The gem steed screeched as it banked around for a landing, the man sitting in the saddle pulling on the reins to guide it towards the roof of the palace and the landing platform that had been built there. In the streets below, crowds were gathering as people stared up at the fabulous creature filling the sky above them, its leathery, batlike wings stretched wide on either side of its long, serpentine body. Its huge, horned head turned one way, then the other as it searched for familiar landmarks and the yellow sun reflected blindingly from the polished silver studs that adorned its ivory coloured horns.

Its scales were a glossy brick red, shining as though they were slick with oil. Its wings were a darker red, but the skin was stretched so thin between the long supporting digits that when it passed in front of the yellow sun the brilliant globe was visible through it, illuminating a tracery of tendons and blood vessels. Bright pennants bearing the emblems of Domandropolis trailed from the dragon leather saddle, fluttering in the creature's wake.

The gem steeds were becoming a familiar sight across the city and the surrounding countryside. The sight of them was a reminder that, after long centuries of tyranny under the cruel thumb of Khalkedon, the city of Domandropolis was now free, the citizens free to live their lives however they wished, within the law. Their freedoms protected by the Gem Lords; the seven wizards who now ruled them and guarded them against their enemies.

In neighbouring cities and their surrounding territories, though, the sight of a gem steed brought only fear, being a reminder of the power of the Gem Lords and of the treaties their rulers had signed with the city of the seven wizards. The Gods alone help them, they knew, if the creators of those fabulous flying creatures found evidence of the plotting and scheming that went on between the enemies of Domandropolis. Cities that had once fought each other as viciously as they'd once fought Khalkedon but which were now holding an uneasy truce as they warily regarded their powerful new neighbour.

The gem steed screeched again as its rider steered it away from the palace, deciding at the last minute to take it straight to its stables himself rather than entrusting the task to the waiting groom. It would delay his arrival at the palace, but the bond that had grown between himself and his mount left him extremely reluctant to allow anyone else in its saddle, even for the couple of minutes the flight would take. He would take the steed home himself, see it personally to its stall, and only when he'd seen for himself that it was being well looked after, properly fed and watered, would he summon a carriage to take him back to the palace, to the business that had brought him back to the city.

The steed came in for a landing in the central courtyard of the massive new building that had been built to house it and its brethren. The stables that occupied what had recently been the city's worst slum district. Cleared by order of the Gem Lords, its occupants had been rehoused and given well paid work on the new construction. Now working as stablehands, they backed away as the huge creature flapped its wings madly, lowering its massive, legless body gently onto the sawdust covered floor.

Lord Ruby waited only long enough for the dust to settle before jumping down out of the saddle and walking around to the huge head. He patted it fondly just behind the curve of the jaw, speaking words of praise and companionship, and the creature's eyes closed to slits as it luxuriated in the praise, hissing with pleasure.

"Make sure you take good care of him," he said to the servant who came forward to take the serpentine creature's reins.

"As always, master," the man assured him as the steed folded its wings neatly along the sides of its body. The stableman gave the creature a gentle tug on the reins and the steed slithered, snake-like, towards its stall; a single open room the size of a ballroom. The snake-like heads and necks of other gem steeds, each with a slightly different colouration to its scales and wings, emerged from other stalls to hiss greetings to their comrade. One was tinged a light sky blue, another had the greyish green hue of its natural ancestor, while a third, the largest of them, was a glossy, satanic black, with horns that curved back behind its head and down on either side of its sturdy neck. Lord Sapphire hadn't meant for this one to be stronger and fiercer than the others, but vitamorphosis was inherently unpredictable in nature and that was just the way it had turned out.

The stableman had to duck as the steed he was leading turned its head to hiss in reply. "Good to be back is it, feller?" he said, reaching up to give a fond pat on the side of the neck to the creature easily large enough to swallow him in a single gulp. "Come on, let's find your nice, comfy bed."

