The Dragonstone

CHAPTER 79

Ordrune held the pale jade ovoid to the sky and laughed as the crimson sunset bathed the translucent orb, casting glints to the eye like luminous drops of blood. "At last you are mine once more," cried the Mage, then he whirled 'round in a gleeful dance.

Of a sudden he paused and looked at the ensorcelled band behind, entranced by his arcane words of binding, their resistance lowered by his vaporous concoction. Rage boiled behind their eyes, yet they could not move, for he had so commanded. "Ah, my fools, I thank you for obtaining that which was beyond my grasp. -What's that, you ask? If I hid it in the first place, could I not retrieve it? I suppose since you redeemed it for me, I owe you an explanation before you perish.

"Walk with me and I'll tell you the tale as we stride toward your doom."

Ordrune passed among the six of them, strolling slowly for the lip of the precipice. Completely enslaved and unable to help themselves, woodenly they followed, though their features were filled with fury.

"Heed: long past when Black Kalgalath and Daagor and lowly Quirm stood before me at the portals of Black Mountain, then did I know that I had to possess this most puissant token of power.

"But I knew if I took it then, I would be hounded by the fools cowering inside, hounded by the Mages who ultimately swore the oath.

"And Quirm, ineffectual Quirm, the weakest of the lot, it was he I subverted there before the very gates when the Dragonstone was revealed. It was deep in his mind that I discovered a perfect hiding place for the stone-the place from which you so neatly extracted it."

Ordrune paused in his steps and gazed into the stone, his ensorcelled captives pausing with him.

"Unlike those who were expelled from Black Mountain, I but pretended to swear to the oath of binding, and I bided my time. Then I went on a long sabbatical-to study the world, I claimed. But in truth it was to prepare my strongholt, the one you so foolishly assaulted."

Ordrune took up his stroll once again, and unable to do otherwise, the six trod after, for so their enslavement demanded, and even Aiko, with her red tiger ward, could not break the spell, though low in her chest was a rumble.

"I waited until Quirm stood sentinel here on Dragons' Roost, and I stole back into Black Mountain and took the green stone from the deep vaults within. I knew that when they ultimately discovered it was gone, the fools in that Mageholt would comb the world, and I didn't wish for them to find a trace of the stone within my tower, though the chances of any of those dolts doing so were virtually nonexistent. And for such a token, well, who can blame me?

"I brought it here in its chest of Dwarven silver and passed by Quirm to chain it in the cavern below, and I summoned Krakens as wards-binding two of the creatures so that at least one would always be on guard. It took much astral ‹fire› to do so… yet I spent it willingly, having sacrificed many prisoners to make it so."

Again Ordrune paused and held the spheroid up in the crimson rays of the bloodied sun.

"Isn't it delicious? The Dragons themselves along with their mates were unknowingly guarding that which they feared so." Ordrune turned to the six. "Who else would have been as clever as I? Those idiots in Black Mountain, or those on Rwn? Ha!"

Again he strolled toward the brim of the great ledge, his thralls in a ragged line across, plodding a pace or two behind.

"But then Quirm disappeared-slain by a rival or drowned by a mate, who knows? And with him gone, my access to the stone was eliminated. My own trap kept me from reaching that which I had so cleverly obtained, that which I had so cleverly concealed.

"Though I knew full well where it was, I had almost given up hope that I would ever see it again, that I would hold it in my hands once more… until you fools came along and I discovered that you were driven by a rede, a rede so well explained by that drool lying back there. Because of the rede, there was a chance-albeit a slim one-that you would actually succeed, and so I bound that drunkard to your cause and allowed you to escape, sent my fell beast to track you from above to make certain you didn't take the news of the scroll to my illustrious doltish brethren, those imbeciles at Rwn and Black Mountain."

Ordrune came to the lip of the precipice and stopped, as did the six. He looked out at the Great Maelstrom turning in the distance.

"Pah, the mindless power of that hole in the ocean is as nothing compared to that which I will control, for I will take the stone and unravel the secrets it contains, learn how to command the Drakes, learn… but why am I telling you all of this when you are about to plunge to your deaths? Besides, my Helsteed chariot awaits below in Gron and I must hasten ere Modru begins to wonder at my business here in his realm."

Ordrune stepped back from the lip, and holding the Dragonstone on high, he said, "Farewell, my unwitting allies. I thank you for retrieving my treasure, and now I believe it is time for all of you to march to your-"

"Yaaaahhhh!" From the shadows nearby, Alos charged at the Mage, the old man shrieking, "Unlike before! Unlike before!" And then Alos slammed into Ordrune, knocking the Dragonstone loose to fall to the ledge as the oldster's charge carried him and the Mage over the rim.

Their eyes wide with horror, the six enspelled companions stood as would statues, unable to move, listening to Ordrune's shrieks interleaved with Alos's screams of "Shipmates… shipmates!"

… t-thmp, t-thmp, t-thmp, t-thmp… frantically beat Egil's racing heart…

… as if marking the passage of frozen time…

And slowly, slowly, the green stone rolled toward the lip of the precipice, toward a thousand-foot fall…

… t-thmp, t-thmp, t-thmp…

… down through the air they tumbled, cloaks fluttering about them, the old man yowling and clawing…

… t-thmp, t-thmp…

… Ordrune tried to sketch an arcane rune and speak words in the tongue of the Black Mages…

… t-thmp …

… but Alos's claws raked down the Wizard's face, upsetting the casting…

… t-thmp, t-thmp, t-thmp …

… and the green stone rolled…

… t-thmp, t-thmp, t-thmp, t-thmp …

… and still the comrades could not move…

… t-thmp, t-thmp…

… in the frantic span of but eighteen racing heartbeats, Alos and Ordrune plummeted from the verge of the precipice to the sea below, spinning and tumbling down through the air, bloodred with the setting sun, the old man clutching and clawing and shouting of shipmates, Ordrune shrieking and trying frantically to cast a spell…

… t-thmp, t-thmp…

… and then they struck the water…

… and the companions could move…

… and the green stone rolled to the edge…

Ferret shrieked and dove forward and slid on her stomach across the stone of the great ledge and managed to grab the jadelike ovoid just as it fell beyond the lip, but then, screaming in terror, she, too, slipped over the brim of the thousand foot fall-

– only to be caught by an ankle in the grip of mighty Burel, the big man grunting with the strain.

Now Delon grabbed on, and Egil, too, and they hauled shrieking Ferret back up over the lip and onto the ledge above, the Dragonstone yet held in her white-knuckled, two-handed grip.