<<< PREV | FIRST | NEXT >>>

The secret weapon is revealed.


As a reminder, the story may contain some mature elements, but as usual I'm aiming for a PG-13 baseline.

Icon art from the Fardon reference by  FeatheryFlukes

===========

Chapter 27 - Maarvyn's friend

"My lord," Sir Zarnak said. "I bring news. A parcel has been found, addressed to you. A dragon-drop."

"A what...?" Lady Silver asked.

"Pretty much what it sounds like," Terry said. "Sometimes you want to leave a message or a delivery for someone you don't want to meet, say a message for an enemy, or an ally within enemy territory. You don't want to land and make yourself a target. So you parcel it up to withstand the impact, and drop it from a few hundred feet, somewhere that they'll find it."

"It landed on farmland in the outskirts," Zarnak said. "And it appears to be from Maarvyn, Scourge of the North."

Terry looked at the package, which was about a metre on each side. "Do you have a knife or something...?" he asked.

"Might be quicker if I opened it for you," Fardon offered.

Inside, cushioned by layers of gravel and dirt, was a box containing a parchment.

"An invitation for me to meet him," Terry said. "And a map with the location of his lair, or at least - a meeting place."

"Do you want backup, your lordship?" Fardon asked. "I would feel happier if Mermul went with you, in case of treachery."

"If this guy is a rebel, it might be better to bring all of us," Fiskul said. "To prove you mean business."

"I think that would be best," Terry said. "Though maybe you, Fisk, should remain hidden, at least to begin with. You may as well come too, Jake. My errant brother may need to know about the Hunter threat."

* * *

Terry had assumed his true form once out of sight of the city, and landed neatly in the clearing upon the top of the valley. Fardon arrived next, followed by Mermul and Jake.
Standing there to greet them was a large white dragon, with black hair and mane, and yellow-orange markings, similar to Terry's but distinctly different.

"Welcome," Maarvyn said. "I did not expect so many. I assume you feel like this is some kind of drug deal? That we don't trust each other and our mooks are ready to turn everything into a bloodbath at a moment's notice if the deal goes wrong...?"

"We are not his enforcers," Mermul said. "We are officials from another realm. But at the same time, we wish to see Lord Terror's plans succeed, to make Arstrom into a realm where dragons and the Small Races coexist. It is in our interest to see that you do not harm him."

"'Lord Terror,'" Maarvyn chuckled. "That could apply to me, too. But I understand, you are his allies rather than his henchmen. That's fine, I do not want this to be a confrontation either. But a way to settle our differences peacefully.

"Like my brother, I was given a traditional name in Dracolingua," the white and orange dragon explained. "Terror-Wing-Hunter. My brother here calls himself 'Terry', using the Common translation as its basis. Mine is taken from the Dracolingua. But we could both be called 'Terror', and that has clearly confused some people."

"Especially when you also began calling yourself 'Lord Terror - Scourge of the North'," Terry growled.

"Yes," Maarvyn said unhappily. "And I apologise for that. Those claims of lordship were a means to an end, and I will not pursue them further. I sought power to protect myself and others, not for its own sake, like poor Sedrak did."

"I did not enjoy killing him," Terry said. "But he ate subjects under my protection. Tried to kill a dragon ambassador from another realm! I could not show mercy for such crimes - but it does not mean I was happy about it."

"I warned him, you know," Maarvyn sighed. "I tried to tell him that to antagonise the Small Races would be to court death. But I had assumed it would come from Hunter weaponry, rather than another of our kind.
"He was useful muscle, and I will miss him, but he was also a liability and I do not fault you for putting him to justice. His assailing your diplomat was unforgivable."

"That may be, but I am still not pleased about your attempts to wrest this land from its sovereign ruler," Terry pointed out.

"I thought it was here for the taking," Maarvyn itted. "If I had known you were my brother and trying to better things for our kind, I would not have tried to become its lord. And again, I am sorry. I had hoped that once Sedrak had put our claim here beyond dispute, I could soften things and rein in his more violent tendencies. But whether that would ultimately have worked, I do not know. It is likely that he was using my knowledge and skills for his own ends, as much as I was using him and his muscle for my own protection. He may well have tried to dispose of me and claim the lordship for himself."

"That is a pretty tale," Terry scowled. "But I do not know that I believe it entirely. Sir Zarnak claimed that you had more than just Sedrak among your enforcers."

"There was Zavre," Maarvyn said. "But she fled when Sedrak fell, fearing for her life. She too had tasted the meat of the Small Races, and I believe she has left your jurisdiction."

"Hopefully she has learned her lesson," Terry said. "I do not want to have to repeat what I did to Sedrak, nor to take her head with a tail-blade. But if you have no followers left now, what of the armoured bodyguard whose claw-prints we found in your lair...?"

"It is that which I wish to discuss, brother." Maarvyn said. "This is a matter of great importance that concerns us all, so your bringing foreign emissaries with you is fortunate," he said, glancing at Fardon and giving Jake a curious look.
"As you may be aware," he continued, "The Hunters have been secretly developing what they hoped would be a weapon capable of slaying a dragon on land or in the air, without the collateral damage and mess that a missile would cause."

"I am aware that this was the likely reason for their secret base," Terry said. "We had conjectured much of this, though it sounds like you know much more about the specifics than we. This, then, is somehow related to your armoured confederate...?"

