The Prophesy: Book 2 - The Right Hand of Destiny

 

The airlift was nearing its end. As the last flight of dragons took off with the final components of the yet to assemble stasis chamber, the debate arose as to what where the priorities.

"Let's make a list of what must be dealt with. We will then sort the list in order of what must be done first." Harold began.

"One item is the need to reach the crystal and remove it from under the pyramid with a minimum exposition to radiation," Paschal began.

"My experience with mining will be useful," added Thorsten, to everyone's acknowledgement.

"We must assemble the last chamber," added Harp.

"But we do not even know where the last crystal is!" replied Paschal.

"We must resume that Ark and Eden project," added Harp. "They have been on hold for a little over two months. We have barely skimmed Africa, and I am sure there are many valleys in the Himalayas we have not even searched. And we have not finished exploring either North America, Australia or Mesoamerica."

"We need to move the stuff contained in the store rooms at the Tunnel, and displace the seed and egg/sperm banks."

"And we have not even tried covering the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific islands," added Samson.

"And the oceans either, come to think of it, Samson," added Harold.

"And we need to figure out what to do with the forest-dwelling humans and orcs we saw in the Amazon."

"And the Centaurs, Harp."

"Yes, Thorsten, and the Centaurs."

"Do you think we have many more big animals to rescue?" wondered Paschal.

"I do not know. We have been too busy to organize a systematic search pattern. But with the help of the dragons, we will be able to do so much more effectively. I would not be surprised to find herds of animals we have no idea exist. We have had so many surprises already, a few hundred more would not be impossible," commented Harp.

"We also need to get the fifth room ready for the Crystal found under the pyramid," Thorsten added to the list.

"And we need to repatriate the dragonlings, except our familiars, to the Elvin Kingdom, with their bonded. That can be organized with the help of an adult escort along the North Pole route the adults have now grown familiar with," Sitar added.

"Let's not forget the issue of the completion of Thebes, and the Prophesy," added Paschal, as Harold added another couple of elements to his growing list.

"And the displacement of Kantar and the Elvin Palace of Nature," he added as he wrote them to the list.

"We must also keep an eye out for any more Elohim, and demons. I doubt we have seen the last of those bastards," added Thorsten with such ferocity in his voice that it made the hot day feel chilly.

"We almost forgot about your parents' mental state with all the events, Thorsten. I'll have to find a picture of an Eucalyptus tree and ask Williams and Dunbar to look for them in the Australian and Tasmanian forests," added Harp, as he gave a hug to the dwarf Prince.

"Is that all?" asked Harold, as he looked at his scroll.

"We need to establish contact with the Centaurs before considering moving them anywhere else. That means establishing some form of diplomatic contact."

"Samson's right. Should we extend that to the forest humans and orcs?"

"I think so, dad, however unpleasant establishing contacts with orcs may feel," replied Harp.

"We must also try to locate the North-American species of orcs. These ones may come biting us in the ass later. And there is no certainty there aren't any in Eurasia, Africa, or Australia."

"What Sitar says is true. I've been wondering where they have been for the last year and a half or so. It's not ice or cold that should bug them much given their fur coat," commented Enron, "I really feel uneasy about their sudden disappearing act."

"We also need to establish a weather surveillance system, if we are to use the dragons effectively. They may be able to crash and survive, but it is not the case for us!" Thorsten added.

"Is there anything else?"

"Well, with all that has happened, I forgot to return to Solon and its huge lake. Something is odd, and it's not the only thing that is odd with all these lakes up in the Northern part of the Elvin Kingdom. We might benefit from looking at these places more closely."

"Right, Harp. I still remember Thorsten mentioning something about the topography reminding him of the back of his right hand," Harold replied, smiling widely at a blushing dwarf Prince. "I like blonds, they blush so easily! Anything else?"

After waiting a full two minutes for someone to come up with another point, Harold began counting the points.

"Let me see, we have twenty-one points to consider, give or take a few I have regrouped."

"Can we add a few other points?"

"Sure, Harp. What would they be?"

"First, a systematic search for anything Atlantean around the world. Second, locate and recover every single bit of mithril and orichalque, raw or purified. Third, search the history of the Ancients for any indication of where the sixth crystal might be. And last, try to locate and recover anything we can find of Atlantis under the Mediterranean."

"OK, these are good points. That brings the total to twenty-five. Now, the difficult part is to establish what comes first."

"Let's deal with the easiest, Harold. I think we need to send back the dragonlings and their bounded to the Elvin Kingdom. There, they will establish aerial patrols outside of our borders, thus extending our capacity at early warning should crocodile priests or orcs show up."

"Does everyone agree with Samson's proposal?" After a minute to get objections, Harold declared the proposal accepted at unanimity.

"From the list I have, I notice we could regroup displacing the Doomsday Vault contents, namely the vault found with the Tunnel, the seed vault, and the egg/sperm vault into a single item. All three can be dealt with simultaneously."

"You are right, dad," replied Harp. "Let's also regroup border patrol and long-range weather reconnaissance. The adults can deal with the long-range aspect, while the dragonlings will deal with border patrol and short-range ones."

"Any objection?"

None were forthcoming and the regrouping of points was accepted.

"I think the Right Hand of Destiny and the lake issues are intimately linked. Group them."

"Thorsten's right, Harold," replied Samson.

"That makes two points into one."

