Milius lay in bed later that night, his pale eyes fixed upon the ceiling, his hand resting on the hilt of his blade, a feeling of great contentment settling upon him. He had no idea why, but ever since he had used Palpatunde to siphon his own life energy earlier that morning, he had felt completely, and utterly, at peace. The closest he had ever come to feeling like this was the day before, when he had been force-fed Marlise’s Soothing Draught; the feeling had lasted for the rest of the evening, during which Milius had sat with Sirius, Shakil, and Ariana for lunch, and then dinner.

They had talked and laughed throughout the entire meal, all enmity forgotten. Milius had finally, truly forgiven her. After all, she had apologized, and Milius found that he was too preoccupied to waste time holding grudges anyway. And besides, he thought, finally betraying a hint of impatience, if anyone was to be blame it would be Aaron, who had, after all, instructed her to attack him.

The Elders had cut their meeting short several hours earlier, informing them that their next training session was scheduled for the following day. The other Knights had eventually drifted off to bed, but Milius had not slept. Ariana’s mirror kept sliding in and out of his mind, just as the mysterious underground chamber had apparently slid out of existence when the Elders had gone to inspect it.

Whatever Ariana and Shakil said, that mirror had something to do with the Dragonknights, Milius was sure of it. He had been rather curious upon learning of the existence of their library, and after asking directions to find it, had decided to do his own digging.

It may have been their belief that the library housed no information on the mirror or the underground chamber but Milius would not believe it until he had searched for himself. Neither would he believe that the chamber had simply vanished into thin air. And so, when the remaining torches had finally been extinguished, and Milius was sure that the Elders had settled into bed, he crept out of his room and along the long, marble-floored corridors as quickly and silently as he could until he found himself on the opposite side of the Cave, face-to-face with the large grey owl protruding from the library door, just as Shakil had said.

The door, like the one that opened onto the underground passages that lead to the Armoury, could only be opened upon recognizing a Dragonknight. So Milius, following Shakil’s instruction, pulled Palpatunde from its sheath and held it, hilt-up, so that the owl’s shining moonstone eyes found the amethyst encrusted in its handle.

There was a moment's pause; then the owl turned its grey eyes on Milius, hooted softly, and, with a small flare of purple light, transformed into a brass door handle. Milius stowed Palpatunde, seized the handle, and pulled.

The room was even larger than the Armoury, lined with highly polished mahogany shelves, stocked with large, leather-bound tomes, smaller but just as ancient-looking volumes, rolled-up scrolls, pieces of aged parchment under glass cases, and even a few stone tablets. Milius wandered around, his eyes wide, and began to rifle through some of the issues. Some books cited historical facts about older countries; others, information on magical creatures, some of which seemed to have gone extinct. He received a pleasurable jolt of surprise when he found an image of the same enormous, bear-like creature he had seen in the vanishing chamber, which turned out to be a manticore.

This had to prove something. . . . That creature definitely existed, and they had found it inside the chamber . . .

Milius drew up a chair and flung himself into it. He spent hours flipping through pages of old, dust-lined books, but to his dismay, the only thing he succeeded in doing was making the room dustier than it had been when he had arrived. He replaced a final book on the shelf he had taken it from and made to leave — but then something caught his eye. His chest brimming with a sudden resurgence of excitement, he hurried around the shelf in front of him and rushed to the back of the room.

A life-size statue of himself was staring right at him, a nervous expression on his face, the sword Palpatunde clasped unsteadily in his hands. Beside him stood Sirius, his handsome features carved perfectly upon his marble face, a smug smile stretching his lips. Shakil stood on his right, grinning meekly. And on their other side was Ariana, her face set, her eyes fierce and determined.

A shelf stood to their left; several small tablets lay face-up upon it, gleaming under the light of the torches burning around the room. Milius moved closer, bent down, and read. Each one was headed with the name of a current Knight. The tablet that bore his own name dictated Milius’s exploits in the forest, starting with his defeat of the scaly, green dragon, and ending with the harpy he had killed. Underneath that were the details of his underwater battles in Phontus’s castle, almost word for word as Milius had told it. The other tablets held the other Knights’ victories as well: Sirius cutting down the manticore in the chamber, Ariana and Shakil with the harpies in the field. . . .

Milius looked back at the eyes of his statue, the same shape, but a deeper grey than his own, and steeled himself. He was no longer the person who had stumbled onto the stage and knelt anxiously before his dragon, even if those events had only happened little over a week ago. He had undergone trials he had not imagined he would since then, and he had grown because of them.

He turned away from the statues and strode back to the door, whose handle turned back into the marble owl when the door had slammed behind him, and marched off to the entrance of the Dragoon Cave. The four dragons were asleep, each nestled near the statue of its first rider. Milius gave a low whistle and Lumeus awoke, his marble eyes like glowing orbs in the darkness.

“Fancy a ride?”

Milius’s heart leapt so violently that it seemed to have lodged itself in his throat. He drew his sword and stared wildly around, for he was not the one who had spoken.

“Who said that?” he demanded. There was a shuffling of feet and Shakil came into view, striding out from behind the blue dragon.

