The tunnel progressed with no connecting passages in a relatively straight south-southeast direction, Andy guessed, for at least three leagues and then narrowed before they came to the cavern. Val’ha was first inside the magickal cavern, its walls shaped by mortal hand. Across from them the wall recessed, with a stretch at the center where a suspended, silent waterfall gave off an incandescent robin’s egg blue glow that made Trisahn’s torch unnecessary.

A small hole in the ceiling high above brought the Night Moon down into the center of the oubliette, forming a silver circle on the deep green moss that lined the entirety of the cavern and gave rest to the travelers’ feet. To one side a small herd of yellow mouse-like creatures arose from the moss and darted into another hole. Some of them stopped to grab the light pink hairy orbs floating everywhere; when they leaped to snatch the pink bubble-creatures, which deflated upon capture in their teeth, the yellow mice emitted high snorts before joining the others down the hole.

The moonlight began to take shape into the silver ghost of a wizard in long dress who hovered over the moss. "I am the High Wizarder Feefthemf, come you now, descendant of Ma’hadrin, to the Dragon manse of Xorus and this place where I am chained.

"In the first days of the third millennium, there was much joy, for the child Lath-vecat was born that year, and though the Age of Insipirility was over, it would remain our standard in its call for peace, friendship and happiness. None had seen Prince Ma’hadrin for over a century when Xorus came, and the tallest tales had the Elf-prince in hiding for fear that the Dark God would set upon him, his people or his family a curse, so in sacrifice Ma’hadrin left his clan to forever sequester himself and his betrothed where they would not be found.

"Xorus defeated the wizard-protectors of the Nine Swords over the course of the year 3000, finally bringing the Swords to the borders of Joh’oprinia, his homeland and the place of the Book of Ceremony where he would have wrested it from me but for Ariadne’s vision. In his failure he was brought back to Terr’des, tortured and whipped by the demons and spurned by Dimatox, the goddess who had granted him eternity in their wicked fire-world, but before he was flung to his punishment – and his birthstone cast to the bottom of the deepest sea – Xorus wrought upon all who had opposed him spells of evil, and set his wraiths to travel the Terran realm until they could find your father and throw upon him their master’s doom. Though I could not disenchant the demon-god’s Dragon revenge upon the palace and capital of Joh’oprinia, I knew even in the wake of Xorus’ first departure that one day a child would come, born of Ma’hadrin, to right the wrongs done him and those who suffer only to sate Xorus’ thirst for destruction and revenge."

"How could you know I would be born?" Val’ha asked.

"First…But how can that be? They are but the dimmest memories, but for the first year of my life I remember my mother!"

Trisahn put his hand into the noiseless fall. "It is dry!" he marveled, wiping his tunic. "And it is the only way as well." He went in, the sound of rushing water filling the room for a few seconds.

"Trisahn?" Thoryn followed him.

Val’ha went next, and the moment her body entered the dry waterfall, she was propelled forward until she put her hands over her eyes and then all went silent as quickly as it had started and she was with Thoryn and Trisahn in an immense cavern, an opaline glow throughout but no drone. The cavern was square in shape, at least several hundred yards in every direction, and as the others joined them, Val’ha saw far across from them in the middle of one side of the room a small stone table with scores of shining crystals of every color.

"You have found for us the table of stones." Carla, appearing with Feukpi in their light-circles, flicked her finger so that none of the companions could speak or move. "Sad, is it not, to have journeyed so far, in prophesy even, and failed, Val’ha?" Carla’s tone was poisonous. "But comfort yourself, meddlesome Elf, for you shall be witness not only to the fall of Bjursk-la, but the death of your friends as well!"

Feukpi pulled his braided hair and rubbed his chin. That he fully recovered from Porcie’s blows and the collapse of Castle Ohrt was obvious; Val’ha struggled against the invisible restraints which allowed only her eyes to move, as well as the rage that boiled within her for being so helplessly trapped. Feukpi floated over to her. "Such anger, such hunger to avenge! Let the toxins fill your heart, Elf-flower. Dearest Carla, that we could see into Val’ha’s thoughts, would that not be lovely?"

