"Let's not waste any more time. I will send an Eye to scout ahead, and we should follow at intervals, as silently as possible."
The elf raised an eyebrow as he studied Jenna's assortment of pouches, as well as her beaded necklace. "Silence is second nature to my people," he added. "You, on the other hand, will have to watch yourself-perhaps you might need another of your many cones of silence?"
She snorted. "Me inside a cone of silence, so you couldn't hear a thing I say? Don't forget, I'm the one using the Eye! And I know how to be quiet when I have to be."
She removed her necklace and gathered it and her pouches into a padded pocket. Jenna then removed a bit of fluff-bat fur, Dalamar recognized-from a pocket, and murmured a few soft words of magic. Immediately the Eye came into being, an orb about the size of her fist floating in the air just before her face. The pupil was a pale red, with thin lines of the same color scoring the entire surface of the grayish sphere. The Red Robe started forward, down the hill, and the Eye preceded her, floating like a wisp in the air.
When they reached the base of the slope, she made a gesture that sent the magical sensor ahead of them, disappearing into the mouth of the cave. Jenna closed her eyes and concentrated. After a few minutes she turned to Dalamar. "The first hundred yards is clear-a large passage, as you might expect. Pretty level, with a bit of a drop-off where the Eye awaits."
The two wizards entered the cave, following the slightly winding passage, feet moving soundlessly over the ground. The dark elf held his walking stick in one hand, carefully avoiding any unnecessary contact with the bedrock. They found the Eye floating at the rim of a ledge, where the floor slanted down for ten or twelve feet before it continued to a sharp bend.
Jenna sent the Eye floating ahead again. They waited. Jenna nodded, and Dalamar started forward, halting when he felt her hand on his arm. She leaned close; he lowered his head until her lips were nearly touching his ear.
"Big male, around the next bend," she breathed. "Coiled at the far wall of a large room, sleeping. To the right of where you will enter."
Dalamar smiled tersely. A large chamber around a bend meant that he could send a reliably lethal fireball spell against the wyrm, without having to worry about the two wizards being hurt by the explosion. The deadly blast would kill or incapacitate the monster, and then, if necessary, Jenna, with her follow-up tactic-ice magic-would finish the job.
The dark elf crept around the corner of the winding cavern, Jenna a few steps behind-still concentrating on the spell of the arcane Eye. The narrow confines of the cavern expanded into a vast realm of darkness. The stink of chlorine gas was powerful here, so much so that Dalamar had to restrain a sudden urge to cough.
Narrowing his eyes, the dark elf could just make out the shape of a massive green dragon, a coiled mass of serpentine scales, flanks moving ever so slightly in the steady respiration of sleep. Dalamar had seen many dragons before, but the sight always made him a little nauseated. The monster seemed simply too big, too powerful, to dwell in this world of men and elves. At least this one wouldn't be a part of that world for much longer…
Angrily Dalamar raised his finger, pointing at the creature, and muttering the command for his incendiary magic. He was vaguely relieved when that low sound provoked no visible reaction from the monster, and he watched expectantly as a tiny marble of fire appeared in the air before his finger. Soundlessly he gestured, and that spot of brightness meandered through the vast chamber, floating right up close to the coil of green scales.
The dark elf then clapped his hands and closed his eyes, stepping back to safety. Even through his lids he saw the orange brightness, felt the wash of fierce heat on his face. He listened, expecting some howl of monstrous anguish, but heard nothing beyond the billowing roar of consuming flames. A second later the brightness faded, and he opened his eyes for a look at the flaming corpse.
But there was no corpse, no serpent, nothing in the middle of those flames-the dragon was gone. Dalamar blinked, momentarily wondering if his eyes deceived him.
"Where is it!" hissed Jenna, peering over his shoulder.
"It has to be there!" he replied, even as the words rang false in his ears.
Jenna was suddenly shouting magic words, the ice spell she had prepared to follow his fiery attack. Dalamar turned questioningly-and in that movement he saw the dragon. Jenna had already spotted it.
The green serpent was crouched in a far corner, like a cat preparing to spring. Its slitted yellow eyes and smug look told Dalamar it had never been asleep. Wizards were not the only ones who could cast spells-an ancient wyrm such as this would have a great command of magic, could easily create an illusion of itself to serve as a distraction, luring overconfident intruders to their doom.
The wyrm raised its blunt, crocodilian head; spread its jaws; and opened its moist, cavernous, fang-bracketed maw.
The lethal gas that erupted in a greenish blast of mist seemed to move in slow motion-roiling and expanding as it billowed closer-but Dalamar found he was unable to move his feet, to summon any reaction. He stood there, frozen by stark horror, waiting for inevitable death.
But Jenna completed her spell and now something new shimmered before them. Not a blast of ice, which Dalamar realized would have been ineffective again the monstrous beast, if his fire spell hadn't already done some damage, but a wall of shimmering crystal frost! It stood tall and broad, a translucent barrier. But it was incomplete-the cavern was too large, so it failed to reach either the cavern's ceiling or the distant walls. Still, the enchanted frost shielded them against the onrush of killing gas.
But the massive cloud of dragon's breath couldn't be denied. It churned up and over the wall, tendrils of green poison reaching down toward the two wizards. The dark elf stumbled and ran. He gagged on the toxin, staggering and dropping his staff from suddenly nerveless fingers.
Finally he tripped over a large stone and sprawled to the floor, scrambling to his hands and knees as he looked over his shoulder. The wall of ice shattered, then, as the dragon leaped right through it, its flaring snout smashing the barrier into crystal shards. Jenna, huddled to the side of the lingering cloud of dragon breath, fell back, shrinking against the wall.
The serpent batted her with a swipe of its huge forepaw, and she tumbled across the floor. She screamed once, slumping against a stalagmite, and Dalamar heard a snap that could only be her breaking bones.
She didn't move, didn't make any sound, as the dragon continued its charge, bearing down on the dark elf. Dalamar scrambled and clawed against the hard stone of the floor, with his doom only moments away.
Chapter 17
The Test of Magic
This door is protected by a powerful spell," Luthar explained to Coryn, indicating a normal-looking portal of wooden planks connected by iron straps. "The first part of your Test requires that you open it."
Looking over her shoulder, she noted the dour figure of Kalrakin staring at her intently. For the past day, while she rested and gathered her strength, she had not spied him, but she had felt his sinister presence in the Tower. Still, she had slept securely enough behind a stout, locked door. When she had awakened in the morning, there had been hot food in her room, and she had noticed with surprise that the gash where she had scraped herself against the tree was nearly healed. Luthar had eventually come to get her, leading her up flight after flight of steep stairs until they had come to this lofty hallway.
Kalrakin had been waiting here, and now she glared at him. "Are you going to stand there gawking? I don't think I'll be able to concentrate."