Chapter 21
Captain Silverstar lead the party down the trail, the dark dwarven mage had given him specific orders for find the missing artifact and to kill the Princess! His stomach ached for he did have desires towards the Princess, yet he knew that he must carry out these orders or he would have to pay the consequences. Silently he brooded over the situation, his men arrayed behind him believing his brooding was due to the safety of the missing Princess Lunansa, they followed him, like they always followed him, with blind trust and faith in their leader.
Soon they started up the fork of the trail the Dhag’arii mage had instructed him to go, based on the last know whereabouts of the shadow serpent servants of the Dhag’arii. To his men he appeared to be just taking a random trail, in a random search for the missing Princess. Up and down the trail they galloped their horses, constantly scanning the surrounding countryside for any signs of the young girl, yet of course the Captain knew that up ahead they should find the group with the black artifact the dark dwarves so desired to have back in their possession and hopefully the Princess would not be far behind.
Up ahead the Captain had sent out a couple of scouts, one was riding back fast and so Captain Silverstar slowed the group of searchers to a halt to await the news from the scouts. They didn’t have long to wait as the scout galloped up to the Captain and came to a swift stop. He looked to the Captain and saluted him then gave him the news, “Up ahead there is a group of dwarves at what appears to be the scene of a battle, for there are dead shadow serpents in a clearing not far from where the dwarves are located. I left the other scout to keep an eye on them and rode back to inform you my Captain!” The scout reported to his Captain in haste.
Captain Silverstar was hoping that this was the group he was looking for, yet the mage hadn’t mentioned any dwarves. He quickly gave orders to his men, a group of twenty, selected personally by him for this particular expedition. He had them spread out a bit, then they followed after the scout as he led the way back to where he had left the other, once there they would determine the best way to mount their assault.
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Davkas and his daughter, Lizzy, had spent the rest of the night telling each other about their lives since last they had talked. There was much to tell since it had been almost two years since they had seen each other. But now they were arm in arm, laughing and joking as if no time had passed at all. Lizzy was feeling a little better, the old dwarf Argha had spent time healing more of her wounds. Davkas also spent some time talking over things with Vekao. He had first thanked him though for watching over his daughter and keeping her safe in his absence.
The two parties were pretty much rested and eager to be off again. The dwarves were still committed to take the Princess all the way to her Father so they especially wanted to get back on the trail to Castitrona. So they packed up their belongings and began the journey to reach the home of the Princess. Argha Flintrock decided to walk by Lizzy and asked again to see the artifact she carried in her pack. So she carefully took it out and handed to the old dwarf. He squinted at it intently, turning it over and over in his hands, muttering slightly to himself. Finally he handed it back to her and concentrated on the trail ahead of them.
Before too long they came to a clearing, but Davkas didn’t like the feeling he was getting and asked the party not to stop here but to push onward. The surrounding woods seemed very still and too quiet for his liking, and then suddenly the whole world seemed to explode around them! They came at them like a flood, and it seemed to them that they were coming from all directions at once. Of course that wasn’t the case, but they were coming hard and fast from three directions!
“Dwarves! Formation!” shouted Captain Hammerstone to the dwarven soldiers left to him.
Immediately the dwarves formed a wedge at the front of the group, while Davkas, Vekao and the rest of them covered the rear, making a somewhat complete oval shaped pattern of defense. Taithmar, Princess Lunansa and the dwarven mind mage, Argha, took up the middle of the group. Suddenly the Princess cried out!
“Stop! Hold I am Princess Lunansa and I command the soldiers of Lijissa to stop their attack!” The Princess cried out as loudly as she could with her arms waving in the air.
Having recognized the Princess, Captain Silverstar who was leading the charge in the front, brought his horse up abruptly and called for a halt quickly. His soldiers immediately came to a complete stop. Everyone in the two groups was looking very confused at the moment, until Princess Lunansa spoke again…
“Captain Silverstar! What are you doing here?” she asked the Captain from behind the hulking body of Vekao, who was eying the soldiers and the captain warily.
“Princess Lunansa! We were sent to find you!” the Captain said as he dismounted from his horse. Meanwhile his men squirmed in their saddles, confusion written on their faces at the new turn of events. Soon though their confusion turned to joy as they saw it truly was their beloved Princess Lunansa.
“Well it does seem that you have found me Captain Silverstar.” The Princess said in reply as she walked towards him with a big smile on her face, at the same time she motioned for everyone in their group to stand down.
