Legacy of Steel

21

The storm lasted through three long and miserable days. The snow fell heavily, and the wind, which continued to blow with a ferocity that cut through the warmest clothes, built the snow up into towering drifts. Powerful gusts shook the tents, sent snow swirling in blinding ground blizzards among the camps, and made cooking outdoors impossible.

During that time, the new knights stayed together in their tents or fought their way to the nearest inn for a hot meal and a bit of warmth. There was no practice, no training, and very little work beyond the effort of survival. They still had to haul coal, check their tents for wind damage, cook their meals, and shovel through deep snow that clogged the paths.

Cobalt brought the other dragons to help the knights build windbreaks around their tents, and they plowed through several drifts that piled up in inconvenient places.

Sara helped them as well, but she kept a distance between herself and the others and spent most of her time in her tent. She congratulated them all with an obvious lack of enthusiasm, then refused to speak any more about the knighting. She also told them she would be going to Solace on the general's business.

The young men and women wondered at her behavior and worried.

The snow stopped on the third day, but it was two days later before the sky cleared and the wind died to a breeze. In the crystal light of morning, the general's goblin brought the order for Sara to go.

"Governor-general sends you map. She say you have a fortnight. Return to her by time moon is full to report."

Sara snatched the map out of his clawed hands. "Thank you," she said, shooing him out.

The young knights, attracted by the goblin's arrival, crowded inside the tent's entrance.

Sara shoved the map in her belt. The map wasn't really necessary. She had a complete knowledge of Ansalon's continent from her time at Storm's Keep. What she needed now was a spiritual guide to help her get through the next few hours. She looked at the expectant faces around her and managed a smile.

"I have permission from the general to take one of you with me on this quest." She had spent hours debating this question, but in the end, the choice was inevitable. She chose Derrick for his grin like Steel's, his youthful courage, and for the mantle of loyalty and honor he wore that, to Sara, did not seem to have a place among the Dark Knights. She had tried once to sway a young man away from the darkness by taking him to a tomb and had failed. Perhaps this time she would be more successful.

A puzzled look flashed over Derrick's face so quickly Sara thought she had mistaken it. Then it was gone, and he grinned, pleased by her decision.

"All right. It's time to go, Derrick. Pack your gear. We'll take just Cobalt-one dragon to sneak into Abanasinia. Weil need several days of food, two waterskins, and a camp tent. Bring something to wear besides you armor. You can't get into Solace sporting that death lily." Sara knew she was talking too fast and too much to hide the unexpected surge of emotions that made her fingers tremble and her voice shake. She was leaving this hateful place at last, leaving the foul city, the dangerous citizens, and the bloodthirsty knights. Yet she studied the faces peering in at her and knew she would miss them horribly.

"Knight Officer, now that you're leaving and we're getting a new talon leader, I want to request the position of junior officer," Treb said loudly.

Well, Sara thought, all but that one. "Take it up with your new leader, Treb. If you want it, you will have to earn it."

"Over my dead body," Kelena muttered darkly.

With the help of the talon, Sara and Derrick gathered their gear. Sara had brought little with her, so the knights did not think it odd when she left her tent, that there was nothing remaining inside but the original contents. They loaded the bundles behind Cobalt's two-seat saddle and stood in a row to see the travelers off on their quest.

Only Sara knew this good-bye was permanent. She held on to her tears with an iron grip. This wasn't the time to weep. Yet the leave-taking was harder than she imagined. I should never have allowed myself to become so close to these young people, she thought wearily.

Forcing a smile to her face, she gave the talon the knight's salute and scurried up Cobalt's leg into the saddle. Derrick climbed up behind her, his expression blank. He saluted his talon mates and held on as Cobalt spread his wings.

The dragon was eager to be off. At Sara's word, he sprang into the air, his powerful wings lifting them swiftly into the morning sky.

The dragon patrols circling the city curved by them and waved them on.

