'Yes, it was,' Thelvyn answered guardedly. 'However, she sent us right into a trap. Fortunately for us, the trap was sprung a little too soon. We were able to find the collar and escape, although we had to fight for it.'
'A trap?' Solveig was obviously confused and concerned. 'Alessa set a trap for you? Is she working for the traitor wizards?'
'We discovered who was behind the attacks throughout this part of the world a few nights ago. They control Alessa's mind and will, just as they controlled Byen Kalestraan before her. In fact, before the Flaem came into this world, the entire race were their slaves.'
Thelvyn saw that it was time for some detailed explanations of all they had discovered during the last few days, although he was satisfied to leave the tale for Sir George to tell. He felt the old knight related the events of their battles with the gemstone dragons in overly heroic terms, but he resisted the temptation to interrupt. Both Solveig and Darius saw the full implications of what they had learned. They looked very concerned, and even a bit frightened.
'Well, that certainly explains a lot,' Solveig remarked when she had heard the full account. 'I suppose the first thing to do is to send the city guard to arrest Alessa and the other senior wizards before they can disappear.'
'No, I want to wait on that,' Thelvyn insisted. 'The Masters don't regard Alessa as an ally but as a slave, a resource to be exploited for as long as she might be useful and then tossed aside. They'll undoubtedly want her to discover everything she can about what I learned about the Masters and what my plans are. With any luck, I might be able to use her to feed the Masters a little false information that might work to our advantage. Then I want to try to break their control over her, to see if she can tell us anything else that might prove useful.'
'I'm willing to go along with whatever you want,' Solveig agreed. 'What are you planning?'
'I want you to call Alessa and Captain Geirstaan here for a meeting right away,' he explained. 'That might catch both Alessa and the Masters off guard. I'll tell the story you've just heard over again, except that a few details will be considerably different. I need for you to go along with it and act like you're hearing it for the first time. Then we'll see how Alessa reacts.'
'Is there anything else we can do now?' Solveig asked.
'Are there any spare griffon riders available?'
'No, but at least one should return sometime tomorrow,' Darius said.
'I'll need enough griffon riders to relay my message to every nation in this part of the world,' Thelvyn said. 'Even Alphatia. I want everyone to know who our real enemy is and that the dragons will help to defend them, but they'll also have to do everything they can to help themselves. I want representatives of each nation we contact brought here in a few days for a general council of war.'
*****
Captain Geirstaan arrived in a matter of minutes, having ridden a horse from the gate stables, and Alessa came by carriage a short time later. She looked confused and uncertain, as if she had been caught off her guard. Thelvyn wondered if she was surprised by his sudden return, having expected that the Masters would have dealt with him. He also wondered if the Masters had bothered to tell her that he had evaded their trap and reclaimed the Collar of the Dragons. He thought his return to Braejr was an obvious next step, but apparently Alessa had not anticipated it.
He related the events of their recovery of the Collar of the Dragons through their escape from the world of the Masters and the destruction of the worldgate. He could hardly change that part of his tale, since the Masters would be familiar with those details. Even so, he was careful not to reveal just how much he had been able to infer about the Masters and their abilities from what he had seen. And the Masters would not know anything about his time in Windreach, or at least he hoped not. He had already considered the possibility that they had other dragons under their control, although that seemed unlikely. If they did control other dragons, the Great One probably would have been aware of it and told Thelvyn about it.
'Perhaps I was a fool to go among the dragons at once,' he continued more slowly, as if he regretted this pan. 'All I knew was that there was little time to prepare, and I needed the dragons to help me defeat these invaders. In any event, the dragons were not impressed. They have refused their assistance for now. Moreover, they forced me to depart, and they insisted that I leave the Collar of the Dragons with them. They may be planning to use the collar to nominate a Dragonking of their own choosing.'
'They are fools,' Kharendaen said in disgust, playing her own part to the hilt.
'But what can we do?' Solveig asked, catching on quickly.
'I'm not sure what we can do,' Thelvyn said helplessly. 'I still have the powers of the Dragonlord. I know the rest of the world doesn't trust me much more than the dragons do, but they need my help as much as I need theirs.'
Darius shrugged in frustration. 'All I can do is to send a griffon rider to Emperor Cornelius ifi the morning. If he's willing to offer his support, then messengers can relay your proposal to anyone who will listen.'
'I think you can count on the Flaem to support you,' Alessa offered, watching Thelvyn carefully. 'Since it seems that Byen Kalestraan was in league with these creatures, it seems only fair that the Fire Wizards should do anything in their power to counteract his treachery.'
'Now that you know what Byen Kalestraan was up to, does that give you any ideas where to look for more clues?' Thelvyn asked. 'I know practically nothing about these Masters, so anything you might learn would be a great help.'
'I can only try,' she agreed, rising to leave. 'If you will excuse me, I want to start searching at once. I'll do everything in my power to help, even if I have to stay at it all night and enlist every wizard at the Academy to help me.'
Taeryn hurried to fetch her shawl and met her at the door of the den to escort her to her carriage. Sir George began to discuss possible plans with Solveig even before Alessa left the room. He had reasoned that it would help to make their meeting seem more natural. Alessa seemed to suspect nothing so far, and he wanted to keep it that way.
'That was easier than I thought it would be,' Thelvyn commented when he finally heard the front door close. 'I was afraid we might have to play out this game well into the night, but Alessa seems to be in quite a hurry to get home. Either she's planning to talk to the Masters right away, or they've been seeing and hearing everything she does and they want to instruct her before anything else can happen.'
Captain Geirstaan looked up in surprise. He was the only one who was not in on the plan, but he could guess already that Alessa was suspected of being in league with the Masters.
'And now what?' Solveig asked.
'Now I have to follow her,' Thelvyn said. 'And I don't want to get too far behind, in case she does something unexpected. Sir George, I need your skills as a thief to get me into Alessa's apartment unseen.'
'That should be simple enough,' Sir George replied, rising quickly to accompany Thelvyn.
'I'll bring Alessa back here when I'm done,' Thelvyn explained quickly. 'For now, I think someone should fill in
Captain Geirstaan about what has been going on here.'
Sir George came up with a simple plan for getting inside the Wizard's Residence of the Academy unchallenged. They would enter through the main door as unobtrusively as possible and walk through the corridors and up the stairs as if they belonged there. After all, they were all supposed to be friends and allies, and no one was likely to attack them or sound the alarm even if they were seen. Thelvyn was pleased they wouldn't have to skulk about like thieves. His Eldar form was no longer completely familiar to him, and he wasn't as agile as he used to be. Sir George pointed out that it was getting quite late, so no one was likely to be moving about in the dimly lit passages.
Thelvyn was concerned that there might be trouble when he tried to break the control of the Masters over Alessa. For one thing, they might force her to fight him. He was also concerned that they might try to control him as well, although he felt his powers as a cleric were probably enough to protect him. As both a dragon and the Dragonlord, there was little that the Fire Wizards could do to hurt him. His biggest concern of all was that the Masters might destroy Alessa rather than risk letting her go free, which would permit her to reveal any of their secrets she might know. When Thelvyn broke their contact with her, he would have to move quickly to protect her.
Sir George brought him unopposed and apparently unseen to the door of Alessa's chambers. The old knight
