Summer of Flame

Chapter Fifteen

The Isle of the Irda

Raistlin leaned on the windowsill. The next day he would ride dragonback on the same green dragon that had flown him from Neraka to Palanthas so many years ago. When asked, he had simply said, “Call me a sentimental fool, but I’ve always wanted to do something heroic for a change....”

This, of course, had elicited a few chortles from the other dragons that had landed in the town plaza of Palanthas.

The surprise of the inhabitants, and of his own family had known no bounds when dragons of every color had flown together for the first time in history; gold with red, blue with silver, green with bronze, black with brass, and copper with white. On the silvers and blues rode Knights. It was a sight to see and Raistlin and Tika had watched from the ground. Tika had turned to her brother in law and said, “This will never happen again, will it?”

“I don’t think so,” his had face seemed to sadden for a moment. “And hopefully it will be enough.”

But that had been hours ago and now he leaned, looking out into the city from a suite lent to him by the Lord Mayor, and he knew he would never see it again. It felt odd to know that where he went, unlike the others who hoped to return, he knew that he would not. Sensing a familiar presence behind him, he turned to see Crysania. With her sight restored she had also seen the dragons fly in formation over Palanthas. Unlike Tika, she had understood why Raistlin had been saddened to see everything come together.

Unlike the rest of his family, she knew what was coming next. “You said you would stay...” she said in a quiet whisper, tears staining her voice.

He walked over to her and held her in his arms. “I know,” he whispered into her hair.

Her clothing met with little resistance from his deft hands as he made short work of the ties of her bodice. She turned to face him as the ties finally let go and the bodice fell to the ground, her dress hanging loosely from her body. She let the straps on her shoulders slide down her arms as the dress fell from her and he swallowed at the sight before him.

Crysania, even at the age of fifty, still looked like a woman at least twenty years younger, so toned and so perfect was each last curve of muscle and skin. She wasn't like Kitiara had been (Raistlin had once seen his half-sister completely in the nude by accident when he had walked in on her as a teen...), but softer and more refined. She looked up at him with blue eyes that had darkened to a deep, deep sapphire, almost navy, in her passion. He moved over her and kissed her again as her hands moved down his chest and then lower to where his manhood was. He gasped as her fingers slid around his penis and began to stroke its length in leisurely motions, circling and massaging with her thumb.

He moaned slightly and he shook slightly, his control momentarily faltering. Vaguely, he remembered something his brother had said, the irony in having to remember something Caramon had once said lost to him at this point, about a woman needing a bit more time to be made ready when a man could simply be ready. He fell to lay on his side beside her and moved her hand away from his hardened member. She pouted slightly and he said in a voice made raspy from something entirely different than his cough, "No, I'm more than ready to take you, but are you ready to take me?"

Crysania's eyes widened in surprise, "I've been ready a very, very long time, Raistlin. Especially for you."

A part of Raistlin exulted in that statement, and he smiled warmly, "I'm glad to hear that, and very touched."

He reached out and his long tapered fingers stroked the nipple of her breast as it hardened to a stiff peak. Crysania moaned and fell back into the down bed as Raistlin moved back over to suckle on her breast as a hand teased the other. Crysania's hands tangled in his hair and she moaned. Finally he kissed his way down to the middle of her legs. With one graceful hand he parted her legs and moved between them, his tongue teasing, listening to her gasps and moans to find just where she was most sensitive. Upon also finding a stiffened nub not unlike a nipple, he also heard a moan that radiated all the way down so deep and heartfelt it was and her breath seemed to suddenly come in short little gasps. "Oh, God, Raistlin... oh yes... more..." she breathed in between gasps and moans.

Greatly encouraged as he had feared a little that he had hurt her, he continued. Her gasps and moans grew in intensity, and although she might have said words but he couldn't overly understand them. Feeling experimental, he slid one long finger into her vagina, and was surprised when her inner walls seized it. Her own motions seemed instinctive as he continued his assault on her hyper sensitive nub and she met motion for motion. Raistlin slid another finger in her hot channel and was rewarded with a sudden warm wetness as she suddenly keened from deep in her throat and her inner walls convulsed. He kept up both the motion of his fingers and his tongue until she finally fell back into the pillows.

