Omensent: Princess Of Dragons (Book 5) (15 page)

Leia frowned, then turned to Captain Repheth. "What do you think we should do with him?"

"I'm not sure." The old man sighed, disappointment etched across his face. "Edwin has been a member of the guard for several years now, and has always been one of my most trusted soldiers. He has always performed his duties admirably. This is the first time that he has done anything foolish like this."

"I see." She stared at the disgraced soldier for a long moment, then was struck with a sudden inspiration. "Okay. This is what we're going to do." She turned back to Captain Repheth. "I want you to remove him from his post here at the gate, and take him on as your new assistant."

"New assistant?" The old man asked in confusion.

Leia nodded. "We shall be needing your experience and wisdom more often while my parents are gone, and your normal duties already take up most of your time. You can delegate some of your lesser responsibilities to Edwin here, freeing you up to provide your wisdom and experience to us when needed."

"I can make myself more available to you, if you wish." Captain Harper told her, his expression stiff. "I do not need anyone to take over any of my responsibilities."

The young girl shook her head. "It wouldn't work. Acting as my advisor will take up quite a bit of your time, and we wouldn't want the citizens of Sevria to suffer because we took you away from your duties. With Edwin's aid, you should be able to fulfill your duties as Captain of the Guard, as well as help advise me."

The old man considered it for a long moment. "I guess we wouldn't want the citizens to suffer because I was unable to perform all of my duties. Very well." He agreed, turning to stare at Edwin. "You are hereby relieved from your duties guarding the gate. From now on, you will be assisting me with my duties." He gave the trembling young man a hard look. "And if you ever attempt anything like this again, I'll make sure that you regret it for the rest of your existence. Understood?"

"U-Understood, Captain." Edwin stammered fearfully.

"As for your wife," Leia looked at Edwin, her expression still thoughtful. "Inform her that a shop has been recently confiscated from a merchant who was found guilty of deceiving the people of Sevria, and swindling them out of their coin. If she wishes to purchase the shop on payments, an arrangement can be made."

"Th-That would be wonderful, milady!" Edwin exclaimed in disbelief. "My wife will be overjoyed! How can I ever thank you?"

"Don't thank me just yet." She cautioned him with a laugh. "I think you're going to find working for Captain Repheth is far tougher than working as a soldier guarding the gates."

"You're damn right he will." The old man growled. "He will perform his duties to the letter, or he's going to find himself dangling from the battlements by his toenails."

"Good." Leia smiled in satisfaction. "Now that's been settled, we can turn our attention to the merchant who started all of this mess."

"That's him over there." Captain Repheth pointed to a short little man standing near the line of waiting wagons. "His name is Wilm. He has been leading his caravans through Sevria for several years now, and this is his forth attempt at trying to depart without paying his taxes. It's the first time he's actually been stupid enough to try something like this, though."

"I'll take care of this." Leia frowned, making her way over to the merchant, followed closely by Slither.

"It's about time!" The short little man declared in an angry tone. "We have been waiting to leave since this morning! What is the delay?"

"The delay comes from your attempt to bribe one of the gate guards into allowing your caravans to depart without paying your taxes." Leia snapped, causing the man's jaw to drop open in surprised chagrin.

"I did no such thing!" The man objected vehemently. "I will not stand here and listen to baseless accusations from some snot nosed child! I demand that you release my wagons at once!"

"That isss the daughter of the Dragon Lord that you are ssspeaking to." Slither informed the man with an angry hiss. "You would do well to watch your tongue."

"I don't care who she is," The short little man snarled back at the huge shadowspawn bravely. "or what kind of filthy creature she has trained to follow her around. Unless you can produce some sort of proof to back your accusation, I'm going to leave with my caravan."

"You want proof?" Leia asked, her eyes glittering dangerously. She turned to look at Edwin, who continued to linger nearby with Captain Repheth. "Edwin," She gestured for the young man to come over to her side. "Is this the man who bribed you into allowing his caravan to leave without paying his taxes?"

"It is." Edwin replied with a heavy sigh. "He paid me five gold pieces to let him slip out when nobody was looking."

