Dragons of a Vanished Moon Read online

  The rebel elves—most of them Wilder elves, who were accustomed to living out-of-doors—had a better idea of what the people would face. Although none of them had ever ventured out into the desert, they knew that their lives might well depend on being able to flee at a moment’s notice, and they knew better than to burden themselves with objects that are precious in life, but have no value to the dead.

  The majority of the refugees had yet to learn this hard lesson. The Qualinesti elves had fled their homes, made a dangerous journey through dwarven tunnels or traveled by night under the shelter of the trees. Even so, many had managed to bring along bags and boxes filled with silken gowns, thick woolen robes, jewels and jewel boxes, books containing family histories, toys and dolls for the children, heirlooms of all types and varieties. Such objects held sweet remembrances of their past, represented their hope for the future.

  Acting on the advice of his wife, Gilthas tried to convince the people that they should leave their heirlooms and jewels and family histories behind. He insisted that every person carry as much water as he or she could possibly manage, along with food enough for a week’s journey. If that meant an elf maiden could no longer carry her dancing shoes, so be it. Most thought this stricture harsh in the extreme and grumbled incessantly. Someone came up with the idea of building a litter that could be dragged along behind and soon many of the elves began lashing together tree limbs to haul their goods. Gilthas watched and shook his head.

  “You will never force them to abandon their treasures, my love,” said the Lioness. “Do not try, lest they come to hate you.”

  “But they will never make it alive through the desert!” Gilthas gestured to an elven lord who had brought along most of his household possessions, including a small striking clock. “Don’t they understand that?”

  “No,” the Lioness said bluntly, “but they will. Each person must make the decision to leave his past behind or die with it hanging about his neck. Not even his king can make that decision for him.” Reaching out, she rested her hand over his. “Remember this, Gilthas, there are some who would rather die. You must steel yourself to face that.”

  Gilthas thought of her words as he trudged over the windswept rock that flowed like a harsh, hard, and barren red-orange sea to the blue horizon. Looking back across the land that shimmered in the hot sun, he saw his people straggling along behind. Distorted by the waves of heat rising from the rock, they appeared to waver in his vision, to lengthen and recede as he watched. He had placed the strongest at the rear of the group to assist those who were having difficulty, and he set the Wilder elves to keep watch along the flanks.

  The first few days of their march, he had feared being attacked by the human armies rampaging through Qualinesti, but after traveling in the desert, he soon realized that here they were safe—safe because no one in his right mind would ever waste his energy chasing after them. Let the desert kill them, his enemies would say. Indeed, that seemed likely.

  “We’re not going to make it,” Gilthas realized.

  The elves did not know how to dress for the desert. They discarded their clothes in the heat and many were terribly burned by the sun. The litters now served a useful purpose—carrying those too burned or sick to walk. The heat sapped strength and energy, so that feet stumbled and heads bowed. As the Lioness had predicted, the elves began to divest themselves of their past. Although they left no mark on the rock, the tale of their passage could be read in the abandoned sacks and broken chests dumped off the litters or thrown down by weary arms.

  Their pace was slow—heartbreakingly slow. According to the maps, they would have to cross two hundred and fifty miles of desert before they reached the remnants of the old King’s Highway that led into Silvanesti. Managing only a few miles a day, they would run out of both food and water long before they reached the midpoint. Gilthas had heard that there were places in the desert where one could find water, but these were not marked on the maps, and he didn’t know how to locate them.

  He had one hope—the hope that had led him to dare to make this treacherous journey. He must try to find the Plainspeople who made their homes in this forbidding, desolate land. Without their help, the Qualinesti nation would perish.

  Gilthas had naively supposed that traveling the Plains of Dust was similar to traveling in other parts of Ansalon, where one could find villages or towns within a day’s journey along the route. He had been told that there was a village of Plainspeople at a place called Duntol. The map showed Duntol to be due east from Thorbardin. The elves traveled east, walking straight into the morning sun, but they saw no signs of a village. Gazing across the empty expanse of glistening red rock, Gilthas could see for miles in all directions and in all directions he saw no sign of anything except more rock.

