Next Dragon knight

I am 2600 words into the next chapter. I had a great nights sleep, and I have but one other task to do today that isn't writing.  So I am hopeful it will be out later today.

I have decided to share what I have now as a teaser. It is 100% unedited. This is my rough draft before I fix the 200 mistakes I will find later, but I like what it says and how it ends and wanted to share it.  I expect this chapter to swell to closer to 7k words by the time I am done. Anyway, here it is.

The Father Abbot drummed his fingers on the table as the others entered the confrence room. He glanced to Dellain who sat to his right as the man cleared his throat. His second in command sat to his right, a face of stone betraying nothing of his thoughts. To his left stood the envoy of their master, a copper skinned man with dark hair. He seemed to be particularly calm in light of the news, a trait the Father Abbot found unsetteling. As the priests of the various orders filled in they were followed by the heads of some of the provinces. They sat in silence looking about with dour faces as they waited to being.  

“I hope you are all well this day,” the Father Abbot began. “I unfortunately received some interesting news from Lady Yarvine. She is traveling with Gersius.”

People looked up and mouths fell open as whispers circled the room. He was expecting that reaction, a paniced look and confusion with nothing to say or add. He gave them a moment to stew in that anxiety before continuing.

“It would appear he has united two armies into one and intends to march them here. He carries with him four dragons, two of ancient power, and thousands of priestesses of Ulustrah.”  Again the room looked stricken with uncertainty as he smiled to seem them so tormented. The room was silent until the stout priest of Gorrin beat a fist on the table to draw their attention.

“Then we have lost control and this has gotten worse,”  he said, his voice barely contained.  

“We have not lost control, we are here to discuss how to keep it,” the Father abbot replied as she drummed his fingers.

“You haven’t even addressed the issues in your own camp,” the man said and pointed an accusatory finger. “Your order is turning on you.” Eyes looked to the Father Abbot as he sighed and ceased his drumming.

“What is Forge Master Vorstag talking about?” a woman in gray robes demanded as she clenched a hand in a fist.

The Father Abbot sighed. It was necessary to invite the lesser members to this meeting. He wanted to make sure the provinces would stand on his side when Gersius began his march. Dutchess Edwendra was a powerful woman with great reserves of men, but she never trusted him. Even now those eyes glared at him with unsaid accusations.  

“It would appear I have lost the respect of my seekers,” he said. “They raided one of the camps I was using to contain the women of Ulustrah.”

“Two of the camps,” Dellain said as he held up a hand with two fingers up. “Gersius has raided two more, adding the women to his army.”

“So his numbers swell,” a duke from one of the provinces in Gersius’s path remarked. “How am I to resist such a force?”

The Father Abbot held up a hand as if to calm the room. “Reinforcements will be sent from other  provinces to bolster your armies.”

“You would have more if you hadn’t panicked and sent them to the border keeps,” Edwendra snapped.

The Father wanted to comment on that but held his tongue in check. When Gersius left to find his dragon word quickly spread to the rulers of the provinces. Many who felt safe knowing Gersius was fighting the war now panicked to know he was away. They immediately sent men to bolster the defenses, nearly doubling was what already there. Even leaders loyal to him sent additional forces to ensure their safety.  

“We have more important matters to discuss,” he said to steer the conversation away from bickering. The leaders turned to face him again and he waited a moment before telling them the true news. “Gesius travels with a woman who calls herself the red queen.”

“Then there is no doubt, he is the Dragon Knight,” Kline, bald headed high priest of Vellis remarked, breaking his long silence. “He has gathered his three queens.”

The Father Abbot could only nod as he began to drum his fingers again. “The blue haired woman is the leader of the order of Balisha. She is the daughter of the silver moon. The newly appointed general of Ulustrah’s army bears two marks of redemption, and must be the empress of black tears.”

“And now he has taken the queen of the red star as his wife,”  Forge Master Vorstag said with a laugh. “We were fools to think we could alter this path.”

The Father Abbot smiled and held up a hand. “He hasn’t taken her as a wife.”

A few heads turned as he smiled until the man whose presence made his skin crawl spoke up.  

