Quickly he clapped his hand over the glowing gem, completely screening the light-and he could still see. In fact, with the gem light covered, he could clearly discern the somber, crimson glow, rising from the depths below. It was as though he stared into a deep well, at the bottom of which smoldered a smoky fire. Thick vapors obscured the air, writhing back and forth, disturbed by currents and updrafts. Within the dense cloud there flamed an unmistakable suggestion of great heat-heat like the Lavaflow River of Sanction, or even the molten hearts of the Lords of Doom.

  In the illumination of that hellish fire, as his eyes grad shy;ually became accustomed to the vast darkness, Ariakas looked across the cavern. He felt a sense of wonder that rapidly grew into awe. He might have been sitting on the slope of some immense mountain, looking at sister peaks around the range, for all the immensity of the setting-except that these were peaks that leaned inward, coming together far above in a vast dome of rock-a false sky overhead.

  Vast, rough surfaces of stone were outlined in the red shy;dish glow, underlit like great, drooping faces gathering around a dim and dying fire. The massive scope of this place made Ariakas feel like a tiny bug, an insignificant insect on the wall of a great castle.

  Only after several minutes of awestruck gawking did he realize that something obstructed his view across the expanse. He saw that, midway between himself and the opposite wall of the cylindrical cavern, a shadowy grid structure seemed to float in the air.

  His eyes adjusted further, and he saw long, spidery beams, extending outward from the cavern walls to reach the skeletonlike shape.

  For a long time Ariakas studied the form, and gradu shy;ally he discerned that it was a cage. Something huge, impossibly vast, lay within that cage, trapped by iron bars that ringed it on all sides, above and below as well.

  Then, with a great stretching of wings and tail, the thing moved. It raised a long neck, uncurled huge, talon-studded claws … and Ariakas knew beyond doubt that a dragon had returned to Krynn.

  Chapter 24

  Tombfyre

  Ariakas first felt stark, numbing terror-a weakness that pene shy;trated muscle and bone, threatening to turn his legs to jelly. The dragon remained motionless, but its very pres shy;ence bombarded the man’s sensibilities. Suddenly, and for the first time in his adult life, Ariakas felt puny, weak, and insignificant.

  Slowly the serpent lowered its head, settling the great wings against its sides. Ariakas studied it for a long time, and finally found himself wondering if it had ever moved at all. Yes, he assured himself-it had.

  The immensity of the creature astounded him. The sublime power and grace of the mighty body held him in thrall, so overwhelmed him that he knew nothing other than a vague sense of awe. The fact that the monster was apparently confined in some kind of cage made no dif shy;ference-it seemed to Ariakas that the wyrm could bend those bars with a tug of its claws, or melt them with a gout of fiery breath.

  For a long time-hours, at the very least-Ariakas sat still, enraptured by the magnificent creature before him. After that initial spreading of its wings, the dragon lapsed into repose. It might have been a statue, suspended in that great cage in the center of the vast cavern.

  The smoldering light from below continued to grow in intensity-or else Ariakas’s eyes developed a dark sense more keen than they had ever previously displayed. In any event, he began to discern details about the huge, serpentine wyrm.

  The dragon was covered with a surface of rippling scales, bright red in color. In the reflected glow of the seething fires, the monster’s scales gleamed individually, as if illuminated by a thousand pale, internal flames. A huge mane of wiry dark hair encircled the massive head, giving the creature an appearance of great age and supreme wisdom.

  Through this inspection the serpent’s great eyes re shy;mained shut, and Ariakas could discern no movement of the creature’s flanks or nostrils-nothing to indicate that it lived. But the memory of that flexing of wings remained with him, the most spectacular gesture he had ever beheld.

  Ariakas forgot that he was trapped here, with no apparent means of escape. All of his attention remained rapt on the mighty serpent-the being whose very pres shy;ence had so terrified and confounded him. Yet as the hours passed and his terror faded, he began to feel empathy for the creature. It was not pity, but more a sense of shared outrage that a noble beast should be so ignobly imprisoned.

