Elvenbane

This fortress was as ruinous as rumor had painted it...the outer wall was intact, but only because it had been constructed of stone blocks as wide as most men were tall. Within that outer wall were only the shells of buildings...and the few rooms that had been chipped from the stone of the mountain itself. Wind and weather and the passing of the years had taken care of roofs and any contents.

But the well was still clear, and once they had constructed a new gate of logs, the outer walls were enough to hold off any army. Now, anyone sound enough to thieve goods by magic was working as long as his strength would hold out, Shana included; those areas that were weatherproof or could be made that way were being stuffed to capacity. No one cared if magical alarms were tripped...and there were a great many elven lords who were complacently quarreling over whether or not the wizards were a danger, who would one day discover that they had been robbed even while they quarreled.

They wouldn't be starved out, unless the elven lords found a way to prevent the thefts, she thought soberly. And the elves wouldn't drive the wizards out with thirst. They would have to pry the rebels out. I hope that won't be easier than I think it will.

But the legended weapons of the elven lords were terrible things...and she was not certain they would be able to defend against them this second time. Too many secrets had been lost with the old wizards. And even though their foes were fewer, so were they.

And worst of all, the wizards' most clever and implacable enemy was heading the opposition again. They had no such experienced leader.

Dyran wouldn't stop until they were all ashes.

She scanned the sky again, watching for the blue-on-blue dot that would be Keman...

And saw, instead, three...four...a dozen...

Led by one, larger by far than all the rest, large enough for her to see wings, long neck, a trailing tail...

Her heart leapt into her throat, and she clutched the top of the wall so tightly that her entire hand turned white.

They grew nearer and larger by the moment. And yes, there was little Keman...not really little, but dwarfed by his companion. Flying wearily, she could tell by the labored flapping of his wings, but gamely keeping up with the pace set by Father Dragon. For it was Father Dragon leading the way, royal purple scales shading into scarlet, blazing bravely in the sunlight...and now she saw Alara's scarlet...Keoke's green...Orola's saffron...Liana's green- into-yellow...

At least a dozen dragons in all, and a dozen times more than Shana had ever hoped to see.

:Is the hunting good here, Foster Daughter?: Alara asked, her voice warm with amusement. :I fear we have brought a number of very hungry guests, with quite alarming appetites.:

:I...I think so, Foster Mother,: she managed to reply.

:We will not be lazy guests, I pledge you, my child,: said another thought-voice, very deep and warm. :We understand you have some unwelcome visitors on the way. We will be pleased to help you send them away.:

:Thank you, Father Dragon,: she replied, in something of a daze.

:You may call me Kalamadea, child,: he replied, with amusement. :I think that name may not be entirely unknown to you...:

Her hand went to the amber globe in her pocket, that had come from the hoard of that same Kalamadea, the dragon who had, in his guise as a wizard, helped to lead the last Wizard War.

:So the Elvenbane found my message and my hoard? Excellent. You may keep your jewel, Shana,: he continued, following her thought. :You are making better use of it than I did. Oh, will you tell your friends that we are coming, so that no one mistakes us for overgrown geese for the pot, and shoots us?:

:Yes, sir!: she replied, and turned to cup her hands around her mouth and shout down into the fortress below her the words she had never hoped to call.

'The dragons are coming! The dragons are coming!'

Chapter 25

THUNDER CRASHED OVERHEAD, vibrating the very stones of the fortress, and Keoke, Liana and Shana all looked up involuntarily. The dragons were in their Kin-forms...which meant that there wasn't a great deal of room to spare. Fortunately, the upper story of the fortress, beneath the domed roof, had been constructed with dragons in mind.

'You'd think I'd be used to that by now,' Shana said, looking back down at Keoke's claw in her lap, and her task.

'Why? We aren't,' Keoke replied. 'I never get used to thunder-calling. You know, I must admit that I never thought I would fly to the aid of the wizards only to spend my time growing my claws...'

'And getting them clipped, Elder,' Shana reminded him. 'These bits of nail are one of our most valuable weapons, and everyone knows it, sir. Don't worry, we should have enough nail-clippings as soon as I finish with you two. We can only make so many arrows...and frankly, if we use all of them, this thing will have gone on longer than any of us thought it would.'

'Well, child, there's little enough we can do at the moment, it's true.' Thunder rumbled again overhead, and the stone beneath them vibrated with it.

'It's not as if you haven't already done plenty,' Shana told him. 'We wouldn't have lasted a day under siege if it hadn't been for what you did to this fortress. Now, I'm beginning to believe we're going to win this one...or at least make it too costly for them to pry us out.'

'True enough.' Liana sighed, and extended her left claw to be clipped.

The dragons had wasted no time in implementing their newly won resolution to help. After landing...and eating hugely, which drove the provisioners briefly to despair, until they realized that it would be possible for the dragons to hunt on their own after this...the fourteen draconic allies had turned their abilities and powers to the transformation of the fortress into something siegeworthy.

This was even Shana's first look at the dragons' magic, other than shape-shifting. She still didn't know how they accomplished what they did; it seemed to involve the same kind of bone-deep understanding of...of matter...that enabled them to change to the forms of such nonliving substances as rocks. All she did know was that they distributed themselves fairly evenly about the fortress, after chasing all the halfbloods and human children out, and began sculpting the place, forming the stone into the shapes they wanted.

When they finished, the fortress was a wonder. The tops of the walls had bulwarked walkways and covered, arched roofs, with view- and arrow-slits, and the tops bulged outward, angled steeply towards the outside...so watchers could see right down to the foot of the walls and so that anything that struck them was likely to bounce out rather than in...and all corners were rounded so that grappling instruments would be unable to get a purchase on them. There was a perfectly clear space between the walls and the single inner building. Catwalks connected the building to the walls at a height of three stories above the ground, and it had no openings at all below the second story, other than the single door on the ground floor. It too had a dome-shaped, rounded roof, to assist in deflecting projectiles. Inside, each floor was a single, enormous room. There wasn't a seam, a crack, or a join-line anywhere. The entire place looked to have been carved from a single flawless piece of rock. Which meant, of course, that there were no weak points for the siegers to attack...something that probably frustrated the elven lords no end.

The only defects anyone could find in the design were the lack of fireplaces...quickly remedied by rigging