The Dal Mah affair was a big deal. Strangely enough, she was the only one who was not angry with me. She had long talks with Kai Shek, her tutor, and according to what Bong Nam told me, it was most likely that she would continue until the fifth year and when the time came to meet her dragon, she would not jump from the top of the Eventel.

My reaction also aroused a lively interest in Dien Phu, who did not hesitate to tell Dun Gar about it. They both kept me for long hours to talk about it. About what I felt. They told me that I was in love, and that I should be careful with it, that love could lead us to commit acts without thinking. Acts unbecoming of oneself. Love, they said, is the greatest danger to a dragon rider.

Dun Gar saw fit to tell me a very old story, and so he did, with his slow, calm speech.

“I have already told you the story of Darwen Redeye, the version which, in my opinion, is the truest. As you know, Pondara warned him that he would have an unstable son, and she was right. Despite the warning, Darwen trained his son as she trained all the students of the dragonriders’ guild. At that time there was no admission test, Darwen chose them personally. There were six lucky ones, for the dragons had reproduced. Maybe he had doubts with his son, maybe not. That is something the scrolls do not relate. In any case, Aaron, Redeye’s son, was one of the six apprentices, and when he finally jumped from the top of the Eventel, a black shadow caught him at the last moment. They say that his fall was the longest, that they waited so long only because Darwen ordered it, when no one else had any hope. But he appeared again, crossing the sea of clouds of the Apprentice Well, on the back of the blackest dragon that ever lived. It was one of the primordial dragons, that is, one that had hatched from one of the three eggs of Pondara. Tiranior, the black shadow, for he had not a single speck of any other color, and when he opened his mouth, his fire was like red-hot coals.”

The hardened Dun Gar master launched into a detailed description of the black dragon. He spoke of it in a way that reminds me now of the way the Limerean priests describe their god. At that time, I had never met one of these, so I just thought He really admired that dragon. Now I know that no, now I know that in reality, the three primordial dragons are the object of veneration by the masters of fire.

“Did he die?” I asked, desperate to leave the description of each of his scales and get back to the story, but not quite knowing how to do it.

“Tiranior? Oh, no. You know dragons are long-lived. They live thousands of years. Unless they’re killed, of course. But few creatures are capable of such a thing. No. He didn’t die. As all dragons do, when his rider passed away, Tiranior returned to the pit to wait for the next one.”

“Who was it?” I asked.

“I don’t know that he has flown these skies since then,” he said. “But I think I’ve gone off the deep end... Anyway, as I was saying, Darwen Redeye’s son became a rider, and rode none other than Tiranior, one of the three primordial dragons. The years passed and the rider’s guild grew. They grew to about thirty, capable of repelling any invasion, no matter how numerous the armies. The fire quenched any thirst for conquest and the Tiber was consolidated as a territory of peace. Mountains inland, of course.”

“What has this to do with...?”

“Patience, my boy, patience. Once the specter of the outside threat had been laid to rest, the Rider’s Guild seemed to have run out of purpose. What was the point of dragons, if there were no invasions to repel? So Darwen adapted the training of certain rider to take advantage of the dragon fire in the bowels of the mountains. The monumental forge of Dar Shi Ben was also created, but it was more of the same: no need for weapons, the forge ran at half throttle and only produced tools. That was not all, the Khaz Dolu decided to use the dragons for his new project: to explore the world. In fact, he had the west wing of the golden palace built for that purpose, where half a dozen cartographers were working flat out with the information brought in by the rider-turned-scouts.”

“But we were talking about...”

“Yes, yes. Redeye’s son. His name was Aaron. He sailed the four skies in search of new lands. Some say it was he who found the Rim Islands, at the ends of the world, but that’s nonsense, for there were already people there. Even people from the mainland. In fact, it was there that he fell in love. Little is known about her, some versions say she had eyes of various colors. In any case, Aaron took her from those islands and brought her to the Tiber. He then left the rider’s guild, stopped exploring in the name of the Khaz Dolu and was not heard from again, nor his beloved, until years later.”

“Did they go into hiding?”

“More or less. What I know is that they settled in the heart of the Lost Jungle, on the edge of the Enclosed Sea, in the mythical city of Shandri Wa.”

“Shandri Wa?”

“It is a city of legend, hidden deep in the jungle, practically impossible to find,” said Dien Phu. “Its inhabitants lived there for hundreds of years and were always filled with happiness.”

“What exactly happened there is unknown. But it seems there was a revolt, and Aaron’s wife was killed. Some say she was the reason for the revolt. They accused her of being a demon. In any case, they killed Aaron’s love, and Aaron turned against the city. Shandri Wa as a whole paid for that revolt. Or murder. Aaron rode up on Tiranior’s back and unleashed hell on earth. A book recounts what happened, Shandri Wa, The Red Devastation. I fear the story relays more from imagination than fact, but at the end of the day, the ruins are there. Aaron ravaged the city, burning it to the ground, taking all the time necessary to leave no one alive.”

“He went mad,” Dien Phu interjected, regret in his voice. “They say he then tried to take his own life by fire. He tried to burn himself, but he didn’t succeed.”

“So they say. But the most widely accepted version is that he sank into the Enclosed Sea with a large ballast tied to his ankle. The dragon returned to the well, and after the disastrous episode was also known as Tiranior, the Black Fury. It was centuries ago, so it is normal that the versions differ somewhat, but at the end of the day the ruins of the city are there. Shandri Wa is a barren piece of land, a wasteland filled with moss-eaten black stone rubble. They say the worms there are bigger because they enjoyed a feast of corpses like there never was anywhere else,” commented the firebender with a broken voice.

“You can still see the huge wasteland glade as you fly over the Lost Jungle on the way to the Enclosed Sea,” added Dien Phu. “It is not uncommon for a rider to see it and come back asking about it. I did it myself. The Glade of Madness, they call it there now. And it was precisely love that drove Darwen Redeye’s son mad.”

“Aaron the Mad Rider,” nodded Dun Gar.

“I agree. But why are you telling me this story?” I wondered, for I did not understand what the master wanted to tell me.

“It is a warning, An Long. Dien Phu has seen in you a pure heart, and it is likely that a dragon sees it too. But love is dangerous. Wonderful, too. But dangerous, for when it goes wrong, it can blacken anyone’s heart. Every rider has to be aware of that.”

“Sometimes, as hard as it is, the rider has to give up love, An Long,” Dien Phu finally explained.

“I understand...” I made as if I was weighing it for a long time. “I’ll give up whatever it takes,” I lied finally, quite naturally.