The Siege

CHAPTER EIGHT

16 Mirtul, the Year of Wild Magic

Escanor's army cascaded from the Cave Gate in a long river of flapping wings and shadowy pennants that curved down toward the east and vanished into the umbral mists beneath the city. Galaeron waited until the last rank of riders was well past the Livery Most High, then walked his veserab out to join the rear of the great formation. When no one objected-or even seemed to notice-he waved to Aris, who drifted into the Marshaling Court kneeling on a flying disk so overloaded with waterskins that it wobbled under the giant's slightest gesture.

Aris leaned down toward Galaeron, tilting the dish so precariously that it would have spilled its cargo had he not lowered a massive arm to hold the waterskins in place.

"You're sure the guards won't notice?" asked the giant.

"They'll notice," Galaeron replied, wincing at the gusty volume of the giant's whisper, "but we've traveled with Escanor before. A pair of gate guards isn't going to question our presence now."

"That I know, but this they would question," Aris said. He pointed at his knees, which were resting on a section of shadow blanket Galaeron had stolen as he left the looms. "You are certain we must take it?"

"I'm certain-very certain," Galaeron said. "That's how I repay them." "Repay who?" Aris asked.

"All of them," Galaeron hissed. "Telamont, Escanor, Vala… everyone who's betrayed me."

"This is your shadow speaking, Galaeron," Aris said. "No one has betrayed you-especially Vala."

"Then where is she?" Galaeron hissed. "Why is she not here to keep her promise?"

"Because not being here is the only hope she sees of not having to keep it," Aris answered calmly. "You must leave this place before you are lost, and that would be impossible if she deserted Escanor to come with us. I am sure she will track us down later-especially if it proves necessary for her to keep her promise."

Galaeron shook his head. "You are too trusting, my large friend. Once we're gone, she will have no way of knowing when it becomes necessary." "But she will," Aris said. "I will tell her."

They came to the watch balconies, and Aris clamped his mouth shut and stared ahead so rigidly that he looked suspicious even to Galaeron. The guards' gem-colored eyes fixed on the giant and followed his advance until they had passed under the great portcullis and launched themselves out into the sky, then they were curving down under the enclave with the rest of Escanor's army. Once they had passed out of view of the Cave Gate, they began to lag behind the others, and Galaeron used his shadow magic to make them both invisible. He was not really surprised to find the familiar chill of the Shadow Weave quenching a thirst that had lain buried just beneath the surface of his subconscious.

They dropped out of the shadow haze to find themselves over a mazelike warren of deep ravines and sheer pinnacles that marked the transition between the rolling sea of sand dunes over which the city had been drifting for most of the past tenday and the jagged spine of desert mountains toward which it was floating. Escanor's army was flying more or less in the same direction as the enclave but angling just a little bit south straight into the rising sun. Whistling an elven tune to help Aris keep track of him, Galaeron turned in the opposite direction- west toward Evereska. "Galaeron?" Aris called. "Here. Can't you hear my song?"

"If one can call that lip-trilling music, yes," Aris replied, "but shouldn't we have a look down there? It looks like someone might be in trouble."

Galaeron searched the sands ahead and saw nothing. "Where?"

"South of our bearing," Aris said. "Lying in the hollow on the crest of that dune, perhaps a mile back."

Galaeron looked and saw nothing but golden sunlight shining on the eastern faces of an endless chain of sand walls. "Where?" "Follow me," Aris said.

The sonorous purr of stone giant humming arose beside Galaeron. He reined his veserab back and fell in behind his invisible companion, then followed the sound down toward the desert at a gentle angle. After a few moments, he saw the tiny dimple toward which they were descending, a circle the size of his fingertip with a minuscule fleck of darkness in the center. The fleck gradually grew large enough so that Galaeron could see it was indeed wriggling about like a chrysalis struggling to escape its cocoon. "He lied!" Aris boomed. "Who lied?" Galaeron called.

"Malik!" the giant exclaimed. "He told me Ruha would come to no harm."

Galaeron eyed the dark cocoon. It was about as long as his hand, and he could see that it had a vaguely human shape, with a head-shaped lump on one end and a feet-shaped tail at the other. "How do you know that's Ruha?" asked the elf.

