suffering. Of course, she was also still dissatisfied over turning control of the Radiance over to the dragons, although she had to admit it was best, considering the way things had turned out. The dragons could command the full power of the Radiance, but they could not take it away with them. The Fire Wizards claimed the Radiance, but they had access to only a small part of its true power. That helped to insure that neither party would be tempted to misuse it.
Within the hour, Thelvyn had a final meeting with the remaining delegates of the Grand Alliance. He explained to them that the evacuation of Braejr was continuing and that the time had come for them to leave as well. Although he was cautious with his information, he tried very hard to imply that he didn't expect to be able to hold the city. He was somewhat surprised when they all agreed to leave immediately. If there was a spy among them, apparently the Masters thought that his work was done.
To his dismay, Thelvyn discovered that the Masters had outguessed him once again. Later that same morning, a dragon hurried to Braejr with the warning that he had seen a dragon of tremendous size, a strange, wingless dragon that appeared to have metal armor. The metal dragon had apparently come through the worldgate near their stronghold east of Braastar and was moving quickly overland, heading south to join the invading army. The young dragon had to admit that he had few details to offer, since the Masters had prevented him from coming closer than several miles. But he had certainly seen something odd and alarming.
Thelvyn decided he had better see this thing at once. He took along with him enough bodyguards to force their way through the defenses of the Masters long enough for a close look at the metal creature. To keep the element of surprise as long as possible, they began by flying west from Braejr. After many miles, they came to the hilly, wooded lands of the central Highlands and began a long circle northward that brought them across the Aalban River from the northwest, just above Braastar. They continued to fly swiftly over the forest east of the city, over a hundred dragons in a tight column as they searched the wilderness for the mysterious metal dragon.
Finding the strange dragon in the wilderness proved to be easy, even from miles away, since it stood taller at the shoulders than the tops of many of the trees. It was like some strange, alien draconic form, with a long, serpentine body carried on four sets of legs. Its extended face had eyes that burned like red jewels from the deep shadows of protective horns and spikes, and its long tail was armed at the end with a massive weight like a crushing club, lined with ridges of sharp-edged plates that glittered like metal. The very size of the metallic beast was alarming. It was easily a hundred yards from its nose to the end of its tail and twenty yards high at the shoulders, making it several times the size of even the largest gold dragon.
Keeping just above the trees, Thelvyn led his dragons in as fast as they could fly. As he came closer, he began to have serious doubts about what he saw. Whatever this strange creature was, the massive shell of dark bluish silver metal was almost certainly not its natural armor. But if the creature was wearing a suit of protective armor, then it had to be carrying more than its own weight in metal. Thelvyn had seen dragon armor at Windreach, but only partial pieces that usually covered only the wearer's neck, face, and chest and could be easily carried in flight. Of course, since this beast didn't fly, it was free to bear far more weight. As massive as it was, it was moving along at a rapid pace and would probably overtake the invading army by the next morning.
Thelvyn led the dragons in for a swift attack, taking a chance that the armored creature lacked flames or other deadly weapons. The beast didn't even hesitate in its ponderous stride, seemingly unconcerned by the flood of dragonfire that the scores of attacking dragons directed at its back. Thelvyn quickly realized that he would have to reconsider his tactics. He had thought that dragonfire was enough to penetrate any thickness of armor in moments, but the armor of this creature had to be enchanted in some way to resist the flames. He warned the dragons to keep their distance and then landed in a clearing some distance ahead of the armored creature.
That gave him a moment to change to human form and teleport himself into the armor of the Dragonlord. He found that he moved a bit unsteadily because of the long time since he had taken this form. He stepped out into the south end of the clearing and turned to face the armored dragon as it pushed through the trees with the lumbering ease of some massive beast crashing through the underbrush. As it came into the clearing, Thelvyn drew and lifted his sword, directing the power of the enchanted blade toward the heavy armor of the alien dragon. It didn't even react to the first several strikes, even though the bolts were powerful enough to have slain a red dragon. Pausing a moment to summon the full power of the sword, he aimed a final blast of tremendous strength directly at the chest of the armored beast in the last moment before it was upon him.
The blast was fierce enough that it caused him to turn his head aside, and the force of the explosion echoed through the hills like thunder. The front end of the creature was lifted from the ground by the impact, but it hesitated only momentarily in its stride, the thick metal of its armor not even dented or scorched, even though the grass was seared for some distance around it. Then it reached out with one massive foreleg and swatted the Dragonlord aside almost casually.
Only the magical armor saved Thelvyn's life, since the force of the blow lifted him from the-ground and sent him flying more than a quarter of a mile over the top of the forest. The panic of falling awakened newly learned instincts as he struggled to spread his wings and fly, forgetting that he was no longer in dragon form. Then he crashed heavily through the branches of the trees, landing on the soft humus of the forest floor on his back. For the moment, he was stunned by the blow and ached fiercely in spite of the protection of his armor.
All he could do was lie moaning in pain amid the wreckage of torn leaves and broken branches. After a time, he stirred and lifted himself painfully, shifting out of the armor of the Dragonlord and returning to his draconic form.
Moving slowly, he found an opening through the trees where he could show himself to his concerned dragon bodyguards, already flying back and forth over the forest searching for him. He seemed to have no serious injuries, although he needed several more minutes to recover before he dared to spread his wings and trust himself to flight. The massive armored form continued to move quickly through the woods with single-minded determination, its brief encounter with the Dragonlord seemingly forgotten. A small band of gemstone dragons had joined the fantastic creature.
Now Thelvyn understood why the Masters believed from the first that they could fight the Dragonking and the dragons and win. Their armored beast was impervious to attack, having taken the worst the Dragonlord could throw at it and had emerged unharmed. Thelvyn had no idea how he could fight such a thing, but he was now certain there was no living creature inside that armor.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Many years had passed since Thelvyn had faced an enemy he could not fight. There had always been a great deal of security in knowing that if things got out of hand, he could always win any argument that came to blows. Even when he had faced the dragons a year before, desperate to find some way to save them by avoiding battle, he had always had the assurance that he could defeat them. Of course, Marthaen had known that the dragons could not fight the Dragonlord, and he had never had any intention of trying. The Masters had found a very different answer to the problem of fighting the Dragonlord, by building a device so big and solid that it could simply walk right over any opposition.
Thelvyn was glad the evacuation of Braejr had continued uninterrupted, since the metal beast was moving along quickly enough to be there some time the next day if it did not slow down to march with the invading army. Thelvyn believed there was a way to defeat the giant war machine, but at the moment, it was unavailable. He returned to Braejr as quickly as he could, calling together his chief advisors for a hasty discussion. Above
all, he wanted Marthaen to be there.
'At least now we know why the Masters were willing to have their spy leave the city,' Sir George commented when Thelvyn had related the events of his brief encounter. 'Obviously they believe they already have the answer to any problems they may encounter.'
Marthaen sat for a moment in silent thought. The news that the Masters had a weapon that even the Dragonlord could not face up to had shaken them all, since they had always looked upon the Dragonlord as the most dangerous force of destruction in the world. The gold dragon looked up at last. 'What manner of beast could be locked inside that armor? No true dragon-kin, certainly.'
'I'm fairly certain there is no living creature inside the armor,' Thelvyn replied, to everyone's considerable surprise.
