"I don't have much hope that he would be able to. He's never been very popular with the dragons, and I don't even know if he's found the way to become one himself by now. Even if he has, he'll need some time to assert his authority among his own kind."
The end of the war with the dragons had left things rather unsettled. Once Marthaen, the leader of the dragons, had revealed Thelvyn's hidden heritage as a gold dragon and destroyed his trust and support among his allies, the dragons had simply withdrawn. Whether or not they considered their complaint with the Flaem resolved was uncertain, but they would probably be willing to defer their other complaints if the Collar of the Dragons was returned. At least Alessa now had some hope of finding the collar, if only she could force the jewel to reveal its secrets.
Alessa was still considering that very question later that night when she rode home in her carriage. But once she was walking slowly through the dark and silent corridors of the Academy, another matter began to intrude upon her thoughts. The strange, soft voice returned, speaking in words too distant for her to hear, forcing itself slowly yet relentlessly upon her.
She ignored it at first, as she had often done in the past weeks. After changing into a robe, she tried again to spend some time with her spellbook. She had to spend several hours each day learning and relearning her spells, since the price of working magic was the memorization of spells. She had trained herself years ago to be religious about spending daily time with her spellbook.
But the voice of the jewel continued to call to her. Alessa did her best to ignore it, having left the stone on the table by her bed, but once again she found the distraction was too great. The effort it took to ignore the voice was disturbing her concentration, and she realized after some time that she had learned nothing. She gave it up at last, closing the book and returning it to its hiding place. Picking up the jewel from the table by her bed, she brought it over to the light of the lamp at her reading desk.
This was the first chance she had to inspect the jewel closely, since her original intention had been to leave it alone until she had the chance to research the matter and prepare protections. She still didn't dare to probe its secrets magically, but she thought that there could be little danger in simply looking. She laid it down on the desk just the same, careful not to touch it at the same time that she was staring at it intently. Only then did she see that, while the stone had little more beauty than a piece of colored glass, it was indeed a cut jewel of some unknown type. But it was definitely not a ruby.
A moment later, she felt the pull of the jewel, like a slight touch at the edge of her awareness. She drew back in sudden terror of the thing, almost more by instinct than by conscious choice. But in the same moment, she knew that the stone, or the will behind it, had not been trying to trap her but was merely exploring with a delicate touch. All it wanted, at least for now, was to know who she was. Just the same, Alessa was not about to take any chances. As a sorceress of some experience, she knew a great deal about magical traps designed to ensnare not the body but the mind or even the soul of the unwary.
Just to be certain that the jewel would remain harmless, she took it into the adjoining room, which served as her office, and hid it inside the top drawer of a cabinet. She was determined not to look at it again until she had researched the matter to determine what type of magical artifact the jewel was and how she could most safely approach it. Then she returned to her own room and prepared for bed, leaving such mysteries for the next day.
The dreams came again that night, as they often had since the mysterious voice had first begun calling to her. Once again she found herself in that strange, cold desert land, where an icy wind drove sheets of gray, dusty sand. She could feel neither the cold nor the sting of the wind-whipped sand in her dream, but odd, distant memories told her that the feel of such things had once been very familiar to her. The sun was dim and pale, obscured by the gray dust passing like thin, dark clouds high above. There was something very old and familiar about this raw, dying world, but its familiarity was hardly comforting. She felt rather that this could be some forgotten nightmare world that she hadn't visited in a very long time, and she dreaded her return with a deep, cold fear.
Visions passed before her, or perhaps it was more accurate to say that she passed before the visions, since she had the impression she was looking down on them from a great height, as if she were flying. She saw mountains so broken and desolate that only a few small, twisted trees managed to push their way between broken stones. Lakes and seas of sand passed below her, and plains of crushed stone. Then she saw, through a momentary parting of the haze of dust, great fortresses as large as cities. In a few sheltered places between the ridges and peaks, armies of slaves fought to maintain fields of green. In the fields, she saw people of races she did not know and beasts the likes of which she had never seen.
Once again the clouds of gray dust closed about her, and the next thing she knew, she was standing alone in some strange place. It might have been a chamber of vast size, made of cut stone like the floor beneath her. But the dust had become a cold, dark mist that drifted and swirled slowly, obscuring everything. She could neither see nor hear anyone, but she could sense the menacing presence of many strange, powerful beings gathered about her. In growing fear, she would have run, but she sensed that there was nowhere she could run that she would not encounter the powerful beings who surrounded her.
With her heart pounding, Alessa waited, not daring to move from the small pocket of open space in the center of the chamber. After some time, she began to see the glimmer of large eyes peering at her from out of the mist. Then faces began to emerge from the darkness, long, narrow faces, like those of dragons. And yet they were unlike dragons, for they seemed not to be living creatures but carved or cut from precious stones. She could not recall ever seeing anything like these creatures, whether in half-remembered dreams or in obscure tomes of magic. They did not seem to be evil, but she had the distinct impression that they considered her so far beneath themselves that they would use her to serve their own purposes without regard for her welfare. Certainly this had not been a part of any of her previous dreams, and yet even these creatures seemed vaguely familiar.
After a short time, the alien dragons drew back into the dark obscurity of the mist. As great and powerful as they were, she sensed that even they were afraid, and now she began to feel even more frightened. She looked up, and for an instant, she beheld a glimpse of another face, never emerging completely from the mist before it withdrew slowly into the darkness. That face was also vaguely like that of a dragon but considerably different from the others. It was much wider, with a short, powerful snout, and it was of such massive size that the body it belonged to would have to be three or four times larger than any dragon she had ever seen. While the face of a dragon was often lean and noble, even wise, this face was brutish and hideous, filling her with terror. Even after it had drawn back into the mist, the great, menacing eyes continued to glitter like sparks of red light from the darkness, holding her in their fierce, calculating gaze.
The surroundings faded into complete darkness, although the glare of those terrible eyes lingered for a long moment after everything else had faded into blackness. She felt an odd awareness, as if her mind and will were now awake, even though her body continued to sleep. And while she seemed to be alone, she knew that she was not. That mysterious, almost godlike being maintained its contact with her mind, although she was now aware of just how distant it really was, as if it were not even a part of her own world. Then it spoke, and with a shock, she recognized it as the voice that had been calling to her.