"How could it not be?" Aris demanded. "How many dark-haired women in veils do you expect to find lying about in this desert?"

"More than you might think," Galaeron replied. The giant's description could fit any Bedine woman Galaeron had ever seen, though it would have been an unthinkable coincidence to find one lying about trussed up beneath Shade Enclave's path. "But if you say it is Ruha, I will trust to your eyesight. It is obviously better than an elf’s."

"Oh yes, it is definitely the witch," Aris said. "I recognize her now."

To Galaeron, she was still an indistinguishable lump of darkness. They descended to the crater in silence, and a minute later, Galaeron recognized Ruha's dark eyes peering out above her customary purple veil. Judging by the size of the crater in which she lay, she had hit the dune with a fair amount of speed, but she either had magical protections or was exceptionally resilient even for a Bedine. Swaddled in a cocoon of shadow web that would have dissolved in another hour anyway, she was writhing about, rolling back and forth in an effort to work her hands free so she could dispel the magic that held her bound. "Don't hurt yourself," Galaeron called. "We're here."

"It is about time!" Ruha rolled onto her back and looked more or less toward Galaeron's voice. "I was beginning to think you meant to leave me out here to die."

"Meant to?" Aris said, speaking from the side opposite Galaeron. "We did not mean to do anything. It is a lucky thing we saw you at all. How did you end up here?"

"Do not feign innocence with me, Gray Face. You are not much better at lying than Malik."

"Lying?" Aris gasped. "He said that you would not be harmed."

"And so I am not," Ruha said, "but your plan has miscarried."

"What plan would that be?" Galaeron dismounted and tried to dispel the shadow web. To his astonishment, the spell failed-and even that felt good. "Who cast this on you? One of the princes?" "As if you didn't know!" Ruha scoffed.

Galaeron had a sinking feeling. "I don't know," he said. "What do you think our plan was?"

"To make it look like I had violated the Shadovar's guest guard, of course," Ruha said. "Why would we do that?" Galaeron asked.

"To have me exiled, so I would have to serve as your guide." Ruha was beginning to look less angry and more perplexed. "But Malik could no more keep your secret than he could neglect an untended purse."

Galaeron glanced eastward and finding Shade Enclave little more than a dark diamond barely visible against the shadowed slopes of the distant mountains, dispelled his invisibility spells. He found Aris looking more than a little chagrined.

"Aris, what happened?" Galaeron asked. "You were only to create a distraction."

"We did create a distraction," the giant said. "We made it look like Ruha had attacked Malik and knocked me out of the enclave."

"That much worked," Ruha said, "but Hadrhune isn't naive. He knew Malik was hiding something, and eventually Malik had to admit that you and Aris had left the city." Galaeron and Aris immediately looked toward the city.

"You have a little time," Ruha said. "Hadrhune didn't believe him. But sooner or later, they're going to discover that you're gone-and when that happens, Malik will be in trouble."

"As will Vala," Aris said. "It won't take them long to realize we were all part of the plan."

"Unless we return to the city at once," Ruha said. "Hadrhune still believes that I killed Aris while trying to capture Malik. If we return to the enclave with Aris alive, matters will be confused, but there will be no crime. Things will be as before. You will be able to bide your time and escape when it is safe for Vala."

Galaeron shook his head. "Except for the shadow blanket." He pointed at Aris's bronze flying disk. "Once they realize that is gone, they're not going to believe anything we say." "Shadow blanket?" Ruha asked.

Aris pulled a corner up from behind his waterskins. "Galaeron's vengeance," he said. "It will be the undoing of us all." Ruha frowned. "What is that?" Galaeron explained about how the Shadovar were using the blankets to melt the High Ice and upset the weather all along the Savage Frontier and Sword Coast.

"Once they realize I've taken this, I doubt they're going to trust us much further."

"I believe that time has come," Aris said. He pointed toward the floating city, where a single dark line could be seen descending beneath the enclave. "They seem to be turning in our direction."

