"What in Vay's name!" demanded Jeal, reining in his snarling dragon.
His flight of thirty odd blood dragons and their riders perched readily atop the steel battleship, poised for a running start down the length of the ship to take off. But a great light had hurtled down from the late afternoon sky and crashed against the deck of the Charnel . The ball of writhing flame left no sign of impact, and glowed hotly only a foot above the deck.
"The Maker is not pleased, Jeal," spoke the light.
Jeal's gut tightened and his eyes narrowed. He knew who the speaker was, although this news did not console him. "The Maker has not been pleased with you either," he said strongly.
The light coalesced to form the eight foot figure of the Star Dragon. "That is true. The wizards have escaped both our grasps."
Jeal laughed briefly. "I wasn't aware you ever had them in your grasp. You couldn't hold on to a single one of them! At least at one point I had all three."
The Star Dragon shook his metallic head. "In the Maker's eyes it makes no difference. Failure is failure. And the Maker has had far too many delays on his designs for this world and its moon. He will tolerate little more."
"So what are you here for?" Jeal sneered. "I'd wager it's not for my health."
"No, Jeal, the Maker could care even less about you."
Jeal could hear the truth ringing in the Star Dragon's words, and an unsettling feeling filled his stomach. Ghaleon's words echoed back in his head. You shouldn't leave things in the Maker's hands. After all, you don't know what he will do with them.
"That may be true," Jeal allowed, "but that still doesn't tell me why you are here."
"The Maker has assigned me to aid you," said the Star Dragon.
"I thought you were guarding that damn tower to prevent people like those wizards from getting down from Lunar to here." Jeal paused, recovering his confidence. "Oh, I had forgotten. You destroyed the transportation crystal in your haste to eliminate them."
The Star Dragon ignored Jeal's remark. "The Maker no longer believes that either of us are capable of handling those three. We are to work together to remove them. There is to be no sort of capture anymore. The Maker himself is too close to arriving to risk any sort of persuasion in getting any of them to be useful. They must be eliminated."
Jeal rolled his eyes.
"You cannot refuse my assistance," said the Star Dragon softly. Only Jeal and his dragon could hear him now. "Unlike myself, since I have other uses, if you fail in your next attempt to destroy them, you will be eliminated as well. And your precious nation of Danek will be the first part of the Blue Star to be 'corrected'."
Solon blinked warily at the white-haired figure looming over him. But the blurry figure only smiled reassuringly in return.
"Your name is Solon, right?" he asked.
The Magician of Water nodded slowly.
"I'm Kazyr," said the figure. "I don't believe we were properly introduced."
"No," Solon croaked, wondering why he agreed with this man. He struggled to sit up as his vision began to clear.
"Careful," Kazyr admonished gently. "Your body's taken quite a shock. Ghaleon" --he gestured to the silver-haired mage searching the bookcases behind them-- "managed to save you from dying though."
"Ardor," Solon groaned. "Where is he? Did I get him?" He looked bleary-eyed at Kazyr.
The white-haired mage helped Solon prop himself up against the wall so he could sit reasonably upright. "Don't worry about him. Let go of your hate."
Solon struggled to stand, but Kazyr firmly pushed him back into a sitting position. "Forget about him," Kazyr said strongly. "You need to rest now more than anything else."
"Eating would be good too," Ghaleon interjected. Kazyr turned to see the former Magic Emperor walking towards him with a thick book in hand. "It's been a long day. And with the changing of time zones I've lost track of how many hours it's been since we've eaten, let alone slept."
Kazyr sighed. "It feels like it's been days. But at the same time, I haven't slept a bit since I crashed on Lunar."
Ghaleon thought for a moment. "From when you awoke me to our escape from Danek was about a day. We arrived north of Mount Bole in early evening. And now it must be night again. So I would guess it's been two days."
"Maybe if Solon doesn't mind, we can take a break in here," said Kazyr. "We all could use the time to recover."
