As the sound of Kazul’s voice died away, the iron gate swung silently open. “That’s a very unusual opening spell,” Cimorene commented, impressed.

“It wasn’t always that complicated,” Kazul said. She sounded almost apologetic. “I believe the first version was very simple, just ‘Open sesame,’ but word got around and we had to change it.”

Cimorene nodded and followed Kazul through the gate and into the Caves of Fire and Night. For the first hundred yards or so, the only difference Cimorene could see between these caves and the ordinary tunnels on the other side of the gate was that the Caves of Fire and Night were warmer. Then, very suddenly, her lamp went out, plunging everything into complete and utter blackness.

Cimorene stopped walking immediately. “Kazul?”

“It’s quite all right, Princess,” Kazul’s disembodied voice said from out of the darkness. “This happens all the time here. Don’t bother trying to relight the lamp. Just put your hand on my elbow and follow along that way.”

“All right,” Cimorene said doubtfully. She groped with her free hand in the direction of Kazul’s voice and scraped her knuckles on the dragon’s scales. “Ow!”

“Take your time,” Kazul advised.

“I’m ready,” Cimorene said. Her right hand was pressed flat against the cool, rough-edged scales at the back of Kazul’s left forearm. “Just don’t move too fast, or I’ll lose you or get stepped on or something.”

Kazul did her best to oblige, but Cimorene still had difficulty in keeping up. She had to take at least three steps for every one of Kazul’s, and it seemed that every time she moved her foot, she hit a rock or an uneven place in the tunnel floor. Then she would stumble, and her hand would scrape and slide against Kazul’s scales, so that she was afraid she would lose contact with the dragon.

“Are you sure I shouldn’t try and relight the lamp?” Cimorene asked after her fifth painful stumble-and-slide.

“Quite sure,” Kazul said. “You see, it isn’t—ah, there it goes.” While Kazul was speaking, there was a flicker of light, and then the darkness rolled aside like a curtain being pulled. Cimorene found herself standing in a large cave whose walls glittered as if they were studded with thousands of tiny mirrors. The lamp in her left hand was burning cheerfully once more.

“Was it the lamp?” Cimorene asked after studying it for a moment. “Or was it me?”

“It was the caves,” Kazul said. “That was one of the reasons they’re ‘of night’ as well as ‘of fire.’”

“Only one of the reasons?” Cimorene said thoughtfully. “I don’t like the sound of that.”