After tying off the vine, they set out to climb the cliff.
Flicker had helped Lia shift linger-vines into helpful positions and affix them, making the climb far easier than before. Still, it was a sheer vertical ascent, so it took the slow Humans an hour to traverse the cliff to the tunnel, skirting the avalanche site to the southern side. The shaking of the dragonet’s head as he examined the Dragon’s grave made his spine spikes quiver. The place was ill-omened, a monstrous jumble of rock and bushes dropped into a ravine which must cut deep into the Island, perhaps an ancient watercourse. It made his scales itch. Could it be that the Dragon was trapped further within, as Lia thought?
Egg-head followed straw-head into the tunnels. Flicker gave a toothy grin of amusement. Ja’al’s very fires were about to be snuffed out in shock.
The monk paused, his voice rising to a squeak, “There’s something down here, Lia. What is it?”
“Come on, Ja’al,” she urged. He senses what we know, Flicker.
Bah, you think he’s that clever?
Traversing the wondrous geodes and tunnels lined with sparkling crystal, they came at length to the place where the Ancient One brooded in darkness. Amaryllion had lain silent all this time, but he perceived their approach. Flicker knew that the Ancient Dragons had the power to send their senses out into the Island-World, observing and gathering information, tasting magic upon the breezes and reading the hearts and minds of the Lesser Dragons and Humans. Ah, which reminded him, he should see if the Dragon library held any information that could help his girl. Lia would be delighted.
Fiery, monstrous, the Ancient One’s orb opened to light upon the threesome–the little ones, who quaked before his majesty.
“Ja’al the Just,” he said. “Welcome.”
To his credit, Ja’al did not fall down as Hualiama had done that first time, but neither could he speak.
“I am Amaryllion Fireborn, the last Ancient Dragon of this Island-World,” he rumbled, his voice filling the tunnels and caves with thick draconic resonance. “We live in a great crater, thousands of leagues in diameter, forged by the explosion of a comet as it collided with this world, which flung up the shielding rim-wall mountains, twenty-five leagues tall and more, and carved the depths now filled by the Cloudlands. Little ones, the world beyond the mountains is greater still, a world of blue oceans and white sands, of mountains and deeps, within which myriad creatures roam, great and small, good and evil–and wherein dwell many more of thy kind.”
“What’s an ocean?” inquired Lia, in a small voice.
“Imagine the terrace lakes of thy native Island, little mouse,” growled Amaryllion. “Now imagine those waters as endlessly wide as the Cloudlands, sparkling blue beneath the twin suns. Therein creatures as great as Dragons do sport, indeed, creatures called Whales which rival even my size. And they speak a tongue akin to that of Dragons.”
* * * *
Hualiama quivered with wonder. Even Flicker seemed stunned. Imagine whole oceans churned into a fury by mighty talking fishes, and a world greater than their own? Who had ever seen the rim mountains? Perhaps from the frozen Isles north of Immadia, or perhaps south of the Rift in Herimor, such sky-scraping peaks might be visible–but no traveller’s account she had ever read, had described what must surely be an unforgettable sight.
“I would instruct thee, Ja’al,” said Amaryllion, “but mostly, I would know thee. I am not Fra’anior, who blessed thee this day, but I am his kin. Hualiama and Flicker I call friends, though they are small and I am mighty.”
The yellow fires in his eye surged as the Dragon’s mind fixed upon Lia. “The way of Ancient Dragons is to deal first with business. Therefore, I charge thee to find and succour the Tourmaline Dragon, little mouse. The Dragon is alive, but unwell, and sorely wounded. Find him beneath the avalanche, buried deep within the mountain.”
Pensively, she nodded, stealing a glance at Ja’al. Poor man! Dragon fear and awe gripped him in equal measure.
“There is an ancient prophecy I had thought lost,” said Amaryllion. “The creature Ra’aba uses it to forge his destiny. It speaks of a time of change and turmoil, when a giant comet shall streak across our skies and the balance of the Island-World shall be thrown into disarray. Old powers will fail, and a new race–the third great race of the Island-World–will rise from the shadows, a race born of magic. That is what Ra’aba fears.”