"I'll deal with that problem when it arises," Khisanth said a trifle defensively.
"But why should you have to, Khisanth? Think how far you could climb in status if you took a rider! I'm certain you'd overtake Khoal and be ranked second in no time."
Khisanth's thick-boned wings rose in a semblance of a human shrug. "I've learned the value of patience-a dragon's life is long. Someday I'll rise to the second rank without the hindrance of a human."
Jahet's brows raised, and she looked askance. "Do you think I bend more than my knees to Highlord Maldeev?"
Khisanth lowered her guard momentarily, one eye blink shy;ing rapidly at her own unintended slight. "I wouldn't pre shy;sume to interpret your relationship. I only know that I've yet to meet the human who's proven himself the equal of a dragon." To her annoyance, she remembered one who'd managed to break her nose, but she'd been a human then, too. That didn't count. "Perhaps you've found the only one in Maldeev," Khisanth suggested as a conciliatory afterthought.
"Flattery doesn't become you, Khisanth," Jahet said sourly. "I haven't summoned you to argue, but to warn you. I
risk much telling you this," she continued, dropping her voice to a whisper, though there was no one around to hear them. "That which you both want and fear may happen sooner than you think." Khisanth looked puzzled.
Jahet pressed on. "Maldeev has been watching your progress, and I sense his pleasure. The nature of his questions tell me that he's anxious to move you up in the ranks, but feels he can't unless you take a rider."
Khisanth shrugged noncommittally, but inwardly she felt a jolt of delight at the news. "Maldeev is highlord. He'll find a way to raise my rank if he truly believes it to be in the best interest of the wing to do so."
Jahet smirked at her. "Ah, but you're forgetting the other dragons…."
"I try to," Khisanth cut in wryly.
"You have made enemies among them," acknowledged Jahet, "partly because of your superior skills. They also feel you receive favored treatment."
"Don't I?" Khisanth asked with brutal honesty.
Jahet nodded. "It's true. Our friendship has not helped them accept you." It was impossible not to notice the other dragons' animosity for Khisanth, despite the fact that Jahet didn't interact with them off the drill field, since her lair did not adjoin theirs.
"Neither has your refusal to take a rider, nor Maldeev's tolerance of it."
"You've put your talon on it-they're jealous," said Khi shy;santh.
Jahet wagged a digit at her defensive friend. "Don't under shy;estimate the power of their envy." She locked eyes with Khi shy;santh. "Make no mistake, Maldeev and I allow you privileges for our own purposes, but neither he nor I can protect you from their spitefulness. Any blatant intervention on our parts would simply make matters worse."
"I'm not asking for any help. I can handle the other drag shy;ons," Khisanth said stonily.
"Yes, I suppose you could," agreed Jahet, "if we were try shy;ing to defeat them. But, lest you forget, they're on our side."
Khisanth laughed humorlessly and spoke her mind before she could stop herself. "Frankly, I can't see that those drag shy;ons are on anyone's side but their own." Khisanth's feelings about Khoal, Dnestr, and Neetra's disloyalty was just that-a feeling. She believed that even combined, they weren't smart enough to cause the wing any real damage with their spiteful little tricks. What was more, they didn't appear to relish each other any more than they did her; Neetra and Dnestr toadied to Khoal's face, but sniggered behind his back.
"You know as do I that if s unusual-even unnatural-for black dragons to work together," said Jahet. "I'm sure you've felt a conflict yourself." She blinked slowly, considering her words. "I believe the others are as loyal to the wing as can be expected." The ranking dragon's tone became clipped. "At any rate, I didn't ask you here to discuss the behavior of the other dragons. I'm addressing yours."
Khisanth looked up in surprise. She'd never heard that rancorous tone of Jahef s directed at her. "Are you suggesting that the others are more useful than I?"
Jahet inclined her head slightly. "They're of more use to the wing with riders on their backs, yes."
Khisanth tried unsuccessfully to mask her shock and out shy;rage. "Is that a directive to take a rider? Or are you ordering me to feign friendly relations with the others? We both know they're petty and scheming, that they would rather devote years to my downfall than expend energy elevating them shy;selves or sharpening their skills."
"As long as you don't slay each other," Jahet responded coldly, "your relations with the other dragons mean little to me or the wing." Seeing Khisanth's stubborn expression, Jahet softened her words. "What I am telling you, as your friend, is that both you and the entire wing would benefit from your taking a rider."
Khisanth's willful expression still did not change. Looking pointedly at her stubborn friend, Jahet took a deep breath and decided to disclose the full extent of the news. "The fact is, Khisanth, I'm not sure that you'll have a choice on this subject for much longer. Maldeev doesn!t know that I read his mind with a spell, but he's considering several of his com shy;manders for an arranged union with you."
Khisanth could not hide her shock. "It's gone that far?"
Jahet nodded coolly. "You would be allowed to choose between them, I believe."
If Jahet had been any other creature on Krynn, Khisanth would have slashed her to death in sheer rage. It took every ounce of her accumulated wisdom to persuade her that her friend was simply the messenger of this vile news. Talons curled into painful fists, Khisanth shook visibly when she managed to bitterly croak, "Isn't that democratic?"
"This is not a democracy."
Khisanth's eyes flashed. "You of all dragons should know that I can't be forced to cooperate with this plot. I could leave the wing as freely as I arrived."
"Could you?" Jahet asked archly. "Technically, we drag shy;ons are free to leave whenever we wish-who but the queen could stop us?" she said, her words ripe with meaning. Khi shy;santh looked away, her nose held high.
