~*~
Mary Jane slept fitfully during the many hours that Hissarlik flew, occasionally waking to watch their progress over the forests and fields of Devorian. The beating of the dragon's skeleton wings was effortless and silent, and the night was warm and humid, lulling her to sleep. Godrick, too, slept soundly in the pouch at her back, snoring loudly. When at last the sun sank below the horizon, it brought with it all the light from the sky, and Mary Jane saw only inky blackness punctuated by the white pinpricks of unfamiliar stars and Devorian's large, orange moon. It was beautiful, in its own way, but alien, too.
"Jack, Maude, where are you?" Mary Jane whispered softly.
She felt a keen longing for her family and wished they were once more all together, sitting at home before the fire playing games, far from danger. She could hardly remember what sequence of events had led her to where she was now, riding upon the reanimated skeleton of a long-dead dragon in the dark of night in a world she had reached by passing through an old mirror. She did not even know how many days had passed since she had last been in her own world.
Hissarlik dropped sharply, jostling his rider. Mary Jane grabbed the dragon's neck bones tightly and hung on. Godrick, woken by the unexpected maneuver, called out, "What's happening?"
"We are near," the dragon rumbled.
Mary Jane thought she could just see the shape of city walls and a castle in the distance, rising up from the ground as black stone against black sky. With no lights visible in the city, it looked forbiddingly dark and lifeless. What fate was she going to?
"Are you sure?" she asked.
"Of course I am certain," Hissarlik replied with a dismissive snort.
"Then whose would be those other lights?" Godrick asked.
Mary Jane looked again, more carefully now, and saw that although the city itself was without light, outside the city were many small, flickering orange lights. She guessed that they were the lights of fires. Campfires, and possibly hundreds of them.
"Creatures of the witch," Hissarlik growled. "Dark and twisted things that she has either summoned or allied with to fulfill her dark plans."
"What are they doing?" Mary Jane asked.
"Waiting," Hissarlik hissed. "When the witch has turned back the clock of time, the army that sits outside the walls today will lay siege to the Tarah of a hundred years ago. She will pull her minions through the hole in time to accompany her. That is her plan. I do not know if it is possible."
He added without concern or sympathy, "Hope that the creatures do not see us as we fly above them. Some are armed with bows and arrows and would happily put a shaft through your heart just for sport."
Mary Jane shivered and immediately leaned closer to the dragon, trying to appear invisible to anyone who might chance to look up at the sky at that moment. As they skimmed dozens of feet over the treetops, she began to see the creatures Hissarlik had mentioned, their bodies and faces occasionally illuminated by fires that burned late into the night. They were strange beings that looked like the nightmares of a madman come to life. She saw ugly giants eight feet tall wearing fur clothing and carrying roughly shaped, heavy clubs. She saw creatures with the muscled body of a man but the head of a deer, with razor-sharp sharp antlers and burning black eyes. She saw giant black dogs with red eyes running swiftly between the trees, baying and howling at each other, and faceless, black, shadows with curling tentacles.
Mary Jane was petrified that the terrible monsters would see Hissarlik as he flew over their camps, but the night hid them like a cloak, and Hissarlik flew silent as a moth. With a powerful surge, the dragon propelled them past the line of campfires and away from the ragtag army. Mary Jane let out her breath, not realizing that she had been holding it. Her fingers hurt from clutching the bones of Hissarlik's neck so tightly. She whispered, "Godrick, do those creatures really live in Devorian?"
She could not imagine the quaintly rustic Mr. Brumby sharing his afternoon meal with the fearsome half-human creatures she had seen tearing viciously into haunches of raw meat in the camp. The Devorian that she had encountered her first time through the mirror had been gentle; peaceful. These creatures did not at all belong. After they had passed the last of the creatures, Godrick had crawled up her shoulder and now sat perched there, his whiskers tickling against her cheek.
"Some indeed live in Devorian," he replied. "Others Mirrin has called to her from lands far beyond Devorian. Only she, with her all-seeing eyes, knows what evil lurks beyond our borders, and she alone has the ability to summon those vile things to her."
Mary Jane frowned. She opened her mouth to ask another question, but just then something flew past her face inches from her nose. She frowned more deeply, confused. A moment later, she heard the unmistakable clink of wood hitting bone. From the corner of her eye, she saw something fall and disappear into the darkness below them.
"What…?" She began to ask.
"We have been spotted!" Hissarlik roared.