Dragonmage of Mystara

CHAPTER NINE

Thelvyn and Kharendaen approached the hidden city of Windreach boldly, for the first time unconcerned about what kind of welcome they would receive. But when dragons began rising swiftly out of the city of Windreach, Thelvyn wondered if their opinion of him had taken a bad turn during his absence. Kharendaen remained unconcerned about the reception. In fact, she actually looked rather pleased, so he ignored his apprehension and continued his approach toward the city. He was still a bit confused when a dozen dragons of every breed began to circle around quickly to move ahead of him and his mate. More dragons soon joined them.

Only then did he realize that this was an impromptu honor guard to welcome the return of the Dragonking. To his even greater surprise, he realized that he was actually rather touched by the gesture, and also quite impressed. He had always found dragons to be solitary and aloof creatures.

Following their honor guard, Thelvyn and Kharendaen began a slow descent into Windreach, dropping down into the deep late-afternoon shadows of the wall of the city. Looking enormously pleased, Sir George was all but standing in his saddle. He looked as if he would have waved a flag or blown a trumpet if he had one. Thelvyn was beginning to wonder just where he was being taken, but a moment later he saw First Speaker Marthaen moving up to fly close beside him.

"I assume that the dragons have already learned about the invasion of the steppes," Thelvyn said, looking over his shoulder at the gold dragon.

"News arrived last night," Marthaen answered, dropping his sails to slow his flight. "I felt certain you would arrive soon, and I ordered the dragons to begin to prepare for war this morning."

"Good thinking," Thelvyn said. "They no longer seem averse to the idea of going to war."

"They've had a few days to think about it since you were here last," the older dragon replied. "The full extent of the danger we face has become much more apparent to them. You can see for yourself that they've finally begun to understand that you are no threat to them."

Marthaen suggested that they retreat to Thelvyn's lair in the Hall of the Great One, which was large enough to accommodate a hasty council of war. That proved to be a wise course of action. Jherdar joined them while they were still circling to land, and a number of other dragon leaders continued to arrive over the next half hour while Thelvyn and Kharendaen rested briefly, dining on roast elk, bread, and cheese.

"We tried to get a look at the invaders on our way here," Thelvyn told the dragons a short time later. "I cannot say how many gemstone dragons there are, since we had to be careful to keep our distance, but they've brought an army of perhaps a hundred thousand with them into this world. As you know, they're burning off the steppes in a single, immense wall of fire. I've never seen anything like it. By tomorrow night, they will have left the steppes completely destroyed."

"I've sent scouts to do some judicious spying," Marthaen said. "We have already heard that there may be as many as two hundred gemstone dragons. The Ethengar and the wild herds of the steppes have been fleeing into the mountains of northern Rockhome, so they should survive. But I don't believe we can be ready to face the invaders before they have moved on into Rockhome."

"I agree," Thelvyn said. "For one thing, I want to wait for accurate reports of their numbers. If we can destroy the Masters or force them to retreat, dealing with their army should be a matter of sport."

"Do you really expect it to be that easy?" Jherdar asked. "The Masters have to know that we can overwhelm their invasion force. And now that the Dragonking has returned with the collar, they must know that we will be coming after them."

"Not necessarily," Thelvyn explained. "We have one very unexpected advantage. The Masters believe that the dragons have refused my rule and will not go to war. As far as they know, the Dragonking is an exile begging for support wherever he can find it. I suspect that's why they've chosen to attack now, while they believe there's no one in this world willing or able to fight them."

Jherdar looked impressed. "How did they arrive at such an inaccurate impression of the situation?"

"Do you recall that spy in Braejr I went to flush out? I fed her some misleading information before I broke her tie with the Masters. I've learned that she actually served someone called the Overlord, who seems not to be a dragon at all. I suspect the Masters are only slaves to the Overlord, but they don't know it."

"We seem to possess more advantages than I would have expected," Marthaen remarked.

"We must not deceive ourselves," Thelvyn warned. "I may have them fooled, but they may only be leading me to think that I've fooled them. The Masters are experts at conquering worlds. Whole races may be enslaved to serve as their armies. They could open a worldgate and send through a hundred thousand soldiers any time and place they choose. We must be very careful, even if it means that Rockhome must endure a long siege while we gather our strength. If the element of surprise is indeed in our favor, then we must be careful that we do not give ourselves away."

