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Invading Will

Chapter 10

By: D. C. Henry ("Ahndeleck")

Raogothcar woke early the next day, even though he wanted to sleep the rest of the day in his den. The soft matting in his nest was a welcome change from straw, stones, and dirt on the open road. He hopped out of his nest and stretched the still weary muscles from the trip to Nyland. When he felt limber enough to walk, he trudged down to the lake outside his den and drank the cool water. The sun had risen he was sure, but it hadn't yet climbed high enough to reach into his little valley. Ravenstone too would still be in the shadow of the mountain.

Since it was still early Raogothcar considered walking into town to see the sights. He looked down at his paws and sighed, they were still sore from all the walking the last several days. He wasn't used to walking so much, normally he would have flown to Palitos, but it didn't seem polite to fly when the humans couldn't. If he was going to travel with humans, he would travel the way they would.

Today he was traveling on his own, so he could save his feet for the day. Then he remembered telling Deanna that he would be at the tower in the morning. There couldn't be a way he could walk to the tower by morning, it was too far away. Raogothcar turned from his lake and leapt into the air, beating his wings to lift himself over the edge of his mountain valley.

After he glided over the walls of the valley, he soared down towards the tower. The tip of the tower shown brightly as the mountain's shadow crept back from it. Every time Raogothcar saw the tower, he felt proud for the humans. This time he felt some pride in himself as well. This was the human's tower, his friend's tower, and even his own tower now too. His father never had a tower that Raogothcar could think of. One day he would tell his father and make him proud of him.

He circled the tower slowly as he descended towards the large balconies half way up the tower. As he banked slightly around the tower, Raogothcar noticed a few of the guards pointing up towards him. He was important now, they knew who he was, and it felt good. With a flick of his wings, he turned to land on one of the balconies. He cupped his wings to slow himself and reached out with his hind legs.

The balcony's heavy curtains covered the entrance to the tower. Quietly, Raogothcar crept softly and pressed the side of his head against the curtains, listening for anyone inside. After several moments of silence, he pushed the curtains aside with a wing and stepped inside.

Last time he was in the room, he had jumped off the balcony to save Eleanor Then, he didn't get a chance to look around the room and appreciate it. It was wide and open, and smelled like the fresh morning air. Around the center of the room were several large square tables. Most were empty, but Raogothcar did see a collection of small stones on the nearest table. On one side of the hall, near the northern curtain a flight of stairs descended into the tower, and near the south curtain, a flight worked its way up into the rest of the tower. Around the walls between the curtains were shelves. Many of them had small human books and other shelves held what appeared to be different tools. He couldn't recognize many of them, but knew most were for alchemy. Neither of his parents did much of alchemy, and he didn't know anything about it other than the most basic ideas.

Raogothcar trotted to the table nearest him and looked over the stones. Each were dark gray and rounded smooth, the sort of stone Raogothcar found often in streams. A moment later he noticed that the stones had been etched with a simple circle spell. He sat down and picked one and held it up for inspection, and found each were simple light stones. Someone had to draw the magic over the etchings before they would work, and he guessed, and these stones had lost their magic from use in the tower.

He set the stone carefully back in place when he heard footsteps echoing up the stairway coming up from the tower. He stood and waited for whoever might be coming, he didn't want to seem like he was playing with the tower mage's study. Before long a guard walked up the stairs. He wore the simple chain mail and blue tunic of the tower guard.

"Good morning, sir." Raogothcar said, "How are you today?"

"Good." The guard said lacking any enthusiasm, "Deanna sent me up here to bring you down to the council chambers. Seems they'll have a meeting they'd like you at, so come with me."

"Alright. Will this be in the dining hall? That was a really big hall and I bet it would be great for a council."

"No, its in the council chambers." The guard turned and started down the stairs.

"Oh, I've not been there before I think." Raogothcar said as he followed the man, "Are there going to be a lot of people in there?"

"I don't know."

"How long will it take? Do you know what they'll be talking about?"

"I don't know."

"What do they want me there for?"

"I said, I don't know."

"Oh, alright. Well thank you for taking me there. I still don't know my way around in here very well." Raogothcar saw the guard sigh, "Sorry, its just that I'm a little nervous about a council meeting."

