"Translation?" Raxtus said glumly. "Time for me to become fairy boy."
"Wait," Warren said, fingering the hilt of his sword. "Can't you take us out the way you came in?"
"I can leap from shrine to shrine by cutting through the Fairy Queen's realm," Raxtus explained. "Although her realm connects to all of her shrines, the distance between shrines is much shorter where she resides. It's a great way to travel. Here's the problem: When she opens a portal to let anyone into or out of her realm, it leaves her kingdom vulnerable for a time. For some reason, I can slip through without opening a portal. But I can't carry passengers that way."
"Do you go to her realm a lot?" Kendra asked, intrigued.
"I never stay there," Raxtus said. "It would be ... unhealthy. Emotionally. Psychologically. Look, I'm already not very dragonly. If I lived there, I'd lose all sense of what I am. I'd end up like a child who refused to leave the nest, never amounting to anything. But I love to visit her kingdom. As wonderful and diverse as Earth can be, no beauty quite compares."
Bracken cleared his throat uncomfortably. "I believe we were getting ready to depart."
"Right," Raxtus said. "Do you mind closing your eyes?"
"Not at all," Bracken said.
Kendra covered her eyes. Even with her hands in the way, she sensed the bright flash.
Several of the fairies in the area tittered. It was hard for Kendra to decide whether they were mocking or flirting. Perhaps a little of both.
"No peeking," Raxtus said, his voice pitched higher.
The comment tempted her. She slid her fingers apart just enough to see the back of a rather scrawny fairy with shaggy silver hair and an elaborate set of metallic wings fluttering toward the hatchway. The fairy was the largest Kendra had seen, about a foot tall. His head turned as if to glance back, and Kendra closed her fingers before he completed the motion.
"Okay, you can look," Raxtus called a moment later.
Kendra dropped her hands and opened her eyes. The spindly male fairy stood at the hatchway. His face was impishly handsome, with a sparkle of mischief in his bright eyes.
"Is that you?" Warren asked.
"I could tell Kendra wanted a look," Raxtus said. "I can't blame her." He spread his arms wide and turned around. "What do you think?"
"You're ..." Kendra stopped herself.
"Spit it out," Raxtus said. "I can take it."
"Adorable," Kendra finished weakly, hoping he wasn't too insulted.
"Too big to be a fairy," Raxtus said. "Too small and much too winged to be a human. And the exact opposite of how any dragon would aspire to be seen."
"You're a marvel, Raxtus," Bracken said kindly. "Truly splendid."
"The sideshow's over," Raxtus said. "Let's get under way." He flitted out the hatch and out of sight.
Bracken turned to address the fairies. "I am going to close the hatch to help cover our tracks. If I left it open, others would come and close it shortly. If you would prefer the open air at the price of staying away from the shrine, come out with us."
Several groups of fairies darted out of the hatchway, followed by a few stragglers. Kendra was surprised to see more fairies opting to remain within the dome than had been trapped inside when they had first arrived.
"So many are staying?" Kendra asked.
"They love their queen," Bracken said simply. He led the way out of the enclosure. When Kendra and Warren had exited, Bracken gave the door a shove, and it clanged shut.
The sphinx remained sprawled on the ground, tail swishing. She did not condescend to look back at them. The day had grown quite hot. Raxtus had returned to dragon form. Beneath the bright sun, his scales really gleamed.
"Time to fly," Bracken said.
Raxtus sprang into the air and glided toward them like the world's most dazzling kite. The dragon snatched Kendra with one claw, Warren with another, and Bracken with a third. Jerking Kendra off the ground, Raxtus gripped her torso from behind, causing her to tilt forward once airborne. The ground became a blur beneath her dangling feet. Wings beating with the sound of heavy tarps in a windstorm, Raxtus gradually climbed, barely clearing the nearest tree-tops. The dragon went invisible, creating the illusion that Kendra was soaring through the air on her own.
"You all right?" Warren called.
Raxtus veered left and right, wings flapping furiously. "You're heavy," the dragon grunted, "but I'll make it." They continued to laboriously gain altitude.
Up ahead, the steep wall of the valley approached, a wide precipice of rock and dirt. Down below, the trees shrank, growing ever more distant. In a clearing, Kendra saw a pair of thickset giants hammering at each other with clubs.
As Raxtus reached the wall of the valley, he began to bank and circle, sometimes flapping his wings, sometimes gliding. They started to rise more swiftly. The air grew a little cooler, and the ground became shockingly distant. Soon Kendra had a view of the entire long valley, including the river, the woodlands, numerous cultivated fields, and the stepped pyramids with their garden terraces. Beyond the tops of the valley walls, Kendra beheld the tawny expanse of the surrounding desert.
A shrieking cry of tremendous volume shattered the sense of airborne solitude. Kendra twisted toward the source of the sound and saw the roc rising toward them, at least the size of an airliner.
"The roc spotted us," Warren warned.
"They have amazing eyesight," Raxtus said, wings working to lift them higher. They curved toward the roc, giving everyone a better view of the gargantuan wingspan.
"Isn't it time to run?" Kendra cried nervously.
"We need altitude," Raxtus said. "With all of this weight, my best maneuvers will involve diving."
The roc wheeled away from them, rising to a higher elevation with alarming ease. When the great raptor turned back toward them, it approached from above, gaining terrific speed.
Raxtus slipped into a straight, level glide, moving perpendicular to the path of the oncoming predator. As the roc closed, talons large enough to crush a school bus opened wide.
At the last possible moment, Raxtus turned toward the roc, tucked his wings, and dove. The rush of wind brought tears to Kendra's eyes. She could feel the enormous roc swoop past above them, outstretched talons grasping at empty air. The great bird let out an earsplitting shriek.
Raxtus pulled out of his dive, using the momentum to regain some altitude. Above, the roc circled around for another attack.