'I realize that, my lord,' Laurana explained patiently. 'But I'm betting that the Highlords are no longer concerned with that city. Their attention must be riveted upon US! This army is a far greater threat than they have ever faced before. They'll need to concentrate and destroy us. Ariakus — and Kitiara too — will assume they have plenty of time for Palanthas after we've been destroyed.'
'Are they wrong?' demanded Patrick.
'Only in the assumption that they'll find us!' Laurana retorted. 'That's why it's so important to move quickly!'
'There will be opposition,' Markham pointed out. 'The Red Wing is out there, and portions of two others — not to mention the reserve army.'
'Of course. But with speed, we'll be able to meet these forces — and defeat them — one at a time. It's essential that we bring the Red Wing to battle before Ariakus can join with his allies!'
'But if you're wrong, you risk — '
'I risk what, Sir Patrick?' Laurana snapped. 'Would you go back to the days of cowering behind the stone walls of your fortress, waiting for the enemy to attack? And if we win against that attack, then what — we wait for the next, and the next until our forces are depleted, our supplies gone? Better to stake this army on the hope of a real victory — one that will do more than protect Palanthas. We take the war into the heart of the dragonrealms! Only then will our enemies face the prospect of defeat!'
(Excellency, if Mellison did not exaggerate the words, I can only assume that the Golden General quite lost her temper. It is hard to imagine her using a term like 'cower' to the proud knight. However, it seemed to have had the effect of silencing him, if nothing else.)
'We know that much of the Green Wing remains in Throtl,' continued the elven princess. 'Tomorrow, at first light, I will lead the dragons against them. If we can scatter the ogre ground forces, so much the better. The main body, in the meantime, will continue its march to the northeast. I want the Highlords to believe that Dargaard is our next destination.'
'A bold plan, my general,' Sir Rose noted, with a smile. 'As you know, these plains were my home. I should warn you that the river narrows and deepens north of here. It presents a formidable obstacle to movement to our left.'
'Thank you, Sir Knight,' Laurana replied. 'I, too, knew of this river — and, in fact, it will play a role in my plans.'
If the princess revealed that role on this night, we don't learn of it from Mellison. The girl drifted off to sleep while the warriors discussed tactics into the early hours of predawn. Perhaps even now the elven princess foresaw the Battle of Margaard Ford and was drawing up her plans for that epic confrontation. But alas, we can only speculate!
My journeys, Your Grace, shall next take me along the foothills of the Dargaard Mountains. I will retrace the steps of Laurana's army as she moved east, south, and then north — always keeping the Highlords guessing.
Until that next message, I remain,
Your Devoted Servant, Foryth Teel
To the Great Astinus, Lorekeeper of Krynn,
The Army of Solamnia exploded across the plains, shocking the dragonarmies in a series of engagements. These were distinct and isolated clashes, some of them cavalry skirmishes, others dragonfights in the skies, and a few of them pitched battles pitting all of Laurana's troops against equal or greater numbers of the Dark Queen's minions.
The dragonarmies were forced to fight when they had planned to march. And when they planned to fight they found no opponents and were forced to march. Not until the final confrontation, at Margaard Ford, did the Highlords finally assemble an overwhelming force — and then they fought a battle at the very place Laurana had selected. But forgive me, Your Grace; again I precede myself.
First to challenge Laurana's advance was the portion of the Green Wing encamped in Throtl. Two dozen dragons and more than a thousand draconians — mostly vicious kapaks — formed the heart of this legion, supported by hundreds of ogres, honorless men, and more than three thousand hobgoblins.
These troops were ostensibly under the command of the Highlord Toede, though the records of that ignoble hobgoblin make no mention of the battle. Our best reports of the fight come from Gilthanas, and the interviews conducted by the knights with one Kadagh — an ogre who served as captain of one of the Green Wing companies.
Kadagh awakened to a clear, sunlit morning — unusual weather, here in the shadow of the Dargaard Mountains. Yet this day the eastern peaks and foothills were visible, etched in vivid detail as the ogre emerged from his tent and stretched the kinks out of his knotted muscles. Then, restless, his gaze drifted to the west.
He first thought that the gods had sprinkled gold dust through the skies. Gold gleamed in the sun, floated gently through the air. But ogres are pragmatic, and Kadagh quickly observed the specks of metal growing steadily larger. His bellow of alarm alerted the camp of the Green Wing to the danger.
Laurana and her dragons had caught the detachment of the Green Wing as it prepared to march in a delayed response to the Army of Solamnia's rampage across the plain. The green dragons squatted on the ground, saddled but riderless, as gold and silver and brass death came screaming from the skies. The few greens who leaped into the air were mercilessly smashed to ground and destroyed.
Gilthanas commanded his flyers to be utterly ruthless in this deadly strike against the enemy dragons — and it seems his orders were carefully followed. The dragonlances again proved their worth, although the numerical advantage of the good dragons made the outcome all but inevitable. In moments, the evil serpents had been slain; with tooth and claw and lance.
Just before the bloody end, however, Kadagh saw one stooped figure scramble into the saddle of a green dragon and urge the beast into the air. Flying low, ducking and weaving between trees and hillocks, the lone dragon and its rider vanished into the heights of the Dargaard Range, leaving the battle far behind. It was Lord Toede, providing an example of courage for his doomed army.
Laurana's dragons conserved their killing breath weapons for the attack against the draconians, ogres, and hobgoblins of Throtl's legion. Swiftly Kadagh assembled his company — brutish ogres, armored in plate mail and bearing great swords. They were the most formidable footsoldiers of the Green Wing, and records of both sides indicated they fought accordingly.
The ogres scattered into the ravines and thickets around the camp, fighting in small groups and rushing at any dragons careless enough to get caught on the ground. The gold dragons belched fire into the underbrush, and smoke and flame drifted across the battlefield. Kadagh himself led the charge against a brass dragon that had landed, exhausted, near a clump of brush. He leaped onto the creature's wing and felled the rider, a knight, with one blow of his great sword. Others of his company rushed at the dragon, and when the wyrm reared back, Kadagh plunged his blade into the base of its skull.
(This tale is more than mere ogre boasting, Your Grace. Gilthanas witnessed the entire incident. Silvara immediately pounced on the ogre, crushing him to earth and felling the rest of his company with a blast of her icy breath. So impressed were the elves with the ogre's valor, however, that they later returned him as a prisoner to Laurana's camp.)
The knights sought and slaughtered the monsters of the Green Wing for the rest of that grim and bloody day until the tattered remnants of the force finally slipped into the wilderness of the Dargaard Mountains.
It is interesting to note, Your Grace, that by dint of this tactic, Laurana left her own ground forces open to the same kind of attack by the blue dragons in Dargaard. She was bold enough to gamble (correctly, it turned out) that Kitiara was still too chastened by her defeat at the High Clerist's Tower to risk sending her most powerful forces into a possible trap.
After the Battle of Throtl, Laurana once again divided her army. She sent many of the dragons — all of the brass and bronze, with some of the copper — to guard the portion of her army that marched on the ground. The other dragons scattered across the plain, to all points of the compass, seeking the dragonarmies. Laurana knew that elements of the White Wing lay somewhere to the south, but she had no clue as to the location of the mighty Red Wing.
And still there was the presence of Ariakus's huge reserve wing, vanished since it had departed Sanction. Laurana dispatched a pair of the precious silver dragons toward that glowering seaport, determined to learn what
