passed the gaping door to Caer Glain and regained the trail leading to the dragons of Tal Ebolyon.
The group settled into the journey, Bran pulled Westryl alongside Richard.
“Do you really believe Philip will try to invade our world?”
“Perhaps. I don’t know for sure,” Richard said, thinking on it and still not arriving at an answer. “We still have not found the reason behind the attack on you, but I, like Merle, believe it to be related somehow to Philip wanting our world. But regardless, what I said to Lord Fafnir is true. Men like Philip crave more, their lives filled with insatiable greed. He will come one day to enslave both worlds.”
“And then?”
“Philip will die,” Richard said simply. “His army will die. And then this world will die. Annwn may have magic but the technology of our world will crush him. When that happens, those men like Philip in our world will destroy Annwn. We can’t let that happen.”
“We won’t,” Bran said.
“Why do you think Merle pressed me into this?” Richard snorted. “He knew a Heliwr was needed if we are to survive. If Philip is not stopped—if his desires are left unchecked—it could spell doom for both worlds. No matter if I hate the man for keeping this from me, a Heliwr is the only way to help maintain the integrity of the other portals. Merle pushed me here by using Elizabeth. For that, I will have a great many words for the old man.”
“If I knew anything about Elizabeth in this, I would tell you.”
Richard nodded guardedly.
“If he can view our world, wouldn’t Philip know that our technology would be more than a match for his army?” Bran questioned.
“He should,” Richard agreed. “And that’s what frightens me.”
While Lyrian strode on, Richard closed his eyes and reached out to the Dark Thorn. The staff was there, connected to him. Sighing, Richard opened his eyes and realized he might have a difficult time calling the staff: Arondight had answered his appeal most of the time, but his inability to control it completely had left him and others in danger. It was likely his past could also hinder his authority over the Dark Thorn.
The time for that test would come soon.
Of that he was sure.
The day grew warm. The Nharth disappeared to reveal the landscape—jagged barren slopes, the mountaintops around him too high for even the hardy lower clime pine and fir to grow. Short shrubs clung to pockets of dirt, and grayish grasses stabbed blades from crevices in the rock. The group passed drifts of snow, blinding beneath the sun. A hawk spiraled on what currents were afforded it, a lone act of life in the craggy reaches. It was hard to believe anything lived in the Snowdon heights, even dragons.
As the sun came to its zenith, the path leveled and the travelers came to Tal Ebolyon.
It was not what Richard had expected. Massive walls of eroded dark granite stood as high as a forest, dwarfing the knight and those around him. The stone blocks were seamlessly cut to fit while along the top of the wall the merlons were rounded nubs, scarred by weather and age. A circular doorway yawned in front of the company, the architecture similar in style to that of Caer Glain, a vast flat area beyond beckoning them forward.
“I hope Lord Latobius is here,” Richard said. “Time is short.”
“Will the dragons cooperate?” Bran asked.
“I do not know. Time to see.”
“The dragons have had a rough time of it as of late,” Deirdre said. “They are rarely seen in the skies. Travelers coming to Mochdrev Reach say they are dying. If that is true, I think this might be a great deal more difficult than Caer Glain.”
“That means I alone talk then,” Richard said. “And fairy, if you open your yap and piss them off, I swear I will put you in a jar and never let you out.”
Snedeker frowned darkly but said nothing.
The Rhedewyr clopped through the opening into a different world. A lone snow-covered peak cut the blue sky, lording over a far-reaching lake as blue as icy steel. Large stone partitions like broken gray teeth grew from a carpet of finely cut green grass, the sudden vibrant color a shock. Oak trees as large as eight-story buildings shadowed every eroded wall, each symmetrical and healthy, while numerous trimmed hedges curved beneath them and met flowering vines snaking on stone trellises and hardy rhododendrons bursting with blooms. Several oddly shaped boulders littered the grounds