"In the name of Kozah!" Ruha cursed. Still encased in her shadow web, she began to roll toward the shadowy side of the dune. "Quick, send your veserab and flying disk into the west. We will hide beneath the sands, then sneak away after they pass by."

Galaeron nodded and sent his veserab into the sky, then turned and rushed across the crater to where Aris was unloading his waterskins.

"Leave the water. There is no time!" he said, jumping onto the disk. "Get the blanket!" "The blanket?" Aris gasped.

"The blanket!" Galaeron said, hurling the heavy shroud into the crater. "Water, we can find later." ©• ‹§› •©• •Ђ›• •©•

To the eye of Keya Nihmedu, the silver magicstar drifting past the window of the Livery Gate watchtower looked even brighter than the sun that once blazed down on Evereska from high above the craggy peaks of the Sharaedim. It hurt her eyes even to look under it to the yellowing meadow that surrounded the city cliffs, and its light flooded the cramped chamber with a white brilliance that brooked no shadows.

The magicstar was no sun. It hissed and sputtered like a guttering torch and drizzled a constant trail of cinders in its wake, filling the air with the acrid stench of brimstone and lamp oil. When Keya closed her eyes, she could not sense it at all, could not see its glow shining through her eyelids or feel its heat sinking into her skin. It was as though the magicstar cast only the illusion of light or that its radiance simply lacked the true substance of sunlight.

It lacked something. Though there were more than a hundred of the spheres floating in and around Evereska, the grass continued to yellow, the great bluetops and sycamores still dropped their leaves, and the liliap blossoms withered and grayed. Even Zharilee and the other sun elves were beginning to lose their color and turn sickly shades of saffron and ocher.

Something would have to be done to bring real sun to the Vale, and Keya was not the only one who thought so. Khelben Arunsun was standing at the next window with Kiinyon Colbathin and Lord Duirsar, staring out at dying lands within the mythal and quietly arguing for an assault on the enemy shadow mantle.

"We need only a company of spellblades, a dozen Long Watch sentries, and the Cloudtop Magi Circle," Khelben was saying behind her. He motioned at Dexon and the other Vaasans, who had become a more or less permanent escort-when they were not at Treetop, eating and drinking the Nihmedu larder into nothingness. "We just need to hold our position long enough to attach a magicstar-"

Lord Duirsar raised a finger to interrupt. "Did you not say the shadow mantle was outside the deadwall, my friend?" "I did."

Keya turned just enough to see Khelben nodding as he spoke. While she was honored that Lord Duirsar and the others felt comfortable speaking of such matters in her presence, she was acutely conscious of the disparity in their ranks and tried to be as inconspicuous as possible in her eavesdropping.

"The shadow mantle's appearance suggested an interesting possibility," Khelben continued. "I'm beginning to think that the deadwall is actually three walls, a sphere of imprisoning magic sandwiched between two layers of dead magic."

Duirsar nodded eagerly. "That would explain why no spells can pass through it."

"Exactly," Khelben said. "So I may be able to burn through with my silver fire."

"Surely you've tried that before," Kiinyon Colbathin said, his too-gaunt face sneering in disapproval.

"I have," Khelben confirmed. "I've noticed a disturbance, but the imprisoning layer has always remained intact-the silver fire has no effect on normal magic- and the phaerimm have always come to chase me off before I had a chance to dispel it."

"Which is why you need assistance," Lord Duirsar surmised, "to hold the enemy at bay long enough for you to cast a second spell."

"A little longer than that," Khelben admitted. "The Cloudtop Circle would need enough time to cast a magic-star and attach it to the shadow mantle."

"I don't like it," Kiinyon said, shaking his sharp-featured head. "That will take easily a quarter hour. By then, my spellblades will be trying to hold off a hundred phaerimm. The circle would be doing good to finish its spell before they were all dead."

"The Vale is dying, Kiinyon," Lord Duirsar said. "We must do something, or the mythal will die with it. Keya, what do you think?"

Keya felt like her heart had leaped into her throat. "Milord?"

"About Khelben's mission!" Kiinyon snapped. "This is no time to play coy, Watcher. If we didn't want you to hear, we would have sent you to the rooftop."

