Trevor
(Morning, day 3)

    *Triss, try to find Blanchie again,* Trevor told his dragon as they 
winged their way across the Nomadlands in the direction of Cleft.  They'd 
been in the air all night since leaving the abandoned wraith-cave, scouring 
the land for the vanished Lenna and Blanchie.  By now, though, even Lonnie 
was showing signs of losing hope that they could find his twin again.  It had 
been a couple of hours since they'd tried one of Triss' locating pulses, 
because repeated use of the pearl dragon's talent would have exhausted her in 
short order, making it impossible to continue their search if they didn't 
find Lenna quickly.  And so, Triss and Meritanth had repeatedly called out to 
Blanchie, knowing that even though Lenna might be under the sway of a 
wraithspawn, Blanchie was not.

     Despite their efforts, though, they had gotten no answer to their calls. 
 Trevor hoped this just meant they hadn't come within telepathy range of 
wherever Lenna and Blanchie were.  Trissana's pulses could reach much 
farther, though.  He figured that it was worth one more try before they got 
back to the warren.

     [I hope this works,] Triss said worriedly, then closed her eyes.  Trevor 
felt the faint *ping* in his head as the powerful pulse was released.  Trevor 
didn't really expect a return pulse, and so was caught by surprise he felt a 
second faint *ping* , and Triss suddenly turned sharply, forcing him to 
clutch at the straps for support.  He saw Meritanth turning sharply to 
maintain his position alongside Triss, as the pearl dragon settled on her new 
heading...the direction in which they would find Blanchie - and Lenna.

     It took him only a moment to bring his dragon back to awareness now that 
they knew the direction.  Together, rider and dragon worked out the distance 
to where Blanchie was based on the strength of the return signal.  With 
Trevor's intimate knowledge of the geography of the Nomadlands, it was a 
simple matter for him to figure out where they needed to go.

     *Tell Meritanth that they're at Amberylle's village!* he told her, 
giving her the image and telling her to pass that along too.  He had only the 
few seconds before they teleported to quickly check the filled hypodermic 
needles that held the rest of his supply of the drug they'd need to subdue 
the wraithspawn, provided they could get close enough.  


/snip from Barb's post/
"OHOO!" a cry when up. First blood had been drawn. A rivulet of red appeared
on Lenna's left arm where a rent in her shirtsleeve showed Cynthia's sword
had met its mark. But it didn't even phase her for a moment. The hand
holding the sword came up and swept downward in a full arch that was
intended to get by the area where Cynthia had dropped her guard, but Lenna
either wasn't fast enough, or Cynthia had been shamming her in.

The stroke was easily parried and then followed up by a wild slashing attack
meant to drive Lenna backwards in defense, but somehow Lenna held her
ground. Her next strike drew blood as her blade scored a hit to the sword
hand of the Warrenlady causing Cynthia to drop her sword even as Lenna
followed it up with a vicious sweep kick that knocked Cynthia's legs out
from under her.
/end snip/

    As soon as Trissana came out of teleport, she was diving groundward at a 
breathtaking pace.  Trevor had one of the needles out and in his hand, ready 
to throw it like a dagger.  But he knew that it was a million-to-one shot 
that his throw would succeed.  *Be ready to knock Lenna away from Cynthia!* 
he told the pearl dragon.

    [But my rider, at this speed, I wouldn't be able to keep from hurting 
Blanchie's rider!] she protested.

    Trevor was just about to point out to her that it might come down to a 
choice between saving Lenna and saving Cynthia, when he saw a figure dash 
forward to intervene in the fight.

/snip from Barb's post/
"ARRGGG!!" Lenna/Xaxan/Amar cried out in pain and frustration as something
smashed against the hand guard of the sword causing their aim to falter and
fly from her hands. Her eyes were black with fury as she quickly turned to
find the figure of a tall nomad standing there as the crowd parted around 
him. 

"You and your kind are finished here!" Andahar shouted for all to hear. One
hand still brandished his long sword while the other one, the one he had
thrown to thaw the Hellspawns killing stroke laid on the ground not far from
Xaxan/Lenna. "We know you now. You can hurt us no longer!"
/end snip/

     Trevor breathed a sigh of relief, even as he was ordering Triss to land 
as close as she could to where Lenna and Andahar faced one another.  He 
grabbed the leather pouch from the place where it attached to Trissana's 
saddle.  Inside were three more syringes just like the one he held in his 
hand.  He hoped he wouldn't need more than that, but if there was truly more 
than one of the wraithspawn around...

     *Andahar,* he said nervously as the pearl dragon touched down.  *He had 
one of the things inside of him...*  Perhaps he hadn't saved Cynthia, just 
interfered to bring about her death himself.

