you ever sense anything unusual?'
'Not that I recall,' Kharendaen replied. 'You yourself know that there are many places of old magic throughout the continent. Some are good, some are evil, and some are simply so old and forgotten that they are nothing more than shadows of their former power. Dragons sense many such things in their flights, so many that you must simply ignore those that do not threaten you. Worldgates are rare things, best left alone, and they are not commonly connected with the duties of a cleric. As such, they are outside my own experience.'
'If the Fire Wizards are still using it, they must have some way of getting there,' Thelvyn said. 'Murodhir said he placed the collar in a wagon the Fire Wizards had brought, and that he tried to follow them. The first thing, obviously, is to find that road.'
After drifting back and forth over the trees for a time, they came upon an old forest road that seemed to be the one that Murodhir had described. Thelvyn was somewhat surprised, since he had suspected that the renegade dragon had not been telling the truth. They followed the road eastward for several miles as it led deeper into the wild, rugged lands below the towering Colossus Mountains. When the dragons caught glimpses of the road through the trees, they saw only a simple dirt path beaten by the hooves of horses and the wheels of wagons, obviously little used but not yet overgrown by the forest. Since there were no settlements this far to the east of
Braastar, there was no practical purpose for having a road here.
Thelvyn suddenly felt a faint touch of magic somewhere below, and he turned sharply to circle back. Although the road continued on toward the mountains, he thought they should investigate this place before searching even farther into the wilderness. There was nothing to be seen, not even a small clearing in the forest to show that this might be the place where an entire race of wanderers had arrived from another world. Still, the gate would have been opened from the other side, and the wizards working their magic would have had no way to know where their portal would lead. It would have been just as likely to open here, in the middle of the forest, as anywhere.
'I think this might be it,' Thelvyn told his companions.
He descended quickly through a break in the roof of the forest, moving quickly out of the way so that Kharendaen could follow him down. They folded away their wings and cautiously approached the area where they could sense the alien magic, pausing while they were still a safe distance away. The road made a sudden, inexplicable loop to avoid passing beneath the broad branches of a single massive oak tree. A pair of curious carved posts of gray stone, not unlike mileposts, had been set several yards apart beneath the tree, half hidden in the deep grass and the litter of leaves and twigs.
'Your flying skills are improving,' Sir George observed, having no apparent interest in leaving his place in Kharen-daen's saddle.
'I'm getting a lot of practice,' Thelvyn said absently, then moved slowly closer to the pair of small stone posts. 'If this is the gate, then those might be markers or even a part of the gateway.'
'The gate would have been opened from the other side before they were set in place,' his mate explained, staying back in the road with the old knight. 'They might have been set to help to direct or focus the worldgate after it was opened. The first question we must deal with is to discover how we can open the gateway.'
Thelvyn stepped forward a bit more boldly, standing so that he was facing the space between the two stones. He sniffed the Grass tentatively. 'Someone has been through here recently, perhaps within the last few days. A Flaem, I'd say. They have a distinct scent.'
'You
'I'm still getting used to having such a sharp sense of smell,' Thelvyn said, then turned his head to look at her. 'I am not particularly concerned about getting through the gate. Alessa said that it would probably respond to our will, and I am inclined to trust her on that. My concern is for what we may find on the other side. If the traitor Fire Wizards are waiting for us, surely they would have set a trap in case their secret was discovered.'
'What kind of trap could harm a dragon?' Sir George asked.
'I have no wish to find out the hard way,' Thelvyn said as he moved to one side to examine one of the stone posts. 'Considering that they probably have the Collar of the Dragons on the other side of this gateway, I imagine that they must be very concerned about dragons coming through after them.'
'We could pitch Sir George through first to see what happens,' Kharendaen suggested. 'Or we could open the gateway and do what we can to detect any traps.'
'Open the gateway,' Sir George said as he dropped down from his saddle. 'Remember, I was once a master thief. The ability to detect traps is second nature to me.'
Thelvyn turned his head to face the area between the two gray stones. A moment later, a great oval of blackness seemed to leap out of the shadows beneath the tree. The far end of the gateway could be seen deep within the oval of blackness, as if it were a tunnel to some other place, but very distant and indistinct, as if viewed through the wrong end of a spyglass. Sir George waved the two dragons back a safe distance, then approached the center of the gateway and stood motionless before it, as if deep in thought.
After a time, Sir George began to approach the gateway very slowly and cautiously, extending his right arm before him as if he were feeling his way with his only remaining hand. Just as he was about to step within the darkness of the gate, some unseen force seemed to suddenly take hold of him and draw him sharply forward. He struggled against the force, only managing to break its hold with considerable effort, so that he was thrown backward into the deep grass. Once he was on the ground, he was content to remain there, rolling over quickly and covering his head. In the next instant, a great flash of flame shot out from the gateway, the edges of the fire curling upward into the branches of the broad oak. Fortunately the tree was too green to burn easily, although it would have soon gone up in a great bloom of flame if Thelvyn hadn't used a spell to suppress the fires licking at the ends of the branches.
'That appears to have been the only trap,' Sir George declared, picking himself up and walking back to the center of the gateway. 'It's safe to enter now.'
True to his word, he stepped into the worldgate and allowed the mysterious force to draw him into the darkness.
Thelvyn muttered an oath under his breath and leaped into the gateway, fearful of what the old knight might face alone. That same force lifted him up and drew him swiftly forward. The sensation was so much like flying that he had to resist the instinct to spread his wings to steady himself. A moment later the darkness drew away, and he found himself in a place utterly different from the one he had left. He stepped aside quickly to allow Kharendaen to come through behind him before he dared to look about.
Only moments earlier he had been standing in the deep forest on a gentle spring morning. Now he stood in a land of harsh, barren stones beneath a night sky. A cold wind swept sheets of stinging desert sand along the ground. He seemed to be standing amid boulders and deep ravines near the rugged shore of some great lake surrounded by sharp, towering peaks and ridges of lifeless mountains. Farther along the rocky shore, perhaps three miles from where he stood, stood the dark, imposing bulk of a fortress of great size, a shadowy collection of high walls and towers that was nearly as large as a town. It was perched atop a high bluff overlooking the lake.
Surely this must be the stronghold of the Fire Wizards of the Flaem. And it seemed that the traitor wizards must be at home, for a few pale lights could be seen in the distant windows. Thelvyn noticed something odd about the lake below the cliffs that supported the dark walls of the fortress. The high waves seemed frozen in place, just as they were about to crest. He saw that the waves were in fact dunes of dull gray sand, partly hidden within a fog of wind-blown dust.
Kharendaen moved close to his side and rubbed her cheek lightly against the side of his long neck. She had in the past remained calm and brave in the face of many dangers they had shared, but this barren land was so hostile that even she found it disquieting. The cold wind whipped around them once again, so that they had to lift their heads above the sheets of blowing sand. Sir George had to climb back into his saddle to escape the worst of it.
'At least we won't have to worry where we left the gate,' he said, looking back at the great archway of stone that framed the worldgate. Thelvyn released his will, permitting the gateway to close.
'My powers as a cleric have left me,' Kharendaen warned her companions. 'I am too far removed from the influence of the Great One.'
'I don't feel any different,' Thelvyn said, testing his own abilities just to be certain.
