Sluggish bubbles rose in the murky water before him; rose, and burst, carrying the sound of laughter, slow and deep. In the branches, ravens arose in a clatter, yammering. Beneath the surface of the water, a pair of greenish eyes opened, slit with a vertical pupil and covered by the thin film of an inner lid.
Gripped by sudden fear, Ushahin propelled the skiff backward.
Iron-grey and slick with moss, the dragon's head emerged from the water. It was twice the size of the skiff, dripping with muck. Droplets slid down its bearded jaw, plunking into the water, creating circular ripples. It stirred one unseen foreleg, then another, and Ushahin struggled to steady his craft as the swamp surged in response. The dragon's inner lids blinked with slow amusement as it regarded him, waiting until the waters had quieted and he had regained control of the skiff. Only then did the massive jaws, hung on either side with strands of rotting greenery, part to speak.
"Is thisss desire ssso disstasssteful to you, little brother?"
Ushahin laid the pole across the prow of the skiff and made a careful bow. "Eldest," he said. "Forgive me, Lord Dragon. I did not know you were here."
Overhead, ravens circled and yammered.
The dragon's gaze held, this time unblinking. "You bear Sssatoriss' mark. You are one of his. You have ssseen my brother and know his fate."
"Yes," Ushahin said quietly. "Calandor of Beshtanag is no more."
Turning its head, the dragon sighed. A gout of bluish flame jetted from its dripping nostrils, dancing eerily over the oily waters to set a stand of mangrove alight. A single tree flamed, black and skeletal within a cocoon of fire. The circling ravens squawked and regrouped at a distance. In the skiff, Ushahin scrambled for his pole.
"Peasssse, little brother." The dragon eyed him with sorrow. "I mean you no harm, not yet. Calandor chose his path long ago, thisss I know. We know. We always know." It shuddered, and ripples emanated across the swamp, setting the skiff to rocking upon the waters. "Ssso why come you here?"
"Seeking passage." Emboldened, Ushahin rode out the waves, planting the pole in the mire and gripping it tight in both hands. "Will you grant it, Elder Brother?"
"Brother." Beneath yellow-green eyes, twin spumes of smoke issued forth in a contemptuous snort. "What makesss you think I am your brother?"
Ushahin frowned, shifted his grip on his pole. "Did you not name me as much?"
"I named you." The dragon snorted. "Brother!"
"What, then?"
"Would you know?" The nictitating lids flickered. "Guesssss."
A mad courage seized him. What was there to lose, here in the Delta? Whether he would continue onward or die in this place was the dragon's to choose. Craning his neck, Ushahin gazed at the dragon's nearest eye. The yellow-green iris roiled in the immense orb, colors shifting like oily waters. The vertical pupil contracted like a cat's, but vaster, far vaster. Blacker than the Ravensmirror, blacker than a moonless night, it reflected no light, only darkness.
If he hesitated, he would falter; so he didn't. Using the skills taught him long ago by the Grey Dam, Ushahin slid his thoughts into the mind behind that black, black pupil.
It was like stepping into a bottomless pit.
There was nothing there; or if there was, it was a thing so huge, so distant, he could not compass it. The way back was gone, the filament that connected him to himself might never have existed. There was only an encompassing, lightless vastness. Deeper and deeper he fell, a tiny star in an immense universe of darkness. There were no boundaries. There would be no end, only an endless falling.
Sundered from himself, Ushahin shaped a soundless cry…
… and fell…
… and fell…
… and fell…
Something flickered in the incomprehensible verges of the dragon's mind; something, many somethings. Tiny and urgent and defiant, they came for him like a cloud of midges, a storm of claws. Feathered, frantic thoughts, scrabbling for his. Yellow beech leaves, shiny black beetles, an updraught beneath the wings and the patchwork of the tilting earth glimpsed below.
The ravens of Darkhaven had come for him.
Such were the thoughts they cast out like lifelines to Ushahin Dreamspinner; for they were, after all, ravens. It was enough. Clinging to the filaments of their awareness, Ushahin braked his endless fall and wove of the ravens' thoughts a net, a ladder, and fled the darkness, back to whence he'd come.
Behind him, the dragon's laughter echoed.
The world returned, and he returned to it.
Ushahin opened his eyes and found himself lying on his back in the skiff, half-soaked with bilge water. Hung upon the sinuous length of an arching neck, the dragon's head hovered above him, blotting out a large portion of the sky. Beyond it, he caught sight of the ravens exiting from their frantic ellipse, landing in the high branches of the palodus tree. Though his head ached like a beaten drum, Ushahin sent thoughts of gratitude winging after them. Satisfied, the ravens preened their feathers.