Dragon Mine - Chapter 3

Taking only a few breaks to let William rest, Tennon was able to reach the skies over Noct in just a day and a half, as he neared the border, two dragon riders flew out to intercept him. They quickly took his sides and pointed spears at him.

“State your business.” One of the riders demanded.

“I’m here on behalf of Lord Rai, and come at the request of Lady Aoife.” Tennon states as he holds up a metal emblem that had been included in the letter to Lord Rai.

The two riders look at each other in confusion, “We were expecting a platoon of soldiers.” One of the riders’ states.

“Well, you got me instead.” Tennon replies.

The two men scowl at Tennon, clearly taking his arrival alone as an insult when their lord had requested a platoon. Despite their disapproval, the two men lowered their weapons and did their duty in leading Tennon to deeper into the territory. After a few minutes, Tennon saw a large clearing with an encampment where the others sent by their respective lords were staying.

“You can continue on by yourself from here, but be warned, do not stray.” One of the riders’ states in a hard tone.

Tennon remained unfazed by their anger and gives a slight nod in reply as he makes his way toward the clearing. As he gets closer, he spots a makeshift stable for both horses and dragons like William, but rather than head straight there, he has William land on the opposite end of the encampment. Tennon dismounts and takes William by the reigns and starts walking him towards the stables he had spotted from above. Tennon lifts the hood of his cloak over his head and carefully studies the different camps set up for each lord’s platoon.

‘Something is definitely not right.’ Tennon thinks to himself, as he walks past the first few camps.

Despite the urgent call for aid against the slavers, none of the platoons show any signs of having left their camps or having made preparations of any kind. What’s more, some of the platoons were drinking and partying with women and men he could only assume had been provided by their host Lady Aoife. Also, Tennon had a good grasp of each lord’s military strength, and with that, knowledge of their best soldiers and divisions. So, as he past the last camp and made it to the stables, he quickly summarized that only three of the seven platoons sent were of any actual quality.

‘Still, it doesn’t explain why they haven’t been sent out.’ Tennon ponders as he leads William into an empty stall and removes his saddle.

Uncertain of what was going on at the encampment, Tennon quickly opens his bag and takes out his blades, strapping them horizontally to the small of his back. Both blades were short swords made of draconium, each had intricate runes etched into them, prohibiting anyone but him from wielding them. Enchanted weapons like these are extremely difficult to make, and when they can be made the enchantments inscribed are usually much more offensive in nature. But Tennon’s father didn’t want him to grow reliant on such things, so he had them made as they are instead. To his father’s credit, Tennon does believe he has become a better fighter without such enchantments.

Hearing a commotion, Tennon looks up to see a man yelling at a young boy, the man points at Tennon and then smacks the boy, sending him tumbling to the ground. Anger surges through Tennon as the young boy gets up and rushes towards him, stopping in front of him and bowing his head.

“Forgive me sir knight, I did not expect you to approach from the ground, please forgive my negligence.”

‘This boy must be a stable hand, and the man must be the head man.’ Tennon concluded, as he scowls at the man from behind his hood.

The boys face and clothes were full of dirt, his hands were red and callused, judging by his simple clothes and their frayed ends he was probably hired off the streets. Most likely tasked with helping knights with their mounts, it was a common form of cheap labor that many used.

Tennon schools his features and puts on a smile before removing his hood and facing the boy. “No apology necessary, I noticed William here was getting a bit tired, so I decided to let him rest his wings and walk him here instead.”

William lets out a huff in protest and nudges Tennon with his snout.

“Hey, stop that, you’re embarrassing me.” Tennon jokingly chides.

The boy snickers at the amusing display.

Tennon smiles, “Alright, William, be good and listen to…”

“John.” The boy states with a smile.

“…John. John, please take good care of him, and don’t let anyone near him but you.”

Tennon pulls out two large pieces of silver and holds them out for John to take. The boy’s eyes bulge at what must be an exceedingly large amount of money being offered to him.

