She started moving again, open-mouthed, letting her eyes track down the long neck that had a girth wider than most trees she had seen. Temporarily, the head was lost to sight. The dragon was looking into the Heart pit. She approached in a wide circle, not wanting to get too close, aiming for the edge of the pit. It seemed to sense her and the neck withdrew for what seemed like an age, the head appearing above the lip of the pit, one eye fixing on her. She stopped moving immediately.
It did not. The head came towards her, the breath firing from its nostrils, blowing sour air into her face. She swallowed hard, helpless as it came on. The mouth opened to reveal its fangs, stretching wide, saliva dripping to the ground. It stopped maybe three feet from her, its eye level with her head, its snout pointing past her. It considered her for a moment.
‘Ifeel the echoes of friendship here,' it said. Its voice boomed across the corridor and every other noise stilled instantly. 'This is Julatsa.'
Pheone didn't know how to respond. The sheer scale of the animal she faced was completely overwhelming. So long thought to be mythical but always there had been rumours tiiat Masters in her college knew more than they would say. That some were friends or servants to dragons. Presumably that was what this one meant.
'Yes,' she said, her voice so small next to the dragon's. 'I…'
'You have trouble believing I exist, or at least that we are talking,' said the dragon. 'I am, after all, just an animal.'
'No,' she said quickly. 'Not at all. I just feel… you know.'
She assumed it was laughing, or whatever passed for laughter for a dragon. Gouts of air blew into her and a gravelly noise emanated from its throat.
'Do not worry, frail human, it has all been explained to me by my Dragonene who is not as shy of speaking. At least, not now.'
Pheone gripped herself mentally. She knew every eye was on her and that full panic was just a heartbeat away should the conversation go astray. She asked what she had to ask.
'Why have you come here?' she asked.
'Let us begin by exchanging our names,' said the dragon. 'I understand humans do that vocally. I am Sha-Kaan, Great Kaan of my Brood.'
'Pheone,' she replied and found herself proffering her hand. She snatched it back, feeling very stupid but the dragon didn't seem to have noticed.
'I am pleased to make your acquaintance, Pheone of Julatsa,' said Sha-Kaan. 'You are a troubled people but the fact you remain here says a great deal about your courage. The Brood Kaan has profited from it over the years.'
'There is war coming here,' said Pheone, experiencing a modicum of relaxation. 'Will you… I mean, have you come to help?'
'Ahhh.' Sha-Kaan's exhale was full of regret. ‘Iwish it were so. I have friends that travel here and I would prefer to help them and you. But I am weak. So I await them because they have the knowledge to send me home.'
Pheone hadn't expected such an admission from a creature so obviously powerful. But there was something in the eye that had not left hers that told her of troubles at which she could only guess.
'I am sorry to hear that,' she said, heartfelt. 'Is there anything we can get to make you comfortable? Food or drink perhaps?'
'No, Pheone, thank you for your concern. I will rest until dark and then hunt my food. The lands near your mountain range, the Blackthornes, are quite plentiful.'
'Did you not fly over the college lands?' she asked.
‘Iwas told there are enemies who should not see me in case it sped their progress. I saw none of them, nor was I seen. I flew very high.' He shifted his hind legs, Pheone feeling the ground vibrating beneath her feet. 'Now, tell me. Why is it that deep under the earth your essence is failing you?'
Pheone sighed and explained as well as she was able, the shadow over the Heart of Julatsa.
It was well after dark but the elves had not stopped running. The lights of Julatsa glowed brighter as they neared and the memories of the Al-Arynaar mages were fresh enough to keep their route sure. There had been attacks the previous night. Four mages were dead and only the intervention of a ClawBound panther had stopped further damage.
The camp had woken angry and vulnerable and the consensus was for a long run all the way to the relative safety of the college. Auum had returned from his attacks along the rear of the enemy line and had forced the Xeteskians to slow still further, their lookouts now scant yards from their wagons and their caution maximised. It would buy the allies a few more hours but nothing would prevent them from reaching the city.
Rebraal ran at the head of the elven column, ClawBound spread in an arc ahead, the active TaiGethen cells sweeping rear and along the flanks. He was sure they had outpaced any enemy and the familiars had kept their distance since that first skirmish but they had to be certain. He was relieved the demons had not been aware of the loss of magic in his ranks or they could have found themselves in serious trouble.
A few miles from the city, with the night full and dark, he had seen a shape climbing away from the ground and flying west. He presumed it to be the Kaan dragon of which Hirad often spoke. He quelled any anxieties by assuring his people it was friendly, his words helping him in equal measure.
He began to worry less than a mile from Julatsa. The ClawBound had reported seeing no one. No perimeter guard, no scouts looking for the enemy advance, no routine patrols on horseback. It was as if the city was at peace. The scents in the air, he was told, were of mass movement to the north and west but the ClawBound had not been free to investigate.
'Where are the defenders?' asked Auum, jogging easily beside him, Duele and Evunn ever his shadows.
'I don't know,' said Rebraal. 'We must be prepared that the situation here is more grave than we thought.'
'Or perhaps they expect us to help them though they are unwilling to help themselves.'
'We will see.'
'Pray to Yniss it is not so,' said Auum. 'We are not numerous enough alone and the will must be there or they will crumble under attack.'
The streets were deserted too. Houses were locked and empty. Street lanterns were lit but they illuminated empty cobbles and darkened windows. The atmosphere might have been fitting for a city sleeping in the hours before dawn but this one should have been crawling with those desperate to see that Xetesk did not invade without a struggle.
Rebraal knew little about city defence but surely every main junction should have been defended. Guards should have been walking or riding every lane, thoroughfare and back alley. The people of Julatsa should have been too fearful of invasion to sleep. Auum expressed the fear that he held.
'They have gone,' he said.
And it seemed, to a large extent, that they had. The only concentration of lights in the city was at the college and there they burned bright. During their run from the first abandoned perimeter post to the closed college gates they saw fewer than ten people. And all of them just stood and watched the elves pass. No one challenged them, no one raised a hand in welcome or a fist in threat. It was as if they didn't care.
Rebraal could feel Auum's contempt while they waited to be admitted to the college.
'If you believe, you fight,' he said.
'It isn't the college,' said Rebraal. 'It is the city around it.'
'They are part of the same,' he said. 'Yet their history means nothing to them, it seems. That is what makes them trivial, and takes them away from their Gods, whoever those nameless ones are. And you ask why it is I dislike humans?' He checked himself. 'Most humans.'
The gates opened and the elves ran in, gathering in the courtyard. Coming towards them were mages from the college accompanied by Hirad and The Unknown Warrior. The barbarian looked angry, The Unknown weary.