D& D - Mystara 03 Dragonmage of Mystara

by Thorarinn Gunnarsson

  That night he dreamed that he and Kharendaen were riding the cool winds over a rugged, deeply forested land between tall, rocky mountains. The place reminded him so much of the wilds of Wendar that for a brief time he thought he had returned to those happy weeks they had spent together in Shadowmere and the Foxwoods, when he had still been learning what it meant to be a dragon and war and desperation were forgotten. Then he realized that this was a dream, one of those rare dreams he had experienced in the past in which he would receive instructions from the Great One.

  The two dragons turned toward the mountains, guided by some strange instinct rather than any actual instructions. They were flying high over the forest with tremendous speed and yet with almost no effort, hardly even feeling the pull of their own weight on their wings. Moments later they were hurtling over the ridges and slopes of the mountains, sailing on the ever-shifting winds. Circling tightly to break their speed, they descended quickly into a high meadow of deep, green grass surrounded by a forest of tall, narrow pines.

  They stood for just a moment staring out across the meadow into the distant forests below the mountains. Then Thelvyn saw Kharendaen start and turn quickly, and he turned as well to see a gold dragon sitting in the soft grass a short distance away. She was tall and lean, long and slender but well muscled, and her narrow face and large blue eyes gave her an expression of grace and wisdom. He realized that this was his mother, the dragon cleric Arbendael.

  "We have met so I can warn you to change your plans," she told them. "You propose to seek the main stronghold of the Masters to judge their strength. You search for knowledge that the Great One already possesses and can share with you. Have his clerics forgotten that they can ask?"

  Kharendaen bowed her head, but Thelvyn was undaunted. "The Great One has been reluctant to speak with us in the past. Perhaps we can be forgiven for not expecting him to answer now."

  "That was never by his own choice," Arbendael told him. "Your time is short, and you must not waste it. Do you wish to know the true strength of the Masters and their army? They have built themselves a fortress as large as any city in your own world in the wilderness. The dragons could hardly hope to stand against them, and they have not yet gathered their fullest strength. But that is not your most immediate concern. Have you forgotten that the Masters serve an even greater master of their own?"

  "I have not forgotten," Thelvyn insisted. "But I must face my challenges as they come. It has been all I could do to keep the Masters at bay. I'm afraid that left me no time to concern myself with the mystery of the one who calls himself the Overlord."

  "And yet the Overlord is your true enemy," a deeper voice said, speaking from behind him. "You cannot ignore him."

  Thelvyn turned quickly to see that the Great One himself now stood in the meadow behind him, wearing his common guise of an older dragon of some ancient breed. Apparently he was impatient to speak his mind about such important matters and was no longer content to leave the discussion to his servant.

  "What can you tell me of the Overlord?" Thelvyn asked plainly.

  "There is very little that I can tell you," the Great One said. "Neither my own powers nor those of any of the Immortals can extend into his world, and so he remains a mystery even to us. I suspect that his powers rival those of a lesser Immortal, although I doubt that he is an Immortal himself. I know that his powers can be channeled to his servants in this world, or else his slaves would no longer be under his will. You have seen that for yourself, with the crystal that was used to control the mage, Alessa. That is why the Masters possess greater powers than they should have."

  "Can we block his influence from our world?" Thelvyn asked.

  "Unfortunately, no," the Great One said. "The power of the Radiance, or perhaps the combined magic of the dragon sorcerers, might accomplish that, but then the Overlord would only come himself."

  "What must I do?" Thelvyn asked, confused. "You seem to be telling me my true enemy is one whom I cannot hope to fight."

  "Your true enemy is one you know nothing about," the Great One corrected him. "When the first Dragonlord and I fought the gemstone dragons long ago, they had not yet fled into the world of the Overlord and fallen under his will. I know nothing about him, and so I cannot guide you. And you cannot afford to continue to fight an enemy you know so little about. The time has come for you to go secretly into the world of the Masters to learn all that you can. Unfortunately, the Immortals cannot help you, because our powers do not extend into that world."

  Thelvyn lowered his head. "I think I understand. That is why the Dragonking exists, is it not? To go where you cannot, to act when you are forbidden to?"

  "You must be very careful," the Great One cautioned. "You must have the dragon sorcerers open a worldgate for you in a place where the Masters will not suspect it. And you must not go alone. Kharendaen will accompany you."

  Thelvyn looked surprised. "I believe I would be able to move more swiftly and safely alone."

  "Perhaps in many ways you are right," Arbendael said, moving around to stand closer to the Great One. "Your powers might be far greater than Kharendaen's, but they are still different. Kharendaen is a true cleric. If the Immortals are to have any contact with that world, it will be through her."

  Arbendael sat close at the Great One's side and rubbed her cheek gently against his breast, a gesture that he accepted graciously. Thelvyn was surprised. Suddenly he realized that, for the first time in his life, he was in the company of his parents, even if it was only in a dream. They had never seemed particularly real to him before now. They had been like two strangers he had never known in life, their mating a mere matter of necessity. He felt much better in knowing that they were still together in this extraordinary dream world. In some odd way he could not define, he felt better about himself.