Cobalt climbed rapidly into the frozen air and angled his flight to the southwest, across the Khalkist Mounttains.

Sara planned to avoid as many populated areas as possible by flying north of Sanction and across the New Sea to Abanasinia. It was the route she had flown before, many years ago, on a different dragon, but with a similar purpose. With luck, they would make the flight without a stop. She did not want trouble in any form from sharp-eyed townsfolk still irate at the Knights of Takhisis, or hill dwarves, or even other dragons looking for a fight.

Nor did she want to announce her arrival in Solace. She decided to leave Cobalt hidden somewhere, and she and Derrick would slip in like any other pilgrims to the tomb, pay their respects to the dead they revered, and slip out. After that, she did not know what would happen.

Sara huddled deeper into her cloak and tightened the muffler wrapped around her lower face. She was glad she had dressed warmly for this part of the flight. The westerly winds swept over an endless range of snow and ice below and lost any hint of warmth they might have brought from the wastelands. The wind stung her flesh and cut deep into her bones. Breathing was difficult and talking was almost impossible while the dragon flew above the frozen mountains.

Eventually the mountains fell away to a valley that rolled placidly to the sea. Only a light coating of snow lay on the ground, and the air lost much of its bitter cold. To the south lapped the blue waters of the New Sea. In a matter of moments, Cobalt left the land behind and soared out over the waters of the inland sea.

Clear weather followed them southward. Sunlight sparkled on the water and warmed the air currents that flowed like water around them. Far to the south, Sara could see the peaks of the southernmost Khalkist ranges and the verdant grasslands of Blodehelm.

This portion of the New Sea they flew over narrowed to a strait before widening into the main body of the sea. Due southwest, perhaps an hour's flight, lay the isle of Schallsea, and just beyond it was Abanasinia.

Warm at last, Sara and Derrick came gradually out of their cocoons. They unwrapped mufflers, removed their fur-lined cloaks, and took off their gloves. Without the cold to shrivel their noses and freeze the air they breathed, they could talk over the rush of the wind and the rustle of Cobalt's wings. For a while they talked of simple things, of the snowstorm in Neraka and the fun the talon had sledding down a hillside on their shields, of Derrick's home in the mountains near Jelek, and of their memories of Jacson.

But there were too many unsaid things between them that neither were ready to broach, and so eventually they retreated into a long, unbroken silence.

Cobalt kept one ear cocked back to listen and made no attempt to interrupt their stillness. Dipping south to bypass Schallsea, he winged over the northernmost tip of New Coast, an area of flat grasslands and rich pastures.

At Sara's signal, Cobalt found a place to land on a broad strip of beach along the coast just to the north of the ruins of Sithelbec. A small creek provided fresh water, and a clump of trees offered cover and some shade for a quick meal. The dragon touched down heavily on the sand.

Sara slid down, glad to stretch her legs. Derrick unpacked the food, and together they sat under the trees to eat their lunch. Cobalt had eaten a fat cow before they left, so he entertained himself digging in the sand like a huge overgrown reptilian puppy.

Sara and Derrick watched him and ate their meal in the same contemplative silence.

A stiff wind picked up by the time they were ready to leave again, and clouds had begun to gather in the northwest off the Straits of Schallsea.

Cobalt snuffed the wind and tasted its moisture on his tongue… "There's a storm building," he warned Sara.

She nodded. "Do you want to risk the last leg across the open water?" she asked him.

The dragon appreciated her question. Her respect for his abilities was one of the things he loved about her. "It is near, but we shouldn't have any problem reaching the coast."

Without further delay the two humans climbed atop the dragon and took their seats in the saddle. The big blue pushed off immediately and pumped his wings to gain altitude. As soon as he reached his preferred cruising height, where he could catch the best drafts, he leveled out and pushed hard to race the storm across the wide stretch of water.

Sara and Derrick kept a watch to the northwest and said little.

Derrick was the first one to scale the wall of silence. "Knight Officer Conby-"

She interrupted him. "Please call me Sara on this trip. A title like that might be a giveaway to the wrong people."

