An Example of Good Writing

This is a few words from a fantasy/science fiction novel. It's one of a series of novels about people who have the ability to travel through alternate universes by an act of will. Basically, they imagine a place they'd like to be and then go to it. To travel through the alternate universes, they have to be in motion - most often on horseback. As they travel, they gradually manipulate the environment until they get to the alternate universe they have imagined. The protagonist and his friend are riding for a week or two to reach a particular universe he calls Avalon, which I think is actually the name of the province or city there that he goes to. This is a description of one day of travel on horseback heading toward Avalon:

"Riding, riding, through the wild, weird ways that led to Avalon, we went, Ganelon and I, down alleys of dream and of nightmare, beneath the brass bark of the sun and the hot, white isles of night, till these were gold and diamond chips and the moon swam like a swan. Day belled forth the green of spring, we crossed a mighty river and the mountains before as were frosted by night. I unleashed an arrow of my desire into the midnight and it took fire overhead, burned its way like a meteor into the north. The only dragon we encountered was lame and limped away quickly to hide, singeing daisies as it panted and wheezed. Migrations of bright birds arrowed our destination, and crystalline voices from lakes echoed our words as we passed. I sang as we rode, and after a time, Ganelon joined me. We had been traveling for over a week, and the land and the sky and the breezes told me we were near to Avalon now. We camped in a wood near a lake as the sun slid behind stone and the day died down and ceased."