you know of any other worldgates we could try to use to return home, and, if so, could you lead us to them?'
'We will lead you wherever you want to go, but the journey would do you no good. The Masters seal all the worldgates they do not use, and those they do use are under heavy guard. They fear that their enemies might use their own gates against them.'
'Are there no secret gates, perhaps ancient ones that the Masters have closed but forgotten to destroy?'
'It is not possible to forget a worldgate. You can hear them as you come near, even if they are sealed.'
Thelvyn lowered his head. 'I had suspected as much, but the question was still worth asking. We must try to find our own way home.'
'We will do what we can. If you need us again, circle the village once in the air, then land ag^in. We will come to you.'
The Veydran brought forth their gifts, then made a gesture of respect and withdrew quickly, disappearing into the night. When Thelvyn and Kharendaen unwrapped the leaves, they found what appeared to be roasted carcasses of some kind of deer, although the taste was more like game fowl. Kharendaen was unable to force her mate to accept more than half of the food in spite of her arguments. She insisted that he needed to regain his strength during his recovery. Thelvyn resisted reminding her that she was now eating for two.
'What do you think?' Kharendaen asked as they ate. 'Do we dare try to find the gate where we came in, even with that new stronghold so close by?'
Thelvyn frowned. 'Finding that gate should be easy enough. If the winds are still stirring up the dust and sand, the Masters would never see us. They might not even be aware of that gate. Most likely they're watching the old gate near Braastar.'
'Marthaen said he would open gate at regular intervals to see if we might be waiting to return home. We might have to wait some time for the gate to open again.'
Thelvyn shook his head helplessly. 'We can only try.'
The dragons rested through most of the night, although they made a point of departing before daybreak in an effort to avoid being seen. The wind had increased somewhat during the night. They remained whenever possible under the cover of clouds, which were heavy but somewhat broken. The clouds offered the best cover the dragons could have, since they were far more likely to be discovered if they tried to fly in and out among the valleys and ravines. From this height, only the sharp eyes of another dragon could have seen them during the brief times when they passed between clouds.
Thelvyn had regained much of his strength with the night's rest, and he was now in relatively little pain. He was becoming impressed with just had badly he had been injured, and how easily that damage could have been fatal. For the first time, he was beginning to appreciate how close he might have been to death. He found himself a bit shaken by that realization. What he could not guess was whether his survival had been a matter of chance, or if the Overlord had deliberately kept him alive to torment him.
Flying at such height, enduring the thin air, was not the ordeal that it had been for him the day before. Traveling six miles or more above the ground also made him feel somewhat insecure, knowing he couldn't land quickly if something happened to him and he could no longer fly. The cold, thin air dried his throat, and he wished they could find water for the empty skins they carried. He wished he had thought to ask the
Veydran about how to find food and water in this inhospitable land, in case they were unable to return to their own world.
At first they flew above the especially rugged, barren lands northwest of the sea of sand, where they had previously dodged in and out through the valleys and along the ridges to remain hidden. The land did not look nearly so rugged from such a great height, and Thelvyn was interested to see that there were more definite patterns in the landforms than could been seen from low altitudes. The ridges and lines of mountains ran in strangely orderly systems, and great valleys looked like streambeds cut by recent rains. At least he had the answer to one of his questions; his sharp eyes occasionally caught pale, almost hazy hints of white in the deepest crags of the mountaintops, suggesting snow. At least the dragons would not need to suffer from thirst, although he suspected any drifts of snow would include a generous mixture of dust.
Not long after they entered the sea of sand, the high cloud cover began to break apart, as if the clouds could not endure the dry air over the open desert. The clouds didn't disappear entirely, but now they offered minimum cover for the dragons. Thelvyn spoke with Kharendaen about whether it would be better to fly low, returning to the protection of the fog of gray dust near the ground. In the end, they decided they would continue to fly at their present height, at least for now, so they wouldn't have to endure the dust in their throats or the sting of sand in their large eyes.
In time, they came within sight of the fortress that stood just north of the location of their gate, and they were forced to fly low to avoid being spotted. The hours of flight had provided Thelvyn with time to assemble something of a plan. Guided by their unerring instinct for direction, the two dragons circled around to approach the gateway from the south, finally landing amid the great boulders of the island of rock that rose out of the sands. The worldgate now stood only a couple hundred yards north of them, and the fortress was several hundred yards more beyond that. Whether or not the fortress had been abandoned when they had arrived, he felt certain that guards would be on hand now to watch for the escaped dragons. Thelvyn planned to wait in hiding until they sensed the opening of the gate, then dash through before the Masters could stop them.
'I only hope Marthaen is continuing to open the gate from time to time as he promised,' Kharendaen said, shielding her face from the blowing sand with her mate's chest as they huddled together in the shelter of a group of large boulders. 'We've been gone for a long time, and Marthaen may have given up hope.'
'This isn't our only hope,' Thelvyn said, bringing his own head around to escape the sting of the windblown sand, 'but it may be our best opportunity.'
They hadn't waited long when they suddenly sensed a flare of power, followed by the distinctive presence of an open worldgate. Thelvyn lifted his head sharply, startled that the gate should open only a short time after they had arrived. Then he realized that Marthaen might be opening the passage often, fearful because of their delayed return and aware that they might need to escape hastily. Even so, Marthaen would open the gate only briefly, perhaps no more than a few seconds at a time. The dragons had to reach it in a hurry.
They emerged from their shelter and leapt down through the boulders at a run until they came to a relatively flat shelf where they could jump into the air. They were flying blind in the thick dust, but they had no problem finding their way, drawn by the unmistakable source of magic. But almost at once Thelvyn began to sense that something was wrong. Suddenly he knew they were not alone.
The magic shifted form, and abruptly the fierce wind died and the air around them became as still as death. The wind-born sand fell to the ground, leaving only the gray dust hanging in the air like thick fog. He became aware of several vast, dark shapes moving through the dust, and a moment later three massive steel warriors emerged out of the grey darkness, towering shapes moving slowly and deliberately amid an escort of the smaller forms of the Masters. Thelvyn was forced to turn sharply, passing almost directly beneath the head of one of the metal warriors.
A dark shape hurtled down from above as one of the Masters darted in, striking Kharendaen in the middle of her back and driving her downward. The large amber dragon already had her neck in a death lock, but in the next moment she crashed heavily into the side of a low dune. The impact broke her opponent's hold, sending both of them tumbling. Kharendaen was shaken by the blow. The amber dragon rose unsteadily and shook its head, then snarled fiercely as it turned toward Kharendaen, moving in to finish the kill. She lifted her head and blinked, finding herself staring into his fangs, her eyes round with fear.
Thelvyn had circled back tightly, and now he dived to the attack, dropping down with braced legs to strike the gemstone dragon's back with crushing force. His head darted in for a death grip, but at the last moment, he suddenly leapt over the Master's sprawled form and dragged his mate out of the way. In the next instant, the massive head of one of the steel warriors thrust down out of the dense grey dust, striking the side of the dune with a tremendous explosion of sand that nearly buried the two dragons, crushing the amber dragon and driving his broken body deep into the sand.
Thelvyn shook the sand from his back and wings before he grabbed Kharendaen by her shoulders and pulled her free, half carrying her quickly to one side. The warrior pushed its head on through the side of the dune as easily as if it had been a drift of snow, and the two dragons were lifted up and sent tumbling by an avalanche of sand. This time Kharendaen was able to regain her wits, recovering from the impact that had forced her from the