"The next grouping should be everything relevant to systematic exploration of the planet, be it continents, islands, or oceans. I think that projects Eden and Ark should cover all these points. However, the search for orichalque and mithril need to be dealt with another project."

"Paschal is right, dad. These all deal with life and its recovery. The other deals with minerals and their recovery," Sitar replied.

"So this means group together the exploration of the oceans, their islands, the continents, the organization of a systematic exploration grid, and the Ark and Eden projects."

"We might consider the recovery of Eucalyptus a priority within the Eden project, or for that matter, any medical plant."

"Another point for Thorsten."

"How many points do we have left?'

"Nineteen, Samson."

"Still too many."

"The completion of Thebes must include Kantar, the Elvin Palace, the College of Magic, the recovery of everything Atlantean both under and above sea level. And there is a good chance whatever lies under the lakes has to be recovered as well," added Enron. If we regroup the recovery of everything Atlantean under a single item, what is the result?"

"We are down to sixteen points."

"We could regroup under 'policing' the search and destroy of crocodile priest, the Evil Ones, and the localization of the North American Orcs," suggested Harp.

"We are down to fourteen points, a more manageable list. Let's try to figure out what must be done first, or in specific order. We already know the dragonlings must be sent back to the Elvin Kingdom first thing tomorrow."

"Let's see, moving the crystal to the Elvin kingdom will take thirteen days. None of us can go without eating for that long. We need to establish a roll so there is a fresh pair available every twelve hours," reminded Sitar. "We cannot travel faster than twenty five miles per hour and the total distance is seven thousand seven hundred and forty-miles by the North Pole."

"Given that number, we need to get the crystal out of its prison, and start the move as quickly as possible. It takes us about a week to fully clean and check the connectors of a stasis chamber," replied Harp, looking at Thorsten.

"It's settled, then. Thorsten, you are responsible for starting the drilling to the storage room. Harp, the dwarf escort and Paschal will assist you in this endeavour," decided Enron. "I'll have Dunbar establish meeting points along the way for relays during transport. If I remember, the crystal must not enter in contact with the ground so the relay will have to be made in the sky, above easily recognizable landmarks. How long will it take to drill the tunnel?"

"There are three things I must establish with very high precision," replied Thorsten. "First, the distance. That means I need to determine exact position of the storage room, and the point where we will start drilling into the vitrified rock that is protecting the room from seepage. Second, we must be absolutely sure the rock we will be drilling through is not contaminated. If it is, we may have to drill downward first, before moving toward the crystal, to the lava layer Sitar mentioned, penetrate that layer, and then begin drilling horizontally once we have crossed it. The third point is how big must be the cross-section of the tunnel for us to be able to move the crystal?"

"How thick is the glass wall, Sitar?" asked Harp.

"The first, outer layer of glass is twenty feet thick. The inner layer is four feet thick. That adds up to twenty-four feet of glass."

"I wonder how you managed that?" asked Thorsten.

"Steel rods were inserted at regular intervals and heated. The sandstone vitrified due to the heat. The rods are still in place," replied Sitar.

"Dad, we need to establish who we will send as ambassador to the Centaurs."

"Enron's right. Are there any suggestions?"

"Strangely, I would suggest Timor, the Troll Prince, for his size, which might impress the Centaurs; then I'll add Thorsten, and Harp, for their diminutive size. Timor has not yet gained his magic, but he is due, and he has a nice green dragonling as bonded. They have not undertaken a long-range flight and should be added to the incoming adult dragon flight that is due to leave in about two hours from the plains of Lava Flows."

"Are you nuts? Harp's notion of diplomacy is to drill holes in stubborn heads, using Bata!"

"If you think Harp, my love, lacks diplomacy, wait until I decide to get pissed, Samson!" replied Thorsten, as his brows furrowed and sparks flew out of his eyes.

"What have we done? These two together could split the planet in half!" moaned Samson, as everyone else smiled.

"I wonder if we should include a horse?" asked Paschal.

"Why?" Harold asked.

"Remember what Centaurs are. They are half horse, half human. I think it might help to see one carrying a human."

"It might have the opposite effect as well, Paschal. If they feel the horse is enslaved, they might want to free him."

"What if the horse was Silver Moon and the rider Ian? No one in his right mind could think that Ian enslaved that stallion, given how diminutive Ian is."

"Who said I was nuts just a few minutes ago?" Harp asked, as he looked questioningly at Samson.

«I've been keeping track of the discussion. Ian is jumping up and down on Silver Moon and the Gold dragonling is doing barrel rolls up in the air. If I read this clearly, the decision isn't yours to take anymore because Ian took it for you.»

«What are you talking about, Annabelle?» Harold asked.

«We were walking in the park, me in my usual winter fur coat, Ian in his usual Adam before the apple attire, when he clearly said "I am going!" and began doing back flips on Silver Moon's back. And here comes the canine escort including the wolves, coyotes and dogs and five more stallions. Timor just ambled in, carrying his battle club. Damn, and a good fifty adult dragons. I've lost control, Harold. The dragons are waiting, while the equine and canine climb in the carry nets.»

«But we aren't ready yet! And he isn't even three years old yet, by three months!»

«I am three and a half!» piped up Ian, insulted!

«Tell that to your son, husband! He is! Shit! Ian just did a double back flip from Silver Moon's back to his gold dragonling, and Silver Moon is now being netted. Well, husband, expect them within the next few days. They are taking off! Ten wings in battle formation!»

