Read Dragonlance 15 - Dragons Of A Fallen Sun Online
Authors: Margaret Weis
adage, dating back from the time of their great hero, Kaz,
maintained that dragons had only one side: their own. Galdar
heard the dragon's death roar, felt the ground shake from the
beast's fall, and wondered only what portent this held for
them. For Mina.
Captain Samuval joined Galdar to watch the fight. He
brought the minotaur food-rat, caught in the cave-and drink.
Galdar drank the water, but he refused the rat meat. The men had
little enough to eat as it was. Others needed it more than he did.
Captain Samuval shrugged and ate the rat himself. Galdar con-
tinued hi's watch.
The hours passed. The wounded groaned quietly, died qui-
etly. The sun started to fall, a blood-red sun, dropping behind its
curtain of gauze. The sun was distorted and misshapen, looking
like no sun Galdar had ever before seen. He shifted his gaze away.
He did not like seeing the sun through the shield, wondered how
the elves could stand it.
His eyes closed in spite of himself. He was nodding off,
drowsing on his feet, when Captain Samuval's voice sounded
right next to him, seemed to explode over the minotaur like a
fireball.
"Would you look at that!"
Galdar's eyes flared open. He fumbled for his sword. "What?
Where?"
"The sun!" Captain Samuval said. "No, don't look at it di-
rectly. It will blind you!" He shaded his eyes with his hand,
peered out from beneath the shadow. "Damn!"
Galdar looked heavenward. The light was so bright it made
his eyes water, and he had to look hurriedly away. He wiped the
tears from his muzzle and squinted. The sun had burned away
the gauze. It shone bright and fierce upon the world as if it were
a new-made sun and was exulting in its power. He lowered his
gaze, half-blinded.
Mina stood before him, bathed in the blood-red light of the
new-born sun.
Galdar was about to raise a shout of joy, but she laid a finger
on her lips, counseling silence. The minotaur settled for a huge
grin. He did not tell her he was thankful to see her. She had prom-
ised she would return to them, and he did not want her to think
he doubted. In truth, he had not doubted. Not in his heart. He
jerked a thumb toward the horizon.
"What does it mean?" he asked.
"The shield is lowered," Mina replied. She was pale and
weary to the point of falling. She reached out her hand, and
Galdar was honored and proud to support her with his arm, his
right arm. "The spell is broken. As we speak, the forces of General
Dogah, many thousands strong, are marching across the border
of Silvanesti."
Leaning on Galdar' s strong arm, Mina entered the cave. The
men would have cheered, but she cautioned them to silence.
The men gathered around he4 reached out their hands to
touch her. Tired as she was, she said a word to each one of them,
calling each by name. She would not eat or drink or rest until she
had visited the wounded and asked the G~d to heal them. She
prayed over everyone of the dead, as well, holding the cold
hands in her own, her head bowed.
Then and only then would she drink water and sit down to
rest. She summoned her Knights and officers to a council
of war.
"We have only to continue a little while longer in hiding," she
told them. "My plan is to meet up with the armies of General
Dogah and join them in the capture of Silvanost."
"How soon can he be here?" Samuval asked.
"Dogah and his forces will be able to march rapidly," MiRa
replied. "He will meet no resistance. The elven border patrol was
pulled back to deal with us. Their army is in disarray. Their gen-
eral is dead. The shield has fallen."
"How, Mina?" Galdar asked and others echoed his wonder.
"Tell us how you brought down the shield?"
"I told the king the truth," Mina said. "I told him that the
shield was killing his people. Their king himself brought down
the shield."
The Knights laughed, enjoying the fine irony. They were in ex-
cellent spirits, cheered and heartened by Mina's return and the
miraculous lowering of the magical shield, which had for so long
kept them from striking at their enemy.
Turning to ask Mina a question, Galdar saw that she had
fallen asleep. Gently, he lifted her in his arms and carried her-
she was a light as a child-to the bed he had made for her him-
sel£ a blanket spread over dried pine needles in a niche in the
rock wall. He eased her down, covered her with a blanket. She
never opened her eyes.
The minotaur settled himself near her, seated with his broad
back against the rocky wall to guard her sleep.
Captain Samuval came to keep watch beside Galdar. The cap-
tain offered the minotaur more rat meat, and this time Galdar did
not refuse.
"Why would the king lower the shield?" Galdar wondered,
crunching the rat, bones and all. "Why would he bring down the
elves' o~y defense? It doesn't make any sense. Elves are sneaky.
Perhaps it is a trap."
"No trap," said Samuval. Bunching up a blanket, he shoved it
beneath his head and stretched himself out on the cold cavern
floor. "You will see, my friend. In a week's time, we'll be walking
arm and arm down the streets of Silvanost."
"But why would he do such a thing?" Galdar persisted.
"Why else?" Samuval said, yawning until his jaws cracked.
"You saw the way he looked at her. You saw her take him captive.
He did it for love of her, of course."
Galdar settled himself. He considered the answer, decided
that his comrade was right. Before he slept, he whispered the
words softly to the night.
"For love of Mina."
EPILOGUE
Far from where Mina slept, guarded by her troops, Gilthas
watched from a window of the Tower of the Speaker of the
Sun as the sun lifted higher into the sky. He imagined its
rays gilding the spears of the armies of Beryl as that army
marched across the border into Qualinesti. The Solamnic, Gerard,
had suggested a plan, a desperate plan, and now he and Marshal
Medan waited for Gilthas to make a decision, a decision that
would either mean salvation for his people or would end in their
ultimate destruction. Gilthas would make that decision. He
would make it because he was their king. But he would put off
the decision for the moment. He would spend this moment
watching the sun shimmer on the green leaves of the trees of his
homeland
On Schallsea, Tasslehoff and Palin watched Beryl and her
minions fly closer and closer. They heard the trumpets blasting,
heard people crying out in terror, They heard them cry for Gold-
moon, but she was gone. The broken bits of the magical Device of
Time Journeying lay scattered on the floor, the light of the jewels
dimmed by the shadows of the wings of dragons.
Goldmoon did not see the sun. She did not! see the dragons.
She was far beneath the ocean, wrapped In Its darkness. The
gnome expostulated and sweated and raced here and dashed
there, mopping up water, sopping up oil, cranking cranks and
pumping bellows. Goldmoon paid no attention to him. She had
been absorbed by the darkness. She traveled northward with the
river of the dead.
Silvanoshei stood alone in the Garden of Astarin, beside the
dying Shield Tree, and watched the new-made blazing sun wither
the tree's roots.
Poised on the borders of Silvanesti, General Dogah of the
Knights of Neraka watched the sun emerge from the crysallis of
the fallen shield. The next morning, when the sun had mounted
into the sky, when it shone clear and bright, General Dogah gave
his army the order to march.