small wings bringing him to Cazzira's side behind the still-stunned ranger. ?Many sol-diers have come against your friends, and without help they are surely doomed!"
"Die bravely and try to find a Chezhou-Lei to take with you to the after-life!" Pagonel told his warriors as the ring of enemies, hundreds of skilled soldiers, closed in.
The Jacintha soldiers lifted their spears and swords and cried out to charge, but even as that communal howl began, it was drowned out by a single voice, as mighty a roar as the world of Corona had ever heard.
Agradeleous the dragon swooped past, a line of his fiery breath immolat-ing the Behrenese line that was blocking the mystics from the stairs to their mountain home.
Brynn sat astride the neck, her own fiery sword held high, while Juraviel fired off his own bow behind her, taking down yet another surprised and horrified Jacintha soldier.
Any in the Behrenese line whose legs did not freeze in sheer terror be-neath them, broke ranks and fled.
Pagonel and Master Cheyes, not taking the moment to question the unexpected turn, gathered their warriors and collected up their wounded and rushed for the stairs. Pagonel and Master Cheyes fell behind the retreat, ready to do battle with any soldiers or Chezhou-Lei coming in pursuit.
But none were. The Behrenese fled before the wrath of the dragon, be-fore the fiery glory that was mighty Agradeleous.
The dragon banked a steep turn and came in hard again, a second fiery blast melting down more soldiers. He caught yet another man in one power-ful claw, lifting him from the ground and crushing the life from him, and swept aside several more with his crushing tail.
And so began the day of horrors for the fleeing Behrenese, pursued from on high by the mighty beast and his three riders.
jorne soldiers got out of the area, but Agradeleous came in pursuit, and when the startled villagers that had been rounded up by the fierce Chezhou-Lei spotted the confusion and the dragon, they too cried out in terror and began to flee.
"Not the villagers!" Juraviel and Cazzira, and then Brynn cried out re peatedly to the dragon, and it seemed to Brynn as if it took the mighty beast a long while to turn away from the tempting sight of the fleeing mob.
"Fly over them, but bring no harm!" Juraviel instructed, and then he yelled to Brynn, ?Tell them who you are!
Tell them to take heart, for Brynn Dharielle, the Dragon of To-gai, has come to free them!"
Thus was the legend born.
After shouting her message of freedom to the escaping villagers Brynn directed the mighty dragon to settle near a brown-and-white figure she had seen from on high. She slid down and hurried to her pony, whom she had feared mortally wounded. As she inspected Runtly, though, she breathed a profound sigh of relief, for the stings of the Chezhou-Lei arrows were not serious.
"We are not done with our work," Belli'mar Juraviel called to her, and she turned to see him and Cazzira standing beside an obviously anxious Agradeleous.
Brynn looked back to her pony. ?I will come back to you soon and clean those wounds better," she whispered to him. ?You just run to the open fields and stay far from danger!"
As if he understood her every word, the pony nickered and galloped away, and it did Brynn's heart good to see him run.
Much later on, after many, many Behrenese soldiers and Chezhou-Lei had been hunted down and killed, Agradeleous, bearing his three riders, pulled up before the bridge at the Walk of Clouds, hanging there for a mo-ment with his great wings beating, as Brynn slipped down to stand before Masters Cheyes and Pagonel, with many others standing in the back-ground, gawking.
Without any hesitation, and without a word from either of the remaining riders, Agradeleous turned and swooped down into the clouds, disappear-ing from view.
Pagonel started to say something to Brynn, but he just stopped and stood there helplessly, his arms out to the side. And what might be expected of him, after all, since he had just witnessed the arrival of three of the legendary - and, many would argue, imaginary - races of Corona, including the sheer size and power of a dragon!
"I was trained by the Touel'alfar," Brynn stated at once. She held forth her beautiful sword. ?And this is elven make, forged in the distant valley of Andur'blough Inninness, north of the great mountains. One of my compan-ions is of the Touel'alfar, another is a cousin, a Doc'alfar,