Path of Dragons 16 - Chapter 33 - The Sins of Dragons (Patreon)

Elijah landed smoothly, already running at full stride.  A few other dragons tried to stop him, but he was past them before they could react.  After all, he had no time to waste – especially on people who were ultimately unimportant. 

Okar fell in beside him, trotting along and bearing a stern expression that didn’t really fit him.  Elijah understood it.  After what they’d seen, it was difficult to find a reason to smile.

Impending doom had a way of doing that.

Soon enough, he and Okar reached the closest hatch and descended into the mountain.  There, they found a hive of activity that had erupted when the threat became public knowledge.  The alarm had faded, but the results were still in effect.  Everyone wanted to be ready for the orcs’ arrival.

Fortunately, they still had a little time to prepare.  The fleet was at least two days away, which had initially come as a bit of a surprise to Elijah.  However, once he got a little closer and saw the breadth of the armada, he’d realized that been a trick of perception.  The fact that it stretched across the entire horizon was just evidence that the enemy was far too numerous to fight.

Of course, Elijah didn’t think it would be easy to convince the others of that.

Because he knew dragons.  He knew that, of all their negative traits, pride was the most prevalent.  Hubris came next.  It was rare to find a dragon – especially one born to that race – who looked at situations realistically.  Most of the time, they functioned under the unassailable assumption that they could meet any foe on equal footing and emerge victorious. 

The details didn’t matter.  The enemy was irrelevant.  Numbers were just a gauge of how much experience they could expect as a reward.  They struggled to imagine a situation where they lost a single battle, much less a war.

And that should not have been the case.

After all, almost everyone there had been beaten by orcs.  Most of the clans had been forced into retreat.  They should have known just how dangerous the natives to Orveth Kaal could be.

Yet, they had all forgotten just how close they’d come to the ultimate loss.  Instead, they had reverted to their original attitudes, reembracing the pride that characterized their entire race.

The serpentors and drakes were just as bad.  Some were even worse.  As they strove to emulate the people they considered their betters, they adopted the worst of their traits. 

Elijah knew that convincing them to flee would be an uphill battle.  But he also recognized the necessity.  The incoming fleet made the others look sparse by comparison, and if he had to guess, the entirety of the orcish population had come to take vengeance from the dragons. 

He and a few others had volunteered to scout it out, but Elijah was the first to return.  Soon, the rest would arrive to confirm what he intended to tell the leaders.

“Do you think they will listen?” Elijah asked when he and Okar reached a deserted stretch of corridor. 

“They’re dragons.”

That was the only answer Elijah needed.  He knew what to expect, even if he hoped for something else.

It took a few minutes for them to reach the command center, where they found their way blocked by a pair of guards.  Elijah didn’t recognize either, and he assumed that they belonged to one of the clans with which he wasn’t familiar. 

Thankfully, Elijah and Okar only needed to identify themselves before they were allowed inside.  Otherwise, Elijah might’ve had to force the issue, and he wasn’t really in the mood to hold back.

Upon entry, he was surprised to find more than a few faces he didn’t recognize.  That was not unsurprising.  Over the past few months, three other clans had arrived.  Ky’hrin, Umbranix, and Soryn.  The remaining clans – Ignara, Orvex, Tharys, and Veklarin – remained uncontacted, but not for lack of trying.  The communication systems within the Vengeance were as advanced as anyone could have expected, but they were incapable of covering even a small sliver of Orveth Kaal.

As a result, those other clans were still out of reach.

The K’levehar leaders, including Lirakir, were currently engaged in deep and somewhat heated discussions with the others.  Elijah looked past them to lock eyes with Imal, who seemed more frustrated than usual.

And there was a little fear there, too.  Some excitement as well.  She gave him a small smile, which he returned.

A couple of the leaders noticed Elijah’s approach, and they turned in his direction.  That caused a ripple effect that ended with everyone facing him, expectant expressions upon their faces.

“Report,” commanded one.

“I don’t really like your tone,” Elijah responded. 

“Insolent –”

“Enough,” cut in Cyran, who had been at the center of the discussion.  “We mustn’t fight amongst one another.”

“I won’t stand here and –”

Elijah had had enough.  In less than a second, he had his hand around the dragon’s throat.  No one had even seen him move, much less had time to react.  He squeezed, lifting the dragon from the ground.  His feet dangled, kicking back and forth as he clutched at Elijah’s wrists.

Elijah ignored the resistance.

To no one in particular, he announced, “I think some of you have forgotten your place.  Since our last war against the orcs, I’ve been ostracized or ignored.  Underestimated and dismissed.  I’ve endured attacks, both verbal and physical.  Not long ago, six assassins attempted to kill me.

“And I’m tired of it,” he growled, finally looking from one stunned face to another.  “I don’t intend to put up with it any longer.  If you take issue with that, I’ll be happy to put you down.”

“If you kill us, there will be consequences,” said Lirakir, who’d progressively changed his tone as they put more distance between their rescue and the present.  It seemed he had forgotten the part Elijah had played in their survival, replacing it with ire.

Imal had tried to explain it to him.  The K’levehars and the Vyrins didn’t really get along.  They weren’t enemies, but they were a long way from being allies.  Often, they clashed over one thing or another, and at times, their enmity had resulted in physical violence.

“I’m good with that,” Elijah said. 

He’d passed the point where he was willing to step lightly.  He had long since left that behind, and he just didn’t care if there were consequences waiting for him after they exited the ancestral world.  If that happened, he felt comfortable being able to protect himself and those he cared about.  And if he couldn’t?  Mano and Kirlissa would step in. 