"But can we afford it?" asked a voice.
The three wizards turned to see Sadoul step into the library.
Sadoul's eyes briefly met Solon's, but he said nothing to acknowledge his former comrade's presence. "I saw a bright light fall from Lunar to Vay. I don't know what that could have been, but I'd warrant it isn't good news for us."
Kazyr looked to Ghaleon. "Could the Maker be on the move again?"
Ghaleon shrugged. "I know no more than you, although it is certainly possible. I would like to hope that he cannot find us here though. No one except Sandor and his friends knew of our exact destination, and I believe we can trust them."
"Yes, but Sadoul's been leaving a trail of expended magic for them to follow," Kazyr grumbled. "Remember what we were arguing over when Sandor first attacked him."
"That would have been the end of the trail though. And there are miles yet between that location and the library. We may still have some time." Ghaleon nodded to Sadoul. "Thanks for letting us know about the light. It probably had something to do with either the Star Dragon's Tower or the Blue Spire."
Kazyr muttered a curse. "That means that Star Dragon's probably after us again."
Solon coughed, disrupting the trio's discussion. The tanned Magician of Water waited until he had their attention before continuing. "Excuse me, but I don't suppose the three of you would be willing to explain just what in Vay's name is going on?"
Kazyr looked to Ghaleon, who nodded in return. "Well, it's a long story, but I suppose I can tell you it."
"Please do," said Solon. "And if you all haven't eaten for as long as your elven friend there has indicated, help yourselves to the rations in my rucksack. You'll find it laying again that bookcase." He jerked his head towards the specified aisle.
"Why thank you."
Kazyr swiftly related their story thus far, pausing only to take a bite of the hard rolls from Solon's sack or when Ghaleon and Sadoul interrupted him to correct or add in their own details. Solon quietly listened to it all, his tanned face impassive as he absorbed the information.
Ghaleon sat cross-legged on the stone floor of the library. Although Krager's library had preserved the millennia old texts extremely well, the Magician had obviously forgotten to preserve a desk, or at least a chair to compliment the collection. He ruminated, chewing the tough bread as he flipped through the pages of the tome he had taken from the shelves. Ghaleon didn't even look up when he added his own views about the battle with the Star Dragon. He turned the page, stopping when he found an illustration of the very structure he searched for.
Sadoul noted the cessation of page rustling but said nothing. He waited patiently for Kazyr to finish their story.
Kazyr tried to keep his face from flushing as he came closer to their present. But Solon paid that no heed. He merely nodded his head in encouragement if Kazyr seemed about to stop. When the white-haired wizard finished speaking, Solon held his gaze even with Kazyr's.
"So now you fight this Maker even though you don't know what he intends to do; except that he has some sort of grudge against you three?"
"That's basically it," Kazyr said. "I can't even say that we're fighting him. We're just trying to get to Lucia's tower so we can find out what's going on!"
Solon rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "All this time I wondered just how real she was. Indeed, the three of you have an unusual tale." He looked meaningfully at Sadoul. "And yet, I wonder. Is the man who stands beside you the Ardor I once knew or the Sadoul that has tried to reconstruct the world in his own image?"
"I am neither," Sadoul said flatly, meeting Solon's eyes. "Your coming and Elynthia's death have reminded me of what I used to have, what I used to be. But alas, I can't go back to being the man I was. I will see what Lucia has to tell us, assuming she is still around. I will decide the rest of the course of my life then. You can be certain, though, that I will fight the Maker."
Solon smirked. "As self-proclaiming as always, Ardor."
"Perhaps some things never change," Sadoul said in return.
Solon sighed, lowering his gaze. "Yes, perhaps. I don't know if I can forgive you for Elynthia's death, but I know that she would want me to remain alert for any sort of danger to Vay. And for her sake, I will try to believe in you and your story, although it is no easy task."
