Phoenix (22 page)

Writing is lonely work, and so often I feel as though these books have been abandoned like so many dragon hatchlings in the wild, where they would surely perish if not for the kindness of those who stop, pick them up, and love them.

So to you, to each of you, my deepest thanks.

Finley

BONUS MATERIALS

NOTE TO READERS, FROM THE AUTHOR:

For the sake of keeping you up to speed on all that’s happened between Felix and Ram’s adventures with Nia, and a year later when Zilpha’s story takes place (chronicled in Vixen, Book Four of the Dragon Eyes series), I’ve provided this summary of Felix’s journey during that year, all he discovered, and what happened because of it.

Fair warning: it’s rather dull, which is why it doesn’t go with the rest of the story. In fact, it’s so abysmally disappointing Felix refused to tell it himself, preferring to forget much of it, so all that remains is this past-tense summary.

If you’re not interested in reading this, or if you start reading it but fall asleep from the pure dullness of it, you may be more interested in the sneak peek of Vixen which follows. But if you’re curious about what Felix discovered in China, and the peculiar misadventures that befell him in France, then read on.

A SUMMARY OF THE TEDIOUS JOURNEY FELIX UNDERTOOK IN THE YEAR FOLLOWING HIS ENCOUNTER WITH THE VOLCANO

Felix Melikov, following his adventure with his brother and the fire-dragon Nia, set off alone on a journey to China, equipped with the small clues Nia had gleaned from the White Witch Eudora, and a working knowledge of the Chinese language, which he learned from a computer program Nia recommended to him.

His foremost clue, and really the only bit of information that told him anything he didn’t already know, was that the dragons of China hunt with eagles. Felix had heard of the traditional practice of hunting with eagles (similar to falconry, only with eagles instead of falcons) but had always associated that practice with Mongolia. Knowing modern borders didn’t always reflect historical boundaries, Felix traveled to the Altai Mountains, the place where Mongolia and Kazakhstan almost meet, where China rises up to touch the crown of Russia.

There, he encountered some difficulty in communication, for while he’d learned Chinese through the limits of the computer course, and even studied the first level of Russian, nonetheless, the Mongolian dialects he encountered in those remote areas shared little in common with the languages he knew. And while the Kazakh language has some words in common with his native Azeri, nonetheless, it wasn’t nearly enough for him to communicate fluently.

After several weeks, during which he mostly lived alone in the mountains, visiting various villages and nomadic encampments in vain, Felix began to wonder if he would ever make any inroads among the people. He’d begun to grow more desperate, and was surveying the countryside from the top of a tall mountain, when he spotted a caravan of delivery trucks journeying through the pass. Noting their progress, he made to intersect their path, then trudged along the road ahead of them so they caught up to him from behind.

As Felix had hoped, these travelers came alongside him and slowed down to speak with him as he walked. They tried to communicate in a few different languages before settling upon Chinese. He accepted their offer of a ride, and the two men in the truck he rode in began to converse with him. They turned out to be a well-traveled family of traders who were fluent in the various local dialects, besides being conversant in the standard Chinese Felix had studied.

The story Felix gave, which he had invented as a cover, was that he was a researcher who wanted to study the eagle hunters, to document the practice, which was dying out among the locals as young people moved away to cities and lost interest in traditional lifestyles.

Felix was then able to convince one of these traders, an older man named Yul, who was sometimes retired from trading anyway, and who was fluent in more dialects than many of the others, to accompany him as his guide and translator for a rather large fee.

Fortunately, Yul had some knowledge and appreciation for the eagle hunters, and was able to connect Felix with families in the region, visiting various eagle-hunting communities in turn.

For a few weeks, everything went smoothly, though Felix met no dragons. He gathered a great deal of information on eagle hunting, and learned enough bits and pieces of the language that he was, at times, able to understand their words before Yul even translated. Still, Felix preferred to speak through Yul, rather than attempt to communicate directly with the people.

