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"What business is that of yours?" Twigleg stopped on the other side of a tall bush "I -- I’ to wait until we’re over the sea"

"Why?" The raven pecked a caterpillar off the branches of the bush and looked at the manikin suspiciously "There’s no reason to wait," he cawed "You’ll only ry What did the djinn say?"

"I’ll be telling our ht to have listened more carefully"

"Huh!" croaked the raven "That blue creature wouldn’t stop growing I thought I’d better keep out of the way"

"That’s your bad luck" Scratching his ear, Twigleg peered at Firedrake through the branches But the dragon and his friends were fast asleep, while the shadows in the ravine grew ever darker

The raven preened his feathers and gave the ho too uppity, ht to tell the master"

"Go on, then, do! Goodness knows that won’t be news to hi, but his heart beat faster "Anyway, I can set yourto report to him today Word of honor I just have to take another look at the map first The boy’s map, I mean"

The raven put his head on one side "The map? Why?"

Twigleg et out If that brownie girl sees you, she won’t believe it if I say we have nothing to do with each other"

"All right" The raven caught another caterpillar and flapped his wings "But I’ an eye on you So you be sure towatched the raven until he disappeared a the tops of the palm trees Then he quickly went over to Ben’s backpack, took out the map, and opened it Oh, yes, he’d make his report At once But it would be a special kind of report, a very special kind indeed His eyes scanned the seas and e, pale brown area He knehat brown meant Ben had explained exactly how to read the wonderful map Brown meant no water Not a drop of water far and wide And that was exactly what Twigleg was looking for

"I’m sick and tired of it!" heto send hiest desert I can find!"

Only a desert could keep Nettlebrand away froon a little while longer He couldn’t have cared less if his master had only wanted to eat the unfriendly brownie! But not the s to help him do that He’d seen Nettlebrand crunch up his brothers He’d seen hiet the little hu noted exactly where the great desert lay Then he walked deeper and deeper into the ravine, far froon

Leaning over the waters of the river, theMoon

Three days and three long nights later, Firedrake was standing on the shores of the Arabian Sea waiting for night to fall His scales were dusty with yellow sand It was a long time since he had set out from his northern valley in search of the Rim of Heaven His cave at home seemed infinitely far away, and the dark sea ahead of him looked like an infinite expanse, too

Firedrake looked up at the sky The last of the light vanished as if the waves had sed it up, and only the round ht as silver, shone over the water There was still quite a long while to go before the dark ti, but would he have found the Rim of Heaven by then?