In Queen Saihve's lab...

The Witch Queen cackles in delight as the trio heads towards one of most deadly minions... the Shadow Dragon! Once a pure Great Siberian, like the Cousins, the now dark and evil dragon was caught up with a thirst for power after seeing first hand what Saihve could do during the Dragon Wars. Given great powers by the Witch Queen, after showing his allegiance to her by destroying ten Weyrs in succession, including both cousins' Weyrs, the one-time Silver Dragon became a Shadow Dragon.

***

Meanwhile, in the hidden passage...

"I wonder how long this tunnel is?" Daria wondered.

"You will -never- know!" exclaimed a voice in the darkness. *Acid Ball* was cast from the darkness towards Daria!

*Reflect* Jacrose cast around his cousin, and the acid barely touched her.

"Chaaaaarge!"

"Ramjen! No!" The Cousins shouted, but their guard didn't listen. Sword shining, the enemy could suddenly be seen: a Dragon!

Ramjen's sword never hit its intended target. "The fool!" Tigre cried, "Why couldn't he wait?"

"Maybe you want to make war with someone your own size, you scaly bastard!" hisses Daria as a sparkling cloud envelopes her and the girl's shape within grows bigger and bigger. Burned and wounded as he is, Ramjen still can't contain a horrified scream as he's trying to wriggle out of the way, more afraid of the change in his companion than the terror that almost killed him.

All of a sudden, Daria freezes as if hitting an invisible barrier, then turns around and starts to walk back purposefully towards her cousin, her eyes dark and mad. Ramjen gasps as he sees the same murderous darkness fill Tigre's eyes, and the young dragon steps towards Daria and waits with a malicious smile curving his lips.

"I changed my mind. Fighting you by myself is not as much fun as watching you fight each other," Tigre hears the enemy's triumphant chuckle.

/Cousin, flee!/ screams Daria's mind desperately as she struggles against the dark dragon's mindlock.

/He can't, you fool,/ she hears the nameless impostor's voice inside her head. /Saihve's spawn is controlling you both... but his mind-twisting powers only extend to your kind. Trust me this one time, Daria, yield the control of our body to me for a while. This may be our only chance!/

/How do I yield exactly??/ Daria gasps in mounting panic as she sees her cousin prepare to deal the first blow.

/Just - step aside!!/

The Shadow Dragon's laughter is cut off abruptly as he watches Daria stop and turn towards him one more time. So great is his surprise at losing the pawn he thought he had clutched in his claws that his merciless grip on Jacrose's mind slips away for a second, and the darkness contorting his face is no more.

/If you want you and your cousin to live, strike now, Tigre!/

/Right!/

There was one spell that came to mind that may do the job: *Lucent Beam*. A beam of pure white light shoots out of Tigre's outstretched talons and hits the Shadow Dragon full blast!

"YAARRG! Is that the best you can do, Coldmist!"

"What are you talking about?" the younger cousin ask the enemy, "who is Coldmist?"

"You are, stupid!" the Dragon minion of Saihve taunted. "Tell him."

"Tell me what cousin?"

"I have no idea," says Daria, who obviously regained the control again, but before she can say anything else, the dark dragon erupts with laughter, "Cousin, you said? By Gods, if only that fool Altheus could see this! My job will be finished after all despite his puny attempts to save your pathetic kind!" He chuckles again as the cousins realise with horror that they're facing a monster responsible for their family's demise.

/Don't let him paralyse you with fear,/ the spirit's voice echoes in their heads. /Truth be told, he has grown arrogant and lazy, and he underestimates you. Keep him talking, and look for the holes in the armour./

/I will try,/ Coldmist tells the spirit and whips out Mr. Fipple!

"What do you want this time, kid?" he asks angrily, "I was in the middle of my meditation."

"A talking flute?!" the enemy dragon gasps. "Well now I've seen everything," he chuckles, and attempts to swipe the said flute away from Daria's cousin. But he is stopped by a net of webs!

"Play for all your worth cousin!"

/Cast the spell, Coldmist! Cast it now!/

Coldmist put Mr. Fipple to his lips and played a long-forgotten melody. "No!" Shadow exclaimed. "Not that! Anything but that!"

/Remember where you came from, little one,/ the spirit said to Shadow. /Remember all that you had loved before the tragedy began./

"NO! MOMMA, NO!"

/Don't let up, Coldmist,/ the spirit told him. /He his weakening, and changing./ A grin was in her voice.

***

In the lab... Saihve was throwing another tantrum.

"I can't see a thing!" she screeched as she destroyed a random set of vile vials. "Shadow, report!" No response came.

"Report, Shadow, now!", Saihve screeched at the top of her lungs, then waltzed over to her former fiancée. "They're at it again, aren't they, Altheus?" she asked with a deceptive calm.
"Now what gave you that idea, dear Saihve?" he grinned, and took a slap in the face.

