Dragons of a Lost Star

33 Nalis Aren

Many miles away, Gilthas and his retinue parted with Tarn Bellowsgranite, the dwarven thane, then traveled south. I They had ridden with what haste they could, the Lioness pushing them, for she feared that Beryl’s army would split, send one force marching south to intercept the refugees while one force seized and held Qualinost. Despite her urging, their pace was slow, for their hearts were heavy and seemed to weigh them down. Whenever they came to the top of hill or ridge, Gilthas halted and turned in the saddle to stare at the horizon in some vain hope of seeing what was happening.

“We are too far away,” his wife reminded him. “The trees block the view. I left runners, who will come after us swiftly to report. All will be well. We must move on, my love. We must move on.”

They had stopped to rest and water their horses when they felt the ground shudder beneath their feet and heard a low rumble, as of a distant storm. The tremor was mild, but it caused Gilthas’s hand to shake so that he dropped the water skin he had been filling. He rose and looked to the north.

“What was that? Did you feel that?” he demanded.

“Yes, I felt it,” said the Lioness, coming to stand beside him. Her gaze joined his, and she was troubled. “I don’t know what that was.”

“There are sometimes quakes in the mountains, Your Majesty,”

Planchet suggested.

“Not like that. I’ve never felt anything like that. Something has gone wrong. Something terrible has happened.”

“We don’t know that,” the Lioness said. “Perhaps it was nothing but a tremor, as Planchet says. We should keep going—”

“No,” said Gilthas. “I’m staying here to wait for the runners. I’m not leaving until I find out what has happened.”

He walked away, heading for a rock promontory that thrust up out of the ground. The Lioness and Planchet exchanged glances.

“Go with him,” the Lioness said softly.

Planchet nodded and hurried after Gilthas. The Lioness instructed her troops to set up camp. She looked often to the north, and when she did, she sighed softly and shook her head.

Gilthas climbed with fevered energy; Planchet had difficulty keeping up with his king. Reaching the top, Gilthas stood long moments, staring intently to the north.

“Is that smoke, do you think, Planchet?” he asked anxiously.

“A cloud, Your Majesty,” Planchet replied.

Gilthas continued to stare until he was forced to lower his gaze, wipe his eyes.

“It’s the sun,” he muttered. “It’s too bright.”

“Yes, Your Majesty,” said Planchet softly, looking away. Imagining he could read the young king’s thoughts, he added, “Your Majesty’s decision to leave was the right—”

“I know, Planchet,” Gilthas interrupted him. “I know my duty, and I will try to do it, as best as I am able. I wasn’t thinking about that.” He looked back to the north. “Our people have been forced to leave their ancient homeland. I was wondering what would happen to us if we could not go back.”

“That will never come to pass, Your Majesty,” said Planchet firmly.

“Why not?” Gilthas turned to look directly at him, curious to hear the answer.

Planchet was confounded. This was so simple, so elementary.

“Qualinesti is ours, Your Majesty. The land belongs to the elves. It is ours by right.”

Gilthas smiled sadly. “Some might say the only plot of land to which we mortals have an inherent right is the plot where we are finally laid to rest. Look down there. My dear wife paces like the giant cat for which she was named. She is nervous, worried. She does not want to stop. She wants to keep going. Why? Because our enemies pursue us. They hunt us—on our land.”

“We will take it back—”

“Will we?” Gilthas asked quietly. “I wonder.” He turned back to the north. “We are a people in exile. We have nowhere to go.” He slightly turned his head. “I’ve heard the reports about Silvanesti, Planchet.”

“Rumors, Your Majesty,” Planchet returned, embarrassed and uncomfortable. “We cannot confirm them. We were going to tell you, but the Lioness said you were not to be troubled. Not until we knew something certain—”

“Certain.” Gilthas shook his head. With the tip of his boot, he traced in the dust an outline of an oblong, six feet in length and three feet wide.

“This is all that is certain, my friend.”

“Your Majesty—” Planchet began, worried.

Gilthas turned to stare back to the north.

“Is that smoke, do you think?”

“Yes, Your Majesty,” said Planchet. “That is smoke.”

The runner caught up with them during the night. Accustomed to traveling under the cover of darkness, the Lioness and her rebel elves marked the trails as her Kagonesti ancestors had done long before her, using the petals of flowers that glowed in the darkness to indicate which fork to take, leaving glow worms trapped in bottles on a pile of rocks, or smearing a tree with phosphor. Thus the runner had been able to follow their trail even after night fell.

