horrible creature that confronted him was the very image of the worst monster that could possibly haunt a dragon's nightmares.
The moment of his capture had been so abrupt, the method so swift and absolute, that he was thrown off his guard. He knew he did not dare give in to a dragon's battle rage. The time to fight had come and gone before he could respond. Now was the time to remain calm and think, to guard his own secrets carefully while he tried to learn all he could. If he was ever to escape from this place, it would be by cunning and stealth.
The mists were beginning to draw back, and the pale light in the center of the chamber where he stood with Kharendaen grew subtly brighter, although the deep gloom didn't lighten much. Even so, he found that they were in a chamber of
tremendous size, the walls and ceiling lost in the distance and the heavy darkness. All he knew for certain about the place was that he was in the middle of a large but shallow pit, the sides so low that he could have simply stepped out if he had dared. Surrounding him were scores, if not hundreds, of the gemstone dragons, waiting half hidden in the mists beyond the edge of the pit. With their strange, faceted armor, watching him quietly with their large, dark eyes, they seemed like alien creatures, hardly something alive. They never spoke or indeed made any sound, giving no hint of their thoughts or mood, standing as silent witnesses to his defeat.
Before him stood the Overlord, a commanding and terrifying presence who moved slowly out of the darkness to confront his prisoner. He was a being of immense size, so that Thelvyn, standing before him, looked as small as a man appeared next to a dragon. Indeed, Thelvyn saw to his surprise that the Overlord was in size and shape very much like his metal warriors, a draconic form perhaps as much as a hundred yards in length, his slender, sinuous body carried on four pairs of legs. But the metal warriors were merely plain, stylized representations of the Overlord, whose armor was a nightmare patchwork of spikes and horns and elaborate frills.
Thelvyn drew back a step in instinctive fear, suddenly aware that his mate was also retreating to stand behind him when she bumped against him. Neither dared to take his or her eyes away from that image of terror standing before them. Clearly the Immortals had not known the true nature of the Overlord, or else they would have never expected him to fight such a monster. But then he forced himself to gather his ragged courage and stand his ground, although his thoughts at that moment did not go beyond the seemingly hopeless possibility of finding a way to save himself and his mate.
'You have come,' the Overlord said, staring down at him in amusement. 'Dragonlord. Dragonking. Pale hope of desperate Immortals, who dare not act for themselves for fear of risking defeat. I knew that you would come to me. You are too clever and too bold for your own good. You had to have answers. You knew you were lost if you did not try. Now your trials are done, and I have prepared for you a place where you
can rest from your hopeless labors.'
'The Dragonlord and the Great One defeated you once before,' Thelvyn retaliated, realizing how weak it sounded as he tried to gather his thoughts.
'You know that is not so,' the Overlord corrected him. 'I played no part of the battle to which you refer. The Dragonlord and the Great One fought the gemstone dragons, and even then only at a time when their race was young and inexperienced. But that has become irrelevant. You know now that you could destroy the Masters, yet even then you would be a long way from winning your war. You cannot fight me.'
'I must try,' Thelvyn insisted. 'You offer me no choice.'
'I have given you no choice,' the Overlord repeated. 'In truth, I can hardly fault you for opposing me, and for that reason, in all fairness, I should not punish you for the harm that you have done to my servants and my plans.'
Thelvyn looked up in surprise, but he saw no compassion or tolerance in those cold eyes.
'But I have no concern with what is fair,' the Overlord continued. 'I must punish all my enemies when they have been conquered, except those who have been fortunate enough to die in battle. I know a special punishment for you, so that you will long for the escape of death until, in the end, your shall will yourself to die.'
The Overlord continued to move slowly forward until he stood just beyond the edge of the pit, staring down at his captives. 'They say that you spent most of your life unaware that you were a dragon. Do you still feel a bit uncertain of your dragon identity? I will show you just how much a dragon you are. I will show you what you fear most. I will show you despair such as you have never known.'
