“I did not destroy the city,” Anora returned crossly. Looking around the ruin in which she was standing, she was starting to realize what must have happened. “Draconas cast a counter-spell that caused his magic to clash with mine. It’s a wonder any of us survived. You must order your monks to search for the Walker,” she added, her colors sullen. “I believe he is alive after all.”

“Told you so!” Grald sneered.

The monks were ordered to search for two humans: the Walker, who wore the guise of a human male in his thirties, and a human male named Marcus last seen wearing the robes of a monk. The monks were also told to look for Ven, the dragon’s son, whom they all knew by sight. Unfortunately, their search for both humans and the dragon disguised as a human was hampered by the fact that the entire population of Dragonkeep had been thrown into a state of panic by the blast.

With the maddening perversity of humans, people rushed to the site of the blast instead of fleeing it, which, as Anora told Grald, any creature with common sense would have done. Before the dust had settled, humans clogged the streets and clambered over the ruins, screeching and yelling, wailing and weeping, groaning and bleeding, and none of them staying in one place, but all of them milling about in confusion.

Anora continued her search, though without much hope, for she was convinced that it must have been Draconas who had helped Marcus escape. Humans were everywhere underfoot. They scrabbled frantically through the wreckage, calling for those who would never answer. A middle-aged man hurried past carrying the bloody, broken body of a child. A young woman crouched, moaning, over the corpse of a young man as another woman was trying unsuccessfully to soothe her. The dragon paid scant attention to any of this.

There were so many humans in this world, their lives so short and fleeting, that the loss of a few dozen was no great cause for concern, especially when the future of both mankind and dragonkind was at stake.

Slowly, as the reports of the monks began to come in, Grald and Anora were able to piece together parts of the puzzle.

The monks entered the building where Ven and Marcus and the girl, Evelina, had last been seen. No one was there, although the monks did report finding a large pool of blood on the floor. They did not know whose blood. There was no body. A hole blown out the back of the building gave the monks some idea of how those inside had escaped.

Armed with dragon-magic, the monks continued their search for Marcus and Ven. Marcus could not have left Dragonkeep, for the wall surrounding the city was designed so that no human— even one possessing the dragon-magic—could find his way through the hidden gate.