As time went on, and Felix learned everything a researcher might hope to learn on such an expedition, it became apparent to him and to Yul that he was running out of reasons to stay. However, it was about this time, as Felix began to fear he’d have to move on without finding any dragons, that he discovered a gap in the training schedules of the young eagles.

He’d watched the eagles being raised from hatchlings. The humans taught the eagle hatchlings to fetch small stuffed mice as a training exercise. The young eagles even knew, either instinctually or from watching the older birds, how to catch small rodents and fish for their own meals.

But the older eagles were practiced in hunting for their owners—bringing back larger fish, enough to feed a family—as well as the foxes, hares, and other larger mammals whose pelts and meat were so valuable.

Felix overheard some men conversing about the next stage of training for the eagles, which involved the birds going off to a pair of tutors of sorts. Just as Felix began to wonder why he hadn’t heard of this stage of training before, the men (who were speaking freely in his presence, doubtless under the assumption that, without Yul’s assistance, he couldn’t understand them) agreed to wait until after Felix had left their village before taking the eagles to be apprenticed.

Always savvy, Felix did not let on that he’d understood, but pondered his next move. It seemed suspicious, and perhaps even fortuitous. Why wouldn’t the locals want him to know about the next stage of training? They’d been open about sharing everything else. Was it that, perhaps, there was something about the two people who performed the training, that the men wanted to keep a secret?

Dragons had to be kept secret.

It was the closest thing to a possibility that Felix had yet encountered, especially in light of the clue Nia had learned from the white witch.

Given what the men had said—that they wouldn’t take their eagles on until Felix had left—Felix decided to leave. He announced it through Yul that afternoon, when most of the men were present. And after leaving parting gifts with everyone, he made a big show of going on his way.

After he and Yul had disappeared out of sight past the mountains, Felix made his next difficult decision. While Yul had been a great service to him, the man’s services were no longer so necessary. Rather than try to explain his real intentions to his guide, Felix thanked him for all he’d done, presented him with a gift, and parted ways.

To his relief, Yul seemed happy enough to return to his family, and wished him well on his research and remaining journey.

Once Yul was also out of sight, Felix sneaked back toward the village and waited from a hidden vantage point to see what would happen.

Nothing did, not for the rest of the evening or that night. But early in the morning, so early the sun had only just begun to lighten the sky, men set off on horseback with the young eagles, headed deeper into the remotest parts of the mountains.

Felix followed. He had to run to keep up, but fortunately, the men and their horses made enough noise, Felix didn’t have to worry much about being heard. He suspected at one point that one of the eagles spotted him, but as he’d already made himself familiar to the birds during his stay, the eagle wasn’t alarmed by him and didn’t alert the others.

After riding much of the morning, the men left their horses near a small spring and started up a steep mountainside on foot. Felix debated his choices. The trees and brush thinned further up the mountain, disappearing completely in the direction the men were headed. If Felix followed them, he’d have few places to hide.

He already knew the men didn’t want him to know about this trip. They’d surely be angry if they spotted him. And if they were protecting dragons with their secrecy, they might well refuse to go any farther.

Anyway, the men would have to come back for their horses. And with his excellent eyesight, Felix would be able to watch their progress up the bald mountain.

So he found a good hiding spot among a tumble of boulders, and watched.

Near the top of the mountain, the men seemed to disappear into the snow. Only when he looked closer and watched carefully could Felix make out the entrance to a cave—a spot so well-camouflaged, he would never have found it if not for the men.

Whatever happened inside that cave, Felix couldn’t tell. But before long, the men returned without their eagles, climbed on their horses, and rode away, back in the direction of their village.

Felix stared at the cave opening. It was nearly evening by this time, and they were in an area of the mountains that was so remote, Felix had seen no sign of any human presence all day. As he sat in his hiding spot, pondering his next move, two human figures stepped out from the cave with the eagles fluttering about them.

