Omensent: Revealing the Dragon (The Dragon Lord Series) by Barry Gibbons Page A

vanished."
    "Could it have been a dragon?"
    "That's what we suspected at first, but then several incidents happened in broad daylight. If it had been a dragon, it would have been spotted by one of our men."
    "We heard the same strange bellow last evening," Sly informed the tribesman. "but we were unable to see the creature that made it."
    "Whatever the beast is, it is causing our people a great deal of trouble." He gave Damion a curious look. "So tell me, milord, what could possibly be so important that you would come rushing to the grasslands to see Bativa?"
    "Have you ever heard of the Etazk?"
    "They live in the lands to the west. They're all religious zealots, if the stories I've heard are true."
    "They're true." The huge warrior assured him with a grave expression. "We recently discovered that they are assembling for war. They have at least fifty thousand warriors gathered in the port city of Salastar awaiting ships to carry them across the sea."
    "Fifty thousand?" One of the other warriors let out a low whistle. "Who are they planning on going to war with?"
    "Everyone." Sly grunted. "Their god , Etaz, has ordered them to go forth into the world and convert all nonbelievers, or carve out their hearts and offer them up to Him as a sacrifice. The last time they attempted this, the entire world was nearly destroyed."
    The three tribesmen all stared at him with dumbfounded expressions.
    "Is what he says actually true?" The leader of the Deolan warriors asked Damion, swallowing hard.
    "I'm afraid so." The huge warrior sighed. "I visited Salastar and saw them for myself. They were almost ready to set sail, but we managed to come up with a quick way to slow them down."
    "How were you able to slow down an entire army?"
    "It was actually fairly easy. One of the scarlet dragons destroyed the ships that were preparing to ferry the army to other shores. It will take them quite some time to build enough ships to carry the entire force."
    "Excuse me, milord," One of the Deolan warriors asked respectfully. " but why didn't you just have your dragons destroy the Etazk? A single dragon could have destroyed their main force, and scattered the rest to the four winds without any effort."
    "That I cannot do." Damion frowned, shaking his head. "One of the agreements that was made when the scarlet dragons were released from the Dragon Gem was that they were to never cause harm to any man or woman. I will not command them to go back on that agreement."
    " Which means we're going to have to build our own army to drive those savages back to the western continent." Sly grumbled through a mouthful of chicken.
    "You should take this news straight to the Council." The leader of the Deolan patrol advised him with a worried expression. "They need to know what you have discovered."
    "That's why we were looking for Bativa." Damion explained, finishing off his chicken and tossing the bones into the fire. "We wanted him with us when we went before the Council. The last time I went before them, things didn't go very smoothly. We thought that having your chieftain with us may help to stress the seriousness of the situation to some of the more stubborn members of the Council, and would give us our best chance for success."
    "As I said before, Chieftain Bativa is already in Mercedia for the annual Spring Council. I'll send a rider ahead to warn him of your arrival. Would you care for an escort?"
    " They would just slow us down." Damion told him with the shake of his head. "Besides, I would rather not announce our presence to everyone."
    "Very good, milord." The tribesman quickly finished off his chicken, then rose to his feet. "We need to return to our patrol. I'll dispatch a rider immediately to advise Chieftain Bativa of your arrival. I'm sure he'll be more than willing to help you convince the Council of the seriousness of the situation."
    They watched as the tribesmen remounted their horses and disappeared into the night, then settled down around the fire, a