A Dragon's Ascension - Ed Greenwood [117]
"What? Dolmur, what're you playing at? Just tell me! Did one of your spells get away from you?"
"No," Dolmur said. "Get the others, and you shall have your answer."
"Dolmur, you're… you're…"
" 'Eccentric but to be indulged' is the appropriate phrase, Muldias. Go-this is important!"
Carefully he cast the necessary spells. He was barely done, and the door unlocked, before Muldias was striding into the chamber, with Araunder and Ithim-and, by gods, all of the children, even his own Erith, who was looking as bewildered as usual.
"What you're about to see-" Dolmur said to the younglings, making sure he met the gaze of each and every one of them. Three Above, but his brothers had sired beautiful daughters! As sullen and preening just now as any their age would be, yes, but still…
"-is the reason why none of you must go storming off to Aglirta to avenge Jhavarr, or Cathaleira, or the honor of the Bowdragons, or anything else."
Without waiting for any queries or replies he turned his back on them and released the chain of spells he'd just finished crafting.
A window appeared in the midair, well off the floor of his spellcasting chamber. It was a window all of them knew: the gem-adorned, circular garden window in his study, or rather, a spell-spun duplicate-and it grew swiftly until it was a huge disc twice as tall as a man, glimmering bright before them.
Through it, then, he showed them what he'd seen. Every detail, just as he'd remembered it, from the flash of darkness accompanying the thunderclap to the serpent lifting its head with bodies dripping from its jaws, only to plunge it down again.
Some of the lasses gasped, and Erith went white and trembled visibly. Dolmur's three brothers, too, grew pale.
"That's the Great Serpent, isn't it?" Araunder asked quietly.
Dolmur nodded. "It is. No illusion, no trickery-and it's not just a huge beast. It's the most powerful archwizard Darsar has ever known, and he may well still be able to use all of his spells. All of us Bowdragons-yes, even if we embraced the Kledilars and the Yarltowers as friends, and cast spells side by side with them-"
He waited for the younglings to make their sounds of anger and disgust at the mere thought of cooperating with their worst rivals, and then continued, "-lack the collective sorcery to harm him more than enough to, say, get his attention. He can destroy us in the space of a few breaths."
"So just like that, Aglirta is off-limits to us? Sirlptar, too, I suppose?" Ithim's oldest daughter-Maelra, yes, that was her name-asked angrily, her dark eyes snapping. "Honored Uncle, are you going to use this-this beast-to keep us imprisoned, safely locked up here where all of you elders can keep watch over us? And tell us a hundred more times the tales of what happened to our mothers because they disobeyed, and strayed?"
"No, Maelra," the oldest living Bowdragon told her sadly, banishing the image of his window with one wave of his hand. "No, I'm not."
"Maelra," Ithim murmured soothingly, "this is not a time for-"
"No, Father, I'm not going to be silent! As Uncle Muldias said when he came in to snatch us away from a very nice spell-show, this is important? She whirled back to Dolmur, long hair flying about her shoulders, and asked, "Then, Honored Uncle"-her tone did not quite make that title a mocking insult, but she came close-"what exactly are you asking us to do?"
"I'm asking all of you younglings not to be fools, not to throw your lives away-and when you must die, to do so to some purpose and with dignity," Dolmur said, his eyes locked on hers.
"Die with dignity?" she asked, bewildered. "You speak as if we'll all be slain on the morrow!"
Dolmur shrugged. "It may be months farther away than that."
"When, then?"
"Whenever the Serpent decides to come here."
The Master of the Fair Wind gave her another frowning, questioning look. In a moment, Orathlee knew, he'd ask her again why she'd been so eager to pay the deliberately high price he'd charged, and be away from Sirlptar in such haste.
Yes, here he came, along the rail. This time