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“A selfless man. A man who wants to help others. And a
man full of longing. I see a man who is lost. A man who has never known himself.”
    Merk pondered
her words, and they resonated deep within him. He felt them all to be true. Too
true.
    A long silence
fell between them, as their small ship bobbed up and down in the waters, slowly
making its way west. Merk checked back and saw the troll fleet still on the
horizon, still a good enough distance away.
    “And you?” he finally
asked. “You are Tarnis’s daughter, are you not?”
    She searched the
horizon, her eyes aglow, and finally, she nodded.
    “I am,” she
replied.
    Merk was stunned
to hear it.
    “Then why were
you here?” he asked.
    She sighed.
    “I have been
hidden here since I was a young girl.”
    “But why?” he
pressed.
    She shrugged.
    “I suppose it
was too dangerous to keep me in the capital. People could not know I was the
King’s illegitimate daughter. It was safer here.”
    “Safer here?” he
asked. “At the ends of the earth?”
    “I was left with
a secret to guard,” she explained. “More important even than the kingdom of Escalon.”
    His heart
pounded as he wondered what it could be.
    “Will you tell
me?” he asked.
    But Lorna slowly
turned and pointed ahead. Merk followed her gaze and there, on the horizon, the
sun shone down on three barren islands, rising up from the ocean, the last one
a fort of solid stone. It was the most desolate and yet beautiful place Merk
had ever seen. A place distant enough to hold all the secrets of magic and
power.
    “Welcome,” Lorna
said, “to Knossos.”
     

CHAPTER NINE
     
     
    Duncan , alone, hobbling
from the pain in his ankles and wrists, ran through the streets of Andros, ignoring the pain, spurred on by adrenaline as he thought of only one thing: saving
Kyra. Her cry for help echoed in his mind, his soul, made him forget his
injuries as he sprinted through the streets, sweating, toward the sound.
    Duncan twisted and
turned down Andros’ narrow alleyways, knowing Kyra lay just beyond those thick
stone walls. All around him the dragons dove, setting fire to street after
street, the tremendous heat radiating off the walls, so hot that Duncan could feel it even on the far side of the stone. He hoped and prayed they did not
descend to his alley—or else, he would be finished.
    Despite the
pain, Duncan did not stop. Nor did he turn around. He could not. Driven by a
father’s instinct, he physically could not go anywhere but toward the sound of
his daughter. It crossed his mind that he was running to his death, losing any
chance he’d have of escape, yet it did not slow him. His daughter was trapped,
and that was all that mattered to him now.
    “NO!” came the cry.
    Duncan ’s hair stood on
end. There it was again, her shriek, and his heart received a jolt at the
sound. He sprinted faster, giving it all he had, turning down yet another alleyway.
    Finally, as he
turned again, he burst through a low, stone arch, and the sky opened before
him.
    Duncan found himself
in an open courtyard, and as he stood at its edge, he was stunned at the sight
before him. Flames filled the far side of the courtyard as dragons
criss-crossed the air, breathing down, and beneath a stone ledge, barely
shielded from all the fire, sat his daughter.
    Kyra.
    There she was,
in the flesh, alive.
    Even more
shocking than seeing her here, alive, was seeing the baby dragon lying beside
her. Duncan stared, confused by the sight. At first he assumed Kyra was
struggling to kill a dragon that had fallen from the sky. But then he saw that
the dragon was pinned down by a boulder. He was puzzled as he saw Kyra shoving at
it. What, he wondered, was she trying to do? Free a dragon? Why?
    “Kyra!” he
shrieked.
    Duncan sprinted across
the open courtyard, avoiding columns of flame, avoiding the swipe of a dragon’s
talon, still running until finally he reached his daughter’s side.
    As he did, Kyra
looked up and her face fell in