He chuckled. "I'll try to remember that." Then his tone turned serious again. "I… I mean we… were wondering if something was bothering you? Were you not pleased that we became knights?"

Sara stiffened in a sudden chill that had nothing to do with the wind. She clasped her hands together to hide their sudden trembling. "I'll match you your question and raise one. Are you happy to be a Knight of Takhisis?"

He looked at her keenly, considering how he should answer this. "I thought I would be."

She heard the unspoken hesitation and swiveled around to look at him. "But?" she prompted.

His eyes were shadowed, like the dark depths of a grotto, "But… now the truth eludes me. I don't know."

"Why did you take your vow?"

He snorted. "What choice did I have? Besides, I thought it was what I wanted. I thought it was what you wanted."

"Me" Sara cried, more astonished than she had ever been. "By my sweet grandmother's knucklebones, whatever gave you that idea?" She was appalled to think the squires had even considered taking their vows to please her.

He stared at her as the blood drained from her face. "You did! By your training and your duel with Massard and the way you helped us. Isn't that why you were there? To make us into knights?"

Something shattered in Sara. Of all the things she had worried about and imagined, this possibility never occurred to her. She leaned over, wrenched her skull helm loose from its bindings, and, giving an anguished cry, threw it into the sea.

The young knight behind her stared, stupefied, at the helm as it fell and splashed far below.

"I didn't want to train anyone!" Sara said miserably. Her gray eyes glistened with unshed tears. "I came only to see what was happening in Neraka. But we were found and brought to the general, and all I could do was go along with the masquerade. She put me in charge of a training talon, thinking my experience would benefit you all," she ended bitterly, spitting out the word "experience" like a foul taste.

Overhead, the clouds drew together in a thick canopy and brought a chilly, wet wind whistling by them. Cobalt pushed harder for the coast. With his keen dragon eyes, he could just make out the distant line of land in the thickening mist. His riders paid little heed to the worsening weather. They concentrated on each other and the truth that finally gnawed its way out.

"I don't understand," said Derrick. "Are you not a Knight of Takhisis?"

Sara turned again to face him, and her heart jumped painfully to see him. His shoulders were slumped and his proud face looked bewildered. "No, I am Sara Dunstan. Steel Brightblade was my adopted son, and I spent ten years with the dark order trying to convince him to leave it."

Derrick jerked upright. A cloud of anger scudded across his features. Words and phrases she said became clear and stabbed like knives into his pride. He had respected her, admired her! For nothing but a sham. Without probing deeper into her motives or her feelings, he lashed out with his own bitter hurt.

"You lied to us!" he said savagely. "You spoke of honor and courage, all the while hiding behind a mask of deceit! You're just a filthy spy. All you wanted was information. You probably laughed at us while we worked so hard to earn your approval. We thought you were one of the most honorable knights in Neraka. We wanted to be like you. Like you!" he shouted furiously.

Sara stretched out her hand to him. "No. No, Derrick, it wasn't like that at all."

But he would not listen. His lean face turned cold and hard. His green eyes glittered like brittle ice. "Worst of all, you're a traitor. You betrayed the order and betrayed us. Why are you going to the tomb at all? Or are we? Cobalt" he yelled at the dragon. "Where are we?"

"Just off the coast of Abanasinia," came the reply.

"Good! Put me down at the first land you come to."

Sara started. "No, Derrick. Please listen to me!"

"I've listened to you enough," he said, his tone implacable. "I want off. I'll go my own way."

Sara whipped around to shout at the blue. "Don't land, Cobalt. Keep flying to Solace. Maybe the Majeres will talk to him."

"Sara, I am going to have to land. I can't see where I'm going"

At once Sara saw what he meant. While she and Derrick were talking, the storm had moved in with winter rapidity. Already the dragon was being buffeted by strong winds, and the visibility dwindled rapidly in an approaching squall of flying rain.

