“No!” Gallian cried, tears streaming down his cheeks. “You can’t die! You just can’t! I’ll find the scroll, Great Dragon, I will. I promise!”
Alas, it looked like it was already too late. The Great Dragon rolled up onto its back and its breathing all but stopped. The dragon would surely die in the next few minutes if nothing were done to stop it. Then, a thought came to the disparaged Sage. If Tytin magic could kill, then perhaps it could protect his life as well.
“LIFE DRAGON!” he screamed with all the force he could muster, calling upon the forbidden Tytin arts once again.
A surge of pure life energy poured into the Great Dragon through Gallian’s hands, and the dragon regained strength enough to sit on its legs. Gallian stepped back, exhausted but happy. “Thank you for all your help, Wise One,” the Great Dragon said, already sounding stronger, “but it will not be enough. I will still die within a few years at most if nothing is done. And that is only if I don’t expend any energy at all.”
“Would this help?” Gallian asked, holding aloft the Sword of Spirit, one of the three Swords of Valor.
The Great Dragon eyed him cautiously. “That it may, Wise One. Its powers should be enough to let me live until the scroll can be found and returned. But how did you know that?”
“I do not know,” Gallian confessed.
The dragon seemed confused but didn’t push the point. It sat up slightly on its haunches and accepted the blade from Gallian’s outstretched hand. It immediately invoked the activation spell and a blue light arced out from atop the mountain, enveloping the two for a time before it died back down.
Gallian looked at the dragon in awe. It looked healthier and stronger already, though still nowhere near its full strength. Still, the sight gave him hope.
The dragon faced him again. “So. What is the rest of your plan, Wise One? How do you intend to save the rest of the relics? Do you plan to give them all to me?” He thought there was a hint of a snort in the dragon’s tone.
“No, Great Dragon, I will not. You see, if I leave one relic with you, our enemies will think it not worthwhile to come after it, but,” Sage Gallian paused for a moment, not wanting to vocalize his next thought, “but if I leave them all, they will surely come in masses and kill you, so I plan to split them up. I will give one relic to the ruling party of each of the countries as well.”
The dragon bowed its massive head. “A worthy plan, Wise One. I would expect no less from you. But surely there are more relics than there are countries?”
“Yes, Great Dragon, I’d thought the same thing,” he admitted, nodding. “There would still be a few more, and I was about to get to those. I plan to give the Sword of Wisdom to my cousin in Wipf. He is a man of little importance. The Dark One’s minions will not think to even look for him there. The circle of stones will be split up as well, with two going to each of the corner lands. The linking stone will go to Plaxstempton.”
“That is a very good decision, Wise One. Certainly, no demon would be able to survive a trip to that horror of a place. Not even I dare travel to Plaxstempton, the Dreamland. You are wise to put the linking stone there. Are there no others than that, Wise One?”
“There is one more, Great Dragon, one of great power. It is the idol of Laura, the Betrayer.”
“Yes, that one is very powerful, Wise One. Very powerful, indeed. What measure of security would you place on that one?”
“I will place it on the island of Alpha, where no mortal can go. There and there alone will it be safe.”
The Great Dragon was taken aback by this nonsense, and the beast did a double take. “How do you plan on going about this foolish plan, Wise One?” he said with a laugh.
“Please, Great Dragon, do not laugh until you have heard the extent of my plan.”
“But, Wise One,” the dragon snorted, “no one can go there, like you said. Even I lack the power to get through the energy shield blocking that island. Even if you thought to hover above the island, the idol would merely bounce off the barrier and fall into the depths of the ocean, which would do you no good. The way is impossible!”
“Please listen, Great Dragon. I know of a way to get past the barrier, just not for long.”
“And how do you plan to do this, use a teleporter?” There was a slight sneer in the dragon’s tone. “That will never work. It has been tried many times before.”
“My plan is thus,” Sage Gallian told the dragon matter-of-factly, ignoring him. “I will wait three days’ time, until the moons are directly over Alpha. This only happens once every thousand years, so I must be quick. Then, on noon on that day, I shall cast the ‘shields down’ Tytin spell at that exact moment, when the barrier is at its weakest. That will allow me to go inside Alpha for a brief moment, leave the idol, and get back out before the shields raise again on their own.”
“Wise One, where did you come up with the idea for such a plan? The gods imparted all their knowledge to me so that I might protect the humans in their stead, but this they did not tell me. Please, Wise One,