«How many dragons do we still have in the Elvin Kingdom?»

«If my count is correct, two wings. Some should be coming in two hours. I expect them every four hours until the last load is delivered. I wish we could talk to them, but with Ian taking off, it's now impossible.»

«OK. Is the Gold king with the flight?»

«No. We have the last batch of egglings ready to hatch. I have sent an elf, a centurion, and a dwarf to bond. After that we have our full complement of dragons and dragonlings until females start laying more eggs. The female Gold dragon will be taking to the air for the first time in two years, and I understand the Gold male wants to be with her.»

"The best laid plans have a tendency to hit bumps, Harold," said, sententiously, Samson.

"Especially with kids in the way!"

"Dad!" piped up the four terrors.

"Has anyone noticed that Ian has gained long-range telepathy?"

"Damn it! Thorsten's right! And he is barely three and a half, if that!"

"And he has gained telepathic access to the dragons and the Trolls as well. How else could he call in the adults for a flight?"

"Harp's right on that count too. We must be growing old to have missed that!"

"Talk about yourself, Samson! I am not yet ready to throw the towel because some wet between the ears snot-nosed kids outsmart me at every turn!"

Harold's repartee made everyone grin.

"Given the change of plan brought on us by Ian, what can we do while we wait of his flight to arrive? We have another four hours to wait before one of the inbound adult wings arrives from the north," asked Thorsten.

"How about going to the storeroom under the Sphinx and look at things?" Sitar suggested.

Everyone agreed and the dragonlings, which were growing impatient from doing nothing, gladly took to the air, some carrying the royals while others did escort duty.

***

"The first order of things is measure the exact distance from the entrance door of the cave under the sphinx to the pyramidion of the Great Pyramid." Declared Paschal, as he took control of the survey. "Harp, I want you to stand right here, at the inner edge of the vault door, and beam a narrow light straight up. If my memory is right, there is a prism that will bring the light up to the surface, doing in reverse the trajectory the sun's light travelled down at noon every summer solstice. I'll climb on top of the Sphinx, and locate the point of emergence. Do not put too much power into it, please!"

Harp had to move his arm slightly to find where the white, very narrow beam of light emitted by Bata vanished into a tiny hole. "I got it, Paschal."

"At least you followed the plan, Sitar."

"Hey, I'm a military guy, I follow architects' plans, and I don't make them!"

Paschal climbed out of the vault, and, using his dragonling, got to the back of the giant sculpture. A reddish beam of light could be seen emerging from the spine of the cat, just at the base of what was left of its mane.

«I found the exit point. Stop the beam.» As soon as the beam stopped, Paschal installed a thin, narrow octagonal steel rod in the hole. «Now, if I remember things, just at the base of that hole used to be a deep grove indicating the North, and smaller ones for the other main cardinal points.»

It took an hour and a half for Paschal to clean up the grooves, that looked more like accidental scratches than anything else.

«I am ready to do the angular measurement. I have cleansed up the reference points, and I have an octagonal key to measure angles, and a secondary and ternary rotor to measure to the nearest second. Let's see what this says.» After another ten minutes, Paschal had his measures.

«From line of sight measurement, the pyramidion was located at three hundred and twenty-six degrees, twenty-one minutes and thirty-six seconds. Now to calculate the distance.»

After some basic trigonometry, Paschal came back with the answer. "Ok, the pyramidion was one thousand six hundred and sixty-six feet away from the reference point."

«Are you sure of your measures, Paschal?»

«It is the best I can do, Thorsten. The pyramidion has disappeared, so I aimed smack at the middle of the visible platform.»

«Come back in the vault, Paschal. Harp is ready to test the feasibility of drilling horizontally through the glass and the sandstone.»

***

Bata emitted an intense, coherent beam of light and slowly, very slowly, the glass melted. After ten minutes, the beam had penetrated across the glass layer and began gouging the sandstone. Harp stopped the incandescent light, and waited for it to cool off. Once things had cooled enough, Thorsten inserted a mining rod and, using his hammer, rammed the long steel bar until it reached the end of the drill hole. With a mighty hit of his hammer, he forced the rod to break through the thin glass layer at the end. The next difficult part was pulling the rod back out to recover he sample. It took the strength of Harold to succeed in extracting the stiff metal impediment from its lodging. Harp enclosed the rod into a force field that acted much like a very long Geiger counter. As the rod came out, deception grew: it became apparent that the sandstone had let contaminated water seep. As the tip of the rod came into view, the level of radiation was enough for the field to emit a constant bluish light.

"Well, that states the problem clearly. It is out of the question to drill horizontally."

"True, Harp, quite true. Let me do some planning. Can you repeat the test and see if the contamination is localized or if it extends below the floor of the cave? Meanwhile, I'll do some drawings of planes of travel, assuming the surface below is not contaminated."

"That is unlikely, Paschal."

"Why do you say that, Thorsten?"

"Contamination would spread horizontally in a cone-like shape from the base of the cave to the lava level, where it would probably cover the entire sandstone lava top interface."

"This means we need to start drilling in the middle of the room floor to minimize meeting any contaminated material."

"That is correct, Harp. Before you ask, the floor is as thick as the walls. Enron, do you have your magnetic compass? I will have to adjust for the declination, since the direction I have is based on true north."

"Yes, I never let go of it. It's tied to that leather lace. Here. Put it around your neck, that way, you won't drop it."

