Chapter 8

I encountered wraith dragons more and more frequently as I got closer the citadel. They were spread out to form a wide buffer zone around Word's citadel and were clearly there to keep the fighting from the war away. And it had worked. The wraith dragons had established a very effective perimeter, no doubt having been instructed to attack any dragon or human approaching. As a result, this part of the city was completely untouched by the ravages of the war.

At the outer edges of the perimeter, there were only a few wraiths on patrol. But their numbers increased steadily as I got closer. Thanks to the gear I had, it was easy enough to slip past them since they had no idea I was here. It was a good thing, too. I could never have hoped to fight my way past this many dragons. Word had created a formidable army. Altogether, I'd say there were probably ten thousand or more wraith dragons in the area. Word never had this many wraiths before. He must have done something in the past that allowed him to build an army this big.

The area closest to the citadel was thick with wraith dragons standing guard. I weaved my way around all the sentries and made it to the main entrance of the citadel. Getting in would be easier than I thought. I observed that the wraith dragons were coming and going from the citadel at regular intervals. They still had to be fed of course, and so they were presumably being rotated through in shifts for feeding. It was easy enough to follow a group of wraiths in as they entered the citadel.

Once inside, I headed towards the upper levels. Thanks to Moordryd, I had been in here once before and knew the general layout. The higher levels were more secure since they could be easily defended from anyone breaking in from below, and I figured he'd want to keep the time machine in a very secure area. I slipped past all the security check points with ease. Overall, the security wasn't that tight. Word apparently assumed that no one would be able to get past the army of wraith dragons outside.

I reached the upper levels finally and began exploring. I didn't really know what a time machine would look like, so I was just looking for anything out of the ordinary. There was little activity up here and moving around was easy. Except for Word's personal staff, all the other dragons and humans serving Word were on the lower levels.

After a time I came upon a large room with a lot of equipment in it and two human technicians in lab coats. In the back corner of the room was a large spherical pod, perhaps 20 feet in diameter, with a ramp leading up to a door in the center. The pod was nearly all black and had the familiar look of black draconium gear. The surface of the sphere was studded with the usual spikes and sharp edges so common in black gear. This looked promising, so I entered the room to get a better look.

The technicians were occupied by their work and they couldn't see me anyway, so I simply walked past them. The aisle ways in the room were designed for human proportions and were a little tight for a dragon my size. I moved carefully, making sure not to bump into anything or knock anything over, and paying particular attention to keep my tail out of the way of anything.

I made my way up the ramp to the pod. The door was open, so I stuck my head inside to have a look. There was a metal floor spanning the center portion. On the side opposite from the door was a small control panel with a vid screen above it. The control panel had a few switches and indicators and one large lever in the center. It would be a little snug, but I could get inside it if I had to. That is, assuming this was the time machine.

I wondered how it worked. I also still hadn't figured out where, or rather when, I was supposed to go even if I could get it going. I sighed. I really wished Parmon was here right about now. Most of the time I thought that kid was a geek, but he'd have this thing figured out in no time. Of course, I had no way of knowing if he even existed in this reality. And even if he did, he wouldn't know me even I could show myself to him. I'd have to figure this out on my own.

Just then, I heard a voice from behind me. It was one of the technicians. "Hey, where did these dragon tracks come from?"

Dragon tracks? Oh, scales.