Douglas Niles - Emperor of Ansalon

In the illumination of that hellish fire, as his eyes grad shy;ually became accustomed to the vast darkness, Ariakas looked across the cavern. He felt a sense of wonder that rapidly grew into awe. He might have been sitting on the slope of some immense mountain, looking at sister peaks around the range, for all the immensity of the setting- except that these were peaks that leaned inward, coming together far above in a vast dome of rock-a false sky overhead.

Vast, rough surfaces of stone were outlined in the red shy;dish glow, underlit like great, drooping faces gathering around a dim and dying fire. The massive scope of this place made Ariakas feel like a tiny bug, an insignificant insect on the wall of a great castle.

Only after several minutes of awestruck gawking did he realize that something obstructed his view across the expanse. He saw that, midway between himself and the opposite wall of the cylindrical cavern, a shadowy grid structure seemed to float in the air.

His eyes adjusted further, and he saw long, spidery beams, extending outward from the cavern walls to reach the skeletonlike shape.

For a long time Ariakas studied the form, and gradu shy;ally he discerned that it was a cage. Something huge, impossibly vast, lay within that cage, trapped by iron bars that ringed it on all sides, above and below as well.

Then, with a great stretching of wings and tail, the thing moved. It raised a long neck, uncurled huge, talon-studded claws … and Ariakas knew beyond doubt that a dragon had returned to Krynn.

Ariakas first felt stark, numbing terror-a weakness that pene shy;trated muscle and bone, threatening to turn his legs to jelly. The dragon remained motionless, but its very pres shy;ence bombarded the man's sensibilities. Suddenly, and for the first time in his adult life, Ariakas felt puny, weak, and insignificant.

Slowly the serpent lowered its head, settling the great wings against its sides. Ariakas studied it for a long time, and finally found himself wondering if it had ever moved at all. Yes, he assured himself-it had.

The immensity of the creature astounded him. The sublime power and grace of the mighty body held him in thrall, so overwhelmed him that he knew nothing other than a vague sense of awe. The fact that the monster was apparently confined in some kind of cage made no dif shy;ference-it seemed to Ariakas that the wyrm could bend those bars with a tug of its claws, or melt them with a gout of fiery breath.

For a long time-hours, at the very least-Ariakas sat still, enraptured by the magnificent creature before him. After that initial spreading of its wings, the dragon lapsed into repose. It might have been a statue, suspended in that great cage in the center of the vast cavern.

The smoldering light from below continued to grow in intensity-or else Ariakas's eyes developed a dark sense more keen than they had ever previously displayed. In any event, he began to discern details about the huge, serpentine wyrm.

The dragon was covered with a surface of rippling scales, bright red in color. In the reflected glow of the seething fires, the monster's scales gleamed individually, as if illuminated by a thousand pale, internal flames. A huge mane of wiry dark hair encircled the massive head, giving the creature an appearance of great age and supreme wisdom.

Through this inspection the serpent's great eyes re shy;mained shut, and Ariakas could discern no movement of the creature's flanks or nostrils-nothing to indicate that it lived. But the memory of that flexing of wings remained with him, the most spectacular gesture he had ever beheld.

Ariakas forgot that he was trapped here, with no apparent means of escape. All of his attention remained rapt on the mighty serpent-the being whose very pres shy;ence had so terrified and confounded him. Yet as the hours passed and his terror faded, he began to feel empathy for the creature. It was not pity, but more a sense of shared outrage that a noble beast should be so ignobly imprisoned.

The frame of the cage was barely bigger than the huge wyrm. Ariakas saw now that it did not float in the air. Instead, four girders extended outward from the enclo shy;sure to brace it against the walls of the vast chamber. Each of these was a wiry beam more than a thousand feet long. One of these braces connected to the cavern wall several dozen feet to the side of the human's narrow ledge.

No longer fearing the beast, Ariakas studied that beam, wondering if it offered him some avenue off of this ledge. Though he could follow his narrow perch to within thirty feet of the heavy iron structure, the rest of the distance was a sheer surface of slick rock. If it had any slope to it at all, the cliff leaned outward, creating a slight overhang. He had no doubts that if he attempted to reach the girder, any further step would result in a fatal plunge.

Angrily he paced, carefully pivoting on the narrow shelf at either end of the ledge. He could not believe that his destiny had brought him here to starve, or to make this great discovery and then perish before he could share the truth with the world.

Dragons lived! The Dark Queen's legions would again march across Krynn. As the realization sank in, the war shy;rior made a solemn promise to himself-he, Highlord Ariakas, would live to ride at their head! In furious determination, he reached over his shoulder and drew the great sword, brandishing it upward in a gesture of determination and defiance.

"I will escape! I will serve my queen!" he cried, his voice surging back and forth in the huge cavern. For long seconds the words came back to him, a staggered series of echoes.

"Who… is there?"

The deep, booming question was spoken in a strangely hesitant voice, as if the speaker's lips and tongue had not been used in a considerably long time. Nevertheless, Ari shy;akas had no doubt as to who had spoken.

"It is I!" the human boasted to the dragon, watching

the great head rise from its platform. "I am the Highlord Ariakas-loyal champion of Takhisis, and master of the armies that shall march in her name!"

"Impressive, indeed," thrummed the dragon's voice, the tone rich with respect. Now Ariakas saw the gleam of two huge eyes, each a yellow orb tinged with crimson by the infernal fires below. "I am honored to be joined by such an illustrious visitor."

Nothing in the dragon's tone indicated irony, but sud shy;denly Ariakas was struck by the ludicrousness of his own braggadocio. "How are you called, great dragon?" he asked in a tone considerably more humble.

"In the age of the Dragon Wars, I was known as Tomb-fyre," replied the monster. "Though I suspect that was a very long time ago. In truth, it has been more than an age since I last opened my eyes."

Ariakas's heart quickened. Again he felt that tingling of destiny-a self-assurance that he would not perish, alone and forgotten, in this place.

"Why do you awaken now?" he asked.

The dragon shook his mighty head thoughtfully, the great mane swaying back and forth like a regal robe. "I don't… it was the queenl She called to me in my sleep, and I obeyed! She has not forgotten me!"

"The queen speaks to you-to both of us-through this!" Ariakas brandished his sword, and the dragon's sinuous neck raised the great wedge of his head. Clearly interested, Tombfyre regarded the human with new respect.

"Why did you come here, warrior?" inquired the red dragon, his voice a soft hiss.

Suddenly Ariakas knew the answer.

"I came because of this weapon-and the will of our mistress! Because of her prophecy: In the heart of the world, it will set fire to the sky!"

Again he raised the sword, and now he began to won shy;der if he had guessed its purpose, understood now the importance of the blue blade.