‘There is no need to fear,’ said Tomas to Jim. ‘I have magic that will ensure your safety, and this is the fastest way to reach Kaspar and his men.’
‘Wait!’ argued Jim. ‘I have this device. It will take us to Sorcerer’s Island. Miranda can take us—’
Tomas smiled even more broadly and said, ‘Trust me when I say, this is a better way to make an entrance.’
Jim sighed. ‘Very well. If you say so.’
‘I do. Follow me and step where I step; For all his size, Ryath is sensitive.’
Pushing aside an almost irrational urge to giggle, Jim followed Tomas, watching where he placed his feet, and grabbed hold as the white-clad warrior climbed up the side of the dragon’s face. Tomas walked down the length of the dragon’s long neck holding lightly to the large crest and when he reached the base, he sat down, wrapping his legs easily around the creature’s neck, which was about the size of the barrel of a good-sized warhorse just before it met the neck. ‘Sit behind me,’ Tomas told him.
When he was firmly seated, Jim said, ‘I’m ready.’
‘Hold tight,’ said Tomas, and suddenly the ground seemed to leap away below them as the dragon sprang upwards with a terrifyingly loud beat of its wings, the force of which cracked through the air like the thunderous boom of massive drums.
The ground fell away below and Jim for the first time in his life felt dizzy from the height. Then the dragon levelled off its flight and turned towards the south-east and started to accelerate.
Jim forced himself to breathe and then realized he was holding onto Tomas’s waist like a baby clutching his mother. He assumed the powerful warrior wasn’t discomfited for he didn’t seem to notice.
Jim looked down and saw the forest below and realized they were moving at an incredible rate. He could not even begin to judge how fast they flew over the treetops – many times the speed of the fastest horse he had ever ridden – but suddenly they were out of the elven forests and into the foothills of what could only be the Grey Tower Mountains.
Higher and higher they rose and faster and faster they flew. Jim was too overcome with awe and amazement to speak, and even if he could, didn’t know if Tomas could hear him.
The air turned cold, but not bitter, and given how high above the peaks they sped, Jim assumed magic was at play – this high up he should be freezing to death and unable to breathe. Still they pressed on and even faster they went, until the ground below was almost a blur of features. Then they were above a large expanse of blue water, and Jim’s eyes widened as he realized they had swept out over the Bitter Sea! They had crossed the largest range of mountains in the Western Realm and over the Free Cities of Natal in minutes!
The dragon spread his wings out and soared and then levelled out its flight again, as if it had reached the limit of its speed. But even so, the velocity was staggering. Jim saw an island appear on the horizon, pass below, and vanish behind before he could recognize it as the island Kingdom of Queg. Then Krondor was below and onward they flew.
Jim’s mind reeled as he tried to comprehend details in the fleeing landscape below, and his senses were confounded as the sun lowered behind them. They were flying east and soon night appeared on the horizon as they raced into darkness. Never had night fallen so fast for Jim, and he marvelled at the magnificence of a city appearing below, a thousand torch-lights flickering on the ground. The large moon rose over the eastern edge of the world, and seemed to hurdle into the sky, the small moon trailing after it like a pup following his mother.
Jim heard Tomas’s voice. ‘That’s Malac’s Cross we just passed over. We should reach the Peaks of the Quor at dawn.’
Through the night they flew and Jim found himself too enthralled by the experience to feel even a hint of fatigue or hunger. They passed over villages where only a lantern or two illuminated the streets, but which they could clearly see from on high as Middle Moon joined the other two in the sky and a cloudless night revealed the landscape below.
Jim felt the dragon turn and bank angling now towards the south-east, and he knew they must be approaching the shore of the Kingdom Sea. In the east the sky was lightening by the minute, first a faint hint of grey, then a lighter grey, then suddenly a rosy hue was quickly followed by a golden dawn. The rise of the sun as they sped downwards was breathtaking, just as the rising of the moon had been what seemed barely minutes earlier. Whatever magic made it safe to ride the back of the dragon also seemed to make it impossible to judge how quickly they were moving, Jim thought, for he knew that even at the dragon’s prodigious speed it had still been a journey of hours, even if it felt as if only minutes had passed.