504 Chapter 504

The first order of business after they set sail, other than the messages to the Wave Rider Council that had already been sent was to head back to Assah and have a talk with the Dragon Riders. The information that they had now about the intentions of the Frost Giant led forces of the Western Continent would be of great interest to them and any other merchant sailor that visited the region.

The Giants hadn’t said that they would stop the attacks, in fact, they said the opposite, that they were staging additional attacks on the Gnomes. They had only said that they would avoid the Central Continent and the area controlled by the Dragons.

Schmidt didn’t seem well versed in the alliances of the Northern Continent, but neither was Cain, so he couldn’t say how their new plan might affect things, but the Dragon Riders should know. From what Cain knew, their clan wasn’t large, but they often took on the role of Law Enforcement for cities and nomadic regions of the Northern Continent, so they should have a pretty good idea of what was going on, and might well be the Guardians of their areas already.

Most Guardian rewards linked the Quest Completion reward to the region it was awarded for, so whoever it was wouldn’t go far from their home base these days, making the Guardians the best people to ask when you had a question about recent occurrences.

The Wave Rider Council was still working on their final decisions, but the news that they might not need them if they decided to mind their own business and let the North fend for itself was a relief to a lot of the Captains. They were Pirates, they weren’t getting ready to go to war out of some noble sense of justice, but to protect their alliances and trade agreements with the Port Cities.

If they had known that the Giants would only be attacking a single Port, the Council would be dancing in the streets right now, and suggesting that the target evacuated all the civilians from the city before the giants arrived.

When they deactivated Nila’s fast travel spell off the coast of Assah, the Dragons were already patrolling the sky around the city, keeping watch for attacks and vessels in distress. Cain had sent a message to Earl RhickJaymz to be expecting them today, so the patrols weren’t alarmed at the sight of the Elven raiding fleet, only apprehensive about the news that they might be bringing. If it was too serious to be explained over a text message, it must be a big development in the situation on their home continent.

It also wouldn’t be about an imminent attack, or the Wave Riders would have sent them an alert without the explanation of what was going on, so they could get home to defend their people.

“Greetings Captains, and Ancient Cain. The human summoner is waiting for you.” One of the dragons greeted them, flying low near the fleet.

“Greetings Broil, Eldest of Nahar and Third wing of the Bronze Dragons. We come bearing news of the Frost Giants.” Cain replied in the Dragon tongue and the Epic Bronze mount snorted happily.

“Oh, I like this Ancient. So polite. Why can’t the other two-legged ones be so polite?” The dragon chuckled, having easily noticed Cain’s mental intrusion while Cain was looking for his name.

“Because none of the rest of us can speak Dragon or pronounce your name?” One of the Captains asked, ignoring the fact that the question was rhetorical.

“In the language of the Elves, my name is Broil. Elves should have no problem pronouncing that. But did any of them ever ask? No, they speak to the rider, like I’m some horse or a camel.” The dragon complained, flying alongside the ships.

Each of his annoyed breaths sent out a wave of superheated sand, the breath attack of the Bronze Dragon, and a formidable one as well. He wasn’t aiming it at anyone, but like the other elemental Dragons, a bit of it tended to slip when he was annoyed.

“Is the news good or bad?” Broil’s rider asked, shouting to be heard over the wind.

[It could go either way at this point. But I have the word of a Clan Chieftain that they aren’t planning to attack the Central Continent or the Dragon-controlled regions the next time.] Cain called back, using the mental voice of an Ancient to project it straight to the minds of the patrol flight, Dragons included.

“Well, that is a good start. Who cares if the Giants want humans for dinner?” Broil asked when he heard the news, causing his rider to give him a light swat.

“They might still be allies of ours, don’t dismiss them as a snack so fast.” The Dragon Rider reprimanded his unruly mount.

That didn’t change the Dragon’s mind much though. Broil was never an agreeable sort, and he had become somewhat fond of the taste of humans during the raids that other clans had mounted against the cities where he was stationed over the years. The trick, he found, was that you had to very carefully wash them first, or you baked in the outer coating of filth, and the taste was ruined.

There was a large welcoming party waiting for them on the docks when they arrived. Some with provisions for the ships, some with trading goods for the floating city that had been ordered by the Council, but most were either city leaders from the desert region or Darklight Host Guild members come to welcome them.

Word had spread very quickly about the training tower that had been erected in Blood Sands Castle, and every city in the desert wanted one of their own. It wasn’t going to happen, since Cain wasn’t willing to put them in places where his subordinates couldn’t directly monitor them for errors and misuse. He wanted them to be training resources for the masses, not the exclusive luxury of a small elite group that bullied everyone else away from them so they could reign supreme over the region.

He had explained the same thing to all of the Watchers when they built the extra towers, so there shouldn’t be an issue with his own Guild doing the same, even if they took up most of the duty shifts to man the security for the lineups that never seemed to end.

The smaller towers could take fifty at a time, but somehow that still wasn’t enough. Many of the dungeons didn’t see that many people daily, but the safety features of the towers had bred an unexpectedly high level of enthusiasm for people to better themselves.

“First things first. Thank you all for the warm welcome, but we should talk about the situation with the Western Continent before we get to anything else.” Cain called, noticing the number of people who wanted to talk to him directly about other topics.

“Of course Guild Master. Welcome home to you and Lady Cyrene.” The Guild Members responded in unison, with some of the others joining in as well.

That seemed a bit odd to Cain, did they prepare a specific greeting just in case he had an alternate order before what they had planned on? Cyrene seemed very pleased though, and Cain petted her head as he looked through her thoughts, seeing that it was a standard reply in the etiquette section for “Outreach Workers” in the manual that she had been handing out and having all the members trained on.

There were a lot of things in her thoughts, and that manual, that they were going to have to sit down for a long talk about, but that was also a problem for later.

The Earl and the Dragon Riders Wing Commander led them all to a large warehouse since the banquet room in the city hall wasn’t big enough for this crowd. RhickJaymz usually entertained outdoors, since his city had a temperate climate and only a few rainy days a year.

“I’ll be blunt. The Giants are planning a large-scale war to capture and imprison the Gnomes. They have found the entire species guilty of killing the Giants Clan leaders at some event on the Northern Continent, and they are treating it as treason.” Cain began.

“For those that don’t know, the Giants’ punishment for treason is enslavement, since they view death as too good for traitors, but they seem to be treating the gnomes as unpaid workers, and giving them decent living conditions, at least for prisoners.

They promised not to attack the Dragon-controlled coastline or the Central Continent, but that was the extent of the war plans I could get out of them by deception. It seems that the leader isn’t telling his subordinates anything at all beyond their immediate mission, to prevent information leaks. I don’t know if that is intentional, paranoia, or just a lack of long-term planning, but it was effective at keeping me from prying with my mind reading abilities.”

That relaxed some of the guests present but made others much more nervous. They did a lot of business with regions that weren’t under Dragon control, did that mean their ships were in danger? Or that the Giant army might wipe out their trading partners, leaving them penniless with a surplus of goods and no buyers?

The few answers that Cain had managed to provide so far didn’t do much to help their confidence level, only giving them more things to worry about, and an outline of likely future events for them to plan around. They could cut off trade to keep their vessels safe, but if their partners weren’t the ones attacked, they would take long-term reputation damage that could ruin them. But if they kept the shipments up and were attacked, they could lose ships and the allies that crewed them.

It was not an easy call, but it was at least a little better than the unknown.