Jahet's patience with her recalcitrant friend was running threadbare. She was, after all, a black dragon. "Maldeev awaits," she said. Tucking her long tail to skirt around Khi shy;santh, the dragon headed for the exit to her lair. "Ponder what I've said, Khisanth," she muttered with a dismissive toss of a claw. "My advice is to do what's best for you-and our queen's army. They are one and the same." With that, Jahet waddled through the opening and was gone.
Frowning, Khisanth watched with mixed feelings as the ranking dragon departed. She couldn't be angry with Jahet. The other black dragon had gone out on a limb to warn her. Khisanth suspected that Jahet was dangerously close to vio shy;lating the spirit of her union with Maldeev. No matter how friendly she was with Khisanth, she was bonded to Maldeev by the Dark Queen herself.
Khisanth knew only that she didn't want to leave the Black Wing-that had been an angry threat. It was her goal, and she believed it to be Takhisis's, that she rise through the ranks on her merits alone. Khisanth had managed to dodge
the question for a number of human years, because her supe shy;rior skills could not be denied. She had hoped-no, worked, hard-to prove that she needed no rider. The dragon couldn't see what had changed, what had prompted Maldeev to force a choice. But something definitely had.
"Flow with whatever happens, stay focused by accepting whatever is," Kadagan would tell her whenever she grew frustrated. Qhen had taught her that denying the existence of a truth would not change it; refusing to acknowledge the presence of a rock in the path would not negate it.
Khisanth was faced with the emotional whims of humans who had built the evil army on protocol they weren't eager to disregard. If Khisanth wanted to fight for her queen, she might have no choice but to trust a human on her back.
* * * * *
At that moment, one very highly placed human in the Dark Queen's army waited impatiently for his dragon. High-lord Maldeev stood in Shalimsha Tower's great hall, check shy;ing the time on his water clock. The massive machine was built and maintained by gnome slaves. Maldeev despised their flighty, constant gibbering. He kept them alive only because their mechanical artistry was unequalled. If they could build a device such as this clock, he expected he could find other uses for them in the upcoming campaign. Sud shy;denly Maldeev was struck with the obvious solution to the gnomes' chatter. He made a mental note to have the barber remove their tongues.
The bulky water clock was one of only two items of furni shy;ture in the long, rectangular hall, the other being an ornate, claw-foot chair for Maldeev's use only. The highlord's sec shy;ond renovation to the tower, after his apartments, was to remove the entire length of wall that divided the courtyard from the great hall. This allowed his dragon to enter the cav shy;ernous hall for private meetings, without Jahet resorting to spells whose use made the human highlord uncomfortable. The tower's original banquet hall was the only protected place in the castle large enough to accommodate Jahef s bulk.
Thick, irregular timber trusses stained dark with pitch arched overhead from one long length of wall to the opposite side, supporting the roof of the great hall. Maldeev had ordered the restoration of tapestries that had originally lined the plaster-covered stone walls, but had been used as blan shy;kets by previous occupants of the tower. The walls were pale, bare, and cool even in summer while workmen hastened to complete the refurbishment of the tapestries.
At the shorter eastern length of wall, adjoining the kitchen, was a deeply recessed fireplace, tall enough for a human to walk into. It burned constantly, even in summer. Maldeev's elaborate chair, twice his height, was set before it. Jahet's large entrance allowed light in the room by day. The fire, aided by beeswax tapers on rock corbels, lit it by night.
Maldeev considered the waning sunlight through nar shy;rowed eyes. Jahet was dangerously close to breaking for the first time a central element of their oath to each other. "Never keep your soul mate waiting." They'd made the vow during their union ceremony some five years earlier, agreeing that such a tenant showed respect for the value of each other's time. And now Jahet was wasting his.
Still, Maldeev had to conclude that his union with Jahet had proven satisfactory beyond even his lofty expectations. They had performed the ceremony just after he'd returned from the city of Neraka far across the mountains to the west, where the Dark Queen had raised her temple-the Temple of Istar reborn.
The idea to raise his own branch of the army rallying under the banner of Takhisis had not been Maldeev's. In fact, Takhisis herself, through a minion, had issued him the man shy;date to recruit evil black dragons and form what would henceforth be know as the Black Wing. As usual, the memory of his time in the dark temple brought both a cold trickle of fear and a rush of pride to Maldeev.
At the time of the mandate, Maldeev had been distinguish shy;ing himself as an excellent tactician in one of the first branches of Takhisis's army, the blue dragons under Highlord Bakaris himself. Maldeev was widely known to remain calm under fire; he was also a peerless horseman. He had risen quickly to the level of brigade commander of mercenary cavalry in the Blue Wing, headquartered in Sanction, the city made famous by its constantly erupting volcanoes.
Maldeev had been in the tent-city of Neraka, near Sanc shy;tion, on a clandestine intelligence mission to the combined evil forces. Neraka had sprung up at the base of Takhisis's Temple of Darkness. A discussion of troop numbers was heating up among some midlevel commanders of the White Dragon Wing when a messenger stepped into the unadorned tent and informed Maldeev that he was hereby summoned to the temple. Maldeev was stunned. Who but the very lowest of commanders knew he was in Neraka, let alone this tent?
Thinking he might very well be walking to his death, Mal shy;deev had little choice but to follow the messenger into the city. The young brigade commander had seen the twisted temple from the distance-who could miss it? He'd once read that "it clawed its way into the sky like a bird of prey, overshadowing the city below into perpetual night." That was certainly true, he'd thought as he walked behind the messenger through the northwest gate and into the crowded market square. Maldeev bumped elbows with black-robed mages, as well as the dark clerics who were numerous among the Dark Queen's personal troops.