Weis, Margaret - Dragonlance: The Second Generation 02 - Dragons of Summer Flame by Weis Margaret

Author:Weis, Margaret [Weis, Margaret]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fantasy, General, Fiction
ISBN: 9781439572443
Google: r-EfPwAACAAJ
Amazon: 0786927089
Goodreads: 7309498
Publisher: Paw Prints
Published: 2008-11-11T00:16:40+00:00

2

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.

The blue dragons were the favored mounts of the Knights of Takhisis. Dragons are extremely independent and, generally, have a low opinion of humanity. Most dragons find it difficult to obey orders given them by those whom they consider inferior beings, and for certain species of dragon this proves impossible.

Black dragons are devious and selfish and cannot be trusted, not even by those whom they purportedly serve. Black dragons see no need to “sacrifice” themselves for any cause other than their own, and, though they can be enticed to fight, they might well leave the battle in the midpoint to pursue their own aims.

During the War of the Lance, red dragons had been the favored mounts of many commanders, including the infamous Dragon Highlord Verminaard. Enormous, fire-breathing, and vicious, the red dragons had no patience for the subtleties of Ariakan’s type of warfare. The red’s idea of attacking a city was to burn it, loot it, destroy it, kill everything inside it. The notion that the intact city, its inhabitants alive and well, is of more practical use to the Dark Queen than a pile of rubble and rotting corpses, was anathema to the reds. Let the smoke of burning, the stench of death, proclaim Her Majesty’s glory, not forgetting the glitter of gold stashed in the red dragons’ lairs.

Green dragons proved useless in battle during the last Dragon War. Greens will fight when cornered, but not until then. They prefer to use their powerful magical spells to ensnare an opponent. Thus greens have little respect for military commanders, though they would obey the Knights of the Thorn-the gray-robed wizards-if the greens thought they might gain something for themselves.

White dragons, accustomed to living in cold climes, had all

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