The others looked thoughtful, even a little subdued. Now that Thelvyn had their support, he wanted them to understand just how serious a threat they faced. Although he didn't speak of it, he knew the dragons weren't used to working together in large numbers, even though they had cooperated reasonably well in their war with Alphatia the year before. But his greatest concern was that they would be overconfident. Except for the Dragonlord, the dragons had never known an enemy that was a serious threat to them, able to stand up to them on their own terms.

"How large a force of dragons can we expect to assemble and take into Rockhome within in a week at most?" he asked.

Jherdar lowered his head, considering his answer. "We have been gathering an army here since you returned to the west several days ago, and we summoned the kingdoms of the dragons when we first became aware of the invasion of the steppes. Even so, we have little more than a thousand fighting dragons at Windreach. We can have another thousand in three, perhaps four days. Given a full week, perhaps a thousand more."

"Of course, we cannot have so many dragons assembled in one place for very long," Marthaen added. "It is impossible to feed so many."

Thelvyn nodded. "Jherdar, do you know the location of the ancient city of Darmouk?"

"No," Jherdar replied, looking confused and rather surprised at the question. Darmouk was Thelvyn's lair, his property and the stronghold of his hoard, won in battle from the renegade king Kardyer. Another dragon would not dare violate the privacy of his stronghold.

"You'll be able to find it easily enough," Thelvyn said. "It would be a very good place to establish our stronghold. I'm considering having you take a force of dragons there in a couple of days."

"It may be too near Rockhome," Kharendaen said.

"That's true, but it makes it a very convenient place for a stronghold," he said, then noticed that the others still looked uncertain. He smiled wryly. "I appreciate your concern for my rights, but it cannot be helped. We may win this battle, but we still have a long war ahead of us, and the worst is yet to come. We need strongholds for several hundred dragons throughout this part of the world, from the Highlands to

Alphatia. Wherever the Masters might appear, we must be able to get a company of dragons there quickly. They must not catch us by surprise."

Jherdar bowed his head. "It will be as you say. And you may be assured that my own bodyguards will stand watch over your treasure."

"That won't be necessary, I'm sure," Sir George commented. "Is anyone likely to try to steal from the Dragonking?"

As soon as their plans were finalized and duties assigned, most of the others hurried away to attend to the preparations for battle. Sir George retired to his own room, one of the spare chambers of the Dragonking's lair that the Eldar had furnished to suit his needs. Thelvyn felt better about the problem of gathering an army, since everything was proceeding much more swiftly and smoothly than he had expected. He was also beginning to have a much higher opinion of his dragons; he had always been under the well-founded impression that dragons could usually be counted upon to be stubborn, contrary, and determined to do everything the hard way. He needed to be able to trust them to serve him willingly and wisely.

Both he and his mate were exhausted after the long flight from the Highlands, and they needed to rest. When Marthaen returned to the chamber after seeing the other dragons on their way, he found that his sister had moved close to Thelvyn's side so that she could rub her cheek along the side of his chest and neck.

"Must the two of you be so boundlessly affectionate?" Marthaen asked, sighing loudly.

Thelvyn knew the older dragon was jesting with him. "Do not deprive me of my only comfort. What about the dragons? Are they still willing to follow me?"

"I honestly believe you can trust them to follow you," Marthaen said, sitting back on his haunches and facing the other two. "They have had a little time to consider what they have learned about the Masters, and they have been forced to admit that they must defend their world in order to defend themselves. The knowledge that the gemstone dragons were responsible for the near destruction of their race at the hands of the first Dragonlord has awakened their desire for vengeance. And they fear that the gemstone dragons look upon them as inferior, easy victims for enslavement. Jherdar and the red dragons are ready and eager for war, and the golds will be responsive to your call."

Thelvyn nodded, looking weary. "We have a hard time ahead of us. I wish I could keep my people safe rather than lead them into a possibly hopeless war."

Marthaen lifted his head. "Your people?"

"I find myself becoming quite comfortable with the thought of being a dragon," Thelvyn admitted. "I wish I had more time to enjoy it, but the dwarves are waiting. Korinn Bear Slayer is sure to have told them we will be coming."

"You seem certain that the Masters will push on into Rockhome," Marthaen observed.

