The guards recognized them at once and retired immediately to the parapet, where they could look out across the dark fields beyond the city. The night was deep and dark, with only a small moon in the western sky, and the light summer breeze was cool and fresh. The sky above was dusted with stars, all glimmering against the blackness of the night. Lightning flashed repeatedly far to the distant south, so far that even Thelvyn's eyes could barely see the billowing stormclouds in the dim light.
"It seems strange to think that these hills might be overrun with dragons of every kind in only a few days, yet we haven't seen one yet," Solveig said as they strolled slowly along the top of the wall. "It would be easier to believe in war if we could see the enemy."
"I have no complaint," Thelvyn replied, glancing over his shoulder to the dark fields beyond. "When we see the first dragons, the rest won't be far behind."
"So what do you think of Sellianda?" she asked. "She let a few surprises slip out tonight."
Thelvyn paused a moment. "I doubt she let anything slip. In my experience, a cleric won't tell you the time of day until the Immortals have decided that you should know. That she told me anything means that it must be time for me to be aware of certain things."
"I was beginning to wonder if she was ever going to make herself useful," Solveig admitted as they continued walking. "To tell the truth, I never expected an elf who lives in a big house in a forest a long way from here would have much to tell us. She certainly seems to know more about dragons than I would have expected."
"Not from personal experience," Thelvyn said. "I suspect that most of what she knows she learned from her patron. The only reason she was chosen to be my advisor, I believe, was that she already knew most of my secrets anyway, which meant there was no need to tell another cleric things that were better left unknown."
Solveig shrugged. "She's still clever enough. Are you
going to go away with her when this is over?"
Thelvyn shook his head slowly. "I can't imagine that I'll have the chance. Sellianda will go back to Alfheim, and I'm sure my destiny will keep me busy elsewhere for a long time to come."
"You don't think you deserve a bit of a rest?"
"Whether or not I deserve it doesn't matter," he said wryly. "Sellianda was permitted to tell me part of the secret of who and what I am, and I doubt she would have been allowed to do that unless the rest was soon to follow. Whatever the Immortals may want of me isn't coming to an end; it's actually only about to start. I feel as though I'm rushing toward into my future so quickly that it's difficult to con-concentrate on the present."
He paused, lost in thought, staring at the lightning flashes in the distant south. After a moment, he climbed up in the parapet so that he could see more clearly. His eyes couldn't accurately judge distances from so far, especially in the dark, but he thought that he could see flashes of lightning briefly illuminate the rugged hills beyond the mountains of the Highlands Range some fifty miles distant. He couldn't hear even the faintest grumble of thunder.
Near the middle of every summer, the winds usually ( hanged direction, and wet air from the sea was drawn up into the Highlands from the south. Then late every afternoon, thunderstorms would build quickly in the Colossus Mounts to the east, the southern Highlands Range, or the rugged lands far to the north, sometimes these storms would hang over the mountains and drop torrents of rain; at other times, they would wander over the wide valley of the central Highlands like dark invading armies.
What Thelvyn was seeing was the advancing summer
rains, and they had not come early.
*****
Thelvyn sent for Alessa Vyledaar early the next morning, with advance warning that the matter was urgent. She arrived within a half an hour. She entered his office tentatively, wondering what the problem could
be and obviously expecting the worst.
"Did you notice the storms to the south last night?" he asked, looking up at her from his seat at his desk.
Alessa looked rather confused. "No. I spent the evening engrossed in my spellbook."
"The midsummer storms are coming," he explained. "You can see clouds hanging over the mountains this morning, a clear sign that the storms will be here to stay soon. There could be storms here in Braejr by tonight, and all through the Highlands soon afterward."
"I would assume the rains could work to our advantage in the event of an attack, to help put out any fires started by the dragons."