***

In the passage... Shadow began to change...

"Help me, my queen!" he called, but there wasn't a reply. Shadow's dark scales were turning silver!

/Keep playing, Coldmist,/ the Spirit commanded, and the young Great Siberian Dragon did his best with the melody.

Ramjen was a little shaken from his charge, and was surprised at what he saw...

/The enemy is a Silver Dragon???/ he broadcast accidentally.

/A former one that is being reformed, Ramjen,/ the Spirit within Daria told him, /be on your guard, for he may break loose from Daria's webs and come charging at either of us.../ Just as she said that, the inevitable happened... Coldmist couldn't play anymore, and Shadow broke free and charged towards him!

"I have played with you enough, you insolent drake!" he roars, but everyone can hear the new frightened, hysterical notes in his voice.

In desperation, Daria concentrates on the sparkling silver thread that connects her with the Shadow Dragon and strikes as hard as she can, even as she realises that her powers are simply not strong enough. When the charging dragon suddenly utters a bone-chilling scream and collapses on the floor, nearly crushing Jacrose in the process, she doesn't realise at first that it was her doing. Then she nearly drops to the floor herself as a wave of utter exhaustion grips her mind and body, and has to hold onto the wall for support.

/How did I... do that?/ she mumbles.

/Let's just say, we were acting in a beautiful unison,/ the Spirit replies, sounding mightily pleased with herself. /And as a dragon web-weaver, you'll always have a closer connection with your kin, and therefore a better chance to affect them. I bet old stupid Saihve forgot all about -that-../

Meanwhile, the Shadow Dragon stirs on the floor with a slight groan. Even more of his dark hue fled from him as Shadow tried to rise.

"Damn you, Saihve!" he cried. "You promised the world to me, and this is what I get?"

"The world? FOOL!" came the reply seemingly from everywhere, "You are the one that begged for power and mercy from me! Now DIE!" the Witch Queen cackled, and myriads of black orbs were cast towards him. Shadow tried to flee, but was paralysed with shock.

The orbs struck webs! Aided by her cousin (piping a lively tune), and the Spirit within her, Daria summoned a massive amount of webs to counter-act the orbs.

***

Altheus wisely kept his mouth shut, but thought, both to himself and to the cousins, /Well done!/

/I must say I'm very impressed with your students, Altheus old fox,/ the Spirit replied to the cousins' Guide.

***

As the last one of them dies with a hiss, Daria suddenly withdraws the webs and clutches at her head.

"Wait a minute! Why exactly are we helping him when his mistress could have finished the job for us? Or more correctly, why are -you- helping him?" she tries to give a sort of a mental glare to the Spirit within. "This monster nearly got us killed and he's obviously not feeling sorry about it or the destruction he brought upon our kin." And she clasps the silver thread of the Shadow Dragon, ready to deal another, hopefully final, mental blow.

/Hold it!/ the strength of the Spirit's voice is such that Daria lets the thread go. /I understand why you feel the way you do, but trust me that you would regret your deed. You and your cousin heard your mentor - you've done the right thing. How about, instead, helping your human companion over there before he bleeds to death?"

Nodding, and changing back into human form, Jacrose started playing a soothing melody, time honored among healers and bards alike to help mend wounds of those nearby...

"Oh all right," Daria relented, weaving healing threads around Ramjen's wounds. "But when it come to Saihve, no mercy!"

/Careful what you say, Great Siberian,/ the Spirit warned. /For your words may haunt you in the future./

***

Deep within Shadow's mind his own battles were continuing...

"Momma, please sing that song again," a young Silver Dragon asks sleepily, and hears a song being hummed, and he falls asleep...

..."No!" a juvenile Silver Dragon yells as his Weyr gets destroyed by a mysterious army...

..."We caught this spy near your southern border, My Queen," a guard announced as he brought in a young adult Silver Dragon into the throne room.

"Well, spy," Queen Saihve chuckled, "do you have anything to say for yourself before I pass the sentence?"

Bowing, the Dragon says: "I came to join your forces, My Queen, and am willing to prove my worthiness to you."

"What is your name, Dragon?"

"Shardspray, my Queen." he answered, " of the Great Siberian Clan."

"Not anymore," Saihve told him. "Arise, Shadow, and be off! Destroy ten weyrs for me of your clan, and you will be rewarded with power the world has never seen!"

But Shadow was off when 'has never seen' was uttered, and just now does Shardspray understand.

/Music?/ he wonders, /do I hear music?/

***

Shardspray opens his eyes...

/At last the sleeper has awoken!/ cheers the spirit within Daria.

"Where am I?" the now Silver Dragon asked the companions, "where is the music coming from?"