     [It's okay, my rider,] she told him as he frantically undid the straps 
to dismount.  [I'm talking to Bohoc now, and he thinks his rider is all 
right.]  She swung her head around to look at him as he climbed down.  [My 
rider, do you really know how to use those?]

     *No, and maybe I won't have to,* he said, spying a Nomad whose garb 
identified him as a healer.  Not waiting for Lonnie, who was just 
dismounting, Trevor ran over to the man.  "You are a healer?" he asked, 
hoping he could understand the mapmaker's uncertain command of the Nomad 
tongue.

     "I am healer,"  he affirmed.  Trevor handed him the filled syringe even 
as he was explaining what needed to be done.  To his relief, this healer did 
have at least some experience in giving injections, although not with 
anything as sophisticated as the glass syringe Trevor had handed him.  
Satisfied that he could handle the job, he took him by the arm and led him 
forward.

     "I'll run interference, you just get her there!" Lonnie called out, 
stepping into position ahead of them and pushing people out of the way to 
make a path for Trevor and the Nomad healer.

/snip from Barb's post/
Someone... raised a knife to kill the demon, but a voice called out **DON'T
KILL HER!!** as someone was pushing their way through the crowd. Seconds
later the crowd near where they were holding the struggling body of the
possessed Lenna parted to reveal a harried looking Trevor and behind him was
one of the healers carrying a small bag. 

"Let us through!" Trevor pushed aside a man standing in his way and pulled
the healer after him. "Give it to her now!" he ordered the man and with a
hand motioned for three of the men standing there to help hold the girl still.

"What the hell!" Dan'yar, who had been with his wing arrived just in time to
see the healer with a large needle in his hand kneeling beside his sister
and tried to go help her but others moved to take hold of him when Trevor
shouted out an order to keep him away. Then seconds later as others held him
back, witnessed the struggles dissipate until Lenna laid still as if sleeping.

"Damn you! If you've hurt her!!" Dan'yar's threat hung in the air as he
faced a tired looking map maker. Even Lonnie who had left his play in the
Wing to stand beside Trevor looked tired, but the eyes that met his dared
him to go further. 

"We did what we had to, to save her life Dani," Lonnie told him, praying
he'd understand. His blue eyes promised to explain things later when this
was all over.

"Instead of threatening him Dan'yar you should be thanking him for saving
her life!" Cynthia snapped as she stood there allowing on of the nomad
healers to take a look at the wound caused by Lenna's sword. Then the
Warrenlady's eyes looked around until the landed on the back of the tall
Nomad male who was talking with Chief Raiden. "Just as I intend to thank
Andahar for saving mine"

Briefly she explained what had happen while he was gone, and then Trevor and
Lonnie took turns explain what they had found when they had gone after Lenna.

"I knew I had to find her before anything happened," he explained, moving
closer to his mate who was being seen to by a nomad healing woman. "I knew
if I could get here and use the drug on her... well... We couldn't find her
until just a bit ago when Triss was finally able to get a *Ping* on her.
That's why we came back." He looked back to where others were placing the
still body of Lenna on a stretcher for transport back to the medical center.
"We'll keep her drugged until we can figure out how to help her.

As soon as her arm had been seen too, Cynthia thanked the woman then turned
back to the others. "I don't think we should rest yet... I feel more trouble
on the way... Someone or something was at work to get us all here.. and I
don't think whoever or whatever is going to just go away. Dan'yar, you and
Katrina are to keep your wings on alert for the time being... I don't like
the sound of what Lonnie and Trevor found in that cave. Who knows where the
damn things are not or how soon they'll strike."
/end snip/

   "Do you have any idea how many of them there might be?" Dan'yar asked.

    "No...just that that cave could have held hundreds of them," Lonnie said. 
 

     "And we really aren't sure if that was the only cave," Trevor pointed 
out.  As Dan'yar and Lonnie went to get the other riders organized for the 
trip back to Cleft, Trevor had a relatively private moment with his mate.  It 
would have been completely private had it not been for the presence of Triss 
and Syren, a goodly number of Amberylle's villagers, and at least a hundred 
Nomads.  

    "Well...maybe we'd better wait till we get back home," Cynthia said with 
a smile turning up one corner of her mouth.

     "Hopefully we'll have some time then," Trevor said, thinking of what was 
coming.  "Are you all right?"

     Cynthia nodded, looking down at her bandaged arm.  "Obviously I haven't 
been practicing enough with a sword.  I wouldn't have thought Lenna could 
have disarmed me like that."

     "You should have used your disarming smile on her," Trevor said, leaning 
forward to kiss her.