"That's preposterous!" The merchant exclaimed, suddenly appearing nervous. "I have never seen this man before in my entire life!"

"Give it up, Wilm." Leia told him in a hard voice. "This is the forth time that you have been caught attempting to avoid paying your taxes. I think that it's time that someone taught you a lesson."

"But..."

"Shut your mouth!" The young girl snapped angrily. "Since this is your forth attempt to sneak away without paying your taxes, I think it's only right that your taxes quadruple."

"Quadruple?" Wilm exclaimed in disbelief. "You want me to pay
four
times as much as before to be able to leave?"

"Not only to leave," She corrected him. "but from this point forward. From now on, whenever you return to Sevria, you will pay four times the amount in taxes, or you will not be allowed to do business here."

"Every time?" The short little man's face drained of color.

"Every time." She nodded firmly. "And you will pay up front, before you are even allowed to enter the city, otherwise you and your wagons will be turned away."

"Y-You can't do this!" Wilm screamed in desperation. "I'll take it to the Dragon Lord in protest!"

"Go ahead," Leia shrugged. "but it'll be several months before he returns, at the very least. Until then,
I'm
in charge."

"And if I refuse to pay?"

"Careful." Slither warned him. "Leia hasss already banned the merchant Burt from returning to SSSevria for a year, and confissscated hisss ssshop for failing to pay a fine levied againssst him. You do not want to join him."

The short little man stared at Leia for several long seconds, then his shoulders drooped in defeat. "Is-Is there any way I can get you to reconsider?" He pleaded, wringing his hands in desperation.

"I'll tell you what," Leia told him, her expression unsympathetic. "If, after a year's time, you have proven that you have learned your lesson, I'll consider lowering you taxes back to the normal rate. Until then," She stared at the frightened little man with hard eyes. "if I hear that you have stuck even a single toe out of line, I'll ban you and your caravans from doing business in Sevria permanently. Do you understand?"

"I-I understand." The short little man nodded, tears now filling his eyes.

"Now go pay your taxes, take your wagons, and leave. I've wasted enough of my time on your foolishness."

"You handled that rather well." Captain Repheth murmured in approval as they watched the merchant hand over a large pouch of coins to one of the guards responsible for collecting the taxes from the departing caravans. "I doubt that he'll ever try sneaking away without paying his fair share again."

"I glad you approve." She smiled. "I think I'm starting to get the hang of running things. It's a lot more fun than father lets on."

"You jussst like to bully people." Slither snorted in amusement.

"Is there anything else that requires my attention?" Leia asked, ignoring the snickering shadowspawn.

Captain Repheth shook his head. "I think we have everything under control here."

"Very well." The young girl looked slightly disappointed. "Slither and I are going hunting. We should be back before dusk."

"Be very cautious, milady." The old man warned, his expression worried. "There are goblins still lurking somewhere nearby."

"I'm not worried." She told him confidently. "I can take care of myself if need be. Besides," She smile up at the huge shadowspawn. "I have Slither with me. He can handle just about anything that comes along."

They hurried through the massive battlements and across the trade road, then Slither took the lead and led her along several scarcely visible game trails, until they came upon a small open meadow where they spotted a large group of deer grazing on the soft green blades of grass.

Leia and Slither both instantly dropped back into the shadows to avoid startling the timid creatures, then watched as the they slowly began to meander closer.

"I think I can take down three of them before they scatter." Leia whispered, reaching for her bow. "It'll be a good start to replenishing the supplies." She notched an arrow and took careful aim, but before she was able to release her shot, a half a dozen goblins burst from concealment on the far side of the clearing and charged the deer, sending the fleet footed creatures scattering. Four more goblins appeared from the underbrush at the opposite side of the clearing, each wielding a crude spear, which they hurled at the deer with deadly accuracy.

"Where did they come from?" Leia asked in surprise, watching as the goblins quickly slaughtered the entire herd of deer.

"SSSlither isss not sssure," The huge shadowspawn growled, his eyes narrowed in dislike. "but we cannot allow them to essscape. We need to eliminate them before they begin attacking the caravansss traveling on the trade road."

