Maefus and Croag flew along behind Dasren, who wisked along in the form of flying shadows, streaking over the countryside, avoiding travelers wherever possible. He passed close by a group of fairies living in an oak tree on the plains, who didn't miss their chance at a pot-shot skyward. Croag narrowly avoided a flaming meteor spell sent his way, one that easily could have killed him if it had struck true. They didn't retaliate; there was no time for such distractions.
Night was falling in earnest when Dasren came to a halt, forming up into his vaguely humanoid shape. The dragons descended, morphing down into their own bipedal forms as they landed. Maefus made a face of revulsion as Dasren pointed to their destination. "His energy goes there," said the shade. Croag spat viciously to one side.
"You jest," he snarled. "This is in poor taste, shade!"
"He speaks true," Maefus replied. "If ever there was a place where faeriekind might gather in large numbers, it would be hereabouts. We must use caution, though. I sense many fairies and pixies ahead." Half a mile distant stood the Boneyard, where dozens of their fallen kin lay in various states of decay. "Sprites as well."
"That's unusual," Croag remarked. "They don't usually join their cousins in habitation."
"Consider what they are joined against," said Maefus. "Very well. You have led us to where we need to be, Dasren. I hereby release your bond, and fare thee good luck." The shade didn't hesitate, streaming away in a cloud of inky black, leaving the morphed dragon to what lay ahead. Maefus tucked his hands into the sleeves of his robe. "All right. The dwarves used to have an underground city in this area, which I suspect is where we'll find the human. We need to find access among the bones."
"Can't we just dig," Croag asked, his voice cracking with nerves.
"Quite impossible. Feel the soil beneath our feet." Croag did so, sending magical feelers into the soil. They recoiled instantly. "There is so much earthen magic bound up here that even trying would cause an eruption of spells that could destroy us both. Fairy magic mostly, but some pixie and sprite power as well."
"I'm beginning to remember why we once felt so threatened by the wee folk," Croag said. Together they marched forward, passing between ancient leg bones minutes later. The green dragon shivered, tugging on his morphed elven ears. "This feels wrong, Maefus. I have never been around so many of our dead."
"I am reminded of the Grand Eastern Flash," Maefus said, keeping his eyes roving, seeking any visible sign of wee folk. "Seven-thousand years ago, it was, far and far to the east, across the Blue Divide. Ten-thousand fairies joined their magics and created a blinding white flash that killed nearly four-thousand dragons across that entire continent. Our kind were almost entirely wiped out there."
"Were you there?"
"No, but I was close enough to be wounded," said Maefus. "I was on the Isle of Prin, several hundred miles off the coast. The Flash blinded me and ripped my wings clean off. Had I been in flight at the time, I would have died for certain. Thankfully, some of the indiginous peoples revered me as their champion, and they nursed me back to health. You?"
"I was but a foundling that far back, not yet out of early adolescence," Croag replied. He stopped, put his hand out on Maefus's shoulder. "Wait. Do you feel something different?" He hopped up and down twice, looked down. "We're on an access hatch."
He and Maefus stepped clear of the hatch, and the red dragon issued a minor wind spell to lift it up, revealing an access chute. No sooner did he do so than he and Croag felt the sudden rush of magical power around them being brought to bear. Looking up, they found themselves ringed by several scores of fairies, pixies and sprites, all holding attack spells at the ready.
"Welcome, dragons," one tiny voice squeaked above the hum of power. The ring adjusted itself, pouring partially down into the chute. "Please, proceed. We haven't yet had one of your kind brave enough to visit, much less two such specimens."
Maefus cursed in draconic, and followed Croag down the ramp.
The evening was deepening, signaled by a dimming of the light emanating from the domed earthen walls surrounding the Boneyard. Byron and Kathy watched this phenomenon for a short while, sitting on simple wooden folding chairs in front of the house. "It's really pretty," Byron commented. "I wonder how it works."
"Earth magic," Kathy said. "The sunlight that falls on the dusty soil of the Boneyard above is drawn down through the ground by someone using earth magic. Probably sprites. They're big on appearances, illusion magic and the like." Byron grinned wryly at her. Returning the look, she raised an eyebrow and said, "What?"
"I'm just always surprised at how much more you know about this world. You'd live here full-time if you didn't have family, I suspect."
"Damn right I would," she replied. "Ether Plane, even as it is right now, is much more fulfilling for me. I don't feel like just another cog in the machine." She looked upward once more at the dimming dome overhead.
"What do you mean?"
"You know, the daily grind back home, politics and economics and all the societal bullcrap. I'm just a statistic there. Here, I can do something, affect some change for the better. I can help people."
"You can do that in Mortal Plane too," Byron said.
"The second one of us is seen using real magic in Mortal Plane, what do you suppose would happen to us," she asked quietly. "We'd either be hunted by every religious nutcase with an axe to grind, or abducted by some government or corporate big-wigs for experimentation and exploitation." Byron made a low whistling sound.
"You've thought about this some, haven't you?"
"Yup. And I'll tell you this, dear," she said, standing up, stretching. "If I could convince everybody in my family that this world is real and that they should come here, I'd do it without hesitation." She headed back inside, leaving Byron with his own ruminations.
The Awakened man's own thoughts on the subject were murky at the moment, at best. Despite Kathy's earlier efforts to elevate his mood, he remained in a near-crippling state of anxiety. He wouldn't tell her his every worry, because there were just too many to name. He wouldn't, for instance, tell her of the dreams he'd had when she had her visions of speaking with King Ovin. His own parallel visions had been nightmares, bleak horror stories played out before his mind's eye, each one showing the many myriad ways they all might be killed in the near future.
He had been unable to stop these nocturnal mind movies, and didn't see any reason to trouble Kathy with them. They were just nightmares, after all. How real they seemed to him had no bearing on their situation. He thought over the most recent one he'd had, trying to see his way clear of the grisly details for some hidden meaning.
