'I'll do whatever I must to save those people on the river,' he told her. 'But when we leave, I want you to stay hidden here until it's safe to leave and then return to Braejr. Tell Solveig that she has to do something about getting ready for all those people, and Alessa has to find some way to get the Radiance to protect her people.'
'You know that I won't leave you,' she answered simply.
'Dragonking!' one of the young dragons called. 'The Masters are flying back to the west, toward the river.'
For a moment, Thelvyn looked utterly defeated. 'The Masters know how to play this game as well as we do. They know they can draw me back to them by threatening the people on
the river.'
'But what can we do?' Kharendaen asked worriedly.
'We're out of choices now,' he said, rising. 'We have to fight them.'
The dragons followed Thelvyn as he hurried through the forest, seeking an opening in the trees large enough for them to return to the sky. After a few hundred yards, Thelvyn came to a small clearing and spread his wings, then leapt almost straight up with long, quick sweeps of his wings. He circled slowly just above the trees, waiting for the others to make the difficult climb out of the clearing.
The Masters were about two miles away and moving toward the west. They were flying slowly enough that Thelvyn guessed they were waiting for the dragons to show themselves. Almost as soon as the dragons began to rise above the trees, the gemstone dragons circled and turned back to attack. Then, inexplicably, they suddenly turned once more and began to fly away as quickly as they could in yet a new direction, not toward the river but north, back toward Braastar. Thelvyn did not attempt to pursue them, suspicious that they were trying to lead him into a trap. He could hardly imagine that they would be foolish enough to think he would follow them back to the city, where other gemstone dragons would be waiting to join the fray.
This time the Masters did not hesitate when the dragons failed to pursue them. Thelvyn was beginning to get the impression that they were fleeing, and since he doubted that they were trying to escape the wrath of the Dragonking, he could think of only one thing that would cause the Masters to flee. Looking back, he saw that the sky behind him was full of dragons. A small army of dragons was approaching from the southeast, part of the garrison that had remained at Rockhome. Seldaek had wasted no time in his mission, finding the nearest force of dragons and returning with them in a matter of hours.
Thelvyn circled widely until he found a large clearing where he could land and wait to speak with the leaders of this company of dragons. He was trying to anticipate which of his chief advisors, Marthaen or Jherdar, Seldaek might have located in
Rockhome. He needed to have Marthaen at hand, but he was not surprised when he saw a red dragon leading his companions as they circled down toward the clearing. Most of his companions, some four hundred in all, remained aloft, flying wide patterns to discourage the Masters from returning.
Jherdar circled tightly to slow himself as much as possible, then dropped down into the clearing. Once the red dragon had folded away his wings, he paused a moment and then bowed his head as a gesture of respect to the Dragonking. Thelvyn was still secretly surprised by such loyalty from the red dragon who had challenged him ever since he first became the Dragonlord.
'I came as quickly as I could,' Jherdar said almost apologetically.
'I have no complaint,' Thelvyn insisted. 'I didn't really expect help until tomorrow morning. Now I feel certain we can keep Braejr and the refugees from Braastar safe until the dragon sorcerers can arrive.'
The red dragon looked surprised. 'Then we will not attack now? Surely we must now have the advantage of numbers.'
Thelvyn shook his head firmly. 'We dare not. The Masters know that they cannot hold their conquests in this world as long as we are here to fight them. They have to deal with us, specifically with me, as soon as possible. I suspect a trap, and I'm reluctant to attack until we have a better understanding of the situation. For that, I need our sorcerers. I doubt that a delay will make any real difference, since Braastar has already fallen.'
Jherdar turned his head aside, looking rather disgruntled. Like all dragons, he wanted to face all challenges with direct action, attacking his enemies immediately and with unrestrained fury. But he would not question the Dragonking, having come to understand the need for restraint and careful planning. Thelvyn was glad of that, since he had been afraid the dragons might have become overconfident from their relatively easy victory in Rockhome.
CHAPTER TWELVE
The arrival of the first group of dragons made Thelvyn's problems a little easier to handle, since in effect it brought the invasion of the Highlands to a stalemate. The Masters were content to concentrate on trying to secure their own position in Braastar and the area around the city, leaving the refugees from the city in relative peace. That made it easy for the dragons to protect the refugees and help them on their way south, both the people on the river and those traveling by the main road. But the Masters were relentless in expanding their influence over the minds of the Flaem. They extended their mind attack beyond the refugees to towns and cities as far south as Braejr.
Thelvyn was able to continue to relieve much of the pressure that the Masters were exerting against the refugees by maintaining his spells of protection. But the spell that he used to dispel the magic of the mental summons demanded a great deal of his strength, especially since he was required to renew the spell every two or three hours. The demand upon him became almost too much to handle when he was also required to employ the spell to protect the people of Braejr. Neverthe-
less, it was something that only he could accomplish. Not even the greatest of the dragon sorcerers could command even a portion of the powers that were his by right as the son of an Immortal.
Another company of dragons arrived during the night, and that insured the dominance of the dragons in the Highlands. Even so, no one could help ease the burden of Thelvyn's burden of defending the Flaem from the control of the Masters. He slept when he could at night, but he was required to renew one of the two protective spells he was maintaining every hour or so. By daybreak, he was so tired he could hardly rise.
He had one turn of good fortune the morning after arriving back in Braejr. After Alessa's Fire Wizards had experimented with the power of the Radiance for a day and a night, they had finally discovered a way to use its power to partially block the power of the Masters. He was able to speak briefly with Alessa Vyledaar that morning, and she had told him something of the search to find a way to use the Radiance against the Masters. Mostly, she had made certain that he understood its two main limitations. The power of the Radiance was great but limited; she had to be careful that the wizards maintaining the shield used its power no faster than it could renew itself. In addition, as he had known previously, the Radiance lost its strength steadily with distance. The limit of the shield was just barely enough to protect Braejr.
But Thelvyn still had to maintain his spell to protect the refugees. He spent most of the next day in the wilderness with the dragons guarding the retreat of the people from Braastar, shielding them from the cold, demanding will that kept trying to force them to turn back toward the north. The struggle was even greater than it had been the day before, since the Masters had grown somewhat in their own powers during the night, and they became even stronger during that third day of the invasion of the Highlands. Yet another company of dragons arrived late in the morning. There were now over a thousand dragons in the Highlands, and the latest arrivals brought the news that armies from the dwarves, the elves, and Darokin were already on their way.
As Thelvyn was returning to the lair at Solveig's house that evening, he noticed with some interest that every lamp and lantern from her home had been brought out to illuminate the court. The area around the house was full of dragons and people. Indeed, the court was so full that Thelvyn had to land in the street outside the gate. When he peered through the gate, he saw that Marthaen had arrived, together with a couple of older dragons he hoped were the sorcerers he had been anticipating. They were discussing something with Alessa Vyledaar, who looked rather sullen.
Thelvyn was surprised and delighted to see Ferrantin, mage and former adventuring partner, standing with Solveig and Sir George. The wizard hadn't returned to the Highlands in the last six years, and Thelvyn had never