"I'll be right back. I left everything in place up there. Give me five minutes."

A few minutes later, Paschal was back. "OK, the magnetic declination ins thirty-nine degrees and fifteen minutes East. So I need to add that to the measures I had before, which gives two eight seven degrees six minutes, ignoring seconds of arc."

"Let's mark that on the floor," suggested Harp, as he materialized a piece of chalk. Paschal quickly took the piece of chalk from Harp, drew a rectangle about eighty feet tall by fifty feet wide. Harp drilled a hole into the glass floor and collected a sample in the middle of the rectangle.

"OK. A new rod is in order. The other one is contaminated," as he dispatched the old one in the Nile, and materialized a replacement. The testing process was repeated, with much better results. Apparently, the cave had protected the underlying sandstone. Other drillings, done at each corner of the rectangle, proved as positive.

"Next, establishing the volume of rock to remove," began Thorsten. "I gather we will be going down at forty-five degrees?"

"No, straight down. I want this to be done quick and dirty. That means we go straight to the lava bed, drill right through, and then cover the one thousand six hundred and sixty-six feet to the hole that will lead us into the storage chamber."

"I see, Paschal. That means removing four thousand five hundred cubic feet of rock before we start moving toward the storage room. Now if the cross-section of the tunnel we need to drill is the same as the rectangle Paschal has drawn, that adds six million six hundred and sixty-four thousand cubic feet of additional rock. A temporary total is six million six hundred sixty-eight thousand five hundred cubic feet of rock. And I assume the passage down the last hundred feet below the lava shelf is wide enough to move the crystal?"

"Yes it is. The crystals were fully grown, if uncharged, when we moved them."

"And how do you plan to lift it, given the magic field is unstable?"

The princes looked at Thorsten. That question had escaped them completely!

"We can merge to lift it out, and bring it to rest on the floor here."

"Harp's solution is good, but the instability will still be there. I have a better solution."

"What is it, Thorsten?"

"Remember these massive tables of mithril we found in the Tunnel? We have left that room intact but nothing stops us from recovering everything movable, including these funny disks, glassy rectangles, and more important, the tables. Harp told us they contained vast amount of raw magic. Nothing stops us from recovering that magic to stabilize the field in the shaft."

"Thorsten's right. I'll ask mom, Williams and Dunbar to recover the material in that room. Paschal, have you found anything about these things we found on the table?"

"Not yet, Harp. We have been busy!"

"Meanwhile, let's begin the extraction. Harp, Sitar, use your tools to slice blocks of about one cubic feet each. We will move them outside, use the dragonlings to carry them to the Nile and dump them."

"Make sure you spread the dumping, we do not need a rise in the water level!" Harp reminded the others.

"All that from a dam builder!" Enron chuckled.

"Don't insult me, I prefer blowing them up!"

"Do you think we will need studs and cross-beams?"

"Not unless the nature of the rock changes, Sitar. But we may need to vitrify the sandstone to prevent water percolating."

"And we need to add a shield. It will be unstable, as everything magical in the area, but it's better than becoming irradiated!" added Enron.

"In fact, I'll add a shield right from the start, so we know the level of radiation we meet as we dig in," replied Harp.

"Each cubic foot of sandstone weights one hundred and fifty-one pounds. That means a dragonling can carry two hundred and sixty-four blocks," Thorsten computed. "Let's get to work. Your majesties, can I ask you to load the dragonlings as Enron and Paschal take the cubes to the surface? I doubt many others will be of help since lifting that weight will require magic, and it is still a rarity. We have three days before Ian arrives. Let's put it to good use."

***

Each foot taken out from the well would require moving four thousand cubic feet of rock, some sixteen dragonling trips. The start was slow, but the dragonlings quickly figured out what was needed. They lined up on the loading platform that had been used to load the stasis chamber elements, and each net on their side received one hundred and thirty-two sandstone blocks, before they ran off with their load. Sitting between their wings were two humans, each holding a release lever. The dragonlings would climb to ten thousand feet, veer toward the Nile delta, and then, on a count of three, the two humans would release the locks simultaneously. The sudden loss of weight would bring the dragonlings to twelve thousand feet. They then veered ninety degrees left, travel a couple of miles veer again left, travel back to just beyond the landing strip, and dive for the ground to effect a perfect landing on the parallel landing runway. Ground traffic was simple: walk to the loading platform, located at the start of the takeoff runway, get loaded and repeat the cycle over. By the time they expected to reach the lava layer, it would be the adults doing the carrying, which would greatly ease their worries about overloading. Each cycle took less then thirty minutes from loading to return to loading platform. At all times, ten dragons were in the air; they did two-hour shifts before resting. Some seven hundred ninety-seven thousand and two hundred eighty pounds of rocks were being dumped in the delta every hour, something like five thousand two hundred end eighty cubic feet per hour, or one hundred and twenty-six thousand seven hundred and twenty cubic feet per twenty-four hour. The well was going down at about twenty-eight feet per day.

"If things continue at that speed, we would finish the well in eighteen days, Thorsten."

"Don't be too optimist, Harp. First, the distance is increasing as we dig in. And we cannot continue at that rate non-stop. We need to rest! I think I'll call a stop after an eight-hour shift. That will multiply the time by three, but it will reduce the risk of accident. We will dig down by around eight feet per shift. We will have travelled twenty-four feet down before Ian arrives. We will stop until we come back from meeting the Centaurs, and resume. And I think Enron's dad must find out what is in that coffer which you claim he has the key of."

