reconsider.
“No, my pet,” Kitiara called, reaching down to pat his neck
soothingly. “Now is not the time! But soon – if we prove suc-
cessful! Soon, I promise you!”
Skie was forced to content himself with that. He achieved
some satisfaction, however, by breathing a bolt of lightning
from his gaping jaws, blackening the stone wall as he soared
past, keeping just out of arrow range. The troops scattered like
ants at his coming, the dragonfear sweeping over them in
waves.
Kitiara flew slowly, leisurely. None dared touch her – a state
of peace existed between her armies in Sanction and the Palan-
thians, though there were some among the Knights who were
trying to persuade the free peoples of Ansalon to unite and
attack Sanction where Kitiara had retreated following the war.
But the Palanthians couldn’t be bothered. The war was over,
the threat gone.
“And daily I grow in strength and in might,” Kit said to them
as she flew above the city, taking it all in, storing it in her mind
for future reference.
Palanthas is built like a wheel. All of the important
buildings – the palace of the reigning lord, government offices,
and the ancient homes of the nobles – stand in the center. The
city revolves around this hub. In the next circle are built the
homes of the wealthy guildsmen – the “new” rich – and the
summer homes of those who live outside the city walls. Here,
too, are the educational centers, including the Great Library of
Astinus. Finally, near the walls of Old City, is the marketplace
and shops of every type and description.
Eight wide avenues lead out from the center of Old City, like
spokes on the wheel. Trees line these avenues, lovely trees,
whose leaves are like golden lace all year long. The avenues
lead to the seaport to the north and to the seven gates of Old
City Wall.
Surrounding the wall, Kit saw New City, built just like Old
City, in the same circular pattern. There are no walls around
New City, since walls “detract from the overall design,” as one
of the lords put it.
Kitiara smiled. She did not see the beauty of the city. The
trees were nothing to her. She could look upon the dazzling
marvels of the seven gates without a catch in her throat – well,
perhaps, a small one. How easy it would be, she thought with a
sigh, to capture!
Two other buildings attracted her interest. One was a new
one being built in the center of the city – a Temple, dedicated to
Paladine. The other building was her destination. And, on this
one, her gaze rested thoughtfully.
It stood out in such vivid contrast to the beauty of the city
around it that even Kitiara’s cold, unfeeling gaze noted it.
Thrusting up from the shadows that surrounded it like a
bleached fingerbone, it was a thing of darkness and twisted
ugliness, all the more horrible because once it must have been
the most wonderful building in Palanthas – the ancient Tower
of High Sorcery.
Shadow surrounded it by day and by night, for it was
guarded by a grove of huge oak trees, the largest trees growing
on Krynn, some of the more well-traveled whispered in awe.
No one knew for certain because there were none, even of the
kender race which fears little on this world, who could walk in
the trees’ dread darkness.
“The Shoikan Grove,” Kitiara murmured to an unseen com-
panion. “No living being of any race dared enter it. Not until he
came – the master of past and of present.” If she said this with a
sneer in her voice, it was a sneer that quivered as Skie began to
circle nearer and nearer that patch of blackness.
The blue dragon settled down upon the empty, abandoned
streets near the Shoikan Grove. Kit had urged Skie with every-
thing from bribes to dire threats to fly her over the Grove to the
Tower itself. But Skie, although he would have shed the last
drop of his blood for his master, refused her this. It was beyond
his power. No mortal being, not even a dragon, could enter