"I apologize for the delay, Huma, but it proved more difficult than I thought to locate assistance. But I have found them!"

Two more silver dragons landed, one female and one male. They were introduced as the silver dragon's siblings, and both greeted and gazed at Huma with such seriousness it was as if they were inspecting him. Huma returned their greeting with some unease.

The final newcomer was a bronze-colored dragon, slightly smaller than all the rest. What he lacked in size, though, he more than made up for in muscle and speed. He had, from humans, acquired the nickname of Bolt, which he wore proudly. Here at last, Huma decided, was a kindred spirit for Kaz.

"Four or five lances between us will be no difficulty," Huma's silver dragon explained.

'The saddle-" Huma began.

"I have had someone working on that," interjected Avondale. "We have four saddles, which should suffice. I assure you that they will be more than capable of withstanding the rigors ahead."

"They had better be," Kaz muttered.

"You said four," Huma said. "We have only three, without Magius. "Unless you think-"

"I do not!" The Ergothian commander looked Huma straight in the eye. "In the name of Paladine and all of Ansalon, I forbid you from going and throwing yourself at the renegade in a futile attempt to rescue the mage! You yourself have spoken of how much the Dragonlances mean to the future of all of us. If you throw your life away, you are condemning us to the Dragonqueen's dark dreams!"

Inwardly, Huma felt shame at the relief that flowed through him upon hearing Avondale's words. Part of him desperately wanted to rescue his companion, while another part of him yearned for his own safety. Huma was torn.

"Who is to be our fourth member, then?"

"I am."

"You?" Kaz snorted in derision. "Have all the world's commanders gone mad?"

Lord Avondale replied coldly. "Faran is more than capable of stepping into my role. Despite his dislike of Solamnia, he is a practical man. He will not do anything to upset the situation. I would trust no one more."

"What would your emperor say?" asked Buoron, silent until now.

"What the emperor would say, he may tell me if I survive. As I told you, I am fighting for Ergoth. I would never forgive myself if I placed another's life in such danger, though I am sure many would volunteer. Someone must go with you, to represent Ergoth to your Grand Master, and it may as well be me."

Huma agreed, albeit with great reluctance. They were in Avondale's hands at present; there really was no choice- and he would be a good man to have on one's side, Huma decided.

It was agreed that Huma would again ride the silver dragon, while Buoron and Avondale would take the younger male and female, respectively. This left Kaz with the volatile Bolt. As Huma had suspected, the minotaur and the bronze dragon took to one another like two old soldiers. His only fear was that the two might take it on themselves to charge on ahead, and he voiced this opinion to the silver dragon.

She chuckled. "Bolt and Kaz do indeed make a troublesome pair, but the dragon at least knows better-I think. I shall warn him once we are in the air."

"Make sure it's understood that the warning is for both of them."

'There will be no doubts."

They had wanted to leave without fanfare, but Faran would not hear of it. The second-in-command had an honor guard waiting to see them off.

Bolt, especially, was intrigued by the Dragonlance. Already a terror in the skies-according to himself-he claimed he now had the perfect edge with the lance and Kaz in the saddle. The silver dragons all looked on in poorly masked amusement, although Huma's did admit shortly thereafter that the bronze dragon's words were not bluster. He was indeed a formidable opponent.

The dragons rose into the sky one at a time, with Huma and his mount the first, Kaz and Bolt last. The sun was already well into the sky, but with the dragons bearing them, they would cover a vast distance that day in any case.

By the time night had triumphed, they had long passed the border into Solamnia. One thing they had not thought of slowed them, though. The drizzle that had started in Ergoth was a downpour at this point, and all four riders were soaked. The dragons seemed unaffected, especially the bronze, who seemed to enjoy the shafts of lightning that almost skewered them twice. At Huma's urging, they finally landed for the night in the hope that the morning would bring better conditions. The dragons formed a protective square around them and the four set up the two tents Avondale had thought to bring along. The tents kept the rain from them and Huma's only regret was that the true smell of a wet minotaur became very obvious as the night aged.

In the morning, Kaz had the same comment about him.

The rain did not cease, but it did lighten. The riders covered themselves with their cloaks or in the few blankets they had brought. Thanks to the dragons, they would be within the vicinity of Vingaard Keep in two days. Had they not been burdened by the extra lances, it would have taken even less time.

Still, their journey was by no means over, for now they were to face the Dragonqueen's forces. Dracos had a stranglehold on the heart of Solamnia, for he had finally cut off northern and southern routes into and out of Vingaard, effectively creating a wall that encircled the Keep. Supplies were becoming scarce. Control of the sky was still a question, but morale was having its effect even on the dragons of light. The only thing that had kept them going, the silver dragon revealed, was the rumor of the Dragonlance.

The male silver was in the lead when they felt the first probe in their direction. A presence was nearby, reaching out with magic to detect outsiders. The probe was no more than a momentary contact with their minds, but it was enough to send the entire group into an abrupt halt.

