He snorted. "Don't be an idiot, Shikrar. You need rest, and by all accounts it is a very long way to the East Mountains." More solemnly he added, "Lanen and I are weary as well, my friend, and it would be useful to spend some time in careful consideration. We must find some way to fight so fierce afire, where our own strength avails not."

I began to look for a landing site and discovered that there was a sizeable river below us, running northwest-southeast. I began to spiral downwards, faster than I would have liked, but the air here was very still and it was hard to keep altitude. I fear that my friends had a bit of a rough landing, but when they found their breath again they assured me that they were not injured.

We had came to ground in what appeared to be an uninhabited stretch of land beside a tributary of the great river that divides the north of Kolmar from the south. There was a small wood nearby from which Lanen and Varien gathered fuel for a large fire, and the river graciously provided both drink and food. The fish were much smaller than I was used to, but there were enough for all.

"Idai and Gyrentikh are together," I told Lanen and Varien. I lay curled around the fire, they sat together on the other side and ate. "Idai bespeaks me. They have not seen our blaze yet. I will build it a little higher, that it may be more readily seen from aloft. Alikfrikh comes also, but she despairs of finding us before dawn because of—oh!" I was pleased to find that even at such a time, I could still find amusement in the little things.

"What has delayed her?" asked Varien grimly.

"No, no, there is nothing amiss—it is only that she has had to deal with Will," I said, starting to hiss with amusement. "It seems that Will—well, Alikfrikh reports that he is a typical useless Gedri, and that he hates flying." I rejoiced to see a real smile cross Varien's face. "The poor soul grew ill and demanded to return to land after the first hour. I gather that after he rid himself of his last meal he felt a little better."

Blessed be the Winds, they both laughed. "Poor Will!" said Varien. "Is he still so convinced that he must come with us?"

"He is," I replied. "Though I cannot fathom his reasons."

"Can you not, Eldest?" asked Lanen quietly. "It seems clear enough to me." Varien and I stared at her blankly and she sighed. "Man or Kantri, it obviously doesn't matter, you are both blind as moles at noon. Have you not seen the way Will gazes at Aral when she's not looking?"

"I confess I had not noticed," I said, intrigued.

"It breaks my heart," she said sadly. "He's a good man. If only she could see past Vilkas. She desires to be warmed by that furnace that burns in her friend, and she will not turn and see the home fire and welcoming hearth that await her lightest word." She yawned then, hugely, and smiled up at me. "Forgive me, Eldest. I am weary beyond belief." She moved nearer Varien and rested her head on his shoulder.

"Alikfrikh says that Rella has mocked Will unmercifully," I reported, speaking quietly so as not to disturb Lanen. "Strangely, it seems to have given him comfort."

"Good for Rella," replied Varien, grinning. "Thank the Winds that she at least can keep her sense of perspective."

"I will confess that I am finding that difficult," I said slowly. "The legend..."

'The legend of the Black Dragon indeed!" Varien snorted.

"A story to frighten younglings into behaving. I am not a great believer in legends, Shikrar, and now that I have seen it—well, there may be a grain of truth in the centre of every old tale, but I do not think that our world is going to end."

I looked up, stretching my wings and my neck, working out the knots in the long muscles. "Perhaps you are right, and legend is ... exaggerated." I sighed. "The air here is sweeter than at home," I said wistfully. "Have you smelled the flowers on the night breeze, Akhor? Even so early in the year. They are intoxicating." I breathed deep, savouring the heavy scent of the blossoms, the clean smell of the river, the sparkling glory of the brilliant star field above us in the deep sky. "The water is good, the land is good, and I rejoice with all my soul to see you and your beloved together again."

"As do I, Hadreshikrar, as do I," he replied, kissing her hair lightly. She slept.

"I believe there is much of good in most of the Gedri, and much that may be done between our two races for the betterment of both." Another sigh escaped me. "Truth be told, Akhor-ishaan, I would prefer not to die just now."

"Surely you cannot believe that old nonsense?" he scoffed.

"Perhaps not—but my thoughts have been much concerned with death, of late." I could not stop myself from shuddering. "You did not see it, Akhor. Our home died in flames. That green gem of an island was covered in fire and molten rock, there was no hint of green left—it was black from side to side before it sank below the waves. There is a part of me that died with it, I fear. I cannot tell you how that image has burned into my heart."

Varien bowed his head for a moment, in deep thought, when I ,anen let out a snore. He grinned and gendy lowered her to the ground, covering her with his cloak and resting her head on his pack. I was faindy distracted by the shifting gleams of the firelight on his long silver hair, so different from his scales yet so "similar, and on his brilliant soulgem gleaming in the golden circlet I had made for it when he was new-made a man—but when he looked up from tending to his wife he astounded me, for there in Gedri eyes was shining the warrior soul of Akhor, my soulfriend of nearly a thousand winters.

"Do not let them win, Shikrar," he said, rising, his voice deep and powerful, defiance in every line of him. "You know what the Rakshasa use when force is not enough. Despair is their greatest weapon and our final defeat. The world, our lives, are changed, not over!" He stood and, moving away from Lanen, began to pace before the fire. 'Tou are right, you know. This is a good land, and surely with goodwill and a little assistance from those Gedri who know us, we will make a new homeland for ourselves." He glanced over towards his beloved, fast asleep, and lowered his voice. "I am already bound to this land by ties of marriage and blood, and I rejoice in it, but what future awaits my childer if they have not Grandfather Shikrar to teach them? And what of your own Sherok, our cherished youngest? Will you so easily desert your grandson, so new-come to this world?"

"Of course not," I snorted. 'Tou know me of old. I will fight with the last breath of my body and the last beat of my heart to protect my family and our people. But sometimes courage is not enough, old friend." I shivered, snout to tail-tip, and not from the cold. "My word on it, Akhor, that great black thing has shaken me to my core. My soul is more bleak than I have ever known it, and I begin to think of Yrais more and more."

Varien did not speak, but he walked around the fire and stood next to me. I lowered my head to his level to see him better, and for the only time in all our years of friendship, he leaned forward and touched my soulgem with his. I was shocked, for it is a delicate intimacy, more normal between a mother and child. I had not known such a contact, aside from Kedra, since my beloved mate Yrais left this life to sleep on the Winds, but at that moment, somehow, it was entirely appropriate. At the touch of his soulgem, the torrential river of his loving concern came pouring over my parched soul. True friendship, born of long knowledge, born of knowing all the faults and accepting them as part of the whole— such a thing is rare and precious, and that was the gift he gave me that night; the full knowledge of the depth of his love for me, as mentor, as friend, as father to him since his own went to sleep on the Winds.