Avain looked up with snot smearing her upper lip. “Avain wants to fly.” She paused to wipe her nose on her sleeve again. “Avain dreams about dragons.”

Dallandra became suddenly aware of Avain’s green eyes, lashless, round, and slit vertically. She opened her sight and immediately saw what Grallezar had seen: Avain’s etheric double, a faint dragon-shape hovering around her. Tonight the moon will be dark, Dalla thought. Rori’s true form will be dominant, so why not Avain’s as well? The three dweomerwomen exchanged glances, but no one spoke until Branna returned with Berwynna.

Wynni immediately went to Avain and threw an arm around her sister’s broad shoulders. She spoke in Dwarvish, a soft murmur of words that soothed Avain the way a soft voice and stroking will soothe a nervous horse.

“I’ll coax her back to her tower,” Wynni said. “My thanks for fetching me, Branna.”

To please Wynni—and upon the promise of apple cake—Avain stopped weeping. She stood up and let her sister lead her away down the path toward the manse and tower. Grallezar set her hands on her hips and watched them till they disappeared among the apple trees.

“Well, well,” Grallezar said. “I think me we now know what we might do with that excess of etheric substance. It wraps Rori up like a pit in a peach, and truly, I did have doubts we could earth all of it after we stripped it away.”

“Indeed,” Dalla said. “I see what you mean—if we can keep from killing both of them.”

Grallezar smiled with a show of fang. “Too true, but still, I do count this as one problem solved.”

There remained the problem of the dragon book or, to be precise, the problem of reading it. Dallandra sat down on the bench astride, as if she were on horseback, so that she could lay the book down in front of her. Branna hunkered down at the far end of the bench to watch. Both Valandario and Grallezar preferred to stand and keep their feet upon solid ground after their experience of sailing through the sky.

Valandario handed Dallandra the black crystal. A quick glance into it confirmed what Laz had told her, that the white one lay at the bottom of the lake.

“I hope the black will work by itself,” Dallandra said. “Wish me luck!”

First, Dalla tried looking at one of the pages through the crystal with no particular result. When she set it down on the page, nothing changed. She tried placing it upon the front cover, the back cover, on each page, in different areas of each page—still nothing. Finally, she picked the crystal up, holding it without thinking close to her face.

“You wretched book!” she snapped. “Will you unlock, or shall I burn you?”