The two people were dressed in minimal garments, though Felix observed from a distance that one appeared to be male, and the other female. While the eagles settled on perches on the surrounding rocks, the two individuals changed into dragons.

Felix felt his heart rate quicken and dip. He’d found them! He’d found dragons!

But if one was male and one female, were they husband and wife? If so, did they have children? But if they had children, where were the children?

Though he’d made a long journey hoping beyond hope for a moment such as this, Felix realized he wasn’t sure what to do next. Dragons weren’t supposed to be seen by humans.

Perhaps his best choice would be to change into a dragon and fly out to meet them. Yes, he might frighten them that way, but he’d frighten them if he arrived in human form, too. If he came as a dragon, they’d at least know he was their same kind.

By this time, the dragons were swooping down the mountainside with the eagles trialing behind them, a bit like an odd family of ducks taking their duckling out for a swim.

But this was no swim.

Fearing they might fly out of sight at any moment, Felix stripped off his outer clothes. He’d been carrying minimal weapons on his journey. Thanks to the mass-suicide of the yagi at the volcano, he had yet to encounter a single yagi on this trip, and so hadn’t needed his usual arsenal. He left his small sword and dagger with his clothes, then changed into a dragon, and flew after the other two dragons.

As he drew closer behind them, he swooped around wide, to their left, away from the mountainside, where they could see him without getting the impression he was chasing them down or trying to threaten them.

The two dragons were beautifully colored—one, a bright tiger orange, the other a rich, peacock blue. Being scarlet-red himself, Felix knew he would be easily seen. Indeed, he’d not yet even come up alongside them when the peacock-blue dragon seemed to catch sight of him out of the corner of her eye. Felix assumed this dragon to be female, having watched the human figure dressed as a female change into the blue dragon.

She turned her head, startled in the air, and then leapfrogged over the orange dragon.

This drew the attention of the orange dragon, which Felix assumed to be male. The orange dragon spread his wings and blew a quick burst of fire at Felix.

Having learned well the usefulness of vulnerability in peace-making operations, Felix did not blow fire or make any aggressive moves. Instead, he turned away from the two dragons and flew back in the direction of their cave.

The eagles, already lagging behind the others a bit and perhaps hoping to return to the cave or greet this newcomer, flew after Felix.

Feeling it might be considered hostile for him to land near the cave entrance, Felix picked a spot on the same mountain, about a stone’s throw from the cave entrance, where a ridge of rock game them all a decent place to land.

And then, still playing the advantage of vulnerability, Felix turned into a human.

The move was meant to put the two other dragons at ease. However, they circled him several times before landing a good twenty feet or more from him. They were almost halfway to their cave entrance, as though they felt they might need to run for shelter yet.

Finally, they changed back into human form, and Felix understood their reluctance to change.

Felix was tall, but not quite as tall as his brother Ram or their father, so that he often forgot how imposing he looked to outsiders. It hadn’t been so noticeable among the eagle hunters, since they were often on horseback, and many of them were powerfully built, besides bundling themselves in layers of clothing on their excursion to the snow-topped mountains.

But these two people were small. The woman, especially was hardly more than five feet tall. The man was taller, maybe five eight or five nine, but slender and wiry and almost fragile-looking as he shivered, clad only in a swath of fabric that hung from his waist.

Guessing the pair to be his elders, Felix bowed deferentially, making friendly gestures as he’d learned from Yul, and explained himself in Chinese. “I have been searching for you.”

Fortunately, the two appeared to understand him. The man spoke first, also in Chinese. “Where do you hail from?”

“Azerbaijan. Beyond the Caspian Sea.” He pointed in a direction that was vaguely westward, and perhaps a bit south.

The male took a hesitant step toward him. “What is your name?”

“Felix. Felix Melikov. And yours?”

“I am Chen. This is Zhi. We have not seen another dragon in…” Chen looked at Zhi.

Zhi peeked up at Felix from behind Chen’s shoulder, and murmured something in a voice so quiet, Felix couldn’t hear.