"Yes, we forgot about that. I'll talk to him about it when we get ready to go visit the Centaurs. I do not want to distract him. Mining and distractions do not go well together."

***

The three first eight hours came to an end without mishap. That evening, the princes, after feeding their dragonlings, sat around a fire to discuss the day's events. Nothing of interest was mentioned until Thorsten asked a question.

"Where do dragons come from?" he wondered. "We share a common ancestry with all life forms we have met so far, but dragons seem radically different."

"I have no idea, Thorsten. We can only speculate," replied Samson.

"I do not think their origin is much different than ours, dad. After all, there are bacteria that live in boiling water, and others that live in ice. And the Book of Genesis clearly indicates a common ancestry to all life forms on this planet."

"You are cutting the corners, Enron. Two life forms are not of this planet: The soul snatchers, and the Atlanteans. We are considered humanoid, not humans. That we managed to interbreed with humans must have been shocking to both Atlanteans and the Elohim. We have managed to resurface after all these years, but we need to understand that we are now very intimately integrated with humans."

"Nonetheless, Harold, I think Enron's objection is way off. The dragons merely evolved differently; one set of bacteria gave birth to the thermophobic branch and another gave rise to the thermophile life forms. Dragons are simply the final product of the thermophile tree. For a reason we cannot figure out, thermophiles are rare, while thermophobic are common."

"Samson's right I think. But the dragons are rare for a very good reason: their living conditions are rare. They probably were the dominant life form once, but as the planet cooled down, their numbers must have diminished as the lava fields, volcanoes, and other hot spots became rarer."

"Harp's analysis fits what we know of life. Each life form requires specific conditions to survive. When these conditions become more difficult, that life form is replaced by one more adapted to the new conditions. That might explain why many life forms have vanished over time, in fact most have."

"If what you say is right, Paschal, when conditions change back to what they were before, we must expect life to regress?"

"That is not exactly what happens. Consider the crocodile priests. There never were any before the Cataclysm. There were crocodiles, and there still are. When we grow from unicellular to our form, we pass through all intermediate major steps of life: unicellular, pluricellular, fish, amphibian, reptile, and mammalian. The crocodile priests just stop progressing. So do the orcs, for that matter, but they are more advanced than the crocodiles if less than humans. We probably will meet more of these interrupted-genesis life forms as we search the planet. Not all will be interrupted; some will be just as they have ever been, such as the thermophile bacteria. The Dragons have probably followed similar progress and regression. As to where those we have are located within the tree of life, I have no idea."

"Paschal's description fits what I found in that museum of natural history on the west coast. They had these huge bones, and some clearly were ancestors to dragons of today. Some even had wings. The only issue is that they had four limbs, instead of the six dragons have."

"Six limbs? I see only four, Harp?"

"There are six, Dad. The wings are transformed mid-section limbs. It puts dragons closer to insects than to the dinosaurs, as these big reptiles were called. And it would fit them somewhat better. Their skin is much like an exoskeleton, but they have also developed a cartilaginous endoskeleton. I still remember the gutting of the Black Dragon by Thorsten. When his axe gutted the dragon, the result reminded me of what happens when you open up an insect lengthwise. Their exoskeleton is hard as a rock, and they shed skin like many insects do during growth. They are even oviparous."

"Why haven't we found any dragons before?"

"Thorsten, we know nothing about dragons. What is their way of disposing of their dead? Do they ever die? Do they hibernate? Suppose they dumped their dead comrades into a lava lake, where the exoskeleton would melt and become part of the lava. Or that they got disposed in the trenches that lace the ocean floors. The later option would leave no trace whatsoever we could ever find."

"We'll have to come back to those issues another day, when we can finally communicate more easily with dragons. We have another long day tomorrow. Thorsten, Harp, Paschal, and Sitar, rest; you were the most exposed today. Enron, Samson and I will take the night watch along with the dwarfs and humans."

***

The next few days went relatively well except for one incident. As one of the loads was being released, a strap got stuck and the dragonling lost its balance. By the time the legionnaire had managed to cut the leather strap, they were too close to the ground for the dragonling to pull out of the dive. The dragonling crashed into the Nile and managed to climb out of the water. The two legionnaires, tied to the dragonling's back, were severely bruised, shocked and contaminated by radioactive water.

As soon as they were back on land Harp teleported the two legionnaires to Eloise for decontamination. The two men found themselves nude, in a hot shower as their clothes were dumped over the ocean. The dragonling was ordered to go take a dive in the nearest active volcano, and spend the day enjoying a break. The contaminated leather burned off the moment the dragonling took his first dive, removing most of the contaminating material. A couple of deep dives into the volcano's lava chamber completed the cleanup.

The bonding between the legionnaire and his dragonling had unexpected results. As soon as he was fit for service he insisted for a flight back to it: he missed his companion so much he couldn't sleep! As the dragonling had taken a liking to the Stromboli, the adult dragon deposited the legionnaire on what was left of Malta, a volcanic cone stripped of all alluvial deposits, and which was relatively close. Their reunion was accompanied by quite a few aerobatics from the dragonling, and then they took off to join Ian's massive flight. They caught up with it near the collect point. The combined flights had to enter a waiting pattern for landing clearance. The last shift was due shortly from the Sphinx and the sky was filling up rapidly. It was well past compline before the last dragon touched down, even using both runways to land.

