Marthaen turned quickly to see Thelvyn sitting patiently only a few yards behind him, although no one had seen the Dragonking arrive. For a moment, Marthaen simply stared, wondering if Thelvyn's journey had been unsuccessful. He looked much the same as always. Then Marthaen had to duck aside as Kharendaen rushed past to join her mate. Thelvyn sat up on his haunches to take her in his arms.
'How did you get back so quickly?' Marthaen asked, confused.
'I knew a shortcut,' Thelvyn said evasively.
'Then your journey was successful?' Marthaen asked.
Thelvyn nodded. 'I thought it best to continue for the time being to appear in the form that you have always known me. I am now Diamond, the first new dragon Immortal since the time of the first Dragonlord. In my actual new form, I am what the gemstone dragons were trying to make themselves into long ago, when they tried unsuccessfully to raise themselves to the status of Immortals by their own magic.'
For a moment, he assumed his true form. His armor shone like cut diamonds in the morning sun, glittering with such brilliance that the eyes of the mortal dragons could hardly bear to look upon him. The dragons turned their heads aside and drew back fearfully. After a moment, they bowed to him with their necks bent low and one claw pressed to their chests. Only Kharendaen dared to look upon the manifestation of his true form.
After a moment, the overwhelming light faded as he returned to his more familiar form. 'I have shown you this so that you will not mistake me for any of the Masters, especially the crystal dragons. Today I will lead you into our final battle. Although this fight is my own, I will need the dragons as a decoy to draw the Masters and the Overlord out into the open.'
'We wait to serve you,' Marthaen assured.
'Gather all the dragons and bring them here as quickly as you can,' he instructed them. 'The time has come for me to do battle with the enemy I was brought into the world to fight.'
Later that same morning, the dragons came down out of the mountains in a single massive company, now more than seven thousand strong. They had been gathering quickly over the last couple of hours, and their numbers had grown so great that the Masters did not dare confront them. Now they flew swiftly to the west, rank upon rank of dragons of every breed. They seemed to fill half the sky. To all appearances, they were making a bold rush directly at their enemy, as if they hoped to overwhelm the army of the Overlord by their very numbers. If the Overlord was hidden somewhere within his fortress of storms miles to the west, watching them through the eyes of his slaves, he was not greatly impressed by their brave show of force.
Thelvyn flew near the head of the army of the dragons, but he left it to Marthaen and Jherdar to lead the mighty phalanx. He kept himself hidden among the ranks of the golds, hoping to remain unobserved for the moment. He meant to reveal himself when he was ready, but he hoped to keep the Overlord guessing until it was too late. He watched as the Masters moved out to intercept the dragons, drawing upon the power of the Overlord to assume their fiery forms. But when they saw the numbers of dragons approaching, their fires went out and they retreated swiftly to the east. Thelvyn expected that they planned to regroup their limited numbers into a single force to strike the force of dragons quick and hard, scattering their determined assault.
That suited Thelvyn perfectly. He could deal with the Masters more quickly and easily if they were all together in one place.
The great bank of storms, a wall of darkness a hundred miles across that rippled and flashed with lightning, grew quickly as the dragons raced swiftly westward. They began to slow as they came around in a wide circle, aligning themselves in a path that would lead them directly over the columns of the invading army, heading into the very heart of the fortress of storms. The invaders had advanced farther into the east during the previous day, so that they were now within hours of the mountains. The dragons forced themselves to their most rapid pace, the larger, quicker golds and reds in the lead, while the small white dragons trailed behind, their efforts strained by the warmth of these southern lands.
Before long they saw the invading army far ahead, five massive columns forcing their way through the wilderness. The dragons did not lessen their pace but now dropped lower until they were hurtling only yards above the tallest trees. The armies of the Overlord had already halted to prepare themselves for battle. When the leading edge of the force of dragons was less than five miles away, the Masters moved swiftly forward to defend their army, some three hundred gemstone dragons rising suddenly out of the surrounding forest to intercept the dragons. Their numbers represented nearly all that remained of the Overlord's most trusted servants.
