Who, like all the other Watchmen, didn't seem to notice the four as they fled into the alley together. That may have been because of Raumorth's spell-or it may have had something to do with six dragons lowering their great horned heads, opening their jaws, and reaching forward long-taloned claws like gigantic cats. Or it might just have been because most of the Watch were fleeing down the street as fast as their hobnailed boots could take them.
In a dark, stinking corner where two alleys met, Raumorth raised a hand that crackled with ready magic.
"This," he said quietly, "will be where we part, men of Waterdeep: It's best if-"
"No, Raumorth," Taunamorla said. "I made a formal pact with these two."
"Lady! We-"
"Are as bad as the humans we revile if we cleave to their habits, casting aside our promises like empty chatter," she said in a voice that was suddenly steel edged with ice.
Raumorth bowed and said, "Truth … yet this is a mistake. Pothoc ukris!"
"Perhaps. Yet consider this: once they know the truth about me, how will it profit them-save to force a little prudence on them? Who would believe them if they spread the tale?"
Raumorth's eyes glimmered like golden flames as he said, "There's something in that… yet it would take only one curious wizard deciding to seek the truth behind their words-"
"And when they know something of our numbers, they'll know that no mage could strike us all down at once. And it would only take one of us, knowing who must have told the wizard, to hunt them down and end their lives slowly and horribly, terrified beyond reason and with limbs torn from them at leisure."
Mirt shivered at the calmness in her voice, and the Keeper of Secrets smiled at him as tenderly as a doting aunt.
"Yet none of this unpleasantness need happen. Raumorth, a shielding against all prying?"
The man who was more than a mage from Tethyr cast a swift, deft spell, and announced-as something like smoke turned solid and fell around them in a sudden, unbroken cloud-"Done."
"This is for your ears alone, Mirt and Durnan," Taunamorla murmured, "and is not to reach your tongues. I am what humans like to call a song dragon, and I came to Waterdeep over twenty summers ago, summoned by elders of my kin, to … manage a problem here. I've been here ever since."
"A problem involving other dragons," Mirt rumbled, waving a hand at Raumorth. "Lots of other dragons."
The Keeper nodded.
"What problem?"
"Many dragons like to dwell among humans-and not only because your kind can serve as ready food, or as a source of wealth for us to seize and hoard. Some wyrms come to love your energy, your restlessness, your clever strivings…"
"The free entertainment we provide," Mirt grunted. Taunamorla smiled wryly and said, "Bluntly said, but true."
"Waterdeep is a fine cauldron of such things," Durnan put in. "Yet a cauldron full of alert and wary wizards, sorcerers, and priests. Dragons need magic to hide among men. Magic that might well get noticed."
The Keeper turned to Raumorth and said, "You see? They knew, or suspected, already-and yet stood with us."
"Lady," Durnan said, "a few secrets are always preferable to the Watch and the Guard laying waste to several city blocks against some mighty foe."
"Nay, nay," Mirt said. "Let's discharge the bargain. Ye say it, Lady Taunamorla, plainly. Thy service in Waterdeep is-?"
"I am the guide and central contact for more than a few hidden-in-human-shape dragons dwelling in Waterdeep. We watch over things, manipulating and sometimes mind-whispering to the Lords of Waterdeep-"
"And mind-blasting those who'd overthrow them," Raumorth interrupted.
Mirt nodded and said, "And yet… the wards? The Watchful Order? Hath no one seen ye for what ye are?"
"Who do you think had a hand in crafting the wards?" Raumorth asked.
"And some Waterdhavians have seen our true natures," the Keeper of Secrets added, "but seen fit to leave us alone."
"They have?"
"Of course," she replied. "They saw our work, and judged us."
She turned and started to walk away along one alley, Raumorth's shielding parting into a dark tunnel before her.
Mirt blinked. Raumorth was gone! Nay … nay, he was the tunnel, stretching into a dark archway that arched up and around the Keeper, and moved away with her.
Taunamorla Esmurla turned to fix the two men with eyes that were suddenly larger and darker than before-and yet held many tiny stars.
"Why do you think," she asked Mirt and Durnan softly, "Waterdeep hasn't erupted into battle and ruin long ago? With Halaster and Skullport and Under-mountain below, and half the greedy grasping humans in Faerun visiting or dwelling above?"
The two men stood for a long time in the dark and empty alley, as Watch patrols trudged past.
"Six dragons, I tell thee! Six!" One Watchman growled, turning into the alley to empty his bladder thoughtfully into a discarded cask. "And gone, like a mage's tricks! Yet they were real. They broke the balcony clear off Shandledorth's."
"Aye, I saw. A wizard playing at snatch-teleport, mayhap? Thrusting a lairful of dragons into our laps and whisking them away again?"
"Why play such games?"
"To impress nobles who hired him? To awe revel guests? To make a name for himself, or pass some test?"
"If he's a wizard, that's reason enough for all manner of lunacy," an older Watchman said.
There was a general grunt of agreement, and the patrol left the alley again, and moved on.
Mirt glanced up past dark shutters and rooftops, to where the stars glimmered, and growled, "There's … something magnificent about being a dragon. Something grander than we are. Something…"
"We don't understand," Durnan finished his friend's sentence. "Now let's be getting home. 'Tis late-or rather, early-and Luranla's probably thrashed all the sailors in the Portal senseless by now."
Mirt snorted, "Think she's a dragon, in disguise?"
Durnan shook his head. "No. Oh, no. You ask her, and I'll watch from a safe distance. Tethyr, perhaps."
THE TOPAZ DRAGON
The Year of the Turret (1360 DR)
Up ahead, Kraxx could see the sun's light reflecting from the shell of her one perfect, topaz egg. The egg that only moments before had been stolen from her lair.
She could catch the thieves if she were on open ground. She would dive on them from above, dismantling their mangy little bodies one at a time. She would bite their heads off and smash their bones into pulp. Then, just for the shear pleasure of it, she would smear their remains across the land, leaving the stain as a reminder for all those who would dare steal from her again.
But the thieves were smaller than her, more agile and able to maneuver through the jungle, and the island had little open ground. Only the short sandy beach and the open caldera of the island's active volcano escaped from the clawing jungle that covered everything else. The trees parted as the great topaz dragon forced her bulk through the brush.
Up ahead, the egg disappeared from her view. With a final desperate burst of speed, the dragon broke through the last of the trees, emerging at the base of the basalt mountain in the middle of the island. She caught one last glimpse of her egg, shining golden and orange in the mid-afternoon sun. Then it was gone, carried into a lava tube at the base of the volcano.
Unfurling her wings, Kraxx closed the distance with one quick sweep. Slamming her head into the lava tube, she let out a tremendous roar, shaking the walls and spraying the inside of the tunnel with her billowing breath. But it was too late. The thieves were already beyond the reach of her attack. She clawed forward, but it was no use. Her body got stuck at the shoulders. She was simply too large to fit inside.