'Why is there a griffon in my lair?' Kharendaen demanded, hardly containing her annoyance long enough to remove her saddle.
'It's not your lair anymore,' Solveig insisted, undaunted. 'Thyatian messengers come and go constantly, and I use the warehouse to board their griffons.'
Thelvyn finished removing his harness and changed form.
'I wondered if that was you,' Solveig remarked, watching cautiously. 'So you've finally learned how to become a dragon.'
'I've been a dragon for some time now,' he told her. 'But we should talk about that inside. I don't know if we were seen flying in, and I don't want anyone coming around to discover dragons in your yard-or the Dragonlord, for that matter.'
Kharendaen finally managed to release the straps and slip out of her saddle, setting it aside before changing form. She assumed her Eldar form rather than becoming the elf maiden Sellianda. Solveig brought her visitors inside and led them to the den, where they had sat together often in the past. Then she had Taeryn find them something to eat from the kitchen while she hurried upstairs to dress. Thelvyn noticed that her habits were becoming steadily less barbaric, perhaps influenced by her new responsibilities.
'I suppose you must be here about the collar,' she said when she joined the others in the den a few minutes later. 'Are the dragons getting restless to have it back?'
'They probably are,' Thelvyn explained simply. 'We're here now because the Great One told me that the time has come that I need to find the collar. The Dragonking needs to wear it when he goes among the dragons for the first rime.'
'Then the Dragonking has already arrived?' Solveig asked, recalling the legends she had heard the previous summer. Then she paused and settled back in her chair, frowning as she stared at the drink Sir George had slipped into her hand. 'You're the Dragonking yourself, aren't you? I should have figured that out for myself long ago.'
'I know now why I was chosen as the object of all these prophecies,' Thelvyn said. 'I still don't know what the Great One expects of me, but it sounds very dire indeed.'
Solveig shrugged. 'I anticipated we were due for more trouble sooner or later.'
'Then you probably guessed why we're here,' Sir George added. 'If you can't tell us where to search for the collar, I'm not sure what we can do but strangle every renegade dragon in the world looking for the ones who were in league with the Fire Wizards.'
'Things might not be as desperate as all that,' Solveig said, taking a quick sip from her glass. 'I was having dinner with Alessa Vyledaar a few nights ago when she said something about finding a new clue to uncovering Byen Kalestraan's secrets. I never did find out what, but I can have her over here first thing in the morning to talk to you.'
'Alessa?' Thelvyn said rather dubiously. 'The last time I talked to her, I was trying to prevent her from seizing control of the Highlands once I was gone.'
'Well, whatever you did certainly worked,' Solveig insisted. 'She really has changed. In fact, she's been my strongest supporter since the end of the war. I know she's wanted to see you again for some time now, to make amends for her part in driving you from the Highlands. Besides, you don't have very much choice, do you? It's the only possible clue I know that might lead you to the collar.'
Thelvyn considered that briefly, frowning. 'Very well. But there are a few secrets she doesn't need to know. For one thing, I don't want her to know that I'm the Dragonking.'
'If you insist,' Solveig agreed, sounding dubious. 'But I'm not certain why.'
He smiled wickedly. 'There are a few things even you don't know about yet.'
*****
Early the next morning, Solveig set to work on the problem. First she hurried to the palace. Following Alessa's lead, she had established her own spies and supporters among the wizards. Although she felt some regret for treating her friend so suspiciously, she had every reason to question Alessa's motives and loyalties in the early days after she had become the first Prime Minister of the Parliament of the Realm. Solveig had been concerned that Alessa might try to use the power of the Radiance in an attempt to seize control of the Highlands. She had also worried that Alessa might locate the Collar of the Dragons but keep it hidden, hoping to use it in her own schemes.
As it happened, Solveig's spies had discovered nothing of any particular importance. As Alessa had said from the first, the connection between the wizards and the dragons had been limited strictly to Byen Kalestraan and his closest associates and a small band of renegade dragons who were trying to profit from the war by playing both sides. Of course, her spies were also able to confirm Alessa's new loyalty. One of the greatest troubles with politics in the Highlands in the past had been that no one dared to trust his own allies and advisors.
Solveig returned home late that afternoon with Alessa. Thelvyn still felt ambivalent about this meeting, remembering only too well his past difficulties with Alessa and how she had attempted to seduce, deceive, and finally discredit him. Alessa was surprised, since Solveig hadn't told her beforehand whom she was to meet. When she saw first Thelvyn and his companions seated about the den, she hesitated in the doorway for a long moment. She seemed uncertain what to do or say, and she nervously clutched the curious broach she wore on the breast of her wizard's robes.
'Dragonlord!' she breathed at last, coming into the room to take a seat across from him. 'I didn't know if I would ever see you again.'
'Solveig tells me that you've turned over a new leaf,' he said. 'If that's so, then you can prove it by helping me now. I have to find the Collar of the Dragons, and I have to find it soon. Solveig said that you may have found some clue.'
'Finding the collar would divert the wrath of the dragons from the Highlands, which is in my best interests any way you look at it,' she said, beginning to sound more certain. 'But you must understand that I haven't found the collar itself, only what may be a hint.'
'Even a hint would be welcome,' Thelvyn told her. 'Without any lead to follow, I'm not certain what I can do.'
'Except to seek out and interrogate every renegade dragon in this part of the world,' Sir George said, taking a small taste from his glass of cherry liqueur. 'My word, I can't say how much I've missed this stuff!'
'I hope it won't come to that,' Alessa commented, staring aimlessly at the wall as she appeared to consider, or perhaps to debate the matter with herself a moment longer. At last she frowned. 'Unfortunately, the collar isn't in Braejr and apparently isn't even in the Highlands. The wizards, fearful of the wrath of the dragons, had sent it directly into hiding and were
afraid to bring it home for experimentation.'
'And, of course, the wizards who knew about the collar are either dead or they disappeared when their bid for power failed,' Thelvyn said. 'As for the dragon conspirators, I killed one in the assassination attempt. That's just the point. I need to find at least one of the surviving conspirators, either one of the wizards who disappeared or one of the renegade dragons.'
'I have not been able to discover where the surviving wizards went,' Alessa said. 'They fled the Highlands when Kalestraan was defeated. But I might be able to tell you which renegade dragon to seek. All that is known is that they were all black dragons, that their leader was a renegade king, and that he wore a gold ring in one ear.'
Kharendaen glanced up when she heard that, startled and obviously excited beneath her typically calm demeanor. 'A gold ring? That might be all the clue we need. Dragons are not in the habit of wearing earrings. That would be remarkable enough that other dragons would remember it.'
'If you can ask a dragon,' Alessa said, staring at her.
Kharendaen had been sitting alone in the most dark and remote corner. Alessa had never met Kharendaen as a dragon, only in her secret form as the elf cleric Sellianda. As far as Alessa was concerned, she saw only a tall, dark-haired woman with the same racial features as Thelvyn, perhaps enough for her to surmise that this was another dragon in enchanted form. Alessa may have even deduced who it must be, but Thelvyn deliberately offered no introduction.
'Asking a dragon is the easy pan,' he said. 'Is there anything else you might know?'
'I've discovered nothing else at this time,' Alessa said. 'But I'm still working at digging up Kalestraan's
