BECMI Chapter 341 – The Dracologist

“My Khan!” Elder Chogogai, thoroughly suppressed and unwilling to dare my words, attempted to redirect attention. His eyes were on the distance behind me, looking at something in the sky.I didn’t look around, because I didn’t have to.

Pegasi and rider in the far sky abruptly checked themselves. Pegasi were intelligent and didn’t want to get blasted to bloodsteam, apparently.

The was quick in coming, and I replicated it aloud for everyone to hear. “You haf no authority to negotiate on behalf of Zanzyr, Lady Edge!” the guttural voice of the Grand Marshal of Zanzyr’s voice spoke out of the air, properly incensed that I was butting in on his glorious chance to show off his martial talents.

Not to mention I was a ruler of my own up north, but I wasn’t going to bring that up at the moment. I could certainly represent myself!

That didn’t make me any friends, but he wasn’t empowered to issue declarations of war or do more than accept surrenders from an enemy. If he wanted to start a fight here, I couldn’t stop him, but his soldiers weren’t going to be happy if he started a fight I’d already won… and wizards had ways of making their displeasure known, even if they were relative scrubs.

He was aware of morale and its implications, and even if he was incensed that I was butting in on his moment of glory, he wasn’t going to risk pissing off both Brittabelle and myself.

I had that ungodly high score from graduating and had been doing all that stuff up north. Who knew how powerful I actually was? I certainly wasn’t afraid of his Dracology.

He opted to watch from the far distance, eyeing the thousands of nomad Tukhman riders in that dark line extending across the pass, not advancing an inch past my sun umbrella and little tea party. He stewed out there, unable to release his mighty spells and showcase his power.

I hadn’t turned once to look back at him. The three males opposite me tried to hide how impressed they were at just dismissing the glory-hungry Grand Marshal like that.

I stated evenly, They all blinked.

The shaman promptly bled out the nose again before he could say anything, coughing and spitting. I eyed him coldly.

Even the Khan looked unsettled at that revelation. He had been assured the temples to Thaum were just buildings without power, but it made sense for a god of wizards to have no Clerics, didn’t it?

He wasn’t a god of MAGIC, after all. And why would a god want followers of other gods living in his home, really?

“You are aware that, even if certain death awaits them, my men will still advance on my command?” he asked me coldly.

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I set down my cup, releasing the last of the blue flames from my nose in a gently rising double stream.

“What manner of… problems?” the Khan asked, his voice flat.

Since that was exactly what had happened to the Teuthonic Order in the Frokki Freeholds, it was a good precedent to make. I could see a lot of the nomads looking north, as they’d heard a lot of what went on, some tribes had tried to take advantage of it, and at least two minor clans had been wiped out in doing so.

“Creators of the undead are an abomination against the gods!” the shaman spluttered, about to launch into a diatribe.

I interrupted acidly, stopping him mid-tirade with the ice in my voice.

They bristled, partly in fear at such words, partly because of how blunt they were. Animating I clarified for him, making his weathered face pale openly.

He opened his mouth, then clamped it shut.

“Not bin against Quickening, however, elfin?” Captain Hoofcracker asked sharply, the dwarf reading past my words.

I responded easily.

Even the Khan had to nod at that. He was not unfamiliar with how spellcasters could raise dozens of undead at one time.

“Your father’s home is reputed to be infested with undead,” the Khan commented knowingly.

“My grandfather is Prince Morphail of Transyvia, and he is a daywalking vampire,” I stated in no uncertain terms, although that didn’t carry for three miles.

They looked at one another, the information from their scouts and spies confirmed. “Bin a great time to take advantage of, Lady,” Captain Hoofcracker had to say, and I inclined my head.

“Interrupting those purging hidden armies of undead from the land in the middle of doing so, by creating hundreds, if not thousands more dead for them to replenish their numbers from now that they are revealed and will move to slaughter all of the living that they can.

“And if I were to offer to send aid to help fighting these undead?” the Khan inquired in a slightly different tone.

He just grunted, keeping my eyes, while I kept his stare without effort. He’d made his bed, he could lie in it.

He was a Brown-Purple warrior with a heart yearning for conquest. His idea of providing for his people was stealing from other people, not improving his own folk or their way of life. I had no sympathy for him and I would kill him and his whole army of Browns to Gray-Blacks without batting an eye.

There was a trap here, and it was a pretty good one. It basically started with a dual spell cutting across the valley, lifting a sixty-foot wall up in front of the nomad advance, and a sixty-foot wide moat behind them, trapping them in between.

Then there were options of unleashing moving down the width of the valley, frying them all, or just having the Zanzyran soldiers come up the far side of the wall and bombard them all to death with spells with impunity. They’d be ducks in a shooting gallery, and the mages of Zanzyr would use them to show off to one another with their best killing spells. Their shamans weren’t going to save them at all.

He grunted at me, looking left and right as he sat back, his decision already made.

He didn’t have an overpopulation problem, and his lands were basically right behind him. This wasn’t much different than going out for a good ride to visit and intimidate some neighbors.

“We withdraw.” Ah, taking advantage of me broadcasting his commands, he didn’t even need to gesture to his bannermen. “Priests, seek out the men with black gums and either treat them or slit their throats if they refuse the treatment.”

Like I said, pragmatic.