"Have you ever wondered why they struck first in the steppes and their next move appears to be to invade Rockhome? Certainly not for the sake of an easy victory; they have to know that they'll have a hard time routing the dwarves from their underground cities. But by taking the steppes and then Rockhome, and possibly pushing on into Alfheim and Tral-adara, they'll break this part of the world into two parts, with them in the middle. Thyatis would be on one side, while Darokin and the Highlands would be on the other. Neither would be able to work together in a common defense."

Marthaen nodded. "What do you think will happen when we attack? Will the Masters retreat, or will they open their worldgates and pour through their reserves until they overwhelm us?"

"I honestly do not know what will happen," Thelvyn had to admit. "That's why we must gather our strength before we attack. We have to hit them so hard from the outset that they have no choice but to flee. I just hope we have no traitors in our midst telling them our every move."

Marthaen looked overwhelmed for a moment with surprise and indignation. "Surely the Masters cannot control dragons," he said finally.

"You forget that they controlled Murodhir," Kharendaen told him. "We must never underestimate them, especially since they seem so willing to underestimate us."

*****

Korinn Bear Slayer left Stahl at dawn in the same manner in which he had arrived the previous day, by the secret underground passages. But this time he went alone, since all the troops that had been sent on to Dengar had left the day before. He wished now that he had left the previous day, slipping out with a pair of courier horses before the invaders besieged the city. Now he would be required to walk, and he couldn't hope to reach Dengar before the end of the next day no matter how hard he forced his pace.

The hidden passage leading east from Stahl toward Dengar was one of the most remarkable tunnels in all of Rockhome, and one of the most difficult feats of engineering the dwarves had ever attempted. The passage ran for nearly eight miles beneath the northern end of Lake Stahl, buried a hundred yards deep in bedrock in a clay-lined tunnel to prevent flooding. Korinn had never taken this tunnel before, and he found the thought of passing beneath the lake itself to be a bit daunting, but in the two hours he spent in that part of the tunnel, he found it the same as the rest of the passage.

He didn't emerge from the tunnel until it ended in the rugged, forested land more than a dozen miles east of the lake, where a small passage brought him up through a hidden door in a rocky outcrop. The secret path led him quickly to the top of a low, moss-covered cliff where he could look back toward the west through an opening in the trees. It was now the middle of the day, and he could see that a brisk batde was being fought over the city of Stahl many miles across the lake. He was too far away to see much detail, and so he could only judge from the dark haze and the trails of smoke that rose from the city.

Looking closer, he saw that an army was moving along the main road, having already passed the bridge over the Styrdal River. Indeed, their vanguard was now hardly more than a couple of miles northwest of where he stood. When the invaders had prepared their siege outside Stahl the evening before, he had assumed that they meant to capture that city before they pressed on into Rockhome. Instead, they had divided their forces, sending perhaps half of their army on toward Dengar. His decision to leave Stahl had been the correct one, since he would now be bringing news of the attack to Dengar only a day or so ahead of the invaders.

With an army following him, Korinn knew that every extra hour he could gain in reaching Dengar ahead of the invaders was important. Dengar was far more defensible than Stahl, and the upper city might hold out for days against a conventional army, but not against an attack of gemstone dragons. Following the trail south through the woods just below the mountains to the east, he marched as rapidly as he could through the rest of that day and well into the night. Reluctantly he gave up the race a couple of hours before midnight, when the night became so dark that he was having trouble finding the trail at times.

Korinn hurried on again early the next morning, just as the sky was beginning to grow light before the rising of the sun beyond the mountains to the east. He walked only another hour before he slowed, looking about when he came into a land he recognized from past visits. After a short time, he found a tumble of gray, mossy stones almost hidden in a steep fold of the wooded hills. He realized he never would have found it in the darkness of the night before. He had to take off his pack before he could push back behind the stones, but he found the hidden door and the dark, narrow tunnel that ran as straight as an arrow beneath the mountains to Dengar. The underground passage cut more than a dozen miles from the overland journey around the southern spur of the mountains at Evemur.