"The answer to your fist question," Daria answered, with anger in her voice, "is Queen Saihve's castle."

"And about the music, miss?" the dragon asked, quaking in fear of the now transforming young woman.

"My cousin is playing it. Now lay there and be quiet!"

"A little hard on him, weren't you, cousin?" asked Coldmist after he also morphed. "After all, he has only just returned to our side after a long ordeal. It wouldn't be wise to tip him back the other way."

After saying this to his cousin, Coldmist walks over to soothe Shardspray's pains away with another 'Tune of Healing'.

"Please play that song you were playing before, Coldmist..." Shardspray requested. "When I was just a hatchling, my mother hummed it to me."

"Same here, amigo," Coldmist acknowledged, and started to play the lullaby.

Daria grimaces, then turns to Ramjen, who is now fully recovered yet still shaken from the experience.

"Are you alright?"

"My wounds are healed, but my lady..." he shakes his head, "you should have warned me that you and your cousin were Dragons. The sight of you changing nearly took away what his claws and fire didn't," he motions towards Shardspray.

/I don't care what Altheus says, I don't trust him one bit,/ says Daria to the Spirit as she nods to Ramjen and watches the former Shadow Dragon listen to her cousin play the flute, eyes half-closed.

/Well, don't trust him if you're so hell-bent on it,/ replies the Spirit. /But remember that he is the only one who could help us find the Dragon Stone. The knowledge is there in his mind, we must simply find a way to access it./

/If he knows this, then why does he still live? Why doesn't Saihve send another storm of deadly orbs at him?/

/She lost her hold on him when your cousin worked his flute magic. She may have lost the sight of us, too, for she spies at us through the eyes of her minions.../

***

Shardspray was soothed by the lullaby that Coldmist played, and soon started to sleep once again... and this time his dreams were pleasant.

***

"What should we do today, Jacrose?" he asked the human form of Coldmist.

"I don't know, Jostanos, shall we ask Cousin Daria?" Jacrose replied.

"Nah!" Shardspray responded, "she'd take the fun out of things, and she still doesn't like me all that much."

"Altheus then?" Jacrose asks, "I hear he plays a mean game of 'Dodge Energy Ball'."

"But you still need at least four players, and that means Cousin Daria."

"She's easy to beat in 'Dodge Energy Ball'..."

Shardspray smiled at what -could be- future events should all go well here.

***

/We have little time,/ says the Spirit to the cousins. /I wish we could do it when his mind has truly healed, but we have to try and prod his memories now./

"Is it... dangerous, then?" asked Daria, warily.

/Let's say, it's like trying to walk across the bridge that may have a few broken planks.../

***

In Shardspray's dream, they all fell onto the grassy meadow, gasping and laughing.

"Well, that was fun," Daria manages to say, "I haven't played 'Dodge Energy Ball' since I was a little drake."

"I used to know many great Dragon games," says Altheus wistfully, "now all lost and gone. You would have enjoyed them, Jostanos."

"Gone? Why?"

"No one has played them for a very long time," replies Altheus. "They would be stored in the Dragon Stone as a part of the dragon lore, insignificant and light-hearted as it may be. But the Stone has been long lost to us."

"Oh, that's no problem," says Shardspray, his face clearing. "I know where it is."

"-The- Dragon Stone? How would -you- know anything about it? You're pulling my leg, cousin," says Daria with a laugh.

"Well, I guess I'll just have to show you, then," says Shardspray. Behind his back, the meadow, the trees and the sky itself suddenly melt away and shift into the dark castle corridor, where, in the real world, Tigre and Daria are following Shardspray's dream.

"Just follow me!" Jostanos says with a grin.

Sleepwalking, as it were, Shardspray led the companions towards the lair of the Witch Queen. Traps were missed, and minions were bypassed, so Saihve never knew that the Great Siberian Cousins were on their way.

"The next door is a tricky one, Jacrose," Shardspray warned. "Do you think you could..?" He made a motion as if he were playing a flute.

"I have to see if Mr. Fipple is meditating, asleep, or awake first, cousin," Jacrose whispered as he gently took the Fipple Flute from its sheath.

"Is it show time again, kid?" Mr. Fipple asked with a yawn, "I thought we already healed everyone."

Shardspray grinned and said, "Mr. Fipple, I presume."

"Correct, young Dragon. Need my help?"

"The door ahead of us is magically locked and trapped," Shardspray explained, "could you and Cousin Jacrose bring down those barriers for us so we may proceed in regaining the Dragon Orb?"

The Fipple Flute almost played itself when it heard that the strike against Saihve was commencing, "Let's do it, Jacky!"

/Jacky?!?/ Jacrose broadcast to both his cousins and Ramjen, who tried and failed to stifle chuckles.

