He continued to watch, his gaze roving rapidly over every portion of the sky. He was frustrated in his search, for the clouds gathered thickly overhead. Spatters of rain started to fall. He leaned precariously out the window, twisting his body to peer upward, but saw nothing. The rain fell harder, drops plashing on his bare head. He pulled himself back inside and continued to watch.

His patience was rewarded. A gap opened in the clouds and Ven had a clear view of the dragon.

The creature spiraled down from the sky to land on a rock ledge at a point about halfway up the mountainside. The dragon was there an instant and then disappeared from view as the clouds caught the mountain in their grasp and smothered it.

Ven drew back from the window. He no longer paced. He had worn himself out. He had a lot to think about, but he could think in his bed.

The last Ven had seen of Draconas, the dragon stood silhouetted against a lightning flash. Ducking his head and folding his wings close to his body, Draconas had entered the mountain.

14

DRACONAS HAD NO DIFFICULTY FINDING THE BACK DOOR INTO THE dragon’s lair. He spotted the gaping gash in the cliffs on the southern side of the mountain the moment he flew over it. No effort had been made to disguise the opening or conceal it. Grald was either a very lazy dragon or a very arrogant one.

Or—very calculating.

Such an obvious door might be a trap.

Conceding that possibility, Draconas entered the cave using extreme caution. The aperture was narrow. He had to flatten his body and keep his wings pressed against his flanks in order to squeeze into it, and then his shoulders rubbed against the cavern walls. He was forced to maneuver carefully to keep from tearing a wing. He peered intently at the walls as he entered. If Grald had passed this way in dragon form, Draconas would see some sign of it—scraped-off scales clinging to the walls, claw marks in the rock.

No sign of either. Draconas doubted that any dragon had walked this cavern for years, perhaps not since it was formed. From the heaps of guano on the floor, the cavern appeared to have been taken over by bats.

Draconas assumed that he had probably tripped some sort of alarm upon entering. No dragon with a brain would leave a back door unguarded. The dragon would weave some sort of magic across it that would alert him to intruders. Draconas knew this was a risk the moment he entered the cavern. He deemed it acceptable. There was always the possibility—the hope—that Grald was not in his lair. He and his human body might be somewhere else.