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The Blue Star	By : sinaline Category: A through F > Dragonlance Views: 1900 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own the book(s) that this fanfiction is written for, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 11
- 12
- 13
A/N: In answer to both Dalamar and Question: Yes, Xahira/Stormraven was planned, and yes, she does have something to do with Icingdeath.

Chapter Ten

Xahira sat by her husband as she waited for him to awaken. She knew, even though she was by far one of the few White Dragons to take a companion out of choice, that soon either he, or she, would need their solitude and then they would split. It was too bad, really, Raistlin had so much potential with his magic and she found herself fascinated with him. Laying her head on his chest and listening to his heartbeat, she murmured, "Our eggs will hatch and soon you will be far from here, far from the cold... My race, or at least my type of race, is solitary in nature. We don't even get along with other white dragons, let alone humans, elves, and even the ogre... You could stay with me but the cold would soon kill you, and if I tried to follow you the heat would soon kill me."
She kissed him lightly on the lips, "I would not be so cruel as to make you forget me, but I cannot face your death... and seeing me die would break your will... Please remember me and this time we had. Our children may seek you out, but... perhaps they may not..."
Standing up and then casting a warm spell on the area of the cavern she had carved into a near apartment for him, and also her when in human form, she walked out into the cold. Breathing deep and cancelling the spell that had kept her in human form she changed to her draconic form just as a familiar woman walked into the cavern. Snarling, she said, "Reylanna."
"I would say it is nice to see you, my dear daughter..." it was then that Reylanna noticed that Stormraven was no longer egg heavy in her pregnancy.
The Black Robe's eyes thinned. "I see. I must say I am surprised that one skinny wizard was enough to feed your requirements for birthing. That fact prompts me to wonder just how much a dragon truly requires to clutch..."
"More than you think, Reylanna," said Raistlin as he stepped out of the niche in the wall.
Raistlin had awoken to find that Stormraven had left, then when he gone to find her he had caught the tail end of the conversation. Seeing his 'wife' in her true draconic form had surprised him a little. He had learned that she only did that if she planned to leave the cavern to look for food but he had noticed that after killing all the Thanoi she had more than enough for months. But the confrontation with Reylanna took precedence.
"Why, Raistlin, I must say I am surprised to see you still walking..." Reylanna looked from Stormraven to Raistlin and back again. "This is interesting Xahira. You protect your human mate. How unlike most white dragons..."
"I am not most white dragons," snarled Stormraven. "I am a Paragon, the perfect daughter of the Queen of Dragons. My sire is the Father of Dragons himself. Any of my children will also be Paragons, as will theirs so pure is my bloodline. All other white dragons bow to me as their Overlord as they strive for my Perfection that they will never reach so impure is their own puny bloodline!"
Raistlin filed that information for later. It did account for her size and obvious intelligence, as well as her equally strong ego and pride in herself. Reylanna took an involuntary step back as also he did from dragonfear. Raistlin did not retreat so far back as Reylanna as he knew, although the instinct made him take at least one respectful step back, that Stormraven would not hurt him and her rage was not aimed at him. However, it was aimed at Reylanna, who, while taking about five big steps back out of the main part of the cavern, still stood her ground. "Know this, Dragon, paragon or not, you still bow to me as the Master of Icewall. You still owe me one of your 'children'," she spat out the word as if a curse, "as my steed as a Dragon Highlord. If not me, then my successor who comes for Icewall Castle."
Stormraven roared then, sending a chill wind into the passageway where Reylanna cowered. It was not enough to kill Reylanna as it was not the aim. It was meant more as a warning, but both Reylanna and Raistlin clapped their hands over their ears as the roar reverberated and shook the entire glacier to its foundations. Looser ice stalagmites fell from the ceiling as they shattered on the ice below. Stormraven quietly said after, "My 'children' have their own free will, Black Robe. When they are born and old enough to leave my nest, ask them on whether they will take a subservient role to your wiles. I do hope you will have gained a little weight by then so as to at least give them a good meal..."
With that Stormraven lay down, eyes half lidded. Reylanna seemed to get the clue that the conversation was over with the dragon and shouted up to Raistlin, "Raistlin Majere, you may be protected now but you won't be forever! I will have my revenge on freeing my slave, and on my daughter's death! If I cannot have it on your mate, I will take it out on you and yours!"
