regular intervals, learning how difficult it was to strike moving targets while flying Dragonback. She woke one morning to discover herself sharing Grandion’s warm paw with a ten-foot cobra. Flicker disabled the snake with an expert bite behind the skull, after which they shared a tasty meal.
“Lovely fat rock hyrax, young bearded goats and now a yellow-bellied cobra,” the dragonet declared with relish. “This is the place to feast!”
Hualiama sniffed through her raw, red nose. Grandion only grunted, trying to keep from being swept against what had to be the millionth stone column they had passed. Lia knew she would have become hopelessly lost in the rocky maze, but her draconic companions appeared to navigate it with ease, returning again and again to the edge of the Spits, before picking the next route to investigate. Lia wondered what could have created such rock formations–miles high, with enough regularity just to begin to tease the mind with the notion that perhaps they had been shaped or carved by an unknown intelligence, before all descended into a jumbled nightmare once more. They needed to search not only horizontally, but vertically through a three-dimensional labyrinth.
Late on the fifth afternoon, after navigating into another blind canyon, Lia’s black mood finally boiled over. She yelled, “I give up! Who needs parents anyway? They abandoned me! And look what I received in exchange. Stupid insulting poxy fungus-ridded ralti-dropping-laced leech infested misbegotten travesty of a fate!”
“By my wings, say all that again? Backwards?” Flicker teased.
Lia tossed him off Grandion’s back.
* * * *
Picked up by a truculent breeze, the dragonet tumbled away toward the bottom of the blind canyon with a yelp and a brief fireball of surprise. Flicker fluttered valiantly, but a vortex sucked him downward. The Tourmaline Dragon reacted instantly. A plunge, a swipe of his forepaw to net the dragonet and a bruising landing resulted. Grandion groaned, My knee!
Flicker’s scales prickled with the curious magic of a Dragon’s seventh sense. Grandion, Hualiama, there’s something down there.
I’m sorry, said Lia, patting Grandion where she could reach his shoulder. I didn’t mean–
I’m fine, he growled. Judging by his limp as he approached the place where the wind whistled away into a bleak, jagged tunnel, clearly not. Dragonet and Lesser Dragon considered the darkness together. I sense it too, Flicker.
Lia pitched her voice to carry over the wind’s keening. “It doesn’t look like a staircase into anything.”
You poor, stunted Human, said Flicker, keeping a respectful distance from her hand. Lia’s reactions had grown swift, of late. Leave the Dragonkind to the hunting, will you?
Come. The Tourmaline Dragon began to squeeze into the tunnel.
Hualiama yelped, Mind–stop! I have a head, you know. Flicker, I’ll thank you not to snicker, you mange-raddled clump of ambulatory mildew.
What’s with all the big words today? he complained. I’m being nice, aren’t I?
Hurry up, boys. Lia, pushing ahead, promptly staggered as the wind caught her.
Allow me, said Grandion, his bulk blocking the tunnel–and any remaining ambient light. But with an audible crackle of magic, he lit up the tunnel with his eyes. Lia almost leaped out of her soft hide.
Flicker crooned in approval. Oh, very clever–
One more word, dragonet, and I’ll squash you like a bug, Grandion growled. Move along, Rider.
The Tourmaline Dragon was just being tetchy, which was understandable, Flicker thought. Whilst his larger cousins did love a cave roost or an underground treasure hoard, they invariably chose lighter, airier spaces which suited their massive stature and love of freedom. Bellying down a tunnel was not a Dragon’s idea of fun, especially not when that tunnel led to a place of unfamiliar magic. Flicker tested the exotic, disturbing scents alertly. This was beyond his experience. Ancient magic lurked in these walls, making him feel distinctly queasy. Suddenly, he shared straw-head’s evident lack of desire to proceed. Only evil could dwell in a place like this.
They crawled down the tunnel for hours before abruptly breaking out into a vast cavern. Its vaulting roof was hidden in shadow, while the floor … Flicker’s hearts pounded forward, triple speed.
“The staircase into darkness,” Hualiama whispered, bracing herself as Grandion popped free from the tunnel. At once, the wind whistled about them.
Giant steps, indeed. Flicker peered down a series of steps, each two hundred feet tall. The scale of the cavern stunned him, but after a time, he began to grasp what he was seeing. These were the same columns as comprised the Spits, but they lay side-by-side in a neat pile–rectangular columns each several miles tall