“S-s-s-s sir kn-knight, I-I couldn’t.” The buy studders.

“This is just what I expect from you John.” Tennon states.

The boy’s eyes become full of spirit and determination, “You can count on me sir knight.” The boy reaches out to grab the money, but only takes one of the pieces of silver. “You can give me the rest after you’re done.” John states holding his hands out waiting for Tennon to hand him the saddle.

Tennon was surprised by John’s pride and worth ethic; he hands John the saddle, and as John takes it to be cleaned, Tennon leans in close to William’s ear.

“Watch over him.” Tennon whispers to William.

William lets out a grunt in understanding, satisfied Tennon lifts the hood of his cloak over his head once more as he makes his way out of the stables. As he’s about to pass by the head stable man who had smacked John earlier, he stops. The man had been watching them from afar the entire time, and Tennon noticed how the man’s gazed focused on John when he gave him the silver piece. Unlike John, the man’s appearance was pristine, he had not a spec of dirt on him, and his hands were smooth from lack of use.

“If you touch or go near that boy again, you’re losing an arm.” Tennon calmly threatens, and continues to walk away, leaving the man perturbed.

Tennon left the stables and made his way toward the Noct camp; it was easy enough to find as indicated by the Noct flag hung overhead. As Tennon made his way through the camp, every Noct soldier there stopped what they were doing to watch him. They studied his every move, ready to pounce if even the slightest danger was sensed. Despite the hard stares, Tennon ignored them, and continued toward the main tent. Spotting it wasn’t difficult, the ridiculous size of the tent compared to all the others made it clear that the person in charge laid within. Two guards blocked the entrance to the tent, their eyes locking onto Tennon as he approached. Tennon stopped in front of them and held out the medal emblem, one of the guards calmly looked it over and once he was sure it was authentic, he motioned for his partner to step aside.

Inside the massive tent, a long red carpet led from the entrance of the tent all the way to the back were a wooden platform, rectangular in shape, stood a foot off the ground. Tennon followed the carpet and took in the surroundings, to the right a large map of what seemed to be the forest was hanging from a board. There were markings on it, indicating areas searched and proposed routes the slaver maybe using, but just from a cursory glance Tennon could tell the map was wrong. He couldn’t put his finger on why, but he just knew that map had nothing to do with slavers. On the left of the tent was a large table, it had used plates and cups on it, as if it had just been used recently. But this too was just a façade, evident by the lack of chairs around the table and the indents in the ground from heavily armored feet. It was a war table, the question was, who was Lady Aoife looking to go to war with and what do the requested troops here have to do with it.

Focusing his attention back in front him, Tennon saw that on top of the wooden platform, sat a rather imposing chair that was shrouded in darkness. A woman dressed in robe-ish like armor stood in front of and slightly to the right of the chair, facing him. Her strait-laced demeanor indicated to Tennon that she was an advisor of some kind, but her piercing stare told him she was a warrior. She had raven black hair with a scar that ran down the side of her face, leaving one eye permanently closed, her lack of horns let Tennon know she was human. All Tennon could see of the person sitting in the chair were two heavily armored legs jutting out of the darkness. The person’s legs were stretched out and slightly parted as if the person sitting was leaning back in boredom.

Tennon removes his hood and bows, “Greeting, I-

“Is this some type of joke!?” The raven-haired woman demands. “Not only does Lord Rai send one soldier, but a mere child as well!!”

Tennon controls his anger.

“I can assure you my lady, that my lord, takes this request and summons most seriously.” Tennon replies calmly in a strained voice.

“Hmph, maybe if I send back your head, he’ll take it even more seriously.” The raven-haired woman threatens.

Tennon eyes narrowed as he saw a small glow of light begin emanating from the woman’s hand.

‘A sorceress, figures.’ Tennon inwardly drawls, as he carefully grips the handle of one of his blades underneath his cloak.