Stormraven lifted her head and returned her focus on the passageway, her eyes sliding into mere slits, "Maybe you didn't understand when I said you were not welcome here. Leave now, or I will eat you."
Reylanna called one last time, "Join me Raistlin, and I can give you power beyond imagining! I have Marion Uth Maleste and the Blue Star! What you seek I can give you!"
"Perhaps you didn't quite hear my wife, but I am quite in agreement with her," answered Raistlin finally, stepping out onto the ledge above Stormraven's right shoulder blade.
Finally, the speck in the distance twirled a flurry of black material and was gone up the passageway. Raistlin frowned as Stormraven turned her large head to gaze at him, barely having to sit up as she did so. "I am sorry I woke you," she said.
"Don't worry about it too much," answered Raistlin, frowning slightly in the direction where Reylanna had disappeared up the passageway. "Stormraven, how many Paragons are there?"
"Two for each color of dragon," answered Stormraven. "My clutchmate, where ever he may be, I have not seen in millennia."
"Which leads me to how old are you?" asked Raistlin, and he held up a hand, "Yes, I know. Don't ask a lady her age. But, since you are my 'mate', as Reylanna put it..."
Stormraven growled and glared down the passageway again, and Raistlin paused before
continuing, "I think we should know these little details about each other even if it tells me how many candles will never be possible to put on your birthing day..."
"You can tell a dragons age by how large it is," she answered coyly as she lay back down. "So how old do you think me and I will tell you how accurate your guess is."
Raistlin actually chuckled at this as, even though she was a dragon, she was playing the oldest of the mind games possible to play with males of any species on him. He looked at the slightly bigger than men sized eggs and back to the mountain sized dragon. "Well... if you grow like humans can in youth, I would say you would be the size of a house by the time you were out of the equivalent of childhood. After that, if you grow at a slow steady pace, I would say you are well beyond our equivalent of venerable if you were the typical dragon and would be a doddering creature. But, as you said, you are a Paragon, an 'Overlord', and therefore not the typical dragon."
Stormraven's eyes were mere slits in amusement, "So, my mate, how old am I?"
"I would say, safely, well over ten thousand years old," he was surprised as she made a gesture meaning 'go higher' with her paw. "Twenty?"
Still higher.
"Thirty?"
"You're getting close, but still higher."
"Forty," another motion higher. "Fifty?"
"Close."
"Sixty," and was finally reward with 'lower'.
"Fifty-five thousand..." he murmured in awe and was rewarded with a slight nod.
"Fifty-five thousand, four hundred and seventeen, to be exact," she answered. "And, as a Paragon, I have no old age. I will continue to grow both in size and power until Krynn can no longer hold me. Then I will simply move on to the next plane of existence. But," she smiled a toothy grin. "That is still a very long, long time to go yet."
"I can't even imagine," then Raistlin, once over that shock, remembered what Reylanna said and paled. "By the Gods of Magic... she has the Blue Star..."
Stormraven looked up at him, a bit of worry in her eyes, "I know, I heard. If she tries to use the power of the ring the results will be disastrous."
"I must stop her," Raistlin began to climb down, but Stormraven was already in the form of Xahira when he got down there. "Stormraven, what are you doing?"
"I'm coming with you."

The passageways were dark and maze-like. More than once Raistlin was glad for Stormraven's ability to see in the dark because if not for her he would have been lost for days just trying to find his way up to the castle level. He felt Stormraven stop dead in her tracks and hold his arm to prevent him from walking any further. "What is it?" he asked quietly.
"Chasm. There is a break in the maze and the tunnel continues across a large rift in the ice," she said, then sniffed the air. "But Reylanna has definitely been through here."
For the second time since being in the dark, he also marveled at her ability to smell Reylanna's trail. He ran a hand on the crystal of his staff, "Shirak."
The Staff of Magius lit brightly and he held it up to look at the chasm that separated them from the rest of their trail. Pressing his lips into a thin line of worry, he took stock of what he saw. One small ledge, which they stood on, another directly across the chasm. The chasm itself was at least fifty feet across. He looked down, holding his staff up as he did so but could not see the bottom of it. He looked up and could not see the top, the chasm extending up was also as vast. He picked up a loose piece of ice and let it drop.
It fell and even Xahira shook her head when he looked at her in askance to see if she had heard it strike bottom as he had not. He compressed his lips again and muttered, "What else can go wrong? Can you see handholds? Maybe she climbed up to another tunnel..."
