“Nice try. I saw you in action in the tower with that dragonkind sorceress, Salynth. I know what you can do. I also know that you sent Tairn to charm Kazhi,” Sath hissed. “And I know that you wanted her to kill me.” He beamed a toothy grin at Taeben. “I really didn’t know that you were that jealous,” he said, sneering. “I mean, what is one wood elf to you, with all your power?” Sath chuckled as Taeben’s mouth drew into a thin line. “Imagine that, after all this time, Gin still prefers a stupid Qatu to an overblown high elf like you.”
Taeben smiled, but the smile didn’t go all the way up to his eyes. “It does always come back to that, doesn’t it?” he said. “Always back to our Ginny. What she wants or doesn’t want really isn’t your concern anymore, Qatu. She has made her choice. Anyway, I thought we were discussing your mangy - and sadly dead - sister?”
Sath roared and pounced on Taeben, taking the wizard a bit off guard. His staff, humming and sparking with magic, connected with Taeben’s midsection. With a grunt, Taeben doubled over, hissing words in Elvish. As Sath spun the staff above his head and aimed for another shot, he heard whistling and popping sounds above him. Looking up, he saw an arc of lightning streaking down from the ceiling. He braced himself, but the impact threw him backward into one of the marble walls.
“Down, boy,” Taeben said as he stood back up. He lifted his hand and his own staff flew into his hand. The jewels in the end of the staff began to glow and rotate, and he slowly lowered it until it pointed at Sath’s chest. “It would be…so easy…to end you where you stand,” he said, still catching his breath from the impact of Sath’s staff. “However, I have no interest in engaging you now. I have more important things to do, and there will be plenty of time for this later, when our little Ginny can come along to watch.”
“Not if I take care of you now,” Sath snarled as he slowly rose from the ground. “You’re going to have to do better than a cheap light-show to keep me down, wizard.” He raised his staff to strike again.
“Ah, but wait - where is our Ginny now, one wonders? She came with me willingly, but where to, do you think? Could be I’ve already taken her to my Lord Taanyth,” he said, grinning. “Maybe not though, that Keep is nothing but a ruin with an overgrown lizard prowling about. No, I’ve had my eye on those fancy digs of yours for a long time, maybe she’s already there? I’ve always thought she’d look lovely on the throne of Qatu’anari, by my side when I’m named Rajah.” Sath took a step closer, growling loudly, but Taeben stopped him with the point of his staff. “The point is, my friend, that she could be anywhere, and if you kill me now…how would you know where to start looking?”
“What makes you think I want her?” Sath snarled. “She has nothing to do with me anymore. She means nothing to me anymore. No, my problem now,” he hissed, moving closer, “is with you, wizard, and your pet, Tairn.” Before Taeben even saw him move, Sath was on the wizard, having discarded the staff in favor of his savage clawed weapon and its razor sharp blades. Taeben’s staff clattered to the ground, just out of his reach, and Sath held him pinned to the marble wall by his arms, rendering him unable to call it to his hand with magic. One swipe of that clawed weapon and Taeben felt blood running down the side of his face as a fiery pain exploded across his vision. Furious, he shouted one word in Eldyr and another bolt of ice-cold lightning coursed through Sath’s body, driving him to his knees as he released the wizard. Taeben scrambled to his feet, his staff swinging back up into his hand as it pulsed and rotated with deadly magical energy.
“You will show me respect, you filthy beast!” Taeben shouted, taking a step back as he wiped the side of his face on the sleeve of his robe. The temptation to use his magic on Sath was clear in his burning gaze, but he regained his composure and turned his attention to Sath who was still frozen in place by the last magical blast. “This is not over, Sathlir,” he said. “I only hope that Ginny will be able to heal what you’ve done to my face, as if I needed more proof that you are a monster.” He spat on the marble floor. “She is stubborn, our Ginny. Hopefully this,” he gestured toward his face, “will change her mind, now that we have matching souvenirs from a beast such as you!” Calling for the guards, he spoke words of transportation and instantly faded from view.
