Elaine Cunningham - The Radiant Dragon

World Spelljammer, Cloackmaster Cycle, Book 4

Prologue

For untold centuries, many had sought the truth behind the legend of the Spelljammer, but few had returned to tell of their quest. Now, in a distant corner of Realmspace and in the shadow of the great ship itself, the crewmen of a reigar vessel wondered if they soon would join the thousands whose stories had ended in silence.

The awestruck crew members could not judge the Spelljammer's size; at times they perceived it only as an immense blackness that curtained the stars behind it. Their navigator informed them that they had orbited the vessel twice, a feat that had taken many hours. In truth, it was a ship a third of a mile long and half a mile across, shaped like an enormous manta ray with a shining city atop its back. It was the largest ship in all of known space, and persistent rumors said it was both a ship and a living entity.

The other ship, a reigar esthetic, was a rather unorthodox vessel for such a voyage of exploration. The race known as the reigar was famous for its unusual ships, but the flamboyant artiste who captained this vessel had taken reigar individuality to new extremes. The ship's base was a conventional wooden hull with a deep keel, but upon the deck was a small forest and a stretch of green meadow. On the stern of the ship a tree-shaded mountain rose abruptly. A stream cascaded down the mountain, ending in a pond filled with bright fish and surrounded by flowers.

The beautiful sylvan scene was all the more remarkable for its origin: the reigar had magically grown everything- including the singing birds, fish, and other woodland creatures-from multicolored crystal. Each plant was so realistic as to appear alive, even to swaying in the magical breezes, but the whole had a color and sheen more intense than any found on even the most magic-laden elven world. A small, sunlike globe orbited the outer edge of the ship's atmosphere, casting an illusion of day and night even in the midst of wildspace. At the bow of the ship was a small, retractable platform on which the sun-globe could come to rest when the ship's helm went down, and the bridge was aft, located at the top of the mountain. There the ship's captain, a reigar woman known as Cholana, sat cross-legged in the shade of a giant crystalline oak.

Around the reigar huddled a semicircle of arcane, the blue-skinned humanoid giants who served as the ship's crew. To one side of Cholana paced her lakshu bodyguard, a muscled amazon warrior, and on the other side sat the ship's wizard in a unique helm that was carved directly into the crystal rock of the mountain. Cholana was lost in magical revery, and tension and foreboding encircled the small assembly just as surely as the glory-a glowing, glittering halo of twinkling motes-surrounded the entranced reigar.

"By the Departed Elders!" swore one of the arcane in a harsh whisper. His six-fingered blue hand trembled as he pointed to the reigar captain. "Look at Cholana's glory. It's fading!"

For a time even the great ship was forgotten. The arcane muttered among themselves, debating in hushed tones what the omen might portend for their revered captain. Viper, the lakshu, stopped her fierce pacing and studied Cholana with narrowed eyes. In sharp contrast to the arcane's concern, the lakshu's scrutiny of Cholana's glory held no hint of distress.

Yes, the bright mist that surrounded the reigar had faded.

How interesting, Viper noted with cynical detachment. Of course, she found it interesting that the reigar was there at all.

Viper had been on board the esthetic during Cholana's last, spectacularly unsuccessful experiment. The reigar had taken a small longboat out into the flow, where she had attempted to magically channel the rainbow-hued phlogiston into a wildspace mural in her own honor. After the explosion's aftershocks had finally died away, the crew's search had yielded no trace of Cholana or her small boat. The reigar had been presumed dead, and, despite the evidence seated before her, Viper saw no reason to believe otherwise.

Many years before, on the very day she had reached her full fighting weight, the lakshu had pledged her strength and her life in the service of Cholana. As was the custom, Viper had been named for the reigar's shakti, a magical animal totem of great power. The lakshu had been given a matching shakti, the stylized jeweled snake that curled around her wrist and matched the one entwining Cholana's forearm. These shakti were powerful weapons, powerful enough to protect the physically fragile reigar and to secure the allegiance of the wild and warlike lakshu. A single word of command would change the ornament into an enormous, deadly snake, big enough to ride upon. A second command word could transmute the shakti into a suit of scaled armor that gave its wearer the ability to strike with viperlike speed and to spit blasts of deadly venom at even distant attackers. Each shakti was different, but each was a fearsome weapon. Viper wore hers with pride, as befitted a reigar-pledged lakshu warrior.

Since the explosive mishap in the phlogiston, however, Viper's shakti had been nothing more than a pleasant ornament, as dead as the lakshu believed her master to be. The return of the reigar Cholana had not restored the shakti s power.

With a patience uncharacteristic of the wildspace amazons, Viper kept her weapons sheathed and her tongue still as she studied the entranced reigar. The lakshu did not know who or what presumed to sit in her master's place, but she would wait and she would learn. And then she would kill.

Still deep in trance, "Cholana" made a small, restless motion, and her hand grasped the sapphire pendant that hung around her neck. Her narrow fingers curved around the huge gemstone, which shone with a deep, magical blue light. The reigar's fidgeting brightened the motes surrounding her and sent them into dizzying motion.

She did not hear the arcane's collective sigh of relief, nor did she notice the lakshu's suspicious glare. Lost in her magical inquiry, she was barely aware of the body that had been so amusing to assume. Reigar! she mused silently. Pretentious little creatures, really, but they did have a certain flair.

This one had been a female with short, red-gold ringlets, a body as slim as a snake's, and flamboyant facial makeup consisting of tiny, iridescent scales that transformed her triangular face into an exotic parody of the shakti on her arm. Except for the ancient, sapphire-studded pendant, the reigar's clothing showed the usual creative flair. She wore tight green leggings of some pebbly, shining fabric and a matching silky shirt that bared her midriff. An elaborate tattoo wound up one thin arm, and jewelry in abstract forms glittered at her ears and fingers. Even the nails on Cholana's hands and bare feet showed typical reigar elan; they had been gilded, dusted with crushed precious stones, and then ensorcelled to show elaborate designs that changed colors in random patterns. As guises went, it was amusing enough.

Amusing, but not entirely effective. She had assumed the reigar's form in an attempt to avoid detection by the great ship, yet even in her frail and flashy new body she sensed that the ship had detected her. She was, however, a creature of great power and will.

For some time now she had resisted the questing, demanding voice of the ship, intending to learn all she could about it before landing on it. Celestial Nightpearl had not lived all these centuries by being imprudent. Since the day the magical pendant had come into her possession, she'd spent an elf s lifetime exploring its powers and promise. She had defeated enemies who had wanted the pendant for themselves, and she had overcome Others-beings who had held similar magical objects. Now that she'd found the