had landed, exhausted, near a clump of brush. He leaped
onto the creature’s wing and felled the rider, a knight, with
one blow of his great sword. Others of his company
rushed at the dragon, and when the wyrm reared back,
Kadagh plunged his blade into the base of its skull.
(This tale is more than mere ogre boasting, Your
Grace. Gilthanas witnessed the entire incident. Silvara
immediately pounced on the ogre, crushing him to earth
and felling the rest of his company with a blast of her icy
breath. So impressed were the elves with the ogre’s valor,
however, that they later returned him as a prisoner to
Laurana’s camp.)
The knights sought and slaughtered the monsters of
the Green Wing for the rest of that grim and bloody day
until the tattered remnants of the force finally slipped into
the wilderness of the Dargaard Mountains.
It is interesting to note, Your Grace, that by dint of this
tactic, Laurana left her own ground forces open to the
same kind of attack by the blue dragons in Dargaard. She
was bold enough to gamble (correctly, it turned out) that
Kitiara was still too chastened by her defeat at the High
Clerist’s Tower to risk sending her most powerful forces
into a possible trap.
After the Battle of Throtl, Laurana once again divided
her army. She sent many of the dragons – all of the brass
and bronze, with some of the copper – to guard the portion
of her army that marched on the ground. The other
dragons scattered across the plain, to all points of the
compass, seeking the dragonarmies. Laurana knew that
elements of the White Wing lay somewhere to the south,
but she had no clue as to the location of the mighty Red
Wing.
And still there was the presence of Ariakus’s huge
reserve wing, vanished since it had departed Sanction.
Laurana dispatched a pair of the precious silver dragons
toward that glowering seaport, determined to learn what
she would about the reserve army’s location.
When the scouting dragons discovered forces of the
Dark Queen, they were to report the location of those
troops to the Golden General. Under no circumstances
were they to precipitate an attack. I surmise, Excellency,
that these dragons performed the reconnaissances in the
guise of soaring birds of prey. At least, the records of the
dragonarmies show no sign that they knew they were
under observation – and Laurana’s assignment of the
scouting to the golds, silvers, and coppers indicates a
preference for those dragons who could polymorph
themselves into the bodies of different creatures. And
what better than a hawk or eagle, symbolically patrolling
over the plains?
The soaring spies first spotted the strong contingent
of the White Wing, larger than the Throtl Legion and
including many sivak draconians (the only draconian, as
Your Grace well knows, capable of true flight).
Dragonarmy records show that this force had been ordered
northward by Ariakus himself more than a week earlier.
(After the battle at the Clerist’s tower, the emperor had
anticipated the need for additional forces in the plains, and
issued the necessary orders.)
The White Wing was discovered by none other than
Silvara, herself, as the great silver dragon flew a
southwestward arc in her search. The force had just
crossed the Dargaard River, and marched northward along
the east bank of the Vingaard, placing it squarely across
Laurana’s line of retreat. The river here flows through the
rock-carved channel noted by Markham – a gorge that is
some twenty miles long.
(Silvara flew alone on this scouting mission. I submit,
Your Grace, that the absence of Gilthanas from her back
supports the idea that she flew in the body of a bird, rather
than as a dragon.)
Laurana’s response to the information was immediate
and bold: she reversed her army’s line of advance and
urged the troops into a forced march straight into the
advancing White Wing. Each scouting dragon, as it
returned from its patrol, rejoined the army, until the
Golden General again held all her dragons close to the
body of the force. Within twenty-four hours, the Army of
Solamnia was massed and focused on a single line of