Here Be Dragons

Bleys, Brij, and their creature disappear into the trees.

Seconds afterwards, Jerod's fragmentation grenades go off in a series of explosions and bursts of eerie white light at 40m up in the trees. Robin and Brennan have a ringing in their ears, but aren't hit by the flying shrapnel. The trees start to catch fire, and it looks like it's spreading.

"Wasn't me," Brennan says, reflexively.

"Me either."

In answer to the explosions, a much louder roar echos down the ravine, and, looking up, they see two things. The first is Caine and Khela, galloping on a horse that seems to be running on the air, coming directly at the ravine. The second is a great, scaled dragon, chasing them and bugling.

Brennan takes about a second to witness the Dragon bearing down on them like a hundred metric tons of fiery death, during which he thinks several deep and profound thoughts, all in parallel: This day started out with such promise; somewhere, the plan has gone very wrong; this is all Huon's fault; that's something you just don't see every day; oh, crap; somehow, we've lost control over this situation; it's official-- this can't get any worse, unless Grandmother shows up....

Whereas Robin only has two thoughts, "yep, yep yep" "yeeHAWWW!"

...and, to Robin: "Now we really need the Sword." Hopefully Bleys and his great big golden Pattern Sword will be about the critically important task of doing something about the Dragon. That leaves Brennan and Robin and whoever tossed the bloody grenade to do something about Huon. Brennan moves at speed toward the center of the blast radii before his ears even stop ringing, expecting to see Huon in the middle of it, hoping to see him shell-shocked, on fire, and bleeding from ruptured ear drums.

Robin charges in after Brennan.

"Green girl's sword?"

If he sees him, no matter what his condition, there is officially no more Sir Knight-Commander Nice Guy. Brennan doesn't shoot to kill, but he doesn't shoot to wound, either. He shoots with one purpose and one purpose only: to get Belagamon away from Huon and into his or Robin's hands. He will call for and accept a surrender in the form of Huon dropping the Pattern Sword and backing away from it and the offer is good only for the amount of time it takes Brennan to draw a bead and fire.

Brennan quickly realizes that 20-30 meters up, in verdant forest that is on fire, he'll have no clean shot with a weapon as imprecise as a shotgun. Still, if something or someone falls, Brennan is in the best place to arrive there first.

The good news is that the Dragon isn't chasing Khela and Caine anymore. The bad news is that Brennan is the only other visible target for her.

If there's no bits of either Uncle, Niece, sword or malcavallamico lying around on the ground, Robin will hit the trees running. After all, climbing trees was boring before. Now that they're on fire and randomly exploding, it's much more fun.

If there are bits of family et al. lying around at ground level, she'll point them out to Brennan as she pulls out Bleys's leather pouch.

Robin hits the trees with a mighty leap, finding foot and hand holds as Julian and the Rangers have taught her. She stays away from the fire and reaches the lower branches at 7 meters or so. The tree becomes more dense from there, but Robin can certainly see ways up. She climbs, getting closer to source of the explosion and to the cliff wall. The trees are still filled with smoke and it won't be safe here forever.

After a bit, she sees a hulking figure. The Malcavallamico is clinging to a branch by three arms, sucking on the fingers of its fourth. Some of its fur is burned, and its saddle is empty. It doesn't seem to want anything to do with her.

One branch higher up are two pairs of boots, one of them small. It's hard to see what they're doing. The cliff wall is almost within reach.

Brennan heads toward the ravine wall, roughly paralleling Robin's direction, taking the time to swap out his shotgun for a good marksman quality rifle, courtesy of conjury. He also uses the trees to break line of sight between him and the Dragon. He does his best to keep tabs on Robin, or on Bleys and Brij if he spots them, so that he can either assist with a rifleshot, or wait for them to knock Huon out of the trees where Brennan can finish them off.

If he starts to lose sight of Robin and the rest, he will reluctantly "climb" the trees to follow, although the climb is more of a gravity assisted hop 5 to 10 meters upwards, landing lightly on one of the sturdy lower boughs, and continue on. Brennan's use of Sorcery is canny-- it is not powered flight, which could be interrupted and cause him to fall back down; it is just a momentary relaxation of gravity during a leg-powered jump, to get him the initial velocity to land where he wants to land. If that doesn't work, he'll look silly, curse, and climb the hard way.

Brennan power-hops to a branch in the spreading forest fire and hops and climbs quickly. At about 25-35 meters he finds himself a bit behind Robin.

Robin scampers up the tree as quickly and as stealthily as she can. (If she has to choose, she'll choose speed over stealth.) Her intent is to get a clearer view from above of the boot wearers. Her hope is to catch sight of Green Girl's sword, since Brennan -- who has been on site longer than she -- seems to think it's important. Her desire is to stay unburned, unsliced, unboomed and uneaten. Of course, one can't have everything.

Robin clambers up and finds herself behind Brij. In front of the gymnast is Bleys, holding Werewindle. Beyond Werewindle is a green sword sticking out from a niche or a shallow cave in the wall of the ravine.

"Take your time, Bleys. I'm not the one standing 40 yards up in a burning tree. I've no idea where you summoned the dragon from, but it can't really save you."

