"We'd better leave," Thelvyn said. "Now that we know the extent of the powers the Overlord can bestow upon the Masters, I'm sure there aren't enough of us to fight them."
The dragons spread their wings and lifted into the sky, flying low to avoid being seen. They turned immediately to the east, toward the distant line of the Wendarian Mountains. For a moment, it seemed that the Masters would be satisfied simply to chase them from the area. But suddenly there was a brilliant flash of light, and the dark forms of the gemstone dragons were enveloped in flames, transformed into great winged creatures made of fire like an ascending phoenix, trailing long,
flickering trails of flame in their wakes.
Now the dragons settled in for a long run, having no way of knowing when, or if, the Masters would abandon the chase. Thelvyn recalled the words of the freed gemstone dragon, that even in this fiery form the Masters could not outfly a true dragon. But as the first minutes of the chase passed, he was alarmed to see that the Masters were not only keeping pace with the dragons but slowly gaining on them. The gold dragons increased their speed, stretching their broad wings in long, quick sweeps. Marthaen circled around behind Sir George, who was struggling to keep up. Drakes did not possess the speed or endurance of true dragons. Marthaen closed his claws around the drake's haunches to push him from behind, so that Sir George needed only to brace his wings to support his weight.
"What are we going to do?" Marthaen asked as Thelvyn moved in close beside him.
"We can't fight them in the open like this," Thelvyn replied as he looked back over his shoulder. While he thought he himself could probably hold his own against one of the fiery Masters, his companions did not possess his enhanced powers. Only he, Marthaen, Kharendaen, Sir George, and two gold dragon bodyguards remained to fight against eight Masters. And the true dragons had no clear idea of the extent of the powers commanded by their enemy.
"I think we could make it to the mountains," Kharendaen offered. "It's about an hour's flight at this pace, but we can hide or turn to defend ourselves better there. The Masters are still a couple of miles behind us."
"We might make it," Thelvyn said, although he sounded uncertain. "I don't know if we'll be too fatigued to fight effectively, but I see no choice."
He had already decided that if the Masters came too close, he would drop back to buy some time for the others. However, he worried that the dragons would not leave him to fight alone. The dragons would be growing more weary with each long mile of the chase, but the Masters were drawing their power from the Overlord. They would not be tiring, and so they would gradually gain on their prey as the chase continued.
The chase continued for mile after desperate mile. The sun had set soon after the beginning of their flight, and day was slowly fading into dusk. The unbroken stretches of woods and meadows became increasingly rugged and began to rise as they approached the foothills below the mountains of the western spur of the Wendarian Range. After a time, Kharendaen took over the task of carrying Sir George from her older brother, since she could use her abilities as a cleric to renew her own strength. Marthaen seemed to be holding up in the seemingly endless chase, but the two young gold bodyguards were beginning to lag behind.
Thelvyn had never expected he would be the first to begin to struggle, but the damage that he had endured at the hands of the Overlord wasn't completely healed yet, and his back and shoulders ached more with each passing mile. By the time they finally began their long, steady climb into the mountains, he was laboring under a torment of burning pain such as he had not endured since those dark, hopeless days in the stronghold of the Overlord. He knew he was hardly fit to turn and fight their pursuers as he had planned.
Indeed, he no longer saw much hope for escape. As the western sky began to darken with the fading of the last light of day, he saw perhaps a dozen more flickering points of light in the distance, following the first group of pursuers. A second, larger force of gemstone dragons was some five miles behind the first group. The first company of Masters was now barely a quarter of a mile behind the dragons. Thelvyn knew it was inevitable that he and his companions would slow even more as the climb into the heights became steeper, and he doubted they would be able to make it to the high peaks.
Suddenly the night itself seemed to shake beneath a great, echoing roar. It was the battle city of thousands of dragons as they rose swiftly from their hiding places in the woods below. They launched themselves fearlessly at the gemstone dragons, making the most of the element of surprise and their overwhelming numbers. The Masters responded almost too late, calling forth their enhanced powers. They opened their fiery jaws and arched their backs, releasing great, branching sheets of lightning that danced over the mountainside, exploding stone and earth. The land itself was shaken violently, rent and splintered by gaping cracks, so that entire cliffs and hillsides collapsed in great avalanches of stone and dust. Floods of intense flames washed over the lands, so that great stands of trees flashed into fire and exploded in the fierce heat.
But the dragons were already upon them, darting between the lightning and the fire. They attacked quickly but cautiously, guessing that their usual weapons of flame and claw with be useless against the fiery shapes of the Masters. The gemstone dragons suddenly found themselves caught in a deadly hail of large stones that their attackers had carried aloft. Battered relentlessly by stones, the gemstone dragons were stunned and their concentration was shaken. One by one, the magic that sustained their flames was broken, and they reverted back to their usual form. Then dozens of dragons descended immediately upon each of them, forcing them to the ground, where they were slain.
Thelvyn had circled back sharply the moment he saw what was happening. By that chance alone, he suddenly found himself hurtling headlong toward the leader of the Masters, the only member of his company that had been flying far enough ahead of the others to escape the ambush. They came together so quickly that it was almost too late for either of them to react. Thelvyn stood almost on his tail for an instant, breaking his speed furiously with his wings and sails, then dipped his left wing sharply, as if he intended to dart away and escape.
At the last instant, he reached out and caught the gemstone dragon's wing in his claws, holding tightly while he pulled back as hard as he could with long, quick sweeps of his wings. He knew that he was taking another chance, trusting his armor to protect him from the flames that flickered and danced over his opponent's entire form. The fiery dragon was whipped around sharply, scattering a great flash of flames that filled the air all around them as it struggled to catch itself. Each flailing stroke of its wings and whip of its tail raised a storm of swirling, leaping fire.
While Thelvyn didn't feel the heat of the flames, the gemstone dragon was thrown completely off-balance, and the tremendous drag of his weight made Thelvyn's back and neck explode in searing pain. He struggled to maintain his hold, closing his eyes and holding his breath as much against his own pain as to protect himself from the firestorm that engulfed him. In the next moment, the tough sail of the gemstone dragon's wing ripped away, tearing loose from Thelvyn's claws. Still struggling desperately to catch himself, the stricken Master plummeted downward in a flash of fire like a falling star. A moment later he crashed through the stands of tall pines on the steep hillside two hundred yards below, exploding in a great burst of flames.