  The people were drinking too much water. He ordered that waterskins be collected by the Wilder elves and rationed. The same with the food.

  At the loss of their precious water, the elves became angry and afraid. Some fought, others pleaded with tears in their eyes. Gilthas had to be harsh and stern, and some of the elves turned from cursing the sun to cursing their king. Fortunately for Gilthas—his one single stroke of luck—Prefect Palthainon was so badly sunburned that he was too sick to cause trouble.

  “When the water runs out, we can bleed the horses and live off their blood for a few days,” said the Lioness.

  “What happens when the horses die?” he asked.

  She shrugged.

  The next day, two of the sunburn victims died. The elves could not bury them, for no tool they owned would break through the solid rock. They could find no stones on the windswept plains to cover the bodies. They finally wrapped them in woolen capes and lowered the bodies with ropes into deep crevices in the rock.

  Light-headed from walking in the blazing sun, Gilthas listened to the keening of those who mourned the dead. He stared down into the crevice and thought dazedly how blissfully cool it must be at the bottom. He felt a touch on his arm.

  “We have company,” said the Lioness, pointing north.

  Gilthas shaded his eyes, tried to see against the harsh glare. In the distance, wavering in the heat, he could make out three riders on horseback. He could not discern any details—they were shapeless lumps of darkness. He stared until his eyes watered, hoping to see the riders approaching, but they did not move. He waved his arms and shouted until his parched throat was hoarse, but the riders simply stood there.

  Unwilling to lose any more time, Gilthas gave the order for the people to start walking.

  “Now the watchers are on the move,” said the Lioness.

  “But not toward us,” said Gilthas, sick with disappointment.

  The riders traveled parallel to the elves, sometimes vanishing from sight among the rocks, but always reappearing. They made their presence known, made the elves aware that they were being watched. The strange riders did not appear threatening, but they had no need to threaten. If they viewed the elves as an enemy, the blazing sun was the only weapon they required.

  Hearing the wailing of children in his ears and the moans of the ill and dying, Gilthas could bear it no longer.

  “You’re going to talk to them,” the Lioness said, her voice cracking from lack of water.

  He nodded. His mouth was too parched to waste words.

  “If they are Plainspeople, they have no love for strangers trespassing in their territory,” she warned. “They might kill you.”

  He nodded again and took hold of her hand, raised it to his lips, kissed it. Turning his horse’s head, he rode off toward the north, toward the strange riders. The Lioness called a halt to the march. The elves sank down on the burning rock. Some watched their young king ride off, but most were too tired and dispirited to care what happened to him or them.

  The strange riders did not gallop forth to meet Gilthas, nor did they gallop off. They waited for him to come to them. He could still make out very few details, and as he drew closer, he could see why. The strangers wer
e enveloped in white garments that covered them from head to toe, protecting them from the sun and the heat. He could also see that they carried swords at their sides.

  Dark eyes, narrowed against the sun, stared at him from the shadows cast by the folds of cloth swathed around their heads. The eyes were cold, dispassionate, gave no indication of the thoughts behind them.

  One rider urged his horse forward, putting himself forth as the leader. Gilthas took note of him, but he kept glancing at a rider who kept slightly apart from the rest. This rider was extremely tall, towered over the heads of the others, and, although Gilthas could not say why, instinct led him to believe that the tall man was the person in charge.

  The lead rider drew his sword, held it out before him and shouted out a command.

  Gilthas did not understand the words. The gesture spoke for itself, and he halted. He raised his own sunburned hands to show that he carried no weapons.

  “Bin’on du’auth,” he said, as best he could talk for his cracked lips. “I give you greeting.”

  The stranger answered with a swarm of unfamiliar words that buzzed about the king’s ears, all of them sounding alike, none making any sense.

