The old one is not a reflection on you, Kanin said, intruding on Khollo’s thoughts. You are stronger, wiser, and kinder than he. You sought me out and set me free, though you did not know who or what I was.
Khollo sighed. “Yes. But part of Ezraan is in me. That same bitterness, and weakness.”
Kanin did not reply, merely adjusted his course, heading east across the valley. His great wings beat slowly, just often enough to maintain their lazy speed. After a few moments, he began to descend, wheeling in a great circle, spiraling downwards. Khollo did not see anything below, but Kanin clearly had.
The dragon settled to the valley floor and once again landed on stone, his claws clicking and clacking on the hard surface. Khollo looked up, surprised, and saw a great wall of vines clinging to the mountainside. The vegetation curved away from them in a series of expanding semicircular tiers rising from a central courtyard, in which they had landed. Here and there were dark openings in the foliage, like the mouths of half-hidden mountain caves.
Kanin nosed forward, then half jumped and half flew up to the second tier and then the third. Here the vegetation was thinner and Khollo could make out stonework behind the leaves and vines clinging to the surface. Kanin tore aside a swath of vegetation, revealing a tremendous archway leading to a large, dark room. Khollo dismounted and followed Kanin inside.
The room was perfectly square, the walls and floor smooth and untarnished. The ceiling was a shallow dome, centered by a circular piece. The piece had been painted in a bygone age, but only flecks of color were left now. The floor of the room was bowl shaped, large enough for a dragon to sleep in comfortably. Beyond the bowl was a smaller archway, human-sized, leading to a short hallway.
Khollo crossed the bowl and passed through the arch. There was an open archway to the left, a solid door to the right. Through the archway, Khollo could see a small sitting and eating room, a heavy door that probably led to a storeroom in the back wall. In the front wall was a wide, oval-shaped window that looked back out over the dragon-sized bowl.
The young warrior opened the door on the right side of the hallway and found himself in a bedchamber. A heavy wooden bedframe stood against the far wall, but there was no mattress or bedding. A chest of drawers and a stand with a basin stood on the wall to the right. To the left was a small, square room sealed with a light wooden door. A privy, no doubt. Khollo retreated to the main room, where Kanin was now curled up in the hollow on the floor, his eyes following Khollo’s every move.
This will do, Kanin observed. This hold will be ours. Nobody can reach it, save on dragon back. Especially once we clear the green from the lower levels.
Khollo looked around. There was a thick layer of dust over most of the hold, and there wasn’t much in the way of supplies, but it was a secure, isolated space. For now, that would be enough. They could fix it up in the coming days –
But Khollo wouldn’t be staying for a few days. He would be returning to the West Bank to help them prepare for war, to assure Janis that he was all right, maybe to tell him that his brother was really alive. And, certainly, to flame the vertaga with Kanin and drive them from the kingdom.
We cannot, Kanin said sadly.
“What?” Khollo asked, swinging around.
I do not know the way.
“How can you not know the way?” Khollo demanded. “You brought us here!”
I followed the call, Kanin explained. I have no such guide for returning to your land.
Khollo sat down on the edge of the bowl, stricken. “So, we can’t go back?”
I cannot lead us back, Kanin said. Can you?
Khollo thought hard. He knew of no islands in the southern sea. He had never had cause to study maps beyond the Renlor Basin and the Fells for years. Even at the Academy, the emphasis was on the interior of the continent and the cities along the Furnier. Sometimes, if the wild men of the plains were causing problems, they would discuss Gobel-Tek and the Heights. But the Southern Sea? Never.
“I don’t know,” Khollo whispered. “I guess we’re stuck.”
Kanin blinked slowly, his opalescent eyes full of concern. The old one did say something about a library.
Khollo nodded. “Yes. But it’s huge, judging by what he said, and it could take weeks to find a map that’s any use to us.”
And you are likely to run into the old one there, Kanin observed.
“Yes,” Khollo agreed.
Kanin shifted in his hollow. Will you be all right? He asked finally.
Khollo shrugged. “We’ll see. I’m starting to get used to having the people close to me disappoint me.” He clenched his jaw and turned away, staring out the entrance of the hold.
Kanin closed his eyes. Within moments, the dragon was asleep, his massive frame heaving with each slow, deep breath. Khollo sat with him for a time, then left the hold and stood outside on a wide ledge, meant for dragons to land on. The ledge commanded a beautiful view of the jungle below, or, rather, the jungle-covered holds below. Khollo wondered if there had really once been so many dragons and Keepers, and if so, what had happened to them.
An ancient legacy, Khollo thought bitterly. I am the son of a deranged coward, heir to a pile of rocks and jungle-encrusted buildings. I know nothing of the Keepers, and hardly more about dragons. What am I doing here?
And yet, the valley called to him as it had called to Kanin. Even