  "Under no circumstances is the old drake to go with you," the Great One added. "Learn what you can without risking capture and then return at once. Remember above all else that the most important thing is to return safely, even if you learn nothing. Without you, there is no hope for this world."

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  Marthaen was beside himself when he went to the lair early the next morning and learned that Thelvyn and Kharendaen would be leaving at once for the world of the Masters. He tried hard not to show his disapproval, since the instructions had come from the Great One himself, but he wasn't able to completely hide his agitation. He obviously considered the whole thing ill-advised. He did not believe that the Dragonking should subject himself to such a risk, not to mention his own sister.

  "There is only one good thing I can say about it," he grumbled at last. "With Kharendaen along, you might be more careful to stay out of trouble."

  "I'm not happy about bringing Kharendaen along," Thelvyn insisted. "I'd still prefer to go alone, but I dare not second-guess the Great One. For now, I need to know if you can open a worldgate someplace where the Masters will not suspect it."

  Marthaen considered that briefly. "I believe it can be done, but I must consult with my sorcerers before I can

  promise anything. Opening such a gate is one thing, but knowing where to send the other end is quite another matter. Perhaps one of the sealed gates at Braastar can show us how to create one of our own."

  Marthaen went out into the yard and leapt into the air, flying quickly across the city to join the dragon sorcerers at the Academy. Once he was gone, Thelvyn retreated into the lair. He sat for a time staring down at a platter of roasted elk that had been brought for him. Dragons did not commonly eat more than once a day; he had dined late the previous night after his return from battle, and he wasn't particularly hungry yet. But ahead of him was a long journey, during which he may not be able to hunt for his fare, so it was best to eat while he could. Kharendaen sat on the other side of the table nibbling quietly at her own breakfast, also without great interest.

  After a long moment, Kharendaen looked up at him. "What are you thinking about? Are you worried about the task
ahead?"

  "I suppose I should be," Thelvyn answered, "but actually I was thinking about last night—about my mother and the Great One."

  "Your mother and your father," she corrected him.

  Thelvyn shook his head slowly. "In these last few weeks, I've found it difficult to think of the Great One as my father. It seems presumptuous somehow, although I admit I find it easier after last night. Do you suppose that there might be some real affection between my mother and father?"

  "It is common for dragons to mate for reasons that have nothing to do with affection," Kharendaen said. "But my impression was the same as yours, that there was real affection between them. I always wondered why the Great One brought the spirit of Arbendael into his realm to be his chief servant and advisor. I suppose that being an Immortal must be a very lonely thing."

  Marthaen returned within the hour with the word that the dragon sorcerers could open a gate into the world of the Masters at any time or place required. They had already probed the structure of one of the collapsed gates and knew just what to do to open a gate of their own. Now they were waiting for word that the Dragonking was ready to give them final instructions. There were still a few unanswered questions, plus a few things they wanted Thelvyn to be aware of.

  "We know already that a worldgate establishes two gateways, one in each world, which serve to anchor either end of the passage," the gold dragon explained. "In that way, even while the separate worlds might be moving through their own orbits, the gates always open in the same place in each world."

  Thelvyn said nothing, since Marthaen's explanation had gone somewhat beyond his limited knowledge of astronomy. He understood the magic well enough, but the idea of worlds moving in orbits escaped him. As far as he was concerned, the world was the most stable and motionless thing in existence. Of course, he lacked the education of most civilized dragons, who spent the better part of a hundred years in school. As a human youth in the Highlands, he had been lucky to receive ten.

  "For that reason, we have guessed that distances and locations in one world correspond to those in the other," Marthaen continued. "Therefore you can probably find your way around the world of the Masters by judging directions and distances from where you have entered."

  "I see no reason that we should not open our own gate right here, in the core of our greatest power," Thelvyn said.

  "That's what we thought," the First Speaker said. "But for the sake of your own security, we dare not leave our worldgate open a moment longer than we have to. If the Masters detect its presence, then they will know that spies have entered their world and they will be on their guard. The best suggestion I can offer is that we open the gate again for brief periods of time every few hours. If the Masters do find our gate, we can prevent them from passing through "it. How you get past them to return home, however, may be quite another matter."

  Thelvyn was already well aware of how things could go wrong in the cold, dry world of the Masters. The Masters had been able to surprise him nearly every time he had to deal with them so far, and he considered it more a matter of good fortune than any cleverness on his own part that he had managed to get the best of them. He knew he would be facing an enemy

  he could not fight and that the risks would be enormous.

  Marthaen led Thelvyn and Kharendaen to the city park, located in a wooded, rather marshy area in the center of Braejr. The park existed mostly because the land was unsuitable for buildings, its only real virtue being that it was the location of the tomb of Jherridan Maarstan, the first king of the Flaemish realm. It was also the only part of the city where the dragons could gather in large numbers and a fair amount of privacy. Marthaen had insisted that privacy was important. Aware of the concern it might cause, he thought it best that even the dragons didn't know that the Dragonking had subjected himself to great danger. There was also a possibility there were spies in the city.

