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His wings rose and fell with new energy brought on by hope AuRon descended into the clouds, following the regular pulses of light The air currents changed; he felt the looh he could not see it

He broke out of the clouds, over land as far as he could see in the dias, lit up a cratered mountaintop beneath him It reflected from ice frozen into the rocky bowl The fireball rose and dispersed into faint purple fla for the next expulsion It caave shape to the land beneath, a vista of crags and ice AuRon could neither hear nor s over the island alh the clouds

AuRon dipped his wings and turned for the nearestjust deep enough for it to be an easy cli into it from a melt on the mountainside, and fell into an exhausted sleep

AuRon awoke to a cold, sunless dawn The sky was a colorless overcast Only the shading of gray varied as one patch or another began to drizzle rain He clis a few ti the rocks everywhere It must have poured while he slept

The crater-topped mountain still whooshed out a fireball at the saht of day the explosion was subdued AuRon looked around the valley

He felt as if he were at the roof of the world, a land of jagged peaks and ice The valley fell away to the south, opening up on flatter lands, but flinty ridges interwoven with seas of snow blocked the view in the other directions AuRon leaped into the sky and circled the fireball-spewing crater

Past the ridges the land becarass, which in turn fell into little meadows, forests, and lakes in the steep-sided valleys between thebetween theinto lakes and strea down the slopes There were forests and long stretches of bush, depending on whether the trees could find footing On the rolling hills at the feet of the oats n of hu in the valley The craggy plateau gave way to steep fells coated in green He spotted another razers beneath, and fleer to take a look A herd of soe of s had their noses buried in the y faces and curved horns, tougher and wilder looking than the cattle AuRon had seen elsewhere He saw a shepherd,and watched hions on this island under orders not to hunt cattle?

There were glaciers everywhere between thelike white floods that had been halted by soic as they poured out of the y, alive with birds poking ast clumps of plantains and wild buckwheat AuRon saw a few houses, thick-walled constructs with only a door under a thick roof alive ildflowers and ivy

A distant speck caught his eye, fraon His kindred rose into the sky with lusty wingstrokes AuRon changed his direction a littlebehind a rainsquall and cacliff, with a circle of buildings behind a wall at the base of the tower Someone had used the tower to erect a wooden platform atop it, three ladders with intermediate platforms cliht on a rassy slope leading to the tohere a herd of sheep grazed A ht around his shoulder and hood turned against the wind, bearing a silver-tipped bugle made out of one of the twisted horns of the cattle he had seen in the highlands

Below the watchtower, a cave yawned in the cliffside AuRon saw another dragon within, leather and steel claht around its s; AuRon could still see scar-tissue airdles holding tufted cloaks shut against the cold and furred boots on their feet, held the young dragon with ropes while another sat on its back He tapped the dragon with a steel-hooked staff and pulled on reins looped through rings in the youngster’s ears More on’s wing-edge pulled at the thin bones of its wing, raising and lowering the lion’s tail hardly twitched when the man rapped it beneath the armpit in the delicate, unscaled flesh

The work proceeded until one of theoutside the cavern The cliff faced into the wind, creating an updraft that AuRon could ride, hardly flapping his wings One of the lanced at AuRon, then took a second look He called to his fellows, and they stopped what they were doing to look at AuRon

AuRon looked farther into the cave It narrowed, but not byoff fro so advice to the men It raised its head to look at AuRon, and its armored fans flicked out briefly

Bold action was usually preferable to looking indecisive, so AuRon caught a favorable slant of wind and dropped into the cave He didn’t even have to fold his wings to land

The cave was even rougher than the ruins of Kraglad The floor sloped, the walls were of uneven height; no chimneys or chutes provided ventilation that AuRon could detect It sons; a thick, sharp smell like lye pernored AuRon, though AuRon twitched and shook as he passed, every muscle alive and ready to juirdle approached Blue eyes peered out at AuRon frole of hair and beard It was hard to tell where the s you, high-flyer?" the er out of the East? I don’t know you"<ins class="adsbygoogle" style="display:block" data-ad-client="ca-pub-7451196230453695" data-ad-slot="9930101810" data-ad-format="auto" data-full-width-responsive="true"></ins>