The smell of dragon roasted venison, which was mostly eaten by the dragon, and two small dragon roasted hares, wasn't enough to wake Quara from the deep sleep that she had fallen into shortly after laying back in her bed of pine needles. Lina had managed to skin the meat that she and Quara would be eating before the dragon began cooking it and after eating her fill, and setting aside an extra portion for her sister who she knew would be starving in the morning, she wrapped the meat in the wrappings that had held the previous day's lunch. She had begun to think of how to hang it from a tree on the other side of the stream to keep it from attracting wildlife, when Ausfela assured her that any wildlife that had been in the area would be giving their little corner of the forest a wide berth until the dragon that was staying there moved on.
With a full stomach she had laid down in the little bed and watched with heavy eyes as the dragon curled up at the edge of the space, wrapping her body around the pine needle covered spot, so that her head rested on her tail, and the girls' sleeping area was entirely encircled by her great length, which would make anyone who happened upon them think twice about disturbing the group.
Not that Ausfela expected that to happen. She knew that she would hear anyone who was headed in their direction long before they actually arrived. Besides, she wouldn't be sleeping that night. She had slept for years, on and off, and until this trip was over she wasn't going to allow her eyes to close or her dreams to overtake her. For Ausfela knew that both she, and the world that she was trying to save, wouldn't be able to afford the cost if she let her guard down for even a moment and something were to actually happen.
The moment that the dragon smelled the smoke, she knew what was happening. Straining her senses she had made sure that the forest around the girls was completely empty, before launching herself upward, into the still, dark sky. The moons had long since set, but the dawn was just barely beginning to dye the edge of the horizon a pale blue as the sun neared rising up over that edge of the world. She didn't have to fly very high to confirm her suspicions. In the distance she could see the glow coming from the west. The forest was ablaze.
It wasn't the first time that the Emperor's army had used this tactic, and so there was no doubt in the dragon's mind that this was intentional, a decision made to isolate the Caverns and make escape into the forest, where a person might easily vanish amid the thick trees, virtually impossible.
Sinking down slowly towards the ground, Ausfela pondered what this fire could mean. Did the Emperor know for certain that the city still existed, albeit in a different part of the Caverns than it had when he was still a young man? Was there a spy within the little world that Quara and Lina had known all their lives? Had someone up above ground been careless and left something out that enemy scouts had found that left no doubt that there was something beyond a few mountain men hiding in caves living in these hills? Or worse still, had someone been captured, either someone on an errand or a scout retreating to tell of the army's advancement, and had that person been convinced to tell of the little city's existence?
The dragon shuddered when she thought of that last possibility. She didn't believe that there was a human alive who wouldn't break under the forms of persuasion the Emperor's guards would use to gather the information that they had been seeking for generations. She had once heard someone say that if you were captured to begin lying from the start, offering as much untrue information as you could come up with, in hopes that later, when the truth began to come out, no one would realize that it was the truth.
Ausfela didn't think that this was particularly good advice when facing an enemy with the sort of resources that the Emperor had, however. After all he could easily have someone investigate every claim until they discovered exactly what the truth was.
Landing silently beside the still sleeping girls the dragon sighed heavily. The burdens that they were carrying, in the form of their worries about the prophesy and their worries about their family members back in the Caverns, were about to get much heavier. There was no way that the fire could be hidden from them. Even as the idea that it might be a possibility occurred to Ausfela she pushed it aside as impossible. Lina began to cough in her sleep.
Sighing a second time the dragon spoke into their minds. "Girls, we must be awake earlier than even I expected and we must be on our way." Quara's eyes flew open, but Lina rolled over and buried her face in the pillow she was making for her head with her arms. "Lina, we must arise and continue our journey. Something has happened this morning and the danger is greater than it was when you laid down to sleep."
Lina barely moved and so her sister, who was now fully awake and regarding the dragon with a worried expression, nudged her with her elbow. The younger girl finally pushed herself up into a sitting position and wiped the sleep from her eyes. Looking up at the sky, which was almost entirely dark she yawned hugely and shook her head.
"I knew we were getting up early, but isn't it still the middle of the night?" She seemed ready to fall back into the pine needles and resume her quest for a good night's sleep.
"It is dear child. But we must be on our way. Do you smell the smoke?"
Almost instantly both girls were on their feet. "What's going on?" Quara didn't quite manage to control her voice as she half shouted the words and any animals that may have crept nearer while the enormous dragon slept scattered away again.
"The enemy is using a tactic that I had feared he might employ. They've used it many times in the past and it is generally successful in preventing those who want to get away from them in a landscape like this one from doing so. They clear a great line around their camp, in fact, they've likely diverted water from the river into a moat of sorts, if they aren't using the river as a barrier altogether, and then they set the forest alight. It's particularly unfortunate that the winds here usually come in from the west, because if they pick up in the afternoon as they usually do in the summer months, they'll be pushing the flames straight towards us."
"And once the forest is gone the Caverns will be an island in the midst of a sea of burned out mountains." Lina's voice was weak and Quara barely heard her speak. Ausfela nodded.
