"Hey, Jahet, down here!" the dragon-turned-mouse bel shy;lowed as loudly as her tiny vocal chords would allow. "Look down here, if s me!" she hollered in Dragon.
Jahet stopped her thrashing to locate the source of the faint sounds that rose up from the darkness below her. Squinting, craning back awkwardly, the ranking dragon could barely make out the minuscule shape of a mouse at her left hind foot. "You've certainly picked a foolish time to squeak a challenge at me," Jahet growled. With that, she turned her attention back to the invisible barrier.
Khisanth stomped in frustration. She cupped paws around her soft muzzle. "Hey, Jahet! If s me, Khisanth!"
Jahef s jaws locked tight. The mouse was undeniably speak shy;ing in the Dragon tongue. If that weren't odd enough, the crea shy;ture had the temerity-and bad timing-of calling itself Khisanth! Jahet decided to silence the pesky little creature once and for all. She bent low and swung out with her claw to snatch up the rodent.
Abruptly Jahet was snout to snout with the black dragon Khisanth. "Khisanth! What the-"
"I can shapechange," Khisanth supplied quickly, stepping back to give them both more space.
"Why didn't you tell me before? I nearly crushed you!"
Khisanth looked mildly indignant at the reproach. "My position in the wing requires that I fly and fight," she said stiffly, "not that I cast magic. I have personal reasons for con shy;cealing the skill. I don't know the extent of your spell abilities, either," she said accusingly.
"We are not equals," said Jahet with similar starch. "We shouldn't be fighting with each other now." Her expression turned from displeasure to frustration as she regarded the invisible wall. "This must be the work of those worthless cler shy;ics Maldeev was forced to accept from Neraka."
Khisanth measured her words carefully. "I don't think they're the magic-wielding culprits here, Jahet."
Jahet squeezed her red eyes shut. "Don't start your old 'the-other-dragons-aren't-loyal' story. I'm not in the mood."
"How else can you explain why we're the only two dragons trapped in our lairs?" Khisanth challenged. "I looked-Khoal, Dnestr, and Neetra are gone."
Khisanth saw confusion in the ranking dragon's eyes as she digested the news. Khisanth could understand her puzzle shy;ment-trapped as they were, the situation suggested more questions than answers. Jahet didn't even know as much as Khisanth did about the others. It would take too long now to fill her in-time better spent getting free.
Khisanth held up her claws in surrender. "Never mind them now. We've got to think of a way out of here. Then we'll be able to see for ourselves whaf s happening outside."
"Lef s teleport," suggested Jahet.
Khisanth shook her head. "I doubt if 11 work here. I tried it in my lair-magic seems suppressed."
"Then how were you able to shapechange?
Khisanth struggled for the words to explain qhen. "The only thing I can figure is that shapechanging is more a mental than a magical discipline. The distinction must be a loophole in the spell that negates our magic." Khisanth snapped her talons. "You've given me another idea." She rubbed her claws together in preparation. "Stand back."
At a loss for any other solution and growing more desper shy;ate, the highest ranked dragon did as the lowest bade.
Khisanth concentrated, trying to sharpen the edges on an old memory. On the first seasonable day one spring back in the Great Moors, the ice on her pond had nearly all melted, and she'd gone to ground in search of fresh, warm prey. But the selection had been strangely slim, considering mammals' penchant for warm weather-a few young, foolish ground squirrels and an elderly, nearly blind ferret. Khisanth had an excellent long-term memory for meals.
She had been about to close on the ferret when the ground began to tremble, then shake violently. Suddenly-unexplain-ably-a twenty-foot-tall, budding maple tree shot out of the ground and fell over. Sharp talons emerged in the tree's wake, digging a tunnel to the surface at a rate that had impressed even Khisanth. A hideous, snout-nosed creature emerged, tangled in the dirt clods that dangled from the tree's torn roots. Snarling and slathering wildly like a rabid dog, the gigantic creature thrashed itself free. It had an elliptical; bluish-green body cov shy;ered with thick plates and scales. The creature snatched up the fear-frozen ferret and choked it down in a gulp.
The dragon had watched the creature solely out of curiosity; her taste was more particular than to consume something so hideous and tough. Thaf s why she'd been so surprised when its milky-yellow eyes and sky-blue pupils locked onto the largest meal it had ever seen. It sprang into the air like a jackrabbit, launching directly at Khisanth, four clawed feet raking and scratching. It seemed not even to notice that Khi shy;santh was twice its size.
The surprise move had left time only for instinct. Hot green acid spewed from Khisanth's jaws and splashed across the creature's exposed underbelly. In moments, the thing was digested. She'd killed her first bulette, a rare and widely feared carnivore. Now she was about to become one herself.
"You'd better step into your lair," Khisanth advised. Stand shy;ing in the archway between her two chambers, Jahet looked mildly annoyed at what she considered Khisanth's theatrics, but again did as the other dragon suggested.
Painfully aware of the claxons still pealing outside, Khi shy;santh hastily envisioned her own powerful dragon body trans shy;forming into her memory of the bulette's. She felt herself grow shorter, stiffer under the plates and scales; her vision was not as keen. But the most significant change was one she'd never before encountered in a shapechange; her mood shifted abruptly. She felt jumpy and agitated, with an overriding impulse to burrow frenetically. It took all of her dragon sensi shy;bilities to make herself dig in a logical place.
The bulette Khisanth sank her squared, pawlike claws into the packed dirt floor of Jahef s antechamber and sent it flying on either side of her armored flanks in two steady, thick black streams. Digging under the outside wall, her claws tore through layers of hard clay and rock, until a hole large enough for a bulette to pass through was carved. Her claws bit into the base of the supporting wall itself to make room for a dragon's escape. When she finished, Khisanth was not the least bit tired.
Khisanth was anxious to doff the bulette form and quickly did so before calling to Jahet. The other dragon had watched the bulette with amazement from between the growing mounds of dirt and rock in the antechamber.
In deference to her rank, Khisanth waved Jahet through the underground trench first. Hurrying after, she heard Jahet's angry gasp from the other side of the ponderosas. Khisanth stepped through the hedge of trees and stopped next to her friend to view the fortress in the early light.
An army at least six hundred strong, colorful banners wav shy;ing, was launching an all-out assault on the Black Wing of the Dark Queen's army.
Maldeev stepped onto a parapet above the courtyard, hands in their usual position on his breech-covered hips. The yellow light of the torches made his rippling chest look as if it were carved of the palest marble. Under his highlord helm, Mal shy;deev's expression was beyond anger as he tried to make sense of the chaos around him.
The early morning atmosphere had changed from the softly glowing calm of a sleeping encampment to a torchlit frenzy of activity; half-dressed, droopy-eyed men hopping about, pulling on clothing, barking orders without true understand shy;ing or purpose. This was not how he'd trained his troops! Why weren't his commanders restoring order? Where was that dandy, Wakar, his second-in-command?
What was the meaning of this unexpected call-to-arms? It was still dark, several hours before the scheduled drill. The wing was not yet at war. Someone had intentionally disrupted the order of the compound. Maldeev scowled in the direction of the bell tower, where the claxons still rang, looking for the culprit. He blinked, then looked again. The rope jerked up and down, but he saw no one pulling it.