"Back!" cried the male.

The four leviathans whirled and retreated some distance back along their route. They conferred as they flew.

"What was it we felt?" Huma's female asked.

"A mind-not a dragon's mind, but a powerful human mind. Undisciplined, too. This one was never a student of the Orders of Magic."

"Not a cleric?"

The male shook his massive head. "No, definitely a mage. A renegade."

Huma looked around nervously. "Surely, he is not a threat to you!"

"Physically, no, Huma." It was his own silver dragon who replied. "But he would have no trouble warning others of our presence-if he hasn't already-and those others may be a threat. His sole purpose is to watch the skies."

"Let me take him!" Bolt shouted.

"What would you do," the young female silver asked, "that could possibly prevent him from sending out a message before you strike?"

The bronze dragon clamped his mouth shut.

"I think," the silver male commented, "that an opening has been left for us. He is, after all, only human. I will fly to a level much higher than we normally fly. Once there, it is possible that I can discover whether his range of power can extend that high. I must risk our discovery to be sure." He added, "If my companion has no objections . . ."

Buoron shook his head, although he gripped the saddle pommel tightly.

"What of the rest of you?"

There was no argument from the others. Taking that as a positive response, the male spiraled once and then turned skyward. As Buoron held on, the silver male began to soar higher and higher and higher until he was lost in the cloud cover. Several minutes passed while the others waited anxiously. Then Huma spotted a form breaking through the clouds.

Buoron was rather pale, but otherwise seemed none the worse. His dragon seemed elated. "I was correct. So typical of many earthbound minds; his search extends only to the cloud cover. As far as he is concerned, anything above that does not exist."

"I could've thought of that!" complained Bolt.

"You did not, and neither did I," commented Huma's dragon. "Now that I hear it, it amazes me. I had forgotten how closed-minded some humans are. Still, he may yet come to that realization by accident, so we had better move quickly."

The others followed Huma and his companion skyward, soaring up until they burst into the cloud cover, the mists, and then broke through to the other side. From there, they estimated their present position from Vingaard Keep and continued their journey.

The dragons flew on through the night while their riders slept. Huma awoke to the sound of Kaz arguing with the great reptilian creatures about the need for them to land before every muscle in his body stiffened, war or no war. The dragons themselves were visibly tired and ready to land in order to get a new fix on their positions.

First Bolt, then the others spiraled swiftly downward.

The bronze dragon disappeared into the silky, white sea, followed quickly by the other silver female. Huma and the silver dragon followed next.

The cool mist surrounded him, and he could not even see the dragon's head. A harsh, grating crashing came from below them and Huma's first thoughts were that they were entering into a tremendous storm. Then, suddenly, they were out of the cloudcover- -and into chaos.

They had assumed, incorrectly, that they had crossed beyond the enemy forces. Huma's mind spun with horrible nightmares as he realized how tightly the Keep was surrounded. Fighting raged everywhere.

Men and ogres were clashing furiously with one another. In Huma's eyes, it seemed as if the land below was swarming with the dead and dying. Both sides were advancing and retreating at the same time, depending upon where he looked. It was chaos. Dragons of Takhisis continually dove down, assaulting both the ravaged lines of the knights and any of their ogre allies who were unfortunate enough to be too near. There were dragons of gold, silver, bronze, and copper, but they always seemed outnumbered. Worse yet, there prevailed a sense of malevolent power all about that the courage of the good dragons could not seem to counter. Even up here, away from the battle, Huma could feel discouragement and surrender building up within his soul.

'Takhisis is here," Huma's companion muttered to him. "She is here on Krynn, feeding our cousins with her power, chilling the minds of her enemies. I did not think she could retain so much of her power on the mortal plain. It is as if she were before us herself."

It was true. The Dragonqueen's presence was overwhelming. Huma shivered from a cold that threatened to numb his mind more than his body. How did one fight a goddess?

"Up ahead, Huma. Can you see it?"

His gaze followed the direction her head pointed and, after wiping his eyes more than once, he identified the tiny object on the horizon.

"Vingaard Keep!" Kaz shouted from ahead of them. By now, they all could see it-and the battle that seemed to cover every inch of ground all the way to its walls.

Lord Avondale cried out and pointed to their right. A gold dragon battled two reds. The combat was fierce, and all three bore wounds. When it became obvious that the gold dragon was beginning to lose. Bolt waited no longer. With Kaz readying his Dragonlance, the two charged into the fray.

Suddenly, there were dragons everywhere, most of them foes. All thoughts of food and rest vanished. There were only the claws and the teeth, the cries and the screams, the blood and the pain.

And the Dragonlances.

The dark dragons here knew nothing of the lances, perhaps because Dracos had not wanted them to fear. They soon learned that fear, however, as one after another perished on the points of lances which, when pulled free, were unstained and unscratched, and glowed with a brilliance all their own.

