Thelvyn had finally recovered from his fall and was rushing to his mate's side, fearful for her safety. Her full attention was focused on the amber dragon, but Thelvyn spotted another alien, a second ruby dragon, entering the chamber through a doorway on the far side of the room, followed by five human figures, who immediately took cover. Even as Thelvyn leapt across the floor, the ruby dragon arched its neck, thrust out its head sharply, and unleashed another fireball that exploded across Kharendaen's left shoulder at its juncture with the wing. Kharendaen immediately released her grip on the amber dragon and roared out in pain. The blow to her wing was a painful one, so that she lifted her head and roared.
This time it was Thelvyn who experienced the dark fury at seeing his mate come to harm. He saw the ruby dragon's companions emerge from hiding to prepare their own attack. From their distinctive, high-collared robes, he guessed they must be Fire Wizards. Desperate to protect his mate, he rushed to Kharendaen's side and turned the heavy armor of his shoulders and back to the attackers. A brief hail of magical missiles caromed harmlessly off his armor, although a couple tore through the delicate sails of his folded wings. Hardly noticing the burning pain in his battle rage, he turned his head away to protect his eyes from the missiles.
The last of the unseen bolts rebounded from his armor, and he immediately lifted his head, anticipating the next attack.
The ruby dragon had drawn back its head and was inhaling air to use its flaming breath. Roaring in fury, Thelvyn leapt up and rushed at the gemstone dragon as fast as he could move, closing his eyes and ducking his head at the last moment as a sustained blast of dragonfire washed over him. A hastily summoned spell to repel flame protected him from the worst of the fiery blast.
He ran headlong into his enemy, using his weight and speed to knock the ruby dragon back toward the stone wall behind him, even though the fierce impact stunned his neck painfully. Keeping his head lowered, he drove his horns deep into the ruby dragon's chest, finally catching between the dragon's ribs. Thelvyn was thrown off balance and crashed hard against the wall, his long neck twisted awkwardly. He righted himself with considerable effort, finally pulling his horns free so that he could press his attack, but the ruby dragon was already dead.
Indeed, the battle was over. Sir George, who always seemed to be forgotten during a fight, had quietly slipped around through the side corridors until he was able to enter the hall behind the traitorous Fire Wizards. While Thelvyn was occupied with the last of the alien dragons, Sir George suddenly appeared and slew a pair of the wizards before they even knew what was happening. The remaining three wizards had found themselves between the flames and Kharendaen's wrath. She was sitting up one her haunches with a wizard clasped tightly in each hand. The third was lying on the ground with her tail firmly over his back.
"I wish I had seen more of that fight," Sir George said. "I'm glad to be in the company of such gentle, peace-loving clerics."
"Dragon clerics," Kharendaen amended coldly, although her words were meant more for her captive wizards. The pair she held looked properly impressed and intimidated; the one under her tail seemed to have fainted. The youngest was a tall man in his middle years with white streaks in the deep red of his hair and beard. The other two wizards were considerably older and rather frail-looking.
"Now, listen carefully, Fire Wizards," Thelvyn said in the Flaemish language. "I will offer you two choices. If you tell me what I want to know, I'll let you run back to your Masters. Otherwise I'll wring your precious necks. Choose now."
"No. . no, Dragonlord," the youngest of the wizards gasped. All three appeared to have been stricken with the greatest terror. Even the one on the ground had revived and began to cry out. "The Masters will never let us speak. They'll force us to die first, an unspeakably horrible death."
"But your Masters are not here, are they?" Thelvyn asked. "And unfortunately for you, I am. Tell me now, do all Fire Wizards serve their bidding?"
"No!" the youngest wizard shrieked, holding his head as if it were suddenly filled with searing pain. The other two seemed to be stricken as well. "The Masters see and hear all we see and hear, and they punish as swiftly. I can say no more!"
Thelvyn frowned, moved to a reluctant pity. "Let them go."
Kharendaen quickly set the two wizards on the ground, but they were already filled with such intense pain that they sank heavily to their knees, gasping for each labored breath. They could no longer suppress their cries of agony. Their faces began to turn blue, and they started to bleed from their ears, noses, and mouths.
"You. . you must free our people," the youngest wizard cried out, then screamed as if he had been caught in a blast of dragonfire. With that, all three collapsed in lifeless heaps. The Masters had decided to silence them with a swift death.
"I think I've seen enough of this place," Kharendaen said softly, moving close to her mate's side to rub her cheek against his neck.
"Yes, we've delayed here long enough," Thelvyn agreed as he stepped over to the stand that held the Collar of the Dragons. "Since it seems that the Masters do indeed know what their servants see, then it follows that they must know where we are."
"One moment," Kharendaen interrupted when he sat up on his haunches to reach for the collar. "This hardly seems the proper time and place for the Dragonking to receive the token of his authority. But in such ceremony as we are allowed, permit me as a senior cleric of the Great One to place the Collar of the Dragons upon your neck, so that you will receive that which your father set aside for you in the half-forgotten past."
Moving quickly but deliberately, she released the clasps that held the collar closed and lifted it from its stand. Then, while Thelvyn stood motionless with his long neck extended, she fitted the crest plates of the collar over the ridges of his crest and closed the clasps. The weight felt strange to him, but the plates of the collar adjusted perfectly to follow every movement of his neck. The collar seemed to have been made to fit him. Kharendaen lowered her head to rub her cheek affectionately against the front of his deep chest.
Standing unnoticed to one side, and much to his mortification, Sir George was moved to tears. He alone, a humble mandrake, had been wimess to the Dragonking receiving the Collar of the Dragons. It meant more to him than he had expected.
"Ceremony aside, we must be gone," Thelvyn said. "My hope is that the Masters are already on their way here to protect their fortress, leaving the worldgate unguarded. They will most likely return through the main gate, and that means that we must find some other way out of this place. If we must fight again, remember that I cannot change form to become the Dragonlord while I'm wearing the collar."
"From what I've seen, you don't need the Dragonlord anymore," Sir George said as he pulled himself up into Kharen-daen's saddle.
"If we become separated again, you go on to the worldgate," Thelvyn told him firmly. "Any attack will most likely be directed at us, and we are better able to deal with it."
Thelvyn led the way through the doorway in the back of the hall. The small, dark back passages where they found themselves did not provide as direct a path as the corridor that had brought them into the heart of the fortress. He had no clear idea where to go at first, except to head outward until they came to a door or other large opening where they could escape from this place. The problem was that the fortress was very large, and he recalled seeing only a few windows and one main gate from the outside. But when he suddenly came upon a wide stairway leading upward, he had an idea of how he could find the quickest and possibly the most unexpected way out. He only had to trust that he would be able to discover a way out of the fortress somewhere above, or they might become