As they walked, he felt the familiar knot in his stomach growing. His parents had never told him what a council meeting was like. Raogothcar couldn't even remember if Esmorin even had councils. He guessed they did though.

As the guard led him down more flights of stairs, he wondered what the council wanted with him. He knew everything that Deanna knew, and he guessed that Deanna probably knew more than he did. It felt like he didn't really need to be at the council, unless for some reason they had to talk to him about something he did. Maybe he had done something wrong while he had been here. He couldn't think of anything, but he couldn't think of anything else why they would want him at the meeting.

They stopped at a large set of double doors, on either side of the doors a pair of guards stood watch. Raogothcar's guide saluted casually to the pair. They mimicked the motion.

"I've brought Raogothcar." His guide said.

"Really?" One of the pair pointed, "I couldn't tell at all. I just thought the big red dragon following you was your new found lost puppy or something."

"Oh shut up." The guide opened the door and turned to Raogothcar, "They're waiting for you inside sir."

"Thank you," Raogothcar bowed his head and walked into he council room.

The long table lined with several chairs sat in the center of the room, it looked to Raogothcar as if it made by fine craftsmen and might be very old. He noticed several paintings around the room as well as a pair of very large maps. The door closed behind him and he saw several people at the table look his way.

At the head of the table, King Roland looked back at him with tired eyes. He sat back in his chair, and Raogothcar thought he seemed smaller than when he last saw him. Prince Alan sat next to him and beside him was Eleanor Opposite of Prince Alan was Deanna, she was the only one at the table that hadn't looked in his direction. Thomas sat next to her and smiled when he looked over. Benjamin sat next to Thomas, he nodded to Raogothcar as their eyes met. The other people at the table, Raogothcar couldn't remember ever meeting before.

"Raogothcar, good to see you this morning." Prince Alan pointed to a chair at the table, "Take a seat, we just got here and were discussing some trade between cities. "

Raogothcar walked down the edge of the table close to one of the new people. He stared at the chair for a single moment, then carefully moved it aside. Then he sat in its place at the table and curled his tail around him.

"Oh, sorry Raogothcar, I should have had a spot open for you. These are a few of the representatives from the other towns in Freeraven. Next to you is Luke from Farm Cross, then Phillip from Longdock. Across from you is Sharron from Apple grove, and then Eric from Nicksville. Next to Eleanor is General Keller, leader of the Freeraven military."

"Nicksville? " Raogothcar asked enthusiastically, "That's the small village on the way to Nyland isn't it?"

"Yes it is," Eric said, "I wasn't aware you had visited. Of course they don't tell me much of what goes on."

"It was a very nice place I thought. The little inn you have is friendly."

"Well thank you. When I'm able to head back out there I'll tell them you said that."

"Anyway," Prince Alan continued, "is the proposal that Kyle Landol acceptable to everyone?"

Murmurs and nods around the table seemed to signal a sort of agreement. Raogothcar had no idea what they were talking about though. He hadn't heard the name, and knew nothing about human trade. He wished he had arrived earlier to see what had happened. It couldn't have been much though, it was still early in the morning.

"Alright then," Prince Alan said, "we'll have him do the formal proposal at the next full council meeting. Besides, we're here to listen to some reports. Now that Raogothcar is here, Deanna would you like to explain what happened?"

With a short nod to no one in particular, Deanna launched into her report. Raogothcar listened through the assault on the bridge and nodded enthusiastically about everything that happened. He wanted to add some details that Deanna didn't mention, but he didn't feel like interrupting her. She wouldn't like it if she was interrupted anyway. It sounded as if everything she was saying was rehearsed, and he guessed she must have prepared everything the night before. After she finished, she looked up at the table to King Roland.

"That is very grave news." King Roland took a deep breath and stared at the empty table for a while, then looked up at Raogothcar, "Do you have anything you'd like to add Raogothcar? Is there anything that you can think of that Deanna might have missed?"

"Oh, I know she didn't miss anything, Deanna is really good with details I think. Just like she said, we were on our way and came to a bridge. We were attacked by a lot of people, but managed to get away. At the library, we learned that the people that are attacking were coming from the north somewhere. There isn't much more I can think of really."

