The Second Generation

The fortress was quiet, most of the men either resting after the night’s endeavors or, as the knight had said, recovering from their wounds. Several dragons kept watch, perched atop the tall towers. Guards walked the battlements, probably more for the sake of training and discipline than because they actually feared assault. Ariakan had nothing to fear. Not now. Not yet. Few knew he was here, or what he plotted.

But now I know, Tanis realized uneasily. I can carry the warning, except that it may already be too late. Traitor, Steel called Sara. Is she? Has she really done that much damage to their cause? He thought back to what she’d said that very night. Her main goal was to keep Steel safe. To do that, she had served evil in silence for over ten years. She had broken that silence at last, but only out of desperation, only to save the young man from the final, irrevocable commitment.

They reached the cleared area. Sara put her hand to the brooch she wore on her breast. A blue dragon appeared in the sky, soaring toward them.

“If you can summon dragons,” said Tanis, following up on this thoughts, $2"you could have escaped this place long ago.”

“You are right.” Sara hovered near Steel, hanging limply in Caramon’s grasp. “But I would have had to go alone. He would have refused to come with me. I couldn’t leave him here by himself. My influence is all that has kept him walking in the light.”

“But you could have warned someone. The Knights of Solamnia might have been able to stop Ariakan.” Tanis gestured at the mighty fortress. “Now, he is too strong.”

“What would your knights have done?” Sara demanded. “Come with their dragons? Their lances? And what would that have accomplished? Ariakan and the knights would have fought to the death, all our deaths. No, I couldn’t risk it. Back then, I still had hope. Someday, Steel might see how evil they are. He might agree to come with me. . . . But now ...” She shook her head bleakly.

The blue dragon landed on the ground near them. Flare was agitated at the sight of Steel’s seemingly lifeless form, but Sara quieted the dragon with a few softly spoken words of explanation. Flare still appeared dubious, but the blue obviously trusted Sara and was extremely solicitous of Steel. The dragon never took its eyes off the young man, as Caramon secured him in the saddle, then wedged himself in uncomfortably behind.

Sara approached the dragon. Tanis laid his hand over hers, halting her.

“We’ll do what you ask, Sara Dunstan, but the final decision will rest with Steel. Unless you plan to lock him up in a cellar and throw away the key,” he added dryly.

“This will work,” she insisted.

Tanis kept hold of her wrist. “Sara, if it doesn’t, you’ve lost him. He’ll never forgive you for this act, for betraying him, betraying the knighthood. You know that, don’t you?”

She stared at the lifeless form of her son, her face as cold and unlovely as the black lily brooch. Tanis saw, then, the true strength of the woman who had dwelt in this dark prison for so many dark years.

“I know,” she said, and pulled herself up onto the dragon.

Chapter Eight The high Clerist’s Tower

“What have you done, Mother?” the young paladin demanded furiously.

Awakening in the mountains, on a windswept promontory overlooking the High Clerist’s Tower, Steel was groggy and disoriented at first, but realization, then anger, soon burned away the potion-induced mists.

“I want to give you a chance to reconsider what you are doing,” Sara told him.

She did not plead or beg; she was not a pathetic figure. She was calm and dignified and, as the two faced each other, Tanis saw a resemblance that was not born in the blood, but sprang from long years of mutual respect and affection.

Whatever clay the father and mother had brought into this world, it was Sara who had formed and molded it.

Steel swallowed any bitter recriminations or angry words. Instead he turned his dark-eyed gaze on Tanis and Caramon.

“Who are these men?”

“They are friends of your father,” Sara replied.

“So that’s what this is about,” Steel said, favoring both Tanis and Caramon with a cold and haughty stare.

Magnificent in his youth and strength, retaining his pride and his composure when his head must have been swimming and his mind groping about in befuddled confusion, Steel won the grudging admiration of both men.

The blue dragon sniffed the air, shook her head, and snarled. Silver dragons, favored by the Knights of Solamnia, occasionally patrolled the skies above the tower. None could be seen in the skies this early, but the blue obviously scented something she didn’t like.

Sara calmed Flare and led her into a large opening in the rocks, where the dragon would be at least partially hidden from view—the main reason she had chosen this particular landing site. The three men remained standing on the rock ledge, regarding each other in uncomfortable silence.