As the phantasmal ice melted away, Sath cursed loudly, his frostbitten limbs not cooperating as he scrambled about after his haversack. It had been thrown clear of him with the first magical blast. He got his hands on it and after pulling it to him, opened it. The sound of boots on marble floors echoed closer and closer as he rummaged through the pack. Finally, he pulled out his last invisibility potion and downed it quickly, fading from view just as the platoon of high elf soldiers rounded the corner. They stood still a moment, surveying the seemingly empty corridor.
“Is this not where we heard a shout for help?” he asked the other guards. They all nodded, looking puzzled at the now empty corridor. Sath pressed his invisible body against the cold marble wall, barely breathing for fear of alerting them to his presence. “Perhaps we made a wrong turn,” the guard said, and as one with eerie precision, the guards turned in unison and went back the way they had come. After a few minutes with his ear to the wall, Sath crept down the hallway and out to the front of the high citadel’s keep, through the courtyard and then across the drawbridge and out the front gates into the Forest. He didn’t stop or make a noise until he was well clear of Alynatalos. With a raised eyebrow, he surveyed his options. There was nothing good waiting for him anywhere in the Forest. The Fabled Ones Great Hall would be a better place to hide out for a day or two while he planned his next move, but if Gin was there...Sath shook his head. He was not ready to face her after all, and he had to get a message to his squad that Taeben had been seen in Alynatalos. If Gin knew that, she might try to interfere.
Teeand! Sath smiled as he decided to head to the northeast, the underground home of the dwarves within the foothills of the Volcanic Mountains. Teeand would know what to do. Teeand ALWAYS knew what to do. Sath broke into a run, only thinking in passing about how much faster he could travel on his own. It would be mere hours for him to reach the dwarf city, where as it would have taken days with…with Gin. No longer important.
“I hope that dwarf hasn’t run off again,” he murmured as he crossed through the narrow passage that led from the dense canopy of the Forest to the rolling yet barren expanses of the Volcanic Mountains’ eastern foothills. “I’m sure Tee would like to have another crack at the wizard’s head.” Pausing only for a last swig of the potion that kept him invisible to most eyes, he set off across the changing landscape, his steps growing lighter and faster as the grass gave way to the sandy expanse of the northern desert.
Seven
Taeben rubbed his temples. Something had gone wrong and his bond with Gin had been strangely interrupted. He tried to focus on the fact that she was safe and the interruption was most likely because of the number of dragons in the Temple. Their bond was organic and so much more powerful than his. He would have to work on that with Lord Taanyth. He had summoned his apprentice, a young dark elf that he had been teaching since Gin left him, but she was late.
I am here, as you requested, Master.
Taeben sighed. You are late. I will forgive it this time.
Is this safe, Master? You never meet me so close to your home city. What if someone sees us?
“They will not, my little dark flower,” Taeben said, finally turning around and looking down at her with hooded eyes. “Ellie, you are a marvel. I have never told you that…but you are.”
“Master, you flatter me,” she said, her emotions plastered across her face as she gazed up at him. Taeben swallowed back revulsion before he continued.
“I am going away for a long time, Ellie, and I need you to go back to the Outpost and wait for me there. I cannot afford to risk you falling into the hands of my enemies to be used against me. Do you understand?” She nodded. “I hope that I will see you again, my little one, but until then keep to yourself. Do you p
romise?” Again she nodded. “Always faithful.”
She is not as faithful as you are, my pet. Or were, I suppose.
Taeben took an involuntary step backward at the sound of her voice. His apprentice looked up at him, puzzled. “Go,” he hissed at her. “GO NOW.” She did not hesitate to raise her arms in the air and speak hushed D’leesh, the language of the dark elves. A circle of fire formed around her and she faded from sight.
You sent the dark elf away, because you wanted to be alone to reconnect with me, my pet?