Keya felt the heat rise to her cheeks. "Of course, Swordlord." She turned to address Khelben and found him looking at the ceiling with his head cocked and a vacant expression in his eyes. Eager to avoid another rebuke, she spoke anyway. "If Lord Blackstaff feels that our lives would be well-spent, I am sure I speak for Zharilee and the others in the Long Watch-"

Khelben raised a silencing palm, then spoke to the ceiling. "Laeral? Was that you?"

Lord Duirsar and Kiinyon exchanged astonished glances. They knew as well as Keya that while all Chosen heard the next few words when their name was spoken anywhere on Faerыn, the deadwall had limited the range of Khelben's ability to the Sharaedim. If he was in contact with Laeral, either she had entered the Sharaedim or something had weakened the phaerimm's barrier.

"Laeral, of course I'm alive," Khelben said. "I'm in Evereska."

The excitement was too much for the others in the room. Lord Duirsar and Kiinyon began to call Laeral's name and bark requests for weapons and magic, while the Vaasans inquired about Vala and whether the phaerimm had attacked their homes. Even Keya could not restrain herself from asking for news of her brother.

Khelben turned a dark eye on them all. "Do you mind?"

The room fell as silent as a tomb, then Keya and the others spent the next few minutes listening to a strange, one-sided conversation punctuated by the use of Laeral's name every few words.

After establishing that she was still well outside of the Sharaedim, struggling through the Forest of Wyrms, the two Chosen spent a few minutes filling each other in on events inside and outside of the Sharaedim. Once they each had a basic idea of what the other had been doing for the four months or so, they began to test the extent to which the deadwall had been weakened, trying various forms of communication magic. When all of their spells proved unable to penetrate the barrier, Khelben decided to try another tack and used a spell to send his dagger to Laeral's hand. The weapon vanished when he uttered the incantation.

"Laeral, it's on its way." Khelben was silent for a moment, then frowned. "It didn't-er, Laeral, it didn't?"

A loud thunk reverberated through the ceiling, then an astonished Watcher cried out, "Hey, who's dropping daggers?"

Khelben closed his eyes for a moment, then said, "Laeral, no good. We'll talk later."

Khelben continued to stare at the ceiling, then turned to Lord Duirsar. "How much were you able to glean from my end of the conversation?"

"It would be better for you to retell all," Lord Duirsar said. "I take it Lady Laeral has found a way to weaken the deadwall?" "Not Laeral," Khelben said. "The Netherese." "The Netherese?" Lord Duirsar gasped.

"Shade Enclave, to be more precise," Khelben said. "They are the ones who created the shadow mantle-to cut the phaerimm off from the Weave and weaken them for a final assault."

"Then there is no need to sacrifice a company of spell-blades to affix a magicstar to it," Kiinyon said. "If Shade Enclave is on our side, we need only ask them to lower it before the mythal is weakened."

Khelben's expression grew darker. "Matters are not so clear, I'm afraid." He glanced at Keya and the Vaasans, then took Lord Duirsar's arm and started for the stairs. "Perhaps we should discuss this in Cloudtop. There are difficult decisions to make, and you may have need of the Hill Elders' advice."

Keya bit her lip and managed to remain silent, even when Khelben started down the stairs with Kiinyon and Lord Duirsar.

Once they were out of sight, Dexon came to her side and wrapped a burly arm around her shoulders. "I'm sure Galaeron's all right," he said. "We'll ask later, after they've sorted out their strategy."

Keya nodded and squeezed Dexon's hand. "Thank you." She closed her eyes and raised her face toward the heavens. "I pray to Hanali that just this once, the Hill Elders will move with a speed more human than elf."

After just three days beneath the blazing Anauroch sun, Galaeron's tongue was swollen to the size of a rothй's. His head throbbed and his vision blurred unpredictably. His heart beat in slow, listless thumps that barely seemed to pump the viscous blood through his veins, and he was close enough to water to smell damp sandstone. Sometimes, through the screen of emerald foliage growing along the base of the cliff ahead, he even glimpsed a flash of rippling silver. Had Ruha not insisted that they pause to study the oasis before entering, he and Aris would have been at the pool already, doing their best to drink it dry.