As she cried out in pleasure, a few Knights of both orders looked at each other and shook their heads in vague amusement. If anyone had any doubts about what was going on behind those doors, it had long since been banished. Astinus stopped outside the door as he had been coming to see Raistlin about the Blue Star, but upon hearing Crysania come in a different fashion, he decided it would be a bit wiser to wait...

Raistlin brought his wet index and middle finger of his left hand and licked them off, the sweetness of her bringing a not all together unpleasant shudder to his insides.

He could freely admit that he wanted her, his own need pressed hard into the mattress, demanding release. Her wet channel all but called for his manhood to bury itself deep within until she convulsed again to bring him over his own edge. She looked at him and said, "Where did you learn that?"

He shook his head in wonder, "You just taught me..."

She sat up, a bit shakily, but pushed him back into the bed. Her fingers found his penis and she stroked him in a lazy manner, noting how very, very hard he was, "I think I'm ready to take you, and you are definitely ready to take me."

As she straddled him, and felt the heat of the contact, they both gasped, then with a small sigh, she finally slid him up and into her. For a moment, she let his size and girth fill her, getting used to the sensations of being filled so completely.

On the flip side of the coin, Raistlin gasped as he slid up and in to be buried balls deep within his beloved. It was a profound connection, and he whispered, "Crys... look at me..."

She did and their eyes locked, "I love you."

"And I you," he whispered back, and then they began to move.

She would lift herself up then move down, burying him once again. Raistlin lifted his hips every time she settled back down so as to bury himself as deep as he could. Raistlin watched her face and she watched him, their eyes never leaving each other's for a second as the mutual sensations grew. Raistlin held up his hands and she grasped them, holding each other's hands as the connection grew.

He seemed to swell inside, or maybe she clenched even harder, but either way, he felt himself slide into something hot and from the gasp of sudden pleasure, he had likely found the much rumored hot spot within. "Show me how you feel, Crysania," he moaned. "Oh Gods, so good... so hot..."

"Raistlin, fill me... oh so big... oh..." she panted.

She was going to climax again, she could feel the tightening again, and somehow she knew, from the look of concentration on her face he was trying to hold himself back from climaxing himself, and she whispered, "Fill me, oh, please, come for me. Let me feel you..."

With that, Raistlin flipped her back on her back and began to piston within her, pressing himself as deep as he could go, his gasps and moans soon giving way to small panting, more gasping but still somewhat of a grunt as he felt himself began to tighten as well, his balls lifting as he could feel his seed preparing itself to ejaculate itself from his body...

He was still buried deep within her hot center and she tightened around him, the hot, wet, friction finally pushing... oh gods... he felt the white heat that much, much more consuming than his magic was, more intense and a cross between pain and pleasure as he swelled and thrust once, then twice and his world exploded as his sight went white with dark sparkles behind his eyes.

"Oh... Gods! So hot..." he moaned, then all intelligible words failed.

He felt the release as if his very soul poured itself out within his body, so draining with the same explosion of pain/pleasure and white sparkly bits in his eyes as he continued to push himself. Crysania came soon after, crying out as her insides shuddered again, milking him for everything he had to give as his semen coated her cervix and possibly was forced into it was how forceful he felt himself explode within her.

It was there, as the sun finally dipped below the horizon, the two of them lay utterly exhausted.

* * *

Tanin stared over the sea as they flew. His Uncle seemed to have retreated deeper and deeper into his thoughts as they grew closer to the rending that had been the Isle of the Irda, but was now a rip in space that led to the Abyss. He looked over to his elder cousin, Steel from where he was on Blayze. The silver that Tanin rode with his mother to what remained of the island rumbled and said, “Your Uncle thinks about what he must do. I wonder, what will you ever do?”

Tika asked, “I know we have to go after the Greygem first... Raistlin tells me that the Greygem still is on the center of the burnt island where it had been cracked open.”

“It is,” answered the silver dragon. “Raistlin will accompany you, Tika, to the Greygem where you must use old skills to regain it. The way will not be easy...”

Tika looked over to Raistlin and the silver edged closer to the huge green that Raistlin rode by himself. “Raistlin!”

He looked up from his thoughts, and Tika asked, “We are almost there.”

A barely perceptible nod was her answer, and she couldn’t help but reminded how he had been right before betraying them all. But the expression on his face was by far not the same. It was as if his eyes roved over everything to memorize every last detail like he would never see it again. In a way this made her nervous, but then she remembered something that had been niggling at the back of her head.

Unfortunately they would have to wait until they landed for her to ask.

