through in a short time, many leaping into flight to take their positions in the region surrounding the gate for five miles around. Then companies of soldiers began to appear, marching out of the gate in neat rows before spreading along the sides of the road. Supply wagons began to file through as well, small groups of heavy wagons drawn by massive horses nearly as large as the dragons themselves.
Now the leader of the Masters stepped away from the worldgate, moving quickly a short distance down the road until it came to a rise where it could look back through a break in the trees. The worldgate and all the activity surrounding it was now several hundred yards behind the creature and no longer a distraction. It sat up on its haunches, its forelegs off
the ground and bracing the bulk of its body with its tail for balance. Then, in the quiet, remarkably understated way of dragons, it began to work great magic.
Strange things began to happen in the night, as deep, elemental forces began to move through the world in response to the amber dragon's magic. Or perhaps it was that the world fought to resist the dragon's magic, which reached from beyond that plane of existence. But the spells were powerful and carefully prepared well in advance, so that the amber dragon needed only to invoke the magic that waited to be summoned. The darkness of the night began to gather deeper above the hill that stood just beyond the worldgate, like a well of shadows that seemed to draw the fabric of the night in upon itself.
Then, when the spells had gained their greatest strength,
the well of deep darkness suddenly rushed outward again. And when the blackness faded into ordinary night, the face of a massive cliff now stood above the forest, and a great fortress Mood at the point of the cliff. It looked remarkably like the
nine fortress in which the Dragonking had found the Collar of the Dragons, but if indeed it were, the entire fortress had been transported with the rock upon which it stood from one world to the next.
'Ihe fortress stood silent and empty. While stone and timbers could be magically transported between worlds, living creatures could not, not even the gemstone dragons. The Masters and their many slaves had been required to come through the gate one by one, abandoning their great fortress for a brief time while it was shifted between worlds. Now they had a ready-made stronghold in the land of their enemies, a place where they could stage their invasion of the Highlands with certainty and precision. And with a stronghold of their own, they could stand against the fury of the dragons of Mystara. The soldiers and supply wagons that had been gathering in the road were now moved quickly toward the fortress, making room for more fighters, who continued to file through the worldgate.
And yet the Masters were not yet done with their preparations. The amber dragon and several of its companions spread their wings to lift themselves into the night sky, flying quickly to the fortress to post guards within its massive walls and prepare it for occupation. One of their first duties would be to complete the opening of a second worldgate, one that was hidden deep within their own stronghold. In that way, they could maintain contact with their own world, even under siege, bringing in more soldiers, weapons, and supplies as needed.
This time they would not make the same foolish mistake of underestimating the Dragonking. They intended to prove to him that his bands of half-wild dragons were no match for their great powers and careful planning.
The Masters and their servants labored through the night, knowing that their fortress had to be secure before the dragons discovered it. Now that there were dragons in Braejr less than a hundred miles to the south, they knew it was inevitable that they would be discovered soon, perhaps that very dawn. The Masters took every precaution they could, moving their forces and wagons through the night without light. Above all, they had to be careful that there were no lights visible within their fortress, especially from the tower windows that faced west toward Braastar. Since they could plainly see the lights of the city only a few short miles away, they needed no other reminder of the need for caution.
The strategies and policies of the Masters had recently been unsettled, for the Dragonking had surprised them and frustrated their plans, and they still did not understand how that had happened. All they knew was that the Overlord had informed them that the dragons had rejected their king, yet somehow the Overlord had been mistaken in that, as impossible as that seemed. Or perhaps matters had changed more quickly than the Overlord suspected, and the dragons had pledged their support to the Dragonking after all. The latter explanation was easier for the Masters to accept, but they knew for certain that such mistakes must not happen again. This time they would be a step ahead of their enemy.
Only two days before, the Overlord had warned them that the time had come. Whole armies of soldiers and supplies had been moved immediately from the nearest strongholds to the fortress that had served to guide the settlement of the Highlands, built in the time when the Flaem had been held as slaves in the world of the Overlord. The Masters had always intended to transfer their stronghold into the world of Mystara, to serve their needs when they finally came into the world they planned to conquer.
Word had been sent that the Dragonking was assembling an ulliance against the invaders and that he would soon be bringinng hundreds of dragons into the Highlands. The Dragonking seemed to anticipate that the next invasion would come in the Highlands; now it had become a race between the dragons and ilie Masters to assemble their forces in the Highlands first, and so far the Masters were ahead. The dragons were on the way, however, and the Masters and their armies had to be in place before the dragons arrived.
When morning came, the Masters were careful to remain with their slaves inside the fortress, closing the worldgate in the forest so that from now on they would rely only upon the one hidden within their own walls. By being as unobtrusive as possible, they hoped to evade discovery for as long as they could. There was always the vague hope that any dragons who iw their fortress would be new to the Highlands and unaware it had not always been there. Just the same, they would be forced to act soon, even if it meant an end to secrecy and the element of surprise. They no longer had enough room to keep their considerable forces hidden within their stronghold, and they would have to launch their attack before they could bring through more of their own people.
The Masters liked to believe they were prepared for the worst, and their plans were put to the test within the first hour of daylight. The land was still in the deep shadows of the mountains when a dragon was spotted riding the winds northward, a young gold who was drifting and soaring back and forth over the forest as he hunted. He seemed to not even see the fortress of the Masters at first, or else he was unconcerned by the great edifice of gray stone standing dark and silent over the woods, seemingly abandoned. But the young dragon's interest began to grow as he came nearer, although he was careful not to approach too closely as he circled warily. Suddenly he turned and flew back toward the south at great speed, obviously carrying a warning to Braejr.
The Masters had to let him go, knowing from their experience in Rockhome that they were not as swift as the sleek gold dragons. They were running out of time, but they still had several hours left to them, perhaps even a day. There still weren't enough dragons in the entire Highlands to challenge them, although there might be a few hundred as near as Rockhome. The Masters had no way of knowing with any certainty just where the Dragonking kept his forces at that time, or what numbers he had been able to gather. They had only a brief time to act, but they would not be easily stopped once their plans were set into motion.
Hardly an hour later, the invasion of the Highlands was launched. The main gate of the fortress flung open, and armies began to march out to war, joining with the additional forces that had already filed through the old worldgate. They followed the forest road west toward Braastar, a ready-made path of invasion. When the Flaem had first come into this world, the Masters had intended for them to establish their greatest city near the gate, so that the Masters could move quickly to seize control when they finally launched their invasion. Later, the Flaem had been permitted to move their capital to Braejr to protect the secret of the Radiance, which had been in danger of discovery by the elves. The Masters had never anticipated that Braejr and the Radiance would fall into the hands of their most powerful and determined enemies, but that was only a minor inconvenience. They had tried to find answers to all problems.
Now the Masters began their second invasion, one that was not waged with swords or arrows or even the terrible natural weapons of dragonkind, but with magic. The Flaem had been their slaves in the past, and there remained embedded in their minds an instinct for obedience, the same instinct that the Masters employed to control all the races and strange creatures that were enslaved to their will. Now they invoked that same magic to a far higher degree than usual, to awaken the instinct for obedience in the Flaem and summon the lost flock back into the Masters' fold.
The army that marched toward Braastar did not expect to fight for possession of the city. The Flaem would
