“It would he my honor,” Kopernus replied. “I’ll scout ahead and clear the way.”
He turned, flipping head over tail-barely missing tall monuments on each side-and streaked off through a towering bronze tree with jade leaves.
“I can see why few people venture up here,” Mik said.
Shimmer nodded. “Kopernus can he deadly when provoked.”
They moved as quickly as they could through the strange city: running over mosaics the size of city blocks, fording rivers frozen in time, and dodging around the titanic monuments.
“Like a graveyard for the gods,” Mik thought.
The sailor’s legs were nearly ready to quit when Shimmer finally pulled up before a huge, white marble pyramid. Kopernus hovered near a door in the side of the huge edifice.
“No scoundrels in sight,” the copper dragon said.
“Thank you for your help,” replied Mik.
The copper puffed out his chest again. “Please keep your visit brief, and let me know if you spot any rogues.”
“We will,” Mik said.
“Come visit again soon, Shimanloreth.”
“When I can,” Shimmer replied.
With a single flap of his huge wings, Kopernus shot into the sky. Moments later, the copper dragon disappeared entirely.
Mikal Vardan let out a long, relieved breath.
The doors of the pyramid stood recessed into the side of the immense structure. Each was five times as wide and tall as a human door. They were made of the same polished marble as the library’s mountain-like exterior and had no doorhandles.
Shimmer stuck his fingertips into the broad crack between them and pulled with all his might. With a groan like distant thunder, the doors opened-just a crack.
Mik and the knight pushed through the opening and into a long, dimly lit hallway filled with hundred-foot columns.
Mik began to hike down the hallway; Shimmer followed behind, rubbing his left shoulder.
“This place looks even larger inside than it did outside,” Mik commented.
“The gold and silver dragons who built it were powerful sorcerers,” Shimmer replied. “The laws of time and space do not always apply to them.”
Mik nodded, remembering the people frozen motionless in the plaza.
They passed through the end of the long corridor and into a huge, domed chamber. Hundreds of shelves, each as tall as a man, lined the walls. The shelves were filled to overflowing with books and scrolls, also of titanic size. Golden filigree, gems, and strange runes decorated the spines of the volumes. Some were bound in leather, other in armored hide or scaly skin, and still others in parchment alone.
“If the key were hidden in this room, it would take a lifetime to find it,” Mik said.
“More than a lifetime-unless you’re a dragon.” Shimmer replied.
“Fortunately, I don’t think it’s here,” Mik said, a smile cracking his bearded face. “I think we have to go up in the pyramid-to the highest throne
“A fair assumption.” Shimanloreth shouldered aside a huge oak door on the far side of the chamber and discovered a staircase beyond. They went through and climbed the long stairway.
The chamber at the top of the stairs was built on a more human scale. The stacks were huge, but they had normal sized-if elaborate and beautiful-books, and long ladders for reaching the top shelves. Skylights dominated the vaulted ceiling, providing the room with plenty of natural lighting-though Mik didn’t recall seeing any windows on the outside of the pyramid.
Going ever upward, they climbed a balcony on the far side of the room and opened a normal-sized oak door set into one wall.
The staircase beyond stretched high overhead into darkness. Hundreds of identical, brass-handled doors debouched onto the stairway. As Mik and Shimmer climbed, they opened a few of the doors they passed and discovered strange and wondrous things beyond. One doorway overlooked an endless twilit sea. They nearly fell through another into a black, star-dappled sky with no solid ground in sight. Musty, cobweb-covered scrolls filled one room beyond the stairs. Another was stacked floor to ceiling with polished obsidian orbs.
The climb to the top of the stairs was tortuously long, and they stopped several times to catch their breath.
“How long have we been here?” Mik asked.
“A moment? A day? A lifetime?” Shimmer replied. “Who can tell?”
At the top of the stairs they found a final golden door.
The portal resisted their attempts to open it until Mik held up the emerald key. Then the latch gave easily.
Mik shrugged at Shimmer. They walked through the door, down a short corridor, and into a huge spherical chamber. The whole of Kingfisher-masts and all-could easily have fit inside the room. Stunning mosaics entirely covered the vast, curving walls. The floor depicted the ocean, wide and blue and teaming with life. The walls-if the globular space could be said to have walls-were covered with scenes of the Dragon Isles: islands, beaches, forests, mountains, ships, and flying dragons. Overhead, an indigo sky sported countless shimmering stars set in the constellations of Krynn.
At the very center of the room, a huge golden chair with crimson padding hung motionless in the air. A strange, flickering golden aura surrounded the seat. A fist-sized multifaceted crystal had been set into the apex of the chair’s back.
“Wisdom’s highest throne, I presume,” Mik said. He crossed the ocean mosaic and stood in the center of the room under the hovering chair. “Give me a hand up, would you?”
Shimmer nodded and came to help.
The golden throne hung nearly a dozen feet above the ocean mosaic. Mik had to stand on Shimmer’s shoulders, and-even then-his fingers barely brushed the chair’s dragonlike legs.
“Hold steady,” Mik called down to the knight. “I’m going to jump for it.” With that, he launched himself into the air and caught hold of one of the throne’s legs.
As he touched it, first his hands, then his whole body began to tingle. The glow suffusing the chair increased, and the air crackled with magical energy.
Goosebumps rose on Mik’s arms as he climbed, hand over hand, up to the blood-red seat. His dark hair stood on end and wavered as though tugged by an unfelt wind.
“Are you all right?” Shimmer called up.
“Fine,” Mik replied, pulling himself into the seat at last. He took a long, deep breath and settled in.
“This is a foolish thing you’re doing!”
“Who risks most, gains most,” Mik replied, his body quivering so much that his teeth chattered. “I-I seek the key.”
As he spoke, the chair began to spin. Faster and faster it went, until the room around it blurred and Mik felt himself pressed back, into the padded seat.
Golden lightning crackled all around. His hair shot straight out, and his skin felt as though it were being rubbed with sandpaper.
Then the world went away.
The cloaked figured hurtled into Ula, toppling the sea elf over backward. The thing smelled of sweat, brine, and rotten fish.
Ula cursed and rolled to one side, trying to kick the attacker off, but the cloak got tangled in her jewelry.
She cursed again and pushed hard. This time, the thing burst free, taking some of her jewelry and a hit of her modesty with it. Angrily, she thrust her spear at the flabby, baglike thing squirming on the street.
“Hey!” the creature cried.
“Drag me to the Abyss!” Ula said, not sure whether to laugh or weep. “What are you doing here?”
Tripleknot Shellcracker got up and dusted himself off. “Well, that’s a fine hello,” he said, frowning at Ula. “Do you always try to run your friends through?”
“Only when I don’t know they’re my friends,” she replied, picking up her jewelry and putting her clothing back together. “You’re lucky I didn’t kill you.”