It's almost possible to hear Bleys smile. "There's plenty of time to dispatch you, dear brother. Or you could surrender to the Queen's Mercy. I'm quite sure I could start a bidding war for your corpse between Rebma and your other new friends, and if you're alive, so much more."

Smoke begins to close in. There's no clear shot, but it doesn't seem as if Huon is getting away.

Brennan works at getting himself into a better position to take a shot at Huon with his rifle, while Bleys and Brij keep him distracted. If he isn't already, he prefers to have a little altitude over Bleys and Brij so he is shooting over them, not shooting through them, and once he achieves it he moves laterally until he can see through the foliage and into the niche-- Huon can't be very far in, or Brennan wouldn't be able to see the sword.

If he can see through the smoke and get a shot, he takes it, even if it means waiting a moment for a clear view.

If that doesn't work, well, the swirling clouds and tendrils of smoke are as rich and roiling a sea of probabilities as any ocean or casino. Brennan works those probabilities until the seemingly random gentle breezes and thermal drafts conspire to open a line of sight, if only for a moment.

However it may happen, if Brennan can get a shot, he takes it. His preference is to hit the shoulder or the arm that holds the blade, followed by a knee or leg shot, followed by a gut shot. He is not trying to kill Huon. At least not on the first shot.

The smoke, the fire, the bellowing... all of these bring a manic green spark to Robin's eyes. As Brennan appears among the limbs, determined and be-rifled, her grin widens. Making sure to stay clear of Brennan's line of fire, Robin scurries along the tree branches. As easily as a squirrel despite the torn and dirty green party dress and the sheathed sword at her side, Robin looks for a way to clamber onto the cliff face itself and hassle Huon around the sides (or top or bottom) of his niche.

It would be a quick leap to the mass of vines on the cliff wall beneath him, which looks safer than those above him. The Malcavallamico is near where she'd land. [If Robin leaps, she'll make it. Feel free to clamber up to the cave/niche entrance from below...]

Robin leaps to the vines. She casts a glance malcavallamico-ward, "Friend, you need to get out of here. We'll manage on our own." She murmurs and casts a significant glance upward and toward the cliff face.

After appeasing her conscience, Robin scrambles toward the bottom of the niche, mayhem on her mind.

From Brennan's new vantage point, he sees that Brij has a shotgun, and she's leaning past Bleys, trying to get a shot as well.

A stone falls down from above, hitting the sword with a clank. Huon drops his guard a bit and comes slightly out of his niche, whereupon Brennan and Brij both fire. Bleys, prudently, does not advance into the gunfire.

"Ha!, Missed," shouts Huon, over the crackling of the fire. The sword pulls further back. The niche must be larger than it looked.

Brij swears and reloads her shotgun while Bleys takes a step forward.

If this fire was normal, this tree would be unsafe very soon. Something is preventing it from spreading quickly.

Once under the niche, Robin draws her sword and glances at Bleys, Brennan and Brij as she carefully coordinates with her actions with them. It's her intention to at the very least seriously harrass and maybe slice up Huon's feet. At best, she'd like to get into that niche and go toe-to-toe with a trapped and desperate Uncle armed with some sort of special sword. Yep, sounds like a plan.

Brennan isn't sure if he's more disgusted with himself for missing at this range with a good rifle, or the unnamed woman with Bleys, missing at that range with a shotgun.

[didn't say you missed, but you didn't take him out. It's hard to take out a very-high-fire character, realities of guns and range aside...]

At least Brennan knows she intends mayhem toward Huon, now, so that's all right. And he guesses that if she's a Family member, she's a very new one, because Conjury means never having to stop to reload.

Brennan also sees Jerod doing... something... away from the edge of the cliff, sees the fire gradually engulfing all the useful trees in the area, and sees Bleys, Robin, and Mystery Woman all trying to get on the little ledge or outcropping that Huon is inhabitting. It looks like that ledge is going to be crowded. Brennan starts moving toward the position Jerod just vacated. From there, he'll re-evaluate and see who, if anyone needs back-up. He'll see if he can spot Caine and Khela, too.

Along the way, Brennan takes any reasonable rifle shots he can at Huon without accidentally shooting Bleys in the back of the head, just to keep him honest and to force him back and make room for Bleys and company on that ledge. But given the crowd forming there, there may not be any reasonable shots. He won't force the issue or take risks.

"Brij, fire!," says Bleys, and the woman obliges with a shotgun blast at the opening, more to keep Huon from sticking his head up than anything else.

Bleys uses the cover to leap across. "Damn! He's slipped into a cave back here, come on." Bleys disappears from the ledge and behind the now-shot-riddled stone that Huon had been using for cover.

Brennan leaps to the vines and clambers up, just in time to see Jerod disappearing down a hole.

Jerod pauses only momentarily to gather his surroundings, thankful for an underwater background that demands an understanding of environmental awareness in three dimensions, determining the opening where Huon would have been based on Jerod passage underground and then (assuming it to be the first opening mentioned above), Jerod moves towards it, listening.

The sound of the shotgun blast is a signal for Jerod to verify his choice and move forward, to see if he can catch Huon unawares.

The first opening is a large opening a long way across the bowl of the big cave. The light comes through it. Looking down the bowl, Jerod sees, far from the ledge he's standing on, something glittery and moving. Or it may be a trick of the light.

