Crevan's legs dangled off the traveling wagon, the lip of which was wooden and splintered, but better than the effort it took to walk on his mending feet. This wagon was the final of three, loaded with supplies that would keep Kib's people alive as they struck out on their own. 

In the long cylindrical leg pocket, he normally would have carried water in was the scepter he'd gleaned from the rubble after Nimiane's death. In his cloak folds, hidden carefully beside his belt pack was the tiny jeweled box that Nimiane had let go of as she died.

This he hadn't opened since those final moments before he'd fought Korlon. He gazed uneasily and then slipped his finger underneath the clasp. Tiny jeweled eyes blinked at him in the twilight. "Let me go, Foeman."

Crevan heard the words in his mind. He flicked the lid with one finger and let it fall, but the clasp did not immediately go back into place. Curiosity got the better of him and he opened the ancient box.

"I cannot." He threw back along the wavelengths towards her mind and saw the dragon blink in resigned acknowledgment.

"I can help you."

"How can you help me?"

"I can talk to the other dragons."

Crevan didn't know if there were more dragons than Talisman and this one, its mother. "Where are they? Can you talk to them now? Bid them come to me."

"I--- bid them come to you?" Dragon laughter. "I am not your slave. I do not do your bidding."

"Darci." He felt the slight tremor as she acknowledged him. "I hold your very life in my hands. I can crush you at will, and am about to, feel my lack of patience. Bid the other dragons come to us here."

"I said I can talk to them. I didn't say I control them. I cannot bid them do anything, and certainly not in the name of Crevan Etrusia."

"Where are they?"

"Talisman is inside Sentinel, Demor is with Ondrea, and Delfi is with Archer upon the sea."

Crevan's face screwed up in perplexion. Was upon the sea different than being inside the sea? But a bigger question presented itself. "There are only four?"

"Four of us, three brought from Earth. I laid the egg that hatched Talisman when the time came."

"What time? Is there a right time to hatch eggs?" That wasn't the question, but suddenly a wealth of curiosity was flooding his mind.

That snide dragon chuckle... as if he knew nothing, which was true, but why should he know anything? He hadn't been raised with Earth legends.

"Our species are tied together, Crevan Etrusia. They have been since the Originals made the Pact Guarantee and Lyonene Etrusia and Eliza Aquaria chose to violate the trust and bring an indigenous species aboard the ships. They did it to facilitate what they called the "What if" factor. And what if happened. We are living it. Dragons have the ability to live very long lives, and therefore store the wisdom and heritage inherent in the Original Pioneers."

"Let me ask you something. Were dragons common on earth?" Crevan turned her in his palm, studying her.

"Dragons have been a part of history whenever they are needed. Always preserved for just these happenstances. No, to answer your question. No, dragons are very uncommon in all the universe. They exist only when needed."

Crevan blinked. This information went beyond his scope of understanding. 

The dragon clawed herself up to perch on the edge of the box. "It is time, Crevan Etrusia. If you desire to unite the pure people of this planet, you must take me to Ondrea Aquaria Taan."

"Take you where...?" His heart beat fluttered. Ondrea Taan, the exiled Queen. The one Quildor was fighting for. What could she do that anyone else could not?

"Ondrea Taan is my guardian, Crevan. I carry her family knowledge and memories. It is to her I must reveal the secrets of healing."

Crevan considered this development in annoyance. "Reveal the secrets to me and I will help you heal the planet."

The jeweled eyes turned to slits. "Fine, Crevan Etrusia. You are weak, right now, healing because of the link you share with assimilated kai. Revoke your assimilations, and allow yourself to adapt to the planet."

Crevan fairly dropped the box with the precarious dragon. Revoke assimilations? What was she talking about? Revoke? He would die!

"See, Crevan Etrusia, you are not ready to adapt. Take me to Ondrea."

Crevan dug the fingers of his left hand into the splintered boards of the wagon. "I have no idea where Ondrea Taan is."

"I will tell you how to get to her." The little dragon crawled back inside her box. "You will take your party to her at the sea shore, not Valdemar."

He knew Kib, Skirvon and Logrun had determined that taking their group to Valdemar, or close to it, was the best idea.

How did the scepter fit in? How did the dragon help him? What were his goals?

To kill Quildor.

And then what? To rule? To be a part of ruling? Who would be rulers when the war was over and Quildor was dead? There were too many unknowns. And he didn't want to rely on another species to tell him what to do. He closed the lid carefully and pocketed the box, stretching his legs he tried to transform when his weakness curtailed that idea. He stumbled wearily on the dusty trail.

*****

Dmitri felt the weight of grief and sleep deprivation as they disembarked in the undersea fortress of Galantyne. He felt the mind touch of the land as he hadn't felt it for years.

Avarona led her two Aunts up the docking planks.

He held Pellanor's arm, feeling its delicate structure, and remembered that Belakane had been nothing even remotely similar. It was the Aquarian girls who had been delicate. He recalled the last time they'd all been here, for the Moons Harvest Celebration. Kara had been lovely that night, and so worried about her sister, Jerrika who had been taken to Auditorium.