“Shakil!” Milius hissed. “You startled me! What are you doing out here at this time of night?”

Shakil raised his eyebrows. “I could ask you the same question.”

Milius lowered his sword. “I — I was going to fly home — pick up some more clothes —” Milius lied wildly.

Shakil said nothing. He considered Milius for a moment, his eyebrows still raised. Then he said, “Sirius was right — you are a terrible liar.”

Milius glared at him, then sighed exasperatedly. “Okay, fine! I was heading into the forest.”

Shakil looked taken aback. “You mean the same forest that we almost died in — several times?” he said incredulously.

“Well, yes,” Milius said calmly, stowing his sword and striding out to Lumeus, who was still staring expectantly at them. “I want to see what the Elders meant by the chamber's disappeared.”

“Haven't you learned your lesson about going off by yourself?” Shakil said in a low, anxious voice. “You know what happened when you went for that flow —”

“I'm just going to take a look!” Milius snapped. “It'll be nothing like Phontus’s castle — I've been in the forest before, it's nothing —”

But Shakil did not seem to think so. On the contrary, he drew himself up to his full height and said, in a brave sort of voice that did not match the look on his face, “I'm coming with you.”

“No you're not,” Milius said irritably.

“Oh, yes I am. Otherwise —” He cupped his hands around his mouth and turned to the Cave, then let out a roar that Milius could not believe he could make, considering he was generally so soft-spoken: “ELD —”

“Okay, okay!” Milius said hastily. “Just shut up!”

Shakil looked pleased for the first time.

“You'll need your sword,” Milius said coldly.

“Already have it,” Shakil said brightly, and sure enough, he lifted his tunic to show Oceannerva’s sapphire-encrusted hilt protruding from a scabbard hung from his side. “I figured you'd want to check the Library for anything you could on the chamber when you asked me, then I figured you'd try something like this when you — inevitably — found nothing. So, I followed you. And good thing, too.” He smiled.

Milius shot him a dirty look, then clambered on top of Lumeus’s neck. “Let's just go.”

Aleia rose, unfurled her wings, and lowered her flank so that Shakil could mount, then the two dragons were off. They arrived within minutes, soaring over the two stone pillars that they had passed when the Elders had sealed them in several days ago. It was just beyond that point that Shakil had destroyed the land with Oceannerva, and it was there that they landed.

Milius’s jaw fell open. The ground, which had been in a state of thorough devastation when they had left, was now as smooth and serene as it had been when they had first landed.

“I don't understand,” Shakil said. “This is the spot, right?”

“Yes, but —” Milius broke off. He had just seen movement behind one of the trees ahead of them; he slid off Lumeus’s back, pretended to look around the scene, seized a rock from the ground and flung it, as hard as he could, at the area.

There was a loud yelp and a figure emerged from behind the trees.

“Hello, Parluck,” Milius said calmly.

Short, vast, and black-eyed, Parluck the goblin lumbered over to them, glaring reproachfully at Milius. There was a sharp intake of breath from Shakil, and Lumeus and Aleia began to growl.

“Ah, shut up, the pair ‘o you,” he said dismissively. He was rubbing his forehead. “There was no need to throw it that hard,” he grumbled.

“Yeah well,” Milius said. “What happened here?”

“Whaddya mean?”

“He means that the last time we were here, this area had been wrecked by my sword’s ability,” Shakil said, sliding to the ground as well. “What happened now?”

“Search me,” said the goblin indifferently.

“What are you doing here, then, if you don't know?”

“Whaddya think? Hidin’!”

“Hiding from what?” Shakil asked.

“All sorts,” Parluck said conversationally. “But right now? Few harpies. Stole some of their eggs, see.”

“Why?” Milius asked.

The goblin patted his great green belly in response.

“Of course,” Milius said. “So, anyway, you don't know what happened here. Do you know anyone who might?”

“Probably. Not many who'd want to talk to you lot, though,” Parluck said, stroking his chin.

“Okay, so who would want to talk to us?”

“I — well . . . I'm not really supposed to —”

“Who?” Milius said, and he was slightly surprised, though somewhat pleased, to hear the note of menace in his voice. Helpfully, Aleia and Lumeus chose that moment to growl again.

“Okay, okay!” Parluck said hastily. “His name's Pan, see.”

“Pan?”

“Yeah, Pan. Satyr. Been around a long time, see. One o’ the oldest in the forest. Knows a bit abou’ what goes on in this forest. Find him, if he knows, he'll tell yeh.”

“Okay, lead us to him, then,” Milius said.

Parluck looked deeply uncomfortable. “Sorry, kid, can't do that neither.”

“Because?”

Parluck swallowed. “Because he lives deep in the forest — deeper than I'm allowed to go. Yeh gotta find him yerself if yeh want him.”

“What do you think?” Shakil asked Milius.

“I'm going. You can go back if you —” he added quickly, but Shakil cut firmly across him.

“Nice try.”

“Fine,” Milius said sourly. He turned back to the goblin. “Well, you've been of some use. Try not to get eaten, will you. Come on,” he said to Shakil. They mounted the dragons again and took flight.