A Dragon's Ascension - Ed Greenwood [115]
Scepter, Dragon, and Serpent
Luckily, not all of his spells had failed him. One had brought him here, out of the dark rubble and scurrying spiders of a Silvertree tomb. His head still ached abominably, and from time to time red fire surged behind his eyes, leaving him dizzy and half-blinded, but Ingryl Ambelter knew he was fortunate to be alive.
He wished no such good fortune on whoever had smitten him with magic on the Silent House battlements. He did not even know who it was-might never know.
He didn't even know how long he'd lain there, crumpled on the stones-and, thankfully, on a thick web of vines that had grown over them. There'd been no sign that anyone had tried to rob him or do him more harm as he'd lain senseless in the tomb.
He'd stumbled around that pit, after coming to. Some long-lost Silvertree had been foolish enough, or perhaps had an heir miserly enough, to build a room-sized crypt out of wood. Inevitably it had rotted away and collapsed. If there'd been any magic or anything else useful entombed there, it had been carried off long ago, or buried so well that he'd not been able to find it.
Perhaps it was best if his unknown foe thought him dead, as Blackgult probably did after their mind-wrestling. Gods, but he had to get a Dwaer!
Hah. Easily said.
Well, get one somehow, and keep hidden until then. Ingryl shook his head and shuffled across the little dell to Tharlorn's old refuge-his little hide-hold, now.
He could have the spells of lost Tharlorn and Bodemmon Sarr both, and fabled Eroeha, too-and still not prevail against a Worldstone, wielded by someone who knew how to use it.
Ingryl looked around the familiar bowl of shrubs and stormgrass, to make sure no shepherd or woodcutter was watching, and then stepped around the first trap, to begin worming his way into his refuge. Yes, he was done with Aglirta for a while; best go to ground and wait to see who survived-and where the Dwaerindim ended up.
" the back of to for but he you He grinned. "Until then, let us be absent and fond friends," he added lightly, and waved a jaunty farewell to the Vale.
Aglirta nearly threw him into the trap anyway.
The sky went dark for a moment, with a clap of thunder so loud it made him cry out in pain and clutch at his ringing ears-and then the ground threw him off his feet, so that he sprawled painfully on rocks on the very lip of Tharlorn's nasty pit trap, and had to cling there through the rumbling that followed, to keep himself from being hurled in.
As the Spellmaster snarled curses into the weeds now tangled in his mouth and nose, there was a flickering of movement, off to his left.
He looked that way swiftly, out over the Vale, to be sure no doom was headed this way-and froze, gaping in astonishment, at what he saw.
The great stone heart of Flowfoam Palace was shattered, the southern rooms gone and a great gaping hole in the roof of-the throne chamber, or at least the gallery above it. Where those rooms to the south should have been were the great black coils of-the Great Serpent Eroeha! It had to be!
It was real, no spell-spun illusion. As he watched, stones fell from a broken wall, dislodged by the great black-scaled bulk as the Serpent straightened, towering up into the sky. So high it went that Ingryl found himself rolling over to look at-no! Oh, no! He clawed at the stones until his ringers bled to keep out of Tharlorn's damned pit, dragged himself back from that danger, then looked again at the Great Serpent and shook his head in awe. It had to be higher than the tallest of the Windfangs behind him, almost brushing the clouds!
The gigantic snake looked around the Vale with a gloating, knowing eye. That orb was black ringed with gold, and seemed to see everything. Ingryl cowered down as its gaze swept past, hoping for the first time in his life that he looked small and insignificant. Then it spread fanged jaws far wider than his dell-far wider than four such dells, by the looks of them- and plunged that great head down, into the rent in the palace roof, striking at someone below. Someone