  The frame of the cage was barely bigger than the huge wyrm. Ariakas saw now that it did not float in the air. Instead, four girders extended outward from the enclo shy;sure to brace it against the walls of the vast chamber. Each of these was a wiry beam more than a thousand feet long. One of these braces connected to the cavern wall several dozen feet to the side of the human’s narrow ledge.

  No longer fearing the beast, Ariakas studied that beam, wondering if it offered him some avenue off of this ledge. Though he could follow his narrow perch to within thirty feet of the heavy iron structure, the rest of the distance was a sheer surface of slick rock. If it had any slope to it at all, the cliff leaned outward, creating a slight overhang. He had no doubts that if he attempted to reach the girder, any further step would result in a fatal plunge.

  Angrily he paced, carefully pivoting on the narrow shelf at either end of the ledge. He could not believe that his destiny had brought him here to starve, or to make this great discovery and then perish before he could share the truth with the world.

  Dragons lived! The Dark Queen’s legions would again march across Krynn. As the realization sank in, the war shy;rior made a solemn promise to himself-he, Highlord Ariakas, would live to ride at their head! In furious determination, he reached over his shoulder and drew the great sword, brandishing it upward in a gesture of determination and defiance.

  “I will escape! I will serve my queen!” he cried, his voice surging back and forth in the huge cavern. For long seconds the words came back to him, a staggered series of echoes.

  “Who… is there?”

  The deep, booming question was spoken in a strangely hesitant voice, as if the speaker’s lips and tongue had not been used in a considerably long time. Nevertheless, Ari shy;akas had no doubt as to who had spoken.

  “It is I!” the human boasted to the dragon, watching

  the great head rise from its platform. “I am the Highlord Ariakas-loyal champion of Takhisis, and master of the armies that shall march in her name!”

  “Impressive, indeed,” thrummed the dragon’s voice, the tone rich with respect. Now Ariakas saw the gleam of two huge eyes, each a yellow orb tinged with crimson by the infernal fires below. “I am honored to be joined by such an illustrious visitor.”

  Nothing in the dragon’s tone indicated irony, but sud shy;denly Ariakas was struck by the ludicrousness of his own braggadocio. “How are you called, great dragon?” he asked in a tone considerably more humble.

  “In the age of the Dragon Wars, I was known as Tombfyre,” replied the monster. “Though I suspect that was a very long time ago. In truth, it has been more than an age since I last opened my eyes.”

  Ariakas’s heart quickened. Again he felt that tingling of destiny-a self-assurance that he would not perish, alone and forgotten, in this place.

  “Why do you awaken now?” he asked.

  The dragon shook his mighty head thoughtfully, the great mane swaying back and forth like a regal robe. “I don’t… it was the queenl She called to me in my sleep, and I obeyed! She has not forgotten me!”

  “The queen speaks to you-to both of us-through this!” Ariakas brandished his sword, and the dragon’s sinuous neck raised the great wedge of his head. Clearly interested, Tombfyre regarded the human with new respect.

  “Why did you come here, warrior?” inquired the red dragon, his voice a soft hiss.

  Suddenly Ariakas knew the answer.

  “I came because of this weapon-and the will of our mistress! Because of her prophecy: In the heart of the world, it will set fire to the sky!”

  Again he raised the sword, and now he began to won shy;der if he had guessed its purpose, understood now the importance of the blue blade.

  “I, too, was given a prophecy,” the dragon observed quietly, his deep voice tinged with an incongruous note of awe. “When we were defeated by Huma and his infer shy;nal lances, the queen bade us leave Krynn, to languish in exile and banishment beyond the memories of men.

  “But when we departed the world,” Tombfyre contin shy;ued, “she made us several promises. Our exile would be long, she warned us-but it would not be forever. And as she sent me here, to this lonely prison, she gave a promise for my ears alone.”

  “What-what did she tell you?” demanded Ariakas, his nerves taut with excitement.

  “She said that I had served her well… pleased her. When I awakened, she would have a special role for me. When it came time for her call, she would send me the highest of her agents-her champion. Together we would fly, and I would carry him in a blaze of fire through the heavens!”

  “Why are you imprisoned, then-held in a cage?” asked the human.

  ‘The champion of Takhisis would release me,” claimed the serpent.

  “Can’t you bend the bars? Melt them with your breath?”