“She was supposed to be the first wife,” Welcin the head of the faith of Youthan interjected. He smile with that youthful grin as he leaned back in his chair, rolling a coin between his fingers.

“More proof that the prophecy can be stopped,” the Father Abbot suggested and glanced to the coin. “Tell us, what does this new path mean for Gersius?”

Welcin tossed the coin ignoring its flight as it spun. A hand flew up as if by pure reflex and snatched it from the air. He opened his palm and looked down to see what was revealed.

“He who is most loved will fall. The daughter of the silver moon will cry for the loss, her secret untold.”

The Father Abbot smiled wider as proof Gersius’s path would end in failure was finally presented.

“It doesn’t mean he dies,” Vorstag argued.

“What else could fall mean?” Kline suggested. “And why would his loss be cried over if he did not die?”
 

“The prediction only says the one who is most loved,” Welcin pointed out. “I cannot guarantee that is Gersius.”

“Who else could it be?” Dellain added. “It has to be Gersius.”

Welcin smiled and held his coin between his thumb as he gestured with it to Dellain. “It can mean a lot of things. All we know for sure is this alteration of the course causes someone who is loved to fall.”

“Why are your predictions always so vague?” Dellain asked with as shake of his head.

The Father abbot knew the answer of course but Welcin explained it anyway. It would do some good for the others to hear it anway.

“The divines are forbidden to give direct guidance, or intervention. They can aid but they can’t act directly. They must hide their influence in the mists and work through their followers. Not to mention the other divines are actively working against Youthan to prevent his meddling.”

“Then how do we know any of your predictions are accurate?” Dellain asked as he leaned over the table.

“Name one of my predictions that has been proven wrong,” Welcin replied with a smile.

“Speaking of the divines working against us,” Forge Master Kendri began. “Gorrin opposes all that we are doing. He has stopped answering our prayers whenever we try to aid your goals. We have had to resort to using other means to prepare.”

“All of that will be set right when our lord takes his place,” the coppery man said, joining the conversation for the first time. Heads turned to regard him as he stepped to the table beside the Father Abbot.

“If the plan fails like it did last time, none of us will be alive to try again,” Vorstag said.

The copper man nodded. “We hoped to claim the dragon knight as our own, but that failed. We tried to eliminate him but that too has failed. We have attempted to remove the women meant to strengthen him but that too has failed.”

“Are you hoping to bolster our confidence?” Vorstag mocked.

The coppery man smiled but continued unabated. “All we can do now is prepare. We know exactly where Gersius is, and where he is going. We will make him pay in blood for every step of his journey, and wear him down. If he reaches the city he will fall at its walls.”

“He will reach the walls,” Vorstag said, with eyes full of certainty.

“All we need do is keep him occupied until the alighnment, then it wont matter.”

“Won’t matter?” Vorstag laughed. “Did you forget we have spies too? I know what Gersius said, he has vowed to take this city in one hour!” he accentuated the point by slapping the table with a hand. “And now he has the dragons to do it.”

The copper skinned man shook his head, a slight smile on his face. “We have dragons of our own. Our lord will see to it he cannot march on the city unopposed.”

Vorstag sat back in his chair and shook his head. “And will they last longer than the previous dragon you sent against him? My spies say it’s rotting along the mountain side where it was soundly defeated by but one dragon of Gersius’s dragons.”

The smile fled the copper mans face to be replaced by a scowl. The Father Abbot noticed the man’s hands clench into fists as he showed the first true signs of anger.  

“We do not know what happened,” he growled and leaned over the table.

“My order does,” Vorstag replied. “She was beaten to death by a red dragon weilding a hammer of Astikar.  “I am told this red was larger than her.”

The copper man let out a long slow exhail before nodding. “There will be dragons to defend the city, such that she cannot defeat.”

“Perhaps we should discuss these dragons,” Prime Healer Kline suggested. “We should discuss why their nature has been concealed from us for so long.”

All eyes now turned to the copper man who in turn looked to the Father Abbot.

“We know you’re a dragon, and we know you dragons can take our form,” he said with a pleased tone.

“So why was this secret kept from us for so long?” Kline asked in a smooth tone.  