"No, there are no handholds," answered Xahira as she looked up, and even down. "I do not understand this...!"
Raistlin paced in the short distance, "I don't suppose you can polymorph into a small bird or something and fly across to see if there is some sort of device?"
"No, I am sorry. I have to practice each form," she answered. "It took me months to learn how to walk in this form once I learned the spell to change into it."
He sighed and leaned up against the wall in frustration, "I don't understand. She had to get across somehow..."
He stepped to the ledge again, and looked down. A slithering sensation under his foot alerted himself to the sensation of falling and before Xahira could catch him, or he could catch himself, he had slid over the ledge as the edge gave way under his weight. With a small cry, he chanted the words of the featherfall spell and floated down as he heard Xahira keen in panic from the top of the ledge.
Two mere seconds later, he found his feet touching the bottom of the chasm. "I don't believe it..." he muttered. "Stormraven!"
He heard her stop keening and a flurry of motion barely twenty feet above him, "Raistlin? Are you unhurt?"
"I'm fine," he assured the dragon before she panicked again. "It appears that the chasm is not as deep as feared."
He held up the Staff and saw that the bottom was ice polished into a mirror surface. "It was an illusion of sorts. Mirrored surfaces. It made the chasm look deep, but it appears to only be about twenty feet deep and I think there is a door at the other side on this level."
A few mere seconds later, Stormraven had joined him at the bottom, and confirmed, "Mirrors. It is only a small hole..."
They walked over to the door set into the wall below and through it as Stormraven told him, "This is her trail."

Raistlin leaned on his staff to catch his breath, as well as rub his cold nose. He rather suspected that after all of this he would likely be sick and at Stormraven’s mercy. As much as she seemed to be a rather 'decent' dragon, he wasn't sure how quick mate would go turn into food. A short moment later her attention was whipped away and he heard her growl low at about the same time the tunnel began to lighten without the help of his staff. "Dulak," he whispered. "What is it?"
"Someone threatens my eggs..."
With that she was gone, leaving Raistlin alone to face Reylanna. Not that he blamed her really, the minute she had said eggs and threat in the same sentence, he had almost turned to follow her. He would have too if she hadn't taken off quite so fast...
But he continued on.
A few minutes later he found himself back in castle proper. Using his staff as a trap tester he walked on, opening doors and peeking into corners until he found the door he was looking for. On tiptoe he peered into the small barred window of the cell and saw Marion apparently carving a relief into the wall of her cell. He opened the door after picking the lock and said, "I would say hello, and gee, isn't this an interesting role reversal, but we don't have time. Which way is out of here?"
She looked up in surprise, stood up and walked out of the cell. "Reylanna is on the level above us," she grabbed his arm as he moved away. "I would be careful. There are Thanoi all over the place."
"I can take care of myself," he assured her as they searched out, and found, her gear. "You be careful. I would hate to have to come to your rescue... as, I think... we're even."
"So it would appear, Red, so it would appear," she said as she walked out of the dungeons, leaving him to deal with Reylanna.
He continued on, looking for a stair to take him to the next level while avoiding the Thanoi patrols. He slipped up the one level to what appeared to be 'ground' level as he could finally see outside through the small glass windows. It was also a level that was better taken care of with opulent tapestries and carpeting in the halls to remove the chill of the cold stone. The carpet served another use as it also muffled the sound of his footsteps as he quietly slipped from one room to the next. Finally, he found her bed chamber and slipped in.
A quick look around the room and he found his other purloined belongings and recovered them. Taking his katana in hand he held it above her neck and said, "Good morning Reylanna."
She woke with a start and a curse on her lips, "Damn you! I should have killed you myself."
"Ah, but you didn't," he grinned. "And now you pay the price!"
With one smooth swipe of his sword he severed her head from her shoulders. Almost
immediately he felt the chill winds outside seep into the castle and the structure began to moan in the stresses. The castle was well built and therefore there was no threat of collapse, but the sound meant that the magical protection against the cold was now gone with Reylanna's death.
He quickly turned the room upside down in the search for the Blue Star but did not find it. Raistlin took a moment to concentrate on the instinct that would tell him where it was.
It was below him... and moving away...
... which meant Marion had the ring, and likely had the entire time!
What the Hell was this?! he mentally questioned as he cleaned his sword and sheathed it, and began to run back to the passageways that would take him to his mate's lair. A damn game that I was to play for her? Some stupid Test? What?!
