Quara turned a questioning gaze towards Ausfela's as they waited for the water dragon to continue her explanation. She was so stunned that she could hardly put two words together, even in her thoughts. Although she could hardly be blamed for her silence and confusion, with her boots melted to her feet and a steady, excruciating pain growing as the adrenalin that had sustained her in the previous trials wore off. She realized that the smoke was much less pervasive in the crater and that while she could still feel a slight rattling in her chest with each breath, she was no longer struggling to force air into her lungs.

Marella was an enormous creature, and as Quara counted the number of coils that held her sister, and added them to the length that was unfurled and snaked through the water, she guessed that she was at least three times longer than Ausfella. She was much narrower though, and her scales were a smooth shimmering silver that blended, one into the next. She had wings of a sort, although they looked as much like fins as they did wings made for the air, and Quara suspected that she would not be able to fly all that far out of the water, if she could take to the air at all.

"She swims, very, very quickly and then at full speed, she expands her wings and sort of skips across the surface, touching down now and then very briefly before gliding further along. She has another set of smaller wing-fins further down, somewhere underwater." Quara frowned at the dragon, who seemed to be hearing quite a few of her thoughts as the day progressed. "It's not my fault if you're thinking loudly constantly now. And most of the time you're thinking at me. Haven't you noticed."

"Follow me." Marella snaked through the water, still holding Lina aloft as she headed towards the island.

"She is breathing, right? Will she be okay?" Quara spoke loudly so that the creature could hear her, and wondered if it could also read her thoughts if she spoke them at the serpent.

"Sea dragons communicate just as we land dragons do. And she will be okay. She has to be okay." Ausfela offered the answer to her unspoken question yet again, but the second part of her statement sounded very much like she was trying to convince herself that her words were true.

"She's breathing steadily, although she took quite a blow to the head." The serpent's voice was clear and crisp. "If I had to guess I'd say she won't be feeling all that well when she wakes up. But she will wake up. She was lucky. Not many have walked away from a battle with Grislingham in one piece. Well, to be entirely honest, not many have walked away from battles with him at all. I'm not entirely certain, but I don't believe he's ever been defeated. He was and still is the nightmare of many strong, capable soldiers. And what this child did today will cause many to give more weight to the prophecy than they have in many years."

"Grislingham?" Ausfela made a choking sound, and stopped so suddenly that Quara lurched forward in her seat.

"You didn't know?" Marella's expression was amused, but then she cast another glance at Lina and began to speed more rapidly through the water.

They reached the edge of the island in a matter of moments. Ausfela was flying low, so they were only a few lengths from Lina at any given moment. Every few flaps of her wings she would tear her gaze from Lina to look up at the red dragon, still thrashing and disoriented in the sky, although it appeared that he was trying to find a place to land on the rim, perhaps to reconsider his options.

Two women emerged from the dense forest that covered most of the island and lifted Lina from Marella's coils. They were dressed in light blue linen fabric and both had hair dyed to match their brightly colored clothing. After peering into their faces for a moment, as they busily worked to set Lina upon a sort of stretcher that they quickly lifted and began to carry away from the water's edge, Quara realized that they didn't seem altogether human.

"Naiads." Ausfela explained. "And their hair isn't dyed. It comes in all sorts of shades of turquoise and blue and sometimes even purple. They weren't always on the friendliest of terms with humans and dragons, even water dragons, but this war has forced some unusual friendships upon us and after a few centuries, it doesn't even feel that unusual anymore." Quara hardly realized that her fingers had undone the buckle on her harness and that she was about to swing her leg over to slide down off of Ausfela's back, when the dragon stopped her. "You will regret that if your feet touch the ground. I know that they hurt now, but they will hurt a hundred times more if you actually try to put weight on them. Stay on my back for as long as you can. It's better this way. And you can see Lina more clearly from up higher, at least for now."

Quara shifted her weight and settled back into the saddle, but she didn't buckle the harness again. She wanted to be ready to slide down to the ground if her sister needed her, regardless of the red hot throbbing from the bottom half of her legs that came and went in steady waves. Moments after entering the forest she was bent forward with her chest pressing against the cantle of the saddle and her arms protecting her face and head from branches. She knew that it was far better for her up in the saddle than it would have been struggling down below through the underbrush, even with Ausfela clearing a path for her, but she still found herself wishing she could slide down the dragon's side and run ahead to walk beside her sister and make sure she was alright.

When she could lift her head, in places where the trees didn't bend their branches as if they were trying to block the path and turn back intruders to the island, Quara kept her eyes focused on the naiads. They seemed to slide over the road with smoothly graceful steps, their every movement a sort of dance. Lina, on the cot suspended between them, benefited from this immensely, since she lay quite still as they flowed across the land. And it almost appeared that the trees leaned away a bit, out of their way as they moved forward, although they made no such efforts to help the dragon and her charge along.