The copper man stood up, stepping away from the table. His face a mask of stone that revealed nothing of his mood.  

“Why do we hide in this form?” he said with a nod. “You sit in this room and speak to me as an equal when you are not. You dare to throw barbed words and accusations only because you see me as I am. If I came before you as the dragon, you would not be so quick to speak sharply. We take this form because you humans are cowardly, and can’t bear the sight of our glory. This weak, pathetic shape is what we are forced to use in order to meet with you. We detest it, and find every moment spent in it’s embrace to be sickening.”

“That does not explain why you kept it from us so long,” Dellain pointed out. “Your secret hindered our efforts to find Gersius, our agents were looking for his dragon, when she was walking around in our form right under their noses.”

“You didn’t even have the good sense to tell us when we mentioned he was traveling with a women with blue hair,” Vorstag added. “You stood there and let us blunder by the obvious clue.”

“Which means this woman who attempted to gain access to the king was also a dragon,” Kline remarked. “They seem to be quite common these days.”

“Does this mean the dragon that can call on the power of Astikar is likely the woman who claims to be the queen of the red star?” Vorstag pressed. “Have we been undone by your kind?”
 

The copper man growled with a throaty voice the reeked of threat, bringing them all to silence.

“You were warned that this confrontation would involve dragons. Your order has been preparing for this for a thousand years, handing down the lessons from the first battle. You understand who it is we are aiding, and what is at stake.”

The Father Abbot stood up and raised a hand to call for calm before turning to the copper skinned emmisary.

“Of course we knew that. All we are asking is why you choose to keep it such a secret. In light of the failings of our plan, such a secret seems unnecessary, and could have possibly aided us early on.”

The copper man nodded and took a moment to regain his composure. He set his shoulders, the smile returning to his face as he addressed the room.

“This ability is the curse of Balisha, the weakening of our form so we can begin the destruction of our kind for good. It has become a carefully guarded secret, not to keep you humans in the dark, but to preserve our kind. Many young dragons are not even aware they can take this form. The master has carefully worked for many years to wipe this knowledge away. It would not do for human society to learn of it and spread the knowledge far and wide. It must remain carefully guarded.”

“Why though?” Dellain asked.  

“The master does not want young dragons burdened with the shame of this weakness. He wants them to grow ignorant of the folly of the past, free from the curse of Balisha.”

“So this is the curse your kind is trying to break,” Vorstag said with a huff. “You dislike looking like us.”

The copper man laughed and folded muscular arms over his chest. “We dislike being so weak, and the path to greater weakness this form offers us.”

“So don’t take this form?” Dutchess Edwendra asked. “Surely you can simply choose to not use it.”

There was a silence as the copper man sighed and locked eyes with the woman. “Many of the young ones fall prey to it’s charms and pursue the path of weakness. The only way to save our kind is to eliminate the choice altogether.”

“And this is your ultimate goal then?” Prime Healer Kline asked in a level voice. “You want to strip this human form from all dragons?”

The copper man smiled wide. “When our plan is done this curse will be lifted, and dragons will have this form no more.”

“And we will have our reward?” Vorstag asked.

The copper man nodded silently as all around the room settled.

“Then we need to redouble our efforts,” Vorstag admitted. “If Gersius can’t be stopped he must be slowed.”

“The alignment is months away, he has more than enough time to reach the city, even if we slow him extensively,” Kline pointed out.

“Gersius will reach the city,” the Father Abbot declared. “Nothing is going to stop that now, all we can do is delay him as much as we can, and then stop him here.”

“What of Lady Yarvine?”  Dutchess Edwendra asked. “Surely she must have some plan to aid us?”
 

The Father Abbot nodded gently. “The Lady Yarvine has two plans, both of which will aid our cause. By the time Gersius discovers her deceptions it will be too late.”

Welcin laughed and tossed his coin in the air as all eyes followed it. When he snatched it up he looked to his palm and frowned.

“What do you see?” Dellain asked.

“A sacrifice,” Welcin replied and looked up. “Tears shed in loss, but a path to salvation. Nature or the heart, the choice decides who will win. Is he worth the gold?”

The copper man laughed and shook his head. “Nothing is ever worth the gold.”