Hearthspace, near Clyperri
Elnamerrna, returning to Quatha Vellar from Gateway 854
Firstsummer 13th, 2461 EY
The Elnamerrna breezed gently downward toward the dockside of Quatha Vellar, her sails whispering softly as the steering crew made tiny course corrections. The triop showed massive exterior damage to the onlookers below—angry burn and scorch marks on the hull, along with hull ruptures. All of it added up to a sure indication of having been in a ferocious battle with the invading dragons.
Several dozen aarakocra, mixed in with humans, elves, and halflings, paused in their work as they recognized the Silver Triop coming back from battle.
The Elnamerrna settled into a large drydock at the direction of the yardmaster. A deafening wave of applause and cheering greeted the ship's arrival, which brought a smile to Lygalliz's face.
The hurwaet twisted the nut on the voice horn.
"Bridge, crow's nest."
"Bridge, Tyfelian," the calm, soothing voice replied.
"We just got a pretty warm reception. I think I might've been struck deaf if they were closer."
Far below Lygalliz, on the bridge, Tyfelian beamed. "That's good to hear. Popularity doesn't hurt."
"Aye," Lygalliz replied heartily.
Beside the half-drow, Kiran glanced at him approvingly. Tyfelian's spirit had seemed dampened ever since the first encounter with Jumpspace. With mystery after mystery piling up upon confusion and disaster, Tyfelian had grown distant. Never exactly a chatter mouth, he had been keeping quiet and spending more time than usual secluded in his quarters while not on Watch or in battle.
It had not been too obvious—they had been in battle plenty often since Krynn—but Kiran knew.
Now, though, he seemed to making a rebound. To Kiran's knowing eye, Tyfelian didn't seem quite back to normal just yet, but he was getting better.
On the helm, Alzja showed no signs of such reaction and recovery. The ever-smirking lady drow murmured, "Secure on dock," and sat up straight, anticipating Tyfelian's next command.
"Helm down."
Alzja rose, but she didn't turn. She grinned at the image showing on the outeye. The magical wall showed exterior views around the Elnamerrna, and she saw the crowds cheering the Silver Triop. Alzja straightened with pride, basking in the accolades.
"Don't get too big a head," Tyfelian warned her softly. "Those dragons will be back."
"And we'll deal with them," Alzja replied tartly, turning around to see him. "We'll destroy every last one o' them before this is over."
Kiran smiled at Alzja's naïveté, while Tyfelian just looked grim despite the return of his spirit. The two men glanced at each other, though, sharing their reactions. Neither of them shared Alzja's confidence.
"They'll be back," Tyfelian said again, "probably in greater numbers. Round one, on Krynn, went to the enemy. We just won round two, but it was sheer luck."
"How so?" Kiran asked.
"Whoever our nemesis is, he didn't know we'd made it back home yet. That took his forces by surprise. That fake Elnamerrna was there to get us in trouble, and then destroy us, I'm sure of it.
"And," Tyfelian added, turning again to face Kiran, "our enemy didn't count on Wrackblood helping us out. His assistance threw a big curve into everything."
"True enough," Kiran replied, without much enthusiasm in his voice. The paladin didn't like Captain Wrackblood one bit, for it made him uncomfortable, to say the least, to work alongside an evil ally—especially a long-standing enemy from the recent war.
Tyfelian noted Kiran's reaction to the mention of their old foe, but he chose to ignore it. Knowing Kiran as he did, he knew that this was not the time to pursue a debate with a paladin about joining forces with an agent of darkness. Under the current circumstances, he did not have the words.
"It would be a little easier if we knew who the enemy really was," Kiran said softly. "But we don't even have a name for them."
"No," Alzja butted in. "But before we take care o' them, we will."
Yalthra'teyka, city of Braskrakel
Mazarixopellin, going to report
Firstsummer 14th, 2461
In a place where mortals were never really meant to trod, the gigantic dragon slithered through a jungle as red as he was. Most beings from the Material Plane would have been unable to see him until far too late, but Mazarixopellin hunted nothing this day. Instead, he slipped quietly through a tangled briar patch, which let him walk right into a city street, through some eldritch means.
It was no ordinary street. This one sat on a deep layer of the Abyss. Less powerful tanar'ri, the natives, scurried out of the dragon's way in a panic. The dragon laughed softly as his heavy footsteps crushed a few manes and dretches underfoot, but his quick eyes found whom he sought in a heartbeat.
"Lord Bri'kerzz," the dragon called.
A huge, horrible tanar'ri lord turned from conversing with another of his kind, irritated at the interruption until he realized who had called to him.
"Mazarixopellin. What happened in Hearthspace? Is Quatha Vellar in flames, as I commanded?"
Mazar didn't miss a beat, but in the fraction of a second he took to draw breath to answer, he was stricken with how much his master resembled a yuan-ti abomination—except in color. His master was as red as the jungles of the Abyssal layer he ruled.
