Thelvyn looked up suddenly. "Are the Masters aware of your experiments with the Radiance?"
"They must be," the older dragon agreed. "When we manipulate magic of such proportions, they must surely sense it. And as our control of the Radiance grows, they will be aware of that as well. I cannot guess how they might respond to that, except that there is nothing much that they can do to stop us."
"How they respond is an important consideration," Thelvyn remarked, almost to himself. Then he saw the others watching him. "If they anticipate defeat, they might salvage what they can by retreating back through their gate at Braastar. Or they might still believe that common dragons are foolish and weak, no match for them even with the power of the Radiance. I don't know them well enough to anticipate an answer."
"They have proved to be very cautious and calculating so far," Marthaen reminded him. "I can only believe they will continue to be so. If they sense that we are using levels of magic that could be a threat to them, they will certainly proceed more cautiously, possibly even withdraw."
"Then we must respond accordingly," Thelvyn agreed. "I need to know when you plan to use the Radiance to break their power. At that time, I want to have somehow moved most of our dragons between them and their gate, and I will be there as the Dragonlord to face them. And no one in this city must be able to guess our plans."
"If they retreat, is it wise to stand in their way?" Sir George asked.
"We have to win battles, not avoid them," Thelvyn insisted. "We must try to avoid fighting the Masters when they have the advantage, but we must fight them when the advantage is our own. If we allow them to escape, they will only return at a time of their own choosing."
Marthaen bowed to his king and hurried to rejoin the dragon sorcerers. Alessa accompanied him, looking very tired and unhappy about the situation. Only recently had Thelvyn learned that the Flaem with the greatest talent for magic were also the most vulnerable to the call of the Masters, so he realized how much she was really suffering. Of course, she was also still dissatisfied over turning control of the Radiance over to the dragons, although she had to admit it was best, considering the way things had turned out. The dragons could command the full power of the Radiance, but they could not take it away with them. The Fire Wizards claimed the Radiance, but they had access to only a small part of its true power. That helped to insure that neither party would be tempted to misuse it.
Within the hour, Thelvyn had a final meeting with the remaining delegates of the Grand Alliance. He explained to them that the evacuation of Braejr was continuing and that the time had come for them to leave as well. Although he was cautious with his information, he tried very hard to imply that he didn't expect to be able to hold the city. He was somewhat surprised when they all agreed to leave immediately. If there was a spy among them, apparently the Masters thought that his work was done.
To his dismay, Thelvyn discovered that the Masters had outguessed him once again. Later that same morning, a dragon hurried to Braejr with the warning that he had seen a dragon of tremendous size, a strange, wingless dragon that appeared to have metal armor. The metal dragon had apparently come through the worldgate near their stronghold east of Braastar and was moving quickly overland, heading south to join the invading army. The young dragon had to admit that he had few details to offer, since the Masters had prevented him from coming closer than several miles. But he had certainly seen something odd and alarming.
Thelvyn decided he had better see this thing at once. He took along with him enough bodyguards to force their way through the defenses of the Masters long enough for a close look at the metal creature. To keep the element of surprise as long as possible, they began by flying west from Braejr. After many miles, they came to the hilly, wooded lands of the central Highlands and began a long circle northward that brought them across the Aalban River from the northwest, just above Braastar. They continued to fly swiftly over the forest east of the city, over a hundred dragons in a tight column as they searched the wilderness for the mysterious metal dragon.
Finding the strange dragon in the wilderness proved to be easy, even from miles away, since it stood taller at the shoulders than the tops of many of the trees. It was like some strange, alien draconic form, with a long, serpentine body carried on four sets of legs. Its extended face had eyes that burned like red jewels from the deep shadows of protective horns and spikes, and its long tail was armed at the end with a massive weight like a crushing club, lined with ridges of sharp-edged plates that glittered like metal. The very size of the metallic beast was alarming. It was easily a hundred yards from its nose to the end of its tail and twenty yards high at the shoulders, making it several times the size of even the largest gold dragon.
Keeping just above the trees, Thelvyn led his dragons in as fast as they could fly. As he came closer, he began to have serious doubts about what he saw. Whatever this strange creature was, the massive shell of dark bluish silver metal was almost certainly not its natural armor. But if the creature was wearing a suit of protective armor, then it had to be carrying more than its own weight in metal. Thelvyn had seen dragon armor at Windreach, but only partial pieces that usually covered only the wearer's neck, face, and chest and could be easily carried in flight. Of course, since this beast didn't fly, it was free to bear far more weight. As massive as it was, it was moving along at a rapid pace and would probably overtake the invading army by the next morning.
Thelvyn led the dragons in for a swift attack, taking a chance that the armored creature lacked flames or other deadly weapons. The beast didn't even hesitate in its ponderous stride, seemingly unconcerned by the flood of dragonfire that the scores of attacking dragons directed at its back. Thelvyn quickly realized that he would have to reconsider his tactics. He had thought that dragonfire was enough to penetrate any thickness of armor in moments, but the armor of this creature had to be enchanted in some way to resist the flames. He warned the dragons to keep their distance and then landed in a clearing some distance ahead of the armored creature.
That gave him a moment to change to human form and teleport himself into the armor of the Dragonlord. He found that he moved a bit unsteadily because of the long time since he had taken this form. He stepped out into the south end of the clearing and turned to face the armored dragon as it pushed through the trees with the lumbering ease of some massive beast crashing through the underbrush. As it came into the clearing, Thelvyn drew and lifted his sword, directing the power of the enchanted blade toward the heavy armor of the alien dragon. It didn't even react to the first several strikes, even though the bolts were powerful enough to have slain a red dragon. Pausing a moment to summon the full power of the sword, he aimed a final blast of tremendous strength directly at the chest of the armored beast in the last moment before it was upon him.
The blast was fierce enough that it caused him to turn his head aside, and the force of the explosion echoed through the hills like thunder. The front end of the creature was lifted from the ground by the impact, but it hesitated only momentarily in its stride, the thick metal of its armor not even dented or scorched, even though the grass was seared for some distance around it. Then it reached out with one massive foreleg and swatted the Dragonlord aside almost casually.
Only the magical armor saved Thelvyn's life, since the force of the blow lifted him from the-ground and sent him flying more than a quarter of a mile over the top of the forest. The panic of falling awakened newly learned instincts as he struggled to spread his wings and fly, forgetting that he was no longer in dragon form. Then he crashed heavily through the branches of the trees, landing on the soft humus of the forest floor on his back. For the moment, he was stunned by the blow and ached fiercely in spite of the protection of his armor.