King Nevin smiled as his words sank in. You see, you’re going to need to rescue the dragon...from my daughter.

Caleb and Sienna stared at that. Tavia cocked her head, while Shaw’s beak dropped open.

Finally, Caleb broke the silence.

“Okay, now you really have our attention. Allow me to confer with my associates once more.”

He turned around and made a second impromptu huddle with his friends.

“Does this new information change anyone’s opinion?”

He got a shake of the head from each person in turn.

“No, that doesn’t change anything,” Sienna said, “We still need that sail. We just can’t out-sail or out-fight the Myrkur as we are.”

“A rescue is still a rescue,” Tavia insisted. “I say that we continue on our path, for it is likely to be the most virtuous.”

“Shamed I be,” Shaw admitted, “yet I wish to complete this mission out of the need to satisfy mine own curiosity, if nothing else.”

Caleb turned back around.

“Your Majesty, we’re up for this quest,” he said plainly.

Nevin’s oily smile reappeared. “I thought you might be. Allow us to package up our gift to you for kindly accepting this mission.”

He snapped his fingers. A team of pages appeared and began to roll the unfurled sail back up. Sienna grimaced, her fingers twitching as she watched them work with the aramyde-woven sail.

“If your Majesty would kindly give us the details we need?” Caleb said. “Unless it is more than a day’s journey, or we need special equipment, we’d like to get started as soon as possible.”

“Actually, the location of your quest is scarcely an hour’s ride from town,” Nevin said. “My royal guards and I shall accompany you there, to ensure that you understand the...shall we say, the gravity of the situation.”

“‘Tis no need to make this longer than it needs be,” Shaw huffed. “I shall espy this place from the air with mine own eyes and see what must be done.”

“One question, griffin,” Nevin said. “Are you proof against fire and lightning?”

Caleb immediately thought back to the buffs that Tavia had given Shaw earlier. A quick squint confirmed that they were still active.

Existing Buff / Debuffs:

Physical Abilities Reduced by 25% from Age-Related Limitations.

Received Temporary Paladin-Specific Defensive Enhancement:

50% Resistance to wounds from all distance and bladed weapons.

33% Resistance to crushing, burning, freezing, and acidic damage.

25% Resistance to mind control and most poisons.

15% Resistance to any exposure to disease.

“He’s not proof to lightning,” Caleb said. “At best, he’s a third resistant against fire.”

Shaw gave him a questioning look but remained silent.

King Nevin nodded. “Then I suggest that he remains on the ground. And you need to decide who shall come with me.”

Caleb looked to Sienna. She frowned at his next words.

“I’ll be needing Tavia’s magic and Shaw’s strength to prevail in this quest. Quartermaster, as the second in command, I want you to stay with the ship.”

“But–” she began.

“That’s an order. Get that sail up as soon as possible.” He leaned in close and spoke more quietly. “Be ready to sail at a moment’s notice. I don’t trust everything I’m being told here. Above all else, we need that piece of fabric attached to our mainmast.”

“What if...if something happens to you?”

She looked resolutely away from him, but Caleb could hear the concern in his voice.

“If you don’t hear from us by tomorrow morning, then you are to set sail.”

“But...where?”

“Wherever you choose. Hopefully, in a direction that will get you clear of the Myrkur’s sphere of influence,” he said. Her hand slipped into his, squeezing it once before letting go. “You’ll be the captain from then on, and I trust you to do the best you can with the crew.”

Her voice dropped to a whisper.

“Aye, Captain.”

Nevin gestured to his men. They snapped to attention, and those holding the brass tubes doubling as instruments tooted a second triplet of rather flatulent notes. With a clatter of hooves, a half-dozen armored chargers trotted up to the end of the dock.

Four of the horses carried knights wearing chain mail and carrying kite-shaped shields. Their armor and shields were, in keeping with Gilarskan design, trimmed with gold. The other two mounts were armored similarly, but their saddles were empty.

“Can your unicorn and griffin keep up with our mounts?” Nevin asked. “We will be going through some rough terrain.”

Tavia snorted at the notion that she was Caleb’s unicorn, but he ignored that for the moment.