He followed them, wondered if he needed to stay with them? What was he? Ruler difacto of Carrigah? Did he go back to Carrigah, or did the governing of it fall upon the heads of his two adopted sons? 

The call of the Zalez he had abandoned when he married the Queen of Carrigah, was suddenly foremost in his mind. He dropped Pellanor's arm as they entered a quarantine zone and waited to be checked. Medics came rushing to their aid as dignitaries and saluted him respectfully. He watched as the scanners checked Avarona and Sossana's hazard suits for plague contamination, and lifted his arms likewise for the scanner to be leveled at him.

He was glad to see that Galantyne had taken precautions. There was a brightly lit and very large, hastily set up quarantine room, and several sick beds had been placed in it, in fact when he stood on his toes, as he was a shorter man, he could see that there were quite a few rolling cots and all were laden with the sickened. How had plague gotten here so quickly? Who was sick? Everyone he saw was wearing hazard suits.

Blaring from the scanner next to him alerted the healer scanning Pellanor for contamination and a group of medical personnel descended upon her in seconds. Dmitri felt her hand as it grazed his in supplication, and heard her weak voice, "Dmitri, where are they taking me?"

"Is she contaminated?" He yelled. "Pellanor! It's just a precaution, you can't be contaminated. Go with them! It's for your own good."

He stared about in rising trepidation. "Where is Galantyne? I must see him at once." He decided to use his rank and status to the best of his ability for the time being, rather than denounce the whole thing.

"I will take you to him." A young soldier said, and Dmitri followed him glancing back at the stricken faces of Avarona and Sossana. He had a kingdom to take care of in this crisis. Belakane would have wanted him to do it.

He was unprepared to meet the black and fathomless eyes of a man he had never trusted, Galantyne's General Wendar.

The escort left at a nod from the General who took the seat at the head of the table usually reserved for Galantyne. Dmitri blew out his breath in annoyance and determined not to stay any longer with this man than he had to. In fact, he thought he'd head off any political drama at the onset of the meeting. "General, I suppose you have heard about the death of my wife by now. Carrigah is in turmoil, and needs their leader. My sons need advising and protection in this time of crises. I must return to Carrigah at once."

Wendar steepled his fingers over bent elbows, a fixed and falsely sympathetic smile hovering around the corners of his sagging lips. "As you are also aware, Dmitri, Aquaria has been compromised by the Etrusian Plague. Evacuations are in progress and staff is limited."

"I would see Galantyne." Dmitri said, ignoring the General's attempt at control. He would not be dictated to.

The General shook his head sadly, as if contemplating telling Dmitri something that would distress him even further. "I am sorry for your loss, Dmitri." He said, and his words dripped with false sympathy once again. "I am sorry for all of us. Galantyne has lost two sons, his heirs. You have lost a wife. It is possible that Etrusia is no more."

"Possible, Wendar? It is a certainty." Dmitri gripped the table with whitened knuckles. "Where is Galantyne?" 

"Galantyne has deserted the city and I am all that is left to shepherd these poor innocents, as you can see."

Wendar was looking for shock and dismay, so Dmitri gave it to him. "When?" He choked convincingly, his eyes shrewdly assessing the slight tremble in the General's palm, the way his eyes shifted with his lie. 

Thinking his ploy was working, Wendar affected even more sympathy, needing Dmitri's allegiance and that of Carrigah if he were to succeed in taking over the fortress and the city. It was obvious to Dmitri that was the only reason for this charade. "It was hours ago now. You are too late to see the way the people pleaded with him, his own wife pleaded with him not to leave her! It was shameful!"

Dmitri could picture Feniece challenging Galantyne's authority in leaving the fortress, but ultimately she would do what he said. She wouldn't leave the fortress easily, but she wouldn't disobey Galantyne. Unless she were in league with this man.

Trepidation made Dmitri stand. "I will find him." Dmitri said letting his anger show, although he realized Wendar thought it was for the fortress's sake, the people's sake.

"It is too late!" Wendar's avarice peeking through his false concern. "You will never find him, and the fortress has been closed and quarantined."

Dmitri's eyes pierced Wendar's. "What do you mean? On whose authority?"

Triumphantly Wendar stood. "Mine."

 "I will meet with you again later." Dmitri hurried to the door.

"Certainly, Dmitri of Valdemar." Wendar stressed the name of his homeland curiously. "Please don't try to leave for either Valdemar or Carrigah, any such move might be construed as an act of treason."

"Treason? Against who?"

"I am the reigning authority for Aquaria and Galantyne now." Wendar watched Dmitri for further signs of mistrust.

Dmitri immediately bowed his head so as not to let his true feelings show and turned toward the door. "You will permit me to see to my charges, sire." He added the last in a subservient way that wasn't lost on the greedy ego before him. 

Satisfied with the servitude he felt coming from Dmitri,  Wendar nodded as Dmitri left the room.

Hurriedly Dmitri moved down the closest hallway and then with unpracticed Zalez, his mind reached out for the one he knew could help him. Galantyne.

********