just beyond the borders of the Highland Frontier. Marthaen had been gathering all the dragons of the world in this region, scattering them in a line from the Highland Range to the south to the hills and forests of the north. They were spread out just enough to give each dragon adequate range for hunting, but even so they would need to move on soon before they depleted all the local game. The irony to Thelvyn was that these were the same mountains where the renegade dragons had once pursued his mother to her death, fearing prophecies they did not understand.
The leaders of the dragons had made their main camp in the deep, soft grass of a meadow on the western side of the mountains. The afternoon was fading quickly toward evening by the time Thelvyn arrived, in spite of his efforts to conclude his business in Braejr as quickly as possible. Because there was so much to do and so little time to do it, he was planning to make a brief stop and continue on to the west at once.
'Do the dragons know what has happened these last few days?' he asked Marthaen as they descended toward the meadow, preparing to land.
'They don't know the specific events of your journey,' Marthaen told him. 'I sent word only that you had returned safely. So far they know only where you went and why.'
As they landed in the meadow, Thelvyn was rather surprised to see all the dragons hurry to gather around him. He supposed they were pleased to see that he had not abandoned them to fight their enemies alone. He did look very much the part of the Dragonking, now that he was once again wearing the collar as well as his harness and weapons. He couldn't help feeling gratified to be the object of their appreciation, especially when he recalled how strenuously they had rejected him when he had appeared before the parliament only a few weeks earlier.
'I knew you'd be back!' Jherdar declared, twice as pleased as anyone. 'You're too sly to let yourself get trapped.'
Thelvyn smiled, realizing that being called sly was undoubtedly a compliment from a red dragon.
'You do look a bit beaten up, if you don't mind my saying so,' Jherdar added, watching them with concern.
'I'm afraid I let myself get trapped after all,' Thelvyn said, speaking loud enough for all of his lieutenants and advisors to hear. He thought they should know the worst. 'I met the Overlord, our true enemy, and it nearly proved to be the end of me. But we got the best of him in the end, and we came away with one important advantage. We now know his secret name, and neither the Overlord nor the Masters can control the will of anyone who knows his name. Now we can go into the coming battle with absolute certainty that they cannot take control of our minds.'
The dragons lifted their heads, looking hopeful and talking quietly among themselves. Although no one had ever complained to him about it, he knew that the dragons had been concerned about being dominated by the will of their enemies. Now they could go into battle with much greater confidence.
'I understand that you've summoned every dragon in the world for this battle,' Thehvyn continued. 'Tell me more about this. What total strength of dragons can we expect, and how many do we have already?'
'The total number will depend upon how many of the renegades show up,' Marthaen explained. 'Even some of the renegades are responding to the summons, and many of their bands are here already. There are at least six thousand dragons in the world, possibly as many as eight thousand. We have five thousand here now, assembled according to their kingdoms under the leadership of their kings and clerics.'
Thelvyn sighed. 'All the dragons in the world add up to the population of one medium-sized human town, and we alone stand before this invasion. I wonder how many will live to return home again. Do you have any idea of the strength of the enemy?'
'We've been trying to make some determination of their numbers,' Jherdar said, glancing at Sir George. 'We have some drakes in our company, small enough to go places we cannot go and act as spies. We cannot expect their reports to be perfectly accurate because of the very size of the invasion force, but they tell us that there are some five hundred gemstone dragons, about forty of the metal warriors, and an additional army of at least a million, consisting of monsters and creatures of various kinds. The columns of their army stretch across the land for miles. That was as of yesterday evening, a full day ago.'
Marthaen turned to the Dragonking. 'You said their forces are still coming through the gate?'
Thelvyn nodded. 'Yesterday evening I was at the stronghold of the Overlord. I saw armies approaching from two directions, lined up to await their turn to pass through the gate. The lines stretched off into the distance for miles. There were thousands more yet to come, possibly hundreds of thousands.'
'Then what are we to do?' Jherdar asked. 'Our dragons outnumber the Masters, but we have no support to take on such a huge army. All the armies of our world combined cannot hope to defeat an invasion of such size.'
Thelvyn considered that quickly. 'I don't think we should concern ourselves with their army just yet. As vast as that force may be, it is the least of the problems we have to face. I think the Masters should be our most immediate concern. We must try to trap them or draw them away in small enough numbers that they can be overwhelmed.'
Marthaen nodded slowly. 'If it weren't for the Overlord, we could win this war easily enough.'
'Unfortunately the Overlord is the greatest of our problems, and nothing else we do matters unless I am able to defeat him somehow,' Thelvyn said. 'If we have any success in fighting the Masters, the Overlord will come to their rescue. And when he comes, I must be ready for him. Our battle alone will decide the fate of our world.'
He saw that Kharendaen was watching him, and he knew that she could appreciate just how difficult that battle would be. He wondered if she had also guessed the sacrifice that he might have to make to acquire the strength he would need to defeat the Overlord.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
The ranks of the enemy moved slowly through the wilderness; there was no reason for such a vast and unstoppable force to hurry toward the inevitable. Their destruction of the civilized lands to the east seemed a terrible certainty, so it mattered not to them whether their conquest of this new world took weeks or months. Indeed, the Masters reckoned that they might need as long as a year to enslave the western continent before moving step by step across the islands of the sea to Alphatia and finally into the uncharted continents of the far east and the distant south. They would never again make the mistake that they had made before by underestimating the dragons.
They had fought their way across a hundred worlds, enslaving many and utterly destroying a number of them. In all the centuries of conquest since they had come to serve the Overlord, they had never lost a war. Now they were prepared to do whatever they must to insure that they did not lose this battle. There was no question that the dragons would try to stop ihem before their forces reached the inhabited lands. Either they and their vast army would be defeated, a seemingly impossible turn of events, or the dragons would be destroyed. But they knew they would not lose the coming battle. If things went badly, the Overlord himself would come to fight with them, to make their victory certain and absolute. Indeed, the Overlord would be coming under any circumstances.
Their invasion force moved slowly across the land, five entire armies marching side by side a mile apart, each army advancing in a column two hundred yards across. Swift, stealthy scouts, Veydran and other warriors, advanced well ahead of the columns, seeking out spies and traps. Great beasts gathered from many strange worlds led each army, tearing out trees and stones and tossing them aside like playthings, while other massive animals followed behind to trample the torn ground into a hard-packed road. After that came the soldiers, rank upon rank, drawn from many different races, interspaced with trains of supply wagons, great wains the size of small ships drawn by horselike beasts nearly the size of dragons, supplies enough to keep even this huge force in the field for months.
And above the armies of the Overlord flew the Masters, hundreds of gemstone dragons of every color. Others led the lumbering hulks of the metal warriors, who stood like mountains of iron over the ranks of the armies. The metal monsters had been marching slowly outward from the secret stronghold of the Masters for the last six days, and ranks of soldiers and supply wagons were still coming through the great worldgate, taking their