  Tombfyre sighed. “I tried, before I slept. These bars are an alloy of copper and iron, too strong even for my muscles. When I breathed, the fire just flowed around the metal-it didn’t weaken it.”

  Suddenly Ariakas remembered a tale from his temple lessons, and in a flash of insight he understood. It was the blue blade!

  “I ask you for your pledge, Tombfyre Reddragon,” Ariakas said solemnly. “When I release you, you will take me from this place and serve me, as we serve the queen who has given us life and power! Will you make this promise?”

  “I am not a servile creature,” Tombfyre said carefully. “Nor do I see how you might release me from this cage. I will grant you this, should you find a way to break these bars that bind me: I will carry you from this place and aid you in your battles against the enemies of Takhisis. As you command her hosts, I shall command her drag shy;ons-and together, we will conquer all who stand in our way!”

  “It will not be my power that releases you-it shall be the queen herself,” Ariakas countered. “And in that power you will see the destiny that brings us together. No, indeed-you are not a servile creature. You will serve only in the same way as I-in the acknowledgment that in Takhisis we prostrate ourselves before a might that makes puny any power on all this world.”

  “Agreed, Highlord Ariakas,” replied Tombfyre. “I give you my pledge of alliance-if I am released from my cage.”

  Ariakas stood at the edge of his narrow platform, clos shy;est to the place where the metal girder met the cavern wall. Carefully, reverently, he raised the blue blade, utterly confident now of the Dark Queen’s will-and of her power, as it would be made manifest by his sword.

  “Hear me, O Queen,” he murmured. “And show us thy will!”

  A brilliant flash exploded in the vast chamber, fol shy;lowed by a sharp clap of sound. The explosion crackled, and Ariakas saw a bolt of energy-like a furious blast of lightning-hiss into the iron strut that spanned the yawn shy;ing space to the dragon’s cage.

  The roaring clap of noise created a sustained echo in the cavernous space, but that was nothing compared to the brilliant flare of searing, sputtering fire that took root in the long beam of iron. Where the lightning bolt had struck, the metal began to glow-red, then yellow, and finally a pure white that glared like a desert sun, forcing Ariakas to turn his eyes away.

  The light sizzled along the length of the girder in a cas shy;cade of smoke and sparks as it streaked toward the caged dragon. Glowing embers trailed from the rippling explosion, and Ariakas smelled a pungent, burned odor in the air all around him.

  In an instant the eruption of power reached the cage, and the entire structure of bars stood outlined in glaring, searing light. Within the grid, the huge dragon cringed against the floor, trying to duck away from the fuming, sparking magic surrounding him.

  Then, with a burst of sound that swallowed the echoes of the lightning bolt, the metal frame exploded. Pieces of glowing iron showered the vast cavern, some of them landing on the ledge beside Ariakas, while many more tumbled into the smoking depths below. The sound of that destructive explosion boomed deafeningly back and forth, the caverns seeming to growl with the voice of the world. Then slowly the chaos died away.

  Ariakas kept his eyes glued to the mighty serpent. Tombfyre tumbled free as the cage shattered. Once again the warrior saw those vast wings unfurl. This time, un-confined, they spread wide, the joints creaking stiffly, and when the serpent struck them downward they swirled a gust of wind that reached Ariakas like a cool shy;ing breeze.

  The dragon dived, wheeling gracefully to the left and gliding through a full circle in the vast cavern. Then, as he approached the ledge where Ariakas awaited, the dragon craned his neck upward and, with a dip of his tail, swooped up to the narrow shelf of rock, to the very feet of the highlord.

  The human held his breath. The dragon had been freed-but would the mighty creature keep his word? Tombfyre turned those huge eyes, now glowing a bril shy;liant sheen of yellow, toward Ariakas. The dragon bel shy;lowed, a triumphant, exultant sound of pleasure, power, and promise.

  Tombfyre seized the ledge with his front claws, wings beating powerfully as his iron-hard talons cut into the crumbling stone. For a full second Ariakas stared into those huge eyes, seeing the long, slitted irises cutting ver shy;tically through the yellow pupils. Then, with just a trace of a mocking smile on the broad, tooth-studded snout, the red dragon dipped his head in a dignified bow.

