"That may be so," Thelvyn agreed, sitting up slowly. "At least I've learned an important lesson about myself. But just now I find myself desperate to return home. I worry what may be happening in our absence."
"I suspect my brother has kept things from falling apart."
"Yes, your brother," Thelvyn said, lowering his head and laying back his ears. "Marthaen is going to slay me."
Kharendaen looked perplexed. "Slay you?"
"For getting you pregnant." He lifted his head, staring into the night. "I think our friends have returned."
At least he hoped they were their friends. A small group of Veydran were approaching the square cautiously from one of the side streets. Although they were moving furtively, trying to stay hidden between the ruined buildings, they were not trying to hide themselves from the two dragons. Enemy Veydran warriors would have been more stealthful in their approach, their movements conveying a greater sense of hostile purpose. He waited patiently for them to approach, sitting up with his tail wrapped around his legs and his neck arched proudly, careful not to move.
A large group of Veydran were approaching this time, nine in all, and he saw that all but their leader were bearing large bundles of some type. As they came nearer, he could see that four of the dragon-folk were carrying large skins filled with water or some other drink, and the other four carried roasted meat wrapped in what appeared to be large, dry leaves of some strange type. He was pleasantly surprised, since he had never expected that they would offer him the food or drink he needed so badly, partly because he had not expected them to have such things to share.
The leader of the Veydran stopped a few yards away. The others remained behind him. After staring at the two dragons briefly, he bent his neck in an odd gesture of respect. "You have returned."
As before, the dragons did not understand the words that he spoke, but nevertheless they were aware of most of what he said in their minds. Thelvyn bowed his head in return. "We were made the Overlord's prisoners, and I suffered serious injuries from him. But we got the better of him in the end and managed to escape."
"Then you are able to fight him?"
"I would not choose to fight him again, not in this world," Thelvyn said. "I will wait until he comes into my own world, where my strength is enhanced. Then we will defeat him, and your people will be free."
"That is good." The Veydran leader paused, glancing back at his companions. "We have brought food and drink for you. If you need anything else, we will try to get it for you."
"We thank you for your gifts. We need food and drink badly," Thelvyn replied. "I ask only one more thing. Do you know of any other worldgates we could try to use to return home, and, if so, could you lead us to them?"
"We will lead you wherever you want to go, but the journey would do you no good. The Masters seal all the worldgates they do not use, and those they do use are under heavy guard. They fear that their enemies might use their own gates against them."
"Are there no secret gates, perhaps ancient ones that the Masters have closed but forgotten to destroy?"
"It is not possible to forget a worldgate. You can hear them as you come near, even if they are sealed."
Thelvyn lowered his head. "I had suspected as much, but the question was still worth asking. We must try to find our own way home."
"We will do what we can. If you need us again, circle the village once in the air, then land ag^in. We will come to you."
The Veydran brought forth their gifts, then made a gesture of respect and withdrew quickly, disappearing into the night. When Thelvyn and Kharendaen unwrapped the leaves, they found what appeared to be roasted carcasses of some kind of deer, although the taste was more like game fowl. Kharendaen was unable to force her mate to accept more than half of the food in spite of her arguments. She insisted that he needed to regain his strength during his recovery. Thelvyn resisted reminding her that she was now eating for two.
"What do you think?" Kharendaen asked as they ate. "Do we dare try to find the gate where we came in, even with that new stronghold so close by?"
Thelvyn frowned. "Finding that gate should be easy enough. If the winds are still stirring up the dust and sand, the Masters would never see us. They might not even be aware of that gate. Most likely they're watching the old gate near Braastar."
"Marthaen said he would open gate at regular intervals to see if we might be waiting to return home. We might have to wait some time for the gate to open again."
Thelvyn shook his head helplessly. "We can only try."
The dragons rested through most of the night, although they made a point of departing before daybreak in an effort to avoid being seen. The wind had increased somewhat during the night. They remained whenever possible under the cover of clouds, which were heavy but somewhat broken. The clouds offered the best cover the dragons could have, since they were far more likely to be discovered if they tried to fly in and out among the valleys and ravines. From this height, only the sharp eyes of another dragon could have seen them during the brief times when they passed between clouds.
Thelvyn had regained much of his strength with the night's rest, and he was now in relatively little pain. He was becoming impressed with just had badly he had been injured, and how easily that damage could have been fatal. For the first time, he was beginning to appreciate how close he might have been to death. He found himself a bit shaken by that realization. What he could not guess was whether his survival had been a matter of chance, or if the Overlord had deliberately kept him alive to torment him.
Flying at such height, enduring the thin air, was not the ordeal that it had been for him the day before. Traveling six miles or more above the ground also made him feel somewhat insecure, knowing he couldn't land quickly if something happened to him and he could no longer fly. The cold, thin air dried his throat, and he wished they could find water for the empty skins they carried. He wished he had thought to ask the
Veydran about how to find food and water in this inhospitable land, in case they were unable to return to their own world.
At first they flew above the especially rugged, barren lands northwest of the sea of sand, where they had previously dodged in and out through the valleys and along the ridges to remain hidden. The land did not look nearly so rugged from such a great height, and Thelvyn was interested to see that there were more definite patterns in the landforms than could been seen from low altitudes. The ridges and lines of mountains ran in strangely orderly systems, and great valleys looked like streambeds cut by recent rains. At least he had the answer to one of his questions; his sharp eyes occasionally caught pale, almost hazy hints of white in the deepest crags of the mountaintops, suggesting snow. At least the dragons would not need to suffer from thirst, although he suspected any drifts of snow would include a generous mixture of dust.
Not long after they entered the sea of sand, the high cloud cover began to break apart, as if the clouds could not endure the dry air over the open desert. The clouds didn't disappear entirely, but now they offered minimum cover for the dragons. Thelvyn spoke with Kharendaen about whether it would be better to fly low, returning to the protection of the fog of gray dust near the ground. In the end, they decided they would continue to fly at their present height, at least for now, so they wouldn't have to endure the dust in their throats or the sting of sand in their large eyes.
In time, they came within sight of the fortress that stood just north of the location of their gate, and they were forced to fly low to avoid being spotted. The hours of flight had provided Thelvyn with time to assemble something of a plan. Guided by their unerring instinct for direction, the two dragons circled around to approach the gateway from the south, finally landing amid the great boulders of the island of rock that rose out of the sands. The worldgate now stood only a couple hundred yards north of them, and the fortress was several hundred yards more beyond that. Whether or not the fortress had been abandoned when they had arrived, he felt certain that guards would be on hand now to watch for the escaped dragons. Thelvyn planned to wait in hiding until they sensed the opening of the gate, then dash through before the Masters could stop them.