Ahead of them, the crowds were getting thicker. He let Darna take the lead.
It looked as if every soul in Anamat was packed along the beach and in the harbor-front squares, their shoulders and elbows jostling for space as they waited for the dragon to fly. Thorat could see over the sea of heads in some places, but Eppie and Darna were much shorter than he was. He put a hand on Eppie’s shoulder so that he wouldn’t lose her. “Follow Darna,” he said. “She’ll know where to go.”
Darna elbowed and cane-whacked her way through the crowds and around behind a low harbor-front workshop, hardly more than a thatched shed. She stepped over a pile of manure and into a back alley, where a stairway appeared. There hadn’t been anything there a moment before.
Eppie inhaled sharply. “I never saw this plac