Because the underground passage was so straight and level, he was able to move along at a quick pace. All the same, many long hours passed in the deep darkness of the tunnel, lit only dimly by the pale silver light of his lamp. When at last he came up through a hidden door into the back passage of Lower Dengar, night had long since fallen in the world above. He was careful to secure all the hidden traps as he approached the door and opened it cautiously. A trap or two was always set in the secret ways, even in times of peace, in the unlikely event that an old enemy or a band of thieves found the tunnel. Even then, only commanders of the highest rank knew the secrets

for setting the traps and opening the doors.

The city itself was relatively quiet, with few people about, so that he passed unnoticed as he made his way to the palace. Dengar hadn't been besieged within living memory, but he thought that the city seemed unusually tense, as if no one dared to speak loudly or show themselves. As he passed through the silent streets, he began to see people peering out at him out from windows and from behind narrowly opened doorways.

The palace itself was especially dark and quiet, as if it were the middle of the night. The hour was indeed a bit late, but Korinn thought that someone should be around. He wondered if the siege had already begun. While he was certain the invading army was still behind him, other forces could have approached Dengar from a different direction. He was beginning to wonder if he should make the journey to the upper city when he saw Dorinn emerging from their father's chambers.

"Korinn!" his brother exclaimed, surprised to see him. "Have you just returned?"

"I just arrived through the hidden tunnel," Korinn explained. "Is the city under siege?"

Dorinn nodded grimly. "Three days ago, an army of about fifty thousand came through the pass of the Hrap River. They moved into the valley below the city earlier today, but so far they've been content to remain there. What about Stahl? The troops you sent here finished coming through the tunnel only hours ahead of you, which was why I hadn't expected to see you back so soon."

"I've had to hurry," Korinn said as they walked slowly toward his room to stow away his gear. "The invaders-their western army, I should say-laid siege to Stahl two nights ago. When I left yesterday morning, I fofind half of their forces following me."

Dorinn frowned. "Were they headed here, or to Evemur?"

"I assumed they were coming here," Korinn replied, pausing a moment while his brother held open the door to his room for him. He slipped the straps off his shoulder and set down his pack just inside the door. "Of course, with fifty thousand invaders already here, they might be headed for Evemur instead. The battle has already begun in Stahl. I could see smoke rising from several parts of the upper city. Of course, Stahl isn't very easily defended against a large force, and there isn't much of a lower city. Whether or not the upper city has fallen by now depends largely upon whether or not the gemstone dragons have attacked."

"My greatest concern about our situation here is that the invaders are waiting for the Masters to crack open our defenses," Dorinn said. "That's what I would do in their place. An army of fifty thousand seems large, but they could suffer enormous casualties trying to reach the gate of the upper city."

"If the Masters attack, they attack," Korinn said philosophically. "There's nothing we can do about it. We can't hold the upper city for very long against them in any event. My hope is that the dragons will come before the Masters attack, or soon after. They should be here any time now."

"Yes, the dragons," Dorinn said, staring at the ground uncomfortably. "I should warn you that our people have no faith in receiving help from the dragons. The senate has forced Father to shape our policies on the assumption that the dragons will never come. I've been told that the upper city must not be taken at any cost."

"That's foolish," Korinn declared hotly. "The dwarves have always been ready to close the inner gates and wait out an attack underground, where our greatest safety lies."

"The assumption is that we cannot hope to wait out the Masters," the older dwarf explained. "Most people fear that, given time, the Masters can simply dig us out like a hound after a rabbit. And no one believes that the dragons are going to help us. You'll find yourself very unpopular if you insist that the Dragonking will keep his word. I think that even Father no longer has any hope of that."

Korinn had to retire for the night, in order to be rested enough to face the next day and the coming battle with all his strength. But he was dismayed by what he had learned. When he considered it, however, he had to admit that he wasn't surprised to find that the dwarves had no faith in the word of the dragons. Nothing had ever happened to make them believe the dragons would come to their defense. The one point that disturbed him most was that the dwarves seemed to have lost faith not only in the dragons, but also in their once unshakable belief that they could always hold their own in the underground.

When he thought about it, he had to face the unsettling truth. He knew the enemy as well as anyone. He had seen the burning of the steppes, and he had seen the Masters at Fort Denwarf. And he had to admit that the dwarves could never hope to win this war on their own. The only difference between him and the other dwarves was that Thelvyn Fox-Eyes was his friend, and he trusted the Dragonking.