They had not lit a fire. The Lioness had counseled against it. They sat silently in the darkness, no one telling tales or singing a starsong, as they might have done in happier times.

Gilthas kept apart from the others, his thoughts straying back to his childhood as they had done often since his parting from his mother. He was remembering these times, thinking of his mother and his father, of their love and tender care for him, when he saw the guards jump to their feet. Their hands going to their swords, they ran to surround him. Gilthas had not heard a sound, but that was not unusual. As his wife constantly teased him, he had “human ears.” Sword drawn, Planchet came to stand by the side of his king. The Lioness remained in the center of the clearing, peering into the darkness. She whistled the notes of the song of the nightingale.

The answer came back. The Lioness whistled again. The elves relaxed, although they still kept up their guard. The runner entered the camp and, sighting the Lioness, approached her and began to speak to her in Kagonesti, the language of the Wilder-elves.

Gilthas could speak some Kagonesti, but he could catch only fragments of the conversation, for the two kept their voices low, and the runner spoke too fast to be understood, his speech broke only by pauses for breath. Gilthas might have walked over and joined in the conversation, but he was suddenly unable to move. He could tell by the runner’s tone that the news he was conveying was not good.

Then Gilthas saw his wife do something she had never before done. She fell to her knees and bowed her head. Her mane of hair covered her face like a veil of mourning. She lifted her hand to he eyes, and Gilthas saw that she wept.

Planchet gripped Gilthas’s arm, but the king shook him of Gilthas walked forward on feet that were numb. He could not feel the ground beneath them, and he stumbled once but caught himself. Hearing him approaching, the Lioness regained cont of herself. Scrambling to rise, she hastened to meet him. She clasped his hands in hers. Her hands were as cold as death, and Gilthas shivered.

“What is it?” he demanded in a voice he did not recognize “Tell me! My mother—” He could not speak it.

“Your mother is dead,” the Lioness said softly, her voice trembling and husky with her tears.

Gilthas sighed deeply, but his grief was his own. He was king. He had his people to think about.

“What about the dragon?” he asked harshly. “What about Beryl?”

“Beryl is dead,” the Lioness said. “There is more,” she added quickly, when she saw Gilthas about to speak.

“The tremor we felt...” Her voice cracked. She moistened dry lips, then continued. “Something went wrong. Your mother fought alone. No one knows why or what happened. Beryl came and... your mother fought the dragon alone.”

Gilthas lowered his head, unable to bear the pain.

“Laurana struck Beryl with the dragonlance but did not kill her. Furious, the dragon smashed the tower... Your mother could not escape....”

The Lioness was silent a moment, then went on. Her voice sounded dazed, as if she could not believe the words she was speaking. “The plan to snare the dragon worked. The people dragged her out of the skies. Your mother’s attack kept Beryl from breathing her foul gas. The dragon was down on the ground, and it seemed she was dead. She was only shamming. Beryl heaved herself off the ground and was about to attack when the ground gave way beneath her.”

Gilthas stared, appalled, unable to speak.

“The tunnels,” said the Lioness, tears trailing down her cheeks. “The tunnels collapsed beneath the dragon. She fell in and . . . the city fell in on top of her.”

Planchet gave a low cry. The elven guards, who had edged close to hear, gasped and cried out.

Gilthas could say nothing, could make no sound.

“Tell him,” the Lioness ordered the runner in a choked voice, averting her face. “I can’t.”

The runner bowed to the king. The man’s face was white. His eyes were wide. He was only now starting to recover his breath.

“Your Majesty,” he said, speaking the Qualinesti tongue, “I grieve to tell you that the city of Qualinost is no more. Nothing remains.”

“Survivors?” Gilthas asked without a voice.

“There could be no survivors, Your Majesty,” the elf said. “Qualinost is now a lake. Nalis Aren. A lake of death.”

Gilthas took his wife in his arms. She held him fast, murmuring incoherent words of comfort that could bring no comfort. Planchet wept openly, as did the elven guards, who began to whisper prayers for the spirits of the dead. Bewildered, overwhelmed, unable to comprehend the enormity of the disaster, Gilthas held fast to his wife and stared out into the darkness that was a lake of death washing over him.