They didn’t speak until they emerged in the foothills. The sun was setting, painting the dry ground with a warm glow and setting Dhamon’s scales aglow as if they were molten metal. Dhamon lay down, talons stretched to the horizon, wings tucked in close.
Ragh cautiously climbed up first, settling himself at the base of Dhamon’s neck between two wicked-looking spines. Maldred waited, watching the sun sink lower, the glow start to fade. Then he perched himself behind Ragh, grasping one of Dhamon’s spines and clenching his legs tight as the dragon spread his wings and effortlessly vaulted into the sky.
Flying came instinctively to him, and Dhamon wondered if it was seeded in him by the dragon-magic, or whether it was partly because of the years he flew on the back of the blue dragon Gale. The wind rushed above and beneath his wings, played across his head and caressed his back. He felt he should be troubled by his ruined humanity, but the power of this new form, the sensation of flying, kept his morose thoughts at bay.
Perhaps there was something wonderful and fated about becoming a dragon. Dhamon found himself enjoying the sensation of flying so high above the earth.
“Where are we going?” Ragh had to shout to be heard above the wind.
Dhamon’s answer was to bank far to the south, to the edge of the mountain range. The sky was starting to grow dark by the time he landed, nodding for Maldred to get off.
The ogre-mage did so with some reluctance.
“I will miss you, Dhamon,” Maldred said. “I will hope that fate sees to bring us together again, and I will hope that in the intervening time you find a way to forgive me.”
Dhamon waited until the ogre-mage stepped away before spreading his wings. His legs propelled him skyward once more, and as he rose higher his neck craned back for a last glance at his onetime friend.
The blue-skinned giant was gone. In his stead was again the bronze-hued man with a handsome, angular face and close-cropped, tawny hair. That was the old form that Dhamon knew and the one that seemed to suit Maldred the best.
“You’re not dropping me off on some lonely peak,” Ragh grumbled. Softer, but not so soft that Dhamon couldn’t hear, he added, “Besides I’ve nowhere to go.”
Their course took them slightly west now, then toward Haltigoth. Stars were winking into view by the time they landed. The draconian slipped from Dhamon’s back, and Dhamon called upon a spell that came to him unbidden from mysterious depths.
Within the span of a few moments, the dragon that was Dhamon Grimwulf appeared to fold in upon himself, shrinking, then becoming flat, like a pool of oil. The oil glided silently to the draconian, attached itself, and moved with him as his shadow. Ragh hurried to the nearby village, skirted the stable, and passed beyond the closed merchant stalls. There was a small, stone building with a thatch roof. Dhamon’s keen senses led them there.
Ragh crept toward a window at the back.
Riki and her husband sat at a wooden table. Riki cradled an infant—a boy with mysterious, dark eyes and wheat-blond hair. A boy, Dhamon decided, that he would check in on again over time to make sure his way in this world was safe and profitable.
“Seen enough?” Ragh whispered after several minutes. The draconian did not want to risk discovery.
Aye, the shadow answered. I have seen well and enough.
They left the village, flying again and cutting a course against a cold, fall wind. Dhamon headed north, where a dragon named Gale held sway. He wanted to see his old battle partner and see Gale’s surprise. In the miles that stretched between Throt and Gale’s lair perhaps he would figure out how to explain what had happened to him.
“What then?” Ragh asked. “After Gale?”
Dhamon wasn’t certain. Perhaps they might journey to the Dragon Isles, certainly to somewhere he’d never been before. This new body, a new life, demanded new surroundings.
“They named the boy Evran,” Ragh told him. “Riki said it was an old family name she wanted to honor. Sounds nice. For a human name.”
Dhamon inwardly smiled. Evran was his middle name. Few but Riki knew that. The child did indeed favor him in some way.