expect the respect accorded my rank, even if some are inclined to dismiss such honors, Lord Blackbane” the noble snapped. The man’s eyes flashed briefly towards Dan.
Kiln frowned as he turned to look at Dan, “Blackbane? I thought you were called Blackwolf?”
Dan scowled and his wife spoke up. Crystal, that was her name. Hydrozeno repeated the name mentally to himself several times and attempted to memorize her face. It would not do to forget her name and he was so bad at remembering names and faces.
“The change is relatively recent. Someone suggested that since he killed a black wolf and a black wraith and his sword drips black ichor that can supposedly kill a man on contact, Blackbane would be appropriate,” Crystal said, there was amusement in her tone, “He hates it. Says that it makes him seem like a villain out of the old legends of the Thirteen Guardians.”
Hydrozeno furrowed his brow.
“And those are?”
The stuffy noble, Harry, scoffed at Hydrozeno’s question, “Bedtime stories of little importance.”
Hydrozeno shrugged, “I haven’t heard the stories.”
Harry rolled his eyes, “It’s not our fault you are ignorant. Honestly, I thought elves were supposed to be educated.”
Kiln’s sister, Hydrozeno thought her name was Arala, gave him a look, “What’s that supposed to mean?”
The arrogant noble rolled his eyes, “Everyone should know the stories. You would need to have grown up under a rock to not know about the thirteen.”
Hydrozeno shrugged, “I didn’t grow up under a rock.”
“Then you are simply an ignorant fool and I have no idea why you are here. Who are you anyways?”
Hydrozeno gave the idiot, Harvey, a feral grin. He made sure the noble got a good look at every single one of his teeth. The sight of an elf covered in dark scales, reptilian eyes and a mouth full of only canine teeth was apparently very intimidating. Icepaw had often encouraged Hydrozeno to practice this grin to achieve maximum effect. The results caused Hennison to take a step back.
“My name is Hydrozeno. I grew up in a cave, not under a rock. I’m here because I ate the last of the black goo creatures I ran into. It was delicious.”
Octavia snorted.
“Yeah, yeah, very impressive, once we are done here ya both can go and figure out whatever this is outside,” the dwarf said before turning to Dan, “In the meantime, what can ya do to help us track this creature?”
Dan gave the dwarf a puzzled look.
“I thought you already knew where it was.”
Octavia frowned and stroked her beard.
“We knew where it was a month ago when Kiln spotted it. It might be there, it might not. According to the rumors and Kiln, this thing is a terror to scouts and I wasn’t going to risk my people trying to keep track of it. Yer a w-, uh, mage. Don’t ya know a spell that can lead us to it?”
Dan narrowed his eyes, “Who told you that?”
Octavia grinned and shrugged, “Me cousin was one of the dwarves who helped ya out in Enden. Besides, it's not like everyone here doesn’t know yer secret.”
Dan sighed and glanced at the rude guy whose name Hydrozeno had forgotten.
“Not everyone was aware of that,” Dan replied.
“Oh please,” Jerkface said contemptuously, “It was not hard to figure out. All I had to do was send a man to make a few discreet inquiries and get copies of some records from El Torre Sorcierre. Childsplay really.”
Dan opened his mouth to retort but his wife put a hand on his arm and spoke.
“Very clever, but we are getting distracted again,” she turned to Octavia, “Unfortunately, my husband doesn’t know any divination spells. He specializes in enchantments and body enhancement magic.”
Hydrozeno’s captain sighed and nodded in resignation, “That is unfortunate. I suppose we will just have to rely on traditional methods of tracking. Kiln, could you and Ariela track it?”
All eyes turned to the elves. Ariela spoke first.
“Of course we can, provided we can find a recent trail. There are few creatures that a proper elven ranger cannot track.”
Kiln winced and spoke up, “I am pretty sure this is one of them.”
Octavia narrowed her eyes, “Explain.”
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Kiln shifted uncomfortably. He did worse at talking with others than Hydrozeno did sometimes.
“So, while I and the two other scouts with me were out there we didn’t actually see any tracks.”
“Then how did you find it?”
“We didn’t. It found us.”
The tent went silent as everyone present processed the information. Hydrozeno was not sure what everyone else was thinking but to him the solution was pretty simple.
“So we just have to go out there and it will come to us then,” He said with a shrug.
All eyes turned to him. Ariela nodded slowly.
“That might work. Although we would have to get within its general vicinity. Kiln, could you take us there?”
Kiln nodded, “Sure, I can’t guarantee it's still there though. It killed everyone that saw it except me and maybe one of the others with me. He ran off and I have no idea if he survived.”
Octavia frowned, “So others might have gone after it if that other scout escaped and told people about it.”
Kiln shrugged, “He was an independent, so he may not have told anyone. I would be more concerned about convincing it to come out.”
“What do you mean?” Jerkface asked.
“The knightmare was clearly intelligent,” Kiln explained, “I suspect it only attacked individuals or very small groups. It may not come out for a larger group.”
There were muttered curses all around the table. Hydrozeno frowned. That made perfect sense. Even he would not charge an unknown group alone. He would employ guerilla tactics and pick off his opponents one by one until he felt confident. How would he go about catching himself? He would use food or friends of course. But the knightmare may not have any friends. So that was not really an option. Hydrozeno looked up. Most of the others were talking in small groups going over their own thoughts, or asking Kiln questions. He would ask Kiln his question too then.
“Does the Knightmare have a favorite food?” Hydrozeno asked.
Kiln glanced over distractedly. Dan was asking him a question.
“I don’t know. I don’t know if it even eats.”
“Oh, okay.”