However, Lord Bri'kerzz was no yuan-ti. Far more powerful, Bri'kerzz could kill even a balor with little effort. Thus, Mazar kept his tone respectful as he answered The Master's question.
"No, sire. The shipyard's defending vessels stopped our invasion forces before they could reach the ice moon Clyperri..." The dragon's voice faltered; had he been human or similar, he would have been shaking with fear. "There were no survivors, Master."
Bri'kerzz's eyes widened with a rage that would have summoned fear into the heart of any creature in the multiverse short of a divine being. Mazar swallowed hard and looked away; a human in his place would have collapsed into a fetal position from dread, perhaps even had a heart attack from sheer terror.
"HOW?!" Bri'kerzz roared. A crack appeared in the sooty black stone of the city wall ten yards away, from the power of his infuriated voice.
His heart beating like mad within his scaled chest, Mazar replied, "It was the starship Elnamerrna, lord."
"Those who shut down our operations on Krynn?!" Bri'kerzz shouted. The crack in the wall widened.
"Those miserable fools in the silver triop?!"
"The same, my lord. The Elnamerrna rose from Quatha Vellar and assisted in the defense. Even without their top-shelf wizard, they remain very powerful."
Bri'kerzz's mouth opened in a horrid scream of rage and frustration, the sound low-pitched and hateful, hurtful to the ears of all who heard—which meant everyone within about five miles. Lesser tanar'ri and horrible native creatures in the red jungle bolted in fright away from the sound, and those with hands or hand-like appendages covered their ears tightly.
Mazar bore the pain stoically—he knew that to make one move right now, other than breathing shallowly, would mean death at Bri'kerzz's hands. Closing his eyes, he waited for The Master's rage to pour out, and then he slowly opened his eyes once more to look upon Bri'kerzz.
Bri'kerzz was already looking at him. The great tanar'ri spoke, his tone filled with menace and hatred.
"Devise a plan to get the magnificent starship Elnamerrna alone, separated from any help. Put them in the dead-book, Mazarixopellin, or I swear to you, I will have your replacement put your head on the Elnamerrna's burned and broken bow when the vessel is mine!"
Mazar could only close his eyes and bow his head submissively by way of acquiescence. It occurred to him to wonder why The Master thought that these lunatics were so important, but he did not question. He did not feel like pressing his luck, preferring to walk away alive, while he had the chance.
Elnamerrna
Docked at Quatha Vellar Shipyard
Firstsummer 19th, 2461
"It's a gold dragon's head."
Tyfelian favored Alzja with a sour glance.
"Sorry; that's all I can tell you. It's no different from any other gold dragon's head I've ever seen."
"Alzja, it has to be... it has to be. Gold dragons don't usually go 'round flying through space, and theycertainly don't attack and kill everything in sight on command."
The forever-smirk actually fell from Alzja's face. Tyfelian's eyes filled with tears and he and Alzja shared a look of pure misery.
"Sorry," Tyfelian murmured to the drow woman. "I didn't mean to put it that way."
Incredibly, Tyfelian could have sworn he saw a tear slide down Alzja's face—but she dashed it away, if it had even actually been there, and covered the movement with smoothing her silver hair back from her elegantly pointed ears, before he could be sure.
"Never mind," Alzja said. "But this really is just a gold dragon's head. I can't find a thing about it that's unusual in any way."
Tyfelian dismissed his grief and looked around this place, Alzja's place. He did not really see the Elnamerrna's laboratory, which the lady drow had once shared with Tash. Alzja was the real expert in alchemy, but Tash had used the lab every now and then. Filled with beakers, retorts, tubes, candle stands, vials of who-knew-what, chests, and a small bookshelf, the lab was a fine one by anyone's measure, though it was necessarily small, being on board a ship.
Though he wasn't truly looking at it, Tyfelian murmured, "All this magnificent equipment, and it can't show us what we need to see, even when the best alchemist in the universe is working it." He inclined his head at Alzja.
Alzja smiled slightly at the compliment. She wasn't exactly modest and knew she was good, though she thought privately that Tyfelian just might be exaggerating.
"Perhaps we're going about this the wrong way," Tyfelian murmured thoughtfully.
"What?"
Tyfelian waved dismissively at the gold dragon head on the largest lab table, which she had had to clear of all else to allow the huge head to be there. "What if the evil metallic dragons reallyare just metallic dragons?"
"You mean, just raised evil?" Alzja frowned, not really believing that. She shook her head. "That would be a sound theory with a lot o' creatures, but not dragons. A usual dragon's good or evil by its very nature. Its upbringing wouldn't change that."
Tyfelian nodded. "But what if magic was used to do it?"
"Now that's different," Alzja granted.
"A horrible thing to do to a baby dragon, but someone did."
"Obviously," Alzja snorted softly.
Tyfelian ignored Alzja's flippant attitude. "Who would have the power to do that and make armies of evil metallic dragons? The Dragon Highlords from Krynn?"
