All he could do was lie moaning in pain amid the wreckage of torn leaves and broken branches. After a time, he stirred and lifted himself painfully, shifting out of the armor of the Dragonlord and returning to his draconic form.
Moving slowly, he found an opening through the trees where he could show himself to his concerned dragon bodyguards, already flying back and forth over the forest searching for him. He seemed to have no serious injuries, although he needed several more minutes to recover before he dared to spread his wings and trust himself to flight. The massive armored form continued to move quickly through the woods with single-minded determination, its brief encounter with the Dragonlord seemingly forgotten. A small band of gemstone dragons had joined the fantastic creature.
Now Thelvyn understood why the Masters believed from the first that they could fight the Dragonking and the dragons and win. Their armored beast was impervious to attack, having taken the worst the Dragonlord could throw at it and had emerged unharmed. Thelvyn had no idea how he could fight such a thing, but he was now certain there was no living creature inside that armor.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Many years had passed since Thelvyn had faced an enemy he could not fight. There had always been a great deal of security in knowing that if things got out of hand, he could always win any argument that came to blows. Even when he had faced the dragons a year before, desperate to find some way to save them by avoiding battle, he had always had the assurance that he could defeat them. Of course, Marthaen had known that the dragons could not fight the Dragonlord, and he had never had any intention of trying. The Masters had found a very different answer to the problem of fighting the Dragonlord, by building a device so big and solid that it could simply walk right over any opposition.
Thelvyn was glad the evacuation of Braejr had continued uninterrupted, since the metal beast was moving along quickly enough to be there some time the next day if it did not slow down to march with the invading army. Thelvyn believed there was a way to defeat the giant war machine, but at the moment, it was unavailable. He returned to Braejr as quickly as he could, calling together his chief advisors for a hasty discussion. Above
all, he wanted Marthaen to be there.
"At least now we know why the Masters were willing to have their spy leave the city," Sir George commented when Thelvyn had related the events of his brief encounter. "Obviously they believe they already have the answer to any problems they may encounter."
Marthaen sat for a moment in silent thought. The news that the Masters had a weapon that even the Dragonlord could not face up to had shaken them all, since they had always looked upon the Dragonlord as the most dangerous force of destruction in the world. The gold dragon looked up at last. "What manner of beast could be locked inside that armor? No true dragon-kin, certainly."
"I'm fairly certain there is no living creature inside the armor," Thelvyn replied, to everyone's considerable surprise.
"A giant automaton?" Perrantin asked.
Thelvyn shook his head from side to side. "I also doubt that there is any machinery inside that armor. The reason why I believe it's impervious to attack is that it's nothing more than massive pieces of metal joined together by heavy hinges and set in motion by the will of the Masters. The heat of dragon-fire doesn't harm it and explosions do not damage it because it is nothing more than solid metal. The Masters stayed clear of their device as long as the dragons were attacking it. But after my battle with it, the gemstone dragons returned. Obviously their will animated the thing."
"Do you think the power of the Radiance can shut down this armored device?" Marthaen asked.
"If you can protect the Flaem by cutting off the will of the Masters, then you can block their control of this thing as well," Thelvyn stated. "I see no other way of defeating it. Of course, the Masters must know that as well, and I suspect they'll send their armored device here as quickly as they can before we learn how to use the Radiance against it. I think you have until tomorrow afternoon sometime to learn to command the full power of the Radiance, or the city is lost."
Marthaen considered that statement briefly, his ears laid back. "I think you're right. If we can break the will of the Masters, we will solve any number of our problems. Whether or not we can do it by the time that monster gets here remains to be seen. Do you have any idea how you might slow it down?"
"It might just slow itself," Thelvyn said. "Can you imagine how much that thing must weigh? I'm interested in seeing how the Masters plan to get it across the river."
Keeping track of the siege device was no problem, even from such a distance, since they could frequently see it moving through the forests and clearings east of the river from as far away as twenty miles or more. As they watched it come closer that day, they found that Thelvyn's estimate had been fairly precise. Unless it was slowed down somehow, it would reach Braejr by late the next morning, a full day ahead of the invading army. And it probably did not need an army to help it.
Finding a way to slow the metal beast was one of Thelvyn's most pressing problems, and he was unable to find any good answer. Trapping it in a pit or some other obstacle was too impractical because of the size of the thing. Its only vulnerability seemed to be that it required the will of the Masters to keep it motion, but he doubted that his own spells would be enough to break their will. If he was to try, the best time would be when it tried to cross the Aalban River. With any luck, it might become stuck in the soft mud. Just the same, he thought it best to continue the evacuation of Braejr, knowing that only a fraction of the Flaemish population could withdraw from the city in die time that remained.
When the reports came in early the next morning, the news was not good. The metal beast had turned west late the previous afternoon to intercept the main road, and it had made even better time during the night by staying on the road. It had passed the army of the Masters in the middle of the night while the invaders were camped on the side of the road, and dawn had found it less than ten miles from the bridge.
All of Thelvyn's previous plans were now of no use. He sent Kharendaen to find her brother and have him engage the full power of the Radiance as soon as he could. Then Thelvyn hurried to the near side of the bridge over the Aalban River to do anything he could to prevent or delay the armored creature from crossing the river. He had dragons stand ready in the fields on either side of the river, with firm orders that they were to stay well back from the road and avoid the metal beast. Their part was to force the Masters to keep their distance, making it as difficult as possible for them to maintain their control over their metal warrior.
When all other preparations had been made, Thelvyn could only sit in the field beside the bridge and wait. Since the powerful enchantments of the Dragonlord had failed him already, he elected to remain in dragon form. His real weapons would be his own remarkable powers and those granted to him as a cleric of the Great One, the same ones he had used to fight the will of the Masters in the first few days of their invasion of the Highlands. He was certain that the metal beast would try to wade across the river itself. The bridge would never support its tremendous weight. His part would be to keep it from gaining the west bank.
Near midmorning, he could see the dark silver-blue of the metal monster's back just over the tops of the trees to the northeast. Minutes later, the immense war machine stepped out from the trees into the last long stretch of open land on the east side of the river. At a signal from Thelvyn, Jherdar led the dragons against the score of gemstone dragons that accompanied their warrior. Spreading their wings, four hundred dragons climbed steeply into the morning sky from both sides of the river, more than enough to encourage the Masters to make a grudging retreat back to the northeast.