There is a much smaller entrance, which isn't well lit, but wouldn't be, where Huon may have entered this cave. Since that's the only way Jerod could be moving, that's the way he moves, listening. Someone is coming towards him, several someones. Shortly they slow, then stop.

Jerod hears a scrabbling of stone on stone elsewhere in the cave complex as well, but it's hard to say where.

Robin scrambles onto the ledge after Bleys. Keeping low and out of Brij's line of fire seems to be her order of the day, as she scuttles into the cave. The girl allows herself one brief shudder as she crosses into the darkness. Yep, yep, yep - caves and uncles, doesn't get worse. Unless, of course, there was some water ahead.

Despite her momentary trepidations though, Robin is still glimmer-eyed and pointy-teethed with the thrill of the chase.

The path, a narrow ledge along one wall of a great bowl, is slick with water and bat droppings.

Robin chases after Bleys, Brij immediately behind with the shotgun.

Bleys skids to a stop and turns, blade out, facing a deep niche.

Brennan sees Bleys and company follow Huon behind the ledge, sees Jerod disappearing down the rabbit hole, and assumes he has a good reason for doing what he's doing. Since that reason probably involves some level of mayhem toward Huon's princely person, Brennan opts to follow Jerod. "Coming down behind you," Brennan says softly when he drops down the hole. He'll hop down lightly over the scree using Gravity, to keep from disturbing it and try to catch up to Jerod.

Brennan catches up to Jerod just as he, too reaches the niche where Bleys stands, Werewindle pointed at a concealed menace. Bleys is smiling and his pattern blade positively gleams in the diffuse light..

In the niche is Huon. In the shadows he seems to be bleeding from several wounds. When he sees the additional arrivals, he drops the green sword.

"I surrender," he says, raising his hands.

Brennan keeps the rifle aimed at Huon, unless Bleys is blocking him entirely, in which case he'll merely keep it ready. Water would freeze in Brennan's growl: "Kick it. Over. Here. Now!" Brennan looks like he might enjoy an excuse to shoot Huon again. Any foolishness trying to kick the green sword over the ledge would be 'an excuse.' (Although not an excuse for a fatal wound.)

Robin can't quite keep the manic giggle totally supressed, so she doesn't. Staying low, very low, the Ranger drops her own standard issue sword and expertly bats the green blade Brennan-ward. As she rises, she removes several very stout leather cords and a garret or two from about her person.

"Kill you if you mo-ovve," she quietly sing-songs under her breath as she scuttles into the niche with the intent to truss Huon up. Robin is quite aware of what happened to her Aunt Deirdre so she is very careful not to become a surprise hostage.

Robin does so, placing herself behind the errant prince. "Curse you if you do," he mutters so low that perhaps only Robin can hear. He continues smiling and places his hands behind his back to make it easy to truss him up.

Robin chuckles at Huon's remark, "Oooo. Another for my collection." And proceeds with the trussing, as quickly, as brutally, as efficiently and as tightly as she can.

"Also, stop with the Heritage. It's too noisy for this place." She hisses. If she can, she'll hoist Huon up over a shoulder.

Huon makes her efforts as easy as possible, but no easier.

Jerod drops below Brennan's firing line to intercept the green blade as it slides across the ledge, a cloth in hand as he picks it up. A practiced movement returns his father's blade to his own scabbard a moment later and his hand is reaching for a pouch on his belt, pulling for the first trump there without even looking, knowing it because he had left Benedict's on the top.

Jerod kneels under Brennan's blade. His sword is away, The green weapon is held by a cloth, and Benedict's trump is in his hand.

A lesser man would let the pure bafflement show on his face when Jerod picks up the blade with-- of all things-- a cloth to handle it in this situation. But Brennan is not that lesser man, and keeps his weapon trained on Huon while Robin trusses him up. Brennan was actually there for Brand's Last Gambit, and has no intention of seeing that drama played out with Huon and Robin. Brennan will shoot Huon if he tries anything.

Once Huon is trussed up, Brennan sees Robin and Bleys (presumably) still occupied with Huon, and Jerod (presumably) doing the sensible thing and Trumping Amber. That would appear to leave no one looking out to see where the Dragon has got to... while they are all standing around in what is very likely its lair, or part of it. So Brennan does that. Once Robin is done, Brennan will lower the weapon to a more relaxed ready position, turn, and begin scanning the area, with one eye in the Astral world and one in the mundane one. Brennan has seen the Astral residues of the Dragon before-- he is looking for them carefully.

"Good boy," Robin hums merrily under her breath as she settles her game... eerrrr Uncle onto her shoulder. Then the girl casts her manic green eyes around the fastest way out of this... brrrr, place.

"Dragon," says Huon, in Robin's ear.

"Huhn?" is Robin's intelligent answer. Then she spins, her eyes opening wide.

Indeed, as Brennan turns, he finds he has no trouble locating the dragon, which just flew in from the opening to the cave. It's being followed by Caine and Khela on the horse that walks on air, but they aren't as fast as it is.

It roars, and the rocks shake.

And several somethings answer it.

