"Well we certainly came to the right place..."

Edwin said and looked at his black robed friends, he hoped to get them out of this by pleeding that they had come to help the knights and that an enemy would have never brought that lances to them.

"Yes, that it is... we have come here to aid you for enemy would have so be kind, despite my friends let us just go peacefully"

The knights doubted for a while and gazed at each others, the leading one muttered something and looked back at Edwin.

"We will have to see about that, but for now you will be placed under guard and one wrong move.... my men will kill any of you who try your cowardly tricks mage.... ecspecially the two black ones... take the lances..."

The knights grabbed the mages and escorted them aside to wait for someone to decide their fate as the news about the lances were being spread around. Obviously this would gain the interest of their leaders or that was what Edwin hoped.

_________________

Let him curse my name
On these blood stained pages of misery
Let him call me a tyrant so cruel
Let him curse my name, but remember the truth!

They found themselves being herded gruffly through the camp to a spare tent. Shoved inside, Ghyreian recovered to see five guards posted all around the interior of the tent. No doubt others were keeping watch outside.

"There's gratefulness for you," she commented.

_________________

"Well... you both are black robes, which does create a contreversy with you helping them, knights of solamnia who do not fight for themselves unless they are rotten from the inside..."

Edwin said as he sat down with a careless attitude, he knew that they would not be harmed and if they would try then Edwin had a way out no matter what.

_________________

Let him curse my name
On these blood stained pages of misery
Let him call me a tyrant so cruel
Let him curse my name, but remember the truth!

Ghyreian shot Edwin another I-blame-you glare before turning to one of the Solamnic guards. Plastering on a pretty, demure expression well practiced back before she became a Black-Robe, she asked, "Good sir, where are we?"

The Knight didn't even glance at her.

The pretty face vanished. "You ungrateful imbecile, if you win this gods-forsaken war you'll be thanking your Paladine that we got here in time with your precious dragonlances from battling barbarians to dragons, now tell me where in the Abyss we are." It was quite a mouthful.

The Knight did, however, respond. "South of the High Clerist Tower," he said curtly.

_________________

"Hmh... Well at least we know that much... but do tell me knight who is in charge?"

Edwin asked with his eyes narrowing.

_________________

Let him curse my name
On these blood stained pages of misery
Let him call me a tyrant so cruel
Let him curse my name, but remember the truth!

The Knight shrugged. "Lord Gunthar, but he reports to the Golden General." He said the name with reverence and a touch of infatuation, thereby proving his youth and naivette.

_________________

"Ah... the golden general... and are we going to meet Lord Gunthar or the golden general to hear some thanks for our most noble deeds?"

Edwin asked with a smile as he was now clearly teasing the knight with his choice of words, but he did have a point in the question. Were they going to be thanked or just told to begone?

_________________

Let him curse my name
On these blood stained pages of misery
Let him call me a tyrant so cruel
Let him curse my name, but remember the truth!

The Knight shrugged with a brainwashed, "When Paladine deems it so."

Ghyreian shook her head, drew her legs up to her chest, and dropped her chin on her knees.

The tent flap opened and another Knight stuck his head in. "Lord Gunthar will see you now."

_________________

"oh gooddie..."

Edwin answered with an amused tone and followed the knight, as they walked from the tent to another the knights kept staring at them as mages were not beloved. They feared even the white ones, but tolerated them because saw that they both served the same cause and side. At least mages weren`t that black and white in their dealings sometimes.

They were guided into a large tent with a map table in the middle, around it were gathered few knights, bodyguards probably or just leaders as lord gunthar seemed to be one in the middle.

_________________

Let him curse my name
On these blood stained pages of misery
Let him call me a tyrant so cruel
Let him curse my name, but remember the truth!

Ghyreian drew her hood up, sneaking a discreet glance at the map. It was of the area surrounding Sanction. She made a note of this to inform Lord Ariakas.

Lord Gunthar cleared his throat. "You have my thanks for bringing the authentic dragonlances," he began in stern tones that sounded anything but thankful. "However there is a question to your... motives." He let the statement hang there.

_________________

(time for a small twist)

"Balance Lord Gunthar, balance..."

Edwin noted mysteriously to him and the knights just rolled their eyes, Edwin shrugged at their looks and continued.

"My motives are not to questioned, but my friends are to be questioned on the other hand. They are spies, arrest them"

"What?" All the knights asked at the sametime.