As the royals met for a quick night snack, the next day's plans were again reviewed. Ian was asleep between his gold dragonling and Silver Moon, using Samantha as a headrest. Blackie Dog was organizing patrols around the inner perimeter of the protective force field that kept the dust out of their camp, while a red adult dragon was doing the same outside of the force field.

"OK, boys. We will halt the digging of the well below the Sphinx until you return from your meeting with the Centaurs. I have no idea why Ian collected just about every dragon he could to come over here, but I am not about to let him down because I think he is overdoing things. He must have some intuition of something, and I plan to play safe. We will stay with our initial selection, but I will delay sending back the dragonlings to the Elvin Kingdom. In fact, each and every dragon will be travelling with us. It will slow our departure for the Centaur territory by four days, since it will take that much time for the last flight to come back, but we will have every single dragon here. When we leave. The dragonlings will be coming with us. It will slow us down, but they are as good fighters as the adults. I don't think the Centaurs will fly off!"

"Ok, dad. We will use that time to continue doing what we were doing so far, that is, dig eight feet a day. That will add another thirty-two feet to our current twenty-four, for a grand total of fifty-six feet." Harp continued after some thought. "We have less than five percent done, in three days. We already had one mishap. I think stopping isn't a bad idea."

"I wish dad was here, Harold. Dad could continue the work while we are gone. It's not that I don't trust the dwarf commander in a mine, but this type of rock is special, and must be handled with care. Its friability requires careful use of digging tools if we do not want the walls to collapse on us. For now, since Harp and Paschal vitrify the walls, the chance of this happening seems minimal, but if I let the others dig in, they won't have that option."

"Thorsten, the issue is more than friability. It's how to get the pieces of rock out of the well safely, how to bring them out to the pick-up point, and then how to transport them to a safe dumpsite without the dragons. It's better to stop all and then restart when we have done what must with the Centaurs."

"Dad's right, Thorsten. You forget the plateau is covered with radioactive dust. We have been filtering the air around the field and making sure the dragonlings are decontaminated when they cross the barrier, but it doesn't mean it is safe to even walk outside on the plateau. We had to install filter bubbles around their riders, and even around the dragonling's head so they didn't breath in the dust."

"And Harp forgets to mention that without the portable force field acting as radiation detector, someone might inadvertently dig into something radioactive and not know it until it's too late."

"OK, forget I said anything. I get your point!" pouted Thorsten.

"Hey, the intention was nice, Thorsten, but it was not applicable here," replied Harp giving the Dwarf Prince a hug.

***

Figure 18: The land of Centaurs from 4000 feet

The flight to the land of the Centaurs started five days after Ian arrived in Africa. It comprised all seventy adults and eighty dragonlings. A re-reading of the Book of Life had given thought about the character of the Centaurs. It described them as prompt, violent, and hot-tempered. For safety reasons, the flight was divided into two sub-flights: the dragonlings took off at dawn for a ten-hour, three thousand miles flight that would bring them in the middle of the Centaurs' lands an hour after nones. The adult dragons would take off five hours later, so they would be at the landing point at the same time as the dragonlings.

As the dragonlings neared the Centaurs' land, the adults kept out of sight, flying well above the cloud cover. They would come in only if the Centaurs behaved with blatant hostility. The dragonlings came in low from due south so as to mislead the Centaurs on their point of departure. As they came through the cloud ceiling, vast savannahs appeared, revealing burns for agriculture, fields, and narrow paths. An occasional village, composed of round dirt houses with thatched roofs were seen from the air. A dry riverbed could be seen, and water holes were visible in some crannies, occupied by crocodiles and hippopotamuses. The centaurs were busy pulling on hoes to ready the fields for planting at the beginning of the next rainy season. The dragonlings dropped to three hundred feet, their shadow visible as huge black dots on the ground. The landing area was carefully surveyed for a safe landing, and Harp opted the long sandy beach found along the dried riverbed. The first to land were the legionnaires, which set up a safety perimeter, followed by elves. Then the wolves and equines landed and formed an inner defensive square where the dragonlings carrying the princes of the Royal Households took to the ground.

The arrival of the dragonlings and their passengers could not go unnoticed. The sudden appearance of eighty dragonlings, organized in sixteen wings, in the sky from nowhere raised alarm and, rapidly, the horns the Centaurs used to signal imminent danger resonated from field to field. The young Centaurs, numbering several hundreds, and gravid or nursing females were regrouped under the protection of a select group of warriors, while the rest created a wall of lancers, swordsmen and archers between the group and the intruders. Swordsmen were in the forefront, lancers slightly behind them and shifted to the right, so their long lances could be inserted between the swordsmen, and the archers were behind. There were twenty groups organized in this fashion, creating an arc on each side of the riverbed.

«Things do not look too good,» Paschal told the others. «I think we have interest in finding a way to communicate quickly, before things degenerate.»

«I agree. I have put the dragonlings inside the inner defence, with archers on their back. From the type of bows we have seen while we were flying over, the Centaurs' bows have about the range of a hunting bow, way shorter than our war bows. The legionnaires have formed the arrow offensive position. Here again, our use of shields and longer pila gives us a slight advantage. I also noticed that the dragonlings have kept their flight position ready for takeoff. The wolves have taken the arc formation on the flanks of the legionnaires, thus extending our flanks' defence. And Ian is standing on Silver Moon, framed by the dog and equine guards, just behind the legionnaires, completing the arrow formation of the legionnaires. I doubt the Centaurs have ever seen that formation, but I hope they understand this can ram in them and cross their lines in a flash. Things can go bad pretty quickly.»

