The forest began to close in, becoming a vast, smothering presence, lit only by Dalamar's staff, which danced and bobbed with his long strides. Caves were harder and harder to detect, but neither wanted to give up the search. The dark elf found himself pointing his staff and staring at the light-less depths of the forest, willing some rise or depression in the ground, some limestone irregularity that might give them some hope of success.

Just when he was ready to quit, however, he was startled to hear Jenna give a cry and point toward an irregular surface ahead of them. They came to a stop between two fir trees, with the light from Dalamar's staff washing across the lichen-encrusted face of a low, broken bluff.

"We're close!" he said with certainty.

"Don't be too sure!"Jenna warned, using one arm to lean against the nearest tree trunk. "All these rocks and caves begin to look the same."

"The ones in the ravine were limestone," Dalamar said. "But this is older. See how the face is pocked and broken all along here? And those lichens-they suggest nothing has been disturbed here for ages."

"Well, now what?" the lady asked, squinting.

"Water," the dark elf said, thinking aloud. "We have to find where water flowed out of here-that's our best bet for finding a cave."

Resolutely he started forward, still holding the light high. The top of the bluff loomed out of sight. Huge slabs of rock had tumbled from the crest in eons past, forming an irregular surface, but the dark elf began to climb the nearest steeply canted slab, noting the thick crust of treacherous lichens underfoot.

Jenna was forced to cast her own light spell, using one of the stone pendants on her necklace as a source, before hurrying to keep up. Dalamar climbed over to the next rock, working his way around an outcrop at the base of the bluff. His next step brought him to a halt. Before him were two looming shoulders of limestone, swallowed by a black void of indeterminate depth.

"This is it!" he declared.

"Are you sure?"

"Don't you feel it?" the elf asked.

Jenna paused for a moment, her eyes closed, her nostrils flaring with a long, slow breath. "Yes," she replied. "I believe 1 do."

Overhead rose a stone mantle that revealed smooth, water-scoured walls. The ground underfoot here had been swept clean by some force that had washed rocks, brush, and any other debris out of the way.

"Careful," Jenna hissed, coming up behind to touch the dark elf on the shoulder. "Do you smell something?"

Halting, Dalamar sniffed, wincing at the acrid, distinctive scent that was heavy in the tunnel. "Yes," he said bitterly, "I do." There was no mistaking the stench: chlorine gas, a stench that had only one source on all of Krynn.

"This might be the route into Wayreth," Jenna noted. "But it seems we'll have to get past a green dragon to go there."

"The smell is strong. That suggests to me that the dragon is fairly mature. But the cavern isn't large enough to admit a truly ancient serpent," Dalamar remarked. He studied the mouth of the cave, overlooking it from a curving hillside no more than an arrow's flight away from the dark entry. He and Jenna had climbed up here to study their objective, and to hatch a plan.

"I agree-a mere newt wouldn't leave such an aura," concurred the Red Robe enchantress. "Should we explore the entrance? Maybe there is room to sneak past?"

"No," Dalamar retorted. "I'll simply kill the beast, and then we won't have to worry."

"Do you have the spells for that?" Jenna asked skeptically.

"I can burn the wyrm to a crisp," the dark elf replied. "That should take care of it. But I have to be careful, if it's tight quarters, not to burn us up at the same time."

"Good idea. I'll be right behind you… as far as possible."

"Or should we pinch this snake between fire and ice?" the dark elf offered.

"That might work better." Jenna looked into the cave thoughtfully. "I wonder how old the nuisance is?"

Dalamar shrugged. "Hundreds of years, probably."

Jenna shook her head with a grimace. "There was a time when I might have been reluctant to slay such an ancient creature-merely because it stood in my path. Now, I'm ready to cement our partnership with a kill."

"Let's not waste any more time. I will send an Eye to scout ahead, and we should follow at intervals, as silently as possible."

The elf raised an eyebrow as he studied Jenna's assortment of pouches, as well as her beaded necklace. "Silence is second nature to my people," he added. "You, on the other hand, will have to watch yourself-perhaps you might need another of your many cones of silence?"

She snorted. "Me inside a cone of silence, so you couldn't hear a thing I say? Don't forget, I'm the one using the Eye! And I know how to be quiet when I have to be."

She removed her necklace and gathered it and her pouches into a padded pocket. Jenna then removed a bit of fluff-bat fur, Dalamar recognized-from a pocket, and murmured a few soft words of magic. Immediately the Eye came into being, an orb about the size of her fist floating in the air just before her face. The pupil was a pale red, with thin lines of the same color scoring the entire surface of the grayish sphere. The Red Robe started forward, down the hill, and the Eye preceded her, floating like a wisp in the air.

When they reached the base of the slope, she made a gesture that sent the magical sensor ahead of them, disappearing into the mouth of the cave. Jenna closed her eyes and concentrated. After a few minutes she turned to Dalamar. "The first hundred yards is clear-a large passage, as you might expect. Pretty level, with a bit of a drop-off where the Eye awaits."

The two wizards entered the cave, following the slightly winding passage, feet moving soundlessly over the ground. The dark elf held his walking stick in one hand, carefully avoiding any unnecessary contact with the bedrock. They found the Eye floating at the rim of a ledge, where the floor slanted down for ten or twelve feet before it continued to a sharp bend.

Jenna sent the Eye floating ahead again. They waited. Jenna nodded, and Dalamar started forward, halting when he felt her hand on his arm. She leaned close; he lowered his head until her lips were nearly touching his ear.

"Big male, around the next bend," she breathed. "Coiled at the far wall of a large room, sleeping. To the right of where you will enter."

Dalamar smiled tersely. A large chamber around a bend meant that he could send a reliably lethal fireball spell against the wyrm, without having to worry about the two wizards being hurt by the explosion. The deadly blast would kill or incapacitate the monster, and then, if necessary, Jenna, with her follow-up tactic-ice magic-would finish the job.

The dark elf crept around the corner of the winding cavern, Jenna a few steps behind-still concentrating on the spell of the arcane Eye. The narrow confines of the cavern expanded into a vast realm of darkness. The stink of chlorine gas was powerful here, so much so that Dalamar had to restrain a sudden urge to cough.

Narrowing his eyes, the dark elf could just make out the shape of a massive green dragon, a coiled mass of serpentine scales, flanks moving ever so slightly in the steady respiration of sleep. Dalamar had seen many dragons before, but the sight always made him a little nauseated. The monster seemed simply too big, too powerful, to dwell in this world of men and elves. At least this one wouldn't be a part of that world for much longer…

Angrily Dalamar raised his finger, pointing at the creature, and muttering the command for his incendiary magic. He was vaguely relieved when that low sound provoked no visible reaction from the monster, and he watched expectantly as a tiny marble of fire appeared in the air before his finger. Soundlessly he gestured, and that spot of brightness meandered through the vast chamber, floating right up close to the coil of green scales.