Both parties relaxed as the Princess stepped over and greeted the valiant captain of her Father’s guard. She then went down the line and greeted all her rescuers in turn she enjoyed falling back into the role of the Princess. Soon the party as a whole were moving again and heading towards Castitrona with the warriors from the kingdom taking the lead.
All was quiet as they marched along the trail, the Princess spent a considerable amount of time riding beside Captain Silverstar, for as soon as they had started out one of the horses was brought over for her to ride. The rest of their original party made do with walking which really didn’t bother the dwarves that much, they preferred it that way. The day was quickly fading though, for they had spent a considerably amount of time discussing what had become of them and the details of their journey. So it was not too surprising to see that soon the sun would be setting and the three moons would be rising in the sky. Captain Silverstar sent one of his scouts ahead of the group to find a suitable place to camp for the night. They were still a day or two away from reaching Castitrona, which of course Princess Lunansa was very anxious to do.
It wasn’t long before the scout returned with some good news. There was a good clearing up ahead that would be perfect for what they required. It had a good stream flowing through it for fresh water and a number of trees for shelter, yet it didn’t have a lot of brush growing close to it so that they could see clearly around the perimeter. So they headed that way with light hearts and their stomachs growling, they would eat good that night for another scout had brought down two large deer and so they would roast them up for the party to eat.
“I can’t wait to return to Castitrona and to see my Father. I hope he isn’t too worried about me?” Princess Lunansa was asking Captain Silverstar as they rode along.
“He has been very worried of course my Princess, but so have I.” he responded to her question and then looked over at her with a shy smile playing on his lips.
Princess Lunansa looked a little shocked at first, for his response had surprised her, but then she returned his smile and said to him, “Why Captain Silverstar! Are you flirting with me?’
At this point his face bloomed very red but he spoke up and replied to her finally saying “Yes Princess you have been on my mind lately.”
They then rode along in silence for a long time, not looking at each other, yet stealing glances here and there. Soon they came to the area the scout had indicated and they all started setting up the camp for the night. The soldiers from Castitrona setup a watch with the help of Captain Silverstar, while the dwarves filled their skins with fresh water, Vekao and Davkas set to skinning the deer and preparing them for roasting. Nelas and Argha prepared the fire and soon had a very good fire roaring. Princess Lunansa kept watching Captain Silverstar and smiled at him a time or two when their eyes met, but he kept himself busy with his men and giving them instructions for the night.
Before too long they had the deer roasting on the fire and the aroma from it was making all their stomachs to growl. The party was beginning to gather around the fire, for the sun was quickly fading now and night was upon them. The sounds of the night surrounded them, in the distance they could hear the howling of wolves speaking to each other. But they had no fear of wolf attacks this night, there was just too many of them to interest any wolf pack.
When the meal was ready Vekao and Davkas as the head cooks for the night began carving it up and passing the food around, everyone was commenting on how delicious it was and everyone’s hearts turned to their respective homes. The Princess sat staring into the fire and didn’t notice when Captain Silverstar got up and left the fire pit area and headed into the night. Nelas alone noticed but figured that the captain was going out to relieve himself, so he continued to sit by the fire enjoying the company. Soon the dwarves started singing an old dwarvish tune and had the whole camp site clapping along! The moons were all up at this point and everyone was starting to feel the day’s journey, so a few of them excused themselves and headed for their bedrolls.
Not very many took note of the fine Captain’s absence, yet Nelas who was the only one it seemed to see him leave. Captain Silverstar had a dilemma he knew that he needed to contact Tin’ther the royal mage of the King of the dark dwarves, yet he was torn, torn to his duty to the King, torn to his new found affections for Princess Lunansa, and yet he knew that if he didn’t do this that he would eventually pay with his very life! So he took out the special crystal the old mage had given him for this purpose and spoke the command word into it. The crystal came to life! It began to glow with a light from within it and soon the image of Tin’ther was there before him!
“You have summoned me?” Tin’ther’s image said to Captain Silverstar.
“Yes I have, I have news of the artifact, it is here within my camp.” The captain replied to the mage.
“That is very interesting news indeed. You know what to do if you value your life Captain, if you would like Captain I can come and claim it now with a few of my minions, it would not be easy, yet it could be done?” the old mage said to Captain Silverstar.