«What do you suggest, Sitar?»

«It's a waiting game. We are at a disadvantage due to our limited numbers, and anything can go wrong.»

«Should we call in the adults and the kings?»

«Not yet, Harp, I want to have a trump card in my sleeve. Thorsten, Harp, go to the right of Ian; Timor, go at the tip; Paschal, Enron, take to the left. The gold dragonling, behind Ian; I will ride the Gold dragonling.»

«Should we display weapons?» asked Thorsten.

«Yes, definitively. I do not want them to believe they are facing an easy target. Bata at full power, Harp; Paschal, you have Excalibur; make it sing the drums of a thousand men! I will have Mitsuko emit the light of a rising sun. Timor, drum the ground with your mace, hard enough to create an earthquake. Thorsten, time to get that axe out and spinning like a ball of fire, and that hammer hitting the earth like thunder. It's a show of power the likes of which they have never seen I want to give them, to make them think twice before giving assault. Dragonlings! Roar! Canines! Howl! Equines! Stomp the ground like there was no tomorrow! I want the sky and the earth to resonate with a call of power!»

«I notice that Ian is spinning his battle stave at such high speed you have the impression a billion wasps are with him!»

«Harp, remember who he is. He is not four yet, but he has more power than we had at his age.»

«And he had a master at showmanship, Harp. You.» added Enron.

As the sound resonated from the group, the earth itself began to crack. Lightning could be seen leaving the group to explode high in the cloud cover. Answering to the roars of the dragonlings came the deep, and intense roars of the adults hidden by the cloud cover, as if the Heavens themselves answered their call. Static electricity ionized the atmosphere and thunderbolts began hitting the acacia trees that stood out on the savannah with such violence they exploded into balls of fire. The grass, yellowed from a six-month long dry season, burst into flames as the fiery trees fell and set them burning. A wall of fire fifty feet high spread from the position occupied by the royals, forcing the Centaurs to disperse in the face of the advancing inferno. The wind, which had been totally inexistent until now, picked up, and the fire gained speed.

«Let's head in the wind, Sitar. The fire will run out of combustible material in that direction as it gets pushed back in its track,» suggested Harp.

"Forward! March!" Sitar thundered over the noise of the elements. The formation exited the riverbed and engaged on the smouldering, black savannah. Harp placed a protective force field between the hot ground and the troops and also enclosed them in a ward to prevent any burns. Its use became apparent as acacias fell and firebrands came raining on them.

The leading legionnaires and wolves understood the need to head upwind and began a slow rotation to the left that would make them head east, headfirst in the prevailing wind. The rest of the units followed suit and slowly the entire disposition reoriented itself to face in the wind. They could see the roaring fire around them but, directly ahead, the firewall was diminishing sensibly. Some openings could even be seen in the wall of fire, where the destructive element had met a controlled burn, or had retreated on itself due to the wind.

As vespers came, the units continued their walk, having covered some eight miles since the riverbed and their landing point. The fire could be seen still spreading around except ahead of them. An hour after vespers, as the first stars of the southern sky could be seen between breaks in the cloud cover, the legionnaires set foot on dry, but unburned grass.

«Should we rest?»

«Not yet, Thorsten. We need to keep contact with the Centaurs. If we leave them to take too much field, we risk falling into a trap,» replied Sitar.

It was nearing compline when the legionnaires caught up with an important group of Centaurs, resting in the high grasses found near a water hole.

«Halt! We are on higher ground; this is to our advantage! Establish camp, but do not light any fire. We have not been detected,» ordered Sitar. "Wolves, dogs, establish a surveillance perimeter around the Centaurs and our own camp. Keep quiet!»

The noise of the African night and its darkness was covering their movements: crickets sang their love song; an occasional roar of a lion or panther could be heard in the dark velvety blue of the night. Stars blinked from the passage of clouds or an adult dragon. A group of hyenas joined the wolves in monitoring the Centaurs, after it was established they were protecting the Alpha of the Canines. During the night, hundreds of them joined the wolf and dog units in encircling the Centaur camp. A herd of zebras, numbering in the thousands also added their support and joined their equine brothers in the defence of the royals. Reports kept flowing in concerning the whereabouts of other groups of Centaurs. By morning, the royals had a fairly good idea of the location of every Centaur group of importance, their movement, and their condition. As the sky began to lighten up with the false dawn just prior to the sun's rising above the eastern horizon, the royals held a strategy meeting, using telepathy to minimise sound.

«What do you make of the situation?» asked Paschal.

«Militarily? It has reversed. They are now dispersed, while our numbers have multiplied a thousand-fold,» replied Sitar.

«Diplomatically? It is still a stalemate. We have not established contact, and without this, no exchange can take place,» added Thorsten.

«Politically, it has worsened. They probably think we are here to take over their land,» added Enron.

«Do you see any way out?»

«I see a single way out of this imbroglio, Paschal. We send a limited group to establish contact with those found near the water hole. We had established a limited delegation. We keep with it,» replied Harp.