“Isla, enough.” A voice calls out.

For a moment Tennon is lost in the sound of the tantalizing female voice that came from the darkness.

“But my lady.” The raven-haired woman questions.

A sudden powerful pressure fills the tent, causing Tennon and the raven-haired woman known as Isla to stiffen. Tennon had only felt this level of power once before, from Lord Rai, and quickly realized that the person seated in front of him was no mere military officer or commander, but Lady Aoife herself.

Isla immediately bows, “Forgive me, my lady.”

“I apologize as well, Lady Aoife” Tennon bows.

Looking up; Tennon sees two golden irises staring at him from the darkness, he could feel the power behind them, causing a shiver to go down his spine.

“Isla, apologize to our guest.” Lady Aoife voice ordered.

“My lady?” Isla responded in surprise.

“For he is no mere knight, but the right eye of lord Rai himself.” Lady Aoife continued.

“What?!” Isla says in disbelief.

Tennon couldn’t hide his surprise, for Lady Aoife to know of his new position already meant her intelligence network was not to be taken lightly.

“Yes, allow me to introduce myself, I am Tennon, the Right-Eye of Lord Rai.

“But I am rather surprised, for lord Rai to send his eye, I did not think our relationship constituted such an honor.”

“Yes well, my Lord was saddened when you didn’t visit him like you did with the other lords and sent me as a token of good faith.” Tennon replied sweetly.

Isla’s hands clench into fists, she clearly didn’t like the fact that her lady’s movements were known and being tracked

“Then please, do convey my apologies to lord Rai, the situation at hand arose and I wanted to see it done.” Lady Aoife replies sweetly as well.

“I apologize as well for my behavior earlier.” Isla says with a bow.

“Think nothing of it.” Tennon tells Isla. “Then until these slavers are dealt with, I am yours to command.” Tennon states, to Lady Aoife.

Lady Aoife says nothing, but her eyes seem to be smiling at Tennon, which unnerves him.

“If there’s nothing else, I will excuse myself and join in the hunt for the slavers.”

Tennon turns to leave, but Lady Aoife calls out, “A moment if you will.”

Tennon turns back and watches as Lady Aoife’s eyes rise up in the darkness as she stands and steps forward into the light. Tennon breathes catches as he looks upon Lady Aoife for the first time, she had mane of white hair that went down to her shoulders with two ebony black horns sticking out and curving elegantly back. Her face was that of a young woman with skin like porcelain, and full lips that were begging to be kissed. Similar to her legs, her upper body was garbed in armor, but it did nothing to hide her womanly features, on the contrary, the armor seemed to accentuate them instead. She was also taller than him, even if she weren’t on the wooden platform, she would still stand a head taller than him, he concluded.

Tennon found it hard to swallow, he was stunned by Lady Aoife’s beauty, his whole body seemed to stand at attention in front of her. This quickly concerned him, he had been around plenty women before, but none had ever affected him like this. He quickly gets down to one knee and bows, placing his head on his forearm, a gesture meant to convey that he was thankful for the honor of seeing her. In reality, he just wanted to subtly check the runes on his gauntlet, the runes would glow faintly in the presence of mental magic. But to his surprise, the runes were normal, this attraction was entirely his own.

“Stand, I want to get a better look at you.” Lady Aoife orders.

Tennon did as he was told; he looked up at Lady Aoife as she looked down back at him, her eyes had a predatory glint to them, and her lips had formed into lazy smile.

“Hmmmm, interesting.” Lady Aoife states. “You may go now.”

Tennon bowed and quickly took his leave.

Once outside the tent, Tennon let out a breath of relief, her gaze at the end felt as if she was peering into his soul, and her comment afterward unnerved him.

‘She’s definitely up to something and it has nothing to do with finding slavers.’ Tennon thought himself. ‘I need to put an end to this farce, and fast.”