11 The Journey across the narrow sea 4

Soon on the seas cries were heard .Black shadows were clearly killing the men that they sent in the start .This was another ploy of her majesty. They could kill them all at once like old commander intended but her majesty with her words made them beacons .Old commander was cruel but not as cruel as this young princess. She used living men to determine how far away the dragons were . And where are dragons in this thick fog.This was new even for him a seasoned commander that was on many raids ,quelled many uprisings but never thought of people as cattle .This was first time after his many years of service he felt sick by the deeds done by the royal family and deep inside questioned their right to be the sovereigns of the Northern empire .It was different in the North you know ! When he killed that one at the start that kill was also the kill of mercy. Souls of northern folk would go to Valhalla if they were not scared in the times of their deaths .But who would not be scared in front of the dragons !! Thats why princess plan was so cruel . It had such a great cost .

This time he had to choose one of his men .They all knew the look . It was the look of unwillingness , the look of shame the look of pain.He walked on the deck from the cabin to the stern two or three times .He felt like titan Atlas as on his shoulders was the decision that would hunt him forever .He was finally ready to choose and was going for Floki but than when he saw his loyal and loving eyes and he could not do it.Even this new boy was his son , family he never had due to besrerkers oath . ( to keep loyalty only to emperor beserekers could not have wives and father no children)

Princess was not on deck now . She had to calm down and she went into the cabin to refresh a bit and to stop thinking about that young boy .

Soon dragons would be upon them.Their wings now were clearly visible on the horizon.Not knowing what to do captain called his vice captains .

Three man were brothers for long time . They started in this squad 30 years ago and survived many battles together .He hugged them And than ordered them ." KILL ME I CANT TAKE ANY LIVES OF MY BROTHERS "

They did swear to follow his every last of his orders but this one they just could not do .All the squad had tears in the eyes as two vice captains tried to hold their battle axes . Their hands were shaking. But it had to be done .It was the last wish of the man who was more than a brother to them.

As they lifted the axes to do final deathblow in the distance war horn was heard .Than mighty streach filled the air as 10 white griffins flew right pass the ship and attacked the one of the shadows .

The battle started . Griffins were flying in the formation that looked like bull head .In the middle two griffins were supposed to stall the dragons while two horns( squads of 4 griffin riders ) would circle around the dragons and killed them.)

Scream was heard :" white armor of the polar bear " as shadow of the bear jumped in front of the dragon and held his majestic wings .

Another voice said " Binding of the sea serpent" and rope in his hands flew towards the dragons and blocked his mighty breath.

When you mange to close dragons mouth he would not be as dangerous .So when eight riders came from the back and did their respective arts dragon fell. Other 5 dragons were scared and ran as squad was clearly going to do the same to them.They ran and escaped their doom.

Due to mutual understanding between griffon sentries and dragons , sentries did not follow . Now dragons were scared and they could pick them up one by one but if they went for the kill of all of the them the dragons would become desperate and maybe kill one of two of riders.And that was a price they just could not pay.

Two of the riders descended the boat.

":Sentry Magni at your service , WHO are on the way our Dragontip venerable guests? the sturdy old man said said

Two battle maidens responded :" Royal princess Cecila of Imperial Lortbrook clan "

"What business does royal family have in our Dagger tip?" Magni asked

" It is not your place to know , you servant " responded coldly the battle maiden .

Old sentry was clearly angered with that remark .

"I guess the royal family still does things in arrogant way . You clearly could kill those mix bred dragons with no effort so why did you not do it? I guess you had some commoners on board but why did you not save them?"

|"HAH Why should i move for the life of the commoners ? They are trash , very trash that should be trampled on .Why should i dirty my sword to help those who dont have the worth of one sword cleaning ?" One of Battle maidens responded .

"What depravity , what arrogance ! We will see each other at court of Dagger tip ! I dare you to be this arrogant in the front of the yarl! " Magni smirked , jumped on his white battle griffon and flew away.

