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Three avians, with unnatural bumps of fur-swaddled men on their backs, flew close. Their saddles and reins seemed light compared to those AuRon was all too well acquainted with from the wizard’s riders. As to weapons, they looked like dwarvish crossbows.
“The threat’s not the man,” DharSii said. “It’s those beaks and talons. They can outclimb and outturn a dragon.”
“And a dive?” AuRon called.
DharSii winked. “Shhhh.”
The riders were satisfied with a brief look at DharSii. They took their mounts higher, content to observe.
They approached the ending of a long-running stretch of the Red Mountains. The ridge was rather odd, rocky and sheer-sided, with grass at the top like a green rug running down from the tree line. Woods of trees that looked amazingly tall stood in a misty valley, with foggy clouds in two layers rendering the landscape gray and soft.
“That’s the Queen’s Wood, all around that spur,” DharSii said. “The mightiest trees you’ve ever seen, tall cylinders of pine longer than dragons. I daresay older, too.”
AuRon marked a prominence at the end of the mountain, before it divided into three steep fells.
“That’s a mountain centuries in the making. It’s an old place, terribly old. Supposedly there was a war fought between elves and dwarves over it long ago. It was supposed to depict that dwarf-legend Dwar with his face coming out of a tree, some legend of theirs. Or maybe the tree is the elves’ doing, to make it look like his head is hanging from the branches—though I don’t quite believe it because the head looks out of proportion. Then Anklamere took possession and decided it should be him, and off comes much of the beard—you can see they’ve made sort of a labyrinth below with bits of it—and the brow was reshaped to his noble form. Now, with the Red Queen’s rule, they’re reshaping it again to make it more feminine.”
“Where does the Queen live?”
“That terrace built into the back of the sculpted knob. It doesn’t look that impressive, but it’s rich inside. There’s a long path up the green spine of the ridge to her personal temple, and you can see her sacred flocks in their pens. We’ll make for the path. There’s a sort of amphitheater where she holds audiences. I watched one and she said very little, just swapped her masks around as she made judgments.”
AuRon saw what he guessed was the amphitheater. The palace itself, set at the back of the under-construction face, didn’t look nearly as impressive as the delvings of the Dwarves of the Diadem. A few little holes, some barred windows, a balcony and walkway here and there. It seemed a cold, lonely place, up there looking down on treetops with only the wind and a few soaring birds to keep you company.
AuRon spilled wind and drew close to DharSii again.
“She seems a long way from the city. What was it called again?”
“Ghihar.”
“Ghihar.”
“She doesn’t go among her people much. She’s supposed to be able to strike a man blind with her beauty—or her ugliness. It depends if you talk to a friend or enemy of Ghioz which version of that you’ll hear. One of those roc-riders said an expectant mother can’t so much as look at her shadow without miscarrying.”
They landed on the greensward. AuRon smelled sheep and his mouth grew wet. Flying always gave him an outsized appetite.
DharSii stretched, a strange gesture, so different from the way his other dragons did—like a cat from the inn named after Wistala, first the back end, then the front.
“What now?”
“Oh, some watchman is sending a report to his captain, who will tell one of the Queen’s servants, who will inform the Queen. She should be here. She has a winter palace near the coast and a summer palace up in old Dairuss, but she hardly uses them when she’s busy.”
“She’s been so occupied lately?”
“Ever since we recovered that crystal she wanted.”
AuRon shuddered, but couldn’t have said why he did so.
“I think I picked up some scale-nits between my wings,” DharSii said. “Do you mind?”
“Go ahead.”
“They’re vicious. Do you suffer much? I’ve never known a gray.”
“They wash off easily with no scale to hide behind,” AuRon said.
“Fortunate.”
“Sometimes.”
