'If you can believe the words of the gemstone dragons,' Jherdar muttered darkly.
'I'm sure they were telling the truth,' Thelvyn said, glancing over his shoulder at his companions. 'I can't really say that things are worse than I hoped. I was expecting the worst, and this was confirmation of my fears.'
He rose and walked slowly a short distance into the deep shadows of the woods. The others followed him, gathering around him when he sat down beneath a large tree. They were frightened to see him look so troubled. He still appeared somewhat weary from his trials in the world of the Overlord, but now he looked sad as well. He glanced up at them.
'There's no point in making any small gestures of defiance,' he said. 'Jherdar, gather the dragons as quickly as you can.'
The red dragon nodded grimly. 'I will have the dragons ready for your orders as quickly as I can.'
'I have only one last command to give the dragons,' Thelvyn said. 'I realize now that this is my appointed time. I must face the task that I alone was created to accomplish, or else fail in the attempt. The dragons cannot help me. I can no longer in good conscience ask them to risk themselves in battles that will not matter in the end. I dismiss the dragons from my service, and I beg you to lead them to safety. Do whatever you must to take them to a safe place, even if you must open gates of your own and flee this world.'
'You speak as if the battle were already lost,' Marthaen declared.
Thelvyn shook his head firmly. 'I do not believe that, but I must admit the possibility and be prepared. It is my duty to protect the dragons from their enemies. If I can defeat the Overlord, then the dragons will be safe. If I cannot, then they can't hope to defeat him by themselves. There comes a time when it is better to save what we can than risk losing everything.'
The others protested, but Thelvyn refused to argue the matter and he would not listen to their pleas. As much as they hated to admit it, there was some truth in Thelvyn's contention that he alone must fight the battle that would decide the outcome of the entire war. At last Jherdar withdrew reluctantly, still grumbling his dissatisfaction even as he began to gather the dragons to lead eastward. In spite of Thelvyn's assurances, they couldn't help but feel that his dismissal of the dragons was meant that the worst was now inevitable.
Thelvyn realized that some dragons would refuse to leave until the final battle was at hand. He needed Marthaen for a while yet, and he knew neither Kharendaen nor Sir George would leave him until there was no choice. Indeed, he wondered how he could possibly convince Kharendaen to leave short of ordering Marthaen to have the dragons carry her to safety. So many hopes seemed to be coming to an end.
Later that afternoon, the dragons who had remained behind with Thelvyn became aware that something was happening to the west. One by one, they paused and lifted their heads to stare into the distance, sensing something. Even as they watched, great banks of clouds began to gather quickly in the west, spreading quickly across the sky in all directions. Within moments a vast, towering storm loomed dark and threatening above the western wilderness. Even as they watched, the clouds continued to expand, as if reaching out for them.
'What is it?' Sir George asked. The first breath of a cold, damp wind suddenly rushed over them, stirring the branches of the trees.
'The Overlord has come,' Thelvyn said. 'With things going badly for his army, it was inevitable.'
'Does he always wrap himself in storms?' Marthaen asked.
'I'm not sure what purpose the storm serves,' he replied as he watched the first sheets of lightning ripple across the dark, seething mass of clouds. 'Perhaps he needs to hide himself from light and warmth. Perhaps he's lived in darkness so long that he fears to leave it.'
Thelvyn had to make some important decisions in a hurry. Now that the Overlord had entered their world, the time was at hand for him to complete the task that he had been created for. He had to find some way to destroy the Overlord, and failure was not an option. The price of defeat was too great. Whatever choice he made had to be the right choice, because
he would not have a second chance.
He couldn't escape the feeling that the Great One must have provided him with some means to fight such a powerful enemy. And yet he found himself reluctant to make the final commitment to the fulfillment of his destiny because he knew the price that he would have to pay. There was an inescapable sacrifice to be made in attaining the full powers that had been ordained for the Dragonking, a sacrifice he must pay even in victory. He realized now that he had been trying to work his way around his fate, hoping that cleverness or luck would show him a way to defeat his enemies. Now he knew that he was only delaying the inevitable.
What else was there for him? He had reached the end of his hope, and he had found no other answer. He would not sacrifice the dragons in an attempt to escape his own duty, knowing that they would fail and he would still be left with the same choice. If his concern had been only for himself, for his danger of losing his new life as a dragon, he might have been filled with the same fear and regret, but he would not be hesitating. His deepest regret, he realized, was that Kharendaen would feel he had betrayed her.
As the dragons watched the gathering clouds, their sharp eyes eventually caught sight of the distant forms of gemstone dragons approaching swiftly. There were eight alien dragons in all, more than a match for the small group that remained with the Dragonking. And as the long moments passed, they were alarmed to see that the Masters were heading directly toward them.
'We'd better leave,' Thelvyn said. 'Now that we know the extent of the powers the Overlord can bestow upon the Masters, I'm sure there aren't enough of us to fight them.'
The dragons spread their wings and lifted into the sky, flying low to avoid being seen. They turned immediately to the east, toward the distant line of the Wendarian Mountains. For a moment, it seemed that the Masters would be satisfied simply to chase them from the area. But suddenly there was a brilliant flash of light, and the dark forms of the gemstone dragons were enveloped in flames, transformed into great winged creatures made of fire like an ascending phoenix, trailing long,
flickering trails of flame in their wakes.
Now the dragons settled in for a long run, having no way of knowing when, or if, the Masters would abandon the chase. Thelvyn recalled the words of the freed gemstone dragon, that even in this fiery form the Masters could not outfly a true dragon. But as the first minutes of the chase passed, he was alarmed to see that the Masters were not only keeping pace with the dragons but slowly gaining on them. The gold dragons increased their speed, stretching their broad wings in long, quick sweeps. Marthaen circled around behind Sir George, who was struggling to keep up. Drakes did not possess the speed or endurance of true dragons. Marthaen closed his claws around the drake's haunches to push him from behind, so that Sir George needed only to brace his wings to support his weight.
'What are we going to do?' Marthaen asked as Thelvyn moved in close beside him.
'We can't fight them in the open like this,' Thelvyn replied as he looked back over his shoulder. While he thought he himself could probably hold his own against one of the fiery Masters, his companions did not possess his enhanced powers. Only he, Marthaen, Kharendaen, Sir George, and two gold dragon bodyguards remained to fight against eight Masters. And the true dragons had no clear idea of the extent of the powers commanded by their enemy.
'I think we could make it to the mountains,' Kharendaen offered. 'It's about an hour's flight at this pace, but we can hide or turn to defend ourselves better there. The Masters are still a couple of miles behind us.'
'We might make it,' Thelvyn said, although he sounded uncertain. 'I don't know if we'll be too fatigued to fight effectively, but I see no choice.'
He had already decided that if the Masters came too close, he would drop back to buy some time for the others. However, he worried that the dragons would not leave him to fight alone. The dragons would be growing more weary with each long mile of the chase, but the Masters were drawing their power from the Overlord. They would not be tiring, and so they would gradually gain on their prey as the chase continued.
The chase continued for mile after desperate mile. The sun had set soon after the beginning of their flight, and day was slowly fading into dusk. The unbroken stretches of woods and meadows became increasingly rugged and began to rise as they approached the foothills below the mountains of the western spur of the Wendarian Range. After a time, Kharendaen took over the task of carrying Sir George from her older brother, since she could use her abilities as a cleric to renew her own strength. Marthaen seemed to be holding up in the seemingly endless chase, but the two young gold bodyguards were beginning to lag behind.
Thelvyn had never expected he would be the first to begin to struggle, but the damage that he had endured