"Deanna said they used Wing-Tangle." The King said, "Raogothcar, do you know if you have any enemies that you haven't told us about that might be trying to get to you?"

"No..." Raogothcar felt the trickle of worry in his mind as his spines rose with worry, "But, whoever those people are, they don't like me much anymore."

"Well, could it be that maybe your parents have enemies that might be trying to get at you now for some reason?"

"My parents? No, I don't think they have any enemies that are out to get them or me either. I can't think of any, and Mother and Father never said anything about any."

"Then what are we to make of these attacks?" King Roland sat forward and looked at the other people at the table, "There isn't much we have right now. I think though that these attacks are serious enough we need to start doing something about them."

"Your Majesty," Deanna turned to face the king, "we've got to assume that these attacks are coming from Torland. They have always been an enemy of Freeraven from even before it was formed as a nation. The Wing-Tangle proves that they are coming from the north. The library confirmed that they couldn't have gotten the poison from anywhere down here."

General Keller shook his head as Deanna spoke. Raogothcar thought he must be a very young man, since he was pale and seemed to be frailer than the others. His hair was a light blond. When he spoke, it was with a soft, airy, voice.

"I don't believe that the Blood Baron would try war right now." Keller said, Especially not how he's trying it right now. It wouldn't make sense. An assassination is more of a political attack than a military one. The first thing he would do is scout the surrounding land and plan a route of attack. Then he'd send over an invasion fleet. All this dancing around would be done by a group that doesn't have the resources for a full attack."

"General Keller," Eleanor leaned forward slightly, "are you suggesting that this group is an angry group of people here inside Freeraven? They've already used means that we just don't have here."

"What I'm trying to say, is that I don't think that this is Torland. It's just not characteristic of a larger military force that wants control of a smaller nation. It just doesn't work that way. Now the Wing Tangle does suggest the North, but I don't think the Blood Baron would risk something like assassination attempts on us."

"It couldn't be Torland," Prince Alan motioned at one of the maps, "Why would they try anything like assassination when they send an ambassador to us?"

"Torland can not be trusted." Deanna straightened in her chair and glared across the table. "They've attacked us before, and the attacks are coming from Torland now. That alone makes them responsible."

"Another thing," Thomas looked around the table as he spoke, "The number of reports I've been receiving from up north has been slowing down. Even the news from that way has been slow."

"How can you say that the news has been slow?" Prince Alan sounded amused as he waved towards the door, "Ambassador Landol has told us more in the past few days than the scouts have been able to tell us in weeks.

"Father, Kyle has been nothing but civil and trustworthy since he arrived. I believe what he's been trying to do is change our relationship with Torland for the better. Let's give him a chance to explain what might be happening.

"That's not what I've heard nor seen Alan," Deanna kept her glare in his direction, "Any sort of attack coming from their borders immediately makes them suspect-"

"And," Thomas pointed to him from across the table, "some of the few reports we do have tell us that things are much the same in the few places we've managed to get anything."

"Perhaps there's nothing new to report." Prince Alan said.

"Enough," King Roland waved his hands slowly, "Don't argue any further. Although, there is merit in having Kyle Landol come in to the council meeting here, I'm still not sure if we should. What are some of your other opinions?"

Deanna and Prince Alan looked down the table. Raogothcar shrank slightly when Deanna's wilting gaze passed over him, she could look so angry when she wanted to. The other people at the table looked at each other for a few moments, and then Luke shrugged.

"I suppose hearing from the ambassador couldn't hurt anything could it?"

"And Prince Alan is right," Eleanor said, "He might be able to tell us something we don't know about the situation."

"Well, bring him in," The king waved to one of the guards near the door, "We'll see what he has to say about it all."

Raogothcar frowned and looked down at the table. Prince Alan did seem to be right, but he wanted to follow Deanna's advice. It felt right to follow her, especially the entire time they traveled to and from the library. He especially felt bad for her now that so many people were against what she thought. She had to be right, but Raogothcar was scared to think what it might mean. Both Alan and Deanna seemed right, and Raogothcar couldn't decide who was more right. He absently pulled on a whisker while he waited for the ambassador to arrive, and listened to everyone else.

