“Zedd…” He ran his fingers through his hair in frustration. “How can I make you understand?” He grabbed the wizard’s robes in his fists. “Zedd, where’s the box? I have to have the box before Rahl finds it! We can’t let him get it!”

Zedd frowned. Richard knew this was doing no good—none of them could understand him. He went to the horses and started searching through the packs.

“Look all you want, you’ll never find it,” the wizard smiled. “We don’t have the box. You are going to die in four days.”

Richard sensed something move behind him. He spun around—Chase had the mace raised. A stream of fire shot past, between them. Scarlet kept the fire up until Chase stepped back.

“Some friends you have,” the dragon grumbled.

“Darken Rahl put a wizard’s web on me. They don’t recognize me.”

“Well, if you stay with them much longer, they are going to kill you.”

Richard realized that they wouldn’t have the box. Not if they were coming to D’Hara to save him. They wouldn’t have risked taking the box to Rahl. The three of them silently watched him and the dragon.

“Scarlet, say something to them, see if they can understand you.”

The dragon’s head swept closer to the three. “This is not Darken Rahl, but your friend, hidden by a wizard’s web. Can any of you understand me?”

The three stood mute. Aggravated, Richard stepped closer to Zedd.

“Zedd, please try to understand me. Don’t seek the night stone. If you do, Rahl will trap you in the underworld. Try to understand!”

None of the three grasped a word he was saying. He had to get the box first—then he would come back and protect them from the men Rahl had sent. Reluctantly, he climbed back up onto Scarlet. She kept a wary eye to the three, puffing a little smoke and flame in warning. Richard wanted desperately to stay with Kahlan, but he couldn’t—he had to get the box first.

“Let’s get out of here. We have to go find my brother.”

With a roar of flame, warning the three to stay back, Scarlet took to the air. Richard held her spikes tight. Her red, scaled neck stretched out as she climbed into the sky among the drifting white clouds, weaving between them. He watched his three friends watching back until he could see them no more. He felt desperately helpless. He wished he could have seen Kahlan’s smile, just once.

“Now what?” Scarlet asked over her shoulder.

“We have to find my brother. He should be with an army of about a thousand men, somewhere between here and the Rang’Shada. They shouldn’t be as hard to find.”

“They couldn’t understand my words—the web must affect me too, since I’m with you. But it must be a web for people, not dragons, for I see the truth. If these three wanted to kill you because of a wizard’s web, surely the others will too. I can’t protect you against a thousand men.”

“I have to try. I’ll think of something. Michael is my brother, I’ll think of a way to make him see the truth. He’s on his way with the army to help me. I need his help very badly.”

Since an army would be easier to spot, they flew high, to see more ground. Scarlet made gentle sweeping turns among the immense, cottony clouds. Richard hadn’t realized how big clouds really were, when viewed this close. As some of them gathered, it was like being in a wonderland of white mountains, and valleys. The dragon skimmed under their dark bases, sometimes passing through a damp wisp that hung down, her head disappearing in the whiteness at the end of her neck, the tips of her wings vanishing, too. The size of the clouds made even Scarlet seem small and insignificant.

They searched for hours without seeing any sign of an army. Richard was getting so used to flying, he didn’t have to hold on to Scarlet’s spikes all the time. He leaned back against two of them, letting his body relax while he looked at the landscape below. As they flew, Richard thought about what he could do to convince Michael of who he was. Michael would have the box—that had to be where Zedd had left it. Zedd would have hidden it from Rahl with magic, and let the army protect it. He had to think of a way to show Michael who he was. Once he had the box, he would have Scarlet fly it up to her cave with her egg. There it would be safe from Rahl.

Then he could go back to Kahlan and protect her from Rahl’s men. Maybe he could have Scarlet fly her to the cave, too. There she would be safe from the men.

Three and a half days, and then Darken Rahl would die. Then Kahlan would be safe for sure. Forever. Then he would go back to Westland, and be finished with the magic. Be famished with Kahlan. The thought of never, seeing her again made him weak with pain.

Late in the afternoon, Scarlet spotted the army. She was better at seeing things from this height than he. They were still a long way off and Richard had to stare awhile. At first he saw only a wispy column of dust—then he saw the ranks, moving along a road.

“Well, what’s your plan? What do you want to do?” she called back to him.

“Do you think you could land us ahead of them, without letting them see us?”

A big yellow eye frowned back at him. “I’m a red dragon. I could land us in the middle of them, and they wouldn’t see me, if I didn’t want them to. How close do you want to be to them?”

“I don’t want them to see me. I have to get to Michael without his men seeing me. I need to avoid trouble.” Richard thought a moment. “Set us down a few hours’ march ahead of them. Let them come to us. It’ll be dark soon—then I can get to Michael.”

Scarlet held her wings spread, gliding in a spiral toward hills ahead of the advancing army. She came down behind some of the higher ground, flew up the valleys, keeping out of sight of the road, and landed in a small clearing of long brown grass. Her bright red scales, glossy and lustrous, stood out in the late afternoon light. Richard slid off her shoulder.

Her head came around. “What now?”

“I want to wait until dark, until they set up camp for the night. After they eat, I’ll be able to sneak into Michael’s tent, and talk to him alone. I’ll think of a way to convince him of who I really am.”

The dragon grumbled, looking up at the sky, and toward the road. Her head swung back around, tilting, a big yellow eye peering at him.

“It will be dark soon. I must return to my egg. It needs to be warmed.”

“I understand, Scarlet.” Richard let out a deep breath, thinking. “Come back for me in the morning. I’ll wait for you in this field at sunrise.”

Scarlet looked up at the sky. “Clouds are gathering.” Her head came back down. “If there are clouds, I can’t fly in them.”

“Why?”

She grunted, a puff of smoke rising from her nostrils. “Because clouds have rocks in them.”

Richard frowned. “Rocks?”

Her tail swished impatiently. “The clouds hide things—it’s like fog, you can’t see. When you can’t see, you run into things, like hills and mountains. I may be strong, but running into rock when I’m flying would break my neck. If the cloud bottoms are high enough, I can fly under them. If the tops are low enough, I can fly over them, but then I won’t be able to see the ground. I won’t be able to find you. What if there are clouds and I can’t find you, or what if something else goes wrong?”

Richard rested his hand on the hilt of his sword, looking off toward the road. “If anything goes wrong, I’ll have to go back to my other three friends. I’ll try to stick to the main road, so you will be able to see me.” Richard swallowed hard. “If all else fails, I will have to go back to the People’s Palace. Please, Scarlet, if I can’t stop Rahl with what I do here, I must be in the People’s Palace three days from tomorrow.”

“Not much time.”

“I know.”

“Three days from tomorrow, and then I’m done with you.”

Richard smiled. “That’s our bargain.”

Scarlet peered up once more. “I don’t like the look of the sky. Good luck, Richard Cypher. I will return in the morning.”