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“I’d forgotten how quietly demen could move rock,” NiVom said. “If you’re going to kill me, do it. I have no heart for talking.”
“Kill you? NiVom, I’ll be happy to rescue you. Join us and help us bring down the Red Queen.”
“It’s impossible. She’ll see you coming. She’s always one step ahead. I wonder if she didn’t tell Imfamnia to come with me to this dirty hole and then flee at the first spine-scrape of the attack. I’m beginning to think she wanted me dead.”
“All the more reason to join us.”
“What are your conditions?”
“Only this. Once we are out of this hole and in the air, travel through Ghioz and warn the people that the vengeance of dragons is about to be visited upon them. Any who wish to surrender should mark their homes and barns and watercraft in some manner. Is there a common fabric color? Something bright we can see from the air, by daylight or good moonlight?”
NiVom considered the matter. “Better than that. The Ghioz are great consumers of white paint. They use it on all the inner walls of their buildings.”
“Paint? Oh, yes, of course, that color-splash. Yes, white paint will do. Have them mark the rooftop or at least the roofline to indicate their surrender.”
“Brave of you. I see why they made you Tyr. I might just fly away.”
“The NiVom who fought with me in Bant kept his word. If that dragon is gone, I’ll see to it that the renegade hiding in his body is killed as well.”
The Copper looked at him, hard, and NiVom gave a brief bow.
“I—I will see to it, my Tyr.”
He gave orders to the demen to let him go.
The demen led the Aerial Host to the surface. The Copper offered them their freedom when they saw naked daylight.
“You are welcome to any caves north of the Star Tunnel,” he said to Paskinix and the rest. “Or you may continue to live close to the river ring, but you must accept the Tyr’s word in the Tyr’s tunnel.”
“If the Tyr keeps word to us, he’ll find Paskinix a firm ally,” Paskinix said.
With that they departed back for the deeps.
The dragons waited until dusk.
NiVom left first. The Copper and HeBellereth and Aiy-Yip watched him fly off
“Oh, to spread my wings!” Aiy-Yip squawked.
“Tonight,” the Copper said.
“Why did you let him go?” HeBellereth said. “He may go to the Queen.”
“I don’t think so,” the Copper replied. “Watch behind him.”
A pair of roc-riders dropped out of the clouds and followed NiVom, all three fliers oddly dark against the night sky.
The Copper nodded. “As soon as we met him, I guessed the Red Queen would be having him watched. Had we killed him, at least one of that patrol would have lingered aboveground. They had Imfamnia to follow and now NiVom. I hope that is as many as they had waiting above these lands.”
“My Tyr is clever,” HeBellereth said.
“We shall see just how clever. If the Red Queen felt or saw a few-score demen coming, imagine what the approach of this multitude of dragons is to her. We may be in for a fight worthy of many a lifesong.”
“All the more reason to finish what’s left of the livestock, then,” HeBellereth said, and Aiy-Yip ruffled his feathers in agreement.
The dragons were in the sunlight. They’d need it to navigate their way to the Queen’s City—the mountains where it lay were a purple smear on the horizon.
He’d released Paskinix and his warriors, granting him this exit on the surface for as long as dragons breathed in the Lavadome for their use as a sun-mine (which had finally been explained to him—it simply meant an area used to grow crops, preferably fruit).
