“They’re in danger,” Harlan said. “The people in the tapestry. They’re being threatened by a force you saw glimpses of in David’s dreams. The dragon has used its own kind of claw to stop the battle at a crucial moment and throw out a distress signal over a time nexus. Agawin somehow had a vision of it and realized that one day the right David would see the tapestry and —”
“Ride to the rescue?” Rosa said.
All the men turned their faces to her.
“How does that happen?” she said, looking worried. “How does my David go there and save them?” She gestured toward the drawing.
“I assume he writes with the claw,” said Harlan.
Or uses the bone, David was thinking, remembering now what Angel had said about finding Gadzooks.
“I have a question.” Mathew sat forward with his elbows on his knees. “If it’s true — about alternative realities and stuff — then I have a problem.”
“What’s that?” asked Harlan.
“Gwyneth.”
David raised his eyes.
Mathew went on. “Maybe the counselor can answer something for me: Did she, Gwyneth, ever use another name?”
Strømberg tapped his fingertips together. “Another name?”
“Gwilanna, for instance?”
David noticed Bernard rubbing his chin in thought.
Strømberg replied, “No. When inducted, an Aunt’s name is always fixed to her parents’ choice. It’s part of a strict verification process.”
Mathew tightened his lips and said, “Then why would she use the claw to write another?”
“Oh my goodness,” Bernard said suddenly. “She must know herself — in the other world.”
“How?” said Rosa, from the far side of the deck.
Harlan narrowed his gaze. “The Ix traveled here from Earth; she could have learned of it from them.”
“So where does that leave us?” Mathew asked.
The sound of wingbeats made everyone look up. Aurielle and Azkiar, in their firebird form, were descending from the upper decks. They were flying side by side, carrying a rolled-up cloth between them.
“The tapestry,” Rosa said. “They’ve found the tapestry.” She pushed away from the rail and hurried to their landing site farther up the deck. As David and the others came to join her she was already deep in conversation with Aurielle. “They found it in the glade,” she communicated to David.
“The glade? But why didn’t they find it earlier? They must have searched there lots of times.”
“Angel told them to look again. It was there, in the leaves. Rolled up, like this.”
“Unroll it,” David said to Aurielle in dragontongue.
The two firebirds pushed with their feet until the picture was laid out fully on the deck. Aurielle sat at one end and Azkiar at the other.
Mathew Lefarr was the first to comment. He looked at the tapestry, then at David. “That’s not the same picture you drew, is it?”
Rosa shook her head. “This is wrong. What’s happened? We’re in different places. And why is the sky filled with ugly flying creatures? They look like that thing we saw once in the librarium. And who’s that boy?”
“This is Gwyneth’s doing,” Harlan breathed. “She’s given herself up to the nexus and realigned the time line. If she died on Earth where she was known as Gwilanna, the events on the original tapestry were true, but if she continues to live …”
“… It all changes,” David said.
Suddenly there was a bump, followed by an elongated grinding noise as if the keel of the ark had plowed into several acres of mud. Both firebirds took off and Rosa rushed to the deck rail again. “David!” she screamed. “The water! Look at the water!”
At the same time Harlan Merriman was shouting, “The bird. David, she’s caught.”
Aurielle was flapping wildly, trying to release a thread of the tapestry caught in her claw. But the harder she tried, the harder she pulled. And with every fresh pull, the image was changing. David was being drawn into the Shadow of Ix. And a new figure on the hill, who he knew must be Gwilanna, had her hand twitched forward and her face slightly pinched as if she were smiling and waving good-bye.
And all around the ark an orange light was growing.
And there was no water.
There was only fire.
About the Author
Chris d’Lacey is the author of several highly acclaimed books for children and young adults, including the other titles in the Last Dragon Chronicles, The Fire Within, Icefire, Fire Star, The Fire Eternal, and Dark Fire. He has also written The Dragons of Wayward Crescent books, including Gruffen and Gauge. Chris lives with his wife in England.
To learn more about Chris and his dragons, visit www.scholastic.com/LastDragonChronicles.
Also by Chris d’Lacey
The Last Dragon Chronicles
The Fire Within
Icefire
Fire Star
The Fire Eternal
Dark Fire
The Dragons of Wayward Crescent
Gruffen
Gauge
Copyright
Text copyright © 2011 by Chris d’Lacey
Cover illustration © 2011 by Angelo Rinaldi
Frontispiece illustration © Orchard Books 2011
First published in 2011 in Great Britain by Orchard Books.
Orchard Books is a division of Hachette Children’s Books, a Hachette Livre UK company. All rights reserved. Published by Orchard Books, an imprint of Scholastic Inc., 557 Broadway, New York, New York 10012, by arrangement with Scholastic Ltd. ORCHARD BOOKS and design are registered trademarks of Watts Publishing Group, Ltd., used under license. SCHOLASTIC and associated logos are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Scholastic Inc.
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First Scholastic edition, May 2011
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eISBN: 978-0-545-36592-5
Last Dragon 6: Fire World Page 32