Korinn donned his armor and gathered his weapons before dawn the next morning. After speaking with his father, he began the long climb to the upper city. His brother Dorinn had gone up before dawn, in order to be on hand if the enemy began to move against Dengar. King Daroban would remain below, trusting the defense of the upper city to his sons, and ready to assume command of the defense of the lower city if they did not return.

Korinn found his brother standing on the wall over the gate. The sun was still behind the mountains to the east, and the valley far below remained in deep shadows, as if night lingered in the woods. He could see thousands of flickering yellow campflres amid the trees, as distant and small as the stars in the predawn sky. He could also see that the invaders were preparing themselves for the steep climb to the gates of Dengar, gathering their companies in a long column along the road below the ramp. He surveyed the sky quickly, but there was no sign yet of the Masters.

"This would seem to be the day," Dorinn commented. "I should pass the command of the upper city to you, considering your experience."

Korinn shook his head firmly. "You've prepared the defenses of this city, and you know best what to do. I don't know what strength of arms or weapons you might have at hand. And you've had your own share of experience."

"I appreciate your confidence," his brother said sincerely. "But to speak candidly, I have other reasons for giving you command. If the Masters come, I see no reason to waste the lives of our soldiers trying to hold the upper city when the passages below are far more defensible. My intention is to defy the senate's orders and abandon the upper city, but my concern is that I will be branded a coward and the defense of the city will be given to someone more willing to make foolish and hopeless gestures. They will be less willing to call you a coward. They would accept your actions as inevitable."

"I appreciate your concern," Korinn said pensively, "but I will not accept your command. I will support your decisions completely. They will not dare to call both of us cowards."

He turned away, but Dorinn stopped him. "We both know which of us is to be the next king. You should have the command of our defenses so that you will have the honor of the victory."

"It remains to be seen which of us will sit on the throne," Korinn told his brother firmly. "I believe that the throne would be well served by your patience and wisdom. But since dwarves often see valor above wisdom, you would do well to earn such an honor for yourself."

The invaders began the slow climb up the steep approach to the gates of Dengar in the middle of the morning, but they seemed to be in no hurry. Perhaps having learned a lesson at Fort Dengar, they placed a heavily armored fighting force in the lead. They pushed before them sturdy barricades to turn aside any boulders and carried large shields over their heads to protect themselves from projectiles hurled from the cliffs above. Korinn watched them from the wall above the gate, trying to guess what they would do when they came within striking distance. He wondered if they would spend their own strength on an assault when the Masters could tear away the city defenses so much more quickly and easily.

He also kept in mind that a second army could arrive as soon as that very evening. That left him with some difficult questions in guessing the intentions of his enemies. The enemy force below Dengar gave every appearance of preparing for an immediate attack, while a second army was only hours away. Either the invaders wanted to initiate a siege of the city by getting a force to the top of the plateau, or they expected the appearance of the Masters to turn this first assault into an inevitable conquest of Upper Dengar. Korinn thought it wise to be prepared for the worst.

He waited a moment while his brother spoke briefly with a messenger, relaying orders to move troops to the front wall. Once the soldier had left with his assignment, Korinn moved closer so that they could speak quietly.

"I may be guessing, but I believe that the Masters will be here soon," he explained. "When their troops got in trouble at Fort Denwarf, they were ready to move in quickly. Of course, when Stahl was besieged, I never saw any of the Masters above the city. Then again, I was miles away by that time."

"I won't argue with you," Dorinn said, glancing briefly over the wall at the approaching invaders. "What do you think?"

"I suspect that these forces are advancing up the ramp to be ready to move in when the Masters drive us from the wall. That places us in a very difficult situation. We can't allow those forces to come up the ramp, but the Masters are going to intervene if things go badly for their boys."

Dorinn nodded. "Then we must do all the damage we can as quickly as we can, but we also must be ready to withdraw to the tunnels. I think we can handle that."

Dorinn left at once to put the new plans into action. With the enemy already on the march, the defenders of Dengar had only a short time to make any changes in tactics. Since his brother was more familiar with the forces at hand, Korinn was satisfied to leave such matters entirely to Dorinn. Instead, he remained at the wall watching the advance of the enemy, trying to anticipate what would happen in the next few hours. He expected the Masters to appear at any time, probably as their army neared the gate. Once the dwarves began their attempt to repel the enemy's advance, he knew that the gemstone dragons were likely to come in a hurry.