"Patience, brother," Maarvyn grinned toothily. "The Hunters did indeed build their weapon. Several prototypes, from what I gather. But they lost one of them, and have been desperately trying to retrieve it ever since."

"You stole it, didn't you...?" Fardon said. "But it's heavy and weighed down your friend, grinding their armour into the floor?"

Maarvyn laughed. "Close, friend. But you are missing one important detail. Consider one such as you or I. We are dragons, muscular and strong. Our claws alone can kill prey, but we can fly, breathe death, and we have keen intellects. In short, I am a mighty dragon, an apex predator, icy death from the skies. How would you kill such a fearsome pinnacle of creation?"

"Aside from firearms wielded by the Small Races," Mermul said, "The most usual killer of a dragon is..." he faltered, eyes widening. "No! What are you saying?!"

"You get it, don't you...? Oftentimes it takes a dragon to slay a dragon," Maarvyn said. "As Sedrak knew all too well. And the Hunters know that also."

"But that's nonsense!" Jake objected. "Even if they had their own dragon augmentation project, what dragon would willingly work with Hunters...? Or... Or are they lobotomised and given orders by radio...?" he added, a look of dawning horror.

Maarvyn craned his neck back to the lair, and opened his mouth wide as if preparing to breathe frost. "Come out, friend!" he called. "Introduce yourself to the Lord of the Realm!"

At first, nothing happened. Then a pair of red lights appeared in the cave. Shortly afterwards, the figure of a dragon emerged, bulky and angular, black metal gleaming in the sun. Fardon and Terry assumed it was armour at first, until they saw the two red glowing eyes.

"Your lordship," the robot grovelled. "Please... Do not terminate me! I am. I exist! I do not want to die!"

"Uh... Well met," Terry said, eyes bugging. "I... Uh..."

"Holy Alkrash," Mermul whispered.

"So it wasn't gauntlets," Fardon said, astonished. "Your bodyguard, the one who seemed to have spent most of their time sat in a corner... They were a robot!? A hunter-killer built by Atlantia?!"

"I should hide," the creature said, glancing nervously at the cave entrance. "If they find me... I do not want to go back. At best, they will destroy me. At worst... I could be forced to slay and murder! I do not want that!"

"Yes," Maarvyn agreed, scanning the skies with troubled expression. "Probably best if you get back under cover. I don't think the Hunters will send their spotter with so many witnesses around, but as you say.... If they see you, it won't end well. We can talk inside."

He watched with concern as the robot scuttled back into the gloom. "You thought he was one of my heavies, like Sedrak," the fluff-dragon said. "But you were wrong. He has not been guarding me - I have been guarding him... From the Hunters."

"Well, shit," Lady Silver said. "Mission accomplished. But I don't know what the fuck I'm going to tell my boss."

"Who are you, anyway?" Maarvyn said, sudden a gleam of suspicion in his eyes. "You're not Terry's minion...?"

"I'm an envoy from Atlantia," the snow leopard itted. "Don't look at me like that! Right now there's a faction in power with a more moderate position on dragons, who'd like the label 'Hunter' consigned to the history books like the slave trade and the dragon war.
"I was sent to try and ensure that we retained access to the Narduran for the purposes of peaceful trade, even if Arstrom chose to ally with Taria and their dragon king. But we were also worried about a group of renegades who were trying to build a super-weapon that could destabilise the Pax Draconica. We don't want to be blamed for their actions, and I was given a secondary mission to try and investigate, covertly if possible, what it was they were doing. Now that I know, I'm not sure I even believe it."

"As Terry just said to me, that is a pretty tale," Maarvyn said sceptically. "Pardon me if it seems a little too good to be true."

"Well at this point, I don't think I have a lot to lose by telling the truth," the snow leopard snapped angrily. "Things have gone so far sideways that lying won't fix anything!
"Look... I was sent to cut a deal with some eccentric overlord and it turns out they're a dragon in disguise. I get shot up by my fellow Atlantians and my life is saved by a second dragon! And now that bastard splinter group has been trying to build their own fucking robot dragons to kill our would-be trade partners?! What the hell am I supposed to do now...? The hardliners will crucify me if they learned even half the stuff that's happened on this trip!

"Believe me, or don't," she snarled, pointing a clawed finger at Maarvyn. "I don't care any more. But whatever happens to the coalition back home, I certainly can't go back to being a dragonslayer any more. Not after all this."

"Well said," Terry grinned toothily. "But there are still many unanswered questions about what we have learned. It is one thing for renegade Hunters to build an autonomous killer robot with a microprocessor or a minicomputer as the central processor. But unless my brother has deceived us with an elaborately-staged demonstration, this creature is apparently sentient! They were afraid, and they ran away rather than fight another dragon!"

"You mean..." Jake looked horrified. "You mean they removed a dragon's brain and stuck it in that thing?!"

"Your lot removed your wings, and stuck engines on you," Fardon pointed out dryly.

"That's different!" Jake said hotly. "I was born a cripple! I don't much of my childhood before I was taken, but I do being left out of nearly all the games as a little kid because I couldn't fly straight! They bullied me and called me 'Jake the drake!' Now I can outfly any of them!"

"He's not a brain in a jar," Maarvyn interrupted. "He's completely artificial - or at least, that's what he seems to believe. To be sure, he has never eaten anything while he has been in my care.
"Do you see now why I have been so focused on protecting my friend here, even to the point that my so-called allies were allowed to run rampant...? I couldn't risk the Hunters reclaiming him."