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"Stay close to et on ate to put his length between the strange blighters and Unrush’s people Unrush and a few of his chieftains caroup showed unsheathed weapons, but there was a tension in the air

"This is Balazeh?" Unrush asked his guest

"Yes That is Staretz, ain wizardry With hih plains Make obeisance"

"It is for the visitor to do," Unrush said "Even if the King of Charioteers cohter, looking like a gnarled tree clinging ah rocks, dried out and twisted but fiercely intent on survival He did not descend fro Unrush stood his ground and ignored the elbow of Balazeh prodding hius’s retainers broke the silence "So it is true There is a dragon in these on-throne, word of which has come even to the north?"

"Who wishes to know?" one of Unrush’s sons asked "It is for him to make introductions"

"Stop this," AuRon rumbled "Such an important visitor comes, and we cannot welcome him properly while he sits on his s folded up beneath its cloak of fur

"Dragon-king, you shame two proud U facility AuRon had never heard it pronounced so well by a horounds speaks to the Umazheh of these mountains"

"Unrush of Ulda forith a round for the visitor, and when the reat king," Staretz said

"No king," Unrush said "Just a high chieftain, by the fates and this dragon’sof Charioteers says more, and sends his lieutenant Korutz to you as an ambassador They say your domain covers these mountains froht of dusk in the west"

"True, but there are notthese mountains Our flocks number in the multitudes, but our spears counted only ten score, ten tion, that we on, I come to you with a vision"

"I listen," Unrush said

"It is for the ears of the Umazheh Will the human understand?"

"She does not know our speech," AuRon said "She is a decoration No more"

Staretz planted his pal ar our old ene rich think they deserve this, that it has always been so and will always be so With wealth comes softness--the best money-pilers rise and breedand brave wither away We, on the other hand, we of the wastes, of the rown hard in our exile far from the fallow lands

"What was stolen froods pro"

"I have heard those tales, too," Unrush said " ‘That the skies would fill with fire, that the seas would boil, that rock would melt away like ice in the summer sun’ None of this has passed"

"I have seen it I saw it in the north, at the edges of the Hardgrounds, the dwarvish city of Kell The Varvar joined with lacier melt, the skies burn, and the battlements dissolve when the UnderKell was drowned Since then I have gone fro my tale that the days of doom have come, and our reward and return froround "What lacier? Fire fro dragon," Staretz chuckled

"A legion of chieftains gather, each with their legion of spears behind We will roll like a ard, and again all the lands between the cloud peaks and the great East will be ours As it was in the days of Great Uldam We will not fail Will you join our numbers and earn your reward?"

To his credit, Unrush leapt to his feet and roar out his agreeh he trelory, but he had his people to consider