When the first of the invaders had come halfway up the long ramp, Korinn began to feel the rising tension not only in himself but in all the grim dwarvish warriors stationed along the wall. The ramp twisted back and forth on itself, with first one side and then the other looking out over the steep slope of the escarpment. The first of the defensive traps was located just beyond the army's present location, at a point where there was no room to turn and no place to run. The invaders came on until their vanguard moved slowly, steadily up the longest straight length of the road in the very center of the climb and was nearing the next sharp turn.

A deep rumble shook the wall where Korinn stood, as if the spine of the mountain itself had suddenly snapped, reverberating for a long moment through even the deepest caverns of the lower city. The invaders on the ramp paused for a moment, waiting in apprehension as the vibration in the stones on which they stood died away. Then, just as they began to feel that the danger had passed and began to resume their climb, the seemingly solid stone of the mountainside crumbled and the entire middle length of the ramp broke free and began to slide away. The long line of soldiers, including their beasts and their armor and their great war machines, fell away in a cascade of broken stone, sweeping down the steep slope in a deadly avalanche, carrying away even more segments of the invading army on the slopes below.

Within moments, the lower half of the escarpment disappeared beneath a great cloud of brown dust, billowing out across the valley below, so that Korinn was unable to see the bottom. Even after the lower half of the ramp disappeared in a spreading cloud of dust, he could hear the cries of the injured and the shouts of terse orders. The dwarves along the wall began to cheer and to call out fierce challenges, greatly heartened by the swift, devastating rout of the first assault.

Korinn knew that any other army would have just been dealt a serious setback. The invaders had lost at least several thousand soldiers, but they had tens of thousands waiting in the valley below. A large portion of the middle of the ramp had been destroyed, creating an obstacle that would bring most armies to a stop for days. But he was certain that the Masters were out there somewhere, watching and waiting.

Indeed, the answer was at hand almost at once. The dwarves fell silent as the dark, menacing forms of dragons passed almost directly overhead, the unearthly forms of gemstone dragons as they moved down from the upper slopes of Point Everast. With all their attention focused on the invaders below, the dwarves hadn't even seen them approaching. They flew swiftly over the city, passing just over the wall in an almost contemptuous gesture, then circled around tightly as they braced their wings to drop toward the forests below.

Following their line of flight, Korinn leaned out over the parapet, but he couldn't see the gemstone dragons once they had dropped down beneath the cloud of dust created by the avalanche. Even after the cloud of dust began to settle, he couldn't tell for certain just what the Masters intended. For the moment, they seemed to be devoting their full attention to restoring order among their troops and preparing for a new assault. Companies of soldiers had been gathered into precise columns and stood ready, although Korinn could not imagine what they proposed to do next. The ramp was closed to them, unless they were reckless enough to swarm over the wreckage of the center loop while the dwarves sent a deadly hail of stones and arrows down upon their heads.

Many long, anxious moments passed while the invaders reorganized. Their new tactics seemed to defy reason: they were not gathered on the road at the base of the ramp but in two large groups well to either side. A pair of alien dragons moved behind each of the two large companies of soldiers. Standing at the parapet of their high walls, the dwarves were utterly silent as they watched and waited in apprehension. Then the Masters stood up on their hind legs, their long, proud necks held high and their wings spread out behind their backs for balance. Facing the wall of the escarpment, they lifted their forelegs in a gesture that was clearly a part of some invocation of magic.

The jewel-like armor of the strange dragons began to glow, two like ruby, one with the clear light of crystal, and the last with the deep green of emerald. Then, with a sudden flash of light, brief but so intense that Korinn had to look away, they disappeared. The light faded away slowly from that first blinding glare, but then the light surrounding each of the gemstone dragons reached upward toward the city in a long, graceful curve like the arc of a rainbow. The companies of soldiers began to hurry forward in orderly columns, forming into long, narrow lines of two abreast as they stepped into the streams of light.