About this time Nelas was getting very curious about the disappearance of the captain and since it didn’t seem to be bothering anyone else, he took the liberty to sneak out of the camp in the direction he saw the captain going and as quietly as a dwarf could be he crept along the tree line to where last saw the captain disappear to. Soon he came upon the captain and was shocked to see the image of Tin’ther the mage in the presence of the captain, who appeared to the old dwarven blacksmith to be holding a conversation with him. Nelas decided to creep a little closer for he couldn’t hear as well as he liked. As he crept forward he heard a twig snap and he instantly froze…
As Captain Silverstar was about to answer the mage he heard a twig snap in the trees behind him, he twirled around quickly, drawing his blade as he did so, he couldn’t see anyone, yet he felt eyes watching him. So he turned to the image of the dark dwarf mage and said “I can handle getting the artifact without any blood shed. Wait until tomorrow night and I shall have it for you.” With that he ended the conversation and quickly placed the jewel back within his pouch. Then he turned his attention upon the surrounding area, he had another special gem that he could use for this kind of occasion, an all-seeing-eye. He took this special gem out and looked through it, rotating it in a slow 360 degree sweep of the woods surrounding him, and then he saw the dwarf, standing next to a tree, holding very still. He placed the gem away and crept around to where he had seen the dwarf spying on him. He knew that this dwarf probably saw and heard too much about what had went on so he didn’t want to take the chance of being caught now.
Slowly he crept along, Nelas was still not moving, having seen that the image of the mage had disappeared he decided it was best to not draw attention to himself, when he saw the captain moving off, for being a dwarf he could see very well in the night, he assumed he was going to make his way back to the camp. So Nelas turned to take his first steps back towards camp himself, he was very anxious and wanted to tell the Princess and the others what he had seen so he didn’t hear the captain as he rushed up behind him! The next thing that Nelas knew was that he had a longsword sticking out of the front of his chest for Captain Silverstar had jammed the blade to the hilt through his back! Nelas gurgled slightly, then let out a slight sigh and slumped to the ground, Captain Silverstar let him fall and drew his blade out and wiped it on some leaves nearby. He checked Nelas for life, and not sensing any decided to head back to the campsite, leaving Nelas to the night.
When Captain Silverstar got back to the camp he found that most of the camp had already turned in for the night, the guards were already on duty and saluted their Captain as he came striding up. He returned their salutes and went straight to where he saw Lizzy sleeping, he quickly looked around and noticed that Vekao, Davkas and a few of the dwarves were still by the fire talking, so he crept up to where he saw Lizzy’s pack and went through it quickly, he cursed softly under his breath when he didn’t find the artifact, he quickly and quietly walked away and then went to sit by the fire scratching his chin trying to figure out who had the artifact?
“Greetings Captain, you seem puzzled about something?” Davkas called out to the Captain as he came walking up to the fire and sat down.
Captain Silverstar looked over at Davkas and trying to cover up his puzzlement smiled at him and just shook his head then he said, “No I was just thinking about this artifact that you had told us about earlier in the day. It will be good to get this in the hands of our mages back home and perhaps put an end to the brewing war.”
“Yes well you are right about that, it is a very important find and we are fortunate that Lizzy ‘found’ it and we can turn it over to King Brighwater.” Davkas said in reply while the dwarves and Vekao all nodded in agreement.
“Yes most assuredly, but I was wondering, does your daughter have this artifact on her now and is that the safest place for it to be?” Silverstar asked Davkas with a smile.
“No she doesn’t have it any longer, she handed it over to the good mind mage here Argha.” Davkas said in reply and pointed towards Argha Flintrock the old mind mage from the city of Ironhold.
“Yes, I have the artifact Captain. Lizzy and I discussed it and felt it was better for me to carry from this point.” Argha said to the Captain with a nod and a smile.
“Very well, very well. I was just concerned you know about who might be carrying such a potent and dangerous thing!” Captain Silverstar answered Argha back and then ended the conversation with, “Well I think I will need to turn in for now, it’s been a very long day, but a happy one.” And with that he got up and went to his bedroll.
Soon all of the party members were excusing themselves for bed and the only ones left awake were the guards posted at the perimeter of the camp. Captain Silverstar wasn’t really asleep, for he had tried to sleep but was deep in thought, trying to figure out how to get the artifact from the mind mage and feeling guilty over the death of the dwarven blacksmith Nelas.