The isle came within sight.

* * *

Caramon walked out into the sunlight and immediately noticed the lack of Knights of Takhisis. The deputy mayor ran up to him, “My Lord, my lord!”

Caramon fought off the urge to run. He never should have accepted that damn position as mayor. If the Knights had left Solace, there would be no getting out of it and it wasn’t how he wanted to spend his retirement. But he stopped and let the other man catch up, “What is it?”

“The Dark Knights! They’re gone!” he said in awe. “Something about ‘being recalled to the North’!”

Caramon frowned in thought as Tanis rode into Solace. Running down the steps to greet his old friend, and help him from his horse, he asked, “Aren’t you in Solanthus?”

“No,” answered Tanis Half-Elven sourly. “Laurana went to Qualinost to be with Gil, and unfortunately my own son can’t even sway the senators to allow non-elves into the forest with the situation up North.”

“Speaking of which, all the Knights of Takhisis were recalled North,” pointed out Caramon. “Raistlin said that something is going on in Palanthas....”

The Deputy Mayor went pale at the mention of Caramon’s brother, but remained silent as the two Heroes of the Lance continued to talk. “Is it about him again, or actually something else?” asked Tanis.

“Well, considering he surrendered himself and they are going to execute him, I seriously doubt it. It must be something else–”

Tanis cut off his friend, “Execute him?! When?”

Caramon counted off the days. “Three days ago at high noon,” he answered darkly shaking his head. “There was nothing I could do. When I found out there was no way I could have made it to the High Clerist’s Tower in time. But, thankfully, Mistress Jenna teleported Tika, Tanin and Sturm directly to Palanthas... What’s so funny?”

Tanis reined in his chuckles, “And you didn’t go?”

“Tika wouldn’t let me, said the Dark Knights would take the Mayor leaving as sedition,” answered Caramon. “Oh, I became the Mayor about a week ago.”

Tanis’ raised his eyebrows in surprise, then began to snicker, “You? The Mayor? Oh, I don’t know who to pity more, you or the rest of Solace.”

“Say what you want, old friend,” stated Caramon as they turned to walk back up the stairs after one of Caramon’s stableboys took the horse from Tanis to put his horse in the Inn’s stables. “My adventuring days were over the first time Tika missed her monthlies. And it isn’t so bad. Granted, I can’t seem to go anywhere or do anything without him running after me screaming ‘My lord, my lord’.”

The deputy mayor blushed deeply at Caramon’s offhand remark, “But my Lord, we need you.”

Caramon mouthed, See what I mean?

Tanis only laughed.

* * *

One silver dragon and one green dragon landed on the beach. Most of the sand that had been white had been scorched and burnt black, and in some spots even melted to black glass. The trees that had once been tall and thick enough to cut off the light from the swamp like ground were mere sticks stretching hundreds of feet into the air. The ground had dried to a dust that blew around in clouds and stung the eyes and choked the lungs.

“The rending is ten miles in the sea that way,” pointed Raistlin to the East. “The Greygem is that way.”

He pointed straight North. Tika drew her sword as did Tanin. Raistlin called on his armor and his appearance changed to that of the avatar. Tika pursed her lips, “I was wondering about that, you know.”

“I never knew what it was...” shrugged Raistlin. “It is the Mark of the Miiro, and the armor of the Blue Star. It only first appears if our lives are in mortal danger to protect us, then stays until we know how to turn it off, or we are cursed with it for life should we fail in our duty.”

Tika’s eyes lifted as did Tanin’s. “So, you what, were cursed or didn’t know?”

“I fell,” answered Raistlin. “And so was cursed with the armor of the gold skin until I redeemed myself. Only then would I be able to control it once more. Long story short, I did when I tried to save Palin and called on the Blue Star to subdue the Dark Queen, and then leave without hurting her. I remember now...”

Raistlin opened his eyes wide, “I remember now....”

Her eyes flashed and dry thunder boomed across the entirety of the Abyss. “I have learned that to rule I have to remove any stumbling blocks. You are one of them...”

With one push, Raistlin flew across the room to land in a heap of robes. As he struggled to stand, he saw the Dark Queen walk to the alter where Palin was bound. “Don’t you touch him!” he shouted. “I’m the one you want! I’m the threat, not he!”

“Oh, but he has the potential and your blood in his veins, Miiro,” she said as she brought up her sword over Palin’s heart. To Palin she said. “Look around well, for it is the last you will ever see.”

