A pair of winged shadows passed over the western rim of the valley. Rynn stood up again, straining her eyes to get a good look at them in the moonlight. One appeared to be a coppery-brown colour with paler patterns of scales dappling its flanks. This dragon had long horns streaking back from both brow and jawline. The second dragon was obviously gold. Its scales glittered brightly in the frosty night and its underwings shimmered like rich silks. The two dragons descended towards the large campfire and landed in the snow, their riders staying mounted. The brown dragon's rider, a fair-skinned man with blond hair, was wearing silvery chain mail, leather trousers and boots. He had no cloak, but a magnificent bow made of some unknown material was slung across his shoulders. The gold dragon's rider was also a man, and his skin was very dark beneath the drawn up hood of his blood-red cloak. Rynn couldn't see what else he was wearing, but he carried his weapon in full view - a wooden staff with a wickedly shaped blade on one end. A glaive.
Before anyone could offer greetings, the man with the bow said, "What have you done, Ebontyne, to earn Navaros' hatred so soon after his return?"
"You've seen him already, then?" Ebontyne replied, apparently unsurprised by the question.
"He summoned us as soon as he returned to his fortress in Azaran. He wants both Morghus and Arokh-" here he shot an appraising look at the red dragon, "-killed."
The casual way he said this sent a chill down Rynn's spine.
"That sounds like him," Ebontyne said, her voice still calm. "He's probably upset because I've joined up with Rynn and Arokh here. They're going to help me kill him."
"Interesting," the other rider, the one with the glaive, said in a very deep voice. "I got the impression that you returned him to Drakan in the first place."
"Accidentally. The body he has now belongs to Rynn's brother. We were trying to save him from the void and it seems Navaros possessed him just before we brought him back."
"Ah. And you called us because..?"
"We need your help to destroy him and save the boy."
"Well, here's the thing," the first rider explained. "Navaros has promised us our Jewels of Eternity for serving him your dragons' heads on dinner plates. How do we gain by helping you?"
Ebontyne nodded and responded with, "You get revenge on him for his centuries of deception and the selling of your souls. The jewels no longer exist, Star. Navaros gave them all to the Fallen Angel in exchange for the Words of Power."
"How can you claim to know this?"
"We found the Fallen Angel in the Eastern Wilds," Ebontyne said, her face going hard at the memory. "He told us."
The male riders were silent for a few seconds, looking at each other questioningly. Then the blond one spoke again. "Then I will believe you, Ebontyne. Your word has more value to me than Navaros'." The other murmured his agreement and both dismounted.
Rynn breathed a sigh of relief and exchanged a smile with Arokh. She was obviously going to have to revise her opinions of Dark Unionists. As Ebontyne had said, they weren't all as evil as Navaros.
Ebontyne introduced her and Arokh to the two men, then identified the blond man as Star and the dark man as Glaive. The brown dragon was Nashiva and the gold was Kang-shi. Arokh remembered each of them, and they him, but the humans seemed more interested in Rynn.
"So this is the youngling that defeated Navaros this second time," Star said, smiling down at her, and instead of feeling flattered at the attention (as he was, she admitted privately, quite devastatingly handsome), Rynn felt that chill again. The smile didn't reach his eyes, which were as blue and cold as Ebontyne's. "And Bonded to Arokh?"
"She is," Arokh affirmed before turning to talk with the dragons.
"She looks a bit small to have a chance against anything bigger than an orc," Star went on bluntly, but still smiling.
"Who are you calling small, Star?" Glaive grunted. The dark-skinned rider was a full two feet taller than Star, who didn't actually stand much higher than Rynn. He threw back his hood to reveal deep brown eyes and a bald head, then turned to greet Ebontyne. "Akailu. It's good to see you again, my friend."
Ebontyne's smile was actually warm as she gripped the arm he extended at the wrist. "And you, Darben. What's occupied you since we parted?"
Star distracted Rynn's attention from their conversation by asking her to tell him about herself. This gave her pause, and she looked at him with undisguised scepticism.
"Do you usually come straight out and say what you mean?" she queried.
"Saves time," he answered, shrugging. "I'm impatient and impulsive. Dancing around the issue is tiresome and I'm not the most subtle of people, anyway, so why bother?"
"I see," Rynn murmured, unsure of what else to say.
Smiling again, he said, "Well, I'll tell you about myself, then. If we're all going to be working together, it might be easier for you to understand where we're coming from. No doubt Ebontyne has spoken about herself?"
"A bit."
Star chuckled. "A bit. Sounds like her. Glaive's the same; silent-type. Usually have to wrench his arm to get him to have a conversation with you." He shrugged and folded his arms, glancing up at the sky. "Where to begin..." Another shrug and he looked at Rynn directly, no longer smiling. "I was born in a city that no longer exists and hasn't for longer than I care to remember. I had only three interests in my childhood: archery, hunting, and watching the dragons fly over the mountains. At sixteen, I came here-" he gestured around, "-to the Castle of Seasons. I became an apprentice, hoping to join the Order of the Flame and become a dragon rider.
"During my first years here, I got to know Nashiva." Here he nodded in the direction of the copper-brown dragon. "When I reached twenty years of age, she asked me if I would be willing to Bond with her." He smiled. "It was all I could do to say 'Yes,' without shouting my assent as loudly as I could. So it was done, and we became one of the Bonded and members of the Order.
"There were political debates within the Order at that time, and I hadn't paid them much heed as an apprentice. With my new status came the demand that I took a side, though. I was young, and didn't realise that one should strive to learn all the facts before making a decision. As I said before, I'm impulsive. Some things never change. I didn't like the idea of the Order of the Flame being not protectors of Drakan, but enforcers. I was told that the peace between the cities and villages was not happily accepted by the people because of the overhanging threat of the Bonded destroying those who resisted. I was encouraged to believe that the Order of the Flame took away the freedom of the people to choose.
"Before long, I was attending meetings of the steadily growing Dark Union. Navaros was already in control at this time, so as a symbol of my loyalty I had to use an artefact called a Jewel of Eternity. As Ebontyne probably told you, they grant the user virtual immortality and agelessness so long as the jewel remains intact.
"Nashiva wasn't happy with my decision to join the Dark Union, but I..." Star shook his head, "...I was too sure of myself to listen to her, and she had to abide by my wishes..."