* * * * * * * *
Amar
(afternoon, med center)

/snip from Barb's post/
Finally, realizing that she had yet to touch the girl once in the little
over two hours since they arrived back in the Cleft, and feeling slightly
foolish for thinking that if she did, she would wake up and find Lenna's
being here was only a dream... One of many she had had over the last year...
Danki finally reached out to stroke her daughters hair... and then felt a
dizzying sensation come over her.....

<<FINALLY!!>> exclaimed a voice inside her head and Danki started for the
door... her daughter laying on the bed asleep forgotten..... for Amar had
things to do...
/end snip/

   Suddenly freed of Lenna's drugged body, Amar's self-awareness returned 
quickly.  He examined the body and memories of his host and decided that, 
while the human Danki was not as useful to him as a dragonrider might be, it 
would do for right now.  If nothing else, no one would expect *this* body to 
go out and fight his fellow wraiths.

     Fellow wraiths, Danki/Amar thought sourly as she peered down at the 
still-sleeping Lenna.  Even the one being who was most like Amar - Xaxan - 
was ready to betray him to further the interests of the hive and its queen.  
But this last experience had made Amar start to think in ways that the 
wraithspawn never had before.  It had, after all, been created with a maximum 
of self-awareness to make it more effective as a spy and saboteur...but with 
self-awareness came a natural tendency to think toward the future.  As Amar 
did so, the wraithspawn for the first time began to wonder what the final 
completion of its mission would entail.

   If the imminent wraith attack succeeded, Cleft Warren would be left a 
lifeless shell.  Not a man, woman, not a dragon, not a herdbeast, not so much 
as an insect would remain alive within its walls.  Nothing but wraiths would 
remain.  And Amar?

    Amar knew that it needed a host-body to survive. If, for instance, the 
woman Danki should die or be killed right now, Amar would cease to exist with 
her.  But unlike Xaxan, Amar could theoretically live forever, as long as 
there continued to be  host bodies for it to transfer to.  

    Why then, should I die today? the wraithspawn asked itself...and to 
Amar's amazement, it could think of no good answer.  The hive-queen had been 
ready to sacrifice both Amar and Xaxan to further the wraiths' goals of 
destroying the hated humans and dragons.  If the hive-queen thought so little 
of Amar, why should Amar think more of the queen or the hive?  Loyalty was an 
alien concept to wraiths, who obeyed through mindless instinct.  But Amar was 
beyond that now.

    Danki/Amar sneered as she looked down at Lenna.  "Farewell, Xaxan," she 
said softly.  "Give our queen my regards."  And with that, she strode out to 
wait until the two-hour period of vulnerability passed, and the wraithspawn 
could once again shift bodies.  Amar knew that the wraiths wouldn't attack 
until they'd concentrated their numbers, which were greater than anyone else 
at this warren suspected.  Still, the attack might well come before 
then...and there was only one way to ensure that the warren wasn't destroyed 
before Amar could leave.  Danki/Amar went in search of the Warrenlady.

* * * * * * * *
Trevor
(Upper green)

    Trevor stood near the edge of the Great Cleft, peering through his 
telescope at the gray mass that seemed to hang over the horizon.  What he saw 
shook him to the core, and he handed the instrument to Cynthia.  

     "Wraiths," she said quietly, panning the telescope back and forth.  
"There must be thousands of them."

     "I've never seen so many...except at Geode," said Dan'yar, who was 
gazing through his own telescope for a moment before passing it to his 
Wingsecond Katrina.  

     "At Geode we had six wings from four warrens," Meena said gravely.  
"Now..."

     "Two wings," Cynthia said equally gravely.  "And I don't think we'll 
have time to recruit anything like the kind of numbers we had there."  She 
handed the telescope back to Trevor, and turned to the Wingleaders and 
Wingseconds.  "I need options," she said.  "Can we fight a horde like that 
and have any chance of surviving?"

     "We could retreat back to Whiteriver Warren," Kellie said.  She was 
still not back to full fighting form, but had insisted on taking up her 
duties in the face of this emergency.  "Between our forces and Merissa's, we 
might hold them there."

     "And in the process leave the entire Nomadlands at their mercy," said 
Dan'yar.  "I don't like that idea."

     "Only temporarily," Trevor pointed out.  "If we're all killed here, the 
wraiths will have the Nomadlands as their feeding grounds...forever."

     Cynthia let out a deep breath.  "I don't like the idea of giving up this 
warren, that we've fought so hard for...but we have our responsibilities to 
the Nomads to think about.  If the dragons and riders of Cleft are lost, the 
southern DragonLands are open to invasion."

