Mat nodded. This impersonation thing had its advantages. “Of course. Golem, tell us what happened to this man.”
The golem straightened, looking at him and ignoring the others. “But master saw,” it said. Its voice sounded like stones grinding together.
Matt felt his skin crawl at the confirmation that the arch wizard had been here recently, their encounter still fresh. “Tell me.”
“Him came,” it said, indicating Raith. “You said so. Hurt him. You said so. Left him alive! You said so!”
Digesting that, Matt quietly muttered to the others, “When he comes, hurt him but don’t kill him so he can be questioned. Those were the orders.” Turning to the golem, he said, “Very good. You have done well,” he reassured the monster. “What happened next?”
Looking confused, it replied, “You saw. You spoke.”
The wizard glanced at Raith’s body but didn’t see any obvious signs of spell craft. If Soliander’s words had been magic, the golem likely wouldn’t have understood, but that didn’t seem to be the case. “What did I say? What did we discuss?”
“Scroll. Ore. Stealing!”
They exchanged looks before Eric said, “Raith stole the scroll and came here to steal the ore, as we suspected.”
“No surprise there,” remarked Ryan.
Matt turned to them, eyes narrowed. “So if he opened the gate and left it that way to lure whoever stole the scroll here, why is it still open? He could’ve closed it.”
“He could close it with us inside, so we should go,” Ryan said, looking toward the trail.
Anna put a hand on his arm. “That’s true, but Raith’s been dead about a week, I’d say, so Soliander got what he wanted and could’ve closed the gate by now and didn’t. I don’t think he’s intending to.”
Matt frowned, unable to scrounge up a motive from his connection with Soliander. Maybe the decision to leave the gate open had come after their encounter.
Ryan asked, “When do you think Soliander came here? It had to be after the fight with the dragon because Raith went through during that and that would’ve set off the alarm, but we didn’t see Soliander go through after him, so he had to do it after we left.”
“Right,” said Eric. “He must’ve known the gate wasn’t really closed despite the illusion that it was.”
Anna observed, “Which means he knows we never completed the quest and are therefore still on Honyn, or were until coming here.”
Ryan asked, “Do you think that’s why he left it open? To keep us from leaving?”
Eric looked at him pointedly. “Or is it to keep us from returning to Earth?”
Matt grunted. “I suspect you’re right. All of you. Because he wanted to know how we took the champions’ place and that obviously happened on Earth. We could be there now but we’re stuck here.”
Ryan said, “That’s got to be it then. He’s trapped us here, not on Soclarin, but on Honyn, by leaving the gate open. We have to get home.”
Eric nodded. “And quickly, though I’m not sure how much we could do back on Earth.”
“True,” said Matt, turning to the golem. “What else happened?”
It shrugged. “You take. You leave.”
“What did I take?”
“Scroll.”
“Ah,” said the wizard. “Of course. He wanted the scroll back so no one would know of the ore. He probably doesn’t know there’s a copy.”
“Let’s keep it that way,” suggested Ryan.
“Right,” said Matt, not intending to communicate with the arch wizard again. Once had been bad enough. “Maybe we should get some of this ore while we’re here. We can’t take it to Earth, I don’t think, because we can’t bring anything back with us, I assume, but the elves can hold onto some. Items made from it have already proven useful.”
The others weren’t so sure about that and a brief conversation led to a compromise. They took no more than a few pounds of soclarin, putting it into the magic bag Matt found on Raith’s body. Like all magic items, the bag had continued giving off a magical vibe after its possessor’s death, alerting him to this and other items left on the dead wizard. He didn’t know what the other things did but would give them to Lorian or Sonneri. It was too bad he couldn’t take them to Earth or start creating his own private stash.
They made their way back toward the gate, intending to end this quest for real, but as they left the trees to see the gate gleaming in the sun, a golden dragon burst through it and spread its wings, soaring up and arcing to view the ground. Nir’lion turned sharply. They had been seen.
“Run for the gate!” Ryan yelled, running with the lance. “We don’t have to fight her, just seal it!”
Eric ran after him. “No! We’ll never make it!”
Matt yelled, “No, Eric! Stay with me! Ryan is fireproof and I can block her fire and anything she throws at us at least once.”
Eric swore and came back to stand behind him with Anna. Ryan stopped a dozen strides from them, looked back, and then stayed where he was, hefting the lance and loosening his sword. Matt nodded to himself. It gave the dragon two targets instead of one. Three problems for her was even better.
“Eric, get a knife to throw, even if you miss. She might, too, because of it. Ryan!” he yelled, seeing Nir’lion closing fast, “be ready with the lance. Even if you can’t hit her, make her think you can.”
The dragon opened her mouth. So did Matt, words of magic, and fire, erupting with equal fury. He saw Eric’s knife fly over their heads from behind and heard the rogue get closer to him after throwing it. Nir’lion rolled slightly to evade the blade as she neared. The shield went up around them moments before the flames arrived and blinded Matt to everything else. A roar of flames. A loud shriek of pain. A whoosh of air buffeting them. The dragon breath stopped, Nir’lion having passed them. Matt glanced in concern at the knight, who stood unmolested, the lance on