Probably.

Either way, he had no intention of putting up with the disrespect.  Hating him was fine.  Acting upon it was something else altogether.

He released the dragon, who fell to his knees, gasping for air. 

“This is not the time for pettiness,” he pointed out.  “Once we’ve dealt with the orcs, we can handle our differences.”

Imal cut in, “What did you find?”

Elijah didn’t hesitate to launch into an explanation of the orcish fleet.  There were dozens of pyramid ships, each one manned by more orcish shamans than he could easily count.  They continuously funneled their power into overlapping domains that would prove to be a major problem. 

“And the rest of the fleet is uncountable,” he said.  “Hundreds of thousands of ships.  Maybe millions.  Some are small, with only a few dozen acting as crew, but there are others big enough to house entire armies.”

“You make it sound insurmountable,” Cyran pointed out.

“Because it is.  If we fight, we’ll probably lose. And even if we win, at least half of us will die.  There are just too many,” Elijah responded.

“What do you suggest?” asked Lirakir.

“Flee.  Use every engine in the Vengeance to keep moving until the end of the trial,” Elijah answered without hesitation.

“Flee like cowards?” scoffed one of the other dragons.  By his grey scales, Elijah suspected he belonged to the Umbranix clan.  That alone was reason enough for Elijah’s disdain. 

“Flee like people who want to live.”

“They’re just orcs!” shouted one of the Ky’rhin leaders.  She was small, but Elijah suspected that she was at the peak of the demigod tier.  As such, she had plenty of power.

“There are orcs in that fleet that can stand against any one of us.  Deities.”

That didn’t get the reaction he expected.  Some of them looked eager to challenge such deities, and Elijah understood that.  After all, demigods defeating deities usually resulted in a significant Feat of Strength to add to a person’s Legacy.  But one needed to survive to see those benefits.

About halfway through Elijah’s explanation, the other scouts arrived, and their reports didn’t really help his cause.  Most of them grossly underestimated the orcs’ power, even if they accurately reported the numbers.  As a result, they made the threat seem a lot less dire than Elijah knew it to be.

“This is an unprecedented situation,” said Cyran, who’d somehow managed to weasel his way into leadership.  The Vaels followed him for obvious reasons, but the others had ceded authority because he was one of the few willing to take control.  At least of the people who could back it up.

He continued, “The deities failed us.  They left Orveth Kaal unconquered, putting us in danger.  However, we have responded to their failure with a unique alliance that has never before been seen.  Multiple clans working together.  Living together.  Fighting together.

“Alone, we would have no choice but to run.  Even the strongest dragon can be overcome by numbers.  One need only look at our ongoing war against the wasps to recognize that simple truth.

“However, unity has given us options.  Together, the strong can only grow stronger.  For what it’s worth, my advice is to meet the orcs with the full might of the Empire of Scale.  The Vengeance is a uniquely powerful asset that will make the difference.  We can defeat them.”  He slammed his fist into his hand, declaring, “We will!”

The other dragons didn’t cheer, but they did stand a little straighter.

The little speech made Elijah want to punch Cyran in the face.  He contained his hatred, though.  Not because he agreed with the declaration.  He most assuredly did not.  If they fought, they would lose.  There was no doubt in Elijah’s mind that, even in the best case scenario, they’d only achieve a pyrrhic victory.  He wasn’t willing to trade so many casualties to win a battle they didn’t need to fight.

But he held his tongue.

For his part, Cyran continued, hyping the other dragons in a way that Elijah never could.  For all his good qualities, he wasn’t the inspirational sort of leader.  Even in the best of times, he was reluctant to take the point position.  He was a good fighter.  Maybe even great.  But leadership had never come easily to him.

Because of that, he knew he couldn’t hope to counter Cyran.

So, he remained silent as they worked themselves into a frenzy.  Somehow, they managed to convince themselves that they could win.  But if they had seen what he had seen, they never would have believed that.

How the other scouts didn’t recognize the inevitability of it, Elijah had no idea.

Perhaps it was just the pride of dragons at work.

Or maybe they were just delusional. 

Whatever the case, by the time the meeting ended, they had committed to a course of action that would soon see them clashing with the orcs.  As Elijah resignedly left the command center, Okar and Imal followed.

“What do you want to do?” asked Okar.

“We could lead the others away,” Imal suggested.  “Some of them will follow us.”

“It’ll weaken the Vengeance even further,” Elijah pointed out.

“So, you want to stay?” Okar asked.

Elijah shook his head.  “It doesn’t matter what I want.  All that matters is that this is the reality of the situation.  The fight’s coming.  If we want to help the others survive, we don’t have much of a choice.  We have to do our part.”

He stopped briefly, then looked back and forth from Okar to Imal.  Then, he said, “But I’m not sacrificing myself or anyone I love just because they’re too stubborn to see a lost cause.  If it comes down to it, we run.  And we survive.”

“I’ll spread the word,” Imal said.

“And I’ll start preparations,” Okar added.

Elijah nodded.  “Good.  We’ve got a little time left.  We need to use it appropriately.”

After that, they all set out on their tasks.  For his part, Elijah headed toward his first mushroom cave to check on its progress.  It wasn’t as evolved as Fungee, but it was still enough to make a difference in the coming fight. 

Even so, Elijah could only hope that he had enough tricks up his sleeve to save as many dragons as possible.