"No," Alzja replied. "If they had that power, they would've done it during the War o' the Lance, and Fing never said anything about it."
"What about the Unhumans?"
"I doubt it," Alzja replied. "If they could do that, they would've made more witchlight marauders during the War, and they didn't."
"The neogi have no such power..." Tyfelian mused, "... certainly not the Empire of the Elves nor the dwarves. ... illithids wouldn't handle things that way at all... if the beholders could do it, they'd use it on each other... I can't see any of the lesser races handling magic like that... what's left?"
"Other planes o' existence," Alzja said.
Tyfelian rubbed his chin, grimacing. "I was afraid you might say that... so, our Abyssal Lord friend is making a live navy." He groaned at the thought.
Alzja shrugged. "No way telling for sure. But I figure Jaclyn can get the answer... if we can take one alive."
Tyfelian fixed Alzja with an intense, approving look. "Good thinking. But those dragons are damn hard to even kill—how can we take one alive?"
"I have an idea," Alzja said, and her smirk started to come back to her lips.
"You're starting to remind me of a Krynn gnome," Kiran laughed at Alzja. "It's dangerous, but it might work."
Alzja looked over at Kiran at the "gnome" remark, and raised a silver eyebrow, but let it pass.
"What good will this do, anyway?" Jaclyn asked Alzja. The human psion waved at the mass of rope which Alzja had coiled in the Elnamerrna's forward-upper weapon bay, wherein sat the ballista.
"It's just rope. High-strength, but it won't hold a dragon. You could use magic to tie a dragon up with that much rope, but it would break out of it like we'd snap a string."
"Yeah, what are you thinking now, Alzja?" one of the weapon crewmen called over, laughing.
"No it won't," Alzja cackled, answering Jaclyn. "Observe!"
She waved her hand and the coils of rope vanished.
"A delusion! I mean, illusion," Jaclyn burst out. Tyfelian, Kiran, and the four gunners all shared a laugh at the slip. Jaclyn sported an ironic smile, her way of handling embarrassment.
But Alzja didn't laugh, just grinned widely. "No, that's not far off! A dragon won't be able to break an illusionary rope—if it falls for the spell, that is." Her smile faltered, though only a little, as she said that last.
Kiran thought for a moment, and then said, "You could make it better by making an illusion of wire instead of rope."
"You really think that'd work?" Alzja asked, interested. Kiran answered her, though.
Laughing softly, he said, "I'd say that would work better—when the dragon tried to break free of ropes, it'd be suspicious when they didn't budge. But wire is something else again."
Alzja thought, and then cast an illusion spell again. A large coil of wire appeared where the rope had been.
"Like that?"
"Sure," Kiran shrugged.
"Just make sure and wire its mouth, Alzja. I don't want to probe a dragon's mind when it can breathe on me." Jaclyn's words were in a stern warning tone.
"All right," Alzja replied. She dismissed the illusion, frowning slightly at being reminded, again, of how her fellow crewmen had died... but the thought of a dragon's mouth, wired shut, was amusing enough to counter the feeling.
"How are the repairs coming along?" Jaclyn asked Kiran. "Not like last time, I bet."
"No, but there isn't as much to do this time, either," Kiran murmured thoughtfully, looking out the ballista bay port at Quatha Shipyard. "Just scorching and a few ruptures, mostly, and snapped rigging."
"That would be my doing," Alzja commented pridefully. "Without those runic inscriptions on the hull, protection from fire, the hull would've melted or maybe it would've gone up in smoke."
"Smart-aleck," Jaclyn muttered. "You're not afraid to brag, Alzja. What about my energy barrier?"
"Hehehehe," Alzja grinned, then stuck her tongue out at Jaclyn.
"C'mon," Tyfelian said, moving away from the port toward the ladder down. As they walked down the short hallway, he thought out loud. "Now, maybe we can find out who or what we're dealing with, at least."
"And then we'll put it in its place," Alzja stated.
"Your confidence is so heartwarming, I might kill the big villain all by myself," Tyfelian said to Alzja. He smiled, but the smile didn't warm his eyes.
"Tyfelian, you've seemed very downcast lately," Kiran observed, watching the half-drow as Jaclyn slid down the ladder, feet on either side of it. "Until we recovered the loss of the Gateway. Is it... them?"
"Yes," Tyfelian replied. "I'd be a lot more confident with them still at my side. Especially Tash, but that's just according to firepower."
"We might try going back to Krynn and finding that 'Dalamar' fellow, whoever that is—and no matter what Alroloc said. One wish spell, and we'd have them back," Jaclyn suggested.
"What if it's too late?" Alzja pointed out. "After a certain amount o' time—and I know it's passed—there's nothing that'll let you bring a dead person back."
"Especially if they went to the Isles of the Blessed," Kiran added. "But perhaps the gods would make an exception, depending on how powerful our enemy is... if they pose a threat to the entire multiverse...."
