Lieutenant Gaillard Abigre, Training Commander of House Vael, Betrothed of Lady Rosie Vrimrin, rode into the trading post with twenty guards at his back. It was a training mission, taking Gaillard’s advanced cadets out into the field while the more experienced soldiers, under command of Captain Cole, investigated the absence of reports from the trading post.
They already knew what they would find. Rosie had returned to Jasnafih Frimrin alone a week before and reported on the findings made by Taelroy and Xalvador.
“It’s as she said…” Captain Cole was musing as Gaillard approached, “The corpses of Lord Xalvador and Master Gamil before the Trading Post, everything else abandoned… House Frimrin should have had some soldiers here… We should have had some merchants… Trade here has been slow, but there still were merchants and tradesmen living here.
“This will cripple House Frimrin and House Vael… The powers in Paelstead will shift after this.”
“House Frimrin is leaving Paelstead,” Gaillard said, “They’re taking Rosie since they’ve adopted her, and offered to take me with them.”
Captain Cole nodded, “They’d be fools to stay. They can cover their losses in Paelstead and rely on their income from other estates to keep other Houses from consuming them. I wish House Vael had that option.”
“I have to try and find him before I leave – or at least his corpse.”
Captain Cole nodded, “Thine loyalty is admirable, though thou would have died with the others if thou had joined them. The recruits could use the training though; take them and find thine friend.”
Gaillard turned and began to issue orders, and explanations, to his recruits.
“Oh, and Lieutenant Gaillard,” Captain Cole called, “Reports of the dragon activity have silenced. If thou dost find a dragon’s corpse with thine friend, thou and thine recruits are immediately discharged from the House Vael guard.”
Gaillard nodded his understanding. People were missing from the trading post. House Vael would have to pay damages to their families, plus the investments lost if trade goods could not be found. When Cole and Gaillard returned House Vael would withdraw to protect itself. However, if they returned with the dragon, House Vael would claim the bounty to preserve itself. Captain Cole knew House Vael had no claim to it, and was therefore offering the bounty to Gaillard and his trainees.
Twenty recruits marched behind Gaillard as his destrier trotted through the uneven grassland. He tried to keep to the tops of hills and ridges; it was an exhausting way to march for both men and horses, but it gave good vantages. Atop every third hill Gaillard stopped to review search procedures and spread out his recruits. It was a slow process, but necessary for their training.
The day was wearing on by the seventh time he dispersed his recruits. Gaillard was sitting atop his horse and monitoring the position of the sun when he heard a horn call a battle pattern from over the top of the ridge.
Tyrns! He thought, spurring his horse into a gallop, and rushing to the aid of his trainees.
The horn call came again as he was halfway up the next hill. It sounded like it was just over the rise. All around he could hear the clanking footsteps of his men rushing toward the horn call. Plate and mail armor was not meant for traveling quietly.
Atop the hill, Gaillard looked down at a group of three recruits looking excitedly at each other while one blew the battle call for a third time.
“What’s going on here?” Gaillard barked, simultaneously relieved and angry.
“We found the dragon, sir!” one recruit said, pointing to the next ridge, “We blew the ‘Rally’ call so that thou couldst re-focus our search efforts from there!”
“That’s a ‘Battle’ call, fools!”
Gaillard snapped the horn away from the recruit before he blew the battle call again and blew “All Clear” followed by “Rally” so that his other recruits would not be afraid of what awaited them.
“We’ll cover horn calls again tomorrow,” Gaillard said as he handed the horn back to the recruit, who took it sheepishly and tied it back to his belt. After a moment of a few deep breaths he said “Do not abuse thineself for this error. It is one that has been made by many recruits. The call you used is the best one to mistakenly sound. If thou had sounded the rally during a battle, the results could have been catastrophic. This result is much better than the alternative.”
It took an hour to find Taelroy’s corpse after his recruits found the dragon. The knight had fallen far from the dragon, and Gaillard’s men had to escort him around several hills before he was found. They had found the sword first, protruding from the ground where it had fallen into the earth. It was a fine mithril weapon crafted for a long dead king and enchanted to slay dragons; the sword alone was worth half again as much as the bounty on the dragon.
“Bring me his helmet,” Gaillard ordered.
Two recruits dragged Taelroy’s corpse over to Gaillard, each holding him by an armpit and dragging his heels along the ground with as much dignity as they could muster without the use of a litter.
Gaillard slowly, reverently removed the helmet and placed his palm over Taelroy’s heart.
“Tie him aback my horse. I’ll walk.”
Gaillard’s recruits moved quickly to follow his orders, leaving Gaillard with relative privacy as he knelt and placed Taelroy’s helmet over the pommel of the sword.
“She’s pregnant.” Gaillard said bluntly, unsure how else to proceed. “She found out a few days ago. House Frimrin adopted her, but she’ll have to be wed before she starts to show, else she’ll be disgraced.
“I’ve agreed to marry her. It will be a fast wedding, but neither of us are high enough for that to rouse suspicion. She’ll have the bounty of the dragon to support her, and I’ll raise thine child as my own. I failed thee; I see that now. I hope that, in this small way, I can begin to make amends for abandoning thee in thine final hour.”
Gaillard rose, still unsure why it felt appropriate to give his confession to the sword instead of to his friend’s corpse.
“What does the sword have left of thee?” he pondered, “Thou only carried it for a few months, yet it feels like thee in a way thine corpse does not.”
Gaillard stood alone, pondering the question and his lost friends as the sun began to drop on the horizon.
“Sir,” said a hesitant voice behind him, “If we don’t go soon, we won’t return to Paelstead before the sun sets.”
Gaillard turned away from the sword. No Kin would disturb the traditional memorial; he wished the Tyrns would do the same. This place would stand as a testament to his friend’s valor.
Taelroy was somber. Rosie is pregnant! I will have a child!
He began his weeping anew, confronting within himself his fate the dragon had condemned him to. The sword in which he “lived” was going to remain here for a great many years. No Kin would take it with the helmet atop the pommel, and no Tyrn would wield a Kin weapon.
Gaillard and his men towed the head of the dragon behind the tall warhorse that bore Taelroy’s corpse. At least his descendants would be well cared for, the bounty on the dragon would make Dragonsbane Gaillard Abigre one of the most powerful men in the region.
His only solace, the one small mercy afforded him by his fate, was that he would not have to watch their lives himself. Taelroy would be left alone in the rolling grasslands of Wilderland - he would never see any of it.