Free In Stone's Clasp by Christie Golden Page A

Emperor.
    The Emperor commanded a mighty army that would have destroyed her land, had not Kevla and the Dragon stood to help defend her people. That the Emperor possessed some kind of magic, Kevla knew; that he was bent on seeing that Kevla failed in her mission to gather the other four like her, Kevla also knew.
    And that was quite enough for her to not want to fly over his country.
    “Dragon,” she began again, glancing down as the mountains that had once presented an impassible barrier for her land gave way to hills and then rolling plains, “perhaps under cover of night, it is less likely that we would be seen.”
    He chuckled. It sounded like the rumble of a volcano.
    “Night or day, it matters not to those who have magic, as the Emperor does. We have a long way to go yet. You received the best education Arukan had to offer, but Arukan knows nothing of what lies beyond its borders.”
    “And you do?” Kevla was skeptical; the Dragon had dwelt at the bottom of a volcano for five thousand years.
    “This world? No. But I have known four other worlds, and the creatures in them, and I remember how long it takes to fly from north to south. The Stone Dancer is always as far from the Flame Dancer as each world allows. Think you we can find him in a single day?”
    “You’re a dragon,” Kevla replied. “Can’t you?”
    “A creature of magic I am, but even I can go no faster or farther than my wings can take me. Although I do not need rest or food, you do. I will go as swiftly as I may.”
    Kevla sagged a little on the Dragon’s back. Somehow, she had assumed the difficult part of her journey was behind her. She had endured so much; lost so much.
    As always, the Dragon sensed her mood and thoughts. “I know what you have suffered,” he said softly. “I wish I could simply carry you while you rested and recovered. I wish I could fulfill your destiny for you, but I cannot. I am a part of you, but I am not you, and this duty is yours alone.”
    “I understand,” Kevla said. The burden, it would seem, was not yet to be surrendered.
    Her tongue had no yearning for speech. The Dragon respected her silence, and they said nothing more until the sun began to sink slowly to their left and the sky turned deeper shades of blue and then purple.
    “We will rest for the night,” the Dragon said. “I will make for as safe a place as I can, in a remote area far from the cities of this land. Before I do, I must warn you, the fact that we are in his land could well strengthen the Emperor’s powers, and it is certain he will be looking for us.”
    Kevla tensed. “Then is it wise for us to land at all?”
    “We must,” he replied. “You need to rest and eat and move. I will keep watch while you sleep, never fear. But you must not use any of your Dancer abilities. Magic calls to magic. If you would protect yourself while we are in his realm, quiet your mind. He’s trying to sense you, right now. I can feel it. We know he knows about you. But he may not know about the others yet. You must not be the one to inform him.”
    Kevla’s heart sped up; the exact opposite of what the Dragon needed her to do. A strange bubble of mirth welled inside her. She bit it back, but she wondered if the Dragon appreciated how difficult it was to do as he had requested.
    She was not to think about the man they were seeking. So instead, as the Dragon tucked his mammoth body with startling grace and headed for the earth, she deliberately thought about something else.
    Kevla summoned an image that would do no harm to her or anyone if somehow the Emperor were to read her thoughts. She thought about her time as a servant in the House of Four Waters. Her mind was filled with the tasks that had occupied her days: massaging the feet of Yeshi, the great lord’s wife, cutting vegetables, carrying water from the vast caverns that never ran dry. Everyday, ordinary things.
    The earth approached quickly. They left a sky crowded with stars to descend on a