“They should be able to keep up, Sire.”

“Good! Let us mount up and be off, then.”

Caleb managed to clumsily mount his horse after watching the King’s motions. He dimly remembered learning how to ride a horse during his life on Earth. But the lessons were fleeting at best.

And being a pirate captain doesn’t exactly gives you a chance to practice, Caleb’s mind added ruefully.

They set off at a trot down a wide, cobblestoned boulevard. Caleb’s horse remained on Nevin’s right, while Tavia moved to match the pace on his left. Shaw remained towards the back of the column, his stern eagle eyes taking in the sights.

Narrow, green-shingled houses or shops with gilded trim lined both sides of the street. While Caleb didn’t see any public lighting as on Irongrasp, they did pass a stone-carved public fountain and a large royal garden surrounded by a wrought-iron fence. Both fence and fountain had been tipped with gold.

Caleb decided to venture a question that had been on his mind since seeing Gilarska from the Spitfire.

“Your Majesty, I was wondering about the paint on many of your buildings. Does the color gold have a significant meaning to your people?”

He got a broad laugh out of Nevin at that.

“I think the meaning is clear, Captain Ledger!” he said heartily. “It conveys wealth and power, which we of course have in abundance here.”

“Of course,” Tavia muttered, too low for the King to hear.

“And you have made a common mistake,” Nevin went on. “What you see is real gold on our buildings, our armor, or our clothes. Whether beaten into foil or spun into thread, it is the same precious metal. Our wealth and power are what keeps us apart from the grasping hands of the Myrkur.”

And what is the source of all that gold? Caleb wondered. I doubt this place has been trading foodstuffs or sailcloth alone. Maybe I spent too much time around people like Ugalde, but you don’t reap this kind of wealth without an angle. Let alone keep it against the Myrkur.

“Indeed,” Caleb said, “your wealth astounds, Sire. As for the power to remain free of the followers of Myr, I assume that you use this land’s dragons?”

“Oh, in small part,” Nevin waved the idea off with a flick of a hand. “It’s wizardry that gives us the edge. And has caused the problem that I need you to deal with.”

The sound of the horses’ hooves went from clops to dull thuds as the cobblestones gave way to packed earth. They passed one of the town’s last outlying buildings, and even the farms started to give way to forest. The path ahead remained well-defined as it wound through the hills and trees ahead.

“I’m sorry,” Caleb said. “I thought that you a wizard of some sort, since your page announced you as the bringer of ‘fire and lightning’.”

“My family contains those who can wield magic,” Nevin admitted heavily. “It skips generations, and usually the gifts land with the female members.”

“Nice to see nature has some kind of sense,” Tavia muttered, again too low for Nevin to hear.

Caleb did his best to ignore the mare’s grumpy asides. “So if I miss my guess...the problem is with your daughter?”

“You strike in the gold, Captain. It is the reason I need an adventurer, to handle this problem. The fact that you are a fit, virile male should be an advantage here. The fact that you have your own magic is even better. That you are a Master of Monsters is surely a plus, as well. How you manage both of your beasts is astounding.”

The soft grinding sound from Caleb’s left came from Tavia gritting her teeth.

“I, ah, don’t really manage them per se,” Caleb said quickly. “And I must ask, Sire, not to call them monsters.”

Nevin snorted. “Hmph. That’s more than I’d say for my daughter, Lilianna. Still, I suppose that with the griffin and unicorn’s reputation, they would be less ‘monstrous’ than some of our less intelligent dragon species.”

A thought occurred to Caleb suddenly: Unlike the Arrenmar, Nevin had known what Grimshaw and Tavia were at a glance.

“What would be their ‘reputations’ be, your Majesty?” Caleb asked casually, as they continued to wind their way along the path. The sun-dappled forest grew denser, swallowing the sound generated by the horses’ hooves in dense thickets of green.

“Griffins are a kingly type of creature. The ferocity of a lion, with the vision, and speed of an eagle. Unicorns are almost as good, though. More feminine and quiet in nature, being of kindness and healing.”

