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It grew dark outside and servants lit a few lamps. The staircases turned into pathways to shadow and doubt, but the flow of water remained constant. Eventually, even the faint sounds of stonecutting ceased.
The Red Queen reappeared, moving slowly but surely.
“A long day. We have ordered food to be brought to the stable door for you, so that you may eat before setting off, or sleep and then leave in the morning, if you prefer.”
“Thank you, Great Queen.”
“I have a simple message in Parl. Do you read it?”
“Yes.”
She gave him a scroll-tube on an oversized chain. The clasp was big enough for dragonclaws to easily work it. He extracted the message and read it, a simple, friendly offer to establish ambassadors between Ghioz and the Lavadome so that future conflicts between the Upper and Lower Worlds might be avoided. There were three seals, of gold, silver, and red wax at the bottom.
“You need a badge of rank as well,” she said, after he replaced the message in the scroll-tube. “Wear this to show you have our confidence.”
The leather blighters appeared at a wave. One carried a long, thin chain with a crystal pendant dangling at the end. AuRon examined both it and the chain closely. They seemed harmless. The crystal was of unusual clarity, with just a hint of milkiness to one side. The stone didn’t look like a diamond.
“Would you like it around your neck? DharSii wore his in his ear, back when he was an emissary.”
“The neck would suit me.”
The blighters fixed it around him as she showed him a map. He asked a few questions about the landmarks mentioned.
“So this bridge deep in a canyon cavern will lead me there, Great Queen?” he asked.
“There are other ways, we believe, but it would be better for you to take that one. It is the surest path, and well guarded so that your coming will not be a surprise. There is another entrance we know of in Bant, but there has been much blood spilled there. A message brought through Bant would just remind everyone of this.”
The Red Queen walked around in front of him to admire the necklace.
“That does look well. We guessed the length just right.” She raised the smiling mask to his face. “You are a brave dragon, AuRon.”
“I might say the same about you. A Queen who converses with a dragon without fear or bodyguards all around.”
“Oh, yes, I suppose you could envelop me in flame, if you were mad enough to do such a thing. But remember, I’ve far too much to do to do something as wasteful as dying.”
BOOK TWO
Improvise
FATE FIGHTS ON THE SIDE OF THE PREPARED.
—Irelia Antialovna
Chapter 11
Wistala, with food in her stomach giving her energy and a mind wishing diversion from the aches of healing, learned much about these “Firemaids” and the dragons they protected as they traveled from post to post.
It seemed there were three strains of dragonkind, according to her rescuers. The Skotl were reckoned the best fighters, as they tended to be the biggest and thickest of scale. They were also the most numerous, by a thin margin, though they were flexible enough to count any largish dragon as an honorary Skotl regardless of bloodline, so their counts couldn’t be trusted. The Anklenes were the cleverest, as they’d once been close servants of the ancient Anklamere, who’d once kept and bred dragons much as dragons now kept other races as thralls. The Anklenes were the fewest and the most clannish. The Wyrr considered themselves the mortar that held the others together, noted for their cool heads and sound judgment and skill at song, story, and sooth.>The Ironriders simply touched their foreheads to the hem of her dress.
Then they spoke. The Red Queen seemed conversant in many tongues. She rarely spoke at any length. When quarrels broke out she silenced them immediately.
Servants, human and blighter, brought food and drink around.
Finally she waved him over.
“This is AuRon, a prince of dragons out of the north,” she said. “We think he may serve as a suitable emissary to the dragons of the Lavadome.”
“I knew this dragon when he was but a wingless drake, I believe, my queen,” Sekyw said. “We crossed the plains together in the traveling towers. I know him to be trustworthy.” Sekyw shot a guilty glance at AuRon. “He did the dwarves great service in battle. He is loyal to his friends, very loyal.”