Two minutes later, though, Aris and Ruha would have been dead and Galaeron on his way back to Shade Enclave in a pair of scaly claws.

It had taken Ruha only a few minutes of watching to realize the oasis was too quiet, there were no birds flitting through the treetops or hares scurrying through the underbrush. A few minutes later, Aris had spotted the dragon, a young blue tucked onto a hidden ledge just above the treetops, little more than its eyes and horns visible at one end and a tip of dangling tail at the other.

Galaeron motioned to his companions, and they slipped down behind the crest of the dune and retreated into the trough nearly four hundred feet below. There was no shade, so Aris dropped to his seat on the stolen shadow blanket, which lay folded on the face of the opposite dune. His eyes were glassy and sunken with dehydration, his lips cracking and his nostrils inflamed.

The giant glanced up at the midday sun, then said, "I need that water." His voice was a raw croak. "Even if I have to fight a dragon for it."

"The dragon will only be the beginning," Galaeron said. "It looks too small to have many spells, but 111 wager the Shadovar have arranged a way for it to communicate with Malygris."

"Maybe it has nothing to do with them," Aris said. "It seems like oases would be good places for young dragons to hunt."

"But not to guard," Ruha said. Though she had drank no more than a few swallows since their departure from Shade, her voice betrayed no sign of thirst. "Nothing will come while a dragon is here. When they are hunting, they must swoop in and take what they can. Otherwise, the silence of the birds betrays them."

Aris let his head drop. "I can't go another day," he said. "If I go in alone, maybe we can fool it"

"How many stone giants do you think there are wandering the desert?" Ruha asked. "If the dragon sees any of us, the Shadovar will realize we turned toward Cormyr instead of Evereska."

Aris glanced toward the crest of the dune, his eyes growing large and wild. "Then we have to kill it," he said. "We have to sneak up and kill it."

"You're sun sick, Aris," Galaeron said. "You can't sneak up on a dragon."

"There will be water in the Saiyaddar." Ruha stood and started south, walking on the trough's steep wall so the slope would collapse and slide down to cover her tracks. "We will be there soon. It is not far." Aris groaned and buried his face in his arms. "Come on," Galaeron said. "Ill take the shadow blanket"

Aris raised his head high enough to fix a single eye on Galaeron. "It is twice your size. How can you carry it?"

Galaeron pulled a strand of shadowsilk from his cloak and began to fashion it into a circle. "How do you think?"

"No!" Aris boomed the word sharply enough to loose a small avalanche on the slope behind Galaeron. "No shadow magic."

Ruha spun around. "Are you trying to call the dragon down on us?" She glared at the giant for a moment, then looked to Galaeron. "Leave the blanket. It is too heavy and hot for him to carry."

"It's proof," Galaeron said as he began to twist the ends of his shadowsilk together, "and I'm not leaving it."

"Then I'm carrying it." Aris stood and slung the huge blanket over his shoulder. "Because you're not casting another shadow spell."

With no place to hide from the sun and concerned about attracting vultures and giving away their position even if they did stop, the trio spent the rest of the day marching south. Every so often, Ruha would climb to the crest of a dune to study the terrain and search the sky for signs of pursuing dragons, then wave her companions up behind her and lead them eastward in a mad dash over one dune crest after another. The effort never seemed to tire the witch, but Galaeron and Aris would grow so weary after a dozen or so crossings that their legs gave out and left them crawling on their hands and knees.

Galaeron spent much of that time seething over Vala's desertion, relishing the prospect of the vengeance he would extract on Telamont for refusing to intervene with Escanor, and plotting how he would emphasize the prince's part in the melting of the High Ice.

The Shadovar had betrayed him, had stolen Vala away and made her turn a blind eye to the promise she had sworn to him, and for that they would pay. For that, he would expose their true nature to the world, reveal how they were melting the High Ice and upsetting the weather all along the Sword Coast. What that decision might mean for Evereska, Galaeron did not even consider. Shade Enclave had its own reasons for destroying the phaerimm, and his departure was unlikely to have any impact on their plans.