Sara bit her lip to keep from crying. There was no choice. Unless the squall blew over, Cobalt would have to land soon. She turned to reason with Derrick one more time and saw him untying his gear and yanking it loose.

"Derrick, I never laughed-"

He cut her off with a vicious gesture. "I don't want to hear it. You'll only lie to me again."

Sara tried desperately to regain some composure, to talk reasonably to him. "The only lie I ever implied was that I was a knight. Everything else was from my heart. I care about all of you. Especially you. You remind me of Steel in so many ways, except I do not see the darkness in you that shadowed his life."

If he heard anything she said, he gave no sign. He continued to collect his things, his bow, his pack, the sword strapped to the saddle. "Do you know what really burns me up?" he said, without looking at her. "It's that Jacson died to save you and your treachery. I hope you're satisfied."

The verbal blow struck Sara brutally hard. She gasped, and her thoughts went cold. Before she could think of something to say, Cobalt informed her, "I see the shore just ahead. Hold on."

Just as he said that, the rain caught up with them and lashed down in a dense downpour.

"Don't go," Sara pleaded to Derrick. "Please talk to me. This is all wrong. You have to understand."

The young knight ignored her. He gripped his belongings in a fierce embrace and braced himself for the landing.

Cobalt came down so fast that the jolt of his landing threw Sara into the high back of the saddle. Twisted as she was, the impetus strained her back muscles and slammed the side of her face into the wooden frame. Blood poured out of her nose. Half-stunned, she tried to right herself to stop Derrick, but he moved too fast. Slick as a weasel, he slid out of his seat, dropped to the ground, and took off at a run.

"Cobalt, stop him!" she cried. Her tears slipped loose and mingled with the blood and rain on her face.

"I didn't see where he went," Cobalt replied. He searched through the pouring cascades of rain and saw nothing but a flat area of fetid bog. "Sara, I think we're on the fringes of the swamp around Xak Tsaroth. We need to move farther inland."

"Not without Derrick," she cried frantically. "We can't just leave him. Xak Tsaroth may be a ruin, but it's full of goblins and other things." Wiping her face on her tunic, she slid down the wet dragon and landed in soft, shallow mire up to her ankles. Cobalt's weight had sunk him to his knees. He was right. If they didn't get out of that spot soon, the dragon could be mired.

She ran forward into the rain, looking desperately for some sign of the knight. There was nothing. All she could see through the driving rain were tall clumps of reeds and copses of twisted black trees intertwined with sprawling vines and underbrush.

"Derrick!" she tried, but her cry was swept away by the wind and lost in the rush of the rain.

"Sara, can we go?" Cobalt trumpeted. "I'd rather fly in the rain than sink in the mud!"

The woman stopped, blinded by tears and the driving rain. "I've got to find him!" she begged.

"Not now. He's gone. I will take you to Solace. You go to the tomb, and I will come back and see if I can find him."

Sara came slowly back, her expression devastated. "I lost him. I lost him just like Steel," she mourned.

"I'll do my best to find him. Maybe he'll listen to me," Cobalt suggested gently. He curled his neck around her back and guided her gently to his side.

It wasn't what she wanted. She wanted to search for Derrick, but she could not selfishly put Cobalt in jeopardy. She took one last look around, checking to see if the rain would ease soon. There was little hope. The storm showed no sign of letting up. In fact, it was getting colder and night would soon be at hand. Sick at heart, she climbed up to the saddle.

As soon as she was seated, Cobalt pulled his from legs free of the mire and spread his wings. He jerked his back legs free at the same time he pumped with his wings and lumbered into the air. Flying low, he skimmed westward toward the Sentinel Peaks.

He did not like flying in this murky weather so close to mountains he could not see. He had to strain all his senses to seek out the terrain below and read its rising and falling. Unfortunately the closer he drew to the mountains, the colder the temperature dropped. Soon the rain turned to sleet, and the sleet gradually soaked through Sara's already wet clothes. She put on her cloak, which helped for a while, but she was badly chilled and shivering uncontrollably. Cobalt knew he had to get her to shelter soon.