Suppressing his remembrance of his last battle on Kolvir, Jerod concentrates on Benedict's trump, ignoring the traditional greetings, pushing his message. "We have Huon. Immediate escape from Dragon's lair needed."

There are many things Brennan does not know, right now. Brennan does not know whether the Dragon bearing down on them all is the Dragon, or if that's one of the answering roars from below. Brennan does not know why Jerod is holding one of the principle defensive weapons against creatures of Chaos by a piece of cloth right now, instead of doing something useful with it. Brennan does not know why Jerod, assuming he is intent on strategic withdrawl, is calling a Trump whose holder might be busy or occupied.

But Brennan does know that this situation is getting worse; that Robin must be feeling pretty vulnerable right now, burdened with a hogtied but conscious and unfriendly uncle over her shoulder; and that he has a Trump that has only ever been known to refuse a call when the entire system broke down in the wake of Patternfall. That Trump is Amber, and it is on the top of his deck because he just used it to effect a similar escape not more than half an hour ago to get out of Rebma.

Brennan doesn't wait to see if Benedict answers his Trump. He steps over close to Robin (but safe from Huon) and says, "Amber," as he fishes out his Trump of it. He concentrates, and if the connection is made and Robin is willing, he hands her through. He does not immediately follow, because Bleys or Jerod might need transport as well, to say nothing of Caine and Khela. If nothing else, two Trumps will make the evacuation faster.

Robin has scooped up her standard issue sword and is backing as far into the niche formerly holding Huon's niche as possible. She's not feeling vulnerable so much as thoroughly f*cked and her silent laughter is visible in her eyes. How is she ever going to explain to her father that she got herself roasted and buried alive?!?

As Brennan steps forward with Card and word, she nods her understanding in quick jerks and tightens her grip on Huon.

Benedict stands in front of a ghostly wood, nodding. For a mere moment, Jerod thinks he sees the ghost of an arm on the Prince. "Then send him to me, if you will." It was a trick of the place, clearly, for Benedict is still maimed. There is the sound of some disturbance behind him.

Brennan has trouble making the connection, as if something were interfering with his efforts. After inexplicable efforts, the trump wavers into the image of the gateway.

Before either of the men can reach out to pass anyone through there is a boom like a cannon exploding at their feet and a ball of fire, bright like Amber's perfect sun, explodes upwards at them.

Bleys leaps as soon as it starts, an incantation on his lips. He hip-checks Jerod and stands over him, Werewindle the Day Blade and a powerful spell sundering the flames before him. Benedict is lost for the moment.

Brennan was facing the wrong way and finds his image of Amber's sweet, cool courtyard lost in the dazzling explosion. Luckily the card is not gone.

Robin is wide-eyed at the pyrotechics in front of her. "Oooooooo!" is her delighted opinion.

From behind the dragon, those who can see do so; Caine and Khela bear down on it, and Khela hurls a spear into the beast's neck with strength beyond that of any mortal. Jerod, at least recognizes his father's spear. At least he will know where to return to reclaim it.

The neck-wound erupts in a spray of fire and light and the creature screams and bats the air-walking horse onto the ledge. It is all that Bleys and Brij can do to keep from being knocked over like ninepins. Khela and Caine lie in a heap on the again-scorched rock ledge.

The other dragons are converging as well. Two of the beasts begin attack runs.

Benedict's trump is slid into a pocket unconsciously as Jerod shifts the sword from left to right, dropping the last remaining thin barrier to connection between himself and blade. This is not what he was wanting, but life so rarely hands out what he's looking for.

It feels very natural in his hand. A man could use a blade like this to defend Rebma against all enemies.

Brennan's planning horizon keeps contracting. Now it is measured in surviving the next half minute rather than planning out the next century as he had been just this morning. This is never a good sign. All he can hope is that he and Jerod and Robin and the rest don't step on each other in their next actions.

Still half-dazzled from the dragonfire, Brennan steps across to Caine and Khela, standing over and in front of them while they regain their feet. His desperate hope is that he can do some more significant damage to the one right in front of them before the other two show up... and maybe someone else will have a bright idea on how to retreat without getting killed. Brennan shifts into a shielded Astral view to make up for the dazzling, takes the spear he's been carrying with him since the chase began, and hurls it at the only natural weak point the Dragon might have-- its eye.

The throw is a feint. Brennan isn't throwing it to miss. He throws it with all the strength and skill he's got, and would be excessively pleased if he put the Dragon's eye out. But Brennan hasn't got Jerod's special spear, or a shiny Pattern blade, so it's a feint. As soon as the spear is released, Brennan focusses on the wound Khela made in the Dragon's neck. That wound is an artificial weak point, one that's already been broken. It's a wound that is spraying energy in the form of fire and light and probably some sort of spiritual essence if this either the Dragon or a close reflection of it. For whatever meta-values of "natural" apply to this clearly supernatural creature, there is a natural rate of energy transfer from its insides to its outsides, and as the spear releases, Brennan focusses his intent on that wound and works a vicious (and desperate) manipulation of Entropy laced with Astral essence: Transfer more, Brennan wants. Bleed faster, Brennan wants. Leak more, Brennan wants. Vent your life essence all over the canyon. Then die, preferably in agony.

