and books and even more platforms. Crystal lights burned lower down in the library. This cavern dwarfed the Palace library. It dwarfed the Palace itself.
She expected to smell musty, mouldering records, but there was none of that. Only fresh, clean leather and the tang of treated scroll-leaf, as though the library were regularly maintained and aired out by beings now absent. Her hand flew to her mouth. The scroll-stands stood fifteen feet high!
Dragon-sized.
A library of lost Dragon lore? What a treasure trove!
However, Lia could see no way of entering from where she was, unless she wished to climb down the shelves. That seemed sacrilegious, somehow.
With great reluctance, Hualiama retraced her steps. Where would a dragonet be hiding? She had already been walking for several hours, and had passed by enough gemstones to finance her father’s kingdom for her lifetime and a few more.
Finding several of her stone arrows, Hualiama jogged wearily along the trail to where she had previously found a dark place, which seemed unique in these caves. Her steps slowed as she began to hear a faraway thudding, a monstrous drumbeat which filled her with trepidation, and a gentle breeze brought the scent of the deep caverns to her nostrils. Now, this was more dangerous. She had no light, unless–yes. Picking up a fallen shard of luminous crystal the size of a decent sword, Lia advanced into the darkness.
She came quickly to the place where she had rested before. Her footprints were still visible in the dust. But here she saw fresh dragonet tracks, claw-scratches leading away into a tunnel to her right. Ha. She was hot on Flicker’s trail. Just wait until she caught that pesky runaway! She’d wring his sinuous little neck until he bawled out his answers. No more evasions. No more sneaking off at night and sleeping the days away.
“Dragonet steaks, chargrilled to perfection,” she muttered, flexing her fingers. “Spicy dragonet stew served with purple tubers. One cheeky dragonet stuffed and mounted for a trophy!”
Pressing on, Hualiama followed the twisting tunnel for another twenty minutes, losing the trail twice, before she broke out into a vast, dark space. Where were the crystal lights? Her little spar gave her just enough illumination to spy an enormous gorge to her left hand; she maintained a respectful distance from the edge. The drumming sound was louder and clearer here, and wind seemed to rush somewhere nearby, across the gorge, although no breeze ruffled her hair.
Lia cast about for the source of the sounds. Nothing, just the pervading, warm darkness within which … a presence brooded. She rubbed her temples tiredly. Mercy. Mortal terror followed by an evening’s spelunking? Not her smartest choice of late. Perhaps her madness had started with confronting Ra’aba. Did that not prove her brain was stuffed with pollen?
Lia delved in her bag, and bit hungrily into a juicy prekki-fruit. Delicious, the nectar of life itself.
The path led on across a cavern of unknown size, before twisting up into a maze of tunnels beyond. Was that Flicker’s voice? Hualiama paused, straining her ears. There, issuing from her right. She remembered to scrape an arrow on the tunnel she entered. The darkness was absolute, now, but she tracked the sound of his chirping through a short stretch of tunnel, guiding herself with a fingertip touch, every step ventured with care, before climbing a steep slope into an open space. The light in her hand suddenly illuminated the dragonet, perched on a spire of rock in front of a black wall.
… power of visions, o Ancient One, he was saying. There’s more to this Human girl than … Lia! What’re you doing here?
Lia snapped, I might ask you the same question, you little runaway!
The dragonet seemed stricken. He glanced at the wall before replying, I come here to meditate.
Rotten liar! Lia drew breath to scorch his scaly rump with all the irritation she had built up during her long search.
NAY, LITTLE MOUSE. IT IS TIME SHE KNEW.
A vast voice boomed in her mind, which should by rights fracture the cavern’s ceiling. She gasped, “W-Who said that?”
Beyond the dragonet, light cracked through the black stone. Lia froze. Twenty feet wide, a gash of streaming light opened up, growing taller than her with startling speed, until the Human girl suddenly realised what she beheld.
“Mercy!” With a scream, her legs gave out and she tumbled several yards down the slope she had climbed to reach Flicker’s perch. An eye! Oh, mercy, mercy … she began to cover her head