Page 172 of Dragon Strike (Age of Fire 4)

Out of desperation, he misaligned his wings, sending him into a spin. Though dizzying, it kept him to the center of the shaft.

And if he crashed into a rock, he’d be spared the moment of horror before the impact.

As the patch of lonely sky breaking the dark grew, the shaft widened, and he found himself having to flap his wings hard to keep rising.

An ascent at this angle is almost impossible for a scaled dragon for longer than a brief moment or two of furious wingwork, even with such a tailwind. AuRon found his body swelling with each deep breath, his throat one long wound forcing the rush of air in and out.

Out, with night sky all around, with the loom of a shorn-topped volcano above, dusted with snow and pocked with ice. AuRon, curious, circled up and over the crater.

Despite the smokes rising from tears in the side of the mountain, he had a good view down into the mouth of the crater. A lake lay there, with a thin bulge at the center that seemed to be a mound of ice, but he suspected it was in fact the crest of the strange crystal dome.

Off to the west a second volcano steamed, connected to the mountain by way of a rocky saddle.

It took him a moment to obtain his bearings and evaluate the air currents, for the stars were strange this far south. Once he knew north from south, he turned his neck for Ghioz.

An hour of flight passed and he idled in an updraft as the dry ground north of the Lavadome’s mountain bled heat into the night sky. He spotted a watering hole shining below and started a slow circle down to see if it was safe to drink.

Motion caught his eye to the north. Two roc-riders, flying hard and a goodly distance apart, straight for the mountain of the Lavadome.

Something about the distance between the two bothered him. All the roc-riders he’d seen flying until now had kept close. These flew to observe as much sky and desert as possible, and still stay in visual communication with each other.

He alighted, trusting to shadow and coloration to conceal him from the fliers’ eyes—hominid and avian.

A pebble-backed desert lizard with two rows of horns running along his back hissed a warning that he was poison to eat. AuRon glared at him—he’d not come hunting lizards.

Then he had a thought.

“See those birds above?” he asked.

“Too big for prey,” the lizard said. “I hunt jumpmice.”

“Do you see such birds often?”

“Wrong color for griffaran,” the lizard said, rolling one eye skyward while the other kept watch on the dragon. “No, not see such birds before. Hawk and carrion-wing dayhunters.”

AuRon wondered what two such hunters of the Red Queen, flying hard for the Lavadome, could be seeking in the night.

Had the Red Queen somehow learned of the hour and place of his departure?

Hardly moving, even to breathe, he let them pass overhead.

When they were thin black lines against the sky again he caught the lizard’s attention.

“Thank you for the information. Is the water nearby wholesome?”

“Best drink in the world,” the lizard said.

“I thank you again. Good luck with the jumpmice.” AuRon raised a saa high and stomped, hard. Tiny rodents bounded away in panic. The lizard scrambled after them with an excited hiss.

AuRon resolved to fly low and slow for the rest of the night, and hide out of the sun.>“But without gaining security in the Upper World, there will be no existence in the Lower. Does anyone doubt this?”

If they did, they didn’t say so.

“So will we have peace or war with the Ghioz?” He looked down at the young Firemaiden at the front.

“You, you—”

“Takea,” Nilrasha supplied.

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