realizing how much the surly Ivan had come to enjoy dragonflight, Cadderly readily agreed.
To this point, Ivan, Pikel, and Vander, enjoying the short, fluttering air-hops of the great red, had remained oblivious to the discussion.
"Ivan!" Danica called back to the dwarf. "Would you care for the chance to smash a few goblin heads?"
The yellow-bearded dwarf roared, Pikel squeaked in glee, and Danica turned a smug smile back Cadderly's way. The young priest scowled, thinking Danica's method o^ask-ing Ivan was terribly unfair - what dwarf would say no to that question?
"Let us use our new ally to our best advantage," Shayleigh said to the defeated young priest
Cadderly relaxed against the scaly dragon neck, trying to sort out this whole situation. He knew that they should go straight on to Castle Trinity, that any fighting now could jeopardize their chance for success later, especially if the dragon escaped his enchantment
But was he ready for Castle Trinity? After his fight to destroy the Ghearufu and his titanic struggle with Ghost, Cadderly wasn't so sure. Up to now, he had been primarily concerned with the Ghearufu, but with that task out of the way, he had begun to look ahead - to powerful wizards and a well-trained army, entrenched in a secluded mountain fortress.
Cadderly needed time to catch his breath and to better consider those dangers at the end of his intended road. He decided that an attack on the goblin band, with a dragon on his side, might actually come as a reprieve.
And he couldn't, in good conscience, deny Shayleigh's fears for Shilmista or the plaintive, determined expression on her fair elven face. The young priest had to admit, to himself at least, that there was something alluring about the idea of experiencing unleashed dragon power from this secure vantage point.
"I believe that they are enemies, mighty Fyrentennimar," Cadderly called back to the unusually patient dragon. "Is there anything we might do against them?"
In answer, the dragon dipped one wing and dropped into a stoop, plummeting at breakneck speed, then leveling out and using his momentum to begin a great rush around the mountain. From this lower point, the friends had no trouble spotting the monstrous caravan, several hundred strong and with a fair number of giants among the shuffling, hunched goblinoid ranks, trudging along a trail in a narrow valley bordered by steep, rocky walls.
Fyrentennimar kept close to the ridges, circling away from the monsters. In mere seconds, the valley and the caravan seemed far removed.
"Do tell me, humble priest," the obviously eager dragon implored Cadderly. Cadderly looked to his friends once more, to confirm the decision, and found five bobbing heads staring back at him.
"They are enemies," Cadderly confirmed. "What is our role in the battle?"
'"Your role?" the great beast echoed incredulously. "Hang on to my spiked spine with all your pitiful strength!"
The dragon banked, its wings going nearly perpendicular to the ground (drawing another cry of glee from Ivan and Pikel), and then shot off around the targeted peak. The friends felt the warmth growing within the wyrm, the flaring fires of old Fyren's ire. Reptilian eyes narrowed evilly, and in realizing the wyrm's mounting intensity, Cadderly wasn't so certain that he liked this whole scenario.
They came around the base of the mountain into the entrance to the narrow valley, still in a tight bank, the rock walls rushing by the six astonished friends in a dizzying blur. The dragon leveled and dipped even lower, the tips of his wide wings only a dozen feet or so from the sheer walls. The goblins and giants at the rear of the caravan turned and let out terrified shrieks, \wt so swift was the dragon's flight that they had no time to even break ranks before Fyrentennimar was upon them.
A searing line of fire strafed the trailing monsters. Goblins curled up into charred balls; mighty giants toppled, slapping futilely at the deadly flames as their bodies were consumed.
Acrid smoke rose in the dragon's wake. His flames were exhausted before he had gotten very far into the long line, but Fyrentennimar proudly stayed low in his flight, let his enemies see him and fear him.
All about the valley, the monsters went into an uncontrolled frenzy. Giants squashed goblins and slammed into other giants; goblins clawed and battled with their own kin, even coming to sword blows in their desperation to get away.
"Oh, my dear Deneir," Cadderly muttered, awestruck once again by the bared power of the dragon, by the utter terror Fyrentennimar had