weaned on the stories of the Unseen Trickster, Avachel, and all their adventures-would Erevan abandon Avachel in such a crisis?'
'Tell me, Khalt,' asked Trinculo. 'Just how would I be upholding Avachel's oath if I deprived the Trunalor of one of their best warriors in their time of need?'
'And tell me, Trinculo,' shot back Khalt. 'Just how do you except to get through this mission, whatever it is, without me?'
Trinculo fought it for a moment, but it was no good. He broke out into a stream of laughter that Khalt suspected could be heard in Dambrath. Khalt turned to Ferla with his index finger pointed squarely at his own cheek. 'This tattoo is meant to remind us that the pledge goes both ways. We owe Trinculo much more than he owes to us.'
Ferla sighed. 'The impetuosity of youth. I leave it to you, Trinculo.'
Trinculo shook his head. 'I'll regret this later, I know. Saddle me up.'
'What were you laughing at?' asked Khalt. Trinculo's discussion with Chalintash had concluded and the two of them had retired to their room in the Jovial Juggler.
'Laughing?' asked Trinculo as he paced back and forth. Trinculo was always filled with restless energy, but now Khalt could see every vein of the human form he wore bulging and pulsing. 'When?'
'At one point you and Chalintash both laughed. What was that over?'
'Oh,' said Trinculo, stopping in place. 'It was at the idea. It's absurd. The Talons of Justice are rounding up metallics who defy Lareth's plan. 'Justice and good above'-that's their code of honor. And 'Honor and respect to righteous innocence.' Where's the justice, where's the good in this? Chalintash told me that two silver Talons came by his lair and he had to fly halfway around Anauroch to escape them.'
We're nothing but rogues and fools to His Resplendency, just because we don't want to stick our heads in the ground, go catatonic, and hope for the best! Now if that's not funny, I don't know what is!' He resumed pacing.
Khalt understood Chalintash's decision to meet with Trinculo in an inn called the Jovial Juggler as a deeply cynical one. Chalintash was a copper dragon, and alongside mercuries they were said to be the most lighthearted of all dragonkind, famous lovers of humor and jokes.
And when the strength of the jester fails…
'Why did he point at me?' asked Khalt. 'And you know what I'm speaking of.'
'Yes, that.' Trinculo looked down. 'It wasn't about you in particular. It was about elves. Nobody's saying that elves are behind what's happening today. Not at all. In fact-'
'What are you telling me?' Khalt demanded.
Trinculo looked him in the eye. 'Elves did it. The Rage. Elves designed it. Gods know how long ago… but it was your people, Khalt.'
'Why?' asked Khalt. 'Why would the elves do that?'
'To hold us back.' The words seemed to give Trinculo pain even as he said them. 'Dragons once ruled this world, and the elves wanted to take our place. So the high mages designed this curse of insanity. It made dragons reckless, fighting each other, leaving their lairs to get killed. It even made them devour their own eggs. Draconic numbers decreased, and so the elves could build their civilizations.'
'But surely this was only evil dragons?'
'Maybe, but I doubt it,' Trinculo said. 'The curse affects all dragons today, good and evil. Some might say that was how it was inttended.'
The color drained from Khalt's dusky features. 'You didn't know about this curse before?'
'No. The Flights happened, but I don't know the cause. And Chalintash didn't know either, until he learned it from a kinsman of his who drew the evidence up from a human ruin under the Moonsea.'
'But he blames me, nevertheless,' said Khalt
'No,' Trinculo protested. 'He doesn't blame you. How could he? This happened millennia ago! And the mission he's given me… I need to tell you my mission. Would he give me this mission if he hated the elves?' Suddenly, an oddly genuine smile crossed Trinculo's face that seemed to erase all of what he had just said. 'We're going to Evermeet.'
