"Wizards, we would parley!" bellowed the monstrous black Drake on the left.
The Drake on the right turned and hissed in rage and spoke in a tongue from the dawn of time, the words sounding like great brass slabs grinding heavily upon one another. ["I shall be the speaker here, Daagor, for I occupy the highest ledge!"]
Daagor's massive tail lashed furiously. ["Only because I was in Kelgor, Kalgalath, at the time of the mating."]
The green Drake in between crouched lower.
At that moment a postern gate opened and out stepped a Mage dressed in a dark red robe.
Black Kalgalath eyed the Wizard, and then turned to Daagor. ["We shall settle this once and for all at the time of the testing. But for now it is I who will speak for all of Dragonkind."]
Daagor roared in challenge, shifting his bulk to face his nemesis. Black Kalgalath bellowed in response.
The green Drake scuttled backward, out from between these rivals, and the Mage at the gate clapped his hands over his ears in pain.
But from the mountains all 'round, a hundred or more Dragon voices were raised, thundering bellows of their own blaring through the air, and the mountains entire shook and boomed with the echoes of Dragon shouts.
Warily, Black Kalgalath took his eye from Daagor and scanned the crests above, and Daagor did the same. Then Daagor hissed, ["The ledge was and is rightfully mine, Kalgalath, yet even we together cannot defeat all of them, hence I will permit you to speak to this Mage."]
["I need no sanction from you, Daagor, for that which is rightfully mine."]
Now Kalgalath turned to the Wizard and spoke in the common tongue, though his voice still sounded as great brazen slabs dragging one upon another. "Mage, we have come to parley."
The Wizard stepped forward. "Parley?"
"Yes, we have a small favor to ask."
"A favor?"
"The tiniest of things."
The Mage barked a laugh and flung his arms wide, taking in the entire assembly of Drakes. "The whole of the Dragon nation comes knocking on my door and then requests the tiniest of favors? I think not, Kalgalath."
"You know my name?" Black Kalgalath turned his head and gloated at Daagor.
"Yes, and Daagor's as well."
Now it was that dark Drake's moment to exult.
"Who would not know the names of the two mightiest Dragons in Mithgar?" asked the Mage rhetorically. "Dragons visit woe unto the world-Kalgalath and Daagor most of all."
Both Drakes raised their heads and arched their necks in high conceit; had there been a great mirror at hand they would have pridefully gazed at their reflections within… though truth to tell, Kalgalath and Daagor were so nearly identical that they merely need look at one another to see the image each sought.
"Yet you did not bring all of Dragonkind here merely to hear me sing your praises," said the Mage. "Instead you came to parley. -This favor, this tiniest of things, just what might it be?"
Kalgalath glanced back at Quirm and the leather bag he held, and then at Daagor and finally up at the perched assembly of Drakes. "We would have you hold a thing for us."
"A thing?"
"Yes, but first, all of Magekind must swear an oath."
The Mage grunted in surprise. "An oath, eh?"
"An unbreakable oath," said Daagor.
Kalgalath glared at his rival. "An unbreakable oath," repeated Kalgalath. "A pledge to hide this thing away forever and leave its secrets unlearned… and to ward it from all who would do otherwise."
"And just what do you propose to exchange for the keeping and warding of this thing, sealed with an 'unbreakable oath'?"
Black Kalgalath nonchalantly examined the saberlike claws of his right forefoot. "For the keeping and the oath we would pledge to leave your Mageholt alone, unplundered by Dragonkind,"
"Ha!" barked the Wizard. "You pledge to leave undone that which you never had the power to do in the first place."
"Take care, Mage," hissed Daagor, "else you will see what Dragonkind can do."
Again Kalgalath shot Daagor a vitriolic glare, then turned to the Wizard. "Only I am the voice of all Dragon-kind, Mage, yet in this case Daagor speaks true."
The Mage shook his head and gestured at the Wizard-holt behind. "First, I do not speak for all of Magekind. There are those of us within Black Mountain, and those on the island of Rwn, and yet others scattered across the face of this world. Too, there are many in the world of Vadaria and a few on the other Planes. I can only promise to bring the matter before the Council here at Black Mountain. And even then the pledge would only concern the Mages of this Wizardholt.
"Second, ere we promise to speak oaths and receive oaths in return, we would know just what this thing is that we are to ward for Drakedom, for we would not give value without knowing the value of what we give.
"And so, my friend Dragons, I would see this thing you would have us safeguard."
With a jerk of his head and a hiss of ["Quirm,"] Black Kalgalath summoned the green Drake forward to stand once again between him and Daagor. Kalgalath glared down at Quirm and hissed, ["Let the Wizard heft it."] The green Dragon set the leather bag onto the forecourt stone.
The Mage raised an eyebrow. "You would have me walk within reach of your claws?"
Daagor hissed, "Wizard, you are within reach of our claws even where you stand."
The Mage looked left and right and fore… and shrugged.
Kalgalath snarled at Daagor, then turned to the Wizard. "If you would feel the weight of this thing, come heft it."
The Mage stepped forward to where the bag lay between Quirm's flexing claws. He stooped and took up the leather sack. "Hmm. Rather heavy for its measure. Something rounded inside. Ovoid. Perhaps the size of a melon." He squatted and set the bag in front of him and began plucking at the thong. "What's in here? A malformed crystal ball?"
"You cannot open it, Mage," said Black Kalgalath.
"Ha!" barked the Mage. And he looked at the tightly lashed strip and muttered, "Laxa!" and the thong fell loose to the forecourt, and the bag slid open and down, revealing an oblate spheroid of translucent, jadelike stone, flawless and pale green and lustrous-some six inches through from end to end, and four inches through across-and it seemed to glow faintly with an inner light.
All three Drakes roared and backed away and turned their heads aside, just as did the Dragons all about on the crests above, the mighty bellows reverberating among the jagged peaks. Whelmed by the sound, the Mage slapped his hands to his ears in agony, and blood seeped from his nose.
"Put it away," cried Black Kalgalath. "Put the abomination away."
But gritting his teeth, the Mage hefted up the egglike stone, its weight nearly twenty pounds.
Risking short glances, Black Kalgalath slithered forward and reached outward with his great black claws and hissed, "I said, put it away… else I'll shred you where you stand."
The Mage squatted and set the stone in the leather sack, and then he drew the bag up and about and retied the thong. As he did so, he asked, "Whence came this stone?"