The Book of Earth (49 page)

Well, she’d miss Hal and she’d certainly miss Deep Moor, but if she survived this quest, she’d head right back here. Oddly, the last image in her mind, as the reality of Deep Moor faded, as the sparkling whirling dizziness claimed her, was Adolphus of Köthen, smiling at her as if he knew something she didn’t.

W
hen consciousness returned, Erde took a deep breath to clear her head, and was seized by a terrible coughing fit. It was hot and dry and the wind was full of dust. It smelled of . . . she wasn’t sure. An acrid smell, thick and pervasive. Erde thought
There’s something wrong with the air.
She opened her eyes.

She stood on a stretch of sand, pale and vast. The heat rose around her in visible waves, as if the sand itself was on fire, giving off transparent smoke. The sky was gray and lowering, tinged with yellow. To her right, the sand ended several stone’s throws away in a wall of dirty green foliage. To her left, it fell in soft, debris-strewn mounds toward the widest horizon she had ever seen, a horizon of vivid turquoise that raced up to meet the sand in roaring, foaming curls. Water, in a torrent repeating itself, over and over and over.

—
Dragon? Where are we?

I have no idea.

Earth did not bother with his usual curious survey of the new surroundings. He stared expectantly at the place where the sand met the foam.

There! She comes!

—
Who?

The one who Calls me.

Erde squinted at the line of dirty froth, expecting to find someone walking along the shore. Then she spotted movement, a narrow head on a long neck lifted snakelike above the cresting waves.

Another dragon was rising from the water.

END OF VOLUME ONE

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