to wander around these cliffs on your own, Human-Lia. Now, why don’t we get away from these nasty windrocs and I’ll show you the best cave in the world. He mock-snapped at her. Don’t you dare pick up a dragonet by his tail. It’s demeaning.
As they emerged from the far side of the thicket, Hualiama gave him one of those looks which stirred his belly-fires. “I don’t understand what I did to annoy you, Flicker, but I’m sorry. Very sorry. Sorry with your favourite intestines slathered on top?”
She giggled in that lilting way that never failed to amaze him. Lia had the best laugh. Carefree, bubbling, even a little wild. She reminded him of a storm in motion, he decided. Flicker’s seventh sense told him that she was the kind of creature who could shake the world. He purred to himself, knowing that she’d be changing nothing without his help. Straw-head would have been rotting in the Cloudlands …
“O mighty Flicker,” said Lia, bowing toward him with an elaborate Fra’aniorian hand-twirl, “slayer of the dreadful windroc, saviour and protector most gallant of maidens trapped down league-tall cliffs, will you ever forgive me?”
Well, said Flicker, strutting and puffing up his chest fit to burst, I’d do the same for anyone in trouble, Lia. But he knew he would slay ten windrocs for her smile.
The girl stopped in her tracks. “Mercy … my soul …”
She must realise what he already knew, that this ledge jutted out two hundred feet or so from the Island’s main body, offering unparalleled, panoramic views. To the north and south, the Island-massif curved away into the distance, a vertical mountain-slope as far as the eye could see. To the west, Flicker saw a few Islets–just mountain peaks, really, apart from one inhabited Island which the Humans called Ya’arriol–sticking up out of the Cloudlands. Even the Ancient One would not tell him what lay beneath that ever-shifting, ever opaque realm. Four or five miles to the southwest, a slender volcanic cone abutted the main Island, lush and green, wreathed in multi-coloured flights of dragonets, making the sharp, perfect cone seem to shimmer with living lights.
That was the place of the Great Dragon, a place of worship.
Hualiama stood motionless, as though wishing to devote her entire being to drinking in that beauty, eyes and mouth and pores all striving to know it, taste it, inscribe what she perceived on her heart. “W-What a-are those?” she stammered, pointing at the volcano.
“Dragonets,” said Flicker.
“So many?”
He coiled, intending to leap up onto her shoulder to comfort her, when he realised he was seeing the strange Human phenomenon called happy-tears. Flicker settled for rubbing against her legs like a cat.
“Oh, my poor darling, you’re hurt,” said Lia, scooping him up.
He pointed with his foreclaw. “Look. Dragons.”
Lia narrowed her eyes. Could she see that far? He was beginning to wonder how good her eyesight was, because she did not appear to see details which were instantly clear to him. He felt a distinct jolt in her body as she spotted the Dragonwing of six huge Reds. Her heart pounded against his flank. Was she afraid? It was men who had done this to her, not the Dragonkind.
Inside, said Flicker. Why are you afraid of Dragons, Lia?
She scuttled across the rock, making for a round cave-entrance he pointed out for her. Me afraid die, she said. “Forbidden.” No Human-Island.
Oh. So that was what the Ancient One had meant! Flicker tasted the strange word. It was similar to the idea that Dragons did not want dragonets invading their roosts, but carried deeper, darker undertones that he neither understood nor enjoyed.
Flicker bared his fangs at her.
* * * *
Lia angled rapidly for the cave. “Forbidden. It’s bad, not allowed … you don’t go to a forbidden place. If you do, they throw you off a Dragonship.”
When the dragonet did not appear to comprehend, Lia imitated the cry she had made before. Aaaah! She mimed a person falling into the Cloudlands.
By the Great Dragon’s breath! Every one of Flicker’s talons unsheathed as his paws contracted, making Hualiama gasp in pain. He said, Oh, shards take it. I’m sorry. Please …
She held him tighter. “What’s a few more cuts, little one?”
Sorry. The dragonet’s flexible neck extended. He rubbed cheeks with her. Hualiama flinched slightly in surprise, but quickly covered her mistake by imitating him, making a contented noise.
She said, “Umm, you smell … what is that smell?”
Flicker’s nostrils flared as they stood before the round cave entrance, wide enough