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dead.
    “The older brother found Etanun nearly killed from the wounds the Dragonwitch gave him in battle. A dragon’s claws are poisonous, you know, even more poisonous than its breath. Some of the dragon poison got into the younger brother, and though the older brother—his name was Akilun—though he tried to heal him, a trace of poison remained in Etanun’s veins.”
    “So what about my cave?” asked the girl. “How does it fit into this story?”
    “Just listen!” Leo sprawled out on the stone, pretending to be badly wounded, gasping for breath and pressing a hand to his neck. “Etanun was weak, but he would recover. He said to his brother, ‘I have killed the Dragonwitch!’ ” Then Leo changed his tone to be the deeper voice of the other brother. “ ‘No, Etanun,’ said Akilun. ‘You have only destroyed her first life.’ ”
    “Her what?”
    “Her first life. According to stories, all the kings and queens of the Far World have three lives. That’s why they live so much longer than mortals do. They get three lives before they have to cross the Final Water. Sometimes they live all three lives at once in three different bodies. Most of the time, they save them.”
    “That’s very odd,” said the girl.
    “It's normal for Faeries,” Leo replied. “Now listen. Etanun did not want to believe his brother. He determined that the Dragonwitch had to be dead because he had killed her with his magic sword. He was angry at Akilun for even suggesting that she would come back. But that anger was just the dragon poison in his veins.
    “Generations passed. And the Dragonwitch returned. This time, she was more powerful, more dreadful than ever, and her destruction was greater. Once more, Akilun and Etanun set out to hunt her down. They found her on a beautiful plain known as Corrilond Green. But after their battle, the fertile green fields were wasted into dry desert. That’s why the old kings and queens of Corrilond were called the Desert Monarchs. And now that Corrilond is gone, we call it the Red Desert.”
    “I ain’t never heard of Corry-land.”
    Leo shrugged. “It doesn’t matter. That’s not part of this story anyway. The important thing is, Etanun killed the Dragonwitch a second time. But before he did, she cut him with her claw, into the shoulder. Akilun tended to him again, but when the wound healed over, there was still poison inside.”
    “That don’t sound good,” said the girl.
    “It wasn’t. When Etanun recovered, he once more declared, ‘I have killed the Dragonwitch!’ ” Leo bellowed this in his best heroic voice. Then he changed his tone to be deep and wise. “ ‘No, my brother,’ said Akilun. ‘You have merely killed her the second time. The Dragonwitch will return once more.’
    “Etanun flew into a rage, inspired by the poison inside him. He flung Fireword far from him, saying, ‘Who can trust such a sword, when it could not even kill the Dragonwitch?’ Then he fled from Akilun, far, far away. But Akilun knew where he was going.”
    “Where?”
    “The younger brother was determined to find the Dragon who fathered the Dragonwitch. He wanted the power of the Dragonwitch for himself.”
    Leo pointed toward the mouth of the cave. In the deepening twilight, it looked even more like a wolf’s head to him. But it was just a cave. And this was just a story. “In my book,” he said, “there is an engraving of the Gateway to Death. It looks like that. Like a wolf’s head.”
    “Folks say it’s the face of the Wolf Lord,” said the girl.
    “This all happened long before the Wolf Lord,” Leo replied dismissively. He continued his narrative. “Etanun walked through the gate as he sought out the Dragon. What he did not know was that Akilun, following the light of the Asha Lantern, pursued him.
    “The path to the Dragon’s Kingdom is long and perilous. But Akilun caught up with his brother at last and held him tight. ‘I won’t let you do this,’ he said. ‘I