Finally, as the afternoon shadows began to extend their stretch toward evening, they crested a dune and found themselves looking over a vast prairie of pale green grasslands. In the distance, the brown blot of a gazelle herd was slowly drifting over the purple horizon, while the rest of the plain was speckled with the tiny flecks of foraging birds. Scattered here and there along the course of a dry riverbed were the puffy crowns of several dozen big cottonwood trees.

"Skoraeus strike me now!" Aris cursed. "The river is as dry as bones."

"Only on the surface." Ruha slipped over the crest of the dune and started down the other side. "There is water underneath."

"Underneath?" Aris cast a longing look north toward the cliffs where they had left the young dragon. "How far underneath?" "Not far," Ruha said, waving the giant after her. "You have said that before," Aris observed.

Despite his protests, the giant raced down the dune past the witch and started across the plain. "Aris! Wait until dark!" Ruha called. "The birds!"

She was too late-and even had she not been, it was doubtful that the giant would have stopped. With the heavy shadow blanket still draped over his shoulders, he started for the riverbed in long, booming strides that sent a cloud of startled birds screeching and cackling into the sky. Ruha looked to the north. "How close do you think-"

"Too close," Galaeron said. "I have heard blue dragons brag that they pick meals in the Sharaedim from a roost in the Greycloaks." "You speak with dragons?" Ruha asked.

"On occasion," Galaeron said. "The Tomb Guard had an arrangement with several young blues."

Instead of asking about the arrangement, Ruha nodded and started across the plain after Aris. "Then we must hurry."

Galaeron caught her shoulder and pointed toward a fan of alluvial gravel spilling out of the foothills that separated the Saiyaddar from the parched slopes of the Scimitar Spires.

"We stand a better chance hiding," he said. "A young dragon will be arrogant in its approach, and we can take it by surprise." "You would use your friend as bait?"

"He's the one who scared up the birds." Galaeron's tone was defensive. "I'm just trying to keep us all alive."

Ruha considered this, then started along the edge of the plain. "Your plan makes sense-though it would be better if he had been given the chance to volunteer." "He volunteered when he let his thirst put us in danger," Galaeron said, joining her.

"Perhaps so," Ruha said, "but had you taken his water-skins from the flying disk instead of your shadow blanket, his thirst would not be so great."

Galaeron's only reply was an angry scowl. They were only about halfway to the gravel fan when the birds suddenly began to flee southward. Ruha pulled Galaeron into a bramble thicket and crouched on her haunches, pulling a clump of thorny stalks over their heads so they would be concealed from the air. Aris did not seem to realize anything was wrong for another dozen steps, when he noticed the fleeing birds and stopped to turn around. He spent several moments searching the plain behind him, calling out to Galaeron before finally raising his gaze skyward and looking north toward the oasis where they had seen the dragon.

Though Galaeron was hiding close to five hundred paces away, he was close enough to see the giant's jaw fall and his shoulders sag. Aris spent another moment searching the plain behind him, then, still carrying the heavy shadow blanket, turned and ran for the foothills, angling toward a narrow gully not far from where Galaeron and Ruha were hiding. "Good," Galaeron whispered.

He began to fashion a tiny stick figure out of shadow-silk. Ruha looked to the sky. It was only a moment before she nudged Galaeron and the cross-shaped shadow of a small dragon began to sweep across the Saiyaddar. Galaeron finished his effigy, then pointed it at Aris and uttered an incantation. A circle of shadows appeared around the giant. One after the other, they peeled themselves off the ground and assumed Aris's form, then fanned out in a dozen different directions.

An angry cackle sounded from the sky, then the dragon swooped into view, its blue scales flashing like sapphires in the dusky light. It leveled off a dozen feet from the ground and, starting at one end of the fleeing replicas, opened its mouth and loosed a huge bolt of lightning that stretched in front of three of the fleeing shadow giants.

Lacking any wits of their own, the images continued straight into the bolt and vanished from sight.

"This is a smart one," Ruha whispered, pulling a small flint and steel from her aba, "and it wants us alive."

"It wants me alive," Galaeron corrected. "Don't overestimate your value-or Aris's-to the Shadovar."