Brennan knows that Sorcery in the presence of Pattern Blades is questionable, so the only attempt at coordination he can make as he executes this is to shout "Sorcery!" as he tries to flood the Dragon's essence out of it, and to target the spell as narrowly away from the blades as possible. Bleys is clearly using Sorcery-- maybe he can do something to avoid stepping on Brennan's spell. And Brennan is resigned to the answering blast of fire, if not from this one than from one of its siblings racing toward them. He has a brute force, Hail Mary protection of Entropy in mind, but is really hoping that Khela will be up and in a defensive posture by that time, or that Bleys can play defense with Werewindle. That might even work-- Sorcerers defended by Pattern blades. Maybe not. But either case, the chips are in and the cards are dealing.

When Brennan moves to stand over and defend Don't Know and Don't Like from incoming toastiness, Robin nods to herself. Good. That's one chore off her list and one Brennan is probably better suited to anyway.

On the downside, that leaves her with the 'get us the hell out of here' job. And she isn't any of her spiffy cousins with their finger-twiddling or their magic-painting or their weird-stuff-inherited-from-weird-parents. She's just her. Oh, wait! She thought of this earlier!

Slamming herself backwards against the far wall of the niche, Robin does her best to make sure that Huon, especially his hands and arms, is well and truly pinned by the pressure of her shoulders and neck. She then tucks her sword up under one arm, clamping it against her side. And if said sword happens to nick any low-hanging Huon bits, bonus.

Then she draws forth a certain leather-wrapped package of Bleysian origin and hurriedly unwraps it.

It's a full Dworkin deck of Trumps. The face that meets her gaze is impossibly old and cold and dead. It's a remarkable image of the former King. It's unclear by Bleys why would have that trump, much less on top of his deck.

Brennan's single word does not appear to conflict with Jerod's thoughts or actions as he leaps up and forward, picking the bulk of the dragon's body as his target and driving the green blade as deep into the beast as he can muster, followed instantly by the use of his only skill available to him.

Jerod uses the blade as a focal point, summoning the Pattern and focussing it through the blade and into the Dragon. The dragon is a creature of flame and energy at the core of its essence, and Jerod intends to snuff it out in the stasis of Order.

Brennan enhances the Chaos and entropy of the neck wound of the dragon, sending fiery blood spurting from it. There is a great deal of blood.

Jerod summons the Pattern and focuses it on the blade, attempting to freeze the dragon in an orderly stasis.

[Draw: The Dragon, upright!]

The two conflicting imperatives are strong, but Order wins out, this close to the pattern and with the mighty green sword. Brennan's gouts of blood staunch and the blood forms into miniatures of the dragon; wyverns of various sizes from the tiniest droplet to horse-sized creatures.

The Dragon, and all her identical but smaller images, roars in pain and confusion.

Brennan sees, with his third eye, both Khela and Bleys starting some form of sorcery. Brij is reloading the shotgun, which she must've fired at some point in the confusion.

Jerod seizes the opportunity that has been presented, adjusting his intent even as he pushes the focus of Pattern deeper into the Dragon, his knuckles white upon the handle of the sword. Stasis is no longer his desire for the Dragon and her brood, but instead a blissful slumber, an easy alternative to the pain and confusion of the moment, an alternative that Jerod builds with all his strength, making it his sole thought and purpose and the only outcome feasible for the Dragon at this moment.

Jerod did ... something. The dragon retreats, still bleeding from his neck, with the spear still imbedded into it. If the battle is won, this one will be easy to track.

There are still a number of dragons about, and more incoming. His relatives are all around him, fighting in their own ways. Khela is safe, and fighting beside him, sorcerously. His best choice may be to protect her.

Given the circumstances, and that more Pattern won't help at this moment, Jerod will go over to an offensive posture against any dragons close enough to be considered a threat. That should serve to keep any that are inbound near his position focussed on him and away from Khela.

"That could have gone better," Brennan thinks to himself, along with "What is with the wyverns, lately?" On the other hand, with a Pattern Sword fighting Sorcery and a Chaos beast, it could have gone a lot worse-- and it probably didn't help that Brennan's warning was so easily misinterpretted, either. But he learned much of great value in the unintentional experiment: Yes, he can work Sorcery in the presence of a Pattern Blade. In the presence of two, even. The mere presence of the blades does not nullify all Sorcery in the area.

Also, since he is already working Gravity, Brennan adds an extra feature to this: If, and only if, he has managed to dislodge Jerod's spear from the Dragon's neck with the explosive bleeding he caused previously, he will summon it to his hand. If he has not dislodged it, he does not attempt this, as he does not in any way want his spell trying to affect an area Jerod is trying to affect with his Pattern Blade.

Seeing that Jerod is focussing his attention on the one in front of them, and not really knowing exactly what Bleys and Khela are up to, Brennan does as he thinks best, and as he hopes is unlikely to interfere with what anyone else is doing: He works as great an effort of Gravity as he can. Targetting one of the approaching Dragons-- but certainly not the Dragon that Jerod is dealing with-- Brennan uses Gravity to increase its mass for the duration of the battle, which Brennan surely hopes does not last longer than a minute or so. The desired effect is to send it crashing to the forest floor below, and keep it there, too heavy to fly even with whatever Sorcerous effect must be helping it now.