"Yes, I certainly hope so," Thelvyn said, rising to stand beside his desk. He could see that she didn't understand. "The problem with the storms is that they'll turn the roads to a sea of mud, and those catapults are going to take a lot longer to get here. So far, the roads have been fine, but if they turn to mud, those weapons won't be going anywhere. We could be forced to abandon half the wagons to double up the horse teams, and even then things are going to be slow."
"Yes . . . I'm beginning to see your point," Alessa said thoughtfully. Heavy rains could be a disaster.
"We have to do something about it at once," he continued. "The wizards are our only hope. They need to come up with some way to divert those storms and keep the roads dry."
Alessa frowned. "We're Fire Wizards, not Air Wizards like the Alphatians. That type of magic is not our specialty."
"Then you'll have to come up with the spells they'll need," he told her. "There's got to be something."
Alessa went away feeling frustrated. She could recognize the importance of keeping the roads dry, but she wished they had a good deal more time to research the matter. But the Fire Wizards were eager to prove their usefulness and do what was expected of them. They set to work on the problem furiously.
There were other problems before the day was out. Word came from the north that dragons were beginning to follow the movements of the Highlands army as they made their way south, and that there were more dragons than ever in the mountains above the northern border. Thelvyn took that to mean the dragons were becoming very serious about the invasion, but there was nothing he could do about it. He could only hope the dragons didn't interfere with their efforts to keep the roads dry.
There was also some good news later that morning. Alessa Vyledaar hurried back to the palace within the hour to report that a spell for diverting thunderstorms had been found. Instructions for the spell were being relayed to the wizards who accompanied the army. Since the spell depended on the power of the Radiance, tremendous power could be transferred to where it was needed and directed by the wizards in the field.
Thelvyn turned his own attention to other matters, trusting that the solution to the problem of the summer storms had been found. As it happened, it was not the only turn of good fortune that he was to receive that day. Early in the afternoon, Taeryn hurried to his private chamber to (ell him excitedly that there was a surprise waiting for him in the courtyard of the main gate. The young valet refused to say more, wanting to surprise Thelvyn.
Solveig and Sir George reached the courtyard just ahead of them, alerted by the noise and confusion. Thelvyn paused a moment when he approached the main gate, not certain whether he wanted to get any closer. What he saw was that well over a hundred fighting griffons and their riders had arrived from Thyatis, the only force that could have reached Braejr in such a short time. The great, fierce creatures filled the courtyard to overflowing, with others settling wherever they could in the garden. At least three dozen griffons sat perched like crows along the outer wall. Thelvyn was grateful for the assistance, but he would have to find somewhere to put them right away.
The nearest of the griffon riders dropped down from his saddle, grasping the nose ring of his beast in one hand. He was wearing a somewhat more decorative version of a Thyatian dress uniform bearing the gold insignia of a captain, indicating that he was no common griffon rider, but a visiting dignitary of some kind. He was already removing the massive leather gloves the riders wore, and he pulled off his helmet to reveal a strikingly handsome man, rather young for his st
ation. He was also surprisingly tall, nearly as tall as Thelvyn, although he was clearly of the somewhat darker Thyatian stock.
"Darius?" Thelvyn asked, coming down the steps to greet him.
"Dragonlord!" the Thyatian called back. "We haven't missed anything yet, have we?"
"My word, what a question," Thelvyn exclaimed. "But if you're referring to the dragons, then you're just in time."
Solveig had also descended the steps to stand at Thelvyn's side, although she had been staring at Darius Glantri in silent fascination since the moment he had removed his helmet. Then, to Solveig's complete astonishment, he turned to her and bowed in the Thyatian manner, his gesture almost too gallant for words. He was aware of her discomfort and tried to come to her rescue.
"You must be Solveig White-Gold," he said. "Allow me to introduce myself. I'm Darius Glantri, Captain of the Thyatian Imperial Army. You'll have to excuse me for being late, but my griffon seemed to think I looked good enough to eat."