"Longdock would have seen anyone from Torland arrive," Phillip said, "If they were from the north, chances are they arrived there first. Especially with how many there are and how well equipped they are. It's the only way to get so many things into Freeraven from the north. It would take far to long to go around the Sea of Melodies."

"It doesn't matter," Deanna refocused her glare, "besides, I know that Longdock doesn't always find everything that comes in. The scouts can't keep track of all the ships in that port."

"That's true, but such a large force? I think you would have known Deanna."

"We would have, but not if they came in one at a time, or disguised. There are many ways to hide what your intentions are if you plan it out."

"Alright, so they sneak in through Longdock, where have they been this whole time? Not in my city, that's for sure. The mayor of Longdock would've told me about suspicious groups of people, and then I'd have told you if you didn't get the word before me."

"Both the Black Feather woods, and the Morinfall forest offer more than enough land to hide in." Sharon said, "There are hunters and trappers that wander about in Black Feather for days on end before they return to Apple Grove. If the Torland attackers were given a chance to know the land, it would be hard to find them out there. There are still corners of Freeraven we still don't know much about."

"That's true." Thomas said leaning back in his chair, "There's more than enough forest out there that even if we had all our scouts here in the nation we'd still not be able to search through it all fast enough. If I had to throw in my guess as to where they are, its out there somewhere, not hidden in some city or ruin."

"We still can't rule those possibilities out either," Deanna said, her tone had relaxed slightly Raogothcar noticed, "They may yet be somewhere in Longdock, or even here in Ravenstone. They've attacked twice near here, and quickly, so they may be inside the city."

"While I've had the guards search," Eleanor said, "They've yet to find anything that might finger out these people. If they're in Ravenstone, they're very good at hiding."

"We'll find them. I will find them and bring them to justice."

"No one's doubting that Deanna," Prince Alan said, "That's one thing I think we can all agree on. The issue is we still don't know where they've come from, or even what they want."

The door opened at the end of the room, and Raogothcar turned to see the guard walk back into the room. Behind the guard, stood the tallest human Raogothcar had ever seen. His father had told him once that the important men of the north would wear their beards long on the sides of their head, but seeing it for the first time, Raogothcar thought it looked silly.

"Ambassador Landol," the guard bowed slightly and then pulled the door open further.

"Kyle, come in, take a seat. We're glad you could come on such short notice."

"Part of my task is to help Freeraven whenever it calls to the best of my ability." Kyle said in a way that Raogothcar though he was talking through his nose. He slowly walked into the room and towards an empty chair. "What is it that I can do for you?"

Raogothcar sighed as the several people at the table explained the situation for Kyle. He found that talking about the attacks and discussing the assassins were becoming boring. Most of the explanation, Raogothcar tried to look as if he was listening. There were assassins in the nation, and could even be trying to attack again, and he was sitting at a table feeling slightly bored. When he thought about the situation in that light, he almost felt ashamed of himself.

"Horrible," Kyle said after Deanna finished talking, "There have been three attacks on Freeraven. The Blood Baron was afraid that there might be a small attack on the Southlands, but he didn't expect anything like this."

"What do mean?" King Roland said as he shifted about in his chair, "The Blood Baron has known about this?"

"Well..." Kyle took a deep breath and looked at the table for a short time. When he looked back up, he looked pained, "I've come to Freeraven to try and repair relations between you and the Blood Baron. This is one of the things that the barons of the north have been doing to try and come to a more civilized status with the rest of the known world. This hasn't been met well by everyone sadly.

"Many people see these new developments as a form of weakness in the barons. A few even see these as weaknesses to be exploited as well. We've noticed that one such group is the Snowbough druids east of the Dimikai mountains. There has been some sort of change with their inner circle, and they've changed their focus from natural balance to reclaiming all lands for nature. They seem to find most advancement as some form of rot on nature and seek to return a harmony to nature. They've taken the new changes as diversion, for their work in our land.

"Some of our people have heard that the druids have been sending some of their people to other nations to stir up trouble. It sounds like a great many more than we expected, and their plans are quite a bit more ambitious as well. We thought small disruptive things on the border, not such a provocative attack. On behalf of the Blood Baron, I do apologize."

"You can't help zealots, Kyle." Prince Alan said, "They'll do everything in their power to change the world. Though I'm glad you told us of this problem."

