AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“She fought against DharSii, not with him?”
“That is our understanding. We regret that the encounter could not have ended more happily. According to DharSii, she was a worthy dragon.”
After all these years. If he’d come east just a few months earlier. . . . why couldn’t those cursed treasure-hunters have taken advantage of the first warm spring winds?
The last of his old family, gone. Why couldn’t dragons stay out of hominid quarrels? But hominids acquired gold like ants seeking fallen fruit, and dragons needed that gold. So here he was, mixing in hominid affairs again.
Maybe DharSii was right about the Ghioz. They are strong, and a tree does better to bend with a strong wind if it wishes to keep limbs intact.
He still had his new family to think about. They must come first.
“Does this change matter?” the Red Queen asked. “You may alter your decision. We have no desire to place such a mission on unwilling wings.”
“I am sorry that events went the way they did,” AuRon said. “But I still need that gold. The sooner I may claim it, the better.”
“Very well. Return to the fountain inside and we will have further instruction, and a small gift.”
AuRon idled by the fountain, thinking. The Red Queen’s evident desire for good relations with his island might be to his advantage after all. She seemed a wise ruler, and anyone who could bring different tribes of Ironriders together must be a diplomat to be reckoned with.
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