Half an hour later, Lord Ruby's carriage arrived at the palace, not even having to slow down as the golden gates opened wide at its approach. Gaily liveried guards saluted as it clattered past into the grounds contained within the walls. Housemen came out to greet him as it stopped in front of the west entrance, the largest and most magnificent of the building's many entrances, but the Gem Lord ignored them as he swept past, into the building, along corridors and up stairs until he reached his own quarters. It took him two hours to clean himself up, assisted by his manservants. He refreshed himself from his journey, change clothes, and then he set off again for the chamber in which the other Gem Lords would be waiting for him.

He was dressed entirely in shades of red, from his richly embroidered tunic to his tight breeches that showed off every curve and muscle of his legs. On his left wrist he wore a large, red jewel that glowed and pulsed with its own internal light. The first thing anyone would have noticed about him, though, were his eyes. They glowed red like fiery coals, as if the fires of a furnace blazed inside his head. One almost expected to see smoke issuing from his eye sockets. When he was angry, or in the grip of battle fury, those eyes would blaze like windows into Hell, and few men could stand to face them without quaking in their boots. For the moment, though, he was in a lighter mood and he hummed a tune as he strolled along oak paneled and richly tapestried corridors towards the conference room. The room where the rulers of the city made all their most important decisions.

The other wizards had been informed of the red wizard's arrival and were already there, waiting for him. The conference room was a large, airy chamber that looked out over the winter garden, two floors below. Enna Mael, a strikingly beautiful blonde woman dressed all in white, was looking out through one of the high windows at the formal hedgerows and tree lined avenues, watching a group of gardeners chasing the last of the autumn leaves, but she turned when she heard the door open and crossed the room to stand by the table with the others. "Well?" she demanded. "How was our proposition received?"

Barl Hobson, the red wizard, also known as Lord Ruby, ignored her for the moment, though, and turned instead to a man dressed all in blue, whose wrist was adorned by a large, blue sapphire that glowed as brightly as Barl's ruby. They all wore gemstones on their wrists, each a different colour. Emerald, diamond, jet, ruby, opal, pearl and sapphire. Each contained powerful magics that linked them inseparably to that wizard's soul. Spells that had been cast by Khalkedon the rak King, their former master and the former ruler of the city. It had been his way of controlling his thralls, giving him the power to destroy any of them if they dared to oppose him.

They had risen up against him nevertheless, and found a way to destroy him, taking possession of their gems to safeguard them and, thereby, their own lives. Two of the Gem Lords had been killed during that battle, but the gem stones had absorbed their souls, saving them from death until clerics could repair their bodies and bring them back to life, and the seven lords had been wondering ever since whether they were immortal. It was an exciting thought, but a little scary as well, as Lord Sapphire, the blue wizard, was beginning to realise.

"I've made up my mind," the red wizard said to his blue clothed companion. "I'm keeping Pyre. The rest of you can put your steeds out to pasture when the smart supersteeds come crawling out of their tanks, but I'm keeping the one I've got. He's smart enough for me as it is. He anticipates my needs as if he reads my mind. He's faster than the swiftest eagle and as strong as a dozen oxen. You did a wonderful job designing him, but as far as I'm concerned you can pack your spellbooks away now. You'll never create anything to equal Pyre!"

"We'll all be keeping the steeds we've got, for the time being at least," said Lord Sapphire, looking pleased at the compliment but frowning unhappily with frustration. "I've not yet managed to produce a single viable embryo. I'm beginning to think I may have been too ambitious this time, to think I could breed in human level intelligence and the ability to use magic..."

"Gentlemen, please!" interrupted Alustra Jarel impatiently, fixing the red wizard with her unsettlingly pale eyes. "The diplomatic mission! How did it go?"

The gem she wore on her wrist was a perfect, clear diamond and it alone, of all the seven gems, lacked an inner light. Instead, it seemed as though the wrist inside the silver strap, and the smooth, slender hand beyond, were radiating a pearly luminescence, similar to that emanating from the smooth, white pearl adorning Enna Mael's wrist. Both women were blondes, but whereas Enna Mael's hair was as perfectly white as newly fallen snow, Alustra's had a silvery tinge to it, as if it were made of unimaginably fine strands of that precious metal.