Like a great eagle, he warily picked his way between the peaks of the eastern side of the Sentinels. The light grew dim under the lowering clouds, and dusk loomed on the horizon. The sleet turned to snow that whirled around the flying dragon in white streams.

After a short while, he passed over the mountains and flew above a broad strip of flat grasslands. The snow slowed a little, granting him better visibility, and he was able to fly faster. Then he entered the second range of mountains and was forced to slow down to navigate between the towering ramparts.

The way to Solace from the coast was not long by dragon wing, and yet it seemed to take forever to Sara. The cold wind only added to the misery begun by Derrick's anger. She had to find him again, to make him understand. Surely when he calmed down, he would be willing to listen. Cobalt could locate him better than she, and he would bring the knight to the tomb where, in that revered place, she could explain about honor and pride and sacrifice.

She held on to that thought like a lifeline, unaware that her hands held on to her saddle with a bloodless grip.

Blessed lights suddenly twinkled through the murk ahead, and Sara realized they were nearing Solace. The mountains below them fell away into a magnificent valley, where Crystalmir Lake lay like a deep blue jewel in the snowy breast of the mountains and the town of Solace perched in its rare and beloved vallenwood trees.

Cobalt found an open hillside where he could land out of sight of the town. Gently he touched down and waited for Sara to slide off. "Do you want me to come back at sunrise or wait for your summons?"

Sara forced her hands to let go of the saddle. Her fingers were swollen and cold and gave her no support as she dismounted. She fell heavily onto her feet and barely stifled a cry of pain. Her feet, too, were aching with cold and she could barely feel her legs.

She limped around the big dragon to his head. "Keep looking for him. If you find him, bring him here. Other-wise I will summon you when I am finished." She tugged his head down to her level and gently scratched his eye ridges. "Be careful. It's almost dark."

"Yes," he rumbled. "And you're nearly frozen. There is an inn here I've heard about. Go there and get warm."

She smiled a sad, bitter grimace and watched as he flew out of sight. She knew he did not like to fly in this miserable weather, and she appreciated his willingness to go more than she could say. Fortunately the wind had slowed and the snow had dwindled to a light fall, which would make flying easier for him, and without a rider, he could fly higher above the mountain slopes.

She found a path that led down the hillside toward Solace and carefully made her way to the valley. Not far away, the vallenwoods, splendid in their winter browns and grays, reared their tall crowns through the dusk. Lamplight gleamed through the silent snowfall from the houses high in the trees, and from the largest building in Solace, the Inn of the Last Home, owned by Caramon and Tika Majere.

Sara stumbled to a stop. Memories bitter and sweet flooded into her mind of the time so many years ago when she fled to that inn late in the night and begged for help from a man she knew only by reputation. She had stunned Caramon Majere with her news of a nephew young Steel, yet despite his reluctance and his shock, he had come with her and given his best to help a total stranger. For that and for the days after Steel's departure, when Caramon and Tika took care of her, she was deeply grateful.

But some strange reluctance held her back from the inn. She didn't want to go there just yet. As cold and wet and shivery as she was, she wanted to go first to the tomb to spend a few minutes alone with her son.

Sometimes she wondered if he had ever forgiven her for kidnapping him that night. Sara knew she could not bear it if he had hated her all those years before his death. Although it was too late to ask for his forgiveness, she could offer her own love at his tomb and perhaps let him know that nothing had ever changed her devotion.

She looked around to get her bearings and spotted a wide field close to the vallenwoods. Through the glimmering snow, her eyes were drawn to the pale shape of a building unlike any other in Solace. It had not been there nine years ago.

Automatically her legs moved forward off the path and toward the field. The snow wasn't deep enough to make the going difficult, and she soon came to another path leading directly to the building. Pale and numb, she came at last to the Tomb of the Last Heroes.