The Grand Crusade Read Online Free PDF Page B

his head. “What is an Oromise?”
    “Not a what, but who.” The puppet pressed gloved fingers one to the other, then flatted palms together. “Back in forever ago there was magick, and in that flow resided creatures. Dragons were one such, though in a form we would hardly recognize. When we reached awareness, however, we sought a place to stop within the flow of magick. We tried to create havens, but met with little success for we are creatures of air and fire, and two elements do not a universe make.
    “The Oromise are creatures of earth and water. They, too, wished to create a haven, and where their magicks and ours overlapped, we succeeded. Dragons and the Oromise formed an alliance and shaped this universe and this world. Elves came later, for their element is wood and vital for holding the others together. Dragons and the Oromise welcomed them through benign neglect and did not dispute their making our world fertile.”
    Kerrigan glanced at the ball. “Can you make it look like an Oromise?”
    “Not I, for I was many years yet unhatched when the Oromise last felt the sun on their faces—if, indeed, they had faces.” The puppet shrugged. “What I tell you now is legend. I only have it fourth or fifth wing.”
    “How old are you?”
    “Veryold. I remember the war to wrest Vareshagul from the urZrethi. I fought in it—sinking most of the island and leaving Vael as the only remnant— and I have resided here since. Even so, the Oromise are but legend to me. They are the nightmares that haunt our dreams, and that a dragon can be haunted should signify much.”
    Kerrigan shivered. “But I have never heard of them.”
    “That is because there was a war of Dragons and Oromise for dominion over the world. The Oromise were builders and tinkerers. They created machines and creatures. Thekryalniriyou saw in Bokagul and Muroso, these are very like the things they set upon the elves to keep them occupied as we fought. Many other creatures are theirs as well, with a few quite mundane and even beloved, like cats. They created much before the war, and adapted much more for war.”
    “But what about the gods making the world?”
    Rymramoch shook his head. “Humanity, rising in times well past that of the Oromise, needed to explain things. Gods are convenient when no other explanation presents itself.”
    “But Resolute has said that our gods are but dim shadows of the elder gods he knows about.”
    “Resolute’s knowledge of things is not without error, and even the elves do not remember the Oromise precisely. They know there was something there, and their facility for the invention of gods is no less potent than that of men.”
    “So the gods don’t exist?”
    The puppet laughed. “Oh, that is a topic of heated debate among dragons. Does the act of believing and worshipping create an entity that becomes a god? Are there yet other interlopers who have come to our world and assumed that role? We do not know and know of no way to find out. The simple fact is, however, that if therearegods, they played no part in the Oromise war. Dragons drove the Oromise from the face of the earth and deep into its heart. They have been entombed there forever through dracomagicks, but they anticipated us.
    “One of their last acts was to create the urZrethi. The urZrethi, led by powerful chieftains, fashioned their own empires and dug deep into the earth. They raised mountains as they went, seeking to free their masters. Dragons went to war with them as well, the last great battle being the one for Vareshagul.”
    The puppet plucked an errant thread from the left sleeve of its robe. “Until that time the urZrethi were a patriarchy, with strong males having harems. In order to save their race, the urZrethi shifted the entire social structure. The reason strong males like Bok are exiles is for fear they will again invite the wrath of the dragons upon the urZrethi.”
    Kerrigan shook his head. “But if Bok is that kind of threat, why is he here? Why is he your