Dragon rage boiled her blood. She remembered Kadagan's teaching. "The angry dragon will defeat itself." Think clearly, she told herself. Answers came in moments.
Someone had erected a magical wall of force to trap her in her lair. The black dragon knew in a flash that somehow, the barrier and the claxons were linked. She could see through the invisible wall that the other dragons were not about. Khoal was the only one of them powerful enough to create something like this-he used it frequently to seal off his own lair. Even the vin shy;dictive ancient dragon would not have trapped her here simply to make her look bad for missing a surprise drill. Those claxons were ringing for the first time to signal an attack.
A terrible sense of foreboding blossomed in Khisanth, fan shy;ning the fires of suspicion kindled in Khoal's meeting the day before. Who would attack the wing, and how were the other dragons involved? Khoal had sent her on a wild-goose chase to the south while he went north. The stronghold of the Knights of Solamnia was to the north. Khoal had been report shy;ing for months that the number of knights in residence at Lamesh was pathetically low. "It appears to be nothing more than a renewed farming community, with a few knights around to keep the monsters at bay."
Khisanth thought about that, but there were still too many pieces missing to complete the puzzle. She had to get out of here and learn the whole truth. The dragon closed her eyes and summoned a mental picture of herself standing on the drill field. Nothing happened. She could still feel the cool, musty air of the cave against her scales. Khisanth's eyes popped open. The teleport spell hadn't worked. Suspicious, she hastily tried her flaming talon cantrip, but wasn't able to summon even a spark. Khoal had dampened her magic, too.
Out of desperation, not expecting it to work, Khisanth closed her eyes and concentrated all her energy into changing her shape. To her surprise and relief, Khisanth felt her enor shy;mous weight fall away. She'd found a loophole in Khoal's spell. He and the other dragons thought they'd trapped her here, but they didn't know of the mental discipline that allowed her to shapechange, or of the narrow crevice that linked her lair with Jahef s.
The dragon had changed into her favorite diminutive form, a brown field mouse. Wasting not another moment, she scur shy;ried the long distance through the crevice and darted around the rocky curtain on Jahef s side.
At first glance, Jahet didn't appear to be in her lair either. Khisanth skittered past piles of her superior's gems, which looked like unscaleable mountains to a mere mouse. Jahet had very likely left for the tower with the first sound of the claxons. For a brief moment, Khisanth wondered if her friend could be in league with the other dragons. She discounted the thought almost before it was finished.
Khisanth abruptly heard noise in the antechamber. She scampered on mouse feet toward the sound and stopped cold in her tracks. Looming more than twenty-five feet above the field mouse was the ranking dragon, throwing herself again and again, to no avail, against an invisible barrier on the arch shy;way that led outside. Jahet's red eyes were wide and frantic, like a trapped cow's. Slather sprayed in thick ropes from her maw. Her breathing was ragged.
Khisanth felt a flash of relief that Jahet wasn't part of the conspiracy. They had pinned her in as well. But it also meant her emergency escape route had been cut off.
Perhaps she could squeeze through some small crack between wall and floor on the side that faced the ponderosa pines. Once outside, she'd revert to dragon form and get the answers to her questions. The more she thought about it, the more certain Khisanth was that it could work, even if it meant she had to change into a shape even smaller than a mouse … like a spider.
The field mouse was forced to dance to the side suddenly to avoid a nasty but accidental tail slap from Jahet. The ranking dragon was giving in to her temper, still thrashing about in fury and frustration. Khisanth then realized the flaw in her newest plan for escape.
It left Jahet still trapped in her lair.
Her concern for Jahet's escape had nothing to do with friendly feelings. If Khoal, Dnestr, and Neetra had betrayed the wing, Khisanth would need Jahet in the ensuing battle. To free Jahet, Khisanth would have to reveal herself.
"Hey, Jahet, down here!" the dragon-turned-mouse bel shy;lowed as loudly as her tiny vocal chords would allow. "Look down here, if s me!" she hollered in Dragon.
Jahet stopped her thrashing to locate the source of the faint sounds that rose up from the darkness below her. Squinting, craning back awkwardly, the ranking dragon could barely make out the minuscule shape of a mouse at her left hind foot. "You've certainly picked a foolish time to squeak a challenge at me," Jahet growled. With that, she turned her attention back to the invisible barrier.
Khisanth stomped in frustration. She cupped paws around her soft muzzle. "Hey, Jahet! If s me, Khisanth!"
Jahef s jaws locked tight. The mouse was undeniably speak shy;ing in the Dragon tongue. If that weren't odd enough, the crea shy;ture had the temerity-and bad timing-of calling itself Khisanth! Jahet decided to silence the pesky little creature once and for all. She bent low and swung out with her claw to snatch up the rodent.
Abruptly Jahet was snout to snout with the black dragon Khisanth. "Khisanth! What the-"
"I can shapechange," Khisanth supplied quickly, stepping back to give them both more space.
"Why didn't you tell me before? I nearly crushed you!"
Khisanth looked mildly indignant at the reproach. "My position in the wing requires that I fly and fight," she said stiffly, "not that I cast magic. I have personal reasons for con shy;cealing the skill. I don't know the extent of your spell abilities, either," she said accusingly.
"We are not equals," said Jahet with similar starch. "We shouldn't be fighting with each other now." Her expression turned from displeasure to frustration as she regarded the invisible wall. "This must be the work of those worthless cler shy;ics Maldeev was forced to accept from Neraka."
Khisanth measured her words carefully. "I don't think they're the magic-wielding culprits here, Jahet."
Jahet squeezed her red eyes shut. "Don't start your old 'the-other-dragons-aren't-loyal' story. I'm not in the mood."
"How else can you explain why we're the only two dragons trapped in our lairs?" Khisanth challenged. "I looked-Khoal, Dnestr, and Neetra are gone."
Khisanth saw confusion in the ranking dragon's eyes as she digested the news. Khisanth could understand her puzzle shy;ment-trapped as they were, the situation suggested more questions than answers. Jahet didn't even know as much as Khisanth did about the others. It would take too long now to fill her in-time better spent getting free.
Khisanth held up her claws in surrender. "Never mind them now. We've got to think of a way out of here. Then we'll be able to see for ourselves whaf s happening outside."
"Lef s teleport," suggested Jahet.
Khisanth shook her head. "I doubt if 11 work here. I tried it in my lair-magic seems suppressed."
"Then how were you able to shapechange?
Khisanth struggled for the words to explain qhen. "The only thing I can figure is that shapechanging is more a mental than a magical discipline. The distinction must be a loophole in the spell that negates our magic." Khisanth snapped her talons. "You've given me another idea." She rubbed her claws together in preparation. "Stand back."
At a loss for any other solution and growing more desper shy;ate, the highest ranked dragon did as the lowest bade.
Khisanth concentrated, trying to sharpen the edges on an old memory. On the first seasonable day one spring back in the Great Moors, the ice on her pond had nearly all melted, and she'd gone to ground in search of fresh, warm prey. But the selection had been strangely slim, considering mammals' penchant for warm weather-a few young, foolish ground squirrels and an elderly, nearly blind ferret. Khisanth had an excellent long-term memory for meals.