night the boy dallied into the late hours with pretty girls and drank too much. He did not fall asleep until only a few hours before the group planned to head out after the marauders.”
Proteus stopped her for a moment. “Yes, there are spoiled children in Elekargul as there are everywhere in the world but we try to teach them better.” The square-jawed knight took a sip from his glass and continued his story. “The rules back in those days were such that no boy without master could take the field of battle with men, so Cincannatus broke into the other boy’s equipment, stole his arms and armor, and left a single copper coin behind as payment. The thinking being that the coin was as valuable to Cincannatus as the armor to the squire. I suppose you can imagine the rest from there. Cincannatus performed great deeds of valor on the battlefield, saved several knights, and personally slew the leader of the maruaders. When they returned to town the mayor himself heard of his son’s performance in the field and insisted on rewarding the boy. When Cincannatus took off his helm everyone knew the truth and the mayor, being a knight of Elekargul, did not become enraged but instead honored Cincannatus by not only making him a knight but also giving him the opportunity to create his own name. It is the only time in the history of Elekargul that a newly made-knight also create a new name line at the same time. Cincannatus chose the name Coppercoin and only boys without knightly masters who perform valorously on the field of battle take it. It is the rarest of names in all of Elekargul and any Coppercoin you might meet is a force with whom you must reckon. Cincannatus went on to become First Rider eleven times and is probably the most famous knight in all of our history after Brutus Brokenhand.”
“That’s quite a story,” said Jon. “In Tanelorn anyone can become a knight but, like here, only if another knight deems them worthy. We don’t use names in the same way you do though. A parent names a child at birth and they keep that name all their lives.”
“The First Rider is a Coppercoin, Vipsanius Coppercoin. He’s quite a fellow and it will be most interesting to see you two fight side by side if that ever comes to pass,” said Proteus and he nodded his head and smiled at Jon.
“Why is that?” asked the tall young man suddenly feeling a little light headed, but did not let that stop him as he finished off the dregs of the last tumbler of whiskey.
“That is a tale for another night, my young friend,” said Proteus. “Now, do you think you can carry your friend to the barn? We should get an early start tomorrow if we want to get to the mountains by midday. I don’t like to climb those things under anything less than ideal lighting conditions.”
Jon stood up, walked over to Sorus, looped his arm under the boy, and threw him over his shoulder with an almost casual move. “I think I can manage,” he said and then turned towards the front door.
Proteus lit a lantern with a stick from the fire and led the two outside to the barn and watched as Jon put Sorus on a bed of straw and then arranged his own. “Good night, Proteus, and I’m sorry I’ve gotten you involved in all of this,” said Jon.
“Don’t be sorry, Jon, the Black Horse works in mysterious ways, perhaps it is time I started to think about being a knight again. These years with the boys, most knights consider it the worst thing that can happen, taking the Brokenshield, but these years raising the boys, farming, working in short sleeves with a hoe and a plow horse, well, I’ve taken to them, I must admit. After… after my wife died… I didn’t really want to go on living at all and I thought… I could raise the boys just long enough… well… I hate to give it up but I think now it’s time. We’ll see. In any case, Jon, what happens happens, what doesn’t, doesn’t. Sleep well knight of Tanelorn and may the morrow bring us good fortune.” With that the square-jawed man walked away and Jon watched the lantern swing back and forth until it reached the house and disappeared completely.
Sorus already snored lightly and Jon listened to him for a few minutes and then put his own head down on the straw and soon was asleep.
Chapter 14
“Dead!” screamed Lord Whitebone as the skeletal creature stood in front of his bony throne and looked at the ghoulish form of Thantos. His death mask skull radiated a wave of palpable heat and his eyes burned so intensely that they appeared blue in color. “What do you mean dead?”
“He now serves the Mistress of the Abyss, She Who Rules Eternally, She who has Ruled in the Abyss since the…,” said the ghoul and licked its lips and smiled at the rage of Whitebone.
“Enough of your listing of her titles, is she so insecure in her reign that her servants must repeat endlessly this mantra of her eternal rule. Damn you, Thantos, and damn your mistress as well,” said Whitebone turning his back on the ghoul with a sweep of his long cape.
“Shall I convey that message to She Who Eternally Rules,” said Thantos, unable to keep the smirk from his face but the comment did not provoke the angry reaction for which he hoped.
The undead master said nothing and paced back and forth in front of the ghoul for a long minute before he turned to face the creature once again, “How did it happen?”
Thantos spread his arms, “Our informant did not witness the actually murder itself, merely the milieu after the fact. We have a description of the culprits.”
“Tell me,” said Whitebone, moving to within inches of the ghoul.
“It is not for me to say,” said Thantos and once again he smirked as his impossibly long tongue licked up into the hollow of his nose. “The Mistress of the Abyss, She Who Rules Forever, stays my hand unless you are willing to negotiate.”
Whitebone reached forward with a long hand, his clawed fingers came to rest under the chin of the ghoulish creature and dug into the decayed flesh. “I raised that dragon from an egg,” he said. “I will have vengeance upon those who killed him and I will not tolerate anyone who keeps the culprits from me. I will tear you limb from limb if you do not come forward with the information immediately!”
Thantos looked at the burning embers in the hollow sockets of Lord Whitebone’s face and shook his head, “No, Lord Whitebone. While I’m convinced your threats are genuine I cannot violate a direct order of the Lady of the Abyss, even should I so desire. You know this to be true as you, in your state of undeath, are subject to the same laws as
I.”
Whitebone glared at the ghoul for a moment but then slowly pulled back his hand and put it behind his back where he clasped it with his other, “True enough, Thantos,” he said as his eyes dipped in intensity to a molten hot piece of metal freshly pulled from the forge. “What does the Mistress of the Abyss desire from me?”
Thantos smiled and walked over to the bone throne, sat down in it, put his hands on the armrests, and once again licked his face, “She Who Rules Eternally, The Great and Glorious One, wishes you to personally see to the Staff of Sakatha. When you, personally, on your knee, return it to her then she will give you the descriptions of the people responsible for the death of your little dragon.”
“Perhaps,” said Whitebone who moved a few steps away from Thantos, “you are lying about my pet in order to get what you want?”
Thantos shrugged, “I merely follow the orders given to me by the Lady of Death, the Ruler of the Deathlands. I do not know if your precious pet is alive or dead. I simply relay information from her to you. If you think I am lying than I shall return to my mistress, She Who Has Ruled for all Eternity, and report your answer.”
Lord Whitebone nodded his skeletal head and stared at the ghoulish creature for a long moment as his eyes slowed cooled to a deep red. “That is true of course, and I shall find out if Snowball is dead in due course in any case. Naturally, if it is a lie your mistress knows how I will react when I find out. She also knows that she is safe from my wrath but you, Thantos, are not.”
“Your threats, as I explained earlier, are of no concern to me,” said the ghoul and playfully ran his hands over the throne and snapped off what looked to be a finger bone, “oops.”
“I agree to your terms,” said the skeletal ruler of the region. “I will travel by portal to the darklands and see to the retrieval of the staff myself. However, not being a dragon child, I do not have access to the dreams of Chusarausea and this limits my ability to find the staff. The dragon dreams are only accessible to descendants of that race, the reptile men and such. Snowball was to coordinate activity with several dragon children but now I do not have those contacts, unless they survived the events that killed my dragon.”
“I have no knowledge of that,” said Thantos with a shrug his shoulders, “and the difficulty of finding the staff
