Richard Knaak - The Legend of Huma

“Hhhuuuuummmaaaaa!”

Galan Dracos stumbled forward.

“I will see you dead!”

Something with tendrils shot out toward him—and was daunted by what momentarily seemed a silver shield. Galan Dracos took a step back.

“You have your—your patron as well! Pity it is too late for Krynn!” The face twisted.

Huma took a step forward. Gwyneth began to protest, but the knight stared her into silence. Then he slowly began to walk toward the mad mage.

“Too many people have perished because of you, Galan Dracos. As Paladine as my witness, I cannot allow you to remain free. It must end here.”

When Dracos finally spoke, his voice was under control. He stared off into the distance.

“Yes. It will end here. With the victorious—with my treachery unmasked. I have gambled and I have lost.” Dracos turned back to Huma and then seemed to shrug.

The renegade stumbled back to the edge of the inferno. His legs could barely walk anymore. He relied more and more on his staff.

Huma came purposefully toward him. “I cannot let you go.”

The deformed mage laughed, a laugh that seemed to go on much too long. The eyes of Galan Dracos were narrow slits that gleamed. “I’ll not wait for the Queen’s justice. I prefer oblivion to that. She shall not have my damned spirit to toy with for eternity.”

Galan Dracos, master mage, renegade, spoke a single word.

The emerald flames engulfed him. Whatever immunity he had was discarded. Huma covered his eyes as the fire flickered more brightly. When he looked again, there was nothing remaining of the mage.

“He burned himself.”

“No.” The silver dragon shook her head. “He’s ceased to exist. It was that last spell he unleashed. It’s as if he never was. Before long, those who ever knew him will never remember—save his former mistress, I think.” She frowned. “He’s actually escaped from the Dragonqueen. Amazing.”

The citadel began to shift downward again.

“Huma!” Her momentary fascination faded immediately as Gwyneth realized the danger.

“Yes!” He began to climb atop her, then stopped. “No! The staff of Magius! I have to see—”

“Is that the small rod on your belt?”

He looked down. On his right side, stuck securely through his pouch belt, was a familiar, foot-long stick. “How—”

Gwyneth finally grew exasperated. “I will explain to you about magic some other day! Huma, as Paladine is my witness, I love you! I will not see you die here if I can help it!”

At those words, he scrambled clumsily aboard. Each moment she stayed risked her own existence—and for what? His hesitations, his fears.

Yet she loved him.

The silver dragon rose swiftly into the air.

“Lie flat against me—and hold the Dragonlance straight!” she cried.

The citadel continued to shift as it slid downward. The gargoyles were tossed like rags. Parts of the chamber began to break off. A portion of the upper passage collapsed. Now the silver dragon would not be able to escape through its narrow funnel.

Huma heard her shout something in one of the magical tongues. He heard masonry shatter, and then bits of rock flew by his head.

“Steady! This is it!”

He felt the Dragonlance as it cut into the thick, stone wall, enlarging the gap. Gwyneth’s wings folded back, and she glided up like an arrow shot from a bow. Huma knew she was shielding him with her own body as much as possible.

Then they were out. Huma realized he had been holding his breath, and exhaled. The silver dragon spiraled upward. From above, they could see that a green blaze now engulfed much of the castle.

What remained standing of the mage’s tower stood perched momentarily over the precipice. It weaved there, then slowly began to tip over. First the tower went, a great shaft that tipped forward and then plummeted over.

Huma turned his eyes up to the heavens. “Paladine!”

A new and greater darkness had come suddenly.

“Huma . . .” The silver dragon’s voice was unsteady.

He followed her gaze to the very top of the same peak that the citadel of Galan Dracos had fallen from. Something huge, multi-headed, and radiating evil gazed their direction.

Huma—Champion of Paladine. Come to me. Come to my embrace .

Takhisis.

The near-hypnotic Quality of the Dragonqueen’s call was broken by a familiar voice.

“Huma! Thank the gods! We were afraid you had fallen with the citadel!”

He turned in the saddle. Bennett and Kaz rode near him. Kaz quickly explained, “We sent the others to seek aid. Only, Sargas!—what is that?”

Bennett’s voice was drained of emotion. “It is the Dragonqueen, is it not?”

Huma only nodded. He stared up at the shadowy monstrosity above them. The portal through which the Dark Queen had come was expanding, and she seemed to be growing more solid, more real.

A thought struck the knight. He reached down to his side for the compacted staff of Magius and handed it to Bennett. “Take this back to Vingaard Keep. It must be turned over to the Conclave. As ruling mages, they’ll know what to do with it. It belonged to Magius, and I fear that it won’t be of much use to me anymore.”

Kaz and Bennett looked at one another.

Huma fixed each of them with a gaze. “It must be told that Dracos is no more. I also need you to organize the lancers. Bennett, you are the son of one Grand Master and the nephew of another. You were born to lead.

“I will draw the Dark Queen’s ire for as long as I can, but a mass attack remains our only true chance. There must be at least a hundred lances left. Then, Paladine willing, we will be able to count for something.”

Bennett shook his head. “Huma, this is a goddess! We are less than a single breath to her!”

“But we are Knights of Solamnia,” Huma responded, “a knighthood forged by the holy Triumvirate of which Paladine is senior. Our mission has been to keep the justice and see that evil never holds sway over Krynn. This is our ultimate test. This is where we truly test ourselves against the Oath and the Measure.”

The other knight could think of no response. Bennett’s face had reddened slightly.

“I have no time to argue. Return, Bennett. Kaz, go with him,” Huma said.

The minotaur looked down at his mount, then back at Huma. “I agree that one of us should return, and it is right that it be Bennett. But I will stay. I swore an oath, too, and I have not yet proved myself. And Bolt thinks as I do.”

Huma sighed. “Kaz, I cannot stop you. Bennett, do your duty.”

Bennett gritted his teeth, but nodded. At a signal, his silver dragon turned—but not before meeting the gaze of Gwyneth. Some message passed between them, and Huma remembered that here was kin of his own dragon. Parting was no easier for them.

When Bennett was gone, Huma turned to the minotaur. “Now.”

The two dragons rose higher and higher. Above them, Takhisis’s five-headed dragon form seemed to waver. The entire mountain, and even the heavens above, were being warped by a vast hole in the fabric of the sky itself. The gateway from which the Dragonqueen had materialized in this world. The portal through which she had drawn her absolute power with the help of the unlamented Galan Dracos. Her full power was cut off from her because Huma had shattered the emerald sphere, but the gateway remained. And Takhisis already had the power she had drawn earlier. Never in her invasions of the mortal plane had she ever been so strong.

Enchanting. Even more interesting than your constant need to argue with one another over hopeless causes .

The cold, cruel thoughts buffeted Huma’s mind.

I will have to gather a few such as you and study this amusing, transitory thing called love. It seems so . . . wasteful .