Page 114 of Dragon Rule (Age of Fire 5)

He needed to get his mind off of the upcoming questioning. “I’ll come. I’d like to see what DharSii is up to with my own eyes. I hope the great dandy doesn’t mind getting his sii dirty.”

“The Ankelenes are slowly coming around to my opinion,” Rayg said.

“What’s that?”

“It’s easier if I show you.”

They met DharSii outside, and the Copper waved off the usual formalities, though he did offer the visitor a mouthful of coin. DharSii declined.

“I’d rather keep my thoughts clear.”

They descended through Imperial Rock, down into the livestock pens and storage rooms, and finally to slippery chutes coated with waste from dragon, thrall, and livestock. The Copper hadn’t been this low in the Lavadome since learning the few passageways into the depths during his time in the Drakwatch. The only things that thrived in this noisome mess were worms and brightly glowing cave-moss. Thick masses of dwarfsbeard hung from the ceiling like hedges.

Rayg led them through a series of dripping passages. Unpleasant waste pooled and reeked.

They passed along a natural watercourse that churned the muck out of the Lavadome and down. Here they picked up a cleaner trail again.

Then they came to sort of a twisting passage that dropped like a root, with a root’s branching divisions. Rayg, hanging on to a rope thrown around the Copper’s neck, stayed on his feet.

The party began to see pieces of crystal running through the stones. Cavern increasingly gave way to crystal.

“We’re on Anklemere’s old road,” Rayg said. “After he was killed, dragons took out his stairs to make room for us to pass.”

They came to sort of an overlook. The Copper thought the cavern looked like an unusually angry sea, the whitecaps frozen forever into blue-white still life.

Lights like tiny drifting jellyfish ran inside the crystal caps. The lights waxed, sparked, waned, and flickered out like fireflies dying in the time it took to draw a long breath.

“What is this?” the Copper asked.

“It looks like fairy fire,” DharSii said. “But brighter. We get it in the sky in the far north.”

“It reminds me of stars,” Wistala said. “What is it?”

“Not even the Ankelenes know,” Rayg said. “Some believe that this is where the heat from the Lavadome is channeled and dispersed, the way wet drips off a mammal’s fur.

“I can tell you one more thing. These lights—they’ve become more active. They start and burn out faster, and there are more of them. According to the Ankelenes, the only variation before was when the lava was more active. They would burn brighter, longer.”

“Magic?” the Copper asked.

“Magic is a cheap explanation for the inexplicable,” Rayg said. “A dragon’s fire may seem magical to many humans, but it’s just an oil fire with a little sulfur mixed in. With a few more chemicals it’s difficult to identify, because they react so strongly to air.”

“Rayg’s practical,” the Copper said.

“Let me see him create dragonfire in his workshop,” DharSii said.

Rayg pulled up a chain from his overshirt. The crystal AuRon had worn, an unfortunate “gift” from the Red Queen for his emissary duties to the Lavadome. It glowed behind a metal lattice, like a tiny owl in a miniature cage.

“Why the bars?” DharSii asked.

“If I let it touch my skin, I become—overexcited. I can’t sleep. Or even sit down. For a few minutes it’s exhilarating, especially when I’m working on a problem. An hour is exhausting. A day would drive me mad.”

“What’s the longest you ever had it on?” the Copper asked.

“Three days. I think. It could have been less. One of your bats found me on the floor of my workroom with my nose bleeding. After that, I quit touching the crystal except for a few minutes at a time, by putting a finger or two through these bars.”

“They’re obviously connected,” Rayg said.

“Similar material, similar structure. Similar origins?” Wistala asked.

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