ON LEAVING THE MOUNTAIN FASTNESS, DRACONAS HAD SEARCHED for an easier way into the dragon’s lair than the one he’d used last night. Ven’s strong, scaled legs and clawed feet made him an excellent climber, but the Dragon’s Son could not scale sheer rock walls. Draconas had not remained in the palace long last night. He’d seen what he’d come to see, plus much more, and there was no use risking discovery by hanging about. He’d followed a different route out of the dragon’s lair, and that led him to the discovery of a back door about a half-mile lower than the one into which he’d flown. The climb was still arduous. Both Ven and the child, Draca—with her lithe and agile body and her dragon’s strength—managed it easily.

Ven actually enjoyed the climb. The strenuous physical exertion took his mind off his troubles. He had to concentrate on where to put his feet and hands; he had to think about what he was doing. He had no fear of high places—his dragon-blood took care of that. He reveled in the idea that he was rising far above the world with its stink and its staring eyes and cruel laughter. When he and Draconas entered the cave that was Grald’s back door, they entered the calm darkness and silent emptiness of Ven’s childhood—those times he was able to slip away from Bellona and his traplines and his chores and hide himself in his own lair.

“This feels like home,” he said without thinking.

“So it would to one who has dragon-blood in him,” Draconas responded.

The blood burned beneath the surface of Ven’s skin. He had not meant to share his inner thought aloud. He’d spoken his heart, however, and he could not very well unsay it.

“Which way do we go to see this sight of yours?” he demanded, regarding with a grim frown two tunnels that led from the main chamber deeper into the dragon’s lair.

The child motioned with her hand toward a tunnel that slanted off to the left. She put her finger to her lips, cautioning silence, and walked into the shadows, her human feet padding softly. Ven followed, his claws making scraping sounds on the rock.

They advanced deeper into the massive cave, always rising. This tunnel wound round and round in a broad spiral, sometimes leveling out for a short distance, then spiraling around again, still slanting upward. The darkness was complete. Ven’s dragon-sight could scarcely penetrate it. He had the dragon’s instinct for moving in dark places beneath the earth, however, and he followed Draconas with relative ease.