"Yes, beloved Feukpi, but it is my observation that our precious niece is overjoyed by your regained health. And here is our cousin Tarnac, little beacon in the night who rescued you from the water beneath Aentfroghe’s palace." Carla approached the Short Elf’s rigid body, patted his head and bent to face him. "Cousin Tarnac, you served us well." She placed the tips of her fingers on his chin and blew a crystalline powder upon him. He blinked; Carla righted herself. "You are all fools to think we would not find and follow you. Lady Val’ha with your father’s charm! I do wish you could tell me how you came across so rare a find as Ma’hadrin’s amulet, that he used for so many years to hide, and restored to power no less! It failed him once before, but then you know that. Take it from her, dear."

Feukpi snapped the amulet off so hard that the chain hurt the back of Val’ha’s neck. "I believe this is the cloak you seek, my dahlia," he said in the treacly tone they used to address one another, handing Carla the amulet, which she slid down the front of her dress. "Good! Now we have no more need of the Short Elf. Kill him, light of my life. It was our assumption, frozen friends, that you would come to the island to witness Bjursk-la’s fall, but beyond that we lacked the exact location of the Joh’oprinian wizard’s sky road, so how delightful of you to guide Tarnac, whose spirit so wavers on the fence of darkness that it was necessary to – employ other means to convince him to act on our behalf. The rat was tough and cunning, were you not, tiny Tarnac? He brought himself to separate from your fellowship – at the most crucial time, no less – in his futile attempt to lead us astray, but good Master Xorus revealed to me his ploy, so we snatched up the duplicitous he-Elf and returned to the lake in time to see you trekking high upon the silver path. From there it was easy to fly past your puny steps to the rainbow’s other end, where we dropped the dead weight of our spent, memory-stripped Elf-beacon, and reach this place – just in time for all…of…you." Carla clapped her hands in merriment; Feukpi took her hand and they danced around the companions singing in a cacophonous tongue Val’ha guessed as demon.

High above them Terra quaked; small clumps of dirt fell on Val’ha’s head and shoulders. Carla and Feukpi stopped dancing and raised their arms to the cavern ceiling. "Feel the light of the birthstone!" The conjurers twirled around around, faces and hands upward. "The magic begins!" Feukpi continued to whirl, but Carla stopped in front of Val’ha and poked her nose. "Do you know why Prince Fraher, our ancestor and firstborn of Queen Moncrovia, abdicated his claim to the crown? Because he fell in love with a Woman of magickal blood.

"Magickal blood, do you hear me? In the years following Wizard Ohrt’s clever betrayal of the Queen, such betrothals were cause to lose one’s place in the line of accession, but here after seven generations our reward is the blood of Feukpi and all of Fraher’s heirs, our lot to be cast into forgottenness by the Blue Rose kings and insipiriles who flee from their own shadow. But now Xorus amasses his hold on Moncrovia and with the birthstone there, Feukpi will reclaim the throne as rightful heir and perhaps then as Queen I shall make you my court jester – since my betrothed has known your mother for such a long time, she-Elf, I sometimes think we are practically family!" Terra shook the walls and ceiling, and more dirt and rock fell onto the cavern floor around them.

For a moment Carla twisted to reveal the bare upper shoulder of her back, scarred with wide whipmarks. "See here, all of you, the courtesy of Aentfroghe’s bull-Dwarf. My daughter is still in such as state that she cannot leave her bed. "This was our punishment for disobeying Master Xorus’ orders not to harm you and allowing the Je-Roptile and sitting room to be destroyed," she said sweetly, skimming to Thoryn, "and for letting you and the thief get away. Understand I will not subject myself to another beating."

Carla amassed one of her electric snowballs and cast it at the immobile knight, sending him hurtling through the air. You cannot do this! He cannot defend himself! Though her visage was still as ice, Val’ha’s head and heart pounded, and to her immediate hope and delight the tingling sensation she knew as magickal started in almost every part of her body at once for the first time and with greater, Dragon-like, intensity.