"Yes you heard me, they are spies both of them serving Ariakas. You were lucky enough for me along with them to reveal them."

Edwin said with a mysterious smile as he gazed at Ghyreian and Meneldor, sad, but true he could not trust either of them nor was this a personal matter. Edwin wasn`t going to let others suffer for him, he was going to make sure that what the thing in Wayreth had showed him would come to pass. Edwin had made his own remarks of the map and would be getting to where his fate would be decided.

_________________

Let him curse my name
On these blood stained pages of misery
Let him call me a tyrant so cruel
Let him curse my name, but remember the truth!

Edwin's sudden proclamation caught Ghyreian by surprise. Little was she prepared as two knights came forward and painfully seized her hands. Another gagged her, prohibiting her from casting spells.

But it was not the physical pain that hit her. A tenfold more poignant was the undeniable sense of betrayal. "You son of a *beep*!" she raged before another knight slapped her. In shaking fury she struggled, trying to launch herself at Edwin.

And then the gale passed. She straightened, regained her composure, and flashed him a smile that could have frozen a hot spring. "Touche," she remarked.

_________________

"Well I am clad that you understand dear Ghyreian... If we do not meet in this life then perhaps another and I would be looking forward to that... and Meneldor I have to say I never have liked you even with the short time I`ve known you..."

Edwin said with a clever smile and he looked at Gunthar quietly.

"Don`t hurt them, they`ll tell you everything they know and they won`t lie. That is a promise and now if you would let me... I have to go take care of a common problem of ours."

Edwin gazed at the map once more before suddenly bringing forth the full sized dragonorb, before the knights could stop him the mist swalloved him and he was gone. The next thing he knew he was standing on a mountain, over watching the dragonarmies that were camped below him. He hmhed and looked for a safe cave, he would have to wait until they would be moving out and then he would have to step in their path...

_________________

Let him curse my name
On these blood stained pages of misery
Let him call me a tyrant so cruel
Let him curse my name, but remember the truth!

Ghyreian tested the hemp that bound her hands, but to no avail. She was gagged and tied to a tree, surrounded by a ring of guards. It was evening, and already campfires flickered throughout the forest. She closed her eyes and rested her head against the tree's rough bark.

Another blow to her pride... another disgrace in the eyes of her god... Yet an incessant voice at the back of her head told her that this was no different from what she'd done to Edwin on the slopes of Ergoth all those months ago.

_________________

Edwn pondered quietly what Ghyreian thought of him, it didn`t really matter anymore as he would probably die tommorrow and what she thought didn`t really matter. She wouldn`t grive for him anyway nor did she care as she was in this for power, that she had proved at Ergoth and Edwin had been in this.... because of fate and now he was going to face the end, alone.

_________________

Let him curse my name
On these blood stained pages of misery
Let him call me a tyrant so cruel
Let him curse my name, but remember the truth!

A commotion in the camp jerked her awake. With a start, Ghyreian realized she'd succumbed to sleep. Her silver eyes flashed open and immediately darted to the skies. The moon and stars were obscured by many dark, moving shadows.

The wings of dragons.

The Dark Lady! Charging headlong to meet the Golden General's forces east of the Vingaard Mountains!

Dragonfear swept the knights as the chromatic wyrms swooped down, wreaking havoc upon the enemy. The cries of dying knights split the air. Something thudded beside her - a knight's corpse. She stretched out her foot, trying to reach the bloody dirk beside it. She pulled the dirk closer, bent down to grab it off the ground with her teeth - gagging at the blood in her mouth - , and flipped it over to her hands behind the tree.

A moment later she was liberated. She stood against the tree trunk while the clash of swords and shrieks of dragons resounded around her. Her first vengeful instinct was to hunt Edwin down and engender a way to destroy him - through the battle would hardly be even, for he possessed the dragonorb.

But she found, oddly, that the notion inundated her with emotions. She had cared for him once, when she thought herself incapable of compassion. Did she care for him still?

Even if I did once, she corrected fiercely, he'll never forgive me my ambition. And I'll never forgive him this.

She calmly walked over to her spell pouches and picked them up. She looked up at the skies, as if daring them to attack a Black Robe. Then she walked out of the Solamnic camp with one intention:

Find Edwin and demand answers. And if those answers didn't satisfy her, she would kill him.

_________________