The children of Takhisis soon began to turn and flee from that brilliance, for they marked it easily as the sign of Paladine and they had no power against him. Others, farther off, noted the frenzy with which their brethren fled the battle and assumed then that the day was lost. The fleeing of the first dragons soon became a wave of confusion in the sky as more and more retreated in uncomprehending panic.

Freed from battling their counterparts, the dragons of Paladine added to the strength of the knighthood, and the tide on the ground began to turn as well. First the west, then the eastern lines of the Dragonqueen's forces began to bend, give, and then at last crumble. Without the aid of their dragon allies, the ogres and humans who fought for the darkness lost courage, and many simply threw down their weapons and fled.

Eventually, the fighting died. That the skies rumbled ominously and lightning blasted the mountains to the west disturbed only a few. A victory of some kind had been desperately needed, and it had been produced. No one at the time knew how, but they gave thanks to Paladine and his house for the miracle and then grimly waited to see what would happen next.

Well past midday, four exhausted dragons landed in the courtyard of Vingaard Keep. On their backs they each bore a rider, all of whom also were pale and exhausted. A silvery glow encompassed the newcomers and eventually someone realized it was the great lances that glowed so godlike, and not the dragons and riders themselves.

By that time, though, the stories were already spreading.

Chapter 25.

They told me it was you, but I could not believe it! Not after the tales that have circulated."

'Tales?" Huma and his companions had climbed down from the dragons-where they would have been swarmed by knights and commonfolk alike if not for the quick thinking of Lord Grendal, who controlled the Keep's defenses. Several of the well-trained veterans who made up Grendal's force were out and around the newcomers within the first minute after the landing.

Lord Oswal, Grand Master, indicated Huma himself. "You know what I speak of. The stories of your battle with the demon who seeded plague and dissension throughout the land."

"Rennard?"

"Rennard. Amazing how faulty their memories can be. When he was revealed for what he was and you defeated him there, they quickly forgot how much they wanted to believe the rumors he spread. They blamed him as an evil demon or cleric-I forget what exactly. Then, to top it all off, you supposedly vanish into thin air like Paladine himself."

Huma's face turned dark crimson. 'The part about my vanishing is true, but I assure my lord that it was not by my own power."

"Indeed." Lord Oswal's eyes strayed to the Dragonlances and his body seemed to shake momentarily. "Are those, then, what you have been seeking? What we have so desperately needed?"

"Yes, milord. The Dragonlances. We would have been here sooner, but we became caught up in the battle."

"I daresay. I've had men and dragons alike speak of how the eight of you came from nowhere, dealing fear and death to the Dragonqueen's lackeys. Perhaps they are right; perhaps you are Paladine in mortal guise come to Krynn."

"Lord Oswal!"

The Grand Master chuckled. "I have not come around to that way of thinking, Huma. Not yet." Despite his evident desire to inspect the lances, Oswal turned to the rest of Huma's band. "I know you, minotaur, and glad I am that I had faith in you. You live up to all the good I have heard of your kind. I thank you for your assistance."

Kaz was oddly quiet. "I did what I was required to do. I have sworn an oath to Huma."

"Is that all it was?" The Grand Master smiled and turned to the others, starting with Lord Avondale. There was just the hint of coolness in the Grand Master's tone. "I welcome you, Ergothian commander, as a fellow knight. I do not suppose you have brought your army with you?"

"When we met that one time. Grand Master, I knew you would someday hold your present position, but I hoped it would mellow you before we had to face each other again."

Oswal accepted the veiled reprimand with a more genuine smile. "Forgive me if I sometimes forget I am also in the presence of a cleric of Paladine."

Huma, Kaz, and Buoron looked at one another. While they respected Lord Avondale, they would have never taken him for a cleric of Paladine. Then again, who was to say what a cleric had to look like so long as his belief and his ways did not contradict the teachings?

"You've let out my secret, but it's just as well. Perhaps Huma now will understand why I wanted him to accompany me to Caergoth. When I noted the sign of Morgion on such an obviously loyal knight, I worried that he might be marked for some foul deed." Avondale turned back to Huma and smiled.

The Grand Master turned from Avondale and regarded Buoron with some amusement. With his great beard, the knight from the southwest stood out. Buoron was shaking in the presence of the Grand Master.

"You are . . ."

The knight blinked several times before blurting out his name. "Buoron, milord!"

"From one of our remote Ergothian outposts, I imagine."

"Yes, milord." Buoron was white.

"Good man." Lord Oswal patted him on the shoulder and turned away. Buoron breathed a sigh of relief and gave a sickly smile.

"Now, then, Huma." The Grand Master was all seriousness. "If you would be so kind, I would like you and your companions to join me in my quarters. I want to hear everything."

"Yes, milord, but the Dragonlances-"