"An old red, according to the legend."
"Older still since the tales date back two centuries or more," Shayleigh added gravely. "And not just a legend," she assured them. "Galladel, who was King of Shilmista Forest, remembered the time of the dragon, remembered the devastation old Fyren brought to Carradoon and to the forest"
The damned fool boy is thinking o' waking a dragon?" Ivan bellowed, storming up to join the circle about Cadderly. In the intrigue, no one had noticed that the rhythmic dwarven snoring had ceased.
"Uh-uhhh," Pikel said to Cadderly, waggling one finger back and forth in front of his face.
"Do you wish the Ghearufu destroyed?" Cadderly asked simply, aiming the thought at Vander, whom he considered his best prospect for an ally against the rising tide of protest
The firbolg seemed truly torn.
"At what cost?" Danica demanded before Vander could sort out his thoughts. TTie dragon has slept for centuries-centuries of peace. How many lives will it need to satisfy its hunger upon awakening?"
"Let a sleeping wyrm lie, me Pappy always said," Ivan piped in.
"Yup," added Pikel, nodding eagerly.
Cadderly gave a resigned sigh, scooped the Ghearufu into his pack, and hoisted it over one shoulder. "I have been directed to destroy the Ghearufit," he said, his voice full of resignation. "There is only one way."
Then it must wait," Danica replied. The threat to all the region..."
"Is a temporary danger in a temporary society," Cadderly finished philosophically. The Ghearufu is not temporary. It has pained the world since its creation in the lower planes many millennia ago.
"Ill not force this upon you," Cadderly went on calmly. "I have been directed by the precepts of a god that you do not worship. Go and speak among yourselves, come to a decision together or individually. This quest is mine, and yours only by your own choice. And you are right," he said to Shayleigh, seeming sincerely apologetic. "I erred in not revealing this to you all when first we left the library. The situation was... difficult." He looked at Danica as he ended, knowing that she alone understood what he had gone through to "convince" Dean Thobicus.
The others moved across the cavern floor slowly, each of them glancing back at Cadderly many times.
The boy's daft," Ivan insisted, loudly enough so that Cadderly could hear.
"He follows his heart," Danica replied quietly.
"I, too, do not doubt Cadderly's sincerity," Shayleigh added. "It is his wisdom that I question."
Pikel continued to nod his eager agreement
To wake a dragon," Vander said grimly, shaking his head.
"A red," Danica pointedly added, for red dragons were the wickedest and most powerful of all the evil dragons. "Perhaps an ancient red by now."
Still Pikel nodded, and Ivan slapped him on the back of his head.
"Oo," the green-bearded dwarf said, glaring at his brother.
"Ye don't go waking wyrms," Ivan put in, again loud enough for Cadderly to hear.
There is something else I fear," Danica said. "Is Cadderly being correctly guided by his god, or is the Ghearufit wrongly leading him to where it might find a powerful ally?"
The thought made the others rock back on their heels, brought profound sighs from Shayleigh and Vander and a drawn-out "Ooooooo" from Pikel and Ivan, who then, apparently realizing that he was mimicking Pikel, snapped his head about to regard his brother suspiciously.
"What do we do?" Shayleigh asked.
They stood quietly for many moments before Danica dared a decision. "The threat now is Castle Trinity," she declared.
"But the Ghearufu does not come along with us," Vander insisted, barely able to keep his giant voice quiet "We can bury it here, in the mountains, and return for it when the other business is completed."
"Cadderiy will not agree," Shayleigh reasoned, looking at the resolute young priest
"Then we won't ask him," Ivan replied with a sly wink. He looked Danica's way and nodded, and Danica, after a plaintive look at the man she loved, returned the nod. Alone, she moved toward Cadderiy, and Ivan figured the young man would be in die bag in a moment
"You will not go along to Nightglow," Cadderiy stated, not asked, as Danica approached.
Danica said nothing. Unconsciously, she clenched and unclenched a fist at her side - a movement that Cadderiy did not miss.
"The Ghearufu is paramount," the young priest said.
Danica still did not reply. Cadderiy read her thoughts, though, saw that she was struggling with her decided course and understood that course to be one hinting at treachery. He began to sing under his breath as Danica moved in at him. Suddenly her manner