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"We were playing a gahtened her"

They patted Iatella on the cheek, and her eyes fluttered open She claimed no memory of what caused her to faint, and picked up her crystal and fled

Ragwrist entered next, and the same questions were asked and answered The dwarves wandered back out, leaving her and Ragwrist alone "No ain was easily struck You have been ‘freed’ by the generosity of King Fangbreaker, Wistala," he said, untying the azure band of silk

"Dare I ask the price?"

"I kept it low, saying that his good opinion would one day be worth h I think sometimes dwarves wear thoseas to keep out the light I or others h the dwarves, as always, hold the right to decide ill be admitted to their city, and you are free to fly as you will But I wonder He told me to strike off your collar, by the way All that effort wasted"

"Ragwrist, you are good to run this risk," Wistala said, quietly

"Ha!" he said, patting her shoulder, and her scales were happy to have a breaker "You still hold Mossbell’s lands, should true Hypatian law ever be reestablished across Whitewater It’s the land I’ve gotlet you know my true motive, will you take this last opportunity to turn back? This is no arguing council of dwarves If Fangbreaker senses a threat, he will deal with youharshly"

Wistala ran her tongue along her teeth "Then I will share the fate of my family"

She crossed the Ba-drink in splendor, on the dwarves’ largest cargo-barge, pushed and pulled by ses filled with lines of rowers

The blue silk stood in place of her collar, the long sash tied loosely so as not to grate on her scales ular diadee, sparkling in the breaker stood beside her as they approached the Thul’s Hardhold and Tall Rock Tall Rock stood sheer-sided all around where it radually like some sort of fantastic staircase Only to the east, where it faced Tall Rock across the Titan bridge, was it as sheer as its coalleries and balconies, precarious outer stairways, even gardens beneath jutting stonework houses holding still alleries

And every one was lined with cheering crowds of dwarves, dropping dried flowers (or bits of torn paper or waxen wrapping if they could not afford flowers) as they passed across the water between the Hardhold and the Rock

"Not a dwarf lives that doesn’t aspire to a balcony of his own so that he breaker said, waving vaguely to the crowds "We value it more than the elves, since old leaf to the railings, but I prefer the natural look of traditional sedimentary stonework, don’t you?"

"I’ all over her scales and gathering in the folds of her wings The rock walls to either side see like a pair of vast jaws But it had to be a trick of eye and distance, she’d seen their shape froave ee docked They tied to a wharf next to a cave ater flowing out of it "Had we taken the royal barge, we ht in, but I fear all you would have to do is scratch your ear and you’d capsize it"

More dwarves threw themselves on their faces and another firework shot up between the sheer cliff faces as King Fangbreaker hopped onto the wharf The cheering didn’t stop until he took a short set of stairs up and entered a wide gallery Court officials--at least, that hat Wistala guessed them to be, for they wore cockades of purple-- with a sort of per bow and rose only to speak quietly into his ear

"Yes, yes, I’ll attend to that later," he said, passing through the herd of bent dwarves They clustered and swirled about him so that Wistala was reminded of bloodsucker bats in the hotforests around Adipose attebreaker led the sware inside, where a narrow crack leading up to the top of the Hardhold inside had its walls thick withferns Water ran down the sides of the rock in a thousand tiny trickles to a sea of ferns below