The twelfth time a branch raked through her hair, Quara gave a small whimper of frustration, and Ausfela looked around at her to see if she was alright. "The trees here know that they're to let the naiads through, but they aren't quite so bright that they realize that we're with them and so they give us the same hard time that they give everyone else. Don't take it personally and try to keep your head down. This island isn't all that large, so wherever they're taking us, we should be there soon. And convincing them that we're friends, even with the naiads help, would take us far longer than we have at the moment. Lina needs help from their healers now."

They came around a large bend, past several enormous groves of trees that gave Quara the distinct impression that they were standing guard and their eyes were met with a sight that seemed rather out of place. The ground had been rising steadily since they began their inland hike, with occasional dips and gullies here and there, but overall the path tended towards a gradual increase in elevation. In the midst of the forest, hidden amid lush foliage, a wide, arching stone wall rose abruptly from the forest floor. The face of the rock was entirely covered with rushing water and in the few places where the water was trickling there grew thick, lush moss.

Quara thought that the oddest part of the entire waterfall was the noise. She had hardly heard it at all as they approached, but the moment she stepped into the clearing that surrounded the pond that the waterfall emptied into, the sound of the noisy stream made it nearly impossible to hear anything else. Staring at the pond Quara tried to find the stream that drained the water into the larger lake that filled the crater, but after scanning the line of the water from one side of the waterfall, around the pond and back to the waterfall's other side, she found nothing. She was just about to ask where the enormous amounts of water cascading down the rock wall disappeared to, when she saw that the naiads had walked around the right hand side of the water fall and stopped. Both naiads turned and glanced at Ausfela and Quara, obviously waiting for the two slower members of their party to catch up.

Ausfela lumbered over to where they waited and the naiad closest to the falls turned back so that she was facing the rock wall and waved her hand, making a movement that looked quite a bit like she was pushing aside an invisible curtain. Her hand didn't touch the water, but the rushing liquid followed her finger tips as though she had, curling back as she brushed it aside and revealing an enormous cave that had been entirely hidden by the rushing water only a moment earlier.

This cave was wet and slick and cold. Still, Ausfela walked forward, following the naiads without hesitation, and Quara went along willingly, for there was no place else that offered any sort of shelter and it was clear that she and her sister could not continue the journey in their present state without taking some time to heal. The waterfall closed behind them the moment that the entire group was safely inside the cave, and in the softer light the two naiads instantly seemed more relaxed.

"Come, it isn't far now. The most trying part of your journey this day is already long past." The naiad who had led the way, spoke in a voice that reminded Quara of drops of water falling from the sky on a spring day, although she was never able to say exactly why, for when she later concentrated on that same naiad's voice she would realize that there was really nothing to distinguish it from an ordinary human voice, and yet the perception remained.

The deeper they walked into the cave, the darker it became and then suddenly they were moving down and down and down, so that Quara had to sit back hard in the saddle to keep from lurching forward against Ausfela's neck and shoulder. The warm summer air was rapidly replaced as they were enveloped with a damp coolness. After a minute's walk the light, at least to Quara's human eyes, was entirely extinguished, although Ausfela seemed to have no problem navigating the twists and turns that they were traversing.

"This system of caverns was created to protect our fine city." The voice of the naiad who had spoken outside by the waterfall made its way to Quara's ears through the thick darkness. "There are hundreds of tunnels that lead off into other parts of the volcano, some of them quite deadly. We advise you not to try to find your way here alone, or uninvited, although now that you have been our guests you will ever be welcome here and you need only ask to be brought below the surface to look upon our fair towers and enjoy the perpetual spring time that is Calesque."

The silence settled in around the little group again and the descent became more gradual. Just as Quara began to wonder if they would ever come to their destination a small blue light began to glow far down the corridor ahead of them and as they drew closer it grew larger until it turned into a doorway, large enough even for Ausfela to squeeze through if she dipped her head crouched a bit and furled her wings tightly against her enormous form, protecting Quara from even brushing against the walls as she moved with great care.

The sight that met Quara's eyes as she rode through the doorway was like nothing she had ever seen before. They were inside of an enormous dome hidden far down in the depths of the crater, far beyond the point where sunlight penetrated the murky waters in the depths of the great lake. The crater was deeper than Quara would have imagined if she'd had the time to think of such things when they'd been up above the ground. It must have extended nearly to the bottom of the dormant volcano. And the dome made up a sort of false bottom to the lake above it, only instead of sand the water filling the crater gave way to an enormous clear egg that appeared to be made of thick curving glass. Below the glass, what the naiad had referred to as a city was really more like a village, not unlike the Caverns that the girls had grown up in.

There was a castle with towers, although it was far smaller than the one they'd been trapped inside of a few days earlier. It was made of a pale golden marble, and had four towers and walls and what appeared to be a keep in the center of the structure. Each tower, and the keep itself, were crowned with thin aquamarine silk flags, that lay still in world that would never know any sort of wind. The windows and doors were arched and a market came almost up to the doors of the palace, where two guards stood, one on either side of a gateway, which was smaller than the doorway that they had just passed through. Behind it a large door leading into the palace stood wide open.