"If I may be so bold, Alan," Deanna ripped her piercing gaze from Kyle and focused on Prince Alan, "how can you accept this all at once? We don't know if any of this story is true. We can't even be sure that the attackers are druids. Not everything about these attackers points to druids, swords for one are very rare tools or weapons for a druid. Especially so when there's been so many here. They would have done something different."

"A very wise point ma'am." Kyle said as he nodded in agreement, "It would be very strange for normal druids to use a sword, not unheard of, but rare. However, these druids are being lead by someone that doesn't follow the traditions of druidism. Whoever this new leader is, they have bent the entire inner circle of the Snowbough to his plans. We've witnessed several attacks that are nearly as well armed as our own soldiers."

"I can vouch for him actually Deanna." Thomas turned to weather Deanna's glare, "I received a report while you were traveling about some rather large changes in that druid circle. They've not been acting normally. Although what I was told wasn't quite as extreme..."

"Extreme or not Thomas, we can't just trust Torland at their word. They've never been trust-worthy."

"Deanna!" Prince Alan said loudly, "We don't need to be saying accusations to a new found ally. Ambassador Landol, I am very sorry, Deanna can be a little direct."

"No apology necessary. I am here to help change opinions, but I am not so naive to think that they will change overnight."

"Ambassador," King Roland said, "What have these druids done in your land?"

The ambassador sighed and scratched his neck. Raogothcar thought he seemed nervous. It seemed to make sense though, he was new to everyone and had to make some sort of impression. He hoped that he would make a good impression though. When Raogothcar remembered trying hard to make a good impression, and it hadn't been easy. He wanted to tell the man that it would be alright, and that the people at the table were all nice, even Deanna when she wanted to be.

"The Blood Baron doesn't like to talk about things like this," Kyle said, "though I think he'd allow me to tell you in this situation. Baron Venarus watches over the city of Fort Blister. He's seen the greatest brunt of this trouble. I have heard that there have been at least two different poisoning attempts against him. He has lost several dragons to Wing Tangle poisonings in the past month as well."

"That sounds a lot like the attacks against us," Luke said shaking his head, "and that's disturbing."

"It is disturbing," King Roland said, "especially when they come after you. My regards to Baron Venarus."

"Of course your majesty, I'll send word when I can."

"Good, but Ambassador, what is it that Torland would like to do about this situation between us both?"

"Torland is willing to cooperate with your nation, and we believe that nations that have been hurt by these druids have equal right to see to the solution. We would like to invite you to participate in capturing the ones responsible in the inner circle for these actions. Of course this is only an invitation, Torland isn't about to tell Freeraven what it should do."

The king nodded, then remained motionless. Raogothcar guessed he was thinking about what to ask next, and the whole table seemed know and gave him silence to think. It was amazing that so few people could decide so many things that might involve so many people. In Ravenstone alone, Raogothcar guessed there were well over a thousand people. He couldn't even begin to guess how many people were in the whole nation. These people here were deciding how they would handle problems. It seemed sad that so many people had to have someone else tell them what to do. Humans were great creatures, but there were times they didn't make sense.

"If you don't mind Ambassador," King Roland said finally, "I would like to speak with the council alone for a while. You've given us a very important look into our neighbors, and for that I thank you."

"You are welcome, your majesty," Kyle said as he stood from his chair. "I shall remain in the tower for the day in case you or your council needs to speak with me."

Kyle bowed to the king, who nodded in return. Then the Ambassador turned and walked from the room, one of the guards opening the door for the man. Everyone in the room watched him leave, then looked to each other in silence.

"What do you think?" King Roland asked, "Ambassador Landol had some interesting news."

"I believe it's our duty to help Torland," Prince Alan said as he pounded a fist on the table, "they've taken a long step to try and help us by sending us this news. We've a responsibility to return a similar favor. If they're asking for help to investigate the Snowbough druids, then I say we go help them."

"You're suggesting we leave the throne even less guarded?" Deanna said, "Alan have you lost your mind? We can't send guards and scouts north when we have these assailants on our very shores. With our army in Torland, we won't have any defense against whoever is attacking us, Torland or not."