"If you will not believe in Sadoul, here is what lends our story merit," Ghaleon interjected. He extended the tome to where all four of them could easily see the diagram of a large tower made of crystalline blue stone. "This is a picture of Lucia's tower. At one point in time someone caught a glimpse of it. Unfortunately, the man who drew this was caught in the middle of a storm and can't remember precisely where the tower was located. All it says is that he sailed far to the east of the Danek Isles and that the journey took him and his crew weeks to accomplish."
Kazyr smiled lightly as hope began to fill his heart. "Then it looks like we may be on the last leg of our journey."
"And what a long leg it will be!" said Sadoul, crossing his legs and laying back on the stone floor. He folded his arms behind his head in a makeshift cushion and stared up at the craggy ceiling. "Don't get me wrong, but I don't relish having to cross back through Danek territory again. And we'll have to appropriate a boat and supplies somehow. I don't suppose either of you know how to sail?"
Ghaleon shook his head as Kazyr said, "I'm afraid not."
Sadoul frowned slightly as he watched the stalactites above him. "Well, at least I know how to sail. Perhaps we can steal a boat at Danek and then sail east from there. Sure, it'll take us a while, but at least we'll be on our way."
"Whatever you decide," said Ghaleon, "it probably won't be easy on any of us. But right now I think all of us could use a rest now that we've eaten. I trust Solon won't try killing any of us in our sleep. And barring Kazyr, we have wounds that could use some healing."
"Sleeping on a cold stone floor isn't my idea of a good night's rest," muttered Kazyr.
He pulled a handkerchief out of his pouch, uttered a few words, and enlarged the cloth into a thick cotton blanket. Kazyr shamelessly wrapped himself up in it, cradled his head on one arm, and closed his eyes.
Ghaleon sighed, having lost his cloak in the bar fight back in Danek. He closed the book and set it by his sword as he laid on his side. Ghaleon could hear Sadoul and Solon likewise arrange themselves on the cold cavern floor. As his consciousness drifted off to sleep, he wondered, just for an instant, why incredibly powerful wizards can't conjure up beds out of nowhere.
Though the sky was black, the light of Lunar lit the dragons' path below them. While the four wizards slept within the mountains north of the remains of Mount Bole, reddish shapes turned dark silver in the moonlight flew swiftly and strongly towards the area where they last detected Sadoul's magic.
"The Star Dragon has obviously forgotten why you joined with the Maker," rumbled Mythril, as the great blood dragon soared in the lead of the rest of the flight.
"Perhaps that is a good thing," said Jeal, patting his mount on the shoulder. "He's given me some information that I wouldn't have otherwise known. And it's given me a reason to doubt this Maker's motivations."
"Yes, I can sense that in you. The other dragons can as well."
"Do you think the Star Dragon can?"
Mythril glanced behind him at the dark figure flying to the rear of the wing. The Star Dragon was an eerie violet glow in the dark of the night and none of the dragons would fly near him. "He is no dragon as far as I am concerned. He has no empathy with you. Otherwise he would have known that such a threat would not further dedicate you to his cause."
"He thinks I'm a mere mortal, to be squashed at whim."
"Ah yes, he does indeed, little brother. He forgets you are part dragon yourself."
"All Segazzi are."
Mythril chuckled. "I doubt the Star Dragon kept up with the Blue Star's history."
"That is to our benefit then."
Jeal removed a scarlet object from his belt pouch. The golden emblem in its center flashed in the moonlight, reassuring him. This symbol had passed down through among the Segazzi. Sometimes it went from dragon to rider, rider to dragon, or from one generation of dragon or rider to the next. Each was chosen with the responsibility of keeping it safe for the eons to come. When Jeal befriended the dragons of the Danek Isles years ago, Kamille, Mythril's late sire, entrusted this special keepsake to him.
Jeal clutched the scarlet keepsake tightly to him before slipping it back into its pouch. With its power he would protect Danek. He would protect the Blue Star as he had been sworn; be it from the Maker or Sadoul.