“Stop! We have to go back!” Khollo shouted. But the dragon paid him no heed. So Khollo hung, helpless, wondering where in the world the beast was taking him.
Chapter 24
Khollo passed out from fear not long after the escape. The far distant floor of the Renlor Basin was rolling past in a meaningless blur of whites, grays, and browns. They were so high up that it was impossible to make out details or even to tell where in the Basin they were. To Khollo’s left, the broken peaks of the Fells flashed past. And all the while the dragon held Khollo tightly in one of its front feet, its talons wrapped around him.
Khollo came out of the faint much later, in complete darkness. He could feel the dragon’s claws around him still, and the rushing wind belied the speed of their passage over the land below. Through the night and the following day, he drifted in and out of consciousness. He woke at night once more, and this time could see thousands of stars glittering in the heavens. A few moments later though, the dragon gave a frightening lurch and Khollo passed out again. He really was terribly afraid of heights.
Finally, Khollo woke and found that the Renlor Basin was gone, and so were the Fells. They were racing over a great blue expanse, streaked with rippling lines of white foam at regular intervals. The Southern Sea.
Khollo had never seen the sea before, and for the first time in his impromptu flight he was able to relax and gaze in wonder at the sights below. Waves rolled past far below his dangling feet, and sea birds wheeled in the air beside him. Then, he remembered the events at the vertaga fortress and looked up at the dragon.
“We have to go back!” he shouted.
The dragon ignored him. Or maybe it couldn’t hear him over the noise of their flight.
Khollo tried again. “Hey! Let me go!”
The dragon’s great head snaked around to look at him curiously. You wake, good. The dragon rolled over on its side in mid-flight and reached around, depositing Khollo at the base off its neck. Khollo yelled in fright, then grabbed hold of one of the spines running down the dragon’s back and gripped its neck tightly with his legs. He took a great shuddering breath and forced his wildly beating heart to slow.
Better? The dragon asked.
“No, we have to go back,” Khollo cried. “My friends need me, they are at war with the vertaga. Please, they could be attacked at any time!”
The dragon snorted and shook its great head violently. I cannot.
“Because-?”
Home calls.
Khollo growled in frustration and pounded the spine he was clutching. “And after we find your home? What then?”
The dragon did not reply. Khollo gave up trying to reason with the beast and slumped forward against its spine, which was surprisingly cool. What will Janis and the others do? he wondered. Will Sermas and Hern go back to the West Bank? Will they try and follow us all the way to the coast first? Will Janis go back to drinking? He hoped not. If Janis started drinking again to drown his pain, he might never stop.
Night came. The dragon flew on, gliding over the sea. This was the longest Khollo had been awake since the flight had begun and he realized that he was starving, and terribly thirsty.
The sun began to set in the west, gilding the waves and sending great streaks of golden light across the sea. For a moment, Khollo was swept away by the beautiful sight. Then, he caught sight of a low shape that was blocking part of the sun. He squinted, trying to make it out, then realized what he was seeing.
“Land!” he shouted. “Finally!” Maybe now we can go back, he thought hopefully.
The dragon roared happily and launched a brilliant stream of flame skyward. A few seagulls squawked in protest and dropped out of sight, diving to avoid the dragon. Khollo laughed and leaned forward, peering at this new land. Where are we? This is surely another part of the Sthan kingdom. Near the Lanis River? Or closer to the Furnier? Have we come right around the bottom of the world?
The light from the sunset was beginning to fade. Khollo could make out the rough shapes of mountains, but beyond that not much else. The dragon growled and climbed higher, wings straining with the effort. Just as it reached the coastline far below, the sun reappeared between a gap in two mountains and Khollo knew there was no place such as this in all the Sthan Kingdom.
A great ring of mountains with steep, sharp slopes and rounded peaks stood before them, taller than any mountains he had ever seen, taller again by half than the Fells. The tallest of the peaks in the ring would rival the massive northern mountains of the Najni Range. And all along the slopes were trees the like of which Khollo had never seen this far south. At the edges of the island, oaks and beeches and aspen. In the center of the ring of mountains, tropical trees with broad leaves and creepers dangling from their branches. Khollo caught a glimpse of a wide plain north of the ring of mountains, littered with herd beasts, then the sun finally set, and the land was lost in shadow.
Khollo leaned forward and placed a hand on the dragon’s scaly neck. “Is this your home?”
Yes.
The dragon began gliding in a wide circle, descending into the valley in between the ring of mountains. The air grew warmer as they descended in great loops, riding gently on the air. By the time the dragon’s talons sank into the warm, fertile earth, Khollo