Dragon flight is impossible in most places. The logic of the shadow usually means that the wings of a dragon cannot possibly provide adequate lift. The muscles and the wings are too small for the mass of the creature. This somehow does not stop dragons from flying.

While an instantaneous increase in mass might not cause a dragon's wings to snap, it does upset the careful balance of a hovering creature, and the dragon falls into the lake below.

Khela leans over the edge and says a few soothing words, an incongruous island of calm in the confusion around her. She tosses a pebble onto the lake's roiling surface, and it instantly smooths and freezes in place. That dragon is trapped, but it is not clear for how long.

The princes are also fighting, and Bleys is covered in gore, as if a dragon had exploded near him.

Caine says "I just got here, who has our retreat?"

More dragons are approaching.

"If we have a retreat, I'll cover it," says Brennan. He doesn't really expect to be the only one doing that, but someone is either going to have to use a Trump effectively where he failed, or Part the Veil, or do something clever. Brennan is not going to do either of those things.

Bleys is defending Brij while Caine and Jerod are fighting another dragon and don't answer. Khela is behind Jerod and casting more spells, throwing globes of water at the dragons. They don't seem to like them much.

More satisfied than ever that Sorcery can work in the presence of the Pattern blades, Brennan works some more, intended for both offense and defense. He does... something... to some of the air around him, turning a piece of it solid in the shape of a spear and another piece of it solid in the shape of a large tower shield. Filled with smoke and soot particles and possibly insect-sized wyvernlings and dragon blood all fixed in place, the pieces are just barely visible to the unaided eye.

Brennan then sets them on unFire, covering them with eerie, slow-moving black tendrils of power, absorbing heat and light from the space around him. The shield should be a good defense against fire, and both the spear and the shield should be deeply unpleasant for anyone to touch (except Brennan) but particularly so for a creature with light and fire for blood. Brennan does not attack at the moment, but goes and covers where Caine bids, or stands and protects Robin if Caine bids nothing.

Robin wrinkles her nose at the unwrapped package. Cards?!? Given her luck with these things, Trumps are never something that Robin wants to rely on to save her life. Much less the lives of her relatives. Ah, well - any rope in a fall.

For a moment, her attention is snagged by the image of The King. Can't be dead, just can't be. But now is not the time to indulge in extremely speculative experimentation. Instead, the girl shuffles through the deck quickly to find the image of the Amber Courtyard. Hoping that Brennan's aborted attempt counts as her 50% fail, Robin concerntrates on the image attempting to shut out all the roars and flashes and smoke and what-have-you around herself.

What she doesn't realize is that she's unconsciously Humming along with Jerod.

It takes all of Robin's concentration and much longer than she had expected to work the trump contact.

Huon sighs. "You didn't have time for that before, why are you doing the thing that didn't work before again? Or are we abandoning everyone else? If you untie me, I'll help, and not run."

Finally, it begins to clarify, and in a moment, it will be possible to go through. It is in that split second between knowing it will work and it actually working that Robin becomes aware of the scene on the ledge.

A dragon swoops down at the niche, but Brij leaps to intervene. The girl gets knocked down, but rolls up and fires her shotgun point blank into the creature's face. With a roar of pain, it swats her away like a ragdoll, then turns to give chase.

The trump contact opens, but it's tenuous, and Robin could go through, but she can't hold it without concentration.

If concentration's what it takes, then that's what Robin does. She blocks out the sight of her neice being used as dragon-toy. She blocks out the stoopid whispers of the stoopid meat. Just before she blocks out all the tactics and strategems, she grits out two words as loudly as she can.

"Trump.... Open...."

After that, Robin closes herself off and Focuses, losing all sense of everything but herself as bridge to Amber.

When Brennan's spell is ready, he looks first to Caine, then sees Robin being menaced by a dragon. She is ignoring it to open a trump contact.

The dragon turns again and bites down at Robin, but Huon kicks it in the snout. It roars and grabs Huon in its talons. He grunts and bleeds and tries not to be dragged off.

Robin finds it almost beyond possibility to maintain concentration. The connection wavers. [If she don't go through, she'll lose the contact. Hanging on to Huon is optional. :) ]

Stoopid cards! Stoopid concentration!! Stoopid dragon trying to steal her kill!!! Robin feels her concentration starting to slip and does the only thing she can think of. She's got to get her hands and her attention free if she's going to be of any use to her Family, instead of big ol' liability/target. So with a mighty heave, she throws Huon through the Trump contact toward an armed and alerted Amber..

Huon lands on the far side with a satisfying thump, then the contact closes.

She will then grab her sword and proceed to dice the head of the stoopid dragon who thought she was a tasty-treat.

It's the work of no more than a minute to dispatch it.

This, Brennan thinks, is completely pear-shaped and Chaotic. This, Brennan thinks, is completely pear-shaped and chaotic because no one has enough time to think more than a second ahead for personal survival-- all they need is half a minute or so to make a good withdrawl, but without that half a minute, they're stuck.

Brennan makes a sweeping gesture with his spear-hand, at the rock wall they've been fighting up against, changing its essence from solid to vapor, making a tunnel through it just a little larger than a man. Big enough for a Brennan- or Bleys-shaped man to trot through, but nowhere near big enough for a Dragon to fit through. Based on the geography, it should lead back out to the ravine wall they just chased Huon into.

