“I guess I’ll go first,” Matt volunteered despite his concerns, “just in case the staff wards off anything over there.” Even as he said it, something seemed to occur to him. “I know what’s over there,” said the wizard, looking surprised, “and why Soliander opened the gate in the first place. He did it to lure whoever stole the scroll there, not to get more soclarin. The gate being open is a trap, and stepping through it sounds an alarm, but as long as the staff is present, it doesn’t do anything. That’s how he sets up spells to affect everyone but him. He obviously wasn’t expecting a duplicate of his staff to exist.” The wizard indicated that the staff no longer alerted him to the presence of magic, which meant what he’d felt last time had been Nir’lion’s traps, not the gate itself.
Anna cast a final glance about the room and noticed the tower from which they’d come was visible through the hole in the ceiling. Hopefully, Queen Lorella would be fine up there. “I think we should all go through at once,” she suggested, taking Ryan and Eric’s hands so they were all touching. They agreed, steeling themselves for the unknown as they stepped onto the surface.
Nir’lion reveled in the destruction she had wrought. Buildings lay in ruins around her, towers had collapsed like dominoes, and only shattered windows remained in castle walls. Amidst the inferno ran screaming people frantic to save their lives. Their desperation healed the wound in her heart. Their suffering had only begun. She’d eaten the Prime Minister who had so often gotten on her nerves, but so far Sonneri had eluded her. He could run, but he’d not be able to hide forever. Now she had other things to attend to, however, and rose back into the sky, signaling other dragons to continue with their onslaught now that she’d taken the best prizes for herself.
The smoke disappeared behind her as she glided to Castle Darlonon on powerful wings, other fires raging on the horizon, where her kin soared in the rain-filled sky. All of Honyn must tremble, she knew, and the fear that preceded her arrival anywhere was like a red carpet thrown before a gala affair. She had missed that terribly, for her only joy came in the anguish of others, and as the mountains grew larger before her, the anticipation of tormenting those false champions grew and grew.
On arriving at the ruin, she roared to the heavens and dug her claws into the tower, sending blocks tumbling to the ground while she held onto her perch. One great eye looked in through the windows but saw no sign of champions or queen. The door stood open, the guards unconscious on the floor. Her nostrils flared in anger, and that’s when the fresh scent of fear caught her senses. Someone was still here.
A spoken magic word later and the truth stood revealed, a frightened Queen Lorella flattened against the far wall and edging toward the open door. Nir’lion snarled and sent one razor sharp claw smashing into the room, grabbing the screaming queen and pulling her from the now crumbling prison, blocks of stone tumbling into the trees below. The dragon pushed off into the sky, sending the tower swaying dangerously as the top collapsed in on itself, half burying the room Lorella had been in.
“Where are they?” the dragon demanded, tossing her through the rain-drenched sky like a rag doll. Lorella screamed as the jagged peaks rushed up to meet her, but Nir’lion snatched her from the air, baring bloody teeth as she snarled the question again.
“The gate!” Lorella cried out. “They are at the gate!”
Nir’lion had suspected that. “How long ago?”
“An hour,” the queen blurted, slipping.
Nir’lion snorted a puff of smoke as she turned toward the tower. An hour was enough time to have closed the gate, so either they were unable to do it, or they’d gone through for the ore. In either case, she knew what to do.
“I’ll deal with you later,” Nir’lion warned as she deposited the queen in the crumbling room. Then she leapt away and soared up, giant golden wings beating the air as Queen Lorella lost sight of her. Moments later a great rush of air signaled the dragon hurtling toward the gate.
The crumbling walls of Castle Darlonon disappeared into blackness that slowly faded, revealing forest-covered mountain slopes all around the champions. In a small valley, another Dragon Gate sat alone, tilted up at a sky where two suns shone. Many of the trees stood burnt to cinders, some long ago, some so recent they smoldered even now, as if the dragons had taken one last vengeful blast at their prison on the way out. Scorched and blackened earth surrounded the gate and nothing moved anywhere. It looked both new and familiar to Matt, who eyed the sky for dragons but saw none.
Ryan hefted his lance and stepped off to the top step first, nudging the wizard. “Which way?”
Matt looked for the faint path where he expected it to be. “There.”
Like Raith before them, they followed the trail to the ravine, the sight of the young wizard’s broken and battered body greeting them. Matt suspected he knew why and the golem that emerged from the rock wall confirmed it. As it approached, he went forward, unsure what to do but sensing this was his battle. He held the staff before him, intending to summon fire, but the golem abruptly stopped and bowed.
They stared in silence for a moment.
“It thinks you’re…” Eric started before stopping himself. “Soliander, why don’t you ask your servant here to recount what
