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“I have not a military mind. But shouldn’t this sort of treachery be punished?”
The assembled select dwarves growled in agreement.
“I am very tired from my flight, and you all have weighty matters to long discuss,” Wistala said. “May I be excused from council of war?”
“Of course,” Fangbreaker said.
“Three cheers for the lucky dragon!” a dwarf at the back shouted.
Wistala bowed backwards out of the throne room, but she saw the fixed stare in Fangbreaker’s eyes, and trembled.
Lord Lobok’s expedition returned with Rayg in triumph and glory.
It must have been strange to the thin little youth, to be borne across the Ba-drink in a garlanded boat, flanked by lordly dwarves and rowed between Thul’s Hardhold and Tall Rock, under a rain of tiny white mountain flowers—and bits of paper and wax wrapping—thrown from the balconies and the Titan Bridge.
Even as they returned a new expedition set out, under three of the Wheel of Fire’s greatest generals.
Wistala heard from the star-guild that King Fangbreaker had decided to launch a “punitive expedition” into the barbarian lands, to teach the barbarians a real lesson for the treachery at Galahall. They were keeping their exact plans secret, but the star-guild had provided detailed maps of Kark and the Blacklake area, for barbarians from that region had been identified as among the slain around Galahall.
Wistala hung about, asked if she’d be needed to relay messages, and was told that the sight of a dragon in the sky might give away the column’s presence.
When night fell, she flew away from the Wheel of Fire with all the speed she could manage and almost tore her wings off making it to the Green Dragon Inn. There she dictated a letter to be given to Hammar, and a much longer one to be sent to Ragwrist.
Lord Hammar,
You and I have had our differences in the past, but the enemies of my blood, the dwarves of the Wheel of Fire, are marching on Blacklake and Kark, intent on destruction and murder. Whether you tell your barbarian allies to move their women and children away from those areas or plan an ambush is entirely up to you.
A Daughter of Hypatia
Jessup looked at the note after he finished writing it in his chicken-run hand. Wistala pressed her librarian medallion into some very ordinary red wax he helpfully dribbled at the bottom.
“This is a dangerous game you are playing, Wistala.”
She stretched her aching wings and back muscle. “It’s no game, I assure you, and the stakes are beyond anything that can be placed on a table or dice-rug.”
“Mod Lada would like news of her son, if you have any. She saw him seized up from table after that treacherous dwarf-lord started attacking the wine stewards and signaled his ambush.”
Wistala told what she’d heard from the astronomers’ guild: “I have not spoken to Rayg, but I am told he’s been apprenticed to the Guild of Inventors. Evidently he showed some intelligence in the Hall of Inventions as he passed through it, and recognized some piece of artifice and its use, which much impressed the keepers there. It is a high honor, only the brightest dwarves gain an apprenticeship in that guild. I can assure her those dwarves are the best-treated of the Wheel of Fire.”
Jessup pulled back a lock of his remaining hair. “It is a strange road we’ve traveled since that day we buried Avalanche.”
“And there are still more trolls to slay.”
“I’ll let you deal with the trolls. I’ll keep my inn and tell your story to anyone who asks about the sign.”
“May it not have an end for a long time,” Wistala said.
Jessup reached up, tickled her under the chin. “I’ve always wanted to do that. I never tire of looking at you, Wistala. There’s something about dragons. All power and dread symmetry.”
“I must be off. I have much more flying to do, yes, all the way to the Imperial Library at Thallia. I hope they don’t panic and think I’ve come to burn it. I need to speak to a librarian.”
“What will you do there?”
“Learn about dams.”
Chapter 27
When Wistala returned to her tower a score of days later, she found all of the Wheel of Fire were aquiver. The punitive expedition had not sent communication in many days, and not a few wondered at the silence.
