The Dragons

Chapter 21

2693 PC

“How do we find Tharn and Flash? And who knows where Brunt’s lair is?” Callak asked, forlornly watching Aurican’s golden shape winging into the sky. Abruptly the gold dragon vanished from sight, and the younger wyrms knew he had teleported to Silvanesti.

Their bronze nestmate laired far away, though none of the other dragons knew exactly where. It was common knowledge that Tharn, on the other hand, had claimed the ancient copper lair of Blayze. The location of that cavern was also secret, but at least they knew it was somewhere in the eastern foothills.

“Well, we’ll have to split up. Tharn and Flash will be in the foothills somewhere,” said Auricus. “As to Brunt, he always flies west from here, and everybody knows he goes all the way to the coast.”

“Daria spends a lot of time hunting on the eastern part of the range,” Callak remembered. “Ill see if I can find her. Maybe she can help locate the coppers.”

“And I’ll teleport to the coast,” Auricus added with a nod of agreement. “I’m the only one who can get there fast, and that gives me the best chance of finding Brunt. The rest of you wait in the grotto, as Aurican said.”

“Let’s go!” Callak cried, leaping into the air and angling for the crest of the High Kharolis. He looked back to see Auricus disappear and the other dragons take wing toward the tunnel leading into the grotto.

The silver male flew with all haste over the snow-swept ridges of the highest part of the range. He relished the icy air against his scales, the pristine frostiness of each deep breath. The exhilaration of flight, as always, brought him a sense of serene contentment, even joy. But he knew that he couldn’t complete his task in these lofty reaches, so as soon as the terrain beneath him spilled toward the lowlands, he tucked his wings and tipped into a shallow dive.

How should he find his silver kin-dragon? He tried to think, knowing that Daria was the biggest of the silver females and had demonstrated a streak of independence as powerful as any of her male nestmates. Callak knew she favored hunting in the wooded, venison-rich heights of the foothills, far enough from the plains so that human hunters rarely ventured there. Once, after warning him not to plunder her game, she had shown Callak several of her favorite valleys, and it was to these that he now glided.

He searched diligently, gliding through the hours of daylight, seeking some glimpse of silver scales. Callak flew high enough to see over the serpentine ridges of the foothills, but not so lofty that he would miss details on the ground. He took a deer each night at sunset, generally selecting a yearling with a plentiful layer of fat. Yet despite the good eating and pastoral scenery, he grew increasingly agitated by his failure to locate Daria as the days passed.

After the fourth sunrise of his search, he saw a flash of reflection from a ledge just below the summit of a rounded mountaintop. Stroking upward, he found the silver female coiled regally in a rock-bound aerie, sleeping off the aftereffects of her feasting. Daria was growing plump and shiny, Callak saw, and he was startled by the allure he saw in that glimmering, serpentine form. He wondered why it had been so long since he had sought her, or desired her company.

But this was a time for more pressing business. He brayed a greeting as he swept downward, and the female quickly raised her head, blinking drowsily as he came to rest beside her. Curling his tail onto the ledge, Callak bowed, lowering his neck to parallel hers.

“What is it, Cal? I was sleeping!” she snapped petulantly.

“Trouble,” he said, shaking off any further objections with his firm tone and stiff-winged bearing. Briefly he told her of the elf’s report and the summons of the ram’s horn. “Aurican wants us all to go back to the grotto and wait for him there.”

Nodding, Daria uncoiled with supple grace. “Are all the others coming as well?” she asked, stretching her wings, allowing her tail to jut stiffly behind her.

“Brunt, Flash, and Tharn are gone to their lairs. We know that Tharn, at least, comes over here. I wanted to ask you if you have any idea where we might find him.”

“Yes!” Daria said, her eyelids lowering shrewdly. “He doesn’t know that I found his lair, but I’ve seen him there several times.”

After a short flight, the two silvers landed on the smooth lip of a lofty cliff. Callak was surprised to see a shadowy cave mouth in the mountain wall before him. The cavern was dark, and moist, musty air, tainted with the sulfuric scent of acid, wafted from it. “It’s completely screened by the overhang,” he remarked. “You can’t see it at all from the air.”

“Or from the ground, either-not if you’re dead!” The voice, speaking in the copper dragon’s unmistakable growl, came from the darkness within.

Instinctively Callak whirled toward the opening, wings spread, his own head jutting forward on his stiffened neck. He felt the rumble of frost in his belly and stood alert, waiting for any sign of Tharn’s blast of acid, ready to reply with a withering attack of his own ice.

“Wait!” cried Daria. “We’re here with news!” Quickly she told the copper about the return of the chromatic dragons. “We’ve got to gather in the grotto!”

“Aurican has gone to do battle. He has commanded us to wait, to be ready,” Callak added.

“I’m safe right here!” snarled the copper dragon. “I have no intention of going back to the nest like some pathetic wyrmling, seeking my sire’s protection!”

“But together we’re stronger-we have a better chance!” the silver male argued.

“Then you go back and be ‘together,’ ” replied Tharn mockingly.

“What about Flash?” Daria asked, her tone surprisingly calm against the heat of the males’ emotion. “Can you warn your brother of the danger?”

“Flash?” Now Tharn’s voice was filled with unmistakable fury. “If you see him, kill him for me. He stole one of my treasures two winters ago!”

The two silvers tried for the rest of the day to convince their recalcitrant kin-dragon to accompany them, but he adamantly refused. Finally, in disgust, they took off and flew side by side toward the ancient lair of their clan.

Callak felt the hot, angry eyes of the copper burning into his tail as they flew toward the sunset. Strangely, the sensation lasted even after the valley of Tharn’s lair was long out of sight.