"Quite understandable," Solveig said, then caught herself. "I mean, griffons are so fierce. . . . Oh, my. Am I blushing?"
"And very attractively, I must admit," Darius assured her. Then, to spare her any further embarrassment, he turned to the old knight. "Sir George Kirbey?"
Sir George nodded. "You seem to know all about us."
"You are the companions of the Dragonlord, the subjects of legend," he said. "But I must confess that Thelvyn is a good friend of mine, and he's told me about you. Anyway, I've brought all the Thyatian griffon riders except for the diplomatic messenger service."
"Can your griffons actually fight dragons?" Thelvyn asked.
"That's something we've never tried," Darius confessed. "But allow me to show you something."
Releasing his griffon's nose ring, he took firm hold of the reins and leaped back into the saddle. The beast turned its great head, snapping in irritation, but Darius got it back under control with a firm tug on the reins. Then he released some clips that held a massive crossbow to one side of the saddle. The weapon was considerably larger than most crossbows. The bow itself was like a great spring of bright steel, and the bowstring was a length of thin wire. The weapon shot steel-tipped bolts of equally massive proportions, the heads wickedly barbed.
"This is the best we could do on short notice," Darius explained. "If we can get in close enough to penetrate a dragon's armor, the head of that bolt will catch itself under the plate and be decidedly difficult to remove. I can't imagine it killing a dragon, but it would be a blasted nuisance."
"Can you cock a crossbow that large in flight?" Sir George asked.
"We've taken that into account."
Drawing up his left leg, Darius caught the bowstring in a metal clip mounted on the side of the stirrup. By holding the handle on the top of the crossbow firmly, he was able to kick down, extending the bowstring far enough for it to catch. Being secured in the saddle made the move much easier for him to accomplish.
"I admit we probably won't do much good with the crossbows," he said, handing Thelvyn the weapon before he climbed down from the saddle. "I think that we'll be more useful later in the battle. If dragons try to come over the wall or land directly in the city, our griffons will be more of a match for them on the ground."
"I only wish your griffons could encourage the dragons to talk to us instead of fighting," Thelvyn said, handing the crossbow to Solveig. "If it comes down to a fight, we could use the entire Thyatian army."
They were all startled by the snap of the steel bowstring; Solveig had been examining the massive crossbow, holding it by its shaft. Her hand was nowhere near the trigger. It was her good fortune that her hand hadn't been in the way of the bowstring. Everyone looked up to watch in silence as the large bolt climbed straight into the sky, higher and higher for what seemed an incredibly long time. It hesitated a moment, bobbled slightly, and then the heavy barbed head dropped over and the bolt began to fall point down with alarming speed. They all leaped back just before the bolt struck the stone steps where Solveig and Sir George had been standing a moment before. Stone chips sprayed outward, and the steel head rang a rather flat note as it bounced back up. Thelvyn reached out and caught it in midair.
"Jolly good show," Darius declared. "Is that what you people do for sport?"
Somehow they had to find stables for more than a hundred and twenty griffons. Griffons required more room than horses, in order to prevent them from snapping and fighting each other. Fortunately, the barracks of the king's army at the north gate was nearly deserted, and the cavalry stables were empty. The griffon riders took their beasts away at once, rising into the air only a few at a time so the griffons didn't become nervous. Thelvyn, too, felt considerably less nervous once they were gone.
The first opportunity for the Fire Wizards to demonstrate their ability to divert the summer storms came that same evening. Thelvyn was at dinner with his companions when Taeryn rushed in to report that the guards on the wall above the palace had been watching a large storm developing just south of the city.
By the time Thelvyn and his companions had taken the stairs up to the wall, the storm was moving quickly northward, almost directly toward the city. This was a large and impressive summer storm, filling the southern sky almost from the Colossus Mounts in the east to the Highlands Range in the west. The shadow of the black clouds brought on an early nightfall, which usually came late in the northern lands in summer, and dark sheets of rain were already moving across the fields beyond the juncture of die Areste and Aalban rivers.
