Dragonlance 16 - Dragons Of A Lost Star (48 page)

Epilogue

That night, in the small port city of Dolphin View, in northern Abanasinia, a ship set sail across the Straits of I Schallsea. The ship carried a single passenger, whose identity was known only to the captain. Heavily cloaked and hooded, the passenger boarded during the night, bringing with him nothing except his horse, a wild-eyed, short-tempered beast, who was housed below deck in a specially built stall.

The mysterious passenger was obviously a man of means, for he had hired the Gull Wing specially, and he had paid extra for his horse. The sailors, intensely curious about the passenger’s identity, were envious of the cabin boy, who was granted permission to take the passenger his supper. They waited eagerly for the boy to return to tell them what he had seen and heard.

The cabin boy knocked on the door. No one answered and after a few more knocks, he trepidatiously tried the lock. The door opened.

A tall, slender man, wrapped in his cloak, stood staring out the porthole at the vast and glittering sea. He did not turn around, even after the cabin boy mentioned dinner several times.

Shrugging, the cabin boy was about to withdraw when the mysterious passenger spoke. He used Common, but with a heavy accent. His voice quivered with impatience.

“Tell the captain I want this ship to go faster. Do you hear? We must go faster.”

In her mountain lair, surrounded by the skulls of the dragons she had slain, the great red dragon Malystryx dreamed of water, inky black water, rising up over her red legs, her belly, her massive red tail. Rising to cover her red wings, her back. Rising to her mane. Rising to cover her head, her mouth and nostrils. She could not breathe. She fought to lift herself above the water, but her legs were pinned. She could not free herself. Her lungs were bursting. Stars exploded before her eyes. She gasped, opened her mouth. The water poured in, and she was drowning. . . .

Malystryx woke, suddenly, glared around, angry and uneasy. She had been dreaming, and she never dreamed. Never before had any dream disturbed her rest. She had heard voices in her dream, mocking, goading, and she heard them still. The voices came from the skull totem, and they sang a song about sleep. Forever sleep.

Malystryx lifted her enormous head and stared hard at the skull totem, at the white skulls of blue dragons piled on top of the skulls of silver dragons; at the skulls of red dragons lying atop of the skulls of gold dragons.

From out the empty eye sockets of all the dead dragons, eyes, living eyes, stared back at Malystryx.

Sleep. Forever sleep.

In the Tower of High Sorcery, Galdar waited for Mina, but she didn’t return. At last, worried about her, not trusting this place or the wizards who inhabitated it, he went in search of her.

He found her in the old laboratory.

Mina sat huddled on the floor beside the body of an old, old woman. Galdar approached, spoke to her. Mina did not look up. Bending down, Galdar saw that the old woman was dead.

Galdar lifted Mina, put his good strong right arm around her, and led her from the chamber.

The light of the dragons faded.

The laboratory was once more shrouded in darkness.