The next few minutes were a scramble as the hive assembled. Arthur had Brixaby quickly gather the wing captains so he could relay what was going on.
The story was that Rowantree Estate had been overrun by scourglings that had escaped a recent eruption. This was not entirely unprecedented, and considering how many eruptions had happened recently, no one questioned it.
Arthur also handed out the mind control-repelling stones. He wished he had one for every one of his riders, but the captains should at least be able to keep their heads long enough to get anyone out who was overcome.
They were also told to be on the watch for enemy dragons in the sky.
Maybe there was more truth to the assassination wing rumors than Arthur wished, because no one so much as batted an eye over dragon versus dragon combat.
Arthur dismissed them but pulled Griff aside for a quick word. "Wing Purple is on rescue duty. Your riders aren't to plunder the estate—it should still be viable land after this." At least, he hoped so. Either way, he wasn't going to pick over the corpse of his ancestral family's estate just for a few extra shards worth of money.
Griff had a look on his face that clearly said: Then why are we bothering?
He was smart enough not to voice it aloud, however, and said, "You mentioned mind control. Do you think anyone will want to be saved from that place?"
"I don't know," Arthur admitted with a wince. This was the not-very-fun part of being a leader, but he couldn't shy away from his next order.
"No one is to put themselves in jeopardy trying to rescue someone who is fighting back. Leave them if you have to. Place those you do bring back directly with any healers so they can clear them of mind control hooks."
He didn't think any of them would be as bad as Penn—he'd been a special case—but the Mind Singer may have sung in some compulsions.
Griff saluted and walked off to organize his wing.
"Arthur," Brixaby said when Griff was away. "I have ensured our retinue is also protected by anti-mind control enchantments. However, I doubt any of the dragons who wish to join my hive will be arriving in time to fight. Bribing for a portal big enough to fit a Purple is one thing, but anyone who leaves their weaker hive will have to fly here straight."
"That's fine," Arthur said. With a clap on his dragon's shoulder, he mounted up. "You know what's in that map I saw. There will be plenty of fighting to come."
Brixaby rumbled in happy anticipation.
The rest of the retinue joined Brixaby as soon as he took to the air. Sams flew just behind on one side, Joy on the other. Cinderwood and Equinox filled out the V-formation behind them. As Marion was likely still asleep and Asha, Kenzie, and Marteen weren't ones for fighting, they stayed behind to manage the hive.
Brixaby roared out a challenge to the air, then signaled the portal Greens to open the way to the Rowantree Estate.
They arrived in a glorious sunset that bathed Rowantree Estate in a sky of gold and fire.
Down below, Arthur saw fields stretching as far as he could see, with the main building of the estate itself sitting in the distance. As before, he saw and smelled scourge-rot on the breeze. The fields below were unkempt and visibly wilting. He wondered what kind of land he was giving back to Penn.
Someone—or something—must have been on watch for their arrival because the moment the rest of the retinue was through the portal, the air was suddenly split by an alarm so shrill that birds startled and took to the air.
But they weren't coming alone. All around, additional portals opened, and dragon pairs spilled out, looking for a fight.
Arthur glanced down at Brixaby.
"Are you sensing any mind intrusion to your shields?"
"No," Brixaby said, "but that does not mean she isn't here."
Arthur held mixed opinions. He doubted that the Mind Singer was here, but it would make his life a lot easier if she was. Two cards for the price of one.
Before, the population working the estate had turned against them and had fired nets to tangle dragon wings. Now they were greeted with unearthly whistles from scourglings. The creatures were shaped vaguely like crocodiles, only with many millipede feet and spilling out from hidden clefts within the earth.
It wasn't a full-on eruption, but the Mind Singer had prepared for their arrival.
Well, this would give his people some shards to harvest, at least.
Brixaby, who had better long sight, pointed with his snout and growled. "There he is."
Arthur squinted and caught sight of a wing of wild dragons rising from the main estate building.
Joy let out an unusually bloodthirsty bellow.
"He is the one who hurt my Cressida!" Not asking for permission, she surged forward. Her claws were out.
"Then there's your main target," he said to Brixaby and gestured for the rest of the retinue to follow Joy and meet those dragons in the sky. "Take it down, however necessary."
Equinox bellowed happily, bits of lava escaping from his mouth as he followed.
Arthur looked around, trying to match the land with what he'd seen on the map. He would have worried about the dimming sunlight, but Sams anticipated his need and rose up higher, he and Horatio blazing like twin suns. Suddenly, though they didn't seem to cast any light at all, everybody had light to see.
Then he spied the dark, bulky outline of the winery building.
Arthur touched Brixaby's neck. "I have my target. Go get that corrosive dragon."
It was more than just vengeance for Cressida, though certainly, it was some of that too. But the dragon had a corrosive blood-cursing card, and the last thing they needed was for it to spread throughout the wings. Marion had a hard enough time just healing Cressida.
He felt the tension in Brixaby's frame and knew he itched to go. But he held himself back enough to ask, "What will you do?"
"I'll take care of the winery," Arthur said, and blink-teleported to the ground.
****
His boots hit the ground just in front of the grand winery double doors, and he staggered to the side as the world swam around him.
That was a rough, unpleasant transport, made no better by the fact that he was now the card wielder instead of the passenger.
He took a moment to settle his stomach and to make sure that Brixaby wasn't trying to follow. He wouldn't be happy about this.
This was his card, and this was a fight that he wanted to face for himself.
Only when he saw his dragon fly after the rest of the retinue did Arthur let out a breath, nod to himself, then go into his Personal Space and arm up.
First, he put on his chain mail armor. Some of the rivets had been loosened so he could use it like shrapnel. Then he pulled out his actual shrapnel—razor-sharp pieces of metal and filed nails he stuck to his chain mail with a thought. His knives were next, and he used his advanced Knife Work skills to set them to hover in a slow orbit around him. Finally, he drew out one of the metal-tipped javelins and pumped the end with mana.
This was it.
Arthur reached and pushed open the door to the winery.
Made of stone, the building itself had once been graceful but had since been left to decay. Arthur wrinkled his nose when he stepped into a wide, bare space. It seemed that this was where the Mind Singer had also kept her human thralls. It smelled of body odor and waste, though he saw no one in the echoing room.
He had no memories of this place—a winery was not where someone would normally take a toddler—but it still had the same graceful stonework and artful hangings that he'd seen in the main estate. Though just like the estate, it seemed like everything could use a good scrub down.
There was also no sign whatsoever of the Mind Singer or his uncle.
Outside, he heard dragon roars and blasts of different card spells as the hive dragons engaged the scourgelings, but the stone was thick enough that most of it was muted.
Arthur stepped in, feeling that every moment he was walking into a trap. He only hoped that, since he was aware of the trap, it made it less of one.
Finally, when his boots hit the middle of the empty room, something changed in the air. An illusion he had not been aware of dropped. Arthur found that the walls were not bare at all, but utterly filled with runic designs.
Uh-oh.
He half-turned, wanting to leave, when a figure stepped into view on the other side of the room.
Arthur stopped. It seemed that dramatics ran in the family. His son had done much the same thing.
"Hello, uncle," he said.
Next chapter: Thursday Feb 5th 9PM PST