"We'll try anything that presents itself," Tyfelian stated. "But don't get your hopes up."
They walked around the corner to starboard, leaving the upper weapon deck—the spot where Tyfelian and the others had stopped the twenty drow spies from leaving the ship. Tyfelian kept his eyes ahead, not wanting to think about the sequence of events that had started there.
The memories were too painful—and they hurt his pride. All his abilities, and the abilities of thirty-four others, and they hadn't been able to prevent that.
Tyfelian opened the door to the bridge, where workers busily hammered mallets against the huge bolts that held the Elnamerrna together. He glanced at the raised platform area at the stern of the bridge, but the walls there had been dismantled to allow repairs to the rigging.
Long ropes ran through the vessel's frame to control the sails from inside, operated from outside the bridge—and workers from the shipyard were there, so he simply sat down in the spelljammer helm. He did not extend his mind into it, merely felt its magic. Normally, he found that very calming, reassuring. The Mercane had designed the helm to have just that effect, to a limited degree.
It did not soothe him today, however. He had far too much on his mind.
Kiran watched the yard workers at their tasks, and was pleased to note that they had not been allowed to remove the walls around the secret door at the back of the bridge. No rigging snaked its way through there, so there was no reason to, but a worker might get curious... however, he saw that the crew had been alert, and not allowed that.
Alzja started poring over charts of the Rainbow Ocean, her usual bridge function, at the planetary locator. Jaclyn walked over to Tyfelian. She opened her mouth to say something, but Lygalliz opened the portside door and called.
"Tyfelian? Message for you." The hurwaet held up a scroll case.
"Who?"
"Don't know. I saw someone give it to a dock worker, who gave it to me." The lookout shuddered. "He told me he thought it might've been a dragon shapechanged to look human."
Tyfelian, alarmed, took the case from Lygalliz. He started to open it, but Jaclyn stayed his hand and stared hard at the object.
At length, she said, "Nothing. Just a sheet of papyrus with writing on it."
Tyfelian opened it and pulled the papyrus out, then unrolled it and read it aloud.
"To the crew of the starship Elnamerrna—the enemy has infested a nearby crystal sphere, Vinespace by name, one of Hearthspace's attendant minor spheres. From there, they launched the attack on Quatha Vellar. They will do so again. You must stop them."
"It isn't signed," Tyfelian murmured, dropping his hands onto his knees, still holding the sheet.
"An obvious trap," Jaclyn stated.
Tyfelian didn't bother answering her. "Alzja, go to Lady Kreeahlka's sheriff and warn him that there might be draconians on Quatha."
As Alzja cast, then vanished with, a teleport spell, Tyfelian looked at Lygalliz. "Double the watch at every entry. Secure the Elna."
The hurwaet hurried out. Kiran came over.
"I heard 'im. Are we going to Vinespace?"
"We are," Tyfelian replied. "As soon as the Elna is ready again. But not like they expect. We'll have a couple surprises for anyone attacking us." Tyfelian's large eyes stared at the outeye. "I'm tired of defending. I want to go on the offensive."
"But how do we know that it's even true?" Alzja protested. "That invasion force could've come from anywhere."
"No," Kiran contradicted. "It had to come from someplace close by... like Vinespace."
The Rainbow Ocean near Hearthspace
Across the Rainbow Ocean, not far at all by spelljammer speed from Hearthspace, a small crystal shell floated at the end of its flowriver. This particular one had been discovered by Hearthspace travelers thousands of years earlier, but no one from Hearthspace had ever tried to live within it. It wasn't easy to colonize a crystal shell with no planets inside it. Its existence had been well known for generations—any student of space navigation in Hearthspace would hear of it within days of the first basic lessons. Still, due to its nature, no one had ever held much interest in it.
Until very recently, that is.
No one in Hearthspace knew it, but over the last year, someone had taken an interest in Vinespace. Hundreds of strange spelljamming ships had flown in patrols all around the crystal shell, and hundreds more within. Inside the sphere, dragons had flown with the starships—thousands of them, all colors and all metallic hues.
After the disastrous attempt to invade Hearthspace, the ships had vanished. So had the dragons. Vinespace, to any observer, would have seemed normal once more.
However, a black secret lurked within that crystal shell. A very black one indeed. Now, on the tantalizing hints of a letter, the hated ones would come.
Elnamerrna
Leaving Quatha Vellar Shipyard
Firstsummer 24th, 2461
The Elnamerrna left Quatha Vellar five days later. The starship rose smoothly from the drydock, fully repaired and repainted. Tyfelian had notified the authorities on the shipyard station, but beyond a warning about possible dragons in human form, had told them only that he had found a lead on where the enemy vessels and their dragons might have come from, and was setting out to investigate.
"Alzja, plot a direct course to the nearest wall Gateway, other than 272." Tyfelian ordered.
Alzja did, and called out cues to the helmsman—Jalaysa, this day.