The dragon breathed again, spraying another bolt of lightning in front of four more running giants. This time, they stopped and fled in the opposite direction. The dragon wheeled on a wing tip and extended its claws, slashing through two illusionary giants on its first pass. The dragon pulled up less than fifty paces from them, exposing its thin belly scales as it wheeled around to snatch up the fleeing giant Ruha started to rise from their hiding place, pointing the flint and steel at the dragon's abdomen to cast what Galaeron knew would be a fire storm. "Not yet!" Galaeron hissed.

He caught her arm and pulled her back down, then pointed his effigy at a figure he knew to be a false Aris. He whispered the same spell, and a circle of shadows appeared around each of the remaining giants on the plain. They began to rise by the dozen and flee in every direction. The dragon roared in frustration and blasted the nearest circle with its third and final lightning bolt.

By unlucky chance, his target proved to be the correct one. Aris bellowed in pain and went down on his face, then the dragon was on him, pinning him to the ground with a huge claw and hissing something angry that Galaeron could not quite hear from so far away. "Coward!" Ruha hissed, throwing off the brambles. "You should have let me attack when we had a shot at his belly!"

She started across the plain at a run, pointing her fingers at the huge dragon. Blood boiling at her insult, Galaeron started after her-then stopped as she poured a volley of golden bolts into the wyrm's flank. The resulting blast sent a fountain of blue scales spraying into the air, along with a fair amount of draconian blood and flesh.

The dragon roared and brought its huge head around-only to receive another volley of the witch's golden bolts in the snout. This time, the eruption sent a nostril, two horns, and one slit-pupiled eye tumbling away over its shoulder. As surprised by Ruha's power as was Galaeron, the creature spread its great wings and launched itself into the air.

It was clutching Aris and the shadow blanket in its massive claws.

Ruha switched to her flint and steel, crying out a Bedine fire spell and striking sparks into the air. A long line of tiny meteors streaked into the air, taking the dragon in the right wing and burning several dozen melon-sized holes through the leathery skin. The creature pitched right and plummeted a hundred feet toward the foothills, then leveled off and began to fly for freedom-still clutching Aris and the shadow blanket.

Galaeron was not going to let it escape with his shadow blanket. He fashioned a strand of shadowsilk into a noose, then uttered a long string of magic syllables and flicked the loop after the fleeing dragon. The filament stretched to nearly half a mile in length, allowing Galaeron just enough time to slip his end of the line under his foot before the noose expanded to the size of a wagon wheel and flipped itself up to slip over the dragon's head.

A version of a Tomb Guard enchantment used to capture fleeing crypt breakers, the spell worked even better with shadowsilk than with elven thread. As soon as the dragon hit the end of the line, the noose closed and the filament contracted to a small fraction of its previous length, both cutting off the wyrm's air supply and jerking it around to crash down within a few dozen paces of Galaeron.

The stunned wyrm impacted face first, then lay in a crumpled, convulsing heap as it clawed in vain at the magic line. Keeping his foot on his end of the line to keep the noose tight, Galaeron leveled his palm at its already mangled head and drilled a hole through its skull with a single shadow bolt. His body was filled with so much shadow magic that it was almost numb, but he didn't mind at all. The cold felt good.

Ruha came to his side and paused as though to say something, then thought better of it and went to the dragon's head. "Dead," she confirmed. "Good."

Galaeron stepped off the magic line, which vanished as soon his foot lost contact with it, and started forward as Ruha crawled over the wyrm's neck to its underside. "And my blanket?" he asked. "Still in one piece?"

Ruha snapped her head around to glare at him. "Yes, the blanket is still in one piece." She dropped out of sight behind the dragon, then added, "Which is more than I can say for your friend." "Aris?" Galaeron broke into a run. "He's hurt?"

"Yes, and badly." Ruha peered over the wyrm's back, then said, "That is what happens when you use someone for dragon bait."

Galaeron reached the dragon's back and clambered over to find Aris trapped beneath the wyrm's body. There were four talon punctures in his chest and one arm was twisted around behind him at an impossible angle. The giant's gray eyes were barely open, and when they fell on Galaeron's face, they looked away.