After some thinking, Sitar agreed. «We do as we established before this thing degenerated. But, and I insist, I want them to know they are encircled! As soon as the sun is up, I want the wolves, dogs, hyenas, horses, zebras, and dragonling to show up. The legionnaires and elves stay low. No use showing how limited the two-legged are. And I want a constant report of any movement of the other Centaurs.»

***

Figure 19: The Centaur

The small delegation emerged from the encircling dragonlings and began its slow trek down toward the Centaur camp. By the time they reached the high grass, the Centaurs had taken a defensive position, with a giant Centaur at the tip of their defence. His skin was reddish, as was his fur coat, his hair blond, protected by a steel helmet. He was holding in his right, gloved, hand a long lance of steel tipped with hardened blue steel. As the delegation neared the Centaurs, a panther jumped out of the tall grass to assail the tall Centaur. Ian, Harp, and Thorsten reacted instantly. As Bata let out an intense beam of light that burned through the cat's thorax, Ian threw his knife in the panther's right eye, and Thorsten's axe hit the cat's skull splitting it in half. Before anyone could do anything, the Gold dragonling leaned over everyone and swallowed the panther whole in a single gulp. The speed of the cascading reactions took the Centaurs by surprise.

"That Centaur is wounded in the flank and bleeding. Harp! It is time to heal him and show our good faith!" decided Paschal.

"Agreed! Stay in place, while I walk toward him."

Harp walked slowly forward, keeping Bata pointing away and up so as not to seem threatening. The pungent smell of the Centaur assailed Harp's nose and told him this was a dominant in his herd. The testosterone was intoxicating. As the wound became more visible, Harp realised that the panther's claws had dug in deep inside the hide of the Centaur, and that it had taken a bite deep at the rib cage, crushing two ribs in the process. The Centaur was showing signs of distress. His breathing was short, shallow and blood oozed from the gaping wound at each heartbeat. It was apparent the Centaur was woozy on his legs and that he was near collapse. The huge lance was following Harp's every move, preventing him from getting nearer. The Centaur reared on his hind legs pointing his lance at Harp.

"Ian, I need your help. I need to touch him to analyze the situation and I cannot get any closer."

Silver Moon walked up to Harp, and Ian stood up on his back, looking at the Centaur in the eyes, defiantly. After a tense five minutes, Ian did a double flip and landed feet first right on the lance. The sudden change in its centre of gravity made it fall off to the ground.

"You can get closer now. If he tries anything with his hoofs, he won't live long enough to understand what hit him," said Ian in his high-pitched voice.

Harp moved in to stand beside Ian and slowly extended his right hand to touch the blood that was matting the Centaur's fur. After a few minutes, he turned and looked at Paschal.

"I need your help, to block the pain pathways while I heal him. Enron I'll also need you to block any motor activity for a while so spasms do not trigger kicking. Ian, can you make it lay on the side that is not wounded?"

"I can try!"

After a bit of silent talk, Ian said, in a loud, commanding but still childish voice "Lay on your side! Now! If we wanted to kill you, you would have died during the night! We want to save your life, you idiot!"

"And I thought Harp was the antithesis of diplomacy!"

"Enron, get lost!" replied Harp.

The Centaur kneeled slowly on the front legs, then brought his hind legs under his body. Harp could finally see inside the deep wound and shivered. Infection had already set in, and necrosis of tissues was spreading like wildfire in a barn of dry hay.

"Enron. Block the motor activity. Thorsten, remove the helmet so Paschal has access to the cerebellum. Tell me when you have killed the pain, Paschal."

As Thorsten removed the helmet, Ian kept eye contact with the Centaur, checking for any deception. The touch of his back by Enron caused a reaction of alarm, much like it would do on any horse.

"I said stay still! I mean business!" replied Ian as the Centaur's nervousness increased.

Enron quickly took control of the descending nerves, blocking any command that might originate from the brain. Then Paschal explored the brain stem and found the two grey matter nuclei that responded to pain and blocked any signal from reaching them.

"I blocked the pain signals. You can begin, Harp."

The first part was cleaning the wound, and stopping the arteries from haemorrhaging further. The dirt, saliva and any other extraneous element not belonging to the Centaur were quickly removed. Then the necrotised tissues were disposed of. Finally, the blood vessels were repaired and the thoracic cavity emptied of the volume of blood that had accumulated in it. Then Harp introduced his hand in the gaping wound and repositioned the broken ribs before fusing them anew. A collapsed lung was then re-inflated, and the blood it contained drained. The last step was the closing of the gaping wound, by regenerating the muscle walls, the fatty tissues, and the skin, including the hair. At last the Centaur was fixed, and Harp removed the last traces of the wounds by removing the dried-up blood and grew back the hair where the panther's claws had torn into the skin.

"OK. It's done. Ian, tell him to stay on the ground for another hour, while the repairs consolidate themselves."

"It's done, big brother."

"Paschal, release the block."

"It's done."

"Enron, free his motor activity."

"Done, Harp."

"I wonder how we managed to do all that? I thought Centaurs were immune to magic?"

"Ian? Do you have any idea?"

"Immunity is controlled. I told him to leave his control with his last dump!"

"Ian! Such a language!"

"So? I know as much as you do! I have been part of the Conscience since I was conceived!"

"I wonder how many more surprises you hold for us, Ian."

"More than you want to know, Harp."

"You are scaring me!"

"No more than you and my other big brothers scared dad!"

Laughing hard, Enron looked at Harp.

"If we had any doubts about your parentage, that exchange just put it to rest!"