  The moment that the two dragons were ready to leap through it, the worldgate was opened. It was closed again at once, to keep it from being detected by the Masters in either world. Thelvyn went through first, hurtling through the void ready to fight, his back arched and his neck held low, bounding forward on the opposite side to make room for Kharendaen just behind him. They emerged into a dark, colorless world, their legs sinking into the soft, dry sand of gray dunes. A cold wind stirred the dull gray dust into what seemed like a dense fog. They could see only that they stood in the middle of a cluster of boulders and jagged pinnacles of stone that rose like a half-submerged island from the dunes.

  "This must be the sea of sand that we could see to the southwest of the stronghold when we were here earlier," Thelvyn observed.

  "Either the days are very dark here or the nights are fairly bright," Kharendaen said, looking around. "I've never been sure which."

  "I suspect their nights are much darker," Thelvyn said, blinking from the dust in his eyes. "Let's move away from this place, in case the Masters detected the opening of the gate."

  "Where do we go?" she asked.

  "I think we should scout out their main stronghold, then get away while we can."

  Thelvyn spread his wings and leapt upward, trying to get above the tricky crosswinds that raced over the dunes as quickly as possible. He had expected to rise above the dust fairly quickly, since most desert sandstorms remained fairly close to the ground, but the dust was still as thick and dark as ever three hundred feet above the ground's surface. The winds were even stronger and more fitful. He had been climbing only a few seconds when a vast, dark shape suddenly loomed out of the dust just ahead of him. He almost had to stand on his tail to slow himself in time to avoid flying directly into what he now recognized as a massive wall of stone.

  Kharendaen had been far enough behind him that she was able to dart to the side. The two dragons turned and began to move slowly along the edge of the wall. The clouds of dust made their gold armor nearly impossible to see. Soon they realized that they were circling around the high keep of another great fortress like the one that had seen earlier. Their caution seemed unnecessary, since the stronghold appeared to be deserted.

  After a time Thelvyn, turned back to the northwest, deciding to continue on without pausing to explore this stronghold. While it appeared to be abandoned, he thought it best not to risk discovery. He climbed slowly into the air, waiting for his mate to move close beside him.

  "We know the Masters were able to transport that other fortress into our world," he explained. "My guess is they prepared this one for that same purpose. Once Braejr had fallen to their control, they would have brought their forces through this fortress to enforce their domination of Braejr and the Highlands. Now that the Highlands have been secured against them, they have most likely moved their resources to another stronghold."

  "It's fortunate for us that they are gone," Kharendaen agreed. "Otherwise we might have leapt through right into their claws."

  "I should have thought of that," Thelvyn said. "I don't think much of our chances if I make such stupid mistakes right from the start."

  Kharendaen was prepared to argue with him, but at that moment, they finally rose through the clouds of dust into the clear sky above, or at least as clear as the skies of this world ever were, since a fine dust filled the air higher than a dragon could fly, drawing a pale, thin shroud over the cold, distant sun. Thelvyn knew that they could have remained hidden if they had stayed within the thicker dust, but their large eyes could not bear the relentless assault of grit and sand. Instead, they flew low over the thicker clouds of dust, watching the skies around them for any sign of movement, trusting that their burnished gold and deep brown coloration made them hard to detect.

  They flew for over an hour in the direction that, in their own world, would have brought them over the western Highlands near the village of Graez, where Thelvyn had grown up. He was not concerned about failing to see anything that might have been below them, since the very fact that the dust storm remained thick and unbroken almost certainly mea
nt that they were still over the open desert. According to Jherdar's report, they would fly in a straight line for several hours before they approached the area where the main stronghold of the Masters was likely to be.

  The hazy image of the sun was advancing steadily toward the west, and night would be falling in another hour or so. The day had still been young when they had left Braejr, indicating that the passing of day and night in this world did not correspond to their own. Thelvyn welcomed the approach of night, with its promise of deep darkness to keep the two dragons hidden as they flew farther into the lands of the enemy. He began to hope that they might be able to scout the stronghold of the Masters and withdraw from their lands by morning.

  After another half hour of flight, they began to realize that what they had thought were bulges in the clouds of dust below them were in fact hills and ridges of rugged land. The final miles of open desert passed swiftly beneath them, although they never saw the windswept dunes. Now the clouds of gray dust were confined to the valleys between the barren ridges, like the sea reaching to form deep fjords. The clouds hung thick even in places that were largely sheltered from the restless winds. The rugged land, with its rocky, barren ridges and stark cliffs gave the impression that they were higher in the mountains than they were.

  Now the two dragons had to be more careful than ever, hugging the deeper valleys and ravines as they moved steadily toward the northwest. They had wondered previously how such a lifeless world could support the armies of men and monsters of the Masters, but as they moved away from the sea of sand, they finally began to spot the first signs of native life. At first they saw only small patches of dry, tough grass or stunted bushes or twisted trees hidden in sheltered place among deep dells or behind huge boulders, protected from the harsh, dry wind. While their first impression was that this bleak land must never feel the soothing touch of rain, they soon saw signs of floods brought by sudden, violent storms, the raging waters ripping through the ravines.