  Ariakas again felt overwhelming awe. He stood still, holding his great sword. Idly, he noticed that the blade was now green-a rich, verdant color like the foliage of a tropical grotto. It was, he reflected, a very beautiful color. Now the weapon seemed more like an icon than a tool, and he gently, reverently, resheathed it.

  Again Tombfyre beat his powerful wings, and the human saw the great dragon’s sinews tighten in his fore shy;arms and shoulders. Too heavy to hover, the creature struggled hard to maintain its position in the air.

  Impetuously, Ariakas stepped onto the great, taloned forefoot. The serpentine neck rose to meet him, forming a handrail to his side as he walked along the taut, mus shy;cular foreleg, barely conscious of the infinite drop yawn shy;ing below. Grasping a handful of the dragon’s wiry mane, the man slipped around the great shoulder, com shy;ing to rest in a natural depression between the roots of the creature’s massive wings.

  Still holding the tufts of mane, Ariakas smiled grimly when Tombfyre turned his head to meet his rider’s gaze. The dragon’s mouth, too, split into a cruel grin, and a long, forked tongue snaked from between the reptilian lips.

  Then, with a forceful shove, Tombfyre pushed away from the precipitous ledge. For a brief moment Ariakas felt weightless, and only his hands tightly gripping the mane prevented him tumbling into the abyss below. But abruptly the dragon’s wings thrust downward, biting into the air and firmly settling the human in his natural saddle.

  With another powerful wing beat, the crimson dragon curled them into a fast glide, and then they were climb shy;ing higher and higher, spiraling upward … ready to set fire to the sky.

  Chapter 25

  Conquerors

  Tombfyre carried Ariakas through a long, laboring climb. Even in the huge chamber the monstrous red dragon had to spiral constantly, striving every moment to increase their altitude. Ariakas stared above them, seeking some sign of the sky-anything that would show them a way out. Yet the higher they climbed, the more clear it became that this massive vault of stone was sealed by a solid dome of rock overhead.

  “How did you get in here?” Ariakas asked, as they soared in a circle near the top of the vast space.

  “I don’t remember,” Tombfyre replied with a rippling shrug of his powerful shoulders and sinuous neck. The serpent’s tone was bitter. “The queen placed me here after the war-I have no knowledge of occurrences im shy;mediately following Huma’s victory.”

  “It may salve your pride to know that Huma died in that battle-your army had its vengeance, at least.”

  “Vengeance is no substitute for victory,” growled the wyrm. Abruptly, he tucked his wings, plummeting into the depths of the vast caverns, toward the smoking, smoldering reaches below. The plunge should have taken Ariakas by surprise, but a warning tingled in his mind a second before the dive-he tightened his hands in the dragon’s mane, and when the serpent dived, the human clung securely to his back.

  Still spiraling, Tombfyre sped through his long descent. Wind whipped Ariakas’s hair back from his face, and his lips clenched into a snarling smile of tri shy;umph. The dragon’s wheeling path continued down shy;ward, circling around the shaft that had held his prison for more than a thousand years.

  Smoke stung Ariakas’s eyes, and heat began to build oppressively. They plunged ever lower, still faster, and the human began to imagine an inevitable, fiery end to their descent. The smoldering depths became clear, as he saw eddies of cloudy smoke whisking past bright, flam shy;ing lava. He pictured an instantaneous finale, life blotted out at the very moment they smashed into the abyssal fires seething within the heart of Krynn.

  The light grew brighter, forming a reddish haze of flaming illumination, burning the very air around them. Abruptly, and with a dizzying sense of expansion, the shaft they flew down opened through a hole in the ceil shy;ing of an incredibly vast, furiously burning cavern-like a plain of fire, sprawling to the horizons far below the surface of the world.

  The dragon pulled out of the dive, and a huge, crim shy;son vista opened before the warrior’s astonished eyes. Bubbling lava spread to the limits of vision, smoking, flaming, casting great, liquid gouts upward from the surface of a fiery sea. The shaft where he had found Tombfyre was nothing more than a tall, capped chimney leading upward from this huge, subterranean fire sea.