The dragons responded to the challenge unexpectedly, at least considering the determination with which they had descended upon their enemy. Their ranks divided and then began to circle around to either side, almost as if they had lost heart for battle and sought to escape while they could. Encouraged, the Masters pressed forward quickly to descend upon the slower ranks of the dragons in the rear, many of them taking on their fiery form.
Unnoticed in the confusion of the moment, a single gold dragon dropped down almost into the tops of the trees as he continued his attack run directly into the heart of the enemy. Thelvyn knew he would not remain undetected for long, but he hoped to take the Masters by surprise. He was just about to pass beneath their forward ranks when they saw him at last. Many of the nearest gemstone dragons turned sharply and darted down to intercept him.
To the attacking Masters, the lone gold dragon seemed to be caught unprepared during those first moments. The gemstone dragons dived at him swiftly, their strange, fiery shapes striking-him with glancing blows, hitting him sharply in the wings and back. Any other dragon would have died under the ferocious assault, blasted by any one of the explosive impacts.
Caught off-balance and disoriented, Thelvyn suddenly found himself falling. He struggled to catch himself, but it was too late. He had been too close to the ground when the attack had started. A moment later he crashed heavily to the ground near the edge of a half-cleared track left by the passage of the invading army. He slid through the loose dirt and brush while soldiers ran to get out of his way.
Thelvyn realized his mistake at once. The Overlord had sacrificed control of his army to retain his command over the remaining gemstone dragons. He was only just struggling to pick himself up when the Masters struck again with the deadly weapons of their fiery forms, focusing their attack against him in a fierce barrage. Great bolts of lighting raked over the ground, ripping the earth asunder. Thelvyn arched his neck and roared with pain as one of the bolts flashed over his back. Then he was thrown violently aside as the ground beneath him was blasted by searing lances of lightning. He was thrown heavily onto his back, half buried in mounds of rock and dirt.
For a brief moment he lay without moving, quickly considering his options while the gemstone dragons continued to bombard him with their deadly barrage of lightning. He was reluctant to reveal his true form so soon, before he had even found the Overlord, but his mortal manifestation as a gold dragon was more vulnerable titan his new incarnation as Diamond. Shaking himself free of the dirt and debris, he spread his wings and leapt effortlessly straight up into the sky. At the same moment, he vanished in a blinding radiance as he became the Immortal Diamond, a great dragon made of pure silver light.
The Masters could not endure the sight of him, and they turned their faces away. For a long moment, Diamond hung in midair like a shaft of brilliant sunlight in dragon form. Then he arched his neck and breathed out a shaft of intense light, trapping the Masters one by one for a brief instant within the brilliant light. Their flames immediately flickered and went out as they fluttered helplessly to the ground, stunned.
Diamond immediately returned to his mortal manifestation as a gold dragon, although he could no longer try to hide his true powers now that he had been forced to reveal himself. Once again he turned his magic to the task of fighting back the powerful influence of the Overlord. The remaining gemstone dragons hesitated, dropping their fiery forms as their ties to the powers of the Overlord were broken. As they came to realize that they were free, they paused a moment in their uncertainty before they turned to flee into the wild.
It was not only the gemstone dragons that were being freed. In the forward ranks of the invaders, the great enslaved beasts that had been tearing and tramping roads through the wilderness suddenly turned and broke free from their drivers, crying and rampaging in their fury as they escaped into the wild. Rank after rank of soldiers lowered their weapons as the Dragonking passed over their heads. The towering metal warriors suddenly paused in midstride, then collapsed heavily to the ground with the force of an earthquake, like great puppets whose strings had been cut by a gigantic scissors.
Thelvyn flew low over the columns of the invaders as if he were following a road, mile after mile of soldiers, siege weapons, and supply wagons passing below him. His very presence spread confusion among his enemies as he drove steadily deeper into the Overlord's region of influence, shattering the will that had held an army of over a