“Uncle!” he shouted moments before the sword ran him through.

One convulsive jerk up, then the hazel eyes blanked as he died. Raistlin screamed in denial as something within him surged and the Blue Star responded. Before Palin’s soul could be claimed by Takhisis, a force far more powerful swept her aside. Raistlin was dimly aware of a swelling sensation not unlike the first orgasm he had ever felt, then nothing.

“At that point, I remembered nothing except waking up, but I called on the Blue Star,” said Raistlin. “And it responded. The swelling was me actually bonding the consciousness with the power of the Miiro. At that point, this mortal frame could not handle it and passed out. In reflex the essence took me to the last place I remember being in the current time on the prime material plane.”

Tika murmured, “Your lab.”

“Exactly,” pointed out Raistlin. “I’m sorry that I failed Palin...”

She shook her head, “You didn’t fail him. If you had never tried to save him, then you would have failed him. But, you went beyond what anyone expected of you.”

He was knocked a good couple of feet by the force of the contact to land in a heap. Raistlin coughed and tried to bring up his left arm for a quick spell. The pain that arced up fizzled that spell, and told him that his arm was broken, useless. Perhaps a few of his ribs too. All he could was lay on the ground and moan in pain.

The half ogre towered over him. “Not so tough, are you Wizard?” the half ogre leaned down, and grasped the arm that was broken, pulled Raistlin to a standing position.

Raistlin, against whatever control he might have had, screamed with the agony that caused. The half ogre pulled back one fist as he held Raistlin up. “That was for me brother, who you took out with magic purple darts. This is for Broken Tusk clan,” the huge fist slammed into Raistlin’s mid-section and it felt like his fist went through.

Pain ripped through the entirety of Raistlin who felt like his insides had been ripped out. This pain robbed him of breath to even scream, but he did anyway. He screamed without sound, mouth open and air only whistling. He was suddenly dropped to the ground as the half ogre made a grunting sound before turning in rage to the new person.

A woman born of the Plains of Dust, of the desert, dropped her short bow in favor of the scimitar she truly favored. She was regal, and her skin was the shade of tan that reminded one of deserts and sand. Her black hair was braided into many thin dread-lock braids and fell down to her mid back. She even more the flowing desert garb.

Raistlin paced, “This was another situation where I called on my own connection with the Fragments without actually thinking about it. This time I called another Fragment, one I knew by name, to come to my aid.” He snapped his fingers, “And the Blue Star summoned her like that.”

“Now that you remember,” Tanin began. “What does that mean exactly?”

Tika chose that moment to remember her question, “Raistlin, you have been more quiet than usual, not to mention a whole lot more sad. It’s as if you go to your own execution.”

Turning to them, “It’s because I am.”

They simply stared at him and Tanin quietly asked, “This is the sacrifice that must be made... the one that they were all saying would balance it all. It’s you, isn’t it?”

Raistlin nodded, “To stop Chaos I must call on all the Fragments of the Miiro and then call on the Blue Star to release the full power of the God of the Greater Balance. However, when I do that, my mortal body will die as no mortal can ever be a God. I realized that in the Abyss when I challenged the Dark Queen. Once I die, to continue the channeling, my very essence and soul will be absorbed into the Blue Star, one less Fragment to find in returning the Miiro to his rightful place in the Heavens. One piece of the puzzle in its place...”

Tanin leaned in shock against the side of the silver dragon as Tika’s eyes widened in shock, and she whispered through her hand that had been brought up to her mouth, “Is there no other way?”

Raistlin shook his head, “Not unless another Fragment chooses to take up the mantle, and knowing what I know, I have to right to shirk my duty and pass it on to another once the Sacrifice is chosen.”

For a long moment they were silent and then the green dragon said, “Perhaps, if all life depends on this, you should get the Greygem?”

* * *

Lunitari stared into the skies from the Dome of Creation, and smiled as, falteringly at first, then stronger, a simple single star of blue began to burn in the sky...

* * *

The company of dragons and knights circled over the rent as Steel called them all to a halt with one short gesture. An elder Knight of the Rose called from the gigantic gold dragon he rode, “Sir Brightblade, perhaps we should wait for the Archmage?”

Steel frowned in thought, “We will wait another hour, and if he doesn’t show, we will have to join the battle.”

The dragons continued to circle...