Dragons of a New Age

4 The Vision

Palin awoke in a sweat, the sheets drenched and his long auburn hair plastered to the sides of his face. His chest heaved, and he took in great gulps of air trying to calm himself.

Usha stirred next to him. He tried to get out of bed without waking her, but he didn’t succeed.

“What’s wrong?” she whispered. She sat up and ran her fingers across Palin’s forehead. “You’ve a fever! You’ve had that dream again.”

“Yes,” he replied softly. “But this time it was worse than before.” His feet stretched to the cold stone floor, and he stood and padded to the window. He pulled back the heavy curtain and peered toward the east, where the sun was just starting to show itself. “This time I’m convinced it’s more than a dream.”

Usha shuddered and climbed out of bed, drawing a silk robe about her. She glided toward him and rested her head on his bare shoulder. “It was the blue dragon?”

He nodded. “I saw him flying toward Palanthas again. This time he reached the city.” He turned toward her, wrapped his arms around her slight frame, and bent his head down and brushed his lips over her cheek. He stared into her golden eyes and combed his fingers through her disheveled silvery hair. The strands caught the first rays of the sun and glimmered. Even just roused from sleep, she was beautiful. “I think you’ve married a madman, Usha.”

She hugged him tightly. “I think I married a wonderful man,” she returned. “And I think, husband, you might have inherited your Uncle Raistlin’s ability to see the future.”

They were married less than a month ago, after Usha had convinced Palin she was no relation to Raistlin, though she had golden eyes and silvery white hair. Raistlin had not been seen for some time. The two had taken up residence in Solace, though Palin visited the Tower of Wayreth frequently.

Palin edged away from her. His intense green eyes peered out the window and over the Solamnian countryside. The tower sat just outside the city of Solanthus now, as it had for several weeks. Tomorrow it might be somewhere else. The tower never stayed in one spot too long, and it sometimes moved at Palin’s behest. The tower’s ability to manipulate space was one of the enchantments that remained with Krynn despite the disappearance of the gods of magic. Palin had learned that things imbued with magic before the war against Chaos, retained their magic.

“Let’s see if I can give this dream... this premonition,” he corrected himself, “a little more substance.” He walked over to a large oak bureau in one corner of the room, retrieved a pewter hand mirror from the top drawer, and returned to Usha’s side. Turning his back to the window, he drew his concentration to a spot in the center of the mirror’s glassy surface as she intently leaned forward, her elbows resting on the sill.

There was a flash of light as the sun struck the mirror, and then the air shimmered and sparkled and a large, pale green oval frame materialized within the glass. Inside the frame, a picture took shape. At first the hues ran together like water-colors, but then the image sharpened and came into lifelike focus. The sun was setting on the Palanthas harbor, and a large bird was skimming across the top of the gentle waves, angling itself toward the western shoreline.

The young sorcerer cringed as he watched the creature come closer, revealing itself as a dragon. He heard Usha gasp behind him, felt her smooth fingertips on his back. Palin concentrated on the beast’s visage. It was an immense blue, a male with long white horns and bright golden eyes. It was the one that had been filling his dreams for the past three nights, and it was one he hadn’t seen in the Abyss during the war against Chaos. Though there had been so much going on, so many dragons filling the air during that fight, he would have remembered a dragon that big. It was larger than any who fought there.

“What’s the dragon want with Palanthas?” Usha said in a hushed tone.

They watched the blue dragon fade to a shadow that glided silently over the city like a hawk.

“The dragon must want something in Palanthas,” Palin whispered.

The shadow of the dragon banked toward a wraithlike view of the city’s Great Library. Pulling its wings close to its side and descending heavily to the roof, the dragon broke through the tiles and disappeared. Palin directed his attention to the hole the beast had created, peered through the dust and broken masonry.

The view shifted to accommodate him, revealing the building’s interior. The dragon sat atop the crushed and bloody bodies of monks. With his huge claws, he was tearing down shelf upon shelf, retrieving rare manuals here and there. It was evident the blue dragon was after specific tomes, magical ones. Finished with his grim work, the dragon clutched his prizes in a claw, departed the ruins, and soared into the sky. His course took him toward a tower.

“The Tower of High Sorcery,” Usha murmured.

Palin’s voice grew weaker, and his lanky frame shuddered. The dragon paid no heed to the Shoikan Grove that surrounded the Tower of High Sorcery and kept most at bay. Poised above the tower, he appeared to enact some sort of spell before he lighted agilely atop the tall building. With his rear claws, the beast started tearing at the tower. Pale stones the color of parchment flew like chunks of dirt scattered by a digging beast. The rocks rained down on the city, crushing the curious who’d come out of their homes and businesses to see what was happening.

When the image of the tower was reduced to rubble, the dragon thrust his claws into the chambers below and began retrieving chests and coffers filled with magical items, scrolls saturated with powerful arcane spells, and more. Then the dragon’s golden eyes fixed on the portal to the Abyss.

“No!” Palin hoarsely barked. “I must stop him.”

The wavering image dissipated, leaving the reflection of Palin’s ashen face and the cloudless morning sky in its place.

“But what can you do?” Usha tugged her husband away from the window and drew the curtain. “What can you do against a dragon that size?”

“I don’t know.” He cupped her chin. “But I have to do something—and soon. If my dream is in truth a vision, a glimpse into the future, the dragon could mean to strike soon, perhaps today at sunset. I can’t let him kill those people. And I can’t let him claim the tower’s magic and access the portal.”

“There’s nothing in the Abyss but the bodies of dragons and rubble,” Usha said. “What could the dragon want there?”

“It doesn’t matter,” Palin replied. “To get there, the dragon would have to ruin the tower and the precious magic inside.” He moved toward the end of the bed, where his white robe lay. Quickly donning it, he glanced back at his wife. “I’ve got a contact in Palanthas. I can alert him, share my dream. He can do something. He can contact someone in the Tower of High Sorcery.”

“I thought with Chaos and the gods gone, we were safe,” Usha whispered. “I thought we’d finally know peace.”