  “I am sorry,” Gilthas said, flushing and shifting to Common, “but that is all I know of your language.” Speaking was painful. His throat was raw.

  Waving the sword, the stranger spurred his horse and rode straight at Gilthas. The king did not move, did not flinch. The sword whistled harmlessly past his head. The stranger wheeled, galloped back, bringing his horse to a halt in a flurry of sand and a fine display of riding skill.

  He was about to speak, but the tall man raised his hand in a gesture of command. Riding forward, he eyed Gilthas approvingly.

  “You have courage,” he said, speaking Common.

  “No,” Gilthas returned. “I am simply too tired to move.”

  The tall man laughed aloud at this, but his laughter was short and abrupt. He motioned for his comrade to sheathe his sword, then turned back to Gilthas.

  “Why do the elves, who should be living on their fat land, leave their fat land to invade ours?”

  Gilthas found himself staring at the waterskin the man carried, a waterskin that was swollen and beaded with drops of cool water. He tore his gaze away and looked back at the stranger.

  “We do not invade your land,” he said, licking his dry lips. “We are trying to cross it. We are bound for the land of our cousins, the Silvanesti.”

  “You do not plan to take up residence in the Plains of Dust?” the tall man asked. He was not wasteful of his words, spoke only what was needful, no more, no less. Gilthas guessed that he was not one to waste anything on anyone, including sympathy.

  “Trust me, no, we do not,” said Gilthas fervently. “We are a people of green trees and cold, rushing water.” As he spoke these words, a homesickness welled up inside him so that he could have wept. He had no tears. They had been burned away by the sun. “We must return to our forests, or else we will die.”

  “Why do you flee your green land and cold water?” the tall man asked.

  Gilthas swayed in the saddle. He had to pause to try to gather enough moisture in his throat to continue speaking. He failed. His words came out a harsh whisper.

  “The dragon, Beryl, attacked our land. The dragon is dead, but the capital city, Qualinost, was destroyed in the battle. The lives of many elves, humans, and dwarves were lost defending it. The Dark Knights now overrun our land. They seek our total annihilation. We are not strong enough to fight them, so we must—”

  The next thing Gilthas knew, he was flat on his back on the ground, staring up at the unwinking eye of the vengeful sun. The tall man, wrapped in his robes, squatted comfortably at his side, while one of his comrades dribbled water into Gilthas’s lips.

  The tall man shook his head. “I do not know which is greater—the courage of the elves or their ignorance. Traveling in the heat of the day, without the proper clothing …” He shook his head again.

  Gilthas struggled to sit up. The man giving him water shoved him back down.

  “Unless I am much mistaken,” the tall man continued, “you are Gilthas, son of Lauralanthalasa and Tanis Half-elven.”

  Gilthas stared, amazed. “How did you know?”

  “I am Wanderer,” said the tall man, “son of Riverwind and Goldmoon. These are my comrades.” He did not name them, apparently leaving it up to them to introduce themselves, something they did not seem disposed to do. Obviously a people of few words. “We will help you,” he added, “if only to speed you through our land.”

  The offer was not very gracious, but Gilthas took what he could get and was grateful for it.

  “If you must know,” Wanderer continued, “you have my mother to thank for your salvation. She sent me to search for you.”

  Gilthas could not understand this in the slightest, could only suppose that Goldmoon had received a vision of their plight.

  “How is … your mother?” he asked, savoring the cool drops of tepid water that tasted of goat, yet were better to him than the finest wine.

  “Dead,” said Wanderer, gazing far off over the plains.

  Gilthas was taken aback by his matter-of-fact tone. He was about to mumble something consoling, but the tall man interrupted him.

  “My mother’s spirit came to me the night before last, and told me to travel south. I did not know why, and she did not say. I thought perhaps I might find her body on this journey, for she told me that she lies unburied, but her spirit disappeared before she could tell me where.”

  Gilthas again began to stammer his regrets, but Wanderer paid no heed to his words.