"Exactly. It makes it much easier to see anyone who's going to make an attempt at escaping. Now let's move. There's nothing that we can do to help them, except hope that they stay safely ensconced within their rocky kingdom while we get to Za'Reek as quickly as possible." Lina moved towards Ausfela and removed the smallest of the three packages that she had hidden inside the saddle bags the previous night. Removing a smaller piece of meat for herself she handed the nearly full package to her sister, who hadn't eaten the night before.
"Do I want to know?" Quara asked, but she didn't hesitate as she took her first bite of the meat.
"Rabbit. There's a little venison left over for our later meals."
Neither girl complained as they began their journey so early in the morning that it was really still night.
"You said earlier that it would be dangerous for us to fly, but," Quara took a deep breath and let the words trail off. Ausfela could guess what the girl was wondering and answered her unspoken question.
"If the fire spreads too fast we will take to the skies. I'd rather not. My guess is that that fire was set from the mouths of dragons and that there are now dragons nearby, at least near the Caverns themselves, waiting for the battle and watching for anyone who might try to escape. They may be watching the skies as well, which is to say that I would be shocked if they weren't. So we will push on today on foot and hope that we are fortunate. I would rather not go head to head with a dragon who is quite likely bigger and has spent the last three millennia fighting in the skies for that wretch of a man, if he even is still a man, while at the same time trying to keep you two safe."
Both girls nodded and Quara pondered what Ausfela had meant when she had questioned the Emperor's humanity. It would be easy to assume that she meant the words figuratively, and yet when she'd heard them Quara had sensed that there was more to it than that. She had just begun to open her mouth to ask the dragon to elaborate further, when Ausfela suggested, in a rather commanding tone, that she eat as quickly as possible and save her questions for later.
A few minutes passed, and having not finished her meal with dragon like speed, or even a speed that a dragon would approve of, they were preparing to walk again, as Quara continued to nibble at the edges of the meat that was still mostly wrapped in the paper package her sister had saved for her. Quara had known from the moment that she had opened her eyes upon hearing Ausfela's voice echoing through her mind, that her entire body hurt. The immediate fear as she'd listened to Ausfela's explanation had taken her mind entirely off of the pain, but as they began to move, after refilling their water skins and waiting as Ausfela took a long, slow drink from the glacier fed stream, the soreness of her complaining muscles was impossible to ignore. Muscles that she hadn't know existed hurt.
The dragon helped them to cross the stream without getting soaked a second time, and within moments they were climbing again, up the next mountain ridge, staying as close to Ausfela as they could, since the night was rather dark now that the moons had set, and was darker still once they stepped more than three lengths into the forest.
They moved slowly at first, and soon both girls found that the only way to navigate the forest was to walk directly behind the dragon and hold on to the end of her tail. Ausfela was not really in favor of this plan, but after Quara walked into two trees she had no choice but to agree that if they were going to get to Za'Reek in one piece it was going to be a necessary precaution. Once the girls had been moving for an hour and their muscles were warm, Quara found that walking was much easier, and that the pain she'd felt upon waking was significantly less. Their speed was aided by the sun, which moved closer to coming up over the horizon, and while it was still rather dark in the dense forest, the outlines of trees began to appear, and Quara could see the ground and watch for the roots that she'd repeatedly caught her feet on during the earliest part of their morning walk.
The smell of smoke, which had been unmistakable, but not terribly strong when they'd first woken, thickened until Quara felt as though she were choking. To compound the problem, the wind picked up, blowing the smoke in their direction. Her breath whistled in and out of her chest as they walked and she found herself moving more and more slowly, both because it was increasingly difficult to breath and because she kept glancing back over her shoulder, fully expecting to see a line of flames cresting the ridge behind them.
"Even if everyone stays in the Caverns and the army leaves and our people survive this attack, things won't be the same. At least not in our lifetimes." Lina, who didn't seem physically bothered by the smoke, spoke slowly, her eyes returning to her sister's face over and over again as she sought to assure herself that Quara really was okay. She could hear the whistling sound that accompanied every breath the older girl took, and she was close enough to her sister that she could see that the color had drained again from Quara's face, so that she almost appeared to be wearing a mask. "So much of the food that's eaten comes from the forest. They should be able to survive for quite a while on what they can grow in the Meadow but still, without supplementing those supplies with game, people are going to be hungry very soon."
"If they survive long enough to be hungry." Quara began to cough as she said the words and Lina noticed that even Ausfela was turning her head slightly to watch her.
"Has she had breathing attacks like this before now?" Lina noticed that Quara hadn't looked up when Ausfela said the words. As she looked ahead and met the dragon's eyes for a moment she realized that Ausfela was speaking only into her mind. "And yes, I am only talking to you right now. You can think the answer back to me and I'll be able to hear you."
"Not often, but a few times. It would happen if someone burned something in an enclosed space and the smoke wasn't vented out right away, like once when Xav tried to make dinner and scorched it, or when one of the older boys set a book ablaze in the middle of the classroom when the teacher had been distracted for long enough for him to get into quite a lot of trouble. Afterwards she'd have to lay down for a long time and our mother would have her sit over a bowl with hot water and breath in the steam with some herbs thrown in. Usually it wasn't bad, but sometimes I could tell that she was having a harder time because Mama's face would change and she would start throwing herbs into a pot on the stove and mixing it and making Quara sit up for longer periods of time breathing it in." Lina realized as she spoke that this solution wasn't particularly reassuring given the situation that they found themselves in.
