Read The Ultimate Helm for Free Online

I’m CassaRoc. CassaRoc the Mighty, they call me. And I think you can say...” He paused to appraise Teldin with his clear, cool eyes, then nodded once and smiled back. “I’m a friend,” he said.
    Teldin stared after the retreating neogi. In the distance, they were clambering off the wing, up the Spelljammer’s side, toward the protection of their tower. “Thanks,” Teldin said. “I need all the friends I can get.”
    “Don’t we all, boy?” CassaRoc said. “Don’t we all.”
    CassaRoc ordered his warriors to help move Djan and the fallen Corontea. As a dozen ran to help, the remaining humans gathered around the two warriors, sheathing their swords. CassaRoc shouted, making sure he could be heard by all. “Well, that should teach those damned neogi not to mess with the collective, at least for a while. All right,” CassaRoc yelled. “Who’s up for a round of ale?”
    The humans laughed and shouted agreement. Many stood with their weapons poised, waiting for another possible attack. CassaRoc placed a hand on Teldin’s shoulder. “Come on,” CassaRoc said. “Your people will be well taken care of. We should leave now, before somebody else decides they want a piece of you.”
    A tall man strode up to them, neatly outfitted in shining armor of silver and white. A heavy white cloak billowed behind him, and the warrior wore his thick, reddish blond hair in a wild mane that suggested to Teldin that the man was far less tame than his paladin armor suggested. “The centaur tower,” the warrior said, casting his gaze over the others’ heads. “Mostias can protect us there for a while. We can smuggle the newcomer into the Chalice tower after things settle down.”
    CassaRoc nodded approvingly. “You’re right, Chaladar,” he said. He leaned to Teldin and winked. “Besides, the centaurs make some excellent ales.”
    The woman armed with the crossbow came up beside CassaRoc. Her curly brown hair was held back with a band of shining steel, and she held herself proudly, like a self-assured warrior. “What about Chel? And Gar? Do you want to just leave them here?”
    CassaRoc frowned and looked toward the bodies of his fallen comrades. “I know they were friends of yours, Na’Shee,” he said. “They were friends to us all, but we have to worry about the living now. Let’s get the Cloakmaster here to the tower first. You can round up some men later and bring the bodies back to the Tower of Thought.” He laid a hand on her shoulder and smiled softly. “Don’t worry. They won’t be forgotten.”
    Na’Shee nodded silently and looked back at her friends’ bodies.
    Chaladar called out “Let’s go!” and the group started jogging toward the outermost tower on the Spelljammer ’s right wing, with Djan and Corontea each carried by four warriors in the center of the group. Chaladar, the paladin, took point, while CassaRoc ran at the rear. Teldin ran protected in the center, and continually glanced over his shoulders at the tall spires of the citadel sprawled across the Spelljammer ’s back.
    As they ran, CassaRoc pointed out some of the towers and explained a little of the ship’s layout. The light of the flow flickered gold and violet across the variegated collection of towers and turrets. Multipatterned flags flew at the pinnacles of several buildings, and the ship’s tail, towering above the rooftops and battlements, was a constant reminder of the majesty of the vessel, of the wonder of a living myth. To Teldin, the gleaming towers, the graceful sweep of the Spelljammer ’s hull, represented nothing but the fulfillment of a dream – a dream of extraordinary adventure that he never could have conceived while a simple melon farmer on Krynn.
    But the simple life of Krynn was a lifetime ago and a universe away – or at least it seemed like that to Teldin. Krynn was now little more than a memory, both good and bad. The nights on his land had been sweet, especially in summers, when the hidaglia