Another gesture works the same principle in the other direction, turning a portion of the gaseous air outside into a solid ramp leading somewhere back up in the direction of the ravine top that Jerod and Brennan were on. He's working blind from memory, but Brennan's spatial acuity is good, and everyone here is a good athlete.

Assuming that works, Brennan yells, "Robin, go through! Just go!"

Changing his voice to the battlefield yell he's cultivated over the centuries, so that the others will know he's addressing all of them, he yells, "Withdraw! Go, go, go!" That, at least, should get them the brief reprieve they need to withdraw and have Bleys part the veil, or get a decent Trump connection or something before the Dragons go berserk and batter through by main force.

Brennan parks himself near the opening, behind the shield he made for himself, ready to cover everyone else's retreat. Except Huon. He can retreat, but even still bound he's not going first and he's not going last. (Assuming Robin doesn't take him.)

Jerod's actions are predicted upon the success of the spell and surrounding conditions. If not successful, attack against the nearest dragon continues.

If the spell is successful, then Jerod retreats to the entrance, making sure Khela is preceding him.

Robin looks for the next dragon-shaped victim and sees that her kin are retreating through a new tunnel carved in the rock, one that is too small for dragons. [Robin can stay and fight or join the orderly retreat...]

The Ranger blinks. Now, why didn't someone do that before she volunteered to be defenseless girl!?! Ah, well. Family.

Robin's really, really tempted to stay and smash dragons, buuuutttt her goal here was to get the Family out. And out they seem to be going. So Robin will cover their retreat and backs out after them.

The retreat [with or without Robin] goes smoothly, and soon there is a party of battered, singed, gore-drenched royals standing outside a new entrance into the cave complex, outside of the path of dragon-fire.

Brij says "I need to learn to use a sword. You'll teach me, Bleysy?."

Bleys nods, and turns to Khela. "Speaking of which, Jerod used your sword well."

Khela starts to respond, but Caine interrupts. "Where's Huon?"

Jerod is already digging out his trumps.

"Amber." Robin answers tersely, emerging backward from the tunnel. Her sword remains pointing dragonward and she holds the Trump out to her side without looking. Someone else can use the stoopid thing.

Brennan comes out with Robin, with the unBurning shield behind him to protect from the answering blast of dragonfire he expects to come shooting out of the tunnel behind him.

"That's where we need to be. The Dragons found a way in there, they'll find a way back out," Brennan says. He sounds slightly distracted, as he works a bit of the stone from solid to thick, viscous liquid and back, to put a superficial seal on the hole he just made.

That finished, Brennan continues, "Trumps seem to work badly, at least between here and Amber. Trying the cards again is fine, but I suggest someone try Parting the Veil, too. I am going to ready something monstrous and vicious for our scaly friends, so if someone can keep a look out, that would be good."

"A nuke would be nice." Jerod mutters, displeased at losing his spear. He takes the proferred Amber card from Robin and begins concentrating.

Brennan spends another instant re-evoking his shield and spear, to reset the duration to a minute. If the withdrawl back to Amber takes another minute, Brennan will have another spell of Entropy at the ready.

Khela turns to Jerod. "My sword, Duke Jerod?" Which is somewhat risky, considering that she still may need to be protected.

Bleys looks at Caine, "We shall see, Brother. There's every chance he's in your dungeon. Every chance."

Caine scowls.

Brennan scowls.

After several moments, Jerod sees the castle gate come clear. It is just slightly ajar, and would be easy to close quickly.

The dragons choose that moment to arrive, flying straight up from the burning ravine. There are five of them.

Bleys turns to Brennan. "Chronomancy? We just need time."

"Then let's make the most of what I can provide," Brennan says. It's not clear if Bleys is proposing a joint working, or if he's going to follow Brennan's original plan of Brennan providing defense and Bleys parting the Veil to provide an alternate line of retreat. In either case, he steps away from the group to begin his work.

Jerod keeps his focus on the gate, palming the blade up to Khela. As soon as she takes it, he counters by taking her arm and focuses the contact, pushing her through. "Go now." he says, before continuing.

"Next."

As far as Robin's concerned, that'd be the swordless niece or the Regent. And just to make her thoughts clear, she skips away from Jerod toward dragons. Her green eyes are bright with anticipation and her lips are parted in a big smile as she limbers up her swordarm. Oh, yeah. Dragon-killin' time.

Bleys agrees. "Go on, d--Brij. Someone needs to tell them Khela's safe."

She nods and goes through the trump. "I also want to learn how to use these."

Brennan withdraws from the group in the same general direction as Robin, and hands her the unBurning spear and shield, if she wants them. "These will work better," he says. "While they last."

"Uh, okay. Thanks." Robin's not quite sure what to make of temporary weapons. But if Brennan thinks they'll work better, why the hell not? She sheathes her standard issue and takes the spear and shield from her surprise-amazing-light-show cousin.