Thanoi, alerted to the presence of the assassin, began to show themselves and Raistlin had to fight his way back into the dungeons and then into the secret paths. He held out his staff and shouted, "Shirak!"
The staff lit and he could finally see his way out, and one quick glance back told him that the Thanoi were not very far behind. He came out at full speed into the mirror cavern and then, in his hurried mind, wondered how in the Abyss he was going to climb a wall...
... but then something strange happened as his feet found a small crevice and without hardly touching the wall he sprang up it to land on the ledge above. The Thanoi shouted in their guttural language, probably threats of his death, before they too tried to climb the wall with less success.
He took one last look of this new development before he turned and began to run to the cavern...

Stormraven countered the great sword arc with a hardened claw before sending the warrior sprawling in the snow. His armor kept him from being truly hurt but he was tiring and soon Stormraven would get the opening she would need to crush the impudent fly where he stood.
In the past, when a smaller dragon, she had dealt with Knights before. Every so often a self righteous young knight or paladin would come seeking her lair for an easy kill, and even easier fame. Most of them were now encased in ice waiting for her to eat them, or, if their armor and equipment was valuable or magical, were merely a doll to showcase a part of her horde. But she had thought that being this far south into the great glaciers that they would just give up.
She had been wrong.
From the direction that Raistlin had gone another armored figure ran into the fray, and she incorrectly gauged it as another foolish enemy. When the first bite of her sword in Stormraven's side bit, Stormraven let a roar of pain, fury, and surprise that shook the Icewall...

Raistlin was, as far as he knew, about halfway back to Stormraven's lair when he felt more than heard the massive roar that shook the entire mountain. He fell down, sitting and leaning against the tunnel wall. A part of him froze in terror, but another one seemed galvanized into action. He jumped to his feet and ran even faster, then, used the staff to cast haste on himself to make himself move even faster.
He ran into the cavern just as he saw Marion leap onto Stormraven's shoulder blades and drive the flaming portion of her double bladed sword into Stormraven's neck. Almost in slow motion as the haste spell was still in effect, he saw Marion brace herself against the falling dragon...
... Stormraven seemed to crumple and simply fall to the snow, her whispered voice carrying to him, "Our eggs... our children..."
With that she stopped breathing forever. Raistlin stopped dead in his tracks, the haste spell ending just as Marion turned and saw him. "Ah, Raistlin, just in time. The beast has been terrorizing the Ice Barbarians for years..."
Raistlin drew his sword, his rage preventing even the most basic of spells being recalled. No matter, his katana would settle this for him. Marion stepped towards him, puzzled, "Raistlin, are you feeling all right?"
Another Knight came around the corner from where the eggs where hidden, "Lady Uth Maleste, the foul beast's spawn have been taken care of. These dragons will not terrorize the people anymore."
For a moment there was an awkward silence as the young Knight of Solamnia saw the obviously angry Red Robe wizard with a very sharp sword in one hand and an equally heavily enchanted staff in the other and the other Knight who seemed to be trying to placate said extremely angry wizard, ";Raistlin, what is with you? Reylanna threw you to the foul beast. I am glad you somehow survived..."
"Your 'foul beast' was my wife and those helpless dragon eggs you just slaughtered were our children," whispered Raistlin lethally.
It was a quiet whisper that seemed to echo in the huge cavern as both knights stopped dead in their tracks. Marion's eyes widened in shock, while the young knight shook a little in a sudden fear. If there was a female dragon and eggs, it stood to reason, in his mind, that there would be a male dragon too... and he was really sure that the frail young wizard in front of him was said male dragon.
Even if he was not a dragon, the ire of a full wizard was enough to scare the Knight anyway... "Ah, Lady Uth Maleste, maybe we should..."
Marion was quiet as she looked down and then up again at the wizard, "I'm sorry, Raistlin, I didn't know... but she was still carrying off Ice Barbarians."
Raistlin laughed then, a sharp biting and hateful laughter, "Oh, how stupid that sounds. Xahira was trapped in here until I freed her only a mere week ago. Reylanna had trapped her, bound her here with spells. No... the monster you searched for was not here but in the castle itself! And... further... I have already slain her and done your job for you while you betray me by killing an innocent! Where are your high and mighty Solamnic morals now, Lady Uth Maleste? I should have known I was being used."
"Raistlin, it isn't like that at all!" claimed Marion. "We honestly did not know!"