"I'll miss 272," Alzja said thoughtfully. "It was always right there, somehow."
Tyfelian nodded, but he had a tidbit of good news to pass out.
"The people there got away."
Kiran glanced at him, surprised, but then he just smiled it off, thanking whatever god deserved the credit.
Jalaysa shifted slightly in the spelljammer helm. The view in the outeye shifted; first, a sweeping view of the shipyard side of Quatha Vellar, then Clystin, the world of the aarakocra, then the distant stars, after a full turn.
The Elnamerrna's hull creaked softly as Jalaysa poured on the speed. The triop leaped to starspeed and Tyfelian raised a hand to the outeye. A deft curl of his finger reversed the view. First Quatha Vellar, then Clystin and its moon Clyperri, fell away behind them at great speed.
"Why are we looking at this?" Alzja asked, looking up from her work. "We've seen Clystin shrinking behind us before."
"I just have a strange feeling," Tyfelian replied. "Just in case, I wanted to see it again."
Kiran, seated beside him, nodded once at Alzja. Alzja watched Tyfelian with that maddening smirk for a moment, then winked at him as she changed her mind. Some things were worth seeing again.
The Silver Triop soared through deep space toward a spot between Clystin's orbit around the sun and that of Nij'Reya, the next planet out, but not toward Gateway. Fortunately, though, at this time of Clystin's year, the planet was fairly close to the next nearest Gateway.
The Elnamerrna approached that Gateway soon enough. Gateway 274 swelled in the outeye's view less than three hours after the Silver Triop had left Quatha. Patrols of Itreyan ships, some squid ships with more hammerships, approached the Erilonian vessel, but when Lygalliz signaled to them using his flags, in the specially coded sequence that Plenxon had given them, the Itreyans left the Elnamerrna alone.
Likewise, the gunners murmured the command words to make magical lights glow along the ship's hull—pairs of green lights, the ages-old sign that a spelljamming vessel was only moving from one place to another and meant no harm.
Jalaysa slowed the ship to tactical speed upon approach. She held back on the speed, giving Lygalliz time to flash a message to the 274 telling them the desired destination—the crystal shell wall.
After he finished, she eased the Elnamerrna through the Gateway.
When she emerged from another Gateway, Tyfelian appraised what he saw on the outeye. It was indeed the crystal shell wall; the stars of Hearthspace, tiny but brightly glowing fire bodies, twinkled back at him.
"Take us out of the sphere," Tyfelian commanded both Alzja and Jalaysa.
"Fooools tooook bait," a dretch blurbled at Mazar. "Sivver triup leave Hearth shell now!"
The big dragon laughed. "I knew they would. Let them come!"
Mazar reclined back upon a mound of heaped treasures of every description—a trove that he considered small, but it would do while he stayed on the Prime Material Plane—and smiled to himself, as dragons smile. The Elnamerrna, that thorn in Lord Bri'kerzz's side, would be here quite soon to find out where the invasion force that had attacked Quatha Vellar had come from...
...and Mazar would be ready for them.
"When they arrive, I will watch them, using my magic," he said to the dretch—not much of an audience, but it did at least have ears, of a sort, Mazar thought. "They might not get to us at all—those in the upper levels might kill them first. That is all right, though. I will enjoy the spectacle almost as much as if I had disposed of them myself."
Mazar softly thumped his tail into the stone wall behind him, with satisfaction.
The Elnamerrna's passage device opened a portal in the Hearthworld crystal shell. The starship slid through it as soon as the sparking green lightning stopped arcing around within the portal. The vessel left Hearthspace and entered the endless fog of the Rainbow Ocean.
Jalaysa flew the triop into the appropriate flowriver—a bit more clumsily than she would have, if it had been Tash calling navigation cues to her, Tyfelian thought.
"Alzja knows what she's doing at Navigation, but she isn't as good at it as Tash,"Tyfelian thought, but did not say, "though only from a lack of practice. She is a cleric of a god of travelers, after all." The unfortunate deaths on Krynn had been a devastating loss to the ship. Two clerics, the archmage and navigator, and the former chief lookout,—all lost in a few blinks of an eye...
He shook the thought out of his mind, deciding that perhaps he was obsessing about the deaths of the four women—a dangerous thing to do when about to go on an adventure that was surely hazardous. He had a powerful enemy to oppose, and he probably could not change what had already happened. He firmly pushed the thoughts aside, deciding then and there to think about it no more until and unless he could take action to change the situation.
"This flowriver is fast," Jalaysa said.
"Mmm-hmm," Alzja murmured. "Rivers to attendant spheres usually are. This won't take very long—a few hours at most," Alzja said to Tyfelian, "according to my flow charts." Then she went quietly back to her work, now calling cues to the steering crew operating the sails.