What do you want, Salynth? Now, after all this time?
You used to call me Mistress.
You used to keep me in a cage. I am losing patience.
How brave you are now! I have followed you since you left me here, when the Fabled Ones took you from me.
I left of my own accord. What do you want?
I have need of you, Taeben. You will come to me. Now.
You have lost your mind, what little of it you had left. Goodbye, Salynth.
NOW.
Taeben had used transport magic himself. He had cast spells on other people to send them far away. He had even passed into and out of the Void with a stop in the middle. Nothing could have prepared him for being summoned through the bond by Salynth. There was no tingling feeling in the back of his neck, no sensation of being turned inside out. He was standing in the Great Forest just outside of Alynatalos one moment and back in the Western Tower the next. His staff leaped up into his hand and he spun around in a circle, looking for the dragonkind sorceress.
Did you think I would bring you right to my feet, my pet?
“Where are you Salynth?” Taeben was raging by this point. “You have twenty seconds to tell me why you dragged me up here before I kill you and transport myself right back out of here.”
“You can’t do that and you know it,” she replied as she entered the room. Your transport magic works no better than mine does here. That’s why I had to bring you to me through our bond.” Taeben’s staff glowed as the magical stones on the end began to rotate and spin. Salynth raised her hands as she approached him. “Easy, pet. We have a common enemy, you and I. Kalinth.” A tingle shot down Taeben’s neck, becoming a flaming dart of pain by the time it reached his shoulder blades. Taanyth was always listening and now he was at full attention.
Find out what she wants, wizard. She could be useful to us.
“Ten seconds, Salynth.”
“I want to get out of here, pet. I have been here so long, and I was imprisoned for no reason other than I did my duty to my dragon master.” She moved closer to him, murmuring under her breath in Eldyr. Taeben felt calm and almost sleepy, and even though he knew what she was doing, he found that he could not fight her. His staff fell to the ground with a clatter as his arms went limp at his sides.
“Stop this, Salynth,” he hissed. “We are beyond these games now.” His thoughts flew to Gin and he panicked for a moment when he could not find her mind...but then there she was; a low hum that settled into his mind and calmed him more than Salynth’s magic ever could.
Do not worry for the Guardian, wizard. Find out what the dragonkind sorceress wants from you. The drakes at the Temple will watch after our Ginolwenye.
“You are right, pet. I could not be more proud of what you have become. Even now I see that you have made the bond I taught you with - two others?” She paused and concentrated a moment with her eyes closed, and then opened them to glare at him. “One of them is that irritating wood elf that helped take you from me before! I thought that perhaps she had died when the Qatu slung her across the room at my command. Pity.”
Taeben clenched his jaw. “She lives. I am to take her to Lord Taanyth, unless you are determined to keep me here against my will?”
“Of course not.” The dragonkind female moved away from him, fingers steepled in front of her. “As I said before, we have a common enemy. Kalinth stands between me and freedom, and he stands between you and your master as he intends to end his father once he gains his freedom.”
Taeben laughed at her. “Then he is as foolish as you are. He can no more kill Lord Taanyth than he can escape from the curse the Mother Dragon keeps him under to this day.” He shook his head and took a moment to smooth his sleeves. “Now that the ridiculousness is out of the way, I will thank you to send me back to where I was before you kidnapped me. I do not think you wish to anger Lord Taanyth any more than I do.”
It was Salynth’s turn to laugh this time. “What can he do to me from all the way over there in Bellesea Keep? I do not fear the Father Dragon, pet, and neither should you.” Taeben rubbed the back of his neck as the fiery pain moved higher and higher in his spine. Taanyth was still listening and was not pleased. “Kalinth is the problem. He was an abomination, pet, a frost dragon. The only one of his kind. He can not cope with the amazing fire magic of which you are capable, I am certain of it.”
“You are asking me, one wizard, to take on a first generation frost dragon?” Taeben gaped at her. “You are not just foolish, Salynth, you are as insane as the dragons are!”
