AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Miki shot out his story like a dwarf rock thrower war machine, in quick bursts of words. He’d been raised to be loyal to the dragons, and especially loyal to the Tyr who had saved him.
“Great RuGaard Miki Tyr! Always! Protect Tyr!”
“Thank you,” the Copper said.
“What now?” Wistala asked. “If this island is part of the Grand Alliance, they won’t let us stay here.”
Shadowcatch inspected his torn wings. “I’m not going anywhere for the moment. I don’t suppose there are any thralls around who are good at stitching?”
“Even united, we can’t hold a hole against the Aerial Host,” the Copper said. “They’ll simply fly in demen and dwarfs and who knows what else.”
The surrendered barbarians dropped the last shields in a pile and the Copper waved them off with his tail.
“Wistala and Shadowcatch, you’d better let your gold gizzards make what you can of this,” the Copper said.
“So much for a peaceful exile,” AuRon said.
“Well, the civil war was at least brief,” Wistala said, crunching a shield down into an easy-to-swallow size.
“It’s only begun,” the Copper muttered.
“Where can we go?” Shadowcatch asked. “This isn’t a big enough island to hide us. Not many caves, as I remember.”
“They’ve made an enemy today,” AuRon said.
“Two enemies,” Wistala said.
“Three,” the Copper added, his good eye alert and intelligent for the first time during their trip.
“Five,” Miki squawked, either assuming Shadowcatch made four or employing the wrong word of Drakine.
“In any case, we need to go somewhere safe, where we can to lick our wounds and have a moment’s peace to think. Hypatia is barred to us. From the Isle of Ice they’ll be able to watch all the shores of the northern part of the Inland Ocean.”
“The Great East?” the Copper asked.
“I’ve been there,” Wistala said. “Dragon bones are a much-prized item for their medicines.”
“Old Uldam is big, with many valleys and caves,” AuRon said. “My daughter might be willing to hide us, at least for a little while.”
“That’s a long way off,” the Copper said.
Wistala lifted her head and dropped a piece of chain at a sudden thought. “I know a place. Food, it is remote, there are even a few dragons there. We may even have a friend.”
“What’s that?” the Copper asked.
“The Sadda-Vale,” Wistala said. “It’s ruled by an old white dragon-dame named Scabia. She said something once about being distantly related to us. Our grandsire may have come from the Sadda-Vale.”
“I thought that was a legend,” the Copper said. “Some bit of Silverhigh everyone’s forgotten.”
“There are still dragons there. DharSii, for one. He lives there at least some of the time.”
“If we are to leave, we should go soon,” AuRon said. “Im-famnia might be back with more griffaran, or those gargoyle creatures.”
“I can’t make it,” Shadowcatch said. “My wing’s torn up.”
“Can you swim?” AuRon asked.
“I think so.”