The captain and berserkers watched whole conversation. Now he finally had enough , he hated the royal family with every bone of his body. He did not budge when did the killing of the people but all the killings in his life had a meaning until now. He was protecting someone ,he was doing it all for higher cause- to help the empire and to bring luck and ease the burden of fate for the common folk. Even when he did sacrifice the common folk like today it was all for the benefit of the empire but now he was not so sure this kind of empire deserved those sacrifices .What else was happening behind his back?

His look darkened as he aged many years in just few moments. He lost his truth . Vice captains and squad members knew what happened but still did not dare to speak in front of battle maidens .Those two had strength , had enough power to kill all of them with single strike and it was not worth die for nothing .But still in their clear proud looks were lurking seeds of defiance ,seed of hate and seed o betrayal.

"Nobody will attack you from now on . You have a day of voyage ahead of you , be well battle maiden" as he and the griffon sentry squad went into the white clouds .

Ivar was flying trough the air . He clearly did not plan it well but at least with the mead he knew that he could pull it off. NOW he will not die served as dinner for the dragons . His death was not for her to choose in the end.He wont be just candle in the wind ,he will go guns blazing into the silent night !!!!

He flew in lane for over 4 km before dragons took notice of him .These were not the dragons that attacked the griffin squad but reserve force that was there just in case of an ambush of the sentries .

Those two (dragon and sentry ) waged war from ancient times .Even first Emperor Ragnar Lorthbruk was just a sentry that tamed red dragon at the start. So they hated each other to the bones .Dragons hated sentries for interfering in their ship hunting( meals )and sentries hated dragons for the many that were slaughtered by them and this was vicious circle.

So decision of Magni was smart in the end and dragon trap had failed .

Now they were following strange scorpio arrowhead that clearly had a young man attached by rope to it .Unsure of what it meant dragons carefully inspected the arrow on its path .They thought that arrow has some hidden trap attached to it . After a minute or so they finally grew restless and decided to catch the human.The black dragon did it with ease and with sinister care.Ivar thought that dragons would eat irey as soon as they catch it . But he was wrong and now he was flying somewhere in dragon claws .

Then he finally fainted .

He awoke some time later .All the humans were placed in cage and it seamed like they all were on the island.

"Finally you are awaken" said one of the commoners

"How long was i in sleep ? " asked Ivar as he recognized man as commoner with whom he was on the ship.

"Give or take 3 hours " old man responded as he looked at position of the sun in the sky.Men from north could determine time of the day by height of the sun but when they were aboard the ship they were in the mist so how is so sunny up here ?Old man noticed Ivars puzzled look and Said ."We are on the mountain top and pointed to cave:"That is home of The dragons".

Ivar looked to the mountain and noticed many caves and than strange information resurfaced again.

"Black cave of Swords island peak , home of great red dragon Alextraza queen of the fire dragons."

Ivar knew about the swords island . The name of the swords island came from the cliffs that from every side were like cluster of swords pointing towards the sea, heavens and ships that were unlucky to be near the islands when storm came .Also due to large amount of dragons and poison miasma in the air the island was no fly zone . It was unknown if there was any life on the island because it was one of most dangerous zones in the Northern empire .Island gave Dragon tip fortress an extra layer of natural protection due to its vicinity to the Daggertip fortress and constant fog . It was only 2 days by griffon or 5 days by ship from one to another .

"Our queen wants to see the prisoners and choose a meal " the strange dragon sound was heard

"Hear what? Did you heard that ? Ivar was scared and asked old man

Thats Dragon cry , it is impossible for human to know about what they are speaking " old man

But Ivar cleary understood it . First he knew properties of places and things he never saw , he heard also read what that despicable princess thought and now he even knew dragon language ??

"How the hell that mead was so powerful" Ivar thought as large black dragon opened the cage and showed the way to confused humans.