Kiln turned back to Dan and Ariela joined their conversation. Hydrozeno stepped back and frowned. That plan was a bust. He looked up when someone put a hand on his shoulder. He looked up and realized Crystal was looking at him.
“Sorry Hydrozeno. I don’t know if you remember me we only talked a few times after, well-”
“After Icepaw died,” Hydrozeno said sadly, “I am sorry. I am not good at remembering people so no.”
“Well you were a bit distraught at the time,” Crystal said hesitantly.
“I was.”
Crystal sighed, “Anyways, I heard your question. May I ask why you wanted to know what the knightmare’s favorite food was?”
“Oh, it was nothing,” Hydrozeno said with a shrug, “I just thought about how I would catch myself. To catch me, I would only come out of hiding to save a friend or get food. I need a lot of it.”
Crystal looked thoughtful. Then she turned back and called, “Does anyone know what this thing eats?”
Everyone glanced at her then turned to Kiln. Who threw up his hands in disgust.
“How am I supposed to know that? It may not even need to eat at all.”
“Why do you want to know, Lady Crystal?”
Jerkface was looking at Crystal with interest.
“Well if we knew what it ate we could use that as bait,” Crystal answered. Hydrozeno nodded. This could work. The others did not listen to him. He knew most people did not consider him to be the most intelligent of individuals. Maybe Lady Crystal could think of something. Jerkface was turning to Kiln.
“Do you have any clues as to the creature’s diet?” He asked, “You never saw it go after any particular creatures of plants perhaps.”
Kiln shook his head, “No, it just killed Henry and left his corpse behind.”
“What about a rock?” Octavia asked, “There are creatures in the mountains of the Silverforge domain that eat stone or crystals.”
Again Kiln shook his head, “Not that I saw.”
“It didn’t do anything unusual?”
“Not real-,” Kiln paused and looked thoughtful.
“What is it Kiln?” Dan asked intently.
“Well it did respond when I used magic to hunt for some animals,” Kiln answered slowly, “That was the second time it almost caught me.”
“So it can sense magic?”
“Yeah,” Kiln responded more confidently, “Also during its first encounter it seemed to target my boots, the ones you made me Dan. It ripped the magic right out of them in a second. The enchantment was completely gone. After that, it seemed to be unable to see me and only reappeared once I used my Sense Animals spell.”
Octavia stroked her beard thoughtfully, “So it hunts by magic eh? Maybe it eats magic?”
Ariela shook her head, “That’s not it. Supposedly this thing has been attacking people for a while. Unless they all had magic artifacts or were continuously using magic, it should not have been able to kill them all so efficiently.”
Silence hung over the room as they mulled that over. Dan was right. Hydrozeno shrugged.
“Kiln is very good at hiding,” the Hydrablood stated, “Maybe he just got lucky and hid better.”
“No,” Kiln said with a frown, “the knightmare passed within inches of me while I was lying in the open. The worst scout in the region wouldn’t have missed me.”
“But I have seen you hide,” Hydrozeno protested, “You just pull up your cloak and almost turn invisible sometimes, even when I know you are there.”
Kiln chuckled, “Yeah but the creature doesn’t use eyes like you or me. Camouflage won’t work-”
“Hold on a moment, Hydrozeno is on to something,” Dan cut in, “Your cloak might actually be the answer to that.”
Jerkface asked the question that everyone else clearly wanted to ask. Even though the answer was obvious to Hydrozeno, “How?”
Dan grinned and looked at Hydrozeno, “Do you want to answer that?”
Hydrozeno smiled and nodded, “It’s obvious. Kiln’s cloak is magic.”
Octavia scratched her beard, “But I thought we just determined that this knightmare could sense magic?”
Dan closed his eyes and shook his head, “Magic? Yes, but we determined that Gifted weapons are effective against these creatures, whatever they are. Kiln’s cloak is a Gift designed for stealth.”
Ariela let out a low whistle, “That makes sense. If whatever these creatures hunt by magic, well, nearly everyone has a little magic in them. Once all his active magic was gone, my brother’s cloak may very well have been able to hide him, essentially making him invisible to these monsters.”
Dan nodded, “Exactly.”
Hydrozeno smiled, “So these things eat magic. Let’s just use a lot of magic to lure it out, then run away while Kiln shoots the crystal in its eye and kills it.”
“I already shot its eye. The crystal wasn’t there.”
Hydrozeno shrugged, “Did you shoot out both its eyes?”
Kiln hesitated, “I’m not sure. I might have, but I was mostly focused on not dying.”
“Then we just shoot both eyes to make sure,” Hydrozeno said with a smile, “If it isn’t there then we all just keep hitting it until we find the crystal. Then I eat it.”
Jerkface frowned, “Are you sure that won’t kill you? Just touching the crystal forced Dan to cut off his own hand when he destroyed the wolf in the Silver Hills.”
Hydrozeno rolled his eyes, “Jerkface, you are an idiot. I cut off Dan’s hand. Otherwise he would be dead. Then I ate the crystal. It will be simple. After all, I am stronger than I was back then. That black crystal gave me several hundred skill points.”
Dead silence greeted that statement. Everybody just stared at Hydrozeno. He stared back. Hydrozeno knew what he just said was ridiculous. Icepaw had taken great pains to explain the value of skill crystals and points to Hydrozeno in the years after they met. He had not wanted Hydrozeno to feed anymore crystal to Black. The thought of his small fluffy companion made him smile.
It was probably time to feed Black. The dog was a Gift and did not actually need to eat, but the process was fun. Besides, Hydrozeno was hungry as well. With a nod to the others he left the tent, reached into his back and pulled the small dog out. It wriggled in his arms, happy to be free of its prison. It was unfortunate that Octavia would not let the dog enter her tent.