Weis, Margaret - Dragonlance - Chronicles 04 - Dragons of Summer Flame by Weis Margaret

Author:Weis, Margaret
Language: eng
Format: epub

In the courtyard below, Revered Daughter Crysania was seated on Firegold's back. The tiger with the human eyes crouched protectively at her side. Tanis, gazing down at her, heard her words.

If any are listening .. .

The tiger lifted its head, looked up, directly at Tanis. And then, as if her guide had imparted some information to her, Crysania turned the unseeing eyes, which seemed to see so much, on the half-elf. She raised her hand in blessing ... or was it farewell?

The pain of choosing eased. Tanis knew then that he'd already made his decision. He'd made it long ago, the very moment in the Inn of the Last Home when the blue crystal staff, Goldmoon, and Riverwind had entered his life. Tanis recalled that moment and his memorable words on that occasion, words that had changed his life forever.

"I beg your pardon! Did you say something?" Sir Thomas eyed the half-elf in perplexity and some worry.

He's probably thinking the strain is too much for the old man. Tanis grinned, shook his head.

"Never mind, my lord. Just reliving old memories."

His gaze shifted from Lady Crysania to a place on the battlements, a place marked by a splotch of crimson, a place held in

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reverence by the knights, who never walked over it, but avoided treading on the bloodstained stones, circled them in respectful silence. Tanis could almost see Sturm standing there, and the half-elf knew he'd chosen rightly.

Tanis repeated the words now, as he had said them then. No wonder Sir Thomas looked puzzled. The words were not inspiring, not words that would echo through the vaults of history. Yet, they said something about that strange, disparate, unlikely group of friends, who had gone forth to change the world.

"We'll go out through the kitchen."

Turning, laughing, Tanis walked back inside the tower.

The Return. The Trial. Sentence Is Passed.

t was nighttime in the Plains of Solamnia, though few of those inside the encampment of the Knights of Takhisis could have told it. The armies of darkness had banished the darkness. Campfires were prohibited; Lord Ariakan had no desire to start a fire, the grass of the plains was tinder-dry from the drought. But the Knights of the Thorn, the gray-robed wizards, had provided enormous globes made of crystal, which gleamed with an incandescent gray light. Suspended from tree branches, the globes turned night to eerie day.

Steel saw the light while still some distance away. Lord Ariakan scorned to hide his numbers in shadows. Let the enemy see the full might of his army and lose heart. Circling the encampment on the back of his blue dragon, Steel himself was impressed. Flare landed on a plowed field, its crops withered by the heat.

Dragon handlers ran to assist the knight from his saddle, point him in the direction of the main camp, and take care of the dragon's needs.

Flare's only desire was to rejoin her comrades. She had heard them calling her before she could see them and, having ascertained that Steel had no need of her until morning, she flew to where the blues were gathered.

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