Kiran watched the outeye. The ever-shifting colors of the Flow comforted him. He liked to just sit and watch them slide by when he had nothing in particular to do. He thought he could tell what Jalaysa meant, though—the endless fog did seem to pass the outeye in all directions faster than usual, even for the swift-running Elnamerrna. He couldn't tell exactly how fast, of course—no one had ever found a way to measure speed in the Rainbow Ocean, since there were no landmarks that one could see.
He didn't get to watch the Flow for long this time, though. Less than an hour later, a call came down from Lygalliz in the crow's nest.
"Crystal sphere ahead!"
"That was quick," Tyfelian commented. Traveling from one sphere to another normally took days or weeks, even months in some cases. His thoughts went briefly to Lygalliz, though. Tyfelian marveled at the young hurwaet's eyesight—better than any human's, it let him spot the telltale circular shape of the crystal shell's orb long before anyone else. Even without a spyglass to his eye, Lygalliz would invariably spot a crystal shell ahead long before others. It was not a normal hurwaet trait to have such marvelous eyesight, so Tyfelian did not know how Lygalliz had come by it.
"Attendant sphere," Alzja said again, but no one paid any attention. All eyes were fixed on the outeye.
Presently they saw what Lygalliz had already spotted. The crystal shell faded into view through the mists of the Flow. Vinespace looked no different from any other crystal shell, but Lygalliz called again, confirming what the flow charts claimed—it was extremely small, so small that it would take a spelljamming ship only about fifteen minutes, starspeed, to cross its entire diameter within.
"A good place for an invasion force to hide while they got ready," Alzja stated. "No one ever comes here. No reason to."
"There's nothing in there but vines?" Tyfelian asked.
"That's what the charts say... and they were right about its size and about it not taking very long to get to it," Alzja pointed out.
"There are other legends about Vinespace, about why no one comes here," Jaclyn said softly.
Tyfelian looked at her and nodded that she should continue.
"Ghost-like things in there—things that can kill with a touch," Jaclyn said. "That's all I know."
"Don't let the crew hear you say that, just to be safe... they're not superstitious types, but they still don't need to hear that, " Tyfelian said, then he pointed at Alzja's compass, her holy symbol, meaningfully. Alzja shrugged and wrapped her long fingers around it.
"Take us in there," Tyfelian ordered.
Vinespace
Arrival of Elnamerrna
Firstsummer 24th, 2461
Vinespace lay spread out before them in the outeye. The moment they cleared the green lightning, Tyfelian's eyes widened, as did Kiran's and everyone else's, at the sight.
Vines. Nothing but vines, as far as the eye could see. Spread in a spherical pattern around some unseen primary in the center of the sphere, perhaps, the vines abruptly stopped at a distance of, according to Lygalliz, about five hundred feet from the crystal shell wall. The shell interior had illumination only from its crystalline stars, which bathed the outer vines in light about as bright as moonlight on Erilonia.
Tyfelian wondered why it was that the vines stopped just shy of the shell wall, for a moment, but he shoved the curiosity aside. He knew that his wizards could find out in time, but they didn't have time right now. They had a job to do.
He clicked the voice horn.
"Lygalliz, look for some kind of entry point—anything."
"Looking," Lygalliz's voice replied. There was a pause of about a minute, then Lygalliz spoke again.
"I see nothing like that—but I can't see the whole thing, Tyfelian. We'll have to circle."
"Very well," Tyfelian replied. "Jalaysa, a search pattern, if you please. Your discretion."
Jalaysa made the Elnamerrna move over the mass of vines, in a sweeping spiral course away from the ship's point of entry.
"I'll take a guess about how much Lygalliz can see from up there, and how fast," Jalaysa stated.
She got it right, apparently, since Lygalliz didn't call for any changes. Tyfelian allowed himself a moment of calm satisfaction—his crew had worked together for a long time now and knew each other's abilities quite well.
The search went for about twenty minutes, then Lygalliz called again.
"Tyfelian! I see an opening! Starboard bow!"
"Take us there, Jalaysa—but nice and slow. Lygalliz, sharp watch!" He lowered his voice. "Kiran, call battle stations."
Kiran took the voice horn and clicked it to Shipwide. "All hands, stand to battle stations. Ready weapons, all wizards to weapon bays."
Tyfelian watched the outeye tensely. Jalaysa had already made the turn, and now the Elnamerrna moved in a "straight" line, paralleling the outer reaches of the vines, toward the location Lygalliz had reported. Tyfelian stood as it came into view.
As he stood, he noted with some slight irritation that Alzja had not obeyed Kiran's order to go to the weapon bays. He wanted to chastise her for it, but he bit his tongue. With Alzja, it would be a waste of breath. The mischievous, uncooperative drow woman generally did whatever she wanted, and she could get away with it because she was so very useful. Besides, if a battle started, she would go to the weapon bays on her own.
"Jalaysa, take us farther out, back to the wall. I want to see all of it."
Jalaysa did. The triop swung back out toward the strange stars of Vinespace, but even at that, the distance turned out to be only what Lygalliz had said earlier—five hundred feet or so. The opening was large enough that the Elnamerrna's outeye could not capture all of it.
