Dragons of Winter Night

‘After you bury your father, what then?’ Tanis asked as he and Alhana stood alone together on the steps of the Tower.

‘I will return to my people,’ Alhana replied gravely. ‘The griffons will come to me, now that the evil in this land is gone, and they will take me to Ergoth. We will do what we can to help defeat this evil, then we will come home.’

Tanis glanced around Silvanesti. Horrifying as it was in the daytime, its terrors at night were beyond description.

‘I know,’ Alhana said in answer to his unspoken thoughts. ‘This will be our penance.’

Tanis raised his eyebrows skeptically, knowing the fight she had ahead of her to get her people to return. Then he saw the conviction on Alhana’s face. He gave her even odds.

Smiling, he changed the subject. ‘And will you find time to go to Sancrist?’ he asked. ‘The knights would be honored by your presence. Particularly one of them.’

Alhana’s pale face flushed. ‘Perhaps,’ she said, barely speaking above a whisper. ‘I cannot say yet. I have learned many things about myself. But it will take me a long time to make these things a part of me.’ She shook her head, sighing. ‘It may be I can never truly be comfortable with them.’

‘Like learning to love a human?’

Alhana lifted her head, her clear eyes looked into Tanis’s. ‘Would he be happy, Tanis? Away from his homeland, for I must return to Silvanesti? And could I be happy, knowing that I must watch him age and die while I am still in my youth?’

‘I asked myself these same questions, Alhana,’ Tanis said, thinking with pain of the decision he had reached concerning Kitiara. ‘If we deny love that is given to us, if we refuse to give love because we fear the pain of loss, then our lives will be empty, our loss greater.’

‘I wondered, when first we met, why these people follow you, Tanis Half-Elven,’ Alhana said softly. ‘Now I understand. I will consider your words. Farewell, until your life’s journey’s end.’

‘Farewell, Alhana,’ Tanis answered, taking the hand she extended to him. He could find nothing more to say, and so turned and left her.

But he could not help wondering, as he did, that if he was so damn wise, why was his life in such a mess?

Tanis joined the companions at the edge of the forest. For a moment they stood there, reluctant to enter the woods of Silvanesti. Although they knew the evil was gone, the thought of traveling for days among the twisted, tortured forest was a somber one. But they had no choice. Already they felt the sense of urgency that had driven them this far. Time was sifting through the hourglass, and they knew they could not let the sands run out, although they had no idea why.

‘Come, my brother,’ said Raistlin finally. The mage led the way into the woods, the Staff of Magius shedding its pale light as he walked. Caramon followed, with a sigh. One by one the others trailed after. Tanis alone turned to look back.

They would not see the moons tonight. The land was covered with a heavy darkness as if it too mourned Lorac’s death. Alhana stood in the doorway to the Tower of the Stars, her body framed by the Tower, which glimmered in the light of moonrays captured ages ago. Only Alhana’s face was visible in the shadows, like the ghost of the silver moon. Tanis caught a glimpse of movement. She raised her hand and there was a brief, clear flash of pure white light—the Starjewel. And then she was gone.

Book 2

The story of the companions’ journey to Ice Wall Castle and their defeat of the evil Dragon Highlord, Feal-thas, became legend among the Ice Barbarians who inhabit that desolate land. It is still told by the village cleric on long winter nights when heroic deeds are remembered and songs are sung.

Song of the Ice Reaver

I am the one who brought them back.
I am Raggart. I am telling you this.
Snow upon snow cancels the signals of ice
Over the snow the sun bleeds whiteness
In cold light forever unbearable.
And if I do not tell you this
The snow descends on the deeds of heroes
And their strength in my singing
Lies down in a core of frost rising no more
No more as the lost breath crumbles.
Seven they were from the hot lands
(I am the one who brought them back)
Four swordsmen sworn in the North
The elf-woman Laurana
The dwarf from the floes of stone
The kender small-boned as a hawk.
Riding three blades they came to the tunnel
To the throat of the only castle.
Down among Thanoi the old guardians
Where their swordsmen carved hot air
Finding tendon finding bone
As the tunnels melted red.
Down upon minotaur upon ice bear
And the swords whistled again
Bright on the corner of madness
The tunnel knee-high in arms
In claws in unspeakable things
As the swordsmen descended
Bright steam freezing behind them.
Then to the chambers at the castle heart
Where Feal-thas awaited lord of dragons and wolves
Armored in white that is nothing
That covers the ice as the sun bleeds whiteness.
And he called on the wolves the baby-stealers
Who suckled on murder in the lairs of ancestors.
Around the heroes a circle of knives of craving
As the wolves stalked in their master’s eye.
And Aran the first to break the circle
Hot wind at the throat of Feal-thas
Brought down and unraveled
In the reel of the hunt perfected.
Brian the next when the sword of the wolf lord
Sent him seeking the wane lands.
All stood frozen in the wheel of razors
All stood frozen except for Laurana.
Blind in a hot light flashing the crown of the mind
Where death melts in a diving sun
She takes up the Ice Reaver
And over the boil of wolves
over the slaughter
Bearing a blade of ice bearing darkness
She opened the throat of the wolf lord
And the wolves fell silent as the head collapsed.
The rest is short in the telling.
Destroying the eggs the violent get of the dragons
A tunnel of scales and ordure
Followed into the terrible Lorder
Followed further followed to treasure.
There the orb danced blue danced white
Swelled like a heart in its endless beating
(They let me hold it I brought them back).
Out from the tunnel blood on blood under the ice
Bearing their own incredible burden
The young knights silent and tattered
They came five now only
The kender last small pockets bulging.
I am Raggart I am telling you this.
I am the one who brought them back.

1 The flight from Ice Hall.

The old dwarf lay dying. His limbs would no longer support him. His bowels and stomach twisted together like snakes. Waves of nausea broke over him. He could not even raise his head from his bunk. He stared above him at an oil lamp swinging slowly overhead. The lamp’s light seemed to be getting dimmer. This is it, thought the dwarf. The end. The darkness is creeping over my eyes...

He heard a noise near him, a creaking of wooden planks as if someone were very quietly stealing up on him. Feebly, Flint managed to turn his head.

‘Who is it?’ he croaked.

‘Tasslehoff,’ whispered a solicitous voice. Flint sighed and reached out a gnarled hand. Tas’s hand closed over his own.

‘Ah, lad. I’m glad you’ve come in time to say farewell,’ said the dwarf weakly. ‘I’m dying, lad. I’m going to Reorx—’

‘What?’ asked Tas, leaning closer.

‘Reorx,’ repeated the dwarf irritably. ‘I’m going to the arms of Reorx.’

‘No, we’re not,’ said Tas. ‘We’re going to Sancrist. Unless you mean an inn. I’ll ask Sturm. The Reorx Arms. Hmmm—’