'Evermeet?' asked Khalt. When he was young, a bronze-skinned sun elf came to the Forest of Amtar astride a white pegasus. The Trunalor politely refused his offer to abandon their ancient homeland, won time and time again with their people's blood, but his stories stuck with Khalt-could any place be as he'd described?
Trinculo nodded. 'Elven high magic created the Rage, and so perhaps high magic has the solution to it as well. That's my part. We go to Evermeet and seek the aid of the high mages.'
This is all happening so fast, thought Khalt. A tenday before he had barely set foot outside of the forest, and now he was on a far coast of Faerun, planning to go across the ocean to a place that some of his people thought nothing more than a myth.
'Why you?' asked Khalt. 'Why didn't another dragon just do it instead?'
'They thought my closeness to the elves made me ideal,' said Trinculo. 'The elves are surely aware of the Rage and likely to attack any dragon that came close. But perhaps they wouldn't fire at a mercury dragon, especially with an elf on his back. Good thing I brought you. And there's something else. It's often hard to find Evermeet, even from the air. It's hidden by very intricate illusions. But I know the way perfectly. Truth is, I was born there.'
'You were born on Evermeet?' asked Khalt. 'Why didn't you ever mention this before?'
Trinculo smiled. 'You never asked.'
A sound like a mighty crash of thunder came from outside, and screams filled the night. Khalt and Trinculo ran over to the window to see. It was a clear night with many stars shining down, but no moon. Still, the improved vision of both elves and dragons showed clearly the glossy golden-rust form of a dragon swooping its way over the rooftops of Beregost. Its copper wings beating, its great tail lashed and slapped the passing buildings, breaking apart the wood and stone structures where it struck.
In one claw the dragon clutched a uniformed human, a member of the town's guard, still squirming and struggling. The claw squeezed deeper around him until his writhing ceased, and the dragon let the inert guard fall to the street below.
'It's Chalintash!' Trinculo cried. 'He's returned, and he's lost. Khalt, he's lost to the Rage.'
Khalt rushed to fetch Trinculo's harness, stowed underneath Khalt's feather bed.
'There's no time for that,' said Trinculo. 'I have to get him away from the town. Join me in the ruins.' And with that, Trinculo reared back and jumped through the window, sending a shower of glass down to the street. With arms outstretched, he shed his false form, wings sprouting, his clothes melting away as silvery scales grew up all around him. Khalt snatched up his bow, quiver, and some other equipment, then quit the room with lightning speed. He dashed down the stairs, through the empty taproom, and out of the inn. Above, Trinculo made a high-pitched squeal that assaulted all of the ears of Beregost and alerted Chalintash to his presence.
When Chalintash came about to face Trinculo, he instead saw four luminous mercury dragons swooping toward him from different directions. The polished scales of each caught every point of light from the night sky and reflected them like a mirror, sending shards of light all over Beregost's sleeping streets. Snorting in annoyance, the copper dragon spat a thick line of caustic acid at the closest image. When it struck, the phantasmal dragon vanished in haze and the acid raced off beyond the town, splashing down into an open field to the west.
The three remaining dragons, which Chalintash scrutinized to find the real one, all wove and twirled identically in the air. Chalintash alighted on the temple of Lathander that dominated Beregost, clutching a towering spire in his hind talons, foreclaws and teeth ready to attack. A sudden burst of speed brought all the dragons sailing toward him. He slashed and snapped as the mercuries narrowed in, but his teeth and claws met only empty air as the illusions vanished before him. Instead, claws closed around him, the real Trinculo grasping onto his legs. With a powerful upward thrust, Trinculo uprooted the copper dragon and spun him upside down as he hauled him up into the sky.
Chalintash was larger than Trinculo, so the grapple could not last. Struggling with his great bulk, Chalintash lashed his tail, digging his sharp claws into Trinculo's flesh, bending his long neck backward to try to get a clear bite with his sharp teeth.
'I'm sorry I have to do this,' Trinculo told him, wondering if Chalintash could even understand. Adjusting his