The young knight sneered, "Forget him, Lady. What would a wizard know about morals anyhow? Look at his chosen 'mate'. A beast of evil. She would have hunted innocent people down had she been free."
Raistlin turned to the knight, hourglass eyes narrowed in fury. In his temper his golden skin reappeared and he took one, then two, and then three steps that were enough to give him and his sword enough momentum to slice the Knight in two from his left shoulder to his right hip in one graceful slice through armor and bone like the katana blade had been freshly forged and the armor was mere ice and snow.
Marion stared in horror while Raistlin stood slowly over the two halves of the young knight that lay dead at his feet, and in horror whispered, "Raistlin Majere... what have you done...?"
"She knew more honor than either of you," he said evenly, low, but not quite in a whisper, standing from the post swipe crouch and turning to face her.
There was really no describing the look on his face. It was both strangely devoid of emotion, yet in a colder rage than he had ever known. It had banked to a manageable level, but still fueled him enough to allow for his mind to remember each and every spell he had. But just underneath the barely restrained control it still simmered and was ready to boil over. He buried the katana point first into the snow and ice and took one half step back, his staff braced before him.
"I don't need a sword for this," he said evenly. "You don't deserve that honor, knight. You die by my magic today."
She braced her sword in front of her and they stood that way for a long moment when she said, "I don't know where it went wrong, Raistlin, but it was not supposed to be this way."
"It went wrong when you lied to me," he said. "The Blue Star was never stolen. I can sense it on you, on your finger I see it. It shines. And today I take it from your cold dead hand, even if I have to cut that hand from your body!"
Her face changed from its serenity to one of determination as she made the first move and her sword arced down to be blocked by the Staff of Magius in Raistlin's hands. The impact cracked loudly in the cavern and Raistlin was forced back, sliding in the snow on one knee. He countered by jabbing the butt of the staff into her stomach, but it bounced off her armor.
Touching her armor with one hand he chanted and lightening arced over her as she screamed in the sudden pain. She staggered back and Raistlin, in a sudden move grabbed his sword from the snow and stabbed through armor and bone straight through her chest. Marion spat out through the blood than bubbled in her mouth, "I thought you said that magic would finish me..."
"I lied like you lied to me," he said, then changed his mind and with both hands on either side of her head, chanted another spell as a storm of multicolored light went off in the cavern centered around her head.
When he released her, she was unrecognizable. As promised, he cut her hand off and pulled off the simple gold ring with the sapphire that constantly burned with an inner fire like it was a star held within. He looked at it for a moment before sliding the ring onto his right ring finger. "I call this 'poetic justice'. Next time I finish you," he said. "I have my own ambitions and this will help me with them. So much for your precious duty. Not that you truly lived up to what you claimed. Good bye, Marion."
"That which protects you now becomes your curse..." he heard whispered on the wind. "You will walk forever marked as a Fallen Fragment...tarnished and tainted."
He walked to the chamber where the eggs were and used his magic to clean up the debris. He stopped suddenly as he unburied one single unharmed egg, one that he knew would carry his daughter. Using his magic to cast a circle of protection. She would be assured to grow. Movement of large wings behind him caused him to turn to regard the large white dragon behind him. This one was a male and the two simply stared at each other when the large dragon said, "So, you are my clutchmate's chosen mate."
"I didn't realize that she had a brother bigger than she was," said Raistlin. "If you have come to pick over her remains be warned that I will protect my daughter with my last breath."
"Oh, don't worry, dragonmate," he answered. "I came to carry that egg away from danger so that it would hatch and grow. We paragons look after our own. In case she ever asks, what shall I tell my niece about her father?"
"That he loved her mother," answered Raistlin. "And that she deserves to be raised with her best interests in mind, and where her talents would be trained."
"Would you like to name her?"
Raistlin looked up at the white dragon, then said quietly, "Maigrey Stormhawk."
The white dragon nodded, "Maigrey Stormhawk... Very well, she will be named that. If you ever have need of me, ask among my lesser cousins for the one called Icingdeath."
"Icingdeath..." murmured Raistlin. "My name is Raistlin Majere of Solace."
Icingdeath took the single surviving egg in his claw then crouched low, "Raistlin, Solace is far to the North. I can take you as far as desert and then I depart to my own domain. Do you accept my aid?"
With one last glance around, Raistlin said sadly, "Gladly."
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The Blue Star