An instant later, they began to stream out of the far ends of the arcs of light before the walls of the city. During the first moments, the invaders spread out across the open fields unopposed, swinging grappling hooks at the ends of looped ropes to the top of the wall. The dwarves began to recover from their surprise, raining down arrows and stones and cutting away the ropes even as the enemy was climbing the walls of Dengar. But the dwarves were in a desperate position from the outset, since they had hardly expected to have the battle at their very walls so soon. Many of the dwarven soldiers were still away from the wall at the hidden defenses designed to keep the invaders off the ramp.

And yet the assault had only just begun. Many of the invaders were not even vaguely like men, but rather strange beings who could leap up the ropes faster than the dwarves could cut them down, or strange, hulking warriors whose natural armor could resist almost any arrow or battle-axe. In addition, there were swift, slender swordsmen who towered over the dwarves, with arms so long that it was difficult to penetrate within their reach to slay them. And then the Masters arrived, sweeping down from the mountains in great waves.

Korinn fought desperately to hold his own on the wall over the gate, standing with a dozen soldiers to drive back the hordes intent upon sweeping over the wall and opening the gate. He could no longer spot his brother, who was off somewhere trying to muster reinforcements to man the walls. For his own part, Korinn thought it was already too late to hold the wall, perhaps even too late for the defenders along die wall to retreat back to the passage to the lower city. Still he fought on with grim fury, sweeping his ax from side to side to snap the ropes of the hooks that were being flung over the parapet, then turning to engage in fierce battle with some alien warrior.

Suddenly the attackers fell back from the gate wall so abruptly that Korinn and his fellow defenders glanced about in surprise, so caught up the fierceness of the battle that for a moment they did not understand what had happened. Korinn turned sharply and saw that one of the largest of the gemstone dragons, a jade, was approaching the gate of the city, snapping its broad wings in quick, powerful strokes as it landed at the top of the ramp. The dragon waited for a long moment, folding away its wings while it was joined by the terrible creatures ihat served as its bodyguards, slender creatures not unlike wyverns. They were quick, darting flyers but could also stalk swiftly on their long hind legs, bearing broad-headed spears in their claws.

Rising to its hind legs, the jade dragon suddenly hurtled itself forward toward the gate. Korinn and his dwarven companions leapt aside. The parapet over the gate had suddenly become a very unsafe place to be, and consequently they failed to see the jade dragon's actually attack. A tremendous blow crashed like thunder against the timbers of the gate. The crossbars snapped, and the portals were nearly broken free from their hinges. The walls of the city shook from the impact, and the parapet above the gate cracked and collapsed in a shower of splintered stone.

Two more gemstone dragons arrived, and they rose to their hind legs to take hold of the shattered portals and force them open, sweeping aside the broken stone of the crumbled parapet. The jade dragon forced its way through into the gate yard, intent upon tearing open the inner gate as well. It had only just stepped through the gate when the floor suddenly broke open, dropping the creature into a deep pit filled with sharp spikes.

The pits had been built with the intention of trapping enemies on the central bridge, but both of the pits were more than large enough to contain a dragon. Dorinn had ordered the supports holding the retractable platforms to be deliberately weakened. The jade dragon disappeared into the darkness of the pits and fell screaming upon the spikes far below.

Some of the dwarves cheered, but the celebration was halfhearted at best. They had managed to slay one of the Masters almost by chance, but the upper dity would fall in a matter of minutes. Korinn did not wait to see how the remaining gemstone dragons would respond, hurrying the remaining defenders off the wall back toward the city. Now that the gate parapet had fallen, they could easily find themselves trapped, with no way to retreat back to the main wall. Glancing briefly over his shoulder, Korinn had the impression that the Masters were everywhere, at least a score of them crawling over the front of the escarpment and physically tearing away the defenses along the wall so that their forces could pour into the city.

Then the sounds of battle died away, and Korinn paused at the doorway of the wall tower to stare. The Masters had stopped short in their destruction, lifting their long necks to stare toward the north. They roared in fury and frustration, a final, futile challenge before they reluctantly drew back from the walls of Dengar to face a new challenge. Moments later the first of wave upon wave of dragons hurtled down from the north and east, red, black, and gold dragons of their own world rushing into battle with swift strokes of their wings.

Holding aloft their shields and weapons, the defenders of Dengar shouted encouragement to their unexpected allies. For the first time in the history of their race, dwarves cheered and laughed to see dragons descending upon their city, and wept with joy to see as if for the first time the grace and beauty of those warriors of the wind.