"You mean when she betrayed us?"

There was bitterness in his voice, which surprised Khisanth. Her eyes turned skyward anxiously. "Aren't you afraid of her retribution for such words?"

Pteros shrugged. "Thinking, speaking, if s all the same to a god." He pulled his wings tight to his body and dived into the pool headfirst, surfacing with a snort and a spray of water.

The ancient dragon slithered onto shore again. "No, I wasn't at the final battle with Huma. I was quite young. Even younger in experience than you now are."

"Yet you were good enough to fight in the Third Dragon War?"

"The geetnas pushed the young wrymlings more in my time, knowing that the queen was gearing up for war. They empha shy;sized magical ability, as well as flight." Pteros settled himself into a ball. "It was a different time then, Khisanth. Dragons roamed freely, beloved children of the gods, and humans were but links in the food chain. But that was before we were betrayed."

The dragon's eyes took on a distant look. "Prior to the Sleep, one thousand thirty years before what the humans call the Cat shy;aclysm, the Great Moors were nothing but sea. I lived my young adulthood far away from here, in a small marsh to the west. My lair was at the mouth of what is still known as the Vingaard River.

"The seasons had passed perhaps ninety-six times in my life. I'd fought in fewer battles in the Third Dragon War than you could count on a claw hand"- Pteros softly touched a claw to a long-faded scar -"when the dragon elders an shy;nounced our queen's defeat at the hands of the knight, Huma Dragonbane. In truth, it was the dragonlance that bested Takhisis. Huma was simply a warrior who had perhaps a bit more skill than most."

The old dragon's expression turned bitter. "The end result was the same, though. Takhisis exchanged our freedom for hers, ordering us to go underground and sleep. She was our goddess, and we had no choice but to obey, or die.

"Now I'm an old dragon," he continued bitterly. "Most of my prime years were spent in slumber." With an oddly equal measure of satisfaction and sadness, he gazed at his own reflection in the still water. "In the Sleep I did not age as I would have if awake, but those years are still lost to me."

"You have plenty of years ahead of you, if you'd only stop thinking of yourself as old and feeble," said Khisanth.

"I'm not certain I want to be useful in the world that exists today," muttered Pteros. "Nearly two hundred years ago I awoke underground without explanation, along with a hand shy;ful of other dragons who had turned old while they slept. Each of us clawed our way to the surface, only to find Krynn a much different place than we had left it. Instead of soaring above men and striking proper terror in their hearts, dragons made pacts with ogres and their ilk," Pteros spat, a droplet of green acid escaping his jaws in his disgust.

"Pacts with ogres?"

Pteros nodded. "These agreements are part of Takhisis's newest plan to rule. She appeals to the corrupt natures of all creatures in an effort to recruit them. Once she attempted to dominate the world with dragons alone as her soldiers, and she lost. Now she thinks she needs more than her own chil shy;dren to defeat her foes."

"I've had no one to ask this before, but I have wondered. How is it that she's returned now?"

"Many human years ago, Takhisis found a way to Krynn from the Abyss. She walked the land as a human, awakening the elder dragons she'd known before the Sleep and telling them of her plan."

"That could explain why I didn't awaken until recently, and why you're so much older than I," mused Khisanth. "I'd been little more than a wyrmling at the time of the banishment. What happened to the other dragons who awoke with you?"

"We went our separate ways. I suspect most of them have joined Takhisis's armies."

"Why haven't you? Don't you want dragons to regain con shy;trol and rebuild the world as you remember it?"

"Why haven't I?" repeated Pteros. "For the same reason I don't fight back against Talon-I'm too old."

Pteros snatched up a gopher that wandered too near in search of water, popping the silky creature into his mouth and chewing absently. "Frankly, I don't see victory for the Dark Queen this time either. She's casting her fate with humans and other rot, the very same creatures who engineered her last defeat." He spat gopher bones through the holes of his missing teeth.

"So Takhisis is personally gathering these forces? Is there somewhere I can go to see her?"

"Yes," chortled Pteros. "The Abyss, for the Dark Queen is trapped there again." At Khisanth's puzzled look, Pteros searched for words to untangle the rumors he'd heard over the years.

"After opening the portal to the Abyss, Takhisis was able to walk the face of Krynn, her avatar a dark-haired young woman, though in that construct her powers were minuscule compared to her five-headed chromatic dragon form. Then, suddenly, inexplicably after ten years, the path was barred. She's sought a new one since, which is really the crux of her newest plan. She seeks to recruit humans because she wishes to control them, and through them her armies from the Abyss. She intends to reopen the portal so she can return to Krynn in her powerful dragon form."

Pteros gave Khisanth a conspiratorial look. "If I were Takhi-sis, I'd unite dragons of all colors and leanings, appealing to their racial heritage to persuade them to overpower humans." Khisanth removed a stone from between the talons on her right hind leg, considering Pteros's words. "I've heard that the humans in her army rise to power by uniting with a dragon mount."

"Yes, I've heard that, too."

Khisanth squeezed her eyes shut. She'd hoped Pteros would be able to deny it. "Surely, once the superiority of a dragon's skills are demonstrated, the dragon and human in this arrangement have equal rank, if the dragon is not actually in command," she said.

Pteros simply shook his large, many-horned head. "I would never willingly subordinate my skills to any human," said Khisanth firmly. "The rules would have to change if I joined the army."

"Ah, the arrogance of youth," muttered the old dragon. Khisanth didn't consider it as arrogance; she simply couldn't see herself being ruled by a human. She believed there was always a way to turn a situation to her advantage. Like the situation with Talon. She knew it was just a matter of time before he struck again. She was preparing herself for it, learning new attack spells. Thoughts of the territorial dragon brought a question to mind. "Why hasn't Talon joined the army?"

"You'd have to ask him that. We haven't exactly chatted recently." Pteros touched the gems around his neck. "I suspect he's too busy coveting the treasures I've acquired in my long life to volunteer his services for free."

Khisanth admired the jewels around Pteros's neck. Her gaze clung to the pearl-and-ruby diadem around his dark head. Those two items alone were certainly worth fighting for. According to Pteros, they represented only a small por shy;tion of the treasure stored away in his lair. Khisanth had never been allowed in that hallowed place. If the gems he wore were any sampling, though, Pteros's treasure had to be beyond imagining in volume and value.

She caught the old wyrm admiring the maynus on her choker. "That's quite an interesting piece. I can't identify the glowing gem."

Khisanth hesitated. Her first instinct was to shield the globe and tell Pteros to mind his own treasure. She knew too little about the maynus to tell him much, anyway. Her gaze lin shy;gered on the worldly, magically advanced dragon. Struck with a thought, Khisanth made a quick decision. She told him all she knew about the maynus. Pteros's wrinkled snout pulled up into the first expression of interest Khisanth had seen.