"His bothersome wraiths," Carla was continuing, now in front of Trisahn, "did not only save your Val’ha, but reported to Master Xorus and so caused for my punishment. But no matter." She removed one of Trisahn’s daggers from his belt and plunged it into his side, then once into his left shoulder. The blood reached his fingertips and spilled to the ground before Trisahn’s eyes went skyward and closed. He fell back like a board, his head knocking against one of the larger stones that had fallen.

By now Val’ha’s skin stung as though with thickets and a new green, much richer and darker than before, began to glow faintly around her body; with luck, neither of the conjurers paid her any heed. "Who is this one?" Carla stopped at Tarl-Cabot; Feukpi halted his jig, gave an incredulous gesture toward Crundin and whispered into her ear.

A giant chunk of ceiling fell, almost landing on Sir Thoryn, and Feukpi returned to his macabre dance, singing, "The sky falls! The Dragons fly! War on Bjursk-la, King am I!"

Carla caressed the Sword’s hilt. "Another of the Swords." Her near-whisper was almost lost in the increasing rumbles and pounding of Terra. "A fine if unexpected gift for Lord Xorus, Who is this one with his Sword of Oflomemnon and hiding-spell?"

Verily her own lightsource by now, Val’ha pushed out against the unseen force trapping her body and with the strain of breaking glass in her ears, found she could now move. She shone brighter and felt stronger than ever before, and rubbed her hands together. A small circle of particularly intense green-light formed when she separated her palms, the effect of the Dragon Om’s death. She chafed her palms together once more and again and again until she had crafted a green lightball. Just as Carla went to claim Crundin for herself, Val’ha cast the lightball at her, sending the witch flying. Val’ha put her hand on Tarl-Cabot and with the sound of glassbreaking he moved under her hand and came to life again. "Praise you, dearest Val’ha." He unsheathed Crundin and, uttering several silent words, flashed a flame past Val’ha to Feukpi, who stopped dancing to prepare an assault upon them.

Their light-circles only slightly less bright than before, Carla and Feukpi rejoined each other. Val’ha used the precious time to touch Andy, Flegretha and Tarnac, whispering to each, "Get yourself to the table of stones." One by one they stirred; Andy hoisted Trisahn from his pool of blood and they scurried to the far side of the chamber, Flegretha and Tarnac pulling Thoryn along when they reached him.

Carla and Feukpi’s hands interlocked. "By the will of the goddess Dimatox," they intoned, "cause for us a Dragon to rise from the fire." Behind them a golden flame sizzled to life and when it dissipated, a Gold Dragon with black striping that ran the underside of its snakelike, three-score feet of body leapt out.

Terra crumbled more and in a rush, the drone of the Song rejoined the intensifying light as loud as Val’ha had ever heard it. She already felt dizzy from the expense of her green-light; she did not know how many more of them she could summon and could not stop from wishing to use what strength she had left for their healing.

Feukpi and Carla floated each to one flank of the hissing Gold Dragon. "KILL HIM!" Carla herded it toward Tarl-Cabot. The beast roared and a cone-shaped gold flame shot from its mouth, which Tarl-Cabot deflected by a sweep of Crundin’s flame; the twin fires split against the cavern ceiling and rained dirt and stone upon them.

A ruby-red sparkle of light burst forth near Val’ha, glimmering into a Human form and fading into Aeysla. "It is, to all appearances, a good time for my return. The ship awaits." While she spoke, she crafted a red light-bolt in her hands and caught Feukpi’s lightning in midair, causing the whole to crackle and explode. Carla cast an opaline bolt at Aeysla, who faded into a ghostly form; the shaft went through her to blast a hole in the cave wall.

From her satchel the translucent wizard pulled a red stick that grew until it formed a staff. Large drafts of cold air assailed Aeysla from three directions; dirt, rock and sand that had fallen from above whipped into the cold drafts and mixed themselves in front of her, so fierce the elements that Carla and Feukpi were forced to remain behind the mighty winds with the Gold Dragon. Aeysla raised her staff: "I conjure you that you forthwith appear,

and show yourself to me,

before these winds and this Terrain and the fire of this Dragon and the tears of my Womanhood,

in a fair and divine Human shape without deformity or delay.