/Just play the music, Coldmist,/ the Spirit said, unfazed by the mirth. Jacrose started to play the 'Tune of Barriers Fallen', but something was wrong. He morphed into Coldmist and tried again, and again he failed.

/Try the 'Tune of Fallen Barriers',/ the Spirit suggested, /that might work./

Coldmist did as the Spirit suggested, and played the 'Tune of Fallen Barriers'... This time it worked! The door opened and the Witch Queen Saihve was shocked, ticked, and amazed that the Cousins got to her...

/Oh damn,/ mutters the Spirit who is possibly just as shocked, ticked and amazed that the trip took them to the last place she wanted to be. From behind Saihve, Daria sees Altheus look at them with a mixture of pride and despair.

"The Dragon Stone is hidden in a secret chamber that can only be accessed from this hall," continues Shardspray merrily, still caught up in the happy pink cloud of his dream. "I happened to overhear the mantra for opening the doorway when the old witch wasn't looking, tee-hee... Ventri arumae salmiam! Salmiam feyoah!"

"Vile traitors!!!" Saihve's scream of rage pierces the ears of everyone in the hall as, recovered from shock and blinded by anger, she sends an energy blast across the room just as Shardspray starts the incantation. The next events happen so quickly that Daria's mind simply cannot handle the lightning speed.

...when the last word falls from Shardspray's mouth, the cousins see in amazement as a great pillar of blinding white light rises from the floor to the ceiling, patterns of silver and gold dancing across its surface...

...right in the way of the great energy bolt that carries all of Saihve's rage in it...

...when the two collide, the explosion picks the cousins off their feet and hurls them onto the floor, the flute flying out of Jacrose's hands. Nearly blinded with the fury and brilliance of the blast, Daria sees Altheus thrown against the wall and collapse on the floor like a broken doll. But louder than the roar of the explosion is Saihve's scream...

"Fools! Damn you! Curse you! Don't you understand what you've done? Now your precious Dragon Stone is lost forever!"

But somehow, for all her fury the Witch Queen appears smaller, her aura of near-godlike invincibility dimmed, and slow understanding dawns on the Cousins.

/It may be lost to us... but it is obviously lost to -her- too!/ the Spirit says gleefully. /She is still very powerful... but I think it's about time she paid for her arrogance and her crimes, no?/

As one they replied in kind, /YES!/, and combined their magics into a powerful blast of webs, song, sword strikes, and a blast of *Ice Shards* towards the now feeble Witch Queen.

"NO!" Saihve screeched as she was hit many times over by the various spells, but survived...

"You may have won this battle," the Witch Queen told the companions, "but the Dragon Orb cannot be regained, and the war isn't over yet!"

Cackling, Saihve disappears in a puff of smoke before the companions could get her, leaving them to wonder what she meant.

/Hurry!/ the Spirit within Daria exclaimed, /Coldmist, tend to Altheus. We will need his expertise later./

/Right!/ the young Silver Dragon agreed, and started to play his *Tune of Healing* to his guide and mentor.

Shardspray soon woke up out of his dream, look around at his location, yawned, and said:
"My dream was real after all, wasn't it?"

"Yes, except for the bit where you beat me in Dodge," replies Daria drily.

***

A day later, the small group sits around the campfire in the secret cave that Daria, Jacrose and Altheus first arrived at what seems to everyone like a lifetime ago. Outside, the weather grows more miserable as the sky gets darker, with heavy rain pelting the earth and icy wind howling like a wounded dog.

/How about another roasted apple?/ says the Spirit imploringly. /Please? You living have no idea how great the food tastes like!/

"No thank you," says Daria firmly. "I'm sure you like your food but I sure like having a waist. By the way, I still do not know your name..."

The Spirit chuckles. /I honestly do not remember my mortal life if I ever had one, and in the Red Room there was no need for any names. So call me whatever you like./

"Altheus, is the Dragon Stone really lost?" Jacrose asks, breaking up the merry banter.

"It's... hard to say, my boy," says the Guide slowly. "But even if Saihve's blast did not destroy it, it hurled it beyond our reach. And knowing her as I do, she will not forget this humiliation easily."

"So we failed," murmurs Daria. "We didn't get the Dragon Stone and Saihve has disappeared beyond the magic of my webs."

"Failed? Nonsense," says the Guide. "My dear former fiancee undoubtedly fled to some other world to lick her wounds; now that the Dragon Stone has slipped from her greedy fingers she's lost more than most of her powers - she's lost this world. True, it can never be restored to what it has been in the old age of Dragons, but have we done it good by cleansing it from Saihve's poison? My God yes."

"So what do we do now?"

"I do not believe in my heart that the Dragon Stone is no more. If, somewhere in this multiverse, it still exists, we shall find it. But for now..." The Guide yawns. "I suggest a good night's sleep. We all had a pretty hectic day, wouldn't you say so?"

***

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