Byron gave up on this exercise quickly, resigning himself to the idea that these nightmares, if prophetic, would simply have to be dealt with when the proper time came. He only hoped they weren't glimpses of the future; if they were, then at some point they were all going to be swallowed by a giant worm.
He got up and headed inside.
The lead fairy guiding them along from behind, identified as sergeant Prinett, bade the dragons halt before stepping onto the platform. "Put out your left hands," he commanded, and the two morphed wyrms did as ordered. White metal bands were clamped onto each dragon's forearm, glowing softly before turning red on Maefus's arm, green on Croag's. "These braces hold you in your current form and block out combat magic from use. You may now step onto the platform," said Prinett.
The dragons watched as fully half of their wardens flitted away, back outside to their posts. The wee folk weren't overconfident, though, leaving the sergeant and half of his men still with the wyrms. Croag reflected privately that this was perhaps another advantage the wee folk enjoyed over dragonkind- cautiousness. Even when working at a distinct tactical advantage, the fairy sergeant and his fellows left nothing to chance.
When they arrived at the bottom of the shaft, there were elves, dwarves and kennin all waiting with weapons raised. Maefus considered that any dragon on their own, or even with a gather, that managed to get this far without being captured would probably be pigeonholed right here and slain. These were hard-looking men and women, also complimented by a flight of sprites clinging to the cavern walls around the entrance archway just off the platform. He was impressed with their preparedness.
"If I might inquire, sergeant, where do we go now," Maefus asked.
"To see commander Daggeuro, newly returned to us," the fairy replied. "I believe he is known among your kind these days as 'Wyrmslayer', yes?"
"He is," Maefus allowed. The red dragon shared a look then with Croag, and a simple, silent understanding passed between them. Keep quiet, that look said. Keep quiet, hear them out, and we may yet survive this.
The pups were all lined up down the hall on the first floor, waiting to wash up before going off to bed for the night when the knock came at the door. Daggeuro, Kathy and Byron were all seated in the living room, the humans playing poker while Dimanche lounged on the couch and Daggeuro read. He set aside his book and got up, walked over, and pulled open the door.
If he'd ever been caught more off-guard in a noncombat situation, Kathy never knew. He just stood there staring at the two men and numerous wee folk and faerie troops standing outside his door. Sergeant Prinett landed on his snout and saluted.
"Sir! These morphed dragons were spotted topside and ambushed by our outer guard before they could cause trouble! I thought it prudent to bring them to you, since the rest of the command council is likely all at sup at this hour." Daggeuro just stepped back and waved the dragons in, then shut the door. "Sir, shouldn't more guards be inside?"
The kennin warrior, his armor and weapons laid out carefully on a trunk in the corner of the room, stalked over to Boon and Bane, drawing the legedary weapons from their scabbards. He returned in a huff, the blades trembling with power.
"No need," he rasped. "Stand ready outside, sergeant," Daggeuro said and with a poof of smoke the fairy teleported outside. Byron and Kathy were now up and armed as well, he with his katana, she her axe. The red-robed lizardman, in truth Maefus the red dragon, scoffed aloud.
"This is unnecessary posturing, Wyrmslayer," he said. "We did not come as harbingers of war."
"Forgive my disbelief," Daggeuro snarled, crossing the blades and pressing them half an inch away from Croag's throat. "But I recognize this one, and the last time I saw him, he was chasing us through Celia!" Croag flinched back from Boon and Bane, eyes wide.
"We are reduced and come in search of truth," the green dragon croaked. Daggeuro drew back his blades. Orange light began glowing around his eyes and mouth- the power of the Word of the Knight was awakened.
"Thou shalt speak clear to mine ears, wyrms," he said, voice twinning. "Doth thou intend assault?"
"Nay, we do not," said Maefus.
"Tell straight why thou wouldst seek us out," Daggeuro intoned.
"We no longer believe the Destroyer a god," said Croag. "We believe him an outsider, and that he has somehow jailed away Gatech, our true god. Further, we suspect he did the same to the fairy you call King Ovin, and that both may be rescued." Daggeuro released his power and returned Boon and Bane to their sheaths. Selena was just then returning to the living room, hair damp from her shower. Daggeuro grinned at her.
"I'll make more coffee. My love, we have more guests. It shall be a late night. There is much to discuss."
Kathy, Byron and Daggeuro could hardly believe what they heard from Maefus and Croag over the next two hours, and it would cement their course of action moving forward. In a way, it would shape the rest of their journey.
There were entire contingents of dragons who had simply gone quiet because of their disagreement with the Destroyer's decrees. Many had turned to the deep, hibernation-like state dragonkind could utilize. Only a little over half obeyed willingly.
The Gray Wastes were only a day and a half away from the Boneyard for a flying dragon, and Croag and Maefus were willing to transport Daggeuro and his company. They believed that somehow Byron's powers, so much like the Destroyer's, would be the key to freeing Ovin and Gatech. They both believed in their hearts that the six-headed dragon god yet lived, held captive in a kind of pocket realm belonging to the Destroyer.
They could take a couple of days to rest and prepare for the journey ahead, and all agreed that that would be best. Their company would consist of Kathy, Byron, Daggeuro, Baron Dimanche, Senta (once they spoke with him), and one more person if Daggeuro could find the right volunteer. He already had someone in mind, but the man wasn't officially attached to the Faded Army; his participation would have to be entirely of his own free will.
An alliance was now formed, one Daggeuro and Selena both admitted they never thought they'd see. Dragons, faerie, and a lone spirit creature were joined together that late night for a singular goal- to pierce the veil of the Destroyer's power, and wrest from him his captives.
The journey but lay ahead of them now.