The travelers moved with tremendous speed toward Eden. Abel carried Ruth first, but they soon found they made the best time when the brothers traded off ever couple of hours. There was very little talking between them, because the wind whipped away their words. Ruth's presence did limit their speed somewhat, because she was bulky to carry, because they couldn't go at full speed without harming her, and because they needed to stop to feed her and let her rest more often than they would have found necessary alone.

Food was plentiful, but time was scarce. Abel and Cain agreed that it would be best if they fed the night before confronting Amos, so they could be at full strength. They mainly dealt with Ruth's needs by slaying a wolf the first night and smoking its meat into dried strips, which Ruth could nibble on as need be.

Traveling in this way, the three of them arrived at their destination in only four nights.

"Are you sure this is right?" Cain asked doubtfully, looking around him as Abel motioned him to a stop. "I thought you said Eden was supposed to be tropical."

"Maybe it is, inside," Abel said hopefully. Scotia was certainly not proving tropical thus far. Mainly, with winter coming on, what it was was rainy. And the further west they went, the rainier it got. It was cold rain, too, although not freezing, and they'd had quite the time finding shelter and building a fire for Ruth as each day approached. But the stars had been insistent, and had led them to their current position: in a ravine, looking up at a towring cliff face. "Come on; the entrance has to be somewhere near here."

It didn't take them long to find it: a narrow break where this cliff met the next, its entrance a triangular crack at its base. It was far too small for a dragon to pass through without transforming-a safeguard, no doubt-and guarding it stood a vampire.

The vampire had been plucked from his humanity in the prime of his life. He was a man of tremendous size, heavily muscled and strongly jawed, with a wide, flat nose and piercing eyes. In his hands he held a great sword a full six feet long, its edges razor sharp and made of a material none of the travelers had ever seen before: the color of silver but clearly far stronger, and with an internal fire that gleamed under the midnight sky. This was a fire vampire, the only other one in existence, and far older and more powerful than the travelers could know.

The guardian's eyes turned upon them, accessing them. "Turn away, vampires," he said; "you are not welcome here. Human woman, take your child and go. There is no safety here any longer."

The three of them exchanged glances, and Ruth tapped Cain to let her down. She stood before the guardian and stuck her hands on her hips. "Young man," she said in her most matronly voice, "this is no time for fussing. Don't you know there's an ice dragon in there set on destroying the world? If there's anyone you should have stopped with your fancy weapon, it's he!"

The guardian blinked at her. Apparently, no one had ever spoken to him this way before-or not in thousands of years. "A dragon did pass this way," he admitted, "but one who grew up in these parts, and the last of his kind. I don't see what harm he could do."

"He's looking for the Fountain of Eternal Fire," Abel said. "Heard of it?"

"Why yes," said the guardian. "He asked me where it was. He has a perfect right to know, of course, being the last dragon, so I told him. Why? Is there a problem with that?"

The three travelers made it known to him with many emphatic words and gestures that yes, there was a problem with that, and what it was.

"Oh," the guardian said foolishly. "Oh. Then it's a good thing you three are going to stop him. I'd help you, only I can't leave my post. Wait! Here's an idea. Which of you is the finest fighter?"

Ruth and Abel turned to look at Cain.

"Then here, take this," the guardian said, handing over his flaming great sword. "This was forged in the Fountain of Eternal Fire, and will pierce dragon scales."

Cain took it gingerly and in awe. Had he still been human, he never would have been able to lift it; but a vampire's strength grows with time, and his had a full thousand years to mature. "Thank you," he said gravely. "I'll make good use of this, and return it when my purpose is complete."

"Excellent," the guardian said, ushering them past him into the crack and waving them merrily goodbye. When their backs were turned to him, his expression of foolish hope evaporated entirely, replaced by a sort of keen weariness and deep relief. Thousands upon thousands of years had he stood guardian before this crack, testing travelers in the way each needed most. Perhaps, at last, his time was nearly finished.

***

Eden was not tropical. Nor was it sub-tropical. It was supra-tropical. It was what tropical climates would be like if they were really paradisal: gleaming and clean, filled with lush plant-life, supporting a great deal of animal life, but none of it (and this was key), none of it with any inclination to eat humans or dragons. Mosquitos existed, but they interested themselves only in non-sentient beings; lions likewise. It was an ecosystem that left humans and dragons out of the equation while still providing everything those beings could wish for.

Although outside, it had been pouring rain, here it was a clear night, with a crescent moon and millions of brilliant pinpricks coating the cloudy sky in a gown of diamond-encrusted midnight-blue velvet. It was warmer here, too; a comfortable temperature for walking or sleeping or even just lying back and staring up at the heavens. Abel's keen eyes took in the wide-leaved trees, the gardens of delicate flowers-not a one choked by weeds-and the slender rill weaving its way through the grass, irrigating it.

A thousand years had done nothing to tarnish the beauty of Eden, save that it was an empty beauty, for sentient beings now lived there. It was otherwise unharmed, and might remain that way past the end of the rest of the world-for nothing but the most powerful magic could even brown the edge of a leaf of this wondrous place.

But although he saw all these things, what really drew Abel's eyes was the main pavilion of the dragons. It was elegantly festooned and built with miraculous skill . . .

And in its center, it housed the Fountain of Eternal Fire.

Fountain. It was more of a lake, really. It took up the nearly entire floor of the pavilion, more than fifty yards across, a calmly bubbling lake of molten lava. Abel couldn't fathom how Amos had gotten it there, unless-inspiration took him, and he knew he was correct-it had been there all along, awaiting only someone to activate it.

But where was the activator?

Cain must have been thinking the same thing because, holding his sword aloft, he bellowed, "Amos! Amos, ice dragon, destroyer of the Earth, perilous enemy, come forth and face us!"

"Not," said a silky voice Cain had heard only once before, "ice dragon any longer."

As one, the travelers turned and beheld the elder dragon.

Amos gleamed. His gray-blue scales had turned the scorched white of a candle flame, edged with faint accents of orange and black. His long slender neck and intelligent face looked smooth and young. The deep-set rot that had festered within him was gone, as had the painful, wasted look. Here was a fire dragon in his prime, handsome and proud and, had there been any left, a sight to make dragon matrons sigh and wish they were young again and dragon maidens curl their tails prettily around their feet and blink coquettishly.

Even vampires and human could see his youth and beauty, and they were taken aback. This was not the dragon they had expected to encounter. He did not look monstrous in the least.

"Belial was beautiful also," Cain murmured, readjusting his hands on the sword's hilt, and Abel glanced at his brother sympathetically. "Amos!" Cain shouted. "We won't let you do this!"

"Oh?" Amos asked, his voice as smooth and wheedling as a serpent. "Do what?"

"We won't let you destroy the world again!"

"I wasn't planning to," Amos said, coming closer and posing to show off his new, wonderful form. He admired his talons, sharpening them against each other. "I'm done destroying the world. Now enough of this proud talk, youngsters; it's time for the adults to converse. Tell me, where is Eve?"

The brothers stared at him in disbelief. Was it-was it possible he didn't know?

"Eve?" Abel echoed.

"Yes, Eve," Amos said, impatient now. "Where is she? She wanted a fire dragon-well, I'm a fire dragon now. The least she can do is come out and admire me. I did it for her, you know."

Abel hadn't known, but he suspected ought to have guessed. He kept his mouth firmly shut. But Cain, who hadn't seen the visions Abel had, said in confusion, "But you killed Eve. You killed her a thousand years ago, when you fought her. We thought you were dead, too, until recently."