Thelvyn prepared himself for the assault, expecting to be confronted with visions of horror, or perhaps with pain or longings that were unique to dragons. He was to be shown the worst that a dragon could endure, yet he was not yet dragon enough to anticipate the form that fear would take. The Overlord surprised him by doing nothing. Instead, he moved a few steps back into the dark mists.
'Attack me,' the Overlord ordered him after a long moment.
'I promise the Masters will not interfere, no matter what happens. And I will not attack you in turn. I have no wish or need to harm or slay you just yet, I promise you. Come now. Show us first the terrible powers of the Dragonlord.'
Thelvyn wasn't certain if he acted by his own will, although he wondered why he responded without hesitation. He changed form, teleporting himself into the armor of the Dragonlord as he did so. The weapons and armor, even the body that he had worn for so much of his life, now seemed strange and awkward to him. The Overlord merely stared down at him with vague interest as he drew the sword and held it out before him, commanding the tremendous powers of the enchantments of ancient Blackmoor.
But his weapon refused to respond to his will, remaining cold and lifeless in his hands. Instead, the weight of his armor seemed to settle heavily about him. He knew what was wrong at once, recalling too well the time that the renegade Fire Wizards had used the Radiance to nullify most of the powers of his armor and weapons. Clearly the Overlord was strong enough in his own magic that he could defeat the powers of the Dragonlord by the most direct means, by simply stripping away those enchantments.
For a long moment, Thelvyn could only stand motionless in surprise as he realized what had happened. Then he slowly lowered the heavy sword. In the next moment, he was struck squarely in the breastplate of the armor by some massive force, as if he had been struck a blow with a mammoth, unseen club. The usual protections of the armor had failed entirely, so that he took the full force of the impact. It lifted him entirely from the ground and hurled him backward against Kharendaen's chest. The dragon was so startled that she jumped back in alarm. By then it was too late for her to catch him as he fell.
Thelvyn struggled to move, but he had had the breath knocked from him in his fall, and he hurt all over. The weight of the armor was too much for him to lift. When Kharendaen tried to help him up, she found herself gently but firmly pushed aside by some unseen force. As the moments passed, Thelvyn found himself struggling for breath more than ever. In the past, the helmet had always supplied its own cool, fresh air by means of its native enchantments. Now even that power was subdued, and he was beginning to suffocate within the sealed armor.
Realizing he had only moments to save himself, Thelvyn rolled over so that he could push himself up against the dead weight of the armor and rose to his knees. Only then was he able to release the clips at his neck, yank off the helmet, and gasp for breath. In the next moment the armor vanished, tele-porting away in the usual manner, except that this time it hadn't been through his will. Apparently the Overlord retained control over his armor. Thelvyn tried to return to his draconic form, only to find that even that power was denied to him. His enemy could control him as easily as his armor, preventing him from regaining his true form.
'That didn't go at all well, did it?' the Overlord asked in mocking tones. 'Your previous enemies worked so hard to fight the power of your armor. Why did they never think to simply take it from you?'
Thelvyn didn't have the breath to reply even if he had wanted to. He knew the answer well enough; no one had ever tried to take the armor from him by will alone because only the Overlord had the strength of will to accomplish that. He felt vulnerable, even rather frightened, to find himself isolated from the protection of his armor and weapons. He realized now that the Overlord's intention was to humiliate him. He tried not to give in to such a simple tactic, but he couldn't help feeling the deep humiliation that was being forced upon him.
'Would you feel better if you could be a dragon again?' the Overlord asked. 'Do you think the Dragonking would have a better chance of fighting me? That was what you were born to do, was it not?'
Thelvyn shifted abruptly to his 'true form, although he had not willed it. He immediately gathered himself to spring, then launched himself at his enemy. The ill-considered move was by no design of his own; obviously his actions were planned for him. Clearly the Overlord intended to demonstrate the utter futility of any attempt to