Tell her you will help her, wizard. I will help you. My son has outlived his time and needs to be dealt with, and I need you and Salynth alive to bring my plan to fruition.
My lord, surely you cannot be serious.
My lord? Taeben, must I remind you again how to address me?
No, Master, of course not. I simply do not see the need to involve Salynth in any of your plans.
You do not need to see anything, wizard. You need to follow my orders. NOW.
“You will not be alone, silly. I will help you.” Taeben frowned as he looked at Salynth, his master’s words still ringing in the back of his mind.
“All right. Assuming that I agree to this foolishness, what is your plan, then?” he said through gritted teeth. Salynth clapped her hands, her clawed fingers inches from his face.
“I knew you’d come around, pet! You will love this plan - there is a lot of burning involved.” She patted his cheek before he could move away and then crossed the room to some cushions on the floor. “Come! Sit! I have it all planned out in my head.” Taeben sighed heavily and crossed the room before sitting on one of the musty cushions and sneezing.
As Salynth launched into a brief history lesson about her relationship with Kalinth, Taeben let his mind wander to try to find his apprentice. In the Outpost, well done. He relayed a quick instruction to her for research work and was pleased when she immediately got to work. That was how he should be obeyed, not with withering glances and drawn out sighs. Speaking of…
Ginny, are you all right?
Define all right.
We will work on the proper response to my questions later. Are the dragons keeping you well?
Everything is fine.
He sought for just a moment to reach her emotions, but was greeted with a lot of nothing. She was still blocking him out.
Ginny, you will take down the barriers in your mind. You will allow me access. It is part of our deal.
Taeben, you will leave me alone so that I can meditate.
The walls in her mind reformed and Taeben growled under his breath, just loud enough to catch Salynth’s attention. “I know, pet, I agree, I am just lost without my wings. But, as I was saying, once Father Ikara placed me here, I…”
“Could you get to the point, please? How is it you think I will kill your lover?”
Salynth’s eyes blazed. “That monster downstairs is not and has never been my lover!” Taeben felt a familiar magical twinge in his temples that grew in intensity until his vision blurred. “You will take that back!”
“Fine. Not your lover. Noted. Moving on…?”
She studied him a moment, and as his vision cleared Taeben imagined taking her apart, piece by piece, and smiled. “Yes, that’s better; I have missed your smile, my pet. Now, as I was saying, there is only one way to rid ourselves of Kalinth. We must burn down the Western Tower.”
Eight
“Nehrys
!” Teeand bellowed as he stuck his head in the door of the dwelling above the pub in the northern part of the dwarf city, so far to the north that at the furthest point it was actually under the mountains. “Blimey, where is that woman?” He turned back to Tairn who was leaning forward so that she didn’t touch the ceiling. “You’ll never fit through the door that tall, Tairn, got anything smaller?”
The high elf scowled down at him. “Of course,” she said, speaking Elvish under her breath. Her image twisted, shimmered, and suddenly standing before Teeand was a red headed dwarf female.
“Well, now that’s not at all bad, is it?” Teeand said, winking at her. His eyes crossed as a frying pan connected with the top of his skull from behind.
“Not at all bad, is she?” screeched his wife, Nehrys, now standing behind him with one hand on her hip. The other one clutched the handle of the frying pan, and she kept it raised as if to strike again.
“Ikara’s TEETH, woman,” Teeand exclaimed, rubbing the top of his head. “How long were you standing there? What are you trying to do with that, knock me out cold?”
“I don’t know, Teeand,” she said, her Dwarvish accent more broad than even Teeand’s. “What were you trying to do,” she waved the pan in Tairn’s direction, “with THAT?”
“Oh.” Teeand blushed to the tips of his beard. “That’s nothing, Nehrys, just a friend of mine and Sath’s,” he said, smiling at his wife. She scowled back. “This is…Bailee,” he said. Tairn turned around to stare at him.
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