"It went as we expected it would," replied Lord Ruby. "Lamont made polite noises in all the right places without giving any firm answers or commitments. For the benefit of his ministers, of course, more than a few of whom are known to be agents for neighbouring cities. Afterwards, though, he contrived an excuse to get alone with me, to tell me he was excited by our proposals of an alliance. He proposed ways for us to meet again in secret. The one thing he fears more than anything else is that his present 'allies' will find out before he's ready to shift his allegiance and punish him. His city is rich, but militarily weak. They could simply walk in any time they wanted."

"The reason we chose him," said Lan Del-Tora, more commonly known now as Lord Opal. He was the only one present dressed in more than one colour, his cloak being a marvel of rainbow iridescence that all three of the women admired with envy. "He may be a King in name, but in reality he is nothing more than a thrall to Yinnfarsia, as we used to be thralls to Khalkedon. He thinks he can use us to free himself and his city without committing himself to a new master."

"But we wouldn't treat him as a conquered enemy, would we?" replied Lord Sapphire who, as usual, had the uncomfortable impression that most of the conversation was going on way above his head. "He'd be our ally, wouldn't he? I mean, that's what this is all about, isn't it? We freed Domandropolis, and now we're trying to help other cities to free themselves. We're not simply trying to enslave them ourselves."

"He wouldn't be our thrall, certainly," agreed Lord Ruby, "but he can't be entirely our equal either. His rule is just as harsh and cruel as that of any of his masters. He won't change his ways just because we ask him nicely. If we're serious in our intentions to spread our values of justice and mercy, we'll have to impose them on him. Either that or remove him and one of us replace him as King. Any takers?"

"The nobility, and what army he has, are loyal to him," pointed out Lady Jet. Her black eyes fixed penetratingly on the red headed man, then glanced at the blue wizard. "They would also have to be removed if a new King were to move in."

Lord Sapphire shifted uneasily in his seat. He knew what 'removed' meant. He nodded unhappily, therefore. "We have to deal with Lamont, then," he said, "and use whatever measures it takes to bring him around to our way of thinking."

"Once we have him in our pocket," said Lord Ruby. "We'll have to implicate him in an attempt to betray his present masters. Once we have that to hold over him, he won't dare try going back to them."

"You have a plan?" asked Lady Diamond, leaning forward in her seat, her eyes widening with interest.

"Nothing solid yet. I'll have a better idea after our next meeting. He has a castle on the fringes of the Sucking Marshes. He goes there on occasion for hunting holidays. The breeks apparently grow larger there than anywhere else in the known world. He let it be known that he'll be there for the first half of the winter, to rest and recuperate from the stresses of rule, and for that reason he'll have none of his ministers with him to distract him with matters of state. Others of his staff will be on Yinnfarsia's payroll, of course. They never let him off his leash completely, but they won't know us by sight. If a couple of us go in plain clothes, he'll be able to introduce us as guests and talk with us in private to lay our plans."

"Who'll be going?" asked Lady Pearl. "You, of course, you know him, but who goes with you?"

"It's possible things might get nasty," said Lord Ruby, "so I'd like to have our best warrior wizard with me."

He looked at Lord Sapphire, who stared in astonishment. "But I'm no diplomat!" he protested. "I wouldn't know what in the world you were talking about!"

"You wouldn't have to," said his redheaded companion with a smile. "I'll be doing all the talking. You'll just be there to get us out if things get tricky. You know you're by far the best wizard among us. Probably the best living wizard in the world right now. There are only a couple of dozen raks who could stand against you in a one to one fight and it's unlikely in the extreme that any of them will turn up. You're the best man for the job and you know it."

Sapphire dropped his eyes glumly. "My work, my researches," he said, knowing how lame he sounded."

"Your apprentices are more than capable of doing the routine work until you get back," said Lord Ruby. "They can do without you for a while. Will you come with me?" Tak nodded miserably. "Good! We've got four weeks to make our preparations. I suggest we take a look at the area, familiarise ourselves with the castle and the surrounding country. The knowledge might well save our lives..."