"Our most urgent objective is to flee Living Mirage," Bracken said. "Then we need to make our way to Finland."
"Why Finland?" Raxtus asked.
Warren related what they knew concerning the Eternals, including the whereabouts of Roon Osricson.
"Finland is a big place," Raxtus pointed out.
"I have instructions," Warren said. "Have you ever heard of Shipbreaker Fjord?"
The dragon stamped his forelegs and flexed his wings. "I adore Shipbreaker Fjord! It's one of the most scenic water-ways on the planet. Towering cliffs, raging tides, deep blue water. The area is magically concealed."
"I know the place too," Warren said. "The Sphinx said if we fly northeast from Shipbreaker Fjord, we can't miss Roon's hideout. A distracter spell shields his stronghold, but the camouflage should be no match for Kendra."
"Sounds easy enough," Raxtus said, swiveling his head to study the hatchway. "What awaits us outside?"
"Evidently our escape remains undetected," Bracken said. "None of us can say how long that will hold true. We should expect pursuit."
"Can you carry three of us?" Kendra asked.
Raxtus reared up and unfurled his wings. The dragon seemed much larger with his wings spread wide and his neck craned high. He fanned the area with a few trial flaps. After a moment, he folded his wings and dropped down on all fours. "I might be a runt, but I can carry three people."
"Are you sure?" Warren challenged. "A lot depends on this. I could stay behind."
"I can carry you three," Raxtus pledged. "Maybe not around the world, but I can get you away from this preserve."
"We're surrounded by desert," Warren reminded him. "Together the three of us must weigh around five hundred pounds. Have you carried three people before?"
"I've carried an elk," Raxtus replied. "It had to weigh more than five hundred pounds. Wasn't easy. Imagine running uphill wearing a backpack crammed with bricks. Not ideal, but doable. With you three as passengers, I'll lose much of my maneuverability. But I can conceal myself. Unless we get unlucky, this should work."
"Luck has a way of evaporating when you lean on it," Warren muttered. "Maybe you should go on without me, lighten the load."
"You're determined to be a martyr," Bracken laughed.
"This needs to succeed," Warren maintained.
"We'll escape together," Kendra said adamantly. "We need each other for what lies ahead."
"I can do it," Raxtus asserted. "If dragons depended on pure physics to fly, none of us would do more than hop around. Magic is involved. I'll find a way. I have my weaknesses, but flying is my forte."
Warren folded his arms. "If things go bad, promise to drop me."
"Enough with the negativity!" Raxtus said. "You're freaking me out!"
"Show a little confidence," Kendra urged. "This is the dragon who destroyed Navarog!"
Raxtus swiveled his head left and right. "Not too loudly," the dragon murmured. "He might have a relative."
"Well done, by the way," Bracken said in a low voice.
Raxtus swung his head away shyly. "She makes it sound impressive. I snuck up behind him while he was in human form. I'm not a fighter. But I'll do my best. The Fairy Queen made it clear that the fate of the world depends on our mission. I want to do my part. After all, your current needs don't require a fighter. What you most need right now is to run away. I know a thing or two about that."
Bracken patted Raxtus affectionately on the neck. "You're too humble. I can't claim to like many dragons, but you're the cream of the crop."
"Of course the unicorn likes the fairy dragon," Raxtus grumbled. "If you want to boost my self-esteem, act scared of me."
"You could bite our heads off," Warren remarked. "That's scary."
"I couldn't," Raxtus sighed.
"You could!" Kendra insisted. "I saw you gobble up Gavin."
Raxtus showed his impressive teeth. "Physically, yes, I could eat you. Emotionally, no way. Maybe while under hypnosis. How can you consume somebody you just spoke with? I mean, once I've had a conversation with someone, that person is no longer food. Some dragons get a big thrill out of talking with their meals, playing cat and mouse. I don't get the allure. Knowing a creature can converse takes it off my menu."
"Unless it's evil and threatens your dad," Kendra amended.
"Touche," Raxtus replied.
"We should probably depart," Bracken said. "We don't want to lose the initiative."