"I conjure you by them who make all things happen on Terra, to whom all creatures are obedient;

and by this tetragrammaton Zeus, which being heard the Elements are overturned,

Fenra, goddess of air is shaken,

Ashley, goddess of water runs back,

Calliope, goddess of fire is quenched

and the three gods of Terra tremble.

"Therefore, come you in their names, Popol, Houle and Andromed.

Come, come, why stay you! Hasten, Terran element, Zeus the King of gods commands you!" The arms of wind became one and broke down the rock until a tornado of sand filled the cavern, dissipating into a sandman fifteen feet high. Aeysla pointed toward the Green Dragon and the sandman dashed a bolt of sand at it; the Dragon breathed cone-fire and blocked its flight. For every arm or leg movement Aeysla made from behind her elemental sandman, he made the same gesture. Aeysla and the sandman threw their other arm forward, causing another line of sand to blast the Gold Dragon. Carla whipped lightning at the sandman and struck its shoulder, sending sand into the air and causing Aeysla to cry out in pain.

"We must draw the sorcerers away!" Val’ha yelled; Tarl-Cabot pursued Feukpi while she rubbed her hands to craft another green-ball, drawing Carla from the Gold Dragon. Carla propelled two of her electric snowballs; the first Val’ha was able to block with her lightball, the two meeting in a pale green explosion.

Carla’s lightballs were smaller, luckily, for one struck Val’ha’s left shoulder and knocked her into the air. She regained her footing and raced between falling rocks and dirt back toward the conjuress. Tarl-Cabot deflected an opaline lightbeam from Feukpi with Crundin’s blade, summoned Snofi’s fire and flung it through dust, noise and Feukpi’s light-circle, setting his robe aflame; he hopped about, patting out the fire and blowing on the cloth while Tarl-Cabot disdained him.

The Gold Dragon hissed, flicked its tongue about its eyes and lunged at the sandman, causing Aeysla and the sandman to jump back. The sandman blasted another round of sand at the Dragon’s face; it howled and writhed, its tail almost hitting the other fighters, blinded from the sand. The Dragon blew its flame at the ceiling, then another toward the cave floor, then a third at nothing. It gnashed and scratched the ground with its great claws, and swung its tail back and fro. The sandman brought his hands up high above his head and joined them into a single fist that it pounded down upon the head of the Gold Dragon, smashing its skull and slamming its body against Terra. Blood ran from its mouth and its tongue lolled in the dirt; the Dragon’s golden flame that had given it birth blazed up to reclaim it into nothingness.

Though getting weak, Val’ha took hope when Carla’s movements became slower, her light-circle dimmer and her bolts, balls and lightning lesser. "Falstaff!" she heard Aeysla shout, her sandman dissembling into a sandhill and the wizard returning the red stick to her satchel. She shot a red-bolt past Val’ha and pounded Carla’s light-circle, sparking against it. The witch flew back with a yell, then glided in a flash to join Feukpi.

Following their lead, Aeysla and Val’ha joined Tarl-Cabot, and the two sides, each preparing light-bolts and balls, held their ground amidst the quaking and smoke, shaking and dust, when from the table of stones Flegretha called, "Val’ha! You must come now!" From the stone-matrix table spilled all manner of brilliant light rays, even as an enormous shaft of white light encased and surrounded it all.

Carla and Feukpi made toward the table of stones. On their way, a large chunk of the cavern above descended, liquefying and bubbling as it suspended in the air to form itself into a Dragon. A blue spark at the end of its tail multiplied and spread around the form, completely encasing it, then flashed and was gone, replaced by a living, moving Blue Dragon flapping its wings, the ground so displaced that a huge hole in the cavern’s ceiling allowed for moonglow to highlight the beast’s every scale. The Blue Dragon did not even notice them, but instead began to ascend through the hole and north.

"Remember the Goddess!" Aeysla and Val’ha struck the blue flaming outline of the Dragon as Val’ha, sending it back to its original rock and dirt form, blasted into chunks of boulder and dropped down upon Carla and Feukpi as they passed beneath it.

The boulders missed Feukpi, but landed upon his betrothed. "Carla! CARLA!" An opaline light-circle slid from beneath the rubble of the Blue Dragon’s demise, flickered briefly and disintegrated into the dust. At that same moment the corrupted drone and light of the Song of Terra, even around the table of stones, ceased. Carla was killed.