"That should be easy enough." She notched an arrow to her bow once more, then drew back, aimed, and let it fly, striking one of the goblins in its throat.

Four more fell dead before any of the other creatures realized that they were under attack, and even then, they had little chance as Leia continued to rain arrows down upon them with deadly accuracy.

"One isss getting away." Slither pointed to one of the pig faced beasts who was scrambling for the underbrush.

"I see it." She withdrew her last arrow from her quiver, notched it, then drew back on her bow and fired in a single fluid motion. The arrow flashed across the open clearing in the blink of an eye, striking the fleeing goblin in the back of its head, sending it tumbling end over end into the underbrush.

"Good ssshot." The huge shadowspawn hissed in admiration. He hurried out into the clearing and made sure that the beasts were all dead. "It isss odd that they would be out hunting during the daytime. Goblinsss usually prefer to hunt at night."

"It doesn't really matter now." Leia shrugged, nudging one of the dead goblins with her foot. "They won't be hunting anything anymore."

"There are sssurely more of the beastsss lurking sssomewhere nearby." Slither hissed darkly. "Many more. Goblinsss breed fassster than rabbitsss."

"If we encounter more of them, then we'll deal with them like we dealt with these." She reached down and yanked her arrow free from the goblin's body, then gave it a delicate sniff. "Yuck!" She tossed the arrow aside in disgust. "It looks like I'm going to need some new arrows."

"What do you want to do with thessse?" Slither asked, gesturing to the deer that the goblins had slaughtered.

"We'll take them with us." The young girl shrugged. "They'll be a good start at replacing the provisions that we used over the winter." She frowned as she counted ten deer in all. "It may take us a couple of trips though."

"Not if we butcher them here." Slither growled, using a razor sharp claw to slice open one of the deer's bellies, spilling its innards onto the ground.

"I was hoping you wouldn't suggest that." She murmured, her face turning a pale shade of green. She drew a deep steadying breath, then exhaled heavily and drew her dagger. "I guess we had better get this over with."

Chapter 7

"Gods, how I hate this!" Shirk moaned after vomiting up his breakfast. "We're less than a day at sea and I'm already sick." He gave Damion a sour look. "Thanks again for inviting me along."

"How can he be sick already?" Captain Harper asked in bewilderment, watching as the old bandit began vomiting over the rail once again. "The sea is calm, and the Fearless Lady is running as smoothly as ever!"

"Shirk has never liked the open sea." Damion told him with a chuckle. "I think the motion of the waves gets to him."

"That's funny," The old sailor laughed. "I get a bit land sick if I
don't
feel the waves. I guess spending your entire life at sea does that to a man." He looked around the deck. "Where are your elven friends?"

"They went below deck with Raven and Damarius. They seem to prefer distancing themselves from other people."

"I have to tell you," Captain Harper told him in a serious tone. "I
really
don't trust those two. There is something about them that just doesn't sit right with me."

Damion frowned. "What do you mean?"

"I can't put my finger on it, but something about them makes me very nervous. You need to be cautious once we finally make port. I have the feeling that the blood elves aren't the only danger on the Elven Island."

"You're not the only person that's given me that same warning." Damion frowned. "But Dar convinced them to send for my aid, and I trust him. If he believes that the elves truly need my aid, then I'll do everything in my power to help."

"That honorable streak of yours is eventually going to get you killed." Captain Harper told him bluntly. "One day you're..." He scowled as a pair of deckhands, wearing matching red rags around their heads, hurried forward. "What is it? Why are you men not at your posts?"

Neither sailor answered, but instead, both drew daggers and charged forward, their eyes alight with bloodlust.

Damion reacted instinctively, lashing out with a powerful kick that caught one of the men square in his chest, sending him sailing backwards, where he crashed to the deck in an unconscious heap. The other man lunged towards Captain Harper, thrusting his dagger straight at the old sailor's heart, but, with surprising speed, Captain Harper sidestepped the thrust and whipped out his own heavy dagger, which he drove directly into the top of his attacker's head with a meaty crunch. The man stiffened horribly, then fell limp as Captain Harper wrenched the dagger free with a snarl.