"Translation?" Raxtus said glumly. "Time for me to become fairy boy."
"Wait," Warren said, fingering the hilt of his sword. "Can't you take us out the way you came in?"
"I can leap from shrine to shrine by cutting through the Fairy Queen's realm," Raxtus explained. "Although her realm connects to all of her shrines, the distance between shrines is much shorter where she resides. It's a great way to travel. Here's the problem: When she opens a portal to let anyone into or out of her realm, it leaves her kingdom vulnerable for a time. For some reason, I can slip through without opening a portal. But I can't carry passengers that way."
"Do you go to her realm a lot?" Kendra asked, intrigued.
"I never stay there," Raxtus said. "It would be ... unhealthy. Emotionally. Psychologically. Look, I'm already not very dragonly. If I lived there, I'd lose all sense of what I am. I'd end up like a child who refused to leave the nest, never amounting to anything. But I love to visit her kingdom. As wonderful and diverse as Earth can be, no beauty quite compares."
Bracken cleared his throat uncomfortably. "I believe we were getting ready to depart."
"Right," Raxtus said. "Do you mind closing your eyes?"
"Not at all," Bracken said.
Kendra covered her eyes. Even with her hands in the way, she sensed the bright flash.
Several of the fairies in the area tittered. It was hard for Kendra to decide whether they were mocking or flirting. Perhaps a little of both.
"No peeking," Raxtus said, his voice pitched higher.
The comment tempted her. She slid her fingers apart just enough to see the back of a rather scrawny fairy with shaggy silver hair and an elaborate set of metallic wings fluttering toward the hatchway. The fairy was the largest Kendra had seen, about a foot tall. His head turned as if to glance back, and Kendra closed her fingers before he completed the motion.
"Okay, you can look," Raxtus called a moment later.
Kendra dropped her hands and opened her eyes. The spindly male fairy stood at the hatchway. His face was impishly handsome, with a sparkle of mischief in his bright eyes.
"Is that you?" Warren asked.
"I could tell Kendra wanted a look," Raxtus said. "I can't blame her." He spread his arms wide and turned around. "What do you think?"
"You're ..." Kendra stopped herself.
"Spit it out," Raxtus said. "I can take it."
"Adorable," Kendra finished weakly, hoping he wasn't too insulted.
"Too big to be a fairy," Raxtus said. "Too small and much too winged to be a human. And the exact opposite of how any dragon would aspire to be seen."
"You're a marvel, Raxtus," Bracken said kindly. "Truly splendid."
"The sideshow's over," Raxtus said. "Let's get under way." He flitted out the hatch and out of sight.
Bracken turned to address the fairies. "I am going to close the hatch to help cover our tracks. If I left it open, others would come and close it shortly. If you would prefer the open air at the price of staying away from the shrine, come out with us."
Several groups of fairies darted out of the hatchway, followed by a few stragglers. Kendra was surprised to see more fairies opting to remain within the dome than had been trapped inside when they had first arrived.
"So many are staying?" Kendra asked.
"They love their queen," Bracken said simply. He led the way out of the enclosure. When Kendra and Warren had exited, Bracken gave the door a shove, and it clanged shut.
The sphinx remained sprawled on the ground, tail swishing. She did not condescend to look back at them. The day had grown quite hot. Raxtus had returned to dragon form. Beneath the bright sun, his scales really gleamed.
"Time to fly," Bracken said.
Raxtus sprang into the air and glided toward them like the world's most dazzling kite. The dragon snatched Kendra with one claw, Warren with another, and Bracken with a third. Jerking Kendra off the ground, Raxtus gripped her torso from behind, causing her to tilt forward once airborne. The ground became a blur beneath her dangling feet. Wings beating with the sound of heavy tarps in a windstorm, Raxtus gradually climbed, barely clearing the nearest tree-tops. The dragon went invisible, creating the illusion that Kendra was soaring through the air on her own.
"You all right?" Warren called.
Raxtus veered left and right, wings flapping furiously. "You're heavy," the dragon grunted, "but I'll make it." They continued to laboriously gain altitude.