     "At the very least we should send couriers out to warn Whiteriver and 
Falagand," Meena suggested.  "They're the two closest warrens, and the first 
that would fall under attack if we can't stop the wraiths."

     "And maybe we could even get some reinforcements in the process," Trevor 
pointed out.

     "You had better do something," said a familiar female voice behind them. 
 "Otherwise, we will all die in very short order."

     Trevor and the others turned around, and were surprised to see Danki 
standing there.  "Mother, you shouldn't be up here!" Dan'yar said, concerned. 
 "Those wraiths could attack at any time!  Come on, I'll get you back down 
below where it's safe..."

     "There is no place of safety in this warren," Danki/Amar said, walking 
past Dan'yar without so much as a look at him.  Everyone could see at once 
that there was something *different* about her.  She strode up to the rim of 
the Cleft and pointed at the gray swath that covered the horizon. "Wraiths do 
not teleport as dragons do," she said.  "It would take them half an hour to 
fly here from where they now are.  But it will be longer than that...they 
will not come until all of their available forces have been marshaled.  What 
you now see are the denizens of three hives...but there will be four hives 
taking part in this attack, and the fourth has not yet arrived."

    Trevor felt his insides turn to ice.  This couldn't be Danki!  It was 
clear that the others saw it too, particularly Dan'yar.

     "Who are you?" Cynthia asked coldly.  "And more importantly, what are 
you?"

     "You may call me Amar," the wraithspawn replied.  "And as to what I 
am...that is more complicated."

     "You took over Lenna!" Dan'yar said, fists clenched.  "You tried to make 
her kill Cynthia!  If you've hurt my mother...!"

     "I did take over the one called Lenna," Amar agreed.  "And I can assure 
you that this human will not be hurt, at least not by me.   But now I find 
myself in a difficult position."  Danki/Amar swept an arm around in a 
gesture, indicating the massing wraiths.  "When they attack, we will all die 
here together...myself included."

     "And what does death mean to a wraith?" Cynthia inquired.

     "Nothing," Amar said.  "When one is mindless, one's existence is not 
worth saving.  Thus, again and again, wraiths will fling themselves into the 
flames of your dragons, thinking nothing of doing so simply because they can 
*not* think."  Danki/Amar crossed her arms in front of her chest and looked 
from one to the other of them before returning her attention to Cynthia.  
"But I am not a wraith, and I am no  longer mindless...and now find that I no 
longer consider myself expendable.  I have no love for your warren, nor for 
you...but I do value myself.  I am willing to help you defeat my former 
masters...for that is the only way that *I* can survive.  I know things you 
do not, things that may help you.  In return, I asked to be given a host body 
and a means to leave this place forever.  Decide quickly, for our time is 
short."

(Tag Alton or Barb - what a deal, eh? :)

* * * * * * * *
Renata

     Renata had been in the process of cutting vegetables when C'aranth came 
into the small dining area of the apartment. "It's been so long since I've 
done any Epion-style cooking," she said wistfully.  "I used to enjoy that 
back at home..."

     C'aranth put down the bowl of meat that he had just finished slicing and 
stood behind her, putting his arms around her. "You are home," he reminded 
her.  "I did not remember that you liked to cook, though...if you do, perhaps 
you could learn to cook Nomad dishes."

     "Would you eat them if I did?" she asked, brightening a bit.

     "I would eat anything you cooked," he assured her, tightening his 
embrace a bit as he bent down to kiss her.  Renata returned the kiss 
passionately, forgetting all about the vegetables.  Her arms went up around 
his neck, pulling him down against her as she half twisted in the chair.  
Their hands began roaming over one another's bodies, and Renata took just a 
moment to wonder if they were going to get dinner done in time...or if their 
guests would arrive to find nothing spread out on the table except for 
C'aranth and Renata.

      A moment later, though, it became a moot point as Vega broke into 
Renata's thoughts.  [Renata, there are wraiths on the horizon!] Vega 
announced excitedly.  She felt C'aranth stiffen in her arms as he got the 
same message from Jeratko.

     Renata looked up at him and their eyes met.  "I believe," he said, "that 
our dinner may be delayed."  C'aranth nodded stoically and reached for his 
sword.

    "That won't help," she pointed out.  "Steel isn't much good against 
wraiths."

    "I am a warrior," he said.  "I cannot stand by if this warren comes under 
attack."

    Renata nodded, knowing that once he'd made up his mind he wouldn't be 
turned aside.  "Let's go, then, and see where Dan'yar wants us."  

(Tag Darren - well, looks like the dinner may be just a *bit* delayed.... :)

Submitted by:

John

Trevor & Trissana
Kellie & Varie
Amar the Wraithspawn

Cleft Warren

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