For whatever reason, Ylith had met Skander at Dragon Rock, where she had been visiting relatives who had recently moved to the area from Scythia. Skander at that time had been taking advantage of a rare shape-changing spell that had come his way. Dragons are always in search of shape-changing spells because, being intelligent, they aspire to appear in human society. Although humans don’t know it, dragons in altered shapes have been present in many of the courts of the world, where they love to argue with philosophers. More often, though, dragons simply get tired of all the years alone, all the more alone since dragons of either sex are suspicious of dragons of the opposite sex. It is for this reason, not for lack of opportunity or lustiness, that dragons rarely mate, and it is even more rare that they have young. Among the dragons who do have young, there’s no agreed-upon rule as to which parent is to bring up the children. There’s not even consensus on who bears them. The dragons did away with most of that instinctual stuff ages ago. Creatures of reason now, they fought over these matters among themselves. It is said that in the settling of these arguments, much of the race of dragons was wiped out.
And heroes had a field day against dragons in their confusion. It amazed dragons to think that knights-beefy guys in metal suits-could kill them, since the humans were so obviously unintelligent and had only their court rituals going for them. But the humans were winning because they were single-minded about killing, while the dragons were single-minded about nothing at all.
Ylith flew to the Samarkand region and made inquiry in the town of Yar Digi, the nearest village to Dragon Rock. It was a low, miserable place, and there was nothing on its one street but souvenir shops. These were filled with dragon lore, but there were no customers. When Ylith asked about this, a bookstore owner named Achmed told her, “It is because the long-awaited boom in dragon lore has not yet come to pass. Other places are getting all the attention. In Britain, for example, where no dragons have stirred for centuries, they run guided tours of where they used to be, and outsell us a hundred to one. Where is the dragon? Somewhere up the trail over in his cave at Dragon Rock. But no one ever seems able to find it unless the dragon wants visitors. And you never know about that. He’s quirky.”
Ylith went in the direction indicated and, after paying her entrance fee, was allowed onto the path. Moving along it, she rounded a number of turns, passed a small refreshment stand, passed Dragon Rock itself. Nothing resembling a cave was apparent at either hand.
It was not until she heard a deep, resonant chuckle that she halted.
“Skander?” she called.
The sound came again.
“It’s me, Ylith.”
Suddenly she became aware of a shadowy place between two boulders which might be more than shadow. Moving to it, she saw that it continued back into a greater darkness. She entered there.
At what point she passed within the greater darkness of the hillside she could not be certain. Yet, after a time, the echoing of her footfalls convinced her that she was entirely indoors.
“Skander?” she repeated.
There was still no reply, but she became aware of a faint illumination ahead and to the right. Following it around a bend, she entered an area where the stone itself seemed to glow- overhead and at either hand. With this visibility, she increased her pace. The passage branched several times, and in each instance she followed the path of greater brightness.
At length, she came to a chamber where the dark, scaled form she sought reclined, staring at her. Save for the eyes, she might have missed him in the stillness. She halted upon the threshold, uneasy.
“Skander. It’s me. Ylith,” she said.
He cocked his head and lowered his eyelids slightly.
“Yes. It is, isn’t it?” he observed. “How long has it been?”
“Long. What are you doing?”
“I was dreaming of the Renaissance.”
“What is a Renaissance?”
“I’m sorry, I’m getting my centuries mixed up,” he replied. “The Renaissance comes later. That’s the trouble with being prescient. You can never tell then from now.”