  “Instead,” Wanderer said quietly, “I find you and your people. Perhaps you know how to find my mother?”

  Before Gilthas could answer, Wanderer continued on. “I was told she fled the Citadel before it was attacked by the dragon, but no one knows where she went. They said that she was in the grip of some sort of madness, perhaps the scattered wits that come to the very old. She did not seem mad to me when I saw her spirit. She seemed a prisoner.”

  Gilthas thought privately that if Goldmoon was not mad, her son certainly was—all this talk of spirits and unburied bodies. Still, Wanderer’s vision had saved their lives, and Gilthas could not very well argue against it. He answered only that he had no idea where Goldmoon was, or if she was dead or alive. His heart ached, for he thought of his own mother, lying unburied at the bottom of a new-formed lake. A great weariness and lethargy came over him. He wished he could lie here for days, with the taste of cool water on his lips. He had his people to think of, however. Resisting all admonitions to remain prone, Gilthas staggered to his feet.

  “We are trying to reach Duntol,” he said.

  Wanderer rose with him. “You are too far south. You will find an oasis near here. There your people may rest for a few days and build up their strength before you continue your journey. I will send my comrades to Duntol for food and supplies.”

  “We have money to pay for it,” Gilthas began. He swallowed the words when he saw Wanderer’s face darken in anger. “We will find some way to repay you,” he amended lamely.

  “Leave our land,” Wanderer reiterated sternly. “With the dragon seizing ever more land to the north, our resources are stretched as it is.”

  “We intend to,” said Gilthas, wearily. “As I have said, we travel to Silvanesti.”

  Wanderer gazed long at him, seemed about to say more, but then apparently thought better of it. He turned to his companions and spoke to them in the language of the Plainspeople. Gilthas wondered what Wanderer had been about to say, but his curiosity evaporated as he concentrated on just remaining upright. He was glad to find that they had given his horse water.

  Wanderer’s two companions galloped off. Wanderer offered to ride with Gilthas.

  “I will show you how to dress yourselves to protect your fair skin from the sun and to keep out the heat,” Wanderer said. “You must travel in the cool of the
night and the early morning, sleep during the heat of the day. My people will treat your sick and show you how to build shelters from the sun. I will guide you as far as the old King’s Highway, which you will be able to follow to Silvanesti. You will take that road and leave our land and not return.”

  “Why do you keep harping on this?” Gilthas demanded. “I mean no offense, Wanderer, but I cannot imagine anyone in his right mind wanting to live in a place like this. Not even the Abyss could be more empty and desolate.”

  Gilthas feared his outburst might have angered the Plainsman and was about to apologize, when he heard what sounded like a smothered chuckle come from behind the cloth that covered Wanderer’s face. Gilthas remembered Riverwind only dimly, when he and Goldmoon had visited his parents long ago, but he was suddenly reminded of the tall, stern-faced hunter.

  “The desert has its own beauty,” said Wanderer. “After a rain, flowers burst into life, scenting the air with their sweetness. The red of the rock against the blue of the sky, the flow of the cloud shadows over the rippling sand, the swirling dustdevils and the rolling tumbleweed, the sharp scent of sage. I miss these when I am gone from them, as you miss the thick canopy of incessantly dripping leaves, the continuous rain, the vines that tangle the feet, and the smell of mildew that clogs the lungs.”

  “One man’s Abyss is another man’s Paradise, it seems,” said Gilthas, smiling. “You may keep your Paradise, Wanderer, and you are welcome to it. I will keep my trees and cool water.”

  “I hope you will,” said Wanderer, “but I would not count upon it.”

  “Why?” Gilthas asked, alarmed. “What do you know?”

  “Nothing for certain,” said Wanderer. Checking his horse, he turned to face Gilthas. “I was of two minds whether to tell you this or not. These days, rumors drift upon the wind like the cottonwood seeds.”

  “Yet, obviously, you give this rumor credence,” Gilthas said.