They went into the kitchen and the dryads took them to the arena. Tanyth was still chasing after the smaller dragon and knocking down walls of the arena in the process. “This isn’t good enough. We have to find somewhere to hide.” Thessa said.
“The Arsenal of the Way?” Marlee suggested.
“I don’t think we can make it. I think this is it.” Thessa said.
“We have to try. I have an idea. You sent Fia after Ephaltus. I can use the Ocularius Magnus to find Fia and see where they are.”
“Lead the way!” Thessa said.
Marlee led them to the Arsenal while Tanyth kept trying to return to the forest. The smaller dragon’s fire was the only thing that seemed to hurt him.
In the arsenal, they rushed to the Ocularius and Marlee began turning knobs, “Ephaltus will kill me for not calibrating it first, but this is an emergency.” The lens roared to life, and she turned a color coded knob to the color white. The lens focused on a room with stars for walls and a glass floor. Fia and Ephaltus were arguing about something. “There they are.” Marlee said.
“Where in the two hells are they?” Thessa asked.
“The Ocularius says the Sunken Islands.”
“Use the Ocularius portal,” One of the attending dryads said. “The Ocularius works both ways. Its sees all and can bring them to you.”
Marlee looked stunned, “I didn’t know you could talk.”
The dryad looked annoyed, “Use that lever there and point that smaller lens at that platform.” She pointed to a smaller platform just to the left of the machine.
“I wondered what that was for.” She did as the dryad said and pulled another lever, which the dyad pointed out above the first one. There was a blinding flash of light and a whoosh of air as the Ocularius began spinning wildly. Another flash of light and Ephaltus and Fia were both lying on the platform unconscious.
Chapter 27: The Bramble Path
Thessa rushed to the platform where Ephaltus was the first to awaken. He pushed himself up from the platform with Thessa’s help. Fia began to stir.
Ephaltus looked at the Ocularius Magnus as it spun down. “I never though I would say this, but bless this infernal machine!” There came a rumbling from outside the Arsenal. “What in the two hells is going on here?”
Marlee came down from the machine, “We are under attack.”
“By whom?” He looked around at Thessa and the dryads. “What has happened? Marlee?”
“There is a dragon named Tanyth Veridian outside.”
“The assassin? Who sent him here?”
Thessa spoke up, “I believe it was Cassany.”
“Of course it was.” Ephaltus lamented.
“Shelayla is keeping him busy.” Marlee said.
Ephaltus spun around to look at her, “You know who Shelayla is?”
“Yes, she is part of the history of the Tourney Masters.”
“Yes, you are correct. My mind is a little befuddled by the portal.” He exited the Ocularius Room into the Arsenal. He popped his head back in for a brief moment, “Well, are you coming Marlee? This is something you should know.”
Marlee followed him along with Thessa and Fia close behind.
Fia put her hand on Thessa’s shoulder, “I think I’m going to be sick.”
“Don’t get sick on me.” Thessa said.
Ephaltus led them into a room set aside from the rest. “When there is a threat to the arena of this scale, the gods have provided us with this.” He reached for a small box about the size of an apple. “It’s something Cassany knows about and why she has been spying on me to see when I’m gone. I should have shown it to you earlier, but I had no idea she was going to try something like this.” He led them out of the Arsenal to the arena. The place had been wrecked, first by the blood feeders and now by the dragons. “Good gods, they have destroyed the place. The other gods are going to trow a fit.”
“What are you going to do? Kill the dragon?”
“That’s not really what I do. Most of the gods don’t like us killing there creations.” He took the box and set it upon the ground. “Bring him over here, Shelayla.” He shouted.
The smaller dragon brought Tanyth to the arena where he landed. Shelayla flew off.
“Well, you are all here now. I will complete the job I came here for!” He breathed in and smoke began to come from his nostrils. Ephaltus whispered a few magic words and punted the box at the dragon as he was breathing fire. A great shield erupted from the box and covered the dragon completely, then it began to shrink rapidly and return to the box, dragon and all. Ephaltus walked to the box and picked it up. “I will give him to the gods to decide his fate. We will have to meet with them and I suppose I will have to explain where I was all this time.” He looked around the arena, “What a mess I have made of things.” He put the box in his pocket, “You had all better come to the Earth Chamber and have supper. I need to hear the whole story of what happened here. I get the feeling I am going to be called to a lot of meetings in the near future.”
The seventh god, Cryonias, turned from his looking glass, “So, he was a Tourney Master. Clever, very clever. No one has ever escaped my trap in all the years of my exile.”
“Well, he did have help. He didn’t figure it out himself.”
“Clydus, you silly dragon! Does that matter, my friend?”
“I guess not,” the small red dragon, about the size of a horse, said as he perched on the enormous shoulder of the seventh god.
“I will have to send this, Ephaltus a few more clues. Which one would you prefer, Clydus?”
“Oh, the Bramble Path. Make him follow the Bramble Path.”
Cryonias chuckled, “All right, the Bramble Path it is.”
Lylah jolted out of bed and ran to the window to look at the