Beyond the market behind the palace, there were at least a dozen large homes and between two of the largest there was an open area with benches where several dozen children appeared to be learning their lessons from a frail looking elderly woman with neat purple hair bound back in a bun on the top of her head. She flitted about in front of the class, animatedly gesturing as she told a story that Quara felt immediately was immensely interesting.

Closer to where they had entered the city there were rows and rows of small, neat brightly colored houses. They appeared to be made of stone, but they were colors that Quara had never seen outside of gemstones, which these clearly weren't created from. They looked quite a bit like river stones, they were solidly opaque, but they were blue and green and a few were purple and one was the most outrageous shade of pink that Quara had ever seen. If it hadn't been for the serious circumstances that they had found themselves in, and if it weren't for her concern for her sister, the sight of the houses would have immediately brought a smile to her face. Glancing down Quara saw that the ground was covered in small, brightly covered stones. It was entirely unlike the Caverns.

As they approached the castle her eyes were drawn upwards to the light source and she saw that on the other side of the dome, suspended some feet from the curved surface, there was a large golden light, identical to the Heart and to the little light that Ausfela had forced them to leave back in the Hall of Lights. The light filtering down through the water gave the light within the dome a slightly bluish tint.

The dome was large enough that she couldn't take in the entire city at once and before she had a chance to observe anything else they came to the gates of the palace and were waved through, trailing behind the two naiads that led the way, still holding Lina between them. Ausfela and Quara barely fit through the door of the keep. Very carefully so as not to unseat her rider, Ausfela bowed, and Quara attempted to follow suit from the place where she sat, still high atop the dragon's back, without yet being able to see who she was bowing to. She had the distinct feeling though that if Ausfela bowed to someone, she should as well.

As her eyes adjusted to the dimly lit room, Quara realized that the person that they had come to see was a human. She wasn't sure why this surprised her, but she realized after a moment's reflection that she hadn't expected to see any humans living in this world beneath a lake. The woman was tall and slender, with a smooth pleasant face. Her hair was almost entirely dark, and it was tied in a knot at the back of her neck, but her most remarkable feature, from a distance at least, where two thick strands of white that began at each of her temples and disappeared behind her head. Ausfela dipped her head again, in a movement that was not quite a bow, and a man that Quara hadn't noticed when they first entered the room, armed with a spear, came forward from the shadows and extended his hand.

She slipped down the side of the dragon, her attention divided between her sister, who had not yet stirred and the woman before her who she now realized stood before a throne of sorts. The chair was enormous and turquoise and looked as though it was made of spun glass.

Quara's thoughts were so firmly fixed on everyone other than herself that the dull, constant throbbing of her feet had been pushed to the very back of her thoughts, until the moment when the soles of her feet touched the floor and she let out a piercing scream. The woman, who had walked forward to the place that they had set Lina, still lying upon her stretcher with the naiads standing beside her, straightened and turned towards Quara again, her features showing concern for these two girls who she hadn't yet formally been introduced to. Quara collapsed in place, tears rushing to her eyes as she felt a wet sloshing inside what had once been her boots and felt her legs immediately give way beneath her.

"Lanal please help her. Formalities are unnecessary here for we shall be allies, and more than that, I hope that we will also be friends. We can leave the throne room, and retire to my chambers. Natiana, if you please, send for as many healers as they can spare from the hospital. Both of these girls need to be looked at, and quickly. Tell whoever is coming to be prepared for burns, from dragon fire, and a blow to the head." The naiad who had not spoken disappeared from the room as the guard scooped Quara up and began to carry her past the throne away from Ausfela. Before Quara could object the woman, whose name she hadn't yet learned, held up her hand. "You will see your dragon friend again soon. But there are questions that she can answer and aid that she can still give to those who are battling up above. Dragon, if you will return to the outer edge of the dome I believe you are needed." Ausfela bobbed her head a second time and disappeared out the door she had come in through, into the bright light of almost-day that filled the underwater city.

Quara bit her lip as she was carried across the room by the broad shouldered guard. She thought at first that he was human, but as the lantern light bounced off his hair she realized that it was not entirely black, as she'd first thought, but also held the faintest traces of blue. He had a straight, narrow nose and a strong jaw, although Quara hardly noticed that as she stared in the direction of her feet, which weren't as intensely agonizing now that she was no longer on them, but which hurt immensely just the same.

The woman whose name Quara still didn't know, held the door open for them as they entered a smaller room with couches and cushions, all made of fabric that was the color of the sea. The floors were thick with rugs piled one on the top of the next, although Quara couldn't appreciate the softness as she would have if she had been able to stand. The walls were made of the same golden stone as the buildings outside of the palace.

Quara watched as her sister was laid on a large couch and the young guardsman who carried her placed her on another couch near the first. She winced as she adjusted her feet as best she could so that they weren't touching anything at all, with her ankles and legs hanging over the edge of the couch while she leaned back on the softest pillow that she'd ever touched.