Omnixius
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Dragon Knight question
🕑 Added 2019-12-20 02:02:33 +0000 UTCI am going to post a short section of story. This is 100% rough draft with NO editing. For some reason I have this marked that I already used it, but I can't for the life of me figure out where. Would one of you be so kind as to let me know if this has appeared someplace earlier?
Normally I mark used chapters or chapter sections like this:
(Used in book 3 chapter 10)
The problem is, It isn't in book 3 chapter 10. I checked, four times. So now I wonder if I did use it.
Story Section Father Abbot Part 2-- Yarvine to pluck a thorn.
Dellain tested the fit of the armor as the Father Abbot stood by. It was delivered this morning by two priests of Gorrin. The men were now helping him put it on to make sure the fit was right and to make any needed adjustments.
Lady Yarvine was there with the smirking High seer of Youthan. His name was simply Welcin, a common name in the south. But nobody was sure what his family name was. He seemed about twenty years too young to be head of an order but he undeniably had Youthan’s gift.
The man made Dellain nervous as he rolled a silver coin between his fingers with careless ease.
“Has your sight shown you anything useful?” Lady Yarvine asked.
The man stopped rolling the coin and gave it a toss. He snatched it from the air as it fell and studied it in the palm of his had.
“The same message, the red queen is awake,” he said.
“What was that other bit you said earlier?” the Father Abbot asked as he leaned against a pillar.
The man turned the coin over in his had. “The first has become last.”
“What is that supposed to mean?” Lady Yarvine asked.
Welcin picked the coin up with his other hand and held it up as if it would give him more insight.
“I don’t know.”
“Bah!” Lady Yarvine said with a wave of her hand as if to dismiss him.
Dellain twisted as the priests strapped he breastplate on and tightened the straps.
“The fit is loose,” one of them said as he shook the plate.
“It feels fine,” Dellain said.
“It should hug the skin not hang from your shoulders,” the priest said. “We can pad it under the ribs to tighten it up.”
“That will make it hotter,” Dellain protested.
The priests smirked and ignored him moving to put the shoulder plates on instead.
“So this is the replacement armor?” Lady Yarvine asked.
The Father Abbot nodded. “It has been recreated from notes and drawings of what the original looked like.”
“Minus any of Balisha’s symbols,” the man with the coin said.
She glared at him and walked over to Dellain to inspect the armor herself. She ran her hand over the burnished silver plates and the fine details.
“A single dragon for the emblem?” she asked. “Were there not two?”
The Father Abbot nodded. “There is only one dragon God. There is no need for two anymore.”
She walked around Delain making him uncomfortable as the two priests of Gorrin adjusted the fit of the shoulders.
“Well he certainly looks the part,” she said. “No doubt the people won’t know the difference.”
“The people haven’t know the full prophecy in hundreds of years,” the Father Abbot said. “None of them will know any better.”
“Best not let him get to close to a priestess of Ulustrah. She will see the lie for what it is,” Welcin said.
“Thankfully they are no longer a problem,” Lady Yarvine said coldly.
“So the temple is ours?” the Father Abbot asked.
Lady Yarvine only shrugged. “Word hasn’t arrived yet. But the force we sent was more than sufficent. They probably only had twenty women in armor when the beasts swarmed over the walls.”
“A bold plan to raid your own temple,” the man with the coin said. “Especially after my warning.”
“Your warnings don’t always come true,” she said. “And I doubled the forces sent just in case!”
“It was hardly a warning,” the Father Abbot said. “The night arrow makes them ready and flees to find the crows?”
Welcin shrugged. “I only repeat what I am told.”
Dellain grew tired of the man pulling on his shoulder and jerked it away.
“It’s on already!” he snapped.
“It has to fit over the seam or you will have a weak point,” the priest said.
Dellain sighed and let the man resume his work. He looked to the Father Abbot and asked a question.
“What of the regents in the distant areas?” he asked.
Lady Yarvine and Welcin both turned to look at him as he studied them with his calculating eyes. “Messengers have been sent to every distant head of our order with strict instructions to arrest and hold the servants of Ulustrah and to hunt for Gersius.”
“So they are all working to find him,” she asked.
The Father Abbot was quiet a moment and he spoke carefully. “The lands to the far East will take some time to notify, but all of the Commonlands high priests are fully alerted.”
“What of the north region?” Dellain asked.
The old man made a sour look. “We have no reply from the north. The messenger has returned to Calathen already. He assures me he delivered the letter.”
“And he had no reply?” Lady Yarvine asked.
“That’s high priest Lengwin isn’t it?” Dellain asked.
The Father Abbot nodded with a sigh.
“Is this going to be a problem?” Lady Yarvine questioned.
