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Wistala tried to reassure him about Nilrasha, that she was still popular with some of the Firemaids and dragons from the less exalted hills; therefore NiVom had very good reason to keep her alive.
“I did my best for them. I truly did,” he kept repeating.
That’s the problem with the ambitious and ruthless, AuRon thought. They’re thunderstruck when they meet someone even more ruthless and ambitious than they.
“The Tyr gave his word,” Wistala said. “As long as we leave the empire in peace, we’re not to be harmed. More important for you, brother RuGaard, Nilrasha will stay comfortably in her eyrie. For you, brother AuRon, Natasatch will maintain her honored position, Naf’s kingdom will be at peace under the wings of its Protector, and your offspring will continue their careers in security and honor.”
“I just feel as though he has us by the throat, and we don’t have so much as a claw into him,” the Copper said.
“Are you sure this is NiVom’s doing?”
“What do you mean?” Wistala asked.
AuRon, once again, tried to put vague suspicions and feelings into words. “Imfamnia. His mate. I can’t help thinking there’s more to her than we know. She’s so cursedly sure of herself.”
They arranged the last lap in the hopes that they might arrive at the Isle of Ice with the sun setting, then spend a quiet night in AuRon’s cave. With strength renewed by sleep, they’d see about finding some food in the morning, if Ouistrela hadn’t eaten all the sheep.
But the Copper flagged again and a spring storm threatened, so they rested on an uninhabited piece of rock. There were crabs and other shellfish to be had in the clear, cold water. Even Shadowcatch, who’d never quite broken the habit of having his food brought to him by humans, managed to come up with a few.
As matters turned out, it was just as well they rested.
They arrived midday. AuRon and Natasatch’s cave looked quite primitive. The dragons used to smoothed corners and holes bored for venting and drainage there. But still, it felt safe and warm for the travelers, and they settled in for a long nap, albeit in a cave sized for two dragons rather than four.
A faint howling of wolves woke AuRon from sleep, slightly squashed between bulky Wistala and even bulkier Shadowcatch.
He roused his fellow exiles with tail slaps.
“The wolves have some news for us?” Wistala asked.
“They’re far off, I can’t pick up what’s being said, the echoes are confusing the sounds. It’s a danger call,” AuRon said.
AuRon hadn’t had reason to creep to his own front portal in all his years on the island, but this time he did.
Staying in the shadows, he peeped out. Ouistrela stood there, a male AuRon didn’t recognize beside her. Hard to believe Ouistrela had taken a mate.
There were men, shaggy barbarians of the north by the look of them, behind and before her, the ones to the front with evil-looking spears, the ones behind with great bows and heavy dragon arrows.
“Ouistrela, what’s all this? You’re standing on my doorstep with armed men?”
She was bristling for a fight and clearly enjoying her moment. “I’m here to evict you at last, AuRon. You and your pitiful band.”
He sensed the others falling in behind him, tensing.
“What right and what cause allows you to tell me to leave my own cave?” AuRon asked.
Glittering green alighted next to her. Imfamnia!
“You have visitors, I see,” AuRon said. “Imfamnia, we’re keeping our side of the bargain. We’ll live here quietly.”
“I’m afraid not, AuRon,” the once-and-future Queen called back. “Remember that clever trick you pulled in Uldam? NiVom and I did. You’re looking at the new Protector of the Isle of Ice. Ouistrela will find the duties light and the meals hearty. The Isle of Ice is part of the Grand Alliance. It is you who broke the arrangement, not I.”
“It’s a trap,” the Copper said. “Fly for your lives!”
Wistala and Shadowcatch led the way, by virtue of their bulk and heavy scale, shielding AuRon and the Copper.
A ropy mass fell atop them from the upper rim of AuRon’s cave.
Nets! No ordinary fishing nets, either, but dragon-nets of chain and barbed hooks.
