He also thought about Nethrom’s final words, his answer to the question Alex had asked: The order of Malgor.Alex’s thoughts ran through his mind like the winter wind, and he was unable to hold on to them for long.
In the cold hour before dawn, Alex built up his fire and cooked some food. He wasn’t really hungry, but he knew he should eat. He didn’t know how long he had been in the mountains. He could remember the two days it took to reach the necromancer, but he had no idea how long he’d been in the dark caverns under the mountain, asleep. It felt like a long time, but that might have been because he’d woken in darkness.
When the sun rose, he was ready to move again. For a moment, Alex considered taking a form other than his own so he could return to Neplee more quickly. He felt stronger, but still he hesitated. A part of him wanted to take the shape of the dragon, the shape that was at least part of what he was. But he knew that taking the dragon form now would be foolish; he wasn’t sure what changes it would make in him, and he wasn’t even sure he would ever return to his friends if he took that shape now.
Instead he struggled through the snow on foot, slipping and falling several times as he went. He had no path to follow, but he knew he had to go down to get out of the mountains. He made good time in the beginning, but as the day wore on, he began to stumble more and more. The paths he chose through the trees often ended in snowdrifts that were taller than he was, and the cold mountain air was draining his body of heat.
Finally, when the sun was dropping behind the mountains once more, Alex came to a huge drift of snow. It looked as if all the snow on one side of the mountain had slipped into the valley, blocking his path completely. He walked along the drift away from the mountain, only to find his path blocked by a raging river full of ice. There was no way to move forward and no place he could take shelter for the night.
“Very well,” said Alex to the shadows gathering around him. “I will change, but not to the dragon form. I’m not ready for that. Not yet.”
Taking a moment to gather his thoughts, Alex took the shape of an eagle. Lifting his arms—now wings—he rose from the frozen ground with little effort. The cold wind whipped around him, but his new feathers kept him warm. He circled once above the river and then soared higher into the sky, becoming familiar with his new shape.
Flying, Alex discovered, was wonderful, even better than being a breeze. The mountains slipped away behind him as he glided on the wind, catching the last rays of the setting sun. His eagle eyes could see every detail of the land below him, even the small white rabbits that ran across the snow-covered meadows.
When the first stars came out, Alex flew lower, trying to stay out of the wind that blew across the mountaintops. He could feel the warm air of the day rising along the mountainsides, and he tried to stay as close to that as possible. He also tried to fly quickly, which was easy to do in the eagle’s body. Neplee was not far away, and he felt a sudden urge to get there, an urge that did not come from fear or worry, but from his desire to see his friends.
As the moon rose into the sky, Alex spotted the dwarf city in the distance. Bright torches had been lit beside the city gates, which had been left partway open. Diving down to get a better look, Alex saw that several heavily wrapped dwarfs were tending the torches, and he realized that they had been lit to guide him back from the mountains.
For a moment Alex considered taking his own form at the gate and receiving the welcome of the dwarfs. He knew how happy Turlock would be now that the curse had been lifted and the necromancer was gone. He could imagine his friends’ happy faces and their questions about what he had done and how he had managed to defeat Mog.
It was that thought that made up Alex’s mind for him. He was tired and wanted to rest before answering any questions. He decided to stay in eagle form for the night, resting in the trees nearby until morning. When morning came, he would change to himself and, rested, greet his friends and the happy dwarfs who waited for him.
Alex found a giant pine to settle in for the night, not far from the gates of the city. He folded his wings close to him, though he wasn’t at all cold. Then he closed his eyes, and without really falling asleep, he rested.
As he rested, his mind took flight once more as the eagle, and the feeling of freedom that the form gave him made him happy. He let his dream self fly over the mountains and across the open plains, soaring in the warm sunlight. It was a pleasant, restful dream, and when his dream self returned before dawn, he felt better than he had in a long time.
Opening the eagle’s eyes, Alex saw that the torches were still burning at the city gates. Several dwarfs were already working to clear away the snow that had blown around the gates during the night.
The day was just growing light when Alex saw Arconn step lightly onto the snow and start off toward the mountains. He passed the pine Alex was sitting in, and Alex called to him, forgetting that the eagle had no true voice. Arconn paused to look around and then he hurried on. Alex saw the determined look on Arconn’s face, and he realized his friend was going into the mountains to look for him. He called out once more and took flight, not wanting Arconn to go too far before he could catch up and change back to himself.
Arconn moved fast over the frozen snow, and Alex was glad he had not changed back to his own form before trying to follow. He had to flap his wings hard to overtake his friend because there was no morning wind to help him. When he reached Arconn, Alex called once more, circling and coming to rest on the ground in front of the elf.
“What is this?” said Arconn in surprise.
Alex returned to his own shape. “It is what you are looking for, and what would have found you this morning, if you hadn’t started off so early.”
“Alex!” Arconn yelled in surprise and delight, rushing forward and throwing his arms around his friend. “We’ve been so worried about you. Turlock has kept the city gates open for the past week, hoping the light would help guide you back.”
“The past week?” Alex questioned. “How long have I been gone? It seems that today would only be the fifth or sixth day since I left Neplee.”
“You’ve been gone fourteen days, Alex,” said Arconn. “Kat told us that you’d succeeded in defeating the evil on the evening of the second day, and we’ve been expecting you ever since then. We never thought it would take you so long to return after you’d found and defeated the necromancer so quickly.”
“I slept for a long time,” Alex said. “I was asleep beneath the mountains for ten days, and then Salinor woke me.”
“Salinor?” Arconn questioned.
“Forgive me, I spoke without thinking,” Alex answered, shocked that he’d spoken the dragon’s name out loud. “I should not have said his name. Please, forget what I said.”
“But there is no need,” Arconn said. “It is a name I know from long ago. I told you once that I knew a dragon—a dragon that was not evil, do you remember?”
“Yes, I remember,” Alex answered, thinking back. “That was before I really believed in dragons, when I knew almost nothing of them.”
“Yes,” said Arconn. “And now I find that you’ve met the same dragon that I once did. You know him by the same name that I know him by, the name that I have never spoken to another living soul.”
“And I should not have spoken it now,” Alex said dejectedly. “I simply forgot to keep his name secret, and it is only a lucky chance that you are the one who heard it.”
“Hardly luck,” said Arconn seriously. “Ever since we left the Isle of Bones, I have wanted to tell you about Salinor. I felt something pushing me to tell you his name, some desire to share it with you that I could not understand.”
“So you think he meant for us to know? Did Salinor want us to talk about him to each other? Or at least know that we both had met the same dragon?”
“I am certain of it, though I cannot guess why,” said Arconn. “The ways of dragons are difficult to understand, and Salinor is perhaps the most difficult, as he is the oldest dragon of all.”