"AAAAAAAAHHHG!" Sir Tarl-Cabot plunged at Feukpi, Crundin aflame and waving over his head, and he brought the fire-sword down through the light-circle on the grieving sorcerer, who did not recover in time to defend or escape from the knight’s blow to his shoulder. Feukpi hollered, remorse and hatred in equal measure, and holding his shoulder to stanch the bloodflow, flew through the hole created by the Blue Dragon and out of the cavern.

But there was no respite, for by the dozens, scores and then hundreds, sections of the cavern ceiling and wall formed into blocks of liquefied island rock, sand and dirt that became Dragons. With each fire – blood-red, bronze, light blue, golden, bright green – a Dragon of similar color emerged and flew out of what was now becoming a valley for all the displacement of Terra. The Dragons seemed to have one focus only upon their creation, and by the dozens, scores and hundreds they flew north toward Bjursk-la.

On the wall opposite the table of stones, the cavern ceiling gave way to a deluge of water that splashed to the floor and moved torrentially forth. "Val’ha!" Flegretha screamed again. By the time the companions regrouped at the table, there was no more cavern ceiling left and Flooher’ty Sea flooded toward them.

Thoryn had only singe-marks on his shirt and appeared, like pale Tarnac, otherwise unharmed, but Trisahn was gravely wounded. Val’ha, after she touched the stabmarks but could not muster her healing-light, placed the Ring of Oromasus around his bloody finger and held him in her arms. "Aeysla," she instructed, "take him back." Aeysla brought the slight-bodied Trisahn into her own arms and in a glow of ruby and amethyst they were gone.

Most of the fires completed their transformation, and now only the shadows of Dragons flying from the south whisked across the moonglow. Flooher’ty Sea blasted off chunks of the left cavewall in its mad flood toward the companions, and it was a challenge to hear Andy over its torrents. "We have not been able to deduce anything from the table’s light!" It was difficult to look upon the table, for all the stones of the matrix emitted a beam of different, ultra-bright color, each gem in its own encasement.

They crowded around and Flegretha held Tarnac close to her breast. "Can you do anything? Do you know the answer to the riddle?" the she-Dwarf asked.

The water splashed along the wall and roiled around the corner. Val’ha began to panic, for she did not know which of the stones to remove, but when Flegretha and Tarnac were swept away and with the rising sea tide pushing her, the remaining Men and the table, she decided to cast her gaze directly into the stones. Andy, Thoryn and Tarl-Cabot were lost; the spectral brilliance so shocked her that she looked up to the Night Moon and an image of Xorus so immense against the stars that it seemed to take up half the sky; his mouth was open, and though she could not hear what the emanation called as he faded, she knew the curse was leaving the Island of Dragons. And in the last second before a million prisms blinded her, she saw the Bugbear teetering where the water fed into the open cavern.

Val’ha held fast to the rattling table, the water high and strong enough, and she did not suspect either she or the stones would hold for long. She could see nothing now but the lights. Through them came a figure in silver she recognized as Feefthemf, and to her he said, "Scioness of Prince Ma’hadrin, the keys are four. Open my prison." The vision gone, Val’ha’s eyesight was restored and she studied the stones again, their glare tolerable through the water that licked across the top of the table.

One by one, by the tens and scores and hundreds and thousands the Bjursk-lan Dragons that soared overhead exploded into fireworks the hue of their scales; mud and muck, rock, stone and sand rained back to the land that created them.

The Bugbear tossed and swerved and Val’ha only gazed upon it a moment more before Flooher’ty Sea overcame her and she was tossed around the walls of the cavern and lost her vision again, this time completely. She breathed steadily and sensed her body being carried in the whirlpool. When it churned her to the top, she could hear above its din the crash of boulders into the water, the pips and yips of sea creatures and somewhere behind it all voices she could not place, and she prayed as fervently as she ever had to Zeus for her journeymates’ welfare.

Val’ha felt her arms grabbed; whatever creatures held her communicated with hisses and squeaks and they swam with her for another few seconds before she lost all consciousness and the world went away.