Almeijn had reached Thrymhaiam before she died. He could ask for no more. And some of the very deepest of the Coriam Lakes came right up to the foot of the cliff. It was possible, distinctly possible. But it was not a very dwarvish thing to do: few among the dwarves claimed any skill at watercraft. He found himself struggling against the idea.
He looked up and saw the puffs of steam had become a continuous trail of black smoke, forming a venomous cloud overhead in the rising dusk. Then he knew the merits of his idea were not a matter of debate. Either the dragon had already seen him, in which case it was preparing to come get him, or it would soon take flight for other reasons. But as soon as it took to the air it would see him and kill him. To jump was his only chance. He would take it, or lie still to await death.
He took it. He leapt to his feet and turned sharply left, away from the dragon, running along the ragged edge of the cliff. His eye caught the dark glitter of water below him just as the dragon roared; it had seen him at last. His feet skittered instinctively toward the edge when the dragon roared, but he drew them back and ran on along the verge. The water below was still too far from the cliff.
The dragon roared again, and this time its breath took fire. The cool blue dusk was transfigured into a nightmare by the bloodred light. Morlock heard its wings whistling in the air and looked over his shoulder as he ran. The dragon was lifting itself off the stone ledge. Then the ground disappeared from under his own feet. His mouth formed an involuntary shout of surprise, but he hit the ground before his lungs could issue it. He had fallen only about an arm’s length; so he found as he rolled to his feet. But he had wasted time. The dragon was approaching. He saw water below him. He jumped out from the cliff with all his strength.
He fell for four hundred years, light as a leaf in the evening air. That was how it seemed, anyway. As he turned, falling, he saw the heavy bat-winged dragon sweep over and turn downward in a steep controlled fall. It roared a third time, and the light spread like burning oil across the dark water below. Morlock believed the dragon was gaining on him, driving itself downward with its wings. The glittering waterscape vaulted upward and struck him like a field of stone.
Morlock arced through the dark water, struggling to make progress toward the surface and the shore. Then the dragon plunged into the lake, and the dark water became redly opalescent with fire and turbulence.
He felt a powerful current drawing him backward and down as the water went dark again. He fought the water savagely, hating it. It was the water keeping him from the air he needed so painfully, the water that was pushing him back toward the dragon. And in the middle of his struggle to hold his breath he realized he was tormentingly thirsty. It became a terrible temptation to open his lips and let the killing water in. He clenched his teeth. His feet touched something solid and he kicked off upward, finally breaking the surface. Expecting the dragon’s abysslike jaws to open up beneath him at any moment, he swam over the center of the turbulence and fought his way to shore.
With almost the last of his strength he drew himself up on the rock ledge bordering the lake and crawled into the surrounding brush. He lay there for a few moments gasping, then crawled out and tried hopelessly to take his bearings for the Helgrind. He had fallen to the ground and was struggling back to his knees when he realized the dragon had not followed him out of the water. He looked back and saw that the turbulence in the lake was slowly clearing. At its center a dark shape lay still.
The serpentine shape was sinking out of sight in the once-blue water. A heavy layer of fog diffused the light of the major moons—which, in any case, would have only lit up the surface of the lake, now greasy with expelled venom.
That gave Morlock, perched on the stone ledge above the water, his first clue as to what had happened. The dragon had been thirsty. That was all!