“Now, see here,” he said sternly, eyeing Gerard. “We’ve been through a lot together, you and I. If it wasn’t for me, you wouldn’t be where you are today That being the case,” he added hurriedly, before Gerard could reply, “follow me.”
He turned around, bravely confident, ready to proceed forward, without having the least idea where he was going.
A voice said softly, distinctly, in his ear, “Over the ridge.”
“Over the ridge,” said Tasslehoff. Pointing at the first ridge of gray rock that he saw, he marched off that direction.
“Should we go after him?” Odila asked.
“We don’t dare lose him,” said Gerard.
Tas clamored among the gray stones, dislodging small rocks that slid and slithered out from under him and went clattering and bounding down behind him, seriously impeding Odila and Gerard, who were attempting to climb up after him. Glancing back, Tas saw that Mirror had not moved. The silver dragon continued to stand where he had landed, fanning his wings and twitching his tail, probably to try to keep his blood stirring.
“He can’t see,” said Tasslehoff, stung by guilt. “And we’ve left him behind, all alone. Don’t worry, Mirror!” he called out. “We’ll come back for you.”
Mirror said something in response, something that Tas couldn’t quite hear clearly, what with all the noise that Odila and Gerard were making dodging rocks, but it seemed to him that he heard.
“The glory of this moment is yours, kender. I will be waiting.”
“That’s the great thing about dragons,” Tas said to himself, feeling warm all over. “They always understand.”
Topping the ridge, he looked down, and his breath caught in his throat.
As far as the eye could see were dragons. Tasslehoff had never seen so many dragons in one place at one time. He had never imagined that there were so many gold and silver dragons in the world.
The dragons slumbered in a cold-induced torpor. They pressed together for warmth, heads and necks entwined, bodies lying side by side, wings folded, tails wrapped around themselves or their brother dragons. The strange light that caused rainbows to dance mockingly in the ice wall stole the colors from the dragons, left them gray as the rocky peaks that surrounded them.
“Are they dead?” Tas asked, his heart in his throat.
“No,” said the voice in his ear, “they are deeply asleep. Their slumber keeps them from dying.”
“How do I wake them?”
“You must bring down the ice wall.”
“How do I do that? Gerard’s knife broke when he tried it.”
“A weapon is not what is needed.”
Tas thought this over, then said doubtfully, “Can I do it?”
“I don’t know,” the voice said. “Can you?”
“By all that is wonderful!” Gerard exclaimed. Pulling himself up to the top of the ridge, he now stood beside Tasslehoff. “Would you look at that!”
Odila said nothing. She stood long moments, gazing down at the dragons, then she turned and ran back down the ridge. “I will go tell Mirror.”
“I think he knows,” said Tasslehoff, then he added, politely, “Excuse me. I have something to do.”
“Oh, no. You’re not going anywhere!” Gerard cried and made a snatch at Tasslehoff’s collar. He missed.
Tasslehoff began running full tilt, as fast as he could run. The climb had warmed his feet. He could feel his toes—essential for running—and he ran as he had never run before. His feet skimmed over the ground. If he stepped on a loose rock that might have sent him tumbling, he didn’t touch it long enough to matter. He fairly flew down the side of the ridge.
He gave himself to the running. The wind buffeted his face and stung his eyes. His mouth opened wide. He sucked in great mouthfuls of cold air that sparkled in his blood. He heard shouts, but their words meant nothing in the wind of his running. He ran without thought of stopping, without the means of stopping. He ran straight at the ice wall. Wildly excited, Tas threw back his head. He opened his mouth and cried out a loud “Yaaaa” that had absolutely no meaning but just felt good. Arms spread wide, mouth open wide, he crashed headlong into the wall of shimmering ice.
Rainbow droplets fell all around him. Sparkling in a radiant silver light, the droplets plopped down on his upturned face. He raced through the curtain of water that had once been a wall of ice, and he continued to run, out of control, running, madly running, and then he saw that just ahead of him, almost at his feet, the gray rock ended abruptly and there was nothing below it except black.
Tas flailed his arms, trying to stop. He struggled with his feet, but they seemed to have minds of their own, and he knew with certainty that he was going to sail right off the edge. My last moment, but a glorious one, he thought.
He was falling, and silver wings flew above him. He felt a claw seize hold of his collar (not a new sensation, for it seemed that someone was always seizing hold of his collar), except that this was different. This was a most welcome seize.
Tas hung suspended over eternity.
He gasped for breath that he couldn’t seem to find. He was dizzy and light-headed. Tilting back his head, he saw that he dangled from the claw of a silver dragon, a silver dragon who turned his sightless eyes in the general direction of the kender.
“Thank goodness you kept yelling,” said Mirror, “and thank goodness Gerard saw your peril in time to warn me.”
“Are they free?” Tasslehoff asked anxiously. “The other dragons?”
“They are free,” said Mirror, veering slowly about, returning to what Tas could see now was nothing more than an enormous island of gray rock adrift in the darkness.
“What are you and the other dragons going to do?” Tas asked, starting to feel better now that he was over solid ground.
“Talk,” said Mirror.
“Talk!” Tasslehoff groaned.
“Don’t worry,” said Mirror. “We are keenly aware of the passing of time. But there are questions to be asked and answered before we can make any decision.” His voice softened. “Too many have sacrificed too much for us to ruin it all by acting rashly.”
Tas didn’t like the sound of that. It made him feel extremely sad, and he was about to ask Mirror what he meant, but the dragon was now lowering the kender to the ground. Gerard caught hold of Tasslehoff in his arms. Giving him a hug, he set him on his feet. Tas concentrated on trying to breathe. The air was warmer, now that the ice wall was gone. He could hear wings beating and the dragons’ voices, deep and resonant, calling out to each other in their ancient language. Tas sat on the gray rocks and waited for his breathing to catch up with him and for his heart to realize that he’d quit running and that it didn’t need to beat so frantically. Odila went off with Mirror to serve as his guide, and he soon heard the silver dragon’s voice rising in joy at finding his fellows. Gerard remained behind. He didn’t tromp about, as usual, peering into this and investigating that. He stood looking down at Tas with a most peculiar expression on his face. Maybe he has a stomach ache, Tas thought.
As for Tasslehoff, since he didn’t have breath enough to talk, he spent some time thinking.
“I never quite looked at it that way,” he thought to himself.
“What did you say?” Gerard asked, squatting down to be level with the kender. Tas made up his mind. He could talk now and he knew what he had to say. “I’m going back.”
“We’re all going back,” Gerard stated, adding, with an exasperated glance in the direction of the dragons, “eventually.”
“No, I don’t mean that,” said Tas, having trouble with a lump in his throat. “I mean I’m going back to die.” He managed a smile and a shrug. “I’m already dead, you know, so it won’t be such a huge change.”