Up ahead, the steep wall of the valley approached, a wide precipice of rock and dirt. Down below, the trees shrank, growing ever more distant. In a clearing, Kendra saw a pair of thickset giants hammering at each other with clubs.
As Raxtus reached the wall of the valley, he began to bank and circle, sometimes flapping his wings, sometimes gliding. They started to rise more swiftly. The air grew a little cooler, and the ground became shockingly distant. Soon Kendra had a view of the entire long valley, including the river, the woodlands, numerous cultivated fields, and the stepped pyramids with their garden terraces. Beyond the tops of the valley walls, Kendra beheld the tawny expanse of the surrounding desert.
A shrieking cry of tremendous volume shattered the sense of airborne solitude. Kendra twisted toward the source of the sound and saw the roc rising toward them, at least the size of an airliner.
"The roc spotted us," Warren warned.
"They have amazing eyesight," Raxtus said, wings working to lift them higher. They curved toward the roc, giving everyone a better view of the gargantuan wingspan.
"Isn't it time to run?" Kendra cried nervously.
"We need altitude," Raxtus said. "With all of this weight, my best maneuvers will involve diving."
The roc wheeled away from them, rising to a higher elevation with alarming ease. When the great raptor turned back toward them, it approached from above, gaining terrific speed.
Raxtus slipped into a straight, level glide, moving perpendicular to the path of the oncoming predator. As the roc closed, talons large enough to crush a school bus opened wide.
At the last possible moment, Raxtus turned toward the roc, tucked his wings, and dove. The rush of wind brought tears to Kendra's eyes. She could feel the enormous roc swoop past above them, outstretched talons grasping at empty air. The great bird let out an earsplitting shriek.
Raxtus pulled out of his dive, using the momentum to regain some altitude. Above, the roc circled around for another attack.
"Make yourself visible!" Bracken yelled. "Simurghs prefer light to darkness. As she approaches, roll so she can see me."
Raxtus became visible, scales resplendent in the sunlight. "Touch me, Kendra," Raxtus said. "I could use the extra energy."
Kendra laid a hand against the claw around her torso, and Raxtus began to shine with his own light. They seemed to gain altitude faster.
The roc closed again, wings shortened for greater speed. As the vast bird drew near, Raxtus banked, tilting his underside up to better display his passengers.
"Mighty simurgh," Bracken called in a magically magnified shout. "Like you, I am numbered among the Children of the Dawn. Lend us your skies, windkeeper, for our need is dire."
The roc swerved away, apparently giving up the pursuit. Raxtus righted himself and resumed climbing. The roc let out a screech that seemed less of a challenge than the previous cries.
"Good thing," Raxtus gasped. "I didn't want to frighten anyone, but that would have been only a matter of time."
"The simurgh here is well fed," Bracken said. "So are her young. She would willfully devour a unicorn only in a time of famine."
"Don't celebrate yet," Warren warned, pointing toward the largest ziggurat. "We have company."
"I see them," Raxtus said. "Just clearing the trees."
"Three harpies," Bracken reported. "The roc drew the attention of our enemies. How far to the edge of the preserve?"
"Too far," Raxtus puffed. "We need more altitude. They'll catch up and I'll have to evade."
At first, Kendra didn't see what the others meant. Then she spotted the three winged specks rising toward them. "How big are harpies?"
"Not huge," Warren said. "Our size. Horribly fierce, though. Picture winged hags."
"Can't you take them, Raxtus?" Kendra asked.
The dragon spoke in panting bursts. "Unburdened? Fresh? In an emergency? Yeah, I could probably handle them. Right now? I'll do my best."
As Raxtus circled higher, the harpies closed, becoming more distinct. The wiry women had wings instead of arms, and talons instead of legs. Their long hair fluttered wildly in the wind.
"Here we go," Raxtus said, veering away from the fertile valley toward the arid monotony of the desert. Though his wings flapped vigorously, they no longer rose as rapidly. "I hate to leave that updraft. If we'd had another couple of minutes to focus on climbing, I could have outrun them."