"Quara, why don't you climb up on my back and ride for a while." Quara opened her mouth for a moment, and Lina sensed that she was going to protest and insist that she was fine, but then she seemed to reassess the situation and think better of it. It was clear to anyone with a pair of working ears that she was not doing well. Smiling as graciously as she could for someone who was barely breathing, and who also really didn't want to climb back on top of a dragon's back anytime soon, she let her sister help boost her up onto Ausfela's back and with fumbling fingers she managed to buckle herself securely into her seat. "Try to rest, but if it gets too hard to breath tell me. I have an idea, but it's best if we don't test it out unless we have to."
"We may not have time for that." Lina's voice was strangely tense and both Quara and Ausfela swung their heads around to stare at her. Her attention, however, was captured elsewhere and their eyes followed her gaze. Behind them, atop the first ridge that they had climbed over that very morning, was a line of trees glowing as they were ignited by the flames that were rapidly gaining on the trio. The same wind that had pushed the smoke in their direction, had brought the flames their way as well.
"This strategy must have worked better than they could have possibly hoped." Lina said the words, but Ausfela shook her head.
"I don't think that they honestly could have expected anything less than the near total destruction of this entire forest. Every afternoon the winds come sweeping in from the Western Seas during the summer months. It's like clockwork. They've been here for a while now, and the soldiers stationed at the Fort have been here for years, and you won't be able to convince me that they didn't know exactly what they were doing when they started those fires. Although it shouldn't surprise anyone. I'm convinced that the Emperor would let the whole world burn to get his revenge."
"Revenge?" Quara wheezed as she said the word, but Lina tugged at her boot and made a wide sweeping gesture with her arm back towards the flames.
"I know those flames are still a distance away, but I would rather not be here on the ground when they arrive. So if you could give me a hand up, and we can be on our way, that would be great." Quara held tightly to the saddle with her left hand and then reached down with her right to grasp her sister's hand firmly and help her scale the side of the dragon until she was back in her seat in front of her sister.
It was true that the fire was moving fast. It was already racing down the side of the hill, throwing embers before the front edge of the flames, so that trees quite close to the place where they had stopped were beginning to smolder.
"You're going to want to get that buckle good and tight Lina." Quara reached forward and gave the harness a sharp tug to make sure it was firmly in place. "Because before the hour is over there's a fair chance that we're going to need it. Hold on tight girls. I was hoping that the really adventurous part of our adventure would wait until after we had reached Za'Reek and had reinforcements, but it looks like the fun may have rushed along with those flames to meet us."
The dragon swung her head around and stared up at the sky, her gaze sweeping from one side to the other, obviously scanning for enemies with wings. "Do you think they'll see us?" Quara's voice was a whisper and Ausfela didn't respond as she launched herself into the air. In one movement that Quara would have judged impossible if she hadn't witnessed it with her own eyes, Ausfela jumped so that her wings were clear of the tree tops before she unfurled them, catching the wind that was pushing the flames rapidly down the hill as she launched herself forward.
For a moment Ausfela paused, turning towards the flames and weighing her options. She could fly low over the tree tops, but the sound of Quara's breathing still worried her. The wheezing, if anything, was getting louder. If she flew up high enough could she escape the cloud of smoke, or would it rise up so high that the air would be too thin for her human companions to breath?
It was that same wind that had pushed the smoke towards them, blowing a wall of burning embers that glowed like tiny flaming stars drifting towards the earth, that made the decision for her. She shot upwards, and away from the flames, for while she knew that the falling cinders wouldn't hurt her dragon hide, she also realized that Lina and Quara wouldn't be so lucky. Higher and higher they flew. Quara had pulled her tunic up over her mouth and was breathing through it. Her arms were tightly wrapped around her sister's waist, but her head was turned so that she could watch the flames race down the hill. It was halfway down now, and at least a half dozen spot fires had broken out on the next ridge. They were escaping just in time. Had they been on foot alone, they would have been overtaken before long.
Ausfela began moving forward rapidly, leaving the fire far behind. "This is a bit more like it." Lina chuckled as she spoke, but even as she said the words, Quara who was still watching behind them, felt her breath catch in her throat. "Dragon! There's a dragon!"
When the monstrous crimson dragon rose up above the burning ridge line to survey its handiwork, it wasn't immediately clear to the girls, from the great distance that Ausfela had already managed to put between herself and the creature, how large it actually was. It was rather obvious though, as he swept down the mountain, that he had not yet seen them.
"Maybe he won't see us." Quara felt the words ripped from her mouth and carried away by the wind.
"A wonderful wish, certainly, but nearly impossible. As a golden dragon I am nearly impossible to miss when the sun is shining, as it is today. The best we can likely do now is extend the head start that we have before he spots us. Maybe he'll be so focused on the fire that we'll have a while yet to make our escape."