“I should jam my kindness up this one’s rear,” Tavia grumbled under her breath.

“And of course,” Nevin went on, “They are attracted only to the pure. To bestow their gifts upon those who are virgin.”

Before Caleb could say anything in reply, a peal of thunder rang out overhead. Birds flew from the trees, startled. Nevin appeared more haggard than ever at the sound.

“We are drawing close,” he said. “Let us continue on the last part of our journey.”

More thunder rattled the sky overhead. The knights appeared shaken, and they muttered ominously to each other until Nevin bade them to be quiet. As they came to the base of a steep ridge, the smell of charred wood floated down the breeze. It was followed by the rotten egg stench of sulfur.

Their horses shied away from the smell, refusing to go on.

“Come on, we’ll go the last bit on foot,” King Nevin said, as he dismounted. Caleb followed suit, along with two of the stoutest looking knights. Tavia and Shaw followed in their wake as they made their way up the steep, wooded slope.

Caleb’s skin goose-pimpled as he listened to the sounds that filtered through the underbrush. The whispery screech of an object flying through the air. Another rumbling shake of the ground.

They reached the top of the ridge. The King pointed to something in the distance. Another whistling screech ripped the air.

“Careful, my Lord!” one of the knights cried, as he pulled his liege back towards safety.

A fireball struck the tree just over the pair’s head with a boom. An explosion of flame showered the two men with burning embers. The knight ignored the ones that bounced off his armored body, but quickly brushed away any that landed on his King before they smoldered and caught on his hair or clothing.

Caleb couldn’t contain his curiosity any longer. He cautiously peeked over the top of the ridge.

A medieval keep sat at the bottom of a small valley shaped like a soup bowl. The building itself was a decrepit square tower made of crumbling gray stone. He puzzled over the strange location for a defensive structure, when a number of new screens popped up in the corner of his vision.

The first was a screen he hadn’t looked at in a while. A trio of horizontal bars in green, blue, and yellow came into view. The yellow bar, which he knew showed his remaining magical energy, was down by a quarter.

That figures. I pushed the Wind Cast, Minor and Wind Shift, Minor spells pretty hard when we were avoiding those bombards.

To his surprise, the yellow bar filled back up before his eyes and then threatened to spill over the top. The vision was accompanied by a feeling of uncommonly good well-being. He looked to the next screen, which was his character sheet. Only one section had changed.

Existing Buff / Debuffs: Innate Charisma increased 7%. Magical stamina increased 200%.

That’s not just a keep down there, Caleb realized. It’s a magical battery of some sort, keeping wizardly powers topped up. But is that a good thing or bad thing?

As if in answer, the final screen that popped up was an update to his quest window.

Veteran Adventurer's-Level Quest: Return Princess Lilianna Nevin to her father, King Nevin. Quest difficulty increased 200% due to the following two constraints:

Condition One: Lilianna Nevin must be returned unharmed to the palace.

Condition Two: The King’s Dragon must be returned unharmed to the palace.

STATUS: IN PROGRESS.

Caleb heard a shrill laugh in the distance. Atop the keep’s battlement, a young woman with flowing dark hair paced back-and-forth. Her eyes and hands shimmered with waves of sapphire sparks, reminding him of a terrible lightning storm he’d once witnessed out at sea.

She laughed again and raised her hands. A ball of flame swirled into existence in her palms. With a fierce cry, she lobbed the fiery sphere into the forest. It detonated with a boom and a crack of splintered wood.

Caleb spotted movement below the battlement. A stout wooden door, reinforced with iron bands, graced the arch of the front entrance. At the remaining three sides of the tower were ground-floor windows, each lined with iron bars.

He rubbed his eyes in disbelief, but what he saw did not change. A little yellow dragon, no bigger than an extra-long badger hound, clung to the bars at one of the windows.

“Help!” cried the dragon, in a scared little girl voice. “Someone, please help me! The princess has gone craaaaaazy!”

Caleb turned and sat down, wide-eyed.

I’ll give the world of Jaladri this one, he thought, amazed. Every time I think I’ve seen it all, it throws something completely unexpected at me.