"I hope the wizards at the Academy are ready for this one," Thelvyn commented at they stood at the parapet.
"The wizards are supposed to be keeping someone stationed about every fifteen miles or so along the major roads,"
Sir George explained while they waited. "That should be enough to make certain the rains don't wander anywhere they shouldn't. I suggested to Alessa that they should divert the storms off to the mountains to annoy the dragons."
Solveig glanced up at the lightning ripping between the dark clouds. "I daresay the dragons are fast enough to get out of the way."
"Perhaps, but it will annoy the heck out of them all the same," the old knight remarked.
Sellianda laughed aloud, obviously finding that very funny. "Sir George, you really should have been put in command of the defense of the Highlands. You could probably find a hundred ways to pester the entire race of dragons into submission."
He bowed gallantly. "My dear, I have the talent to pester anyone into submission. That's my secret to success in matters of romance."
Thelvyn was about to point out that he'd never heard anything about Sir George's forays into romantic affairs, hut he realized that the old knight had been around long enough to have done many things the younger man wasn't aware of. There seemed to be enough romance in the air to keep him quite entertained. Thelvyn had never expected to see Solveig reduced to a state of confusion over an infatuation, but that was precisely what had occurred from the first moment she had laid eyes on Darius Glantri. After years of maintaining an aloof dignity, she had chosen an awkward time to make a complete fool of herself over a young man. After his initial amusement with her behavior, Darius had apparently decided he was quite as interested in her. They stood apart from the others and were talking quietly.
"Solveig seems to have finally found her match," Sir George commented quietly. "I was beginning to wonder if there would ever be a match for someone like her."
Thelvyn hadn't realized it, but he must have been looking a bit sad and lonely as he watched them. Sellianda moved to his side and took his hand. He appreciated the gesture, although he couldn't forget that they both had duties that would keep them apart.
"Have you been able to discover anything about the Collar of the Dragons?" he asked Sir George, changing the subject.
Sir George could only shake his head helplessly. "Kalestraan certainly left us some extensive records about his schemes. We even found enough references to the collar itself
to be certain that he did have it for a time. The trouble is, he was so afraid of the dragons that he didn't dare to put many of the details in writing. I'm planning to go back to the Academy to look for more hidden storage compartments, but my only real hope is that one of the other conspirators had something specific to say about the collar in his own secret files."
"I wonder if it even matters anymore," Thelvyn commented, almost to himself. "Even if you did find it, we don't have the means to move it. I've already sent Seldaek away."
"We could at least tell the dragons where they can find it," Sir George offered.
They suddenly became aware of an odd movement within the storm. The dark bank of clouds immediately south of the city began to flash with great sheets of lightning, illuminating the blackness from within. The movement of the storm was almost imperceptibly slow, but over the next few minutes they could see that it was breaking into two uneven parts, which began to move off to either side of the city. The larger mass was heading toward the rugged hills below the Colossus Mounts, while the smaller portion seemed to be dispersing quickly.
"It looks as if the wizards can handle it," Thelvyn observed. "In all my experience, this is the first time I've ever seen them do anything exactly right."
"They never did come up with a functional cape of flight, did they?" Sir George asked. He had seated himself in an opening in the parapet.
Thelvyn shook his head. "I need to ask Alessa about that, but the fact that the wizards haven't sent it back yet probably means they're having trouble with it."
He paused as he spotted the distant forms of three dragons drop down from the dark, roiling clouds to the southwest, hurtling directly toward the city as they descended rapidly. The others had also seen them. The dragons approached Braejr from the southwest as fast as they could fly, driving themselves forward with quick sweeps of their wings, then slowed suddenly to pass low over the very middle of the city. As soon as they passed above the north gate, they began to climb steadily while increasing their speed. In less than a minute, they had disappeared again.
D& D - Mystara 02 Dragonking of Mystara Page 32