Tyfelian switched the voice horn to Weapon bays. "Jaclyn, what can you tell me?"
"Ty, this is incredible," her voice came back. "The walls of that hole have been woven—from the vines."
"Woven?"
"Yeah, almost like a spider did the work. A really big one."
Tyfelian's lip curled. He hated spiders, detested them more than any other creatures in existence. He had seen more than enough of them in his original homeland, the drow city Tatissadane. Looking at the hole in the vines of Vinespace, he thought he could tell what Jaclyn was talking about, now that she'd mentioned it—she could see better using clairvoyance.
The dim light made it hard to see, even for a drow, but the vines had been twisted, he thought, in a tube-formation, like the work of certain spiders he knew of that spun their webs against trees. Those webs looked like snake skins, in a way... this was different, but similar, Tyfelian decided. It was a hole, not a tube, a shaft cleared out from a mass of vines, but the type of weave-work was unmistakable.
Spiders. Very large ones.
Tyfelian shuddered, revolted even though he hadn't spotted a spider.
He clicked the voice horn over to Weapon Bays again. "Gunners, wizards, sharp watch. We're going in."
Tyfelian looked at the image shown on the outeye with total disgust, but he steeled himself and gave the order.
"Forward, Jalaysa."
In the forward-upper weapon bay, Jaclyn frowned. She had no problem with going into the hole; that was almost a given. No; her attention was suddenly drawn somewhere else, as the Elnamerrna began to move...
"From astern," the Elnamerrna told her telepathically. "We're being watched... from astern."
Her face a grim, angry mask, Jaclyn involuntarily whirled around completely. She could not see through the solid mass of the Elnamerrna itself, but she reversed her clairvoyance power, analogous to the movement of her body, and sent her awareness back to the wall of the crystal shell.
To the stars there.
"The stars!" the Elnamerrna cried. "The stars are EYES—someone's watching!"
Jaclyn was just barely "listening," because, by a very brief glimpse as she returned the clairvoyance, she could have sworn she spotted a dragon!
She reached for the voice horn...
Mazar's head lifted with satisfaction and savage joy. The Silver Triop was entering his domain! He could see the vessel through his "eyes"—the very stars of Vinespace.
The dragon began to lose sight of them as the starship entered the woven entrance, but he turned his head on its snaky neck to face Dretch and the monstrous spider beside him.
"Set the network into motion. Watch them as they come in and keep watch upon them. Send a few hundred spiders out there and keep watch. If they start doing anything of interest, notify me immediately. I will look in upon them again at your next report. Go."
The spider and Dretch moved away obediently.
Mazar watched the triop's stern for a moment, until it became no more than a blur in the dimly lit vine hole, then he absently made the mental twist that would end the clairvoyance magic that let him see through the stars of Vinespace. At some later time, he would indeed look again to check their progress.
However, as he closed off the star-clairvoyance, his mind's eye received a split-second glimpse of someone on the Elnamerrna looking back at him...
"Bridge, topside bay. Tyfelian!"
"Bridge, Tyfelian," Tyfelian's voice came back.
"Tyfelian, someone's been watching us. Someone was using the starsbehind us to clairvoy! And I think it was a dragon!"
Thinking quickly, Tyfelian responded, "Jaclyn, fast! Return the clairvoyance and find out where it came from."
Maiden! Mazar raged. A human maiden!
They know! the dragon realized.
Mazar swore roundly, his voice starting to hiss, an "accent" he had lost long before—except under stress. The cursed human maiden would tell the half-drow!
He cast a spell that let him speak to the spiders in the vine-tube.
"Attack them! Attack them now!" Mazar shouted at the spiders. "Dessstroy that vessssssel and kill everyone on it!"
Jaclyn saw it all, though faintly—something was interfering with her scrying—and heard "... them now! Dessstroy that vessssssel and kill everyone on it!" as she used her clairaudience power to hear the area she viewed with her clairvoyance. She clicked the voice horn again.
"Bridge! We're about to be attacked! Spiders!"
Mazar fumed, a long streamer of smoke issuing from each nostril. He'd been caught looking! But he knew little of psionic powers and therefore hadn't seen it coming, so to speak.
Then he felt something. Something familiar. Not quite like the magic spell, but close enough. A psionic power.
It can't be—not here, Mazar thought. Nobody can scry into my lair—nobody!
Then he abruptly realized that the psion had returned the scrying power, in effect using the eye-stars to her advantage, piercing his protection.
"YOU!" the dragon shouted. "Human maiden! I know you can sssee me, and hear my voicssse! Hear my wordsss as well, foolissh wisssp! I will tear your lovely ssstarsship apart and then eat every lassst one of you! I will essspecially sssavor killing your captain—what'sss hisss name? Tyfelian? I will make him sssuffer mossst of all!!"
Jaclyn wasted no time or effort replying to the dragon's threats. Instead, she locked onto the dragon's mind with her telepathic abilities. Reading Mazar's mind, Jaclyn reamed his memories for useful information.
It was difficult going, however, for his thoughts at the moment were of doing exactly what he'd said. Jaclyn irritably tried to get past mental images of dragon claws stabbing into the Elnamerrna's hull, a dragon tail wrapping around the masts and yardarms, breaking them, and a toothy mouth ripping the sails to shreds.
Worse, she got mental images of the Elnamerrna crew being killed by the dragon and eaten. Fortunately, those were less detailed, since the dragon didn't know what any of them looked like.
Except for Jaclyn herself. He had seen her, briefly, as he'd shut off the star-clairvoyance, so that image was only too clear!
Jaclyn frowned as she attempted to get deeper into the dragon's mind; it wasn't working. She tried a deeper probe, but the dragon was far out of range for that.
The dragon stopped its raving and tried to foul Jaclyn's scrying. Jaclyn didn't stop her mind reading, though—the attempt was going nowhere at the moment, but if the dragon would calm down and think about its leaders...
Just as the dragon's spell blocked out her scrying, Jaclyn heard one final threat.
"I'll get you! I'm coming for you, Elnamerrna!"
The Elnamerrna cruised ever deeper into the hole and accelerating, by Jaclyn's warning. Jalaysa felt gravity take hold and reversed the helm, holding the ship at a steady speed.
"There's something more substantial than vines down there," she said to everyone. "Something a lot more substantial."
"A planet down there?" Kiran speculated.
"Could be. Something big enough for gravity, that's for sure."
Tyfelian's face was hard as stone. Alarms rang out in his heart.
"Faster, Jalaysa. As fast as you dare go."
Jalaysa turned to look at Tyfelian. The half-drow nodded confirmation.
Jalaysa concentrated and the Elnamerrna accelerated.
Tyfelian watched the woven vines pass. He had a strange feeling that speed was important—he figured that their adversary would have other ways of keeping watch on their progress, but speed might throw them off, make the vessel harder to keep in sight.
"Ready on evasive action, helm," Tyfelian ordered, thinking of the spiders that Jaclyn had just mentioned.
"Bridge, crow's nest," Lygalliz called.
"Bridge, Tyfelian," Tyfelian replied, working the voice horn.
"End of the tunnel, close ahead."
"All stop, helm. Hold position. Lygalliz, how far ahead... down, I guess I should say?"
"About a thousand yards, I'd say," Lygalliz answered.
"Prepare to land, Jalaysa," Tyfelian told her. He clicked the voice horn to Shipwide. "All hands, prepare to land."
He clicked the horn to Weapon Bays. "Jaclyn? What do you see out there?"
"I see the bottom... it's a net of woven vines. There's an opening in it, just off center," Jaclyn's voice came back, then she added, "I still have a surface-only contact on our dragon friend in there. I think I have a name for you. He works for 'the Master,' whoever that is."
"The Master," Tyfelian muttered. "Anything else?"
"Nope. We're still much too far from him for a deep probe, sorry."
"Can you give me a location?"
Jalaysa broke in. "We've changed attitude to the bottom. Ready to take her down."
"Down," Tyfelian replied. "Jaclyn?"
"I tried, but there's magic in place blocking me out."
"Let me know if anything changes... and don't let go of that dragon," Tyfelian ordered. "Keep a contact on him as long as you can."
"Landing," Jalaysa murmured.
Tyfelian clicked the horn to Shipwide again. "All hands, brace for landing."
The warning turned out to be unnecessary. There was only a very light bump as the Elnamerrna came to rest. Jalaysa raised an eyebrow in confusion.
Kiran could not see that, of course, but he noted the change in the set of her shoulders. "Jalaysa?"
"It's very soft, but strong. I believe it'll support the ship's weight. Helm down?"
"Not yet. Release the helm, but stand by for my order for helm down," Tyfelian said to her. He clicked the voice horn to Shipwide. "All hands, prepare to disembark."
Alzja shut off the planetary locator, swiftly put all of her navigational papers in a drawer beneath the locator, then left the bridge through the portside door.
"We'll explore this area, and find that dragon. When we get to him, Jaclyn can probe his mind and find out what we need to know."
Kiran nodded. The course of action was dangerous, but he saw no other viable options except retreat. He rose.
Tyfelian nodded back at him, dismissing him. "Jalaysa, hold your position until everyone's out. I want to be able to fly again at a moment's notice, for as long as possible."
Jalaysa didn't respond, just held still, and Tyfelian came to her side. They waited together through the long, tense minutes until Kiran's voice called from below on the voice horn.
"Bridge, lower ballista bay. Everyone's out."
"Helm down," Tyfelian told Jalaysa. He swiftly climbed the short flight of stairs to the command platform and clicked the voice horn to Weapon Bays once more. "Understood. On our way."