With that, Brennan begins his work. His preferred course of action, which would be speeding up time for the small area around them, is too risky. There are multiple Pattern Blades in the area, which would likely resist having their stately procession through time manipulated. And Brennan already knows how tenuous Trump contacts are between this place and Amber. Ordinarily, he would not be concerned about a spell of his damaging Jerod's attempt at a Trump contact, but in this place... it seems possible, and Brennan is unwilling to chance it.

That leaves Brennan the option of slowing the Dragons down, in flight. In concept, this is simple. The Dragons' flight may be Sorcerously or similarly powered, but their actual motion seems mundane: they are changing their position smoothely over time, moment (one position) by moment (another position) by moment (yet another position.) One key to retarding the progress of the Dragons is simply to insert moments into their paths without inserting the extra changes of location. They will still move moment by moment by moment, but the position changes by default will happen more slowly and their approach, no matter how fast they beat their wings or power dive, will become more gradual. And because Brennan is not a complete fool, he takes care that their breaths are included in the spell effect even after it separates from their bodies.

The question, whose answer cannot be known until Brennan tries it, is what ratio of natural moments to extra moments Brennan can effect.

Brennan casts the spell and encloses one of the approaching Dragons. It freezes in place, not falling but not advancing.

"Oh, capital!", says Bleys. "Watch this!" Bleys picks a dragon that is flying just in front of a second creature. He casts the same spell at the lead dragon and freezes him in mid-air as well. The second dragon hits the leader like a sack of reinforced flying meat hitting a castle wall.

The gore doesn't quite reach the group surrounding Jerod. "How do you think that will affect the first one's flight? The physics of elastic collisions are so unpredictable, shadow by shadow, if you add in variable duration timestreams."

"Nothing in that spell destroys energy, and there was direct contact. Most or all should have been transferred to the lead Dragon, who should go flying tail over talon when the spell expires," Brennan says.

Bleys squints up at the stationary beast. "We can stay and watch. It may be that the force is applied over the course of a watch instead of a minute, so it will be easier for it to resist. Her," he corrects himself. "Force per unit time is so much harder to determine when each participant in a congruent spacial contact has their own asymmetrical temporal frame relative to the other." He waits, then adds. "It's simpler when there are only two and they're static for the purposes of the interaction, but still..."

Jerod makes a mental note to introduce Bleys, at a convenient time, to a shadow individual that Jerod had met some years ago, a very pleasant man who despite his prodigious intellectual and a most unfortunate disability didn't try to impress everyone in sight with how smart he was.

He's pretty sure he remembers Mr. Hawking's address.

The final two dragons look as if they may attack. Caine has found a bow and Robin has either her own weapons or Brennan's. They apparently think twice, choosing instead to circle like gigantic vultures.

Caine catches his breath. "Good, let's get back before they change their minds."

"Hurry up." Jerod says, keeping the focus. "Time's counting."

Robin lauhs aloud as she is splashed by liquidy former-dragon (though she knows that a serious bath has to be in the near future.)

She turns vibrating green eyes back to Bleys and Brennan. "Hey! Is that targeted or area of effect?" She points a sword to the frozen dragon with the sprear in its side.

Brennan gives a squinty scowl in the direction Robin is pointing. "Targetted," he says. "Go through. Take Caine. Bleys, I'm going to see if I can get that back," he says.

Caine takes Jerod's hand and goes through.

Hunh. Robin pouts slightly. Oh well, if the wizard wonder twins have it in hand, then yep it's her turn.

She hops back over to Jerod and places Brennan's temporary shield and spear where he can reach them easily if he needs to. Then (assuming he offers her his hand), Robin allows herself to be Trumped back to Amber. Bleah.

If Bleys' spell really is the same as Brennan's, the spear probably isn't included in the spell. It's certainly not half in, half out, or it probably would have been sheared in half.

If it's not included, a relatively simple working of Gravity should be able to coax the thing forth and have it fly back into Brennan's hand. If it is, Brennan is going to have to work Time a little bit, too, to get rid of the extra moments. But only for the spear, not for the Dragon.

If he gets the spear and no other disasters occur, Brennan goes through, too.

The spear resists as if it were embedded in solid stone, but the working is successful. Bleys manages a separate working that makes the spear float to Brennan's feet, gently.

Brennan is actually right behind Robin. Bleys can stay and watch if he wants to, but Brennan's not having any of that.

He leaves his own Sorcerous constructs behind, for the same reason he moved away from Jerod to cast the spell on the Dragons-- Sorcery and Trumps don't mix well. But he does pick up Jerod's spear before moving out. When Brennan goes through, he doesn't grasp Jerod's hand, but holds the spear out safely and lets Jerod grasp that to pass him through. Then he just lets go of the spear once he's on the Amber side.

Jerod keeps ahold of the spear as Brennan departs through the rainbow, oddly pleased to have it returned to him. It was easy to let go to the green blade when Khela asked for it, without a thought almost. The same cannot be said for this item, he realizes.

"Uncle, I would remind you of the fuzzy wuzzy factor." Jerod says to Bleys. "Departure is advised."

"Hmm? Certainly. Be nice to get back to supper. I've worked up an appetite." He wipes Werewindle on the grass and takes Jerod's hand as best he can without disturbing the spear.

Bleys steps through and Jerod is alone with his trump.

Jerod follows, and the dragons are deprived of their hoped-for afternoon snack.