“Lengwin is a fanatic,” Dellain said. “He won’t do anything that he feels isn’t in Astikars best interest.”
“Even if it comes from the head of his order?” she asked.
“He will do what I say,” the Father Abbot said. “I already sent men to remind him who he serves.”
Lady Yarvine narrowed her eyes and looked to the young man by the wall.
He let out a laugh and flipped his coin. All eyes in the room watched it as it tumbled and he snatched it from the air. They were all silent as he opened his palm and looked at the coin.
“Well?” Yarvine asked.
“A new enemy arises. Astikar and Ulustrah stand united.”
“By the gods!” Yarvine cried. “How many of your order are going to turn against us?”
“Did he not say your order was against us as well?” the Father abbot shouted.
“We already knew that!” she argued back. “You ensured that when you allowed that heathen to raid my temple! Thankfully we have my order firmly in hand now.”
As if the Gods wanted to mock them a woman in gray armor ran in and knelt before Yarvine.
“My Prime, I have news of the attack on the temple,” she said.
“Ah Jessica,” she said. “Come, tell us the news.”
The woman didn’t look up and she shook from head to toe. Dellain didn’t have to guess what she was going to say.
“The attack failed, the temple still stands in Governess Alayse’s hands,” the kneeling woman said.
“What!” Lady Yarvine roared. “How could it have failed?”
“The temple was on full alert with its entire garrison on the walls. Governess Alayse even had the maids and kitchen staff in arms.”
“They knew we were coming,” Yarvine said as if she didn’t believe it.
Welcin started to laugh and even the Father Abbot struggled to hide a smile
“Yes do show us how to get our orders in hand,” the Father Abbot mocked.
“This was your plan!” Yarvine scolded. “I only insisted you double the men sent!”
“And yet it still failed,” Welcin said. “As I said it would.”
“You be silent!” she hissed. “You said Gersius would escape the trap the Whiteford. He didn’t escape, he was rescued. Your predictions are never clear or precise!”
Yarvine turned in a huff and only then noticed the woman still kneeling.
“Your message is delivered, get out of here and keep silent about this,” she scolded sending the woman running.
“How could the attack have failed?” she spat when the woman was gone.
“The question is how did they know we were coming?” the Father Abbot corrected.
“The night arrow makes them ready,” Dellain said.
“What does that mean?” Yarvine asked.
Dellain looked over to the Father Abbot and said one word. “Ayawa.”
The Father Abbot tossed his head and sighed. “Of course.”
“This is the warrior maiden you keep catching glimpses of in the south?” Yarvine asked.
“She is a close companion to Gerisus and was seen with him at Eastgate,” Dellain said. “She uses a bow of black wood that her people call night wood. she must have been there and warned them.”
“And she was last seen in the south Commonlands,” the Father Abbot added.
Yarvine closed her eyes and took a deep breath. When she opened them she looked collected. “So she was scant miles away from the city at last reports?”
Dellain shrugged much to the annoyance of the priests fitting his armor. “She is the one we suspect of raiding that prisoner train. If she was involved in the battle on the road east of there then she was heading that way.”
“So this is the thorn in my side,” Yarvine said. She glared around the room and then headed for the door.
“Where are you going Lady Yarvine?” the Father Abbot asked.
She paused at the door and smiled. “I am going to pluck a thorn.”
The woman left the room and Father Abbot stood up tall. “It would seem we need to unite the empire quickly before Gersius upsets the balance.”
“We still have no idea where he is?” Dellain asked.
The Father Abbot shook his head. “Zahdain is hunting for leads and for Ayawa.”
Dellain smirked. Tavis and Ayawa were legend for being able to sneak through armies and return with detailed reports. Unless they were pressed for time and forced to be careless they wouldn’t be found, not even by Zahdain.
“So does she stand a chance of plucking this thorn?” Dellain asked.
The Father Abbot turned to Welcin who tossed his coin. He snatched it from the air and studied his hand.
“A deception is spoiled by the least of their number. A lie cannot be hidden from the one who sees the truth.”
“So no then,” Dellain said dryly.
“None of these predictions are clear enough,” the Father Abbot said.
“I can only repeat what Youthan tells me,” the man said. “He is amused by the state of affairs.”
“Are we sure he is helping us?” Dellain asked.
Welcin smiled. “Youthan isn’t helping or hindering, he is simply watching. He doesn’t care what the outcome is one way or the other.”
“Gorrin certainly isn’t helping,” one of the priests working on the armor said. “He has tried to appose every ceremony to enchant the armor.”
This caused the Father Abbot to look up form a particularly sour look.
“It is enchanted though?” he asked.
The priest nodded. “We had to resort to the other method, but we got the work done.”
The Father Abbot sighed and shook his head. “So much work to do for what should be so easy a task.”