"She's right Alan," Eleanor said, "we can't send the army north with the trouble we have right now. We need to guard our people and you. There may be other methods of attack we haven't seen them use yet that having a strong force here might be able to protect against."

"Even if they are twice the size of our army," Phillip waved towards the map, "if we don't stop them they'll keep coming. Either druids, or Torland, they are coming from the north. We should at least start taking the fight to them. The sooner we remove the threat, the sooner the people can rest. I know the people of Longdock are worried about these attacks. There has been talk about attacks against the mayors."

"We haven't found any evidence of that," Thomas tapped the table softly, "so I wouldn't put a lot of weight in those rumors."

"And are the attacks against the throne could have been rumors that you disregarded as well. The scouts miss things sometimes."

"The army wouldn't be a good solution to this," General Keller held up his hands as if to separate the two, "since Torland already has a large force. If this is druids then they'll have the forces to stop this threat. If its not the druids, then we have a sizable amount of our defense against Torland at their mercy. I think this should be solely a diplomatic matter and not a military one."

"Even if this is just a diplomatic matter," Prince Alan turned to King Roland, "we must do something to show Torland we're ready to cooperated with them. One hundred and fifty years is more than enough time to get over a war. You even heard him father, things are changing in the north. We should help change in the south."

"Alan," King Roland faced his son, "we must think about our nation first, not Torland's change first. We have a responsibility to the people of this nation, you know that."

"What I know father, is that this is larger than our nation. We've been attacked by some sort of madman, and this madman is attacking more than just Freeraven. We've a responsibility to help."

"I'd not risk sending out citizens to Torland to fight against a peaceful grove of druids until we know more about the-"

"Peaceful? You just heard him father! Someone's overthrown the inner circle, and their going to war. How peaceful can that be?"

"Alan!" The king stared at his son silently before turning back to the council, "We've heard a lot so far today. I think we should take a short break before we discuss this any further. We'll continue in an hour."

Nearly everyone in the council stood at the same time. Raogothcar noticed that the king reached forward and held his son in place. They would most definitely talk about things more after they had all left. Since they would probably want to speak alone, Raogothcar stood after most of the others had walked past him, and then headed towards the large double doors.

After he walked into the hallway outside of the council chamber, he noticed that Deanna stood waiting for him down the hallway. Raogothcar smiled and quickened his pace to a trot until he stood before her.

"What did you think, dragon?"

"I've never been to a council meeting before. There was a lot of arguing in there. So many things to think about and everyone sounded like they were right. It's hard to keep track of my thoughts while they're all talking."

"They're not all right, Torland can't be trusted."

"I don't know Deanna, that Kyle sounded pretty nice to me."

"Well, I don't trust him either. What are you going to do?"

"I don't know. Will I need to be back for the rest of the council?"

"No dragon, they've heard all they needed to hear from you I think. Although, you may want to stay nearby, sometimes someone on the council will want to hear the facts again. You should stay near the tower."

"Then could I go outside and see the city?" Raogothcar shuffled excitably

"Hmm..." Deanna crossed her arms as she stared, lost in thought, "I suppose you can, but wait until tomorrow. These council meetings usually last a couple days, and I don't want you running around without someone to be there. I'll have some guards come with you."

"Thank you Deanna!" Raogothcar snaked his head forward and nuzzled her, "I've been wanting to see the town for a long time now. I can't wait to go see it."

"Good, just don't do that again."

"Do what again?"

"Don't stick your nose on me anymore."

"Oh, alright, I won't." He sat down to think, "The whole city. I'm sure the city is even more interesting than Palitos was."

"I'll get things ready for you dragon. You should stay in the tower for now I think. I still don't trust Torland, and there might be another attack if we aren't careful. I don't want you to be an easy target. You'll have the same room as you had last time you were here."

"That was a really good room, thank you Deanna. And thank you for letting me go into town, this is really exciting!"

"I know dragon, I can tell."

She turned from him and walked down the hallway. Raogothcar smiled and hummed to himself. Tomorrow the whole city of Ravenstone was his to explore. He wasn't sure what he would do, but there were plenty of things to discover outside of the tower. Then he realized there were still parts of the tower he hadn't discovered yet. Raogothcar stood and walked bravely towards the stairs leading upward into the tower.