The night sky was aglow with stars, and Drakan's twin moons were mere slivers of light against the black. Below, a vast expanse of puffy whiteness shifted and eddied in the cold wind, ever changing between one shape and the next.
Up ahead, a break appeared in the clouds. Solid ground could be seen on the other side and a long way down. Grassy hills - the greens and golds leeched away by the night.
A sudden drop in altitude, straight through the gap. Wisps of cloud were tugged along in the wake of leathery wings, trailing thin lines through the air before falling away... above.
Then could be seen the land stretching in all directions, though barely visible beneath the cloud cover. Most of the hills were in shadow and silent... unmoving sculptures of night.
There was a larger darkness ahead. It jutted up from the land, all sheer edges and angles rising to an inwardly curved summit. The base of this mass was yet more gently sloping hills, but less than a tenth of the way up it turned to stone cliffs and rocky outcrops that would challenge the best of mountaineers. In the night, it was impossible to see if there was a path.
But when one is riding a dragon, paths become sort of unneccessary.
Arokh and Morghus skirted the outer edge of the crater once, their eyes scanning the dark interior.
"See them?" Morghus asked his brother, who nodded.
"Let's go down."
They circled the inner edge, rocks smoothed by time speeding past. One section of the crater's edge they went by had crumbled down low - a perfect place for a waterfall had there been any water. It looked like it hadn't rained here in some time.
The dragons landed, and from the crater's deeper shadows came the other Bonded.
"You succeeded?" Ebontyne asked Glaive.
He nodded. "We saw the new Succubus Queen send the message to Navaros."
"Then we killed her and smashed the message machine," Star added. "There weren't that many succubi left in the hive anyway."
"Did you succeed?" Glaive asked Ebontyne.
"Rynn has the Jewels of Eternity," she replied, glancing back over her shoulder.
Rynn had managed to slide off Arokh's back before exhaustion and despair had set in again, convincing her that sleep (or even unconsciousness) was better than this. Arokh was curled around her prone body like a huge, scaley cat, one wing folded over her protectively. His flaming eyes met Ebontyne's own, and in them was fear.
But Rynn's fear or Arokh's own, the War Mage couldn't know.
"What's wrong with them?" Star asked softly.
"Rynn and I went through Shiv'arass."
"Shiv-whatess?"
But Glaive winced. "Oh."
"What?"
"You don't need to know, Star," Ebontyne said. "Trust me - you don't want to know."
"That bad?"
"Worse." She looked at Glaive again. "She's afraid, old friend. She's doubting her abilities."
"That will prove fatal in the spell she means to cast," Glaive said, his brow creasing.
"Will she have to cast it?" Star asked. "If it's that dangerous-"
"She doesn't have to," Glaive interrupted, "but it's a safety precaution. Ebontyne, is Rynn still willing to go on with her plan?"
She and Rynn had spoken of it on the way there. When Navaros began his ritual, Rynn would cast the spell while the other Bonded stood guard around her. When the spell was ready to take form around Mount Tibor's summit, she and Arokh would fly within it to where Navaros was, at which point the prisms would be removed from the pattern by the Bonded, activating the shield. Rynn would try to force Navaros to use a Jewel while he was in his trance and before the ritual was complete. If she failed... well... at least Navaros would be trapped.
"Rynn will go on," Ebontyne said.
"That's something. When she wakes, I'll train her some more. Sounds like she needs some encouragement."
"Train? How much time do we have?"
"Navaros is bringing along his army," Star said. "We think they'll take a few more days."
"Be more specific."
"Three, minimum."
"Are they still talking about me?" Rynn whispered.
Arokh's reply was as soft as a dragon's could be. "They are worried."
"What about you?"
"I feel what you feel."
"But do you understand it?"
He sighed. "No."
Rynn curled herself into a tighter ball.
"Because..." Arokh lay his head on the ground beside her under his wing. "Because... somehow, I remember you saying that you're not afraid when I'm there."
She looked at him sadly.
"Has that changed?"
"No... but the spell... I'll be on my own when I cast it. Just me."
"We are Bonded, Rynn. By